Unpacking Israeli History

October 6, 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the first day of the Yom Kippur War — perhaps Israel’s most traumatic war. This miniseries unpacks that trauma, guiding our listeners through the lead-up to the war, key battles, the behind-the-scenes geopolitical maneuvering, and the painful aftermath. The final episode of our series explores wider geopolitical implications of the war and reflects on the war’s legacy.

October 6, 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the first day of the Yom Kippur War — perhaps Israel’s most traumatic war. This miniseries unpacks that trauma, including the lead-up to the war, key battles, the behind-the-scenes geopolitical maneuvering, and the painful aftermath. This episode takes you onto the battlefield, exploring the tragic losses and miraculous victories of two key battles.

October 6, 2023 marks the 50-year anniversary of the first day of the Yom Kippur War — perhaps Israel’s most traumatic war. This miniseries unpacks that trauma, guiding our listeners through the lead-up to the war, the battles, the behind-the-scenes geopolitical maneuvering, and the painful aftermath. This episode explores why the war began, and describes Israel’s shock and fear on the first day of the assault.

Between 1989 and 2000, over a million Jews from the former Soviet Union arrived in Israel, fundamentally changing the nature of the country. But the road from the USSR to the Middle East was long, winding, and painful. This is the story of how a group of American students and Soviet dissidents wrenched back the Iron Curtain, guaranteeing the religious freedom of over one million Jews.

Maybe you’ve heard of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held for five years by the terrorist group Hamas. And maybe you’ve heard about the lengths that Israel went to to get him back, like swapping over a thousand prisoners for one missing man. But Shalit isn’t the first Israeli POW to be redeemed at a high price. In this episode, Noam asks, why does Israel pay such a high price to return captured soldiers? And, even more poignantly, is doing so good for the Jewish state?

It’s the world’s most famous property dispute. And among the most deadly. The residents of this sleepy East Jerusalem neighborhood have spent the past four decades in court. And their battle has set Israel on fire — literally. So who, if anyone, is right? And what’s the story of Sheikh Jarrah?

John Demjanjuk seemed like any other middle-aged immigrant living the American dream in the Ohio suburbs. Until the U.S. Department of Justice accused him of being an SS guard, stripped him of his citizenship, and extradited him to Israel to stand trial for war crimes. In Israel, he stood accused of ghastly abuse. And still, doubt persisted: could this stereotypical guy next door really have been the infamously sadistic SS guard at Treblinka? Was this a case of mistaken identity? And what is the line between justice, vengeance, and the law?

It was the spring of 1948, and in just a few short weeks, the British were scheduled to ship out, leaving Palestine to the Arabs and Jews who had been waging war against each other for six months. But beyond the bombs and the bullets, another war raged behind the scenes. One that continues to this day. The war for the soul of the Jewish state. This is the story of Israel’s declaration of independence — and of its ongoing evolution as a modern state.

Today, the Etzion bloc is home to more than 20,000 Jews. But back in 1948, roughly 500 Jews lived in the tiny parcel of land nestled between Hebron and Jerusalem. The four isolated, vulnerable kibbutzim of the bloc were an easy target for Arab attacks. But the Jews of Etzion weren’t going down without a fight. And the Palmach – the Haganah’s elite strike force – would do anything to keep these tiny communities strong and well-supplied. Like sending a convoy of 35 fighters weighed down with supplies through miles of hostile territory. But war is hell. And the story of Gush Etzion, and the brave convoy that supplied it, is both a tragedy – and a story of brotherhood, heroism, and resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

You probably know the story of Israeli independence: Ben-Gurion declared a Jewish state on May 14, 1948. The next day, multiple Arab armies invaded. And though the war was long and brutal, the Jewish state emerged victorious. That story is true, but it’s incomplete. The war for Israel didn’t start on May 15, 1948. It started back in November of 1947, the morning after the UN voted to partition Palestine into two states. If you want to understand Israeli history, you have to understand the six bloody months that preceded its creation.

The modern state of Israel is only 75 years old. But the Israeli identity was forged long before the partition vote of 1947 or the War of Liberation in 1948, in the earliest decades of the 20th century. The three figures we’ll talk about today were not Israelis. They died before they ever saw an independent Jewish state. But their stories shaped the country we know today.

November 19, 1977. It was perhaps the most unusual Shabbat in Israel’s history. Because after the havdala service, Israeli families glued themselves to their TVs or radios, waiting anxiously for a visitor they never dreamed would arrive. Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, had come to Jerusalem to speak of peace. What happened next changed the Middle East forever.

