This week reminds us of Howard Cosell’s most famous quote in reverse. Rather than “snatching a strategic victory from the jaws of the Oct. 7 defeat”, our political leaders are busy “snatching strategic defeat from the jaws of military victories”.

To be absolutely clear, on Oct. 7 Israel suffered its greatest defeat and the wars in Gaza and Lebanon can never truly be considered a victory. We would gladly have avoided it all; and if we could turn back the clock we would prevent it from happening.  But it did happen and the IDF has since had amazing victories on the battlefield that have effectively removed many of the most dangerous threats against Israel (and the world as a whole). While we credit our brave soldiers who paid, and continue to pay, a heavy price; we believe that it could have ended sooner if our political leaders were more focused on the needs of the country rather than their own narrow political interests.

This week, rather than build on the unity of the soldiers in the field and strengthen Israel, the coalition government has focused its energy on bringing back divisive legislation that threatens to cause Israel to implode. Is this an exaggeration? Maybe, but based on the internal turmoil of the 10 months that preceded Oct. 7 - this apocalyptic scenario is quite real.

Many (possibly most) Israelis are truly scared that Israel is on the path to something closer to a dictatorship or monarchy that rules over its subjects than a democracy that serves its citizens. To be fair, some of those who support the “judicial reforms” fear that our Supreme Court has overstepped its authority to the point of preventing an elected government from governing. The fear of judicial overreach is not totally without basis; for years the Court itself has tried to return issues to the Knesset rather than make rulings.

Unlike the United States, Israel does not have a written constitution, a true separation of powers, or term limits on the Prime Minister. In Israel, the Executive Branch effectively controls the Legislative Branch and the only independent sources of power are the Judicial Branch and the Civil Service. After nearly 15 years in office (with a short 1 1/2 year interlude), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has managed to destroy much of the independence of the top Civil Servants by appointing mediocre people who are afraid or unable to stand up to him. Leaders of both the military and other security services who did not subscribe to his “conception” that Hamas could be bought off were not promoted - and all signs to the contrary were ignored until Oct. 7, 2023.

This week we focus on the continued rise in antisemitism worldwide, especially in western countries like the U.K., Europe, the United States, Australia and at the United Nations. Not that life in Israel has returned to normal - it hasn’t.

Despite today’s reports of a breakthrough in negotiations for the release of some of the hostages, we fear that our Prime Minister is still more concerned about the fate of his coalition than of hostages suffering (according to reports in the Hebrew press, a Qatari newspaper claimed that Hamas issued a list of hostages that they are willing to include in the first stage of a deal in return for a list of prisoners that Israel is willing to release in exchange. The Hamas list reportedly includes 4 American citizens who do not meet their “humanitarian criteria”). While the news in Syria is probably the most dramatic event of this week - we don’t yet have any insights to share that are any better than what you are seeing on the news.

On the other hand, you might enjoy reading the The Israeli Theater of the Absurd section  which includes Netanyahu’s attempts to delay taking the stand as a defendant where we think he treats Trump as his Patsy. And of course - it is important that you read the 100 Hostages section.

In any case, this week we’ve compiled a number of incidents around the world that we think show a dangerous pattern of organized antisemitism similar to what led to the rise of Nazi Germany as opposed to a series of isolated incidents.

It may be easier to just blame Prime Minister Netanyahu or a few of his more outrageous coalition members, but the truth is that our leadership failure goes far deeper. In 1976, the American Bicentennial celebrations took precedence over the fate of the remaining Americans being held hostage in Entebbe, Uganda, such as Janet Almog, after all the non-Jewish Americans had been released, it was the tiny country of Israel who exhibited the leadership that the Ford Administration lacked in releasing the hostages.

Now, 48 years later, the personal involvement of both President Biden and President-elect Trump are exhibiting in their efforts to free the 101 hostages held in Gaza provide a sharp contrast to the total lack of interest that Israel’s political leadership show toward the fate of their own citizens. With the sole exception of recently fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, not a single minister or member of the ruling coalition have found the time to meet with as many members of the hostage families as these two foreign leader have.

Sometimes it feels as though there is nothing but bad news, and more bad news. Not the sweeping kind of October 7 bad news, but the ongoing, morale-dampening kind of news that never seems to end.

So, instead of giving into that feeling, we joined the Hostage Family Forum this Saturday evening in Hostage Square, Tel Aviv, where we heard the prayers rising from the hav’dalah service (prayer ending the Sabbath) of the Reform Movement, alongside the sing-along held every Saturday in the square. And we listened to the heartbreaking speech twin sermons by the parents of slain hostage Hersh give twin sermons at Tel Aviv rally: ‘We’ve lost too many cherished souls’.

This issue we'll talk about the hostages - and what's happened to the hostage deal; the Israeli coalition government and its latest shenanigans; the ICJ decision to issue warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant; and of course, what's happening on the antisemitism front.

No, the war is from over, but last week, the new Defense Minister, Yisrael Katz, claimed that Israel has already defeated Hezbollah. You could have fooled us, with the hundreds of rockets and drones being fired from Lebanon into Israel every day. And the soldiers and civilians who have died since Katz made his announcement (Nov 10th).

But that hasn’t stopped the government under Netanyahu from trying to continue business as usual, passing laws that would transfer funds to the ultra Orthodox who refuse to serve in the military (or do do any kind of national service). Or from trying to continue the upheavals to the legal system in Israel, threatening the Knesset’s ombudsman, and the list just goes on.

So we’re fighting back - kind of - by letting you know that you can now see the film Bibi doesn’t want you to see (The Bibi Files)!

And of course, we’ll keep you posted in this issue on the latest in the spy scandal in Netanyahu’s inner circle, updates on the hostages, and a discussion of what the next Trump administration could mean for Jews in the United States.

Israelis may have been the target of the Oct. 7 massacre, but it has set off a chain of events that continue to spread worldwide with no hope of ending until the hostages in Gaza return home.

Over the past week, while most of you have been focused on the results of the presidential election, Israelis have been focused on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s mismanagement of the war and the side effects of his failure to focus on freeing the hostages. Despite all of the IDF’s successes on the battlefield in Gaza and Lebanon - we are no closer to bringing home the 101 hostages than we were last week and the same can be said about the return of the evacuees from northern Israel. Antisemitism driven by the “Free Palestine” movement continues to grow more violent and reminiscent of the right wing antisemitism that swept Europe in the 1930s.

This week we've decided to focus on two developing spy scandals in Israel. While we don't yet know whether they would make for good spy novels or comedy routines - they are both real and serious. The first one, which began appearing in the Israeli news a few weeks ago, concerns Israelis that Iran succeeded in getting to betray Israel in return for money. So far, none of the spies uncovered were high level or well connected, but there are signs of a massive effort by Iran to entice Israelis - often using fake profiles in social media or criminal contacts.  

Over the past week Bibi and Biden appear to have joined forces against Israel’s opposition parties, each for their own reasons. While Biden may not like Bibi, and Bibi may be rooting for Trump - this week’s events have shown that politics can indeed create strange bedfellows. In this issue, we will look at the three most important issues facing Israel this week and explain how U.S. President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister have found themselves working hand-in-hand against the Israel’s opposition parties in order to advance the political interests of the Biden-Harris administration on one hand and of Bibi and his extremist coalition on the other.