15 May
Israel, Jewish Politics & Power, Latest

Ceasefire in Gaza, Mixed Messages in DC

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. Another Round of Fighting in Gaza, Another Round of Responses from Washington Saturday marked the end of the latest bloody round in the seemingly endless conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza. This time, it was the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a relatively small faction, that was responsible for the barrage of rocket and missile attacks against Israel. Hamas, the larger group controlling the Gaza Strip, sat this round (and the previous round) out. But apart from the slightly different players, everything else was depressingly familiar: the inevitable escalation, the loss of life on both sides (35 in Gaza, 2 in Israel), the eventual negotiated ceasefire and the clear understanding—on both sides—that another round of fighting is not a question of if, but of...

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05 May
Arts & Culture, Featured, Film, Latest

Film Review | Jerusalem Balagan

                  Paris Boutique 2022 81 minutes Director: Marco Carmel Mayane Films, United Channel Movies, United King Film Distribution Hebrew, English, French with English Subtitles Romantic Comedy When sophisticated Parisian-Jewish lawyer Louise, played by Joséphine Draï (Belle Belle Belle, Man Up!) is asked by her father to take a temporary respite from planning her extravagant wedding and fly to Jerusalem to close on a multi-million euro deal, little could she have imagined the dramas that would ensue on her three-day trip.   This zany romantic comedy admirably illustrates how Israeli cinema and Jewish culture is so much wider and richer than the sturm und drang in which it is so often portrayed. That the film has already garnered six nominations for Ophir Awards (aka the Israeli Oscars) is a testament to director Marco Carmel (Noble Savage, Almost Famous). Unlike so many films of the genre—with clichéd...

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05 May
Israel

After Abbas | Interview with Avi Melamed

Avi Melamed is a former Israeli intelligence officer and strategic consultant to some of Israel’s top politicians, such as Teddy Kollek and Ehud Olmert. A Middle East analyst and fellow of intelligence and Middle East affairs at the Eisenhower Institute, Melamed currently serves as the chief education officer of Inside the Middle East, a nonprofit dedicated to non-partisan education on the regional complexities of Israel and its neighbors. His most recent book is Inside the Middle East: Entering a New Era. This interview is part of a special Moment package about what will happen after Mahmoud Abbas no longer controls the Palestinian Authority. For the rest of our coverage, click here. What might the Israeli-Palestinian relationship or governmental relationship look like after Mahmoud Abbas is no longer in power?  To a large extent, it depends on what will...

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17 Apr
Israel, Jewish Politics & Power, Latest

Taking a Break from Battling Trump, DeSantis Heads to Israel

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. Checking the Israel Box Is Ron DeSantis running? All signs indicate that the hard-liner Florida governor is on the cusp of throwing his hat in the ring and challenging his former political patron Donald Trump for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination. These signs include DeSantis’s book tour (aka campaign stop) in Iowa and a closely watched ad war with Trump, in which DeSantis backers ran online ads calling on Trump to “fight Democrats, not lie about Governor DeSantis.” This was in response to a Trump PAC’s ad that alluded to a 2019 story about DeSantis once eating pudding with his finger while on a flight, since there was no spoon to be found. In the 20-second spot the narration talks about how...

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03 Apr
Israel, Jewish Politics & Power, Latest

Drama in Israel Makes for New Partnerships in America

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. Tough Times Help Forge New Coalitions It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks in Israel, and in Israeli-American relations. Well, that’s probably an understatement. Israel reached what seems to be the apex of its internal battle over the future of the nation, with tens of thousands spontaneously pouring into the streets last week following Benjamin Netanyahu’s abrupt firing of his defense minister Yoav Gallant. Meanwhile in the United States, President Biden did away with niceties and diplomatic decorum, telling Netanyahu that he better change course if he ever wants to see the inside of the White House again. Mounting pressure led Netanyahu to announce a temporary suspension of his judicial overhaul legislation, and he agree to enter talks with opposition leaders under the...

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28 Mar
Highlights, Israel, Latest

Will the Third Temple Survive its 75th Year?

The First Temple lasted about 400 years, the Second Temple held for 600 years, and the Third Temple—if modern Israel may assume that name—is dangerously close to kicking the bucket at 75 years. Only this time there is no Assyria to whisk ancient Israelites into oblivion, no Babylon to herd Judeans into exile, and no Rome to extinguish Jewish sovereignty for two millennia. Today—much as Iran would have liked to be our latter-day vanquisher—the Jewish state is demolishing itself from within.  The build-up began, perhaps, when Menachem Begin won by a landslide in 1977 by riding the hostility of Mizrahi “Second Israel” against the largely Ashkenazi “First Israel.” During the four following decades Israel’s fragile web of coexistences was politicized and crudely mishandled. Since the late 2000s, feeding on the outgrowth of commercial news channels and...

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