You’ve heard their name, watched their propaganda videos, and seen their bloody handiwork up close and personal. But how well do you really know the story of Hamas?

This episode delves into the surprising history of Israel’s charming next-door neighbor. It’s a deep dive into their history, ideology and legacy. If we want to truly understand Israeli history, we’ve got to face the parallel history that has developed alongside it.

Kfar Qassem is a small bucolic city northeast of Petach Tikva. It is also the little-known site of the first salvo of the Suez Canal Crisis. On October 29, 1956, as Israel prepared for war with Egypt, an IDF commander made a decision that would permanently scar Israel’s Arab community. Today, we tell the story of the 49 Israeli citizens murdered at Kfar Qassem.

This episode is dedicated to them.

Ibrahim Abdalhadi Himad Isaa, 35

Abed Muhammad Abdalhadi Isaa, 9

Abdallah Ahmad Himad Isaa, 15

Talal Shaker Abdallah Isaa, 8 

Abdallah Sliman Isaa, 90 

Ahmad Muhammad Sous Freij, 35 

Ali Uthman Ali Tah, 30 

Muhammad Abed Samaha Asi, AKA Abu Samaha, 50 

Ghazi Mahmoud Darweesh Isaa, 20

Muhammad Abdalraheem Isaa, 50 

Fathi Uthman Abed Isaa, 12 

Uthman Abed Himad Isaa, 30

Saleh Mahmoud Naser Amer (age unknown)

Mahmoud Abdalghafer Rayan, 35

Mahmoud Abdalrazeq Sarsour, 16 

Ali Nimer Nuwwara Freij, 17

Saleh Salameh Ahmad Amer, 40 

Salim Ahmad Basheer Budeir, 50 

Abdallah Abdalghafer Budeir (age unknown)

Abed Salim Saleh Isaa (age unknown)

Atta Yacoub Abed Sarsour, 26

Riyad Raja Hamdan Dahoud, 8 

Jamal Salim Muhammad Tah, 11

Jumma Muhammad Abed Sarsour, 17

Mousa Thiab Abed Freij, 18 

Abdalkarim Salim Nuwwara Freij, 14 

Saleh Mustafa Ahmad Isaa, 17 

Abdalraheem Ismir Budeir, 25 

Ahmad Muhammad Jouda Amer, 17

Jumma Tawfik Ahmad Isaa, 16

Mahmoud Khader Jaber Sarsour, 27

Yousef Muhammad Ismail Sarsour, 52 

Muhammad Salim Khader Sarsour, 15 

Muhammad Ali Thiab Sarsour, 35

Abdallah Muhammad Abed Sarsour, 14 

Safa Abdallah Usus Sarsour, 45 

Amne Qasem Tah, 50

Khamise Faraj Muhammad Amer, 50 

Zaghlouleh Ahmad Basheer Isaa, 45 

Hilwe Muhammad Odeh Budeir, 65 

Fatme Dahoud Sarsour, 30 (nine months pregnant)

Unborn child of Fatme Dahoud Sarsour

Fatme Mustafa Khamran Isaa, 18

Fatme Mahmoud Budeir (Age unknown)

Fatme Saleh Ahmad Sarsour, 14

Rashika Faek Ibrahim Budeir, 14 

Zeinab Abdalrahman Ahmad Tah, 45

Latife Dahoud Khamran Isaa, 12

Bakriya Mahmoud Ismail Tah, 14 

Mahmoud Muhammad Habib Masarwa, 25

Hey, it’s Noam. I’m excited to share that, as of this week, Unpacking Israeli History is officially back with Season 4! On this podcast, we take a deep dive into some of the most intense, historically fascinating, and often misunderstood events and stories surrounding Israeli history.

As in past seasons, we’ll be exploring exciting, intense, and complicated topics. Like, you’ve heard of Hamas, but what is their ideology and why does it matter? Who was Anwar Sadat, and how did his historic trip to Jerusalem change the future of the Middle East?

And we’re opening the season with one of the most difficult stories in Israeli history, the heart-wrenching story of the Ma’alot massacre of 1974.

In May 1974, over 100 Israeli high school students went on what was supposed to be a fun field trip in honor of Israel’s 26th birthday, exploring northern Israel and sleeping under the stars.

But the three Palestinian terrorists who sneaked in from Lebanon had other plans… This is the story of the Ma’alot massacre. It’s a story of horror and blood. But it’s also a story of hope and resistance. A reminder that every hour of our lives matters. This episode is dedicated to the memory of the victims.

