Iran with General David Petraeus, Oscars with Naomi Alderman - plus: can Jewish life thrive under fire?

Unholy: Two Jews on the News

Unholy Media

News, Yonit Levi, News Commentary, Society & Culture, Jews, Religion & Spirituality, Israel, Jewish, Judaism, Israel Podcast, Middle East, Jonathan Freedland, Documentary

4.7 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2026

⏱️ 96 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Watch us on Youtube: https://youtu.be/vQ0o0F07o2k Subscribe to get bonus episodes, read more about the team, and catch us on every platform we're on! > https://bit.ly/unholy-podcast Naomi Alderman on Substack: look at me. I’m here. I’m the ultimate product of Hitler’s defeat: https://naomialderman.substack.com/p/look-at-me-im-here-im-the-ultimate Day 13 of the war with Iran — and the conflict just got bigger. Overnight, 200 rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanon. Hezbollah, which many believed had been neutered, is back. This week, Yonit and Jonathan take stock of a war that is growing, not winding down. They're joined by General David Petraeus — former CIA Director, commander of coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one of the most clear-eyed voices on American military strategy. Petraeus breaks down what the US and Israel have actually achieved so far: missile launches are down over 90%, air defenses have been dismantled, and over 6,000 targets hit. But the new Khamenei? "We wanted a Delcy Rodriguez," he says. "We got a young Kim Jong-un." And he's blunt about what comes next: Iran's a million men under arms, and nobody has a clean exit. Then: a very different conversation. Jonathan talks to novelist and broadcaster Naomi Alderman about why she thinks Marty Supreme is the most intensely Jewish movie she's ever seen. Plus: the Mensch and Chutzpah awards return. The Academy of Hebrew Language gets hacked by Iranians. Their response? Perfect.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We were hoping that the replacement for the Supreme Leader would be Delci Rodriguez,
0:09.0	and instead what we got as a young Kim Jong-un.
0:12.0	The end of the second week of the war with Iran, a full-blown second front opens up for Israel in a war with Hezbollah in the north.
0:33.6	It's unholy. I'm Unlevi in Tel Aviv.
0:35.8	I'm Jonathan Friedland in London. Unholy. Two Jews on the news. As you say,
0:42.5	we are coming close to two full weeks of this. You're still waking up at all hours of the day,
0:49.5	at night, particularly the night. But as you said, that just at the top, I mean, that voice we heard at the top, that's General David Petraeus.
0:56.2	He's going to be one of two special guests this week, a man who knows about fighting wars in this region.
1:03.2	Also, we'll have a conversation.
1:04.9	Very, very different one with the writer Naomi Alderman, all about her love for the movie Marty Supreme, which is up for a
1:12.2	best picture Oscar on Sunday. So a whole range of stuff we're going to be covering, but just
1:17.8	as you said, this war is rather than tapering towards an end, which at one point it seemed to be
1:23.7	from what Donald Trump was saying, on the, from where you're sitting, a new front
1:27.8	is opening up. Indeed. We're sitting here. It's almost 2 p.m. Israel time and almost 7 a.m.
1:35.9	Washington time 200 launches from Lebanon detected towards Israel during the night, which means, of course, Jonathan, another
1:45.8	siren-filled night for Israelis here, waking up at all hours and needing either to go to
1:53.7	their safe room or to shelter or to a public shelter.
1:57.7	You know, just to set the lay of the land here. Obviously, schools have been closed for two weeks.
2:04.3	Most workplaces are still closed. This still is a war very much full-blown. And the minute
2:10.1	Chisbalah enters the fray and we'll talk about the ramifications of that and what it means.
2:14.9	Of course, this is, this doesn't look anywhere close to ending.
2:19.2	Yeah, and UN warning that all across the region, people, I think about hundreds of thousands,
	...

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