Gaza's next stage and Turkey's role. Those issues spell trouble in the seemingly rosy Florida lovefest of Donald Trump and Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. Days after their 6th meeting of 2025, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington tells Dan how these summits work -- and he can tell what the real issues were behind the Mar-a-Lago platitudes. Sure, the Israeli prime minister and American president praised each other to the skies, but there are still "troubling" differences over Gaza -- Ph...

Dan reports there's a lot going on, when it comes to Israeli intelligence, security, and politics. There's a rare statement from the Mossad, on why its director met with Qatar. Arab news media claim a kidnapping in Lebanon by the Mossad. And -- the next big strategic event for Israel: Prime Minister Netanyahu will visit President Trump at Mar-a-Lago for talks on December 29. Netanyahu (according to Senator Lindsey Graham, heard in the podcast) wants a green light to strike ...

The Mossad director, David Barnea, gave a rare openly threatening speech: vowing to stop Iran's continued ambition to build nuclear weapons. At an awards ceremony, he also said Israel will punish those responsible for the terrorist attack on Jews in Australia -- at their Hanukkah party on Bondi Beach. Dan -- in Israel this week -- speaks with Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel on a range of current events. She says Israel repeatedly warned Australia that an antisemitic terrorist att...

In an episode of The Mossad Files recorded in Israel, Dan interviews Maj. General (Retired) Amos Yadlin -- former head of Aman, the Military Intelligence directorate that's the biggest part of Israel's intelligence community. Yadlin was one of the air force pilots who destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981 and also served as defense attache at Israel's embassy in Washington. In this conversation, he warns that the Gaza crisis isn't over -- and Israel hasn't sealed its victory against Hezbol...

Until 29 years ago, it was illegal in Israel to reveal the name of the Mossad director. But now Israel's top spymaster is a public figure -- and the honor is about to go to Major General Roman Gofman. Who's he? He has no experience in intelligence agencies. He speaks English poorly, but his Russian is excellent, as he was a Jewish immigrant to Israel from Belarus in the Soviet Union at age 14. Dan's guest -- to discuss Gen. Gofman -- is Dan's longtime writing partner, Yossi...

Dan analyzes the revelation, in a documentary on Israeli TV's Kan-11, that presented a lot of retired military and intelligence chiefs who feel Prime Minister Netanyahu was stop-and-go when it came to confronting Iran. They suggested he did not agree to full funding of Mossad and IDF projects to penetrate Iran and prepare for war -- with war seen as likely, at some point, to stop Iran's nuclear program. It is true, of course, that Netanyahu ordered the airstrikes on Iran -- powered by u...

You've heard of John Spencer, one of the experts on urban warfare who has declared -- after studying the Gaza war closely, and going to the warfront 7 times -- that Israel abided by the international rules of war. Chair of war studies for the Madison Policy Forum, Spencer is known for creating an urban war study program at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He tells Dan Raviv there's no way Israel was guilty of genocide against Gaza's Palestinians, while Hamas's actions -- the massacres...

You'll hear Bill Clinton declare that if his friend, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, had not been assassinated in November 1995, Israel and the Palestinians would have made peace "and the whole world would be different." Then, to the world as it is: Yaakov Katz, Israeli strategic analyst and co-author of "While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East," joins Dan in dissecting an official -- if preliminary -- report by the Israel Defense Forces on the fail...

Dan's co-author (on six books), Yossi Melman, is the featured interview -- on "the strangest case in IDF history": the chief military prosecutor, who admits leaking evidence showing abuse of Palestinian prisoners, has been arrested. She's accused of staging a suicide attempt, perhaps to cover evidence on her mobile phone. Also: Yossi discusses his documentary film on Israeli TV -- "Averting the Gaze" -- which focuses on the incitement against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that preceded his ass...

A lot to think about this weekend -- Will Hamas keep its arms and its governing power in Gaza? They obviously are trying! And is Trump too soft on Hamas? Our guest expert is Professor Kobi Michael, who was deputy director-general at Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs -- and teaches at universities ranging from Northwestern to Peking and South Wales. He's a top researcher at Israel's INSS and the Misgav Institute for Strategic Studies. He predicts two very different Gaza Strips...

Dan analyzes (with audio clips) the visits to Israel by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Secretary of State Rubio -- to keep a close eye on Netanyahu ... while the Knesset votes in favor of annexing the West Bank thus "insulting" VP Vance. Amid all that -- Will Hamas honor the terms of the "Trump Deal" that ended the Gaza war? Many angles -- including possibilities for the future (Will Israel's "image" improve soon?) -- are in Dan's chat with longtim...

The Gaza war is over --- 2 years after it began with the horrific massacres and kidnappings by Hamas in Israeli territory. But is it really over? And is President Trump correct, in portraying the breakthrough as a huge step toward an overall era of peace in the Middle East? In this episode of THE MOSSAD FILES, Dan Raviv interviews Yossi Kuperwasser -- a retired brigadier general in Israel's military intelligence -- and we also hear Tal Becker of the Shalom Hartman Institute (thanks to D...

Dan expresses his doubts about the Trump Deal leading to the "eternal peace" the American President talks about -- but ending the Gaza war, after 2 years, and getting all the hostages home to Israel seems brilliant. We hear parts of the CBS News interview with two women who had the job of Secretary of State and mediated the end of "mini-wars" between Israel and Hamas: Hillary Clinton (praising Trump!) and Condoleezza Rice. Then Dan is joined by a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Jo...