Call Me Back - with Dan Senor

Subscribe to Inside Call me Back. ____ Subscribe to Ark News Daily ____ If Trump signs an interim deal with Iran, what leverage is left to to dismantle Iran's nuclear program? As reports swirl around a possible U.S.-Iran agreement, Dan  sits down with Nadav Eyal and Mark Dubowitz to sort through what’s actually on the table — and what could unravel next. The conversation centers around the core dilemmas facing Washington, Jerusalem, and the Gulf: whether this moment represents strategic containment of Iran or the beginning of a slow retreat from the leverage created by the war. They debate the risks of a “Hormuz for Hormuz” deal, the future of Iran’s nuclear stockpile, the limits of economic pressure, and whether the military gains can survive a prolonged diplomatic pause. Hovering over the entire conversation is a deeper question: after months of escalation, what would victory look like now? Chapters: What’s Actually in the Emerging U.S.-Iran Deal The “Hormuz for Hormuz” Tradeoff Iran’s Uranium Stockpile  Could Trump Sustain Military and Economic Pressure? The Gulf States’ Interests Hezbollah, Lebanon, and the Axis of Resistance What Israelis Think of The Deal Will This Be Remembered as a Turning Point — or the Moment the West Blinked? More Ark Media: Want to join Ark Media? Check out our careers page for new openings. Explore Israel Votes Listen to For Heaven's Sake Listen to What’s Your Number? Watch Call me Back on YouTube Newsletters | Ark Media | Amit Segal | Nadav Eyal Instagram | Ark Media | Dan X | Dan Dan Senor & Saul Singer’s book, The Genius of Israel Get in touch Credits: Ilan Benatar, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Yuval Semo

Subscribe to Inside Call me Back. ____ Subscribe to Ark News Daily ____ Did the U.S. and Israel plan to replace Iran’s regime with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?! A new New York Times investigation has revealed an astonishing alleged U.S.-Israeli plan behind the war with Iran: not just strikes on nuclear sites and missile capabilities, but a broader attempt at regime change, together with none other than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Ronen Bergman joins Dan to explain how the plan was built, why Ahmadinejad became part of it, why it collapsed before it could fully begin, and what it means that the story is coming out while the war is still unresolved. In this episode: 04:36 - Ronen’s first reaction to the Ahmadinejad story 05:54 - How Israel’s goal shifted from strikes to regime change 07:21 - Why the 12-day war left the core Iran problem unresolved 08:21 - What the Mossad plan was supposed to do in the first 100 hours 12:36 - Why Ahmadinejad was considered as an internal alternative 22:42 - The strike that was meant to free Ahmadinejad 28:24 - The plan for Kurdish forces to enter Iran, and why it never moved forward 30:48 - Who benefits from this story going public   This episode was sponsored by RootOne. Help the Jewish teen in your life experience Israel for themselves. Visit RootOne.org to learn more. This episode was sponsored by Hadassah. Please go to Hadassah.org to make a gift that helps Hadassah continue its longstanding, life-changing support for the people in Israel. More Ark Media: Want to join Ark Media? Check out our careers page for new openings. Explore Israel Votes Listen to For Heaven's Sake Listen to What’s Your Number? Watch Call me Back on YouTube Newsletters | Ark Media | Amit Segal | Nadav Eyal Instagram | Ark Media | Dan X | Dan Dan Senor & Saul Singer’s book, The Genius of Israel Get in touch Credits: Ilan Benatar, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Yuval Semo

Subscribe to Inside Call me Back. ____ Subscribe to Ark News Daily ____ Was the Trump-Xi summit a win, a loss or neutral? Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping ended with no major breakthrough, no dramatic concession, and no public rupture. But according to Carice Witte, Founder and Executive Director of SIGNAL Group, that may be the real story. China projected confidence, framed itself as America’s peer, and tried to turn the summit into proof of U.S. decline. Yet on Taiwan, Iran, and regional leverage, Beijing got far less than it wanted. Carice joins Dan to unpack what really happened in Beijing, why China wants Iran weak but intact, how Israel’s military successes have changed Beijing’s view of Jerusalem, and what Israel should do differently as China watches the war from the other side of the world. Learn more about SIGNAL Group.  In this episode: - Why Beijing wanted the summit to look like a win - What Xi’s “Thucydides Trap” message signaled - The Taiwan concession Trump did not give - Why China wants Iran weak but still useful - Keeping Hormuz open and Iran non-nuclear - China’s support for Iran and the limits of plausible deniability - How October 7th changed China’s view of Israel - What Israel should do differently on China   This episode was sponsored by Hadassah. Please go to Hadassah.org to make a gift that helps Hadassah continue its longstanding, life-changing support for the people in Israel. Learn more about the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Community Leadership Program. More Ark Media: Want to join Ark Media? Check out our careers page for new openings. Explore Israel Votes Listen to For Heaven's Sake Listen to What’s Your Number? Watch Call me Back on YouTube Newsletters | Ark Media | Amit Segal | Nadav Eyal Instagram | Ark Media | Dan X | Dan Dan Senor & Saul Singer’s book, The Genius of Israel Get in touch Credits: Ilan Benatar, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Yuval Semo

