Unholy Podcast

Split decision — reflections on Israel’s verdict | Election is Israel 2026

5.7K views · 1d ago · 45:24

Netanyahu lost his majority and Gadi Eisenkot cannot form a government: Jonathan Freedland calls it a win within a loss for one side and a loss within a win for the other. Two days after the 27 October election, Yonit Levi and Jonathan, together in Tel Aviv, work out how it happened and what comes next.

Topics: Election night: Yonit's hardest broadcast and the win within a loss · Why exit polls miss, and the scorecard: 64 to 53, Likud still largest · The Arab-party taboo and the voters who flew in to vote · Eisenkot from central casting, the 1996 comparison and the shy Likud voter · Thirty years of the same scare tactic, and Channel 14's chyron · The Qatar turnout allegation and Jonathan's scepticism

Netanyahu, Eisenkot and the Three Scenarios After the Vote

16K views · 2d ago · 44:11

Israel voted on 27 October — and by Wednesday afternoon, with 85 percent of the ballots counted, Benjamin Netanyahu had lost his majority and nobody could remove him. The bloc against him stands at 67 seats in a Knesset of 120, and still every route to a government looks blocked: unity with Gadi Eisenkot, a minority government resting on the Arab parties, or another election.

Israel Election Night LIVE: Exit Polls and Instant Analysis | Unholy Podcast

21K views · 2d ago · 1:12:11

Israel votes. We go live five minutes before the polls close. Polls close at 22:00 Israel time (20:00 London, 16:00 New York). While Yonit Levi anchors Channel 12’s election coverage, Jonathan Freedland hosts Unholy live, reading the exit polls the moment they’re published and explaining what they mean: who can build a government, what Israelis were voting for, and how the world will read the result.

Decision Day - and the General aiming to topple Netanyahu, with David Remnick

6.1K views · 4d ago · 29:19

Guests: Decision Day, David Remnick

Join us on Unholy Live on YouTube the moment the polls close After a dizzying final weekend of campaigning, in which Benjamin Netanyahu warned Israelis that if he were removed from office a 'second Holocaust' would follow, the voters themselves are about to have their say. Jonathan talks to New Yorker editor David Remnick - who recently wrote an in-depth profile of Gadi Eisenkot - all about the man trying to topple Netanyahu.

The Final Sprint and What to Watch for on Election Night

5.7K views · 1w ago · 56:49

Reunited in the same studio in Tel Aviv just five days before Israelis head to the polls, Yonit and Jonathan dive into the high-stakes homestretch of an election that feels less like routine politics and more like a referendum on the country’s soul.

Why one word blew up the Israeli election campaign – with Matti Friedman

11K views · 1w ago · 41:07

Guest: Matti Friedman

With just a week to go, Israel’s election campaign caught fire at the weekend, thanks to an incendiary intervention by one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s most ardent media supporters. Channel 14’s Yinon Magal re-opened a deep racial divide when he repeatedly referred to Netanyahu’s prime challenger, Gadi Eisenkot - whose family roots are in Morocco - as a “monkey”.

Netanyahu, Eisenkot and the 61 Problem

8.2K views · 2w ago · 43:27

Twelve days before Israel votes, Yonit observes that the national mood is neither Britain in 1997 nor America in 2008 - a nation certain that it’s on the brink of change - but one of pure tension on both sides. In the final stretch, Binyamin Netanyahu is on an interview blitz, making no secret of his plans to maintain his current coalition while insisting Itamar Ben-Gvir will not be defense minister—a denial Jonathan reads as an outright forecast.

Can you trust the polls? with Dahlia Scheindlin

3.8K views · 2w ago · 36:45

Guest: Dahlia Scheindlin

Two weeks before Israel votes, the polls seem to be telling two different stories — Channel 14 has the Netanyahu bloc at 63 seats, Channel 12 has it at 49. Dahlia Scheindlin, pollster and senior analyst at Haaretz, who has advised nine Israeli election campaigns, tells Yonit and Jonathan the picture is far less wild than it looks. Why do six of eight pollsters agree while two keep drifting?