Hasibah Shala, 27

Yosef (Jojo) Cohen, 45

Fortuna Cohen, 38 (7 months pregnant)

Unborn child of Fortuna Cohen

Moshe Eliahu Cohen, 4

Sylvan Zerach, 27

Ilana Turgeman, 15

Zvia Mor-Yoseph, 15

Rachel Aputa, 16

Yocheved Mazoz, 15

Sarah Ben-Shim’on, 15

Yona Sabag, 15

Yafa Cohen, 17

Shoshana Cohen, 17

Michal Sitrok, 16

Malka Amrosy, 15

Aviva Saada, 15

Yocheved Deri (age unknown)

Yakov Levi, 17

Yakov Kabla, 17

Rina Cohen, 15

Sarah Madar, 15

Tamar Dahan, 16

Sarah Sofer, 15

Lilly Morad, 16

David Madar, 17

Yehudit Madar, 16

On the night before Shavuot, 1981, Prime Minister Menachem Begin shocked his cabinet by announcing they would be launching a surprise attack on a nuclear reactor in Iraq, known as Osirak. It was a gamble, one that the outside world, not to mention in Israel itself, most people didn’t approve of. In this episode, Noam takes us on a tour of Begin’s decision, the aftermath, and how it still impacts Israel today.

It doesn’t sound like a particularly spicy question, does it? Because the obvious answer is… “Israelis.” Case closed, next question. But in this episode, Noam breaks down why Haredim, a massive force in Israel, don’t serve. He goes through the history and asks, how does this choice impact the country?

The relationship between Jews and their host countries, for the past several thousand years, is complicated. And Iraq is no exception. While Jews have lived there for thousands of years, today, virtually no Jews are left in the country. This week’s episode tells that story, through the lens of the Farhud, the devastating 1941 massacre in which Iraqis murdered, raped, mutilated, looted, and destroyed Baghdad’s Jewish community.

You may have heard about the first Gulf War – basically the entire world vs. Saddam Hussein. But though 34 countries – 34! – entered the alliance against Iraq, Israel didn’t. So why on earth did missiles begin to rain down on Israel? In this episode, Noam breaks down how the 1991 Gulf War affected ordinary Israelis, tested the US-Israel relationship, and even challenged the long-held Zionist ethos.

Qibya is one of the saddest and most difficult events in Israeli history. A military unit enters a village, and when the raid is over, 43 homes had been demolished, and 69 civilians – mostly women and children – had been killed. This week, Noam asks, what happened here, and how does it impact the story we tell ourselves about Israel?

It’s 1916 and World War I is raging. Countries are fighting for resources, land and power and the Ottoman Empire is on its deathbed. With all eyes on the Empire’s Middle Eastern territory, who will decide who gets control over what will become Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, and parts of Saudi Arabia? In this episode, Noam explores the secretive Sykes-Picot Agreement and the fallout it caused at the San Remo Conference.

How much do you know about the Mossad, Israel’s legendary intelligence agency? In this episode, Noam regales three wild stories about the Mossad that seem like they’re straight out of a movie. Welcome to the world of international espionage.

Prior to the Holocaust, the 1903 pogrom in Kishinev (now Moldova) was the most infamous occurrence of Jewish suffering in the Diaspora. In this episode, Noam explores the many myths that surround the massacre and how it inspired Theodor Herzl to propose the controversial Uganda Plan.

All the complexity and pain of the Kastner story, bundled into two sentences. “He sold Jews.” And also, “he’s a hero.” Can both things be true at once? And do any of us have the right or the ability to place any kind of moral judgment on people who lived through the unimaginable?

Editor’s note: Unpacking Israeli History podcast is back by popular demand for its third series! The third season will cover the Hebron massacre of 1929, the expulsion of Jews from Iraq in the 1940s, the Kastner Trial and Holocaust survivors in Israel, IDF service and the ultra-Orthodox, the trauma of the Kishinev pogroms and some of the daring overt – and covert – missions of Israel’s defense forces and counterespionage units.

This is the story of the men and women who brought us our state. Who ran guns, defended settlements, defied the Mandatory Powers that Be, smuggled shell-shocked refugees into their homeland… and who disagreed with each other mightily about the best way to wrench their homeland back from a dying empire. In this episode, the last of Season 2, Noam tells the story of Black Saturday and asks, how far would we have gone to bring about the State of Israel?

