The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
US bureau chief Jacob Magid joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.
The Board of Peace launched on Thursday in Davos and is chaired for life by US President Donald Trump. It is beginning its work by addressing the Gaza conflict and at its launch, the US announced plans for a “New Gaza” rebuilt from scratch, to include residential towers, data centers and seaside resorts, part of US President Donald Trump’s push to advance an Israel-Hamas ceasefire shaken by repeated violations. We hear about Jared Kushner's vision for a "New Gaza" and the demilitarization of Gaza.
The head of a transitional Palestinian committee backed by the US to temporarily administer Gaza, Ali Shaath, said on Thursday that the Rafah border crossing — effectively the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there — would open this week. We learn who will be manning the crossing and how involved the IDF will be.
And finally, we discuss the increased involvement of the Palestinian Authority -- albeit in different garb and under changed names.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Witkoff and Kushner meet Netanyahu as US seeks to advance its Gaza peace plan
With Hamas armed and Strip in ruins, Kushner’s vision for Gaza faces major obstacles
Rafah crossing reopening was ‘imposed’ on Israel by Gaza mediators — officials
Israel reportedly plans to monitor Rafah Border Crossing, as its reopening nears
Despite concerns, PM’s reliance on Trump left him no choice but to join Board of Peace
Arab diplomat: Turkey, Qatar filling vacuum in Gaza created by Israel’s snub of PA
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Podwaves and Ari Schlacht.
Check out yesterday’s episode here:
IMAGE: Hamas terrorists search for the remains of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, January 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, the head of Realign For Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse.
This week, we dive into the 12-member National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
The technocratic council is headed by former Palestinian Authority deputy planning minister Ali Shaath. It is tasked with running daily affairs on the ground and providing services for Gazans in place of the Hamas terror group.
The committee held its first meeting in Cairo on Thursday, but is currently barred by Israel from entering the Gaza Strip and its work remains in limbo as the Board of Peace begins its activities in Davos this week.
We hear how the names on the technocratic council are relatively consensus figures -- among Gazan Palestinians -- and learn about Israel's objections to this committee and Trump's naming of Qatar and Turkey to the Gaza Executive Board.
Alkhatib delves into the lack of popular Hamas support throughout the Strip, but points out the massive enforcement problem that the committee will face as the armed terrorist group maintains its hold.
And so this week, we ask Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, what matters now.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.
IMAGE: Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib (courtesy) / A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches across Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, January 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.
We update that last week's main movie, "Holding Liat," is now playing in 20 locations throughout North America.
Then we hear a "Jangle" about unabashed Zionist Michael Rapaport, who was just in the news for his participation in "The Traitors."
The first "Schmoovie" of the week is "It Was Just an Accident" by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Nominated for two Academy Awards, it is playing internationally at major arthouse theaters.
The premise is roughly based on Panahi's stints in Iranian prisons for his films exposing the oppressive regime. It includes a ragtag group trying to assess if a kidnapped man is indeed their interrogator/torturer. Though the set-up sounds grim, there is plenty of Panahi's trademark wit to keep you thinking -- and chuckling.
The second film discussed is 2015's "Taxi," which was produced during a period in which Panahi was barred from creating films. Smuggled out and screened at the Cannes film festival, the movie takes place in a borrowed taxi and includes an uncredited cast of everyday Iranians -- or are they?
Check out the two "not bad" films (our highest mark) in this week's The Reel Schmooze.
The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.
IMAGE: Director Jafar Panahi poses for a portrait photograph for the film 'It Was Just an Accident' at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 21, 2025. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
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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.
Since October 7, 2023, there has been a focused and intense campaign to paint Zionism as a supremacist, racist, and inherently violent movement that has no place in academia, popular culture, or public life in the West.
Jews and supporters of Israel usually label such attacks as antisemitism, since they often take old tropes about Jews and apply them to Israel.
Anthropologist Adam Louis-Klein, who emerged from the Colombian jungle on October 9 and found himself under attack from colleagues for his support of Israel, is leading the effort to cast anti-Zionism as a hate movement that seeks to deny Jews a place in the public square on their own terms by portraying Zionism as the root of much of the world's evil and violence.
Louis-Klein applies his critical lens to anti-Zionism, examining its roots in Nazism, Islamist ideology, and Soviet propaganda. He unpacks terms like "settler-colonialism," "genocide," and " apartheid," and explains why the anti-Zionists chose those loaded words in their attack on the Jewish state.
Lazar Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: Adam Louis-Klein (courtesy) / Demonstrators gather on the UCLA campus, June 12, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
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Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Legal correspondent Jeremy Sharon joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
WATCH the full episode here:
After the Public Defender’s Office of the Justice Ministry was forced to reveal reports about visits to four prisons in 2024, showing systematic violence and unsanitary conditions for Palestinian detainees, Sharon discusses the disturbing findings and the yearlong battle by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel to get ahold of the report and make it public.
Sharon also reports on a rally last week’s at which protesters demanded the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews. He describes the sense of solidarity at the Jerusalem gathering, where thousands of people from the secular and national religious camps spoke out against government-backed legislation seeking to reinstate blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Palestinians in Israeli jails face ‘conditions unfit for human beings,’ state agency says
Thousands rally in Jerusalem to demand ultra-Orthodox IDF enlistment
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Podwaves.
IMAGE: Handcuffed Hamas terrorists sit next to a picture of Palestinians walking past destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip and an Israeli flag, in a prison in central Israel, May 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
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