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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
| WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
|  | | Good morning. Today: Goodbye to the Biden administration; hello to Mel Gibson as a “special ambassador” to Hollywood; and one unexpected story about a German neo-Nazi. |
| | |  | Family members of Israeli hostages in Gaza hugged Friday, as the government moved to approve the ceasefire deal. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images) |
| Israel’s government is expected to approve the ceasefire and hostage release deal, in a last-minute meeting that appeared primed to extend into Shabbat. After months of negotiations that often appeared circular and hopeless, the stage is set for hostages to begin to be freed on Sunday, as Israeli troops start to withdraw from key areas of Gaza.
On Thursday, after last-minute delays in the signing process, it seemed the deal’s implementation might be delayed. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured the approval of his government’s security cabinet earlier today. And if the full government votes in favor of the deal, the long-awaited peace process is set to begin before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
But while Israelis, Palestinians and international observers wait for the first stage of the three-phase deal to begin, anxiety and uncertainty remain pervasive. The prospect of Israel releasing more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners sparked concerns, with one hostage relative who supports the deal even calling it “really bad.” And if all goes smoothly in the initial six-week exchange, much remains undecided — and contentious — about the two final phases. Among the lingering questions: What happens if those details can’t be agreed on, potentially leaving dozens of hostages stuck in Gaza?
“You who should have been on the top of the list aren’t even on it,” said Anat Angrest at a Thursday protest in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square. Her son, Matan Angrest, is not among the 33 hostages who will be released in the first phase. “We didn’t convince the government over the last 15 months that your blood is worth the same as the others.” |
| |  | In Tel Aviv, a clock keeps track of how long hostages have spent in captivity since being taken on Oct. 7, 2023. (Amir Levy/Getty Images) |
| More on Israel: For one mother, Ruth Strom, the passage of the deal marks a moment of both relief and fresh anxiety: Only one of her two hostage sons is on the list of the initial 33 captives being released. (Reuters)
Netanyahu’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said he and the far-right party he leads would resign from Netanyahu’s government if the deal were approved. (Haaretz)
Trump’s pick for his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said the United States would support Israel if it decides it must re-engage in Gaza, telling Fox News “we’ve made it very clear to the Israelis, and I want the people of Israel to hear me on this: If they need to go back in, we’re with them.” (Times of Israel)
In his final televised interview as president, Joe Biden said he repeatedly told Netanyahu, during 15 months of war, that “he has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns” of Palestinians. (New York Times)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s final press conference of the Biden administration was interrupted by two journalists accusing Israel of genocide. (JTA)
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| |  | | |  | Demonstrators from Jewish Voice For Peace are taken into custody as they protest the war in Gaza at the U.S. Capitol in July. (Getty Images) |
| Pro-Palestinian groups are being charged with fraud. Could pro-Israel groups be next? Behind this week’s news that Jewish Voice for Peace was settling fraud charges related to a pandemic-era relief loan for $700,000 is the crusade of one activist lawyer, David Abrams, reports our Arno Rosenfeld. Abrams, “who moonlights as a legal crusader for Israel,” has made nearly $2 million from filing complaints in “pandemic fraud-related cases involving companies with links to China as well as those involved with Israel,” Arno writes. Read the story ➤
Opinion | I’m a Jew who teaches at Rutgers. Our campuses must stop trying to pacify the government over antisemitism. Amid a spate of Department of Education settlements with universities over allegations of campus antisemitism, Hank Kalet, a professor at Rutgers — one of the schools to reach such an agreement — believes that “most of what has been flagged by the DOE should be considered protected speech, even if it was shocking or even hateful.” And in universities’ efforts at appeasement, he sees a deeper problem when it comes to what, exactly, higher learning institutions are trying to teach their students. Read his essay ➤
And: Some Republicans are highly critical of the settlements, calling them “toothless,” the Associated Press reports. |
| | |  | Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Brian Epstein in Midas Man. (Courtesy of Signature Entertainment) |
| The New York Jewish Film Festival opened this week at Lincoln Center, with Midas Man, a biopic about the Jewish pop music visionary Brian Epstein, often called the Fifth Beatle. The film stars Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, in what our culture writer PJ Grisar calls “a suitably tortured performance,” and is one of more than 20 offerings screening at the festival.
Other highlights include a German-Jewish answer to The Sopranos; documentaries about Jewish converts from Colombia and a trailblazing Jewish artist; and a 50th anniversary screening of Hester Street.
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| | | WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
|  | Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán speaks at the U.S. Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Texas, on August 4, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) |
| In Washington… David Pressman, the Biden administration’s outgoing ambassador to Hungary, shared a grim picture of that country under the governance of the far-right Viktor Orbán — who has so far been friendly with Trump — saying that “George Soros was a device that the Hungarian government has and continues to use as this shadowy, oligarch Jewish billionaire who is attempting to undermine Hungary’s sovereignty at every turn.” (New York Times)
Trump appointed Mel Gibson as one of three “special ambassadors” to Hollywood. Gibson has a long and colorful history of antisemitism — remember when he asked Winona Ryder if she was an “oven dodger”? (JTA, Forward)
Internationally… A German neo-Nazi serving 18 months on charges related to hate has legally changed gender as part of a bid to be reassigned to a women’s prison, citing fears of “discrimination” in the men’s prison. (New York Post)
Rome’s chief rabbi spoke out against Pope Francis’ increasing criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying the pontiff has dedicated disproportionate attention to that conflict in comparison to brutal wars in Sudan, Syria and elsewhere. (Reuters)
A home in Sydney, Australia that was owned by a Jewish community leader was vandalized Friday; two cars on the property were set on fire, one of which was also painted with an antisemitic slur. Separately, a Sydney man accused of making death threats toward a Jewish organization became the first person to be charged under new efforts dedicated to addressing antisemitism. (Reuters, Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Frank Auerbach, a renowned Jewish painter who fled Berlin as a child in 1939 and whose parents were both killed in Auschwitz, will posthumously receive his first exhibit in the city. (Guardian)
Shiva call ➤ Michael (Menachem) Fox, a Yiddishist author, songwriter and psychologist, died at 79; Shirah Neiman, who broke ground as a female prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York’s criminal division, died at 81.
What else we’re reading ➤ “Why Zora Neale Hurston was obsessed with the Jews” (New Yorker) “The insane story of How Ben Platt came out to his Jewish day school” (Hey Alma) “Sotheby’s to auction ‘the most complete Jewish baseball card collection in the world’” (JTA)
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| | |  | (Noam Galai/Getty Images) |
| A slogan emblazoned on one telling sign at a Thursday rally — “in Trump we trust” — gave a clue as to how Israelis perceive the efforts that finally led to the ceasefire deal. |
| Thanks to Benyamin Cohen, PJ Grisar and Adam Langer for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Julie Moos for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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