By January 1993, the Israelis and the Palestinians had opened secret negotiations, culminating in the Oslo Accords, a series of agreements between Israel and the PLO, as the representatives of the Palestinians. So, what was Oslo? What is its legacy? How did the Israeli public, including the settlement leadership, view Oslo? What about the Palestinians? And, what lessons can we learn from this haunting story?

The story of Sabra and Shatila is a horrifying one. A paramilitary Lebanese group massacres between 800 and 2,000 refugees, many in horrifying ways. And oddly…Israel is blamed for this awful, awful crime? This week, Noam will break down the confusing and upsetting story of Sabra and Shatila, and in doing so, will ask, how does a nation deal with power and responsibility?

A tension between Israeli and diaspora Jewry has been obvious since the founding of the state. And nowhere was that more apparent than in the epic exchanges between philanthropist Jacob Blaustein and Prime Minister David Ben Gurion. In this episode, Noam shows how their debate both animated and clarified so much about the divide between Diaspora Jewish leadership and Israeli Jewish leadership – even today.

Unpacking Israeli History about German reparations: https://jewishunpacked.com/the-great-debate-around-german-reparations/

Unpacking Israeli History about Entebbe: https://jewishunpacked.com/operation-thunderbolt-the-raid-on-entebbe/

Unpacking Israeli History about Operation Solomon: https://jewishunpacked.com/ingathering-of-exiles-from-ethiopia-to-israel/

The modern country of Israel is a country of immigrants, and many are Mizrahi, ie Jews from North Africa and the Middle East. They came, often running for their lives, from countries like Yemen, Morocco, Iraq, Egypt, and Syria, where they had lived — and often, been oppressed. In this episode, Noam confronts the difficult history of the Mizrahi integration into Israel, and the formation of the Panterim Shchorim movement that emerged from that painful period.

Begin and Ben Gurion had some epics battles, but one of the biggest ones happened in 1952, as these two Israeli giants battled about whether to take German reparations after the Holocaust. In this episode, Noam looks all the way back at this crazy story, and leaves us asking, who was right?

On Nov 10, 1975, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, determining that Zionism is “a form of racism and racial discrimination.” That’s quite a loaded description! In this episode, Noam Weissman breaks down what led to this infamous resolution, the UN’s relationship with Israel, and what it still means to us, almost 50 years later.

Have you heard about Israel’s secret nuclear weapons in Dimona? Yeah, we haven’t either. In this episode, Noam digs deep into how Israel’s not-so-secret nuclear program came to be, and asks, does the nuclear program make Israel safer?

You might have heard of the Beta Israel, the community of Israel’s Ethiopian community. In this episode, Noam Weissman tells their story – not only their rich Jewish heritage and history, but also the story of how they got to Israel, in Operation Solomon, and their integration into Israeli society over the last thirty years. It’s thrilling, inspiring, but also complicated, and difficult at times. In other words, it’s a microcosm of the entire state of Israel, and the Jewish community the world over.

When Air France Flight 139 took off from Tel Aviv on the morning of June 27th, 1976, no one could have suspected that the soon-to-be-hijacked flight was about to lead to one of the world’s most daring and risky rescue missions. In the first episode of season two, Noam Weissman unpacked Operation Thunderbolt, Israel’s successful secret operation to rescue the passengers, and asks, does this story have enduring lessons for us today?

The news coming out of Israel is scaring and confusing all of us. Is Sheikh Jarrah a housing dispute, or something bigger? Who is responsible for the protests and riots all over the country? Why are thousands of rockets being launched, and what does it mean for the region? What is going on??

Here at Unpacking Israeli History, we’re here to make sense of the present by exploring the past. Our goal is always to explore the questions of Israeli history — to really get to know the stories, including the confusing grey areas, and to make meaning of the present. To be transparent, and give the real context to the complicated, messy world of Israel, which has a few warts perhaps, but is also full of wonders. Only with that nuanced approach will we really understand Israeli history, and only when we understand that history will we be able to understand the very textured Israeli present.

In the final episode of the season, Noam Weissman delves into one of the most divisive events in Israel’s history — the disengagement from the Gaza Strip. He looks at the historical context, the political and religious debate leading up to the pull-out, the trauma it caused for Israelis, the effect that the disengagement had on the peace process and whether the results were worth the suffering it caused.

To appreciate the current Israeli and Palestinian psyches, it’s vital to understand the first five years of the 21st century — the period of the Second Intifada. Noam Weissman gets to the heart of the issue and asks why this serious attempt at peace between Israel and the Palestinians ended in one of the bloodiest periods in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and how the effects of those defining years are still felt to this day.

