Friday Focus
Claim This Podcastby The Times of Israel
Podcast Overview
<p>Diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman explores what's behind the news that spins the globe</p>
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Publishing Since
2/14/2025
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Recent Episodes
July 3, 2026
Hanin Ghaddar: Lebanon turns against Hezbollah
<p>Welcome to The Times of Israel's <strong><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/topic/friday-focus/">Lazar Focus</a></strong>. Each Friday, join host <strong><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/writers/lazar-berman/">diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman</a></strong> for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.</p> <p>Israelis and many Americans -- not to mention Gulf Arabs -- were stunned by the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Trump administration and the Iranians last month.</p> <p>There was much to criticize in the MOU, but one of the most egregious elements was the inclusion of Lebanon in the ceasefire deal. Although neither Israel nor the Lebanese government were signatories to a deal between Washington and Tehran, it specifically mandated a halt to Israel's campaign against Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful proxy.</p> <p>Then, last Friday, a reason for some hope.<strong></strong></p> <p>As a beaming US Secretary of State Marco Rubio looked on, the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to Washington signed an agreement envisioning peace between the neighbors and the staged disarming of Hezbollah by the Lebanese army.</p> <p>Could this be the beginning of the end for Hezbollah, the tool of Iranian control of Lebanon? Can we expect a real peace deal that would see Israelis and Lebanese moving across the border?</p> <p>Or is this another half-baked Trump agreement that will lead nowhere, and will allow Israel's enemies to rebuild and keep their weapons?</p> <p>Hanin Ghaddar, a Shiite Lebanese scholar who grew up in southern Lebanon, says that even her community is sick of Hezbollah. The turn against the organization -- which claims to represent and protect the Shia -- began a decade ago, as they sided against anti-government protestors.</p> <p>With the country in a deep economic crisis and political stalemate, the organization dragged the country into war on October 8, 2023, in support of Hamas. The majority of Shiites in Lebanon, said Ghaddar, are done with Hezbollah. "The resistance is dead as a solution to everything," she posited. There's no belief in the resistance anymore. Hezbollah is still there with its arms, and people relate to it because of the factor of fear, not loyalty."</p> <p>Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into a war in support of Iran again this year. Lebanese citizens want Israel out, but see an agreement as the way to accomplish that goal.</p> <p>Ghaddar offered the possibility that the notoriously ineffective Lebanese military is actually more capable than Hezbollah after the Shiite militia was severely degraded by years of war with Israel. However, to disarm Hezbollah, she said, the Lebanese army must be willing to engage in armed conflict if necessary, with the backing of the US, Europe and Saudi Arabia.</p> <p>She made the point that while Israel's relationships with Arab countries are with their governments, the public continues to disdain the Jewish state. In Lebanon's case, the public wants an end to the conflict with Israel, while governments have been loath to act.</p> <p>"Lebanese are ready," she said. "Lebanese are definitely ready for peace."</p> <p><strong>Lazar Focus</strong> <strong>can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and video edited by Ari Schlacht.</strong></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>
June 12, 2026
Steffen Seibert: Gaza won’t sever special Germany-Israel ties
<p>Welcome to The Times of Israel's <strong><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/topic/friday-focus/">Lazar Focus</a></strong>. Each Friday, join host <strong><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/writers/lazar-berman/">diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman</a></strong> for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.</p> <p>Last week, Germany failed to secure a temporary seat on the powerful United Nations Security Council. There were several theories about the reason for Berlin's failure, but Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul offered a striking one — that it could be that Germany's support for Israel cost it the coveted seat.<strong></strong></p> <p>Germany is indeed one of Israel's closest allies in the world, and has been for decades.</p> <p>At the same time, the special relationship Israel enjoys with Berlin -- like its ties with other key allies -- has come under strain in the wars it has pursued in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. In August 2025, Germany announced a partial arms embargo on Israel over its decision to conquer Gaza City.</p> <p>To discuss the roots and the state of the Germany-Israel relationship, German Ambassador Steffen Seibert joined the podcast, weeks before he wraps up his four-year tenure and returns to Berlin.