Podcasts

On this week’s episode of the National Security Podcast, Nicole Zedeck and Rémi Daniel from the Institute for National Security Studies, explore how Europe is navigating global competition, from security and energy dilemmas with Moscow and Washington to economic pressures from China and the incoming Trump administration. The implications of the recent political crises in Germany and France, the European Union’s response to the October 7th attacks, and how these dynamics are shaping Europe’s strategic outlook.

On the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, INSS researcher Adi Kantor sits down with Uriya Shavit, Israeli author and professor of Islamic studies, head of the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University. Together they discuss the complex discourse among young Jews, Germans, and Muslims in the context of Holocaust remembrance today. What role does the Holocaust play in contemporary discourse among young Jews, Germans, and Muslims? What role does migration play in the context of Holocaust memory? What are the challenges in Holocaust education among younger generations today? In addition, the researchers analyze main points in the annual Report on Worldwide Antisemitism issued by the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University in collaboration with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and discuss the reasons for contemporary manifestations of antisemitism and the ways to combat it.

On the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, INSS research associate Adi Kantor interviews Mr. Martin Schellenberg, head of the Education Department of the Memorial and Museum of Sachsenhausen in Germany, and Dr. Petra Bárd, Associate Professor at the Department of Criminology in Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, on today’s challenges to the formation of Holocaust memory in their countries. Each guest will provide an inside look at current national narratives affecting political and Holocaust education today, with the rise of populism, antisemitism and the far right in his/her country. What is “political education” and “Holocaust education” today? What does it mean to “work with the past without witnesses”? Why are historical revisionism, secondary antisemitism, and denial and distortion of the past on the rise? An inside look from Germany and Hungary will be the main issue discussed in this special podcast.

INSS research associate Adi Kantor and Dr. Henning Lahmann, senior researcher at the Digital Society Institute at the ESMT Berlin, analyze how Germany, the leading member of the European Union, is coping with the current coronavirus crisis. How has the pandemic affected Germany’s economy and health system? How is Germany balancing the need to maintain public health while protecting individual rights to privacy, freedom of speech, and movement? How can one explain the relatively low mortality rate in Germany? What will the social and political implications of the crisis be – are anti-migrant and extreme political views in the German discourse expected to rise? These and related issues are addressed here.

The fifth World Holocaust Forum which was held in Jerusalem at the end of January was a unique event in many respects. It was attended by almost 50 world leaders, it visibly united the international community to stand against antisemitism and it also stirred controversy regarding the participation – or lack thereof – of certain states. Join INSS Research Fellow, Dr. Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzky and INSS Visiting Research Fellow and senior Ynet journalist, Mr. Attila Somfalvi for a conversation about the aftermaths of the Forum: what political interests were there, and was the important cause tainted by them? What can we learn from the event and what does Israel need to do in light of the receding memory of the holocaust?

On December 12, 2019, the United Kingdom goes to the polls in an election divided and dominated by Brexit. What are the core issues dividing the Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrat parties, and where do they each stand on Brexit? How is Brexit affecting and intersecting traditional divides in British politics? Dr. Rob Geist Pinfold and Ambassador Shimon Stein discuss the implications of the vote, the long term consequences of Brexit, and how the UK’s volatile political environment affect Israel, the EU, and European Jews. They also examine why and how British politics are increasingly divided and less moderate than they have historically been.

On November 9, 2019 Germany marked 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and 81 years since Kristallnacht. Decades later, it seems that right wing extremism and anti-semitism are returning to mainstream political and social discourse. Latest election results in several former East German states, as well as the attack on a synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur 2019, show a clear rise in racist, xenophobic and anti-semitic views in the German society, and growing support for the far right party Alternative for Germany. This is a dangerous political development, in which German Jews (as well as other minorities) are under attack, yet again excluded from their own society. INSS research associate Adi Kantor and Dr. Henning Lahmann, senior researcher at the Digital Society Institute at the ESMT Berlin, discuss what has changed in German society in recent years, why does the AfD receive so much sympathy from voters, what is the effect of social media on the spread of anti-semitism and right wing extremism, and how can German law tackle these phenomena?

In 2020 Israel and Germany will mark the 55th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations. INSS research associate Adi Kantor and Dr. Peter Lintl, researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, discuss the current state of affairs between the two countries. What were the expectations in the past, and how have they met the changing reality? Why are there growing disappointments? To what extent do younger generations in Germany and Israel today truly understand the importance of the relations between them? Where do the difficulties lie, and what is needed in order to improve our dialogue when looking ahead? How does the return of anti-Semitism to mainstream political and social discourse in Germany affect the relations, and how much are the two countries still haunted by the trauma of the Holocaust? What is the impact of intergenerational transmission of trauma in the family, as well as transmission of silence and denial of the crimes even today? These and other issues are explored in this podcast.

INSS research associate Adi Kantor and Ambassador Dan Shapiro, distinguished visiting fellow at INSS, discuss the disturbing rise of anti-Semitism worldwide and its return to mainstream political and social discourses, both in European parliaments and in the United States. Anti-Semitism is not a new phenomenon: it has always been part of the “cultural code” of both classical and modern societies. Nevertheless, today it has new manifestations and characteristics that have direct influence on the State of Israel and its national security, as well as on Jewish communities throughout the world. What are the reasons for the return of anti-Semitism today? How does the rise of populism, anti-globalism, and extremism, both from left and from right, contribute to the phenomenon? What is new in right wing extremism, and why is it so dangerous today? How do the relations between right wing populist and anti-Semitic parties in Europe and right wing parties in Israel affect the rise of extremism and anti-Semitism, and how do they damage the relations with Jewish communities and their support for Israel? What should Israeli’s policy be toward this issue, both in the US and in the European context? These are some of the issues discussed in this podcast.