The Edition: Israel's challenge
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 23 November 2023
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
Anshel Pfeffer writes The Spectator’s cover story this week. He voices concern that support from Israel’s allies might begin to waver if they don’t develop a viable plan after the war finishes. Paul Wood – former BBC foreign correspondent – and Dennis Ross – former Middle East coordinator under President Clinton and advisor to President Obama – join the podcast to debate whether Israel can rely on its allies. (01:18)
Also this week:
In the Books section of the magazine this week we review Andy Stanton’s new book Benny The Blue Whale. It has a fascinating inception and was co-authored by the machine learning tool ChatGPT. Andy is joined by crime author Ajay Chowdhury, who is also known for using AI as a writing tool, to discuss whether AI is the future of fiction. (23:02)
And finally: when is it acceptable to date a widower?
This is the question that Elisa Segrave ponders in her piece in the magazine. She says that recently bereaved men are much sought after, and joins the podcast alongside Cosmo Landesman, journalist and former dating columnist for the Times. (35:45)
Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Subscribe to The Spectator in our Flash sale until Monday only, and you'll not only get your first 12 weeks, in print and online, for £12, but you'll also get a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label Whiskey, absolutely free. |
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| 0:29.5 | Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator. Each week we look at three pieces |
| 0:34.6 | from the magazine with the writers behind them. I'm William Moore, |
| 0:38.2 | the Spectator's Features Editor. And I'm Laura Prendergars, the Spectator's executive editor. |
| 0:43.5 | On this week's episode, we'll be asking whether Israel can rely on its allies, debating |
| 0:48.9 | whether AI is the future of fiction, and learning about the pitfalls of dating widowers. |
| 0:55.7 | First up, Andrew Fethe writes the spectator's cover story this week, |
| 0:59.5 | and he voices concern that support from Israel's allies might begin to waver |
| 1:03.4 | if Israel doesn't develop a viable plan for after-the-wall finishes. |
| 1:08.2 | Paul Wood, former BBC foreign correspondent correspondent and Dennis Ross, former Middle East |
| 1:12.9 | coordinator under President Clinton and an advisor to President Obama, joins me now. |
| 1:19.1 | Paul, can you start by, first of all, bringing listeners up to speed with the state of the |
| 1:22.7 | comic book as it stands? Yeah, not to take your air time, Mr Ross. I'm just going to set the scene very |
| 1:28.1 | quickly, perhaps pose a few questions for you, but to answer Lara's question, it looks as if |
| 1:34.8 | there's going to be a deal for the hostages. And the apparent terms of that deal are very revealing. |
| 1:40.9 | Israel may have to release as few as 150 Hamas prisoners in return for 50 of the hostages or the |
| 1:51.3 | captives. That, I think, shows the relative weakness of Hamas in this. If you cast your mind back |
| 1:56.9 | to when Benjamin Netanyahu, in a previous incarnation as Prime Minister had to trade a thousand |
| 2:03.2 | prisoners for one captive, Gilad Shalit. I think Hamas is desperate for a ceasefire. Obviously, |
| 2:10.7 | Israel desperate not to give them a ceasefire, but stuck over the issue of hostages. What I find |
| 2:16.8 | interesting, and we've got Dennis Ross to tell us |
... |
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