Plan Bibi: stalemate suits Netanyahu

Welcome to a slightly new format for the Edition podcast! Each week we will be talking about the magazine – as per usual – but trying to give a little more insight into the process behind putting The Spectator to bed each week. On the podcast this week: plan Bibi In the early hours of Friday morning, Benjamin Netanyahu leaked his ‘Day after Hamas’ plan for post-war Gaza. But the plan is not a plan, writes Anshel Pfeffer – it is just a set of vague principles that do not stand up to the slightest scrutiny. Its sole purpose is rather to keep the ministers of Netanyahu’s fragile cabinet together to ensure his political survival. Joining the podcast is former National Security advisor to Netanyahu and former head of the Israeli Professor Uzi Arad, to discuss Bibi’s self-interested survival strategy. (03:08) Also this week: Lara and Will discuss some of their favourite pieces from the magazine. Including Richard Bratby’s arts lead on the composer you should take far more seriously and Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s piece on the ‘sad clappies’.  Then: why Latvia is expelling its Russian speakers. New rules mean that ethnic Russians, many of whom have lived in Latvia for their entire lives, have been told they need to learn Latvian or face deportation. In the magazine, Lukas Degutis, The Spectator’s editorial manager, interviews people affected by the illiberal policy, as well as the politicians defending the change as part of de-Russification of the Baltic states. We spoke to Lukas and Inga Springe, investigative journalist at Re:Baltica who has been across this story on the derussification of the Baltic. (22:16) And finally: why don’t we have more time, and when we do, why do we waste it? This is the central question of a new book by Gary S. Cross, titled: Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal. We thought this was the perfect question to ask our own Wiki Man columnist Rory Sutherland, who had some fascinating things to say about free time and how best to spend it. (34:39) Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson.  If there are any areas of the magazine that you are particularly interested in or any questions you have for Will and Lara, please email: [email protected]. We will try and answer as many as we can in next week’s episode.