PODCAST: The Daily Briefing – Arnold Schwarzenegger looks evil in the eye

ToI panel weighs in on US movie star-turned-politician’s stark warning, discusses whether headlines of 800 new settler homes will prod Biden, and charts Israel’s religious right

Welcome to the fourth episode of The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing: Your audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world.

Today’s panel includes Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur, along with host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

In a stunningly personal video posted on Sunday, Austria-born movie star-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger compared last week’s storming of Washington, DC, Capitol Hill by supporters of US President Donald Trump to Kristallnacht. In his seven-minute video, Schwarzenegger detailed the events of November 9, 1938, in which thousands of Jewish properties were destroyed and some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested, and the wider impact of the Nazi era on his father, a volunteer member of the Nazi Party. Last Wednesday, he said, was America’s own “Day of Broken Glass.” Is this an appropriate comparison?

Coincidence or not? Just prior to the inauguration of incoming US President Joe Biden, Israel announces some 800 new settlement homes. Is this a concerted effort to incite tension? Are Israel-US relations returning to Obama days?

Screen capture from video of movie star and former Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Twitter)

Next, Rettig Gur explains the play-by-play in a small religious-right party that just might, he claims, determine the outcome of the Israeli election on March 23.

And finally, Borschel-Dan recaps her trip to the banks of the Jordan River on Sunday, where she observed the first mass in 54 years at a church called St. John the Baptist Chapel, which was recently cleared of landmines and returned to the Franciscan order.

Each Sunday through Thursday, a panel of Times of Israel reporters and editors will give a fresh perspective on the day’s news in a brief, fast-paced conversation. Special thanks to producer Raoul Wootliff.