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 The Times of Israel's senior analyst, Haviv Rettig Gur.

This week, a committee appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to examine defense spending and IDF military force design for the future announced that the election of Donald Trump as US president offers an unprecedented opportunity to remove the threat Israel faces from Iran.the

Trump’s return to the White House, said the Nagel Committee on Monday, “creates, for the first time, the potential for a fundamental change, and the removal or meaningful reduction of the Iranian threat.”

Likewise this week, the incoming US envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff announced that he would travel to Doha, saying a hostage deal being mediated by Qatar is on the verge of completion, as US President-elect Donald Trump again warned “all hell will break loose” in the region if an agreement between Israel and Hamas is not reached by his January 20 inauguration.

We all know that Trump is one to talk tough, but the question is -- how much of this rhetoric will translate into action? And will he aid Israel in its aid to prevent a nuclear Iran?

So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur: 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: US President Donald Trump (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, May 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)

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