Sneak Peek: Amit on what could be Israel’s election surprise, and more…

**Amit Segal** (0:04)
You are listening to an Ark Media podcast.

**Dan Senor** (0:08)
Hi, it's Dan. Over the past couple of years, Call Me Back has grown into something much bigger than we ever expected. A place for clarity, context, and honest conversations, at a time when those things can seem hard to find. That's what Ark Media is all about. Building a truly independent voice, which means no one shaping what we say or how we say it. To help support our rapidly expanding operations, we created Inside Call Me Back, our members-only feed. If Call Me Back has been meaningful to you, and you want to be part of what we're building, I hope you'll join us. Your contribution goes a long way in helping us show up when it matters most. You can subscribe at arkmedia.org or through the link in the show notes. And to our insiders, thank you.
Welcome to the inside edition of the Call Me Back podcast, where we pull back the curtain and have the conversations we typically have after the cameras stop rolling. Thank you for subscribing to the show and supporting the Call Me Back podcast and everything we do here at Ark Media. It does mean a lot to us, and it really does help us do what we do.
And with that, today in the hot seat, addressing your questions and personal dilemmas is Ark Media contributor, Amit Segal. Amit.

**Amit Segal** (1:29)
Hi, Dan.

**Dan Senor** (1:30)
I wanna start by saying that we spend a lot of time at Call Me Back on this idea of Jewish peoplehood. And a big part of Jewish peoplehood is Jews in the diaspora feeling a deeper connection to Jews in Israel.
But it's not a one-way street. And here in New York City, which is, as I often say on this podcast, if Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel, New York City is the capital of the diaspora. And we experienced something last night in New York City that was historic, perhaps transformational. I can come up with all sorts of superlatives to talk about this New York Knicks team that came back from a 29-point deficit in one of the most cinematic, dramatic victories I have seen as a lifelong sports fan in any sport. And I have some apprehension about beginning this conversation with you because this is where my head is at.

**Amit Segal** (2:25)
I have to admit, I watched the game.

**Dan Senor** (2:27)
You watched the game?

**Amit Segal** (2:28)
I watched only the second half. Had I woken up earlier, I would have watched San Antonio's best.

**Dan Senor** (2:34)
And then you probably would have gone back to sleep because you would have said, what's the point of staying past half time?

**Amit Segal** (2:39)
I'm the type of fan that goes to the parking lot if their team is not strong enough. So in half time, yes. So I'm absolutely this.

**Dan Senor** (2:46)
Yeah. I watched the game with my son and one of his friends, an Israeli friend actually who lives in New York. We watched the second half and my son and his buddy, Uri, they get on city bikes at like whatever time it was, 11 p.m. and they bike from our apartment to MSG, to Madison Square Garden. And they just said it was electric. I haven't seen anything like this. So Ilan said to me last night, he said the closest comparison, if you want an Israeli to understand this, was when Maccabi Tel Aviv won over Moscow in 1977

**Amit Segal** (3:18)
Yeah. Maccabi won the best team of the Soviet Union.
It was as if Israel would defeat China in the battlefield. It was unprecedented and it signaled, I think, a new Israel. It signaled that something really dramatic happened.

**Dan Senor** (3:35)
And so you remember this?

**Amit Segal** (3:36)
No, it was five years before I was born.

**Dan Senor** (3:38)
But it's still iconic, right?

**Amit Segal** (3:40)
Sure.

**Dan Senor** (3:40)
And there was this famous phrase from that, this iconic phrase from that time, on the map. What was that about?

**Amit Segal** (3:46)
So it was Tal Brody, an American-born Jew basketball player, who said, we are on the map and we're staying on the map, not only in basketball, but in everything.
Four years after the Yom Kippur War, and the isolation, and the energy crisis. Sounds familiar, right? All of a sudden, Israel looked like something else than a pariah state focusing on security and wars. Yeah. And at the same year, we won the Eurovision as well for the first time.

**Dan Senor** (4:16)
Right. So you had a pop culture earthquake, you had a sports earthquake, and then you had a political earthquake all in one year. That's pretty wild. Anyways, now I'm going to jump into a whole bunch of questions, some of which are related to the upcoming elections we have for you, Amit.