</p> <p>He rejects the idea that Germany's approach to Israel is guided by "Holocaust guilt." Instead, he says that the Shoah is a compass for Germany, which has the responsibility to learn the appropriate lessons from that dark period and let them guide its foreign policy.</p> <p>Seibert stresses that the Germany-Israel relationship is also rooted in shared democratic values and common interests.</p> <p>At the same time, he emphasizes that the special relationship exists within the pre-1967 borders, and that it sees Israel's presence in the West Bank as a violation of international law.</p> <p>On the war in Gaza, Seibert calls Israel's military response "inevitable and logical." Still, he says, there are questions over "how it was fought, how long it was fought." Still, he says that Hamas bears the main responsibility for the plight of Gazans.</p> <p>Seibert explains that Germany's decision not to intervene on Israel's behalf in the ICJ genocide case against Israel is a tactical move, as Berlin faces its own charges over its support for Israel: "It changes the assessment that we took at the beginning of the conflict. It's to do with the court case that we find ourselves in."</p> <p>Turning to the Iran war, Seibert says the Israeli-US campaign was "definitely understandable," but that continued fighting won't achieve much, and that it is now time to turn military gains into a political arrangement.</p> <p>Seibert, who learned Hebrew during his tenure, says that he is not sure what he will do next, but intends to continue spending time in Israel while he works to "reinvent" himself in the next phase of his career.</p> <p><strong>Lazar Focus</strong> <strong>can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and video edited by Ari Schlacht.</strong></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>
May 15, 2026
Dakar Eilat: Inside prisons for Hamas terrorists
<p>Welcome to The Times of Israel's Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep dive into what's behind the news that spins the globe.</p> <p>The New York Times printed a bombshell accusation against Israel this week. An op-ed by columnist Nicholas Kristof alleged widespread sexual abuse and rape against Palestinian prisoners.</p> <p>The column alleged “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards.” Palestinians quoted in the piece said they’d even been mounted and raped by specially trained dogs.</p> <p>Israel called the article “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel," and promised to sue the NYT.</p> <p>Some of the more extreme claims seem highly unlikely, to say the least, but could a group of guards -- or a prison commander -- be abusing prisoners in violation of the law?</p> <p>Israel's Prison Service is not a well-understood security organization, as bodies like the IDF, the Shin Bet, Mossad, and police garner far more attention. But IPS holds thousands of hardened terrorists from groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and is an important part of the fight against those organizations.</p> <p>To better understand the IPS, its oversight, and how prisoners are treated, we speak to Col. Dakar Eilat, who ran two prisons in Israel.</p> <p>He explains the changes in the prison service's approach to terrorist prisoners that took place two decades ago, removing their ability to order terror attacks from inside prison, and then again after the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks.</p> <p>There is no question that after October 7, conditions for terrorists have been reduced to the minimum required by law, he says. But guards can't do whatever they want. Everything that happens in prison is recorded by cameras, says Eilat, with footage then sent to prison service headquarters.</p> <p>Eilat shares some of his personal experiences as a prison commander and the use of force. He says that one of his predecessors had been caught using illegal force on prisoners, and the prison commissioner brought him in to end the phenomenon.</p> <p>That doesn't mean that prisoners were treated lightly. There were strip searches of prisoners, and if they resist with force, "they will be met with force," says Eilat.</p> <p>Still, there are multiple oversight mechanisms, he says. Some 130 organizations -- both Israeli and international -- carry out inspections and oversight of prisons, and during some weeks, he had 5 snap inspections of his prisons.</p> <p>As for the NYT allegations, he calls them "bullsh*t". He says that -- beyond the cameras -- doctors in prisons have an independent chain of command and reporting mechanism, and they would catch signs of abuse. Dog training is overseen by animal rights groups, and official investigations of the prison service are carried out by the Justice Ministry and the police.</p> <p>Covering up systematic abuse like that described in the Kristof piece would take hundreds of conspirators, says Eilat.</p> <p>Lazar Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and video edited by Ari Schlacht.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>
63 total episodes available
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