For the full episode, subscribe here to Inside Call me Back. ____ Subscribe to Ark News Daily ____ This is a sneak peek from the members-only edition of Inside Call Me Back, where Dan is joined by Ark Media contributor Nadav Eyal to discuss the ultra-Orthodox revolt cracking Netanyahu’s coalition, Israel’s path to early elections, and Gadi Eisenkot’s rising political momentum. You can access the full episode here, where Nadav takes on listener questions about: - Gadi Eisenkot’s political limits - Netanyahu fatigue in the Diaspora - Why Israeli elections matter to American Jews - Nicholas Kristof’s column and the missing evidence - Has “blood libel” lost its meaning? More Ark Media: Want to join Ark Media? Check out our careers page for new openings. Explore Israel Votes Listen to For Heaven's Sake Listen to What’s Your Number? Watch Call me Back on YouTube Newsletters | Ark Media | Amit Segal | Nadav Eyal Instagram | Ark Media | Dan X | Dan Dan Senor & Saul Singer’s book, The Genius of Israel Get in touch Credits: Ilan Benatar, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Yuval Semo

Subscribe to Inside Call me Back. ____ Subscribe to Ark News Daily ____ Content warning: This episode includes discussion of sexual violence How do unverified claims become a New York Times column? On Monday, the New York Times published an opinion column by Nicholas Kristof titled "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians" — an explicit attempt to draw a moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel by alleging that both equally engage in systematic sexual violence. The piece, based on interviews with 14 unnamed Palestinians, cited a Geneva-based NGO calling Israeli sexual abuse a "standard operating procedure" and described, among other things, trained dogs used to sexually assault prisoners. Kristof quoted former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appearing to validate the charges - but Olmert subsequently issued a statement clarifying that he did not, in fact, confirm the column's most serious claims, including that Israeli authorities directed the rape of children or that systematic sexual torture is state policy. The morning after Kristof's column appeared, an Israeli civil commission released a 300-page report - built on more than 10,000 photographs, thousands of hours of video, and over 400 testimonies - concluding that Hamas's sexual violence on October 7th was systematic, widespread, and deliberate. The New York Times, which had been told the report was coming months in advance, published it nearly 24 hours after running Kristof's op-ed.  Reporters who spent the day going through Kristof's column claim by claim found it largely unverifiable - no dates, no locations, no names - recycled from dubious sources and in many cases almost certainly false. The deeper question this episode asks is not simply whether the column is fair, but how something like it gets published in the paper of record at all: what is the pipeline, from NGO to press release to Pulitzer Prize winner's byline, that turns unverified claims into fact? And why does that pipeline flow so reliably in one direction?  To answer that, Dan is joined by Matti Friedman, a former AP reporter and editor in Jerusalem, and author of the 2014 Atlantic essay "What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel" - who has spent years documenting the specific mechanisms by which NGOs hostile to Israel have shaped, and in some cases dictated, Western coverage of this conflict. In this episode: 02:12 - What Kristof’s column alleged 09:39 - Which claims are documented, unverifiable, or implausible 14:21 - How NGO claims become mainstream coverage 17:21 - Euro-Med, activist sourcing, and the New York Times 23:47 - Matti Friedman’s warning about Western media 27:21 - The October 7th sexual violence report and the timing problem This episode was sponsored by Birthright: Invest in the Jewish future today at onetripchangeseverything.com. More Ark Media: Want to join Ark Media? Check out our careers page for new openings. Explore Israel Votes Listen to For Heaven's Sake Listen to What’s Your Number? Watch Call me Back on YouTube Newsletters | Ark Media | Amit Segal | Nadav Eyal Instagram | Ark Media | Dan X | Dan Dan Senor & Saul Singer’s book, The Genius of Israel Get in touch Credits: Ilan Benatar, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Yuval Semo