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 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 Israel Story producer Mitch Ginsburg.

On February 20, 1979, the last 33 Israelis returned from Tehran upon the forced closure of the Israeli embassy. After the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khoumeini's new regime, the Israeli trade mission's location was given over to the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose supporters immediately stormed the building.

In today's episode, we relay the untold saga of the derring-do that saw these final Israeli officials back to the Jewish state.

A story of four chapters, Ginsburg narrates the tale through the eyes of the Tehran embassy's military attache, Brigadier General Itzik Segev.

Hear how they walk the plank, assume false identities and eventually meet up with the American delegation, which was also fleeing the country.

Our conversation is followed by the complete episode of Ginsburg's recent Israel Story installment, "Frankly, My Deer," which tells the tale of the final and frantic days of the Shah’s regime, when an unlikely Israeli envoy — a cross between David Attenborough and Jason Bourne — landed in Tehran. His secret mission was to bring back something certain powerful people in Israel sorely wanted.

And so this week, we ask Mitch Ginsburg 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: In this December 10, 1978 file picture, demonstrators hold up a poster of exiled Muslim leader Ayatollah Khomeini during an anti-shah demonstration in Tehran at the Shayah monument which was built to commemorate the monarch's rule and symbol of his power. (AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz)

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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 stand-up comedian Liz Glazer, who is coming soon to Israel as part of the annual Comedy for Koby tour.

On stage and off, the former law prof -- a graduate of New York's stalwart Modern Orthodox Ramaz high school -- is loudly and proudly out about her life as the spouse of a female rabbi. Perhaps more unusually, since the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on Israel, she's also made no secret of her support for the Jewish state

In our conversation, we hear which of Glazer's identities -- lesbian or Jew -- is trickier for her to navigate on stage. We learn how being the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors has shaped her personality -- and career choice.

And finally, we hear how becoming a mother two years ago has shifted Glazer's comedic sensibilities.

Comedy for Koby is a fundraiser for the Koby Mandell Foundation, which was founded by Seth and Sherri Mandell, whose son Koby and his friend Yosef Ishran were murdered in a terrorist attack in 2001.

Jumping off from the foundation's motto, "From tragedy to community," the comedy tours have brought 88 comedians to Israel since comedian Avi Liberman began hosting and organizing them in 2008. From January 5-12, Glazer will be joined by Andy Pitz and Rich Shnyder throughout Israel.

And so this week, we ask Liz Glazer 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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.