The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin on November 4th, 1995 remains one of the most difficult moments in Israeli history and in modern Jewish history. Join Noam Weissman as he dives into Rabin’s life and legacy and unpacks how the assassination and its aftermath continues to affect Israeli society.

On the festival of Purim in 1994, Israeli-American doctor Baruch Goldstein opened fire in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, killing 29 Muslim worshippers. Condemnation was swift and decisive, but among the voices of dismay and repulsion were those who supported Goldstein’s actions and honored him after his death. Noam Weissman explores the background of the massacre, the events that followed and asks important questions about Jewish terrorism.

The First Intifada, or uprising, differed greatly from the intense violence and bloodshed seen in the Second Intifada. Even without the same level of violence, the events from 1987-1993 completely altered Israeli history. Noam Weissman asks what caused the Intifada, how it shifted the Arab-Israeli relationship and why it changed Israel’s reputation on the global stage forever.

After the victory of the Six-Day War in 1967, it seemed like Israel was invincible. Less than a decade later, the country was taken by surprise by the outbreak of war on Yom Kippur 1973. Noam Weissman explores why — despite warnings — Israel’s leadership seemed so unprepared, why America urged Israel not to attack first and why this national catastrophe ultimately led to a strengthening of relationships with both the U.S. and Egypt.

The 1972 Munich Olympics was supposed to showcase the face of the new Germany. Instead, the horrific death of 11 Israeli athletes — slaughtered as the world watched  — marked a watershed moment in the Palestinian struggle and raises important questions about the power and effectiveness of terrorism. Join Noam Weissman as he explains the details of that day and what followed, and why the massacre at Munich was not just another 1970’s terrorist attack.

You would have thought that bringing Nazis to justice would have been something the world could agree on, but the Mossad’s capture of the infamous Nazi Adolf Eichmann prompted a fiery international debate that proved otherwise. Noam Weissman explores the truth about the stranger-than-fiction capture of one of the architects of the Final Solution and debates the ethical and moral questions raised by Eichmann’s trial and subsequent execution by the State of Israel.

Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem, predates the establishment of the Jewish state by decades. Zionist leader Theodor Herzl hated it and many of Israel’s citizens refuse to sing it. So, how did this unlikely song take the national anthem top spot? What were the alternatives? And are there any plans to change it? Join Noam Weissman as he deconstructs the music, melody and meaning behind Hatikvah.

Just a month after its establishment, the State of Israel was on the brink of civil war, with two of its greatest leaders — David Ben Gurion and Menachem Begin — facing off in the ultimate power struggle. Noam Weissman unpacks an event that continues to reverberate through Israeli society to this day. Join him as he asks how the Zionist dream nearly imploded and who deserves the credit for ending one of the biggest crises in Israeli history.

No incident in Israeli history has been more hotly contested than that of April 9, 1948, in the small Arab village of Deir Yassin. Noam Weissman tries to uncover what really happened on that fateful day and asks why, with so many battles, so much war and so many disputes, this event will haunt Israel forever.

If you’ve learned anything about the spread of Modern Hebrew, you probably heard that it’s all thanks to one man – Eliezer Ben Yehuda – that Israel’s national language is Hebrew and not Yiddish (or even German!). Not to spoil a good story with fact, but that’s not exactly how the rebirth of Hebrew went down. Far from being a crusade of one, it took an entire nation to revive a language that had been close to death for millennia.

In a bizarre twist of history, the humble chestnut played a big role in the ultimate creation of the State of Israel. To understand why, Noam Weissman examines the curious origins of the Balfour Declaration and asks why the 67-word letter from a British foreign minister continues to get people riled up more than 100 years after it was published.

After over 70 years of existence, It’s impossible to imagine the Jewish State being located anywhere other than Israel. But in the early days of Zionism, there was a push to establish a homeland in a non-Promised Land in East Africa. This week, Noam Weissman gets to the heart of the Uganda Plan and discusses why the movement’s leaders felt they needed to come up with a solution — any solution — to combat the rampant antisemitism of the day.

How is it possible that an espionage trial in France in the mid-1890s set into motion events that (tangentially) led to the rebirth of the State of Israel after 2,000 years? Noam Weissman demystifies the oft-repeated but often misunderstood story of the Dreyfus Affair. He also explains why this extraordinary — but also ordinary — example of antisemitism cuts to the heart of questions surrounding Jewish identity that are still being asked today.