This week we focus on the video with signs of life from Liri Albag, 19, one of the 100 hostages being held in Gaza that Hamas released over the weekend. We then summarize the additional events of the past week like the possible end of UNRWA operations, the latest corruption scandal in Israel, the continued spread of antisemitism worldwide, and an organized attempt to terrorize young Israelis who served in the IDF traveling overseas that could easily spread to young Americans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

The video shows Liri, 19, in what appears to be some kind of military uniform, her eyes gaunt and haunted, and her mental state apparent.

“This is not the Liri we know” her parents said about the video of their daughter, and said her “difficult mental state is evident” as it appears in the three-and-a-half-minute video, where she appeals to government to work on hostage deal “as if your children were there”.

The timing of the three-and-a-half-minute-long video is not accidental; the video was not dated, although Liri stated in it that she has been held for over 450 days, which indicates that the video that it was filmed recently.

Albag, a surveillance soldier, was stationed at the Nahal Oz military base close to the Gaza border when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists poured into Israel from the Palestinian enclave. Fifteen surveillance soldiers were killed in the onslaught, and Albag was abducted to Gaza along with six others.

There doesn’t appear to be any movement in the negotiations to free hostages being held by Hamas - now 450 days! So this week we focus on a new report presented to the United Nations documenting the conditions of those that were being held, released, and subsequently treated in Israel. We have a call to action that is simple - but might take you out of your comfort zone.

Anyone tuning into the Israeli investigative and current affairs television program, Uvda (meaning "Fact") last week could be forgiven for thinking they'd inadvertently tuned into a Francis Ford Coppola movie: a mob family led by a man and his wife with enormous power and influence turning a small country into their own little kingdom/mafia territory.

But it wasn't a movie. The expose of the Netanyahus — plural, that's correct — revealed a secret network that operated out of Balfour Street in Jerusalem (the official residence of the prime minister), where a multi-armed octopus was activated in an almost limitless manner and targeted political opponents. The network also included a a close connection to a senior police officer, who would later also become the Police Commissioner.

And now, dozens are said to have filed complaints against Sara Netanyahu after the report alleging dirty deeds; in addition, an opposition MK and a good governance group are urging an official probe after the TV report said PM’s wife sought to intimidate witness in Netanyahu's trial, and organize protests against rivals.

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.

“Kul kalb biji yomo” in Arabic means every dog shall have its day; in other words, every bad person shall get their punishment eventually (sorry dogs for dragging you into this…).

And that’s exactly what happened to Yahya Sinwar, the chief architect of the October 7 massacre and the country's most wanted man. Sinwar disappeared at the start of the war triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attacks, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

And now, he’s finally dead, killed in the ruins of the houses above the tunnels he used to hold the hostages and to plan his attack on Israel. Sinwar was killed in a chance encounter with Israeli troops operating in south Gaza’s Rafah on Wednesday.

In today’s issue, we will focus on the aftermath of Sinwar’s death, and what it means for the hostages and the future of the war.

This week we focus on two issues, yesterday’s drone attack that killed 4 and wounded 67 young Israelis and the level of fake news in mainstream media throughout the west on both the right and the left. We lead with the drone attack because as of noon here in Israel (3 AM EST) there are still no reports in the mainstream U.S. media. There are however headlines about the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system, which looks like they were were written by the Biden Administration’s press secretary and printed as-is.

This leads to our second focus (Look to the Right, Look to the Left -Fake News on Parade) - the indoctrination that has replaced investigative journalism in the mainstream media in the U.S. and Europe. This may or may not be true of most domestic political issues - we don’t really know - but it is true when it comes to reporting on the Middle East, especially when it comes to coverage of Israel and the Palestinians, and anti-Zionism as a politically-correct façade for pure antisemitism.

We will then touch on hostages because we fear that the hostages are being put on the back burner. Whether this is intentional or not doesn’t really matter - time is running out for 101 hostages and their families. This is not only true for Israelis, but Americans as well - because some of those hostages are United States citizens left to rot as the world marches on.

The biggest news over the past week has been about the war in Lebanon and how Israel should or will respond to the missile attack from Iran. If this were any other week, we would probably focus on the media bias and misinformation over these two issues. But we’ve decided instead to give you a taste of the issues that are bubbling under the surface and that does not even receive biased coverage outside of Israel. These are not the “top headlines” in Israel this week, but they have been coming up off-and-on over the past year and Israelis all feel them constantly.

Giving credit to Bibi is not easy, but he finally did make a good decision. This doesn’t make up for making Oct. 7 possible or mismanagement of the war in Gaza, but he was Prime Minister on Friday and it was his call to approve the bombing of Hassan Nasrallah’s bomb shelter. So he deserves credit. He also deserves credit for the last minute ruse that allowed Nasrallah and many of his top people to feel safe just a few more hours until the bombs dropped.

So before you to read this newsletter, open a bottle of Champagne or whatever else helps you celebrate and enjoy the moment before we delve into the wrong reasons and their potential costs down the road. And maybe, just maybe… his moment of glory might guide him to make a few more good decisions (but most likely he will once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory).

In this issue we  focus on how the Israeli perspective differs from what you are seeing in the mainstream media. We will also update you regarding the parallel universe known as Israeli politics. Finally, we will try and remind you about the hostages and ask that you do all you can to keep talking about them.  

This issue deals with the sad truth of what is happening in Israel and how the media bias against Israel only makes things worse for all of us, Israelis and non-Israelis alike. This issue is divided into two sections:

* The main section focuses on what is happening inside Israel - spoiler alert - it is sad and alarming

* The second section focuses on media bias against Israel and its impact on antisemitism in the U.S. and worldwide

In this edition we how the current reality for Israelis and Jews worldwide lies far enough outside the realm of probability that it resembles episodes of the 1959 TV series, The Twilight Zone.

• Episode 337 describes many of the events of the past few days that just don't seem real - but are.

• Episode 338 describes the events of today up until the sending of this edition.

• Episode 339 is a preview of what to look for tomorrow.

This edition accuses both the Netanyahu-Ben Gvir-Smotrich administration in Israel and the Biden-Harris administration in the United States of failure to do enough to free both Israelis and Americans kidnapped by Hamas. In the upcoming presidential election, Kamala Harris needs to prove that she cares more about American citizens held hostage than about world opinion about Israel and the Palestinians. This is not a call to vote for Trump - far from it. But it is a call to force the candidates to show which of them is less dangerous.

This edition focuses on whether Sunday's preemptive airstrike was designed to prevent the outbreak of full-scare war with Hezbollah and Lebanon, or an expensive publicity stunt. We also delve into the following issues:

• whether Kamala Harris will prevent of facilitate the spread of antisemitism in the United States (spoiler - we are not sure but have suggestions about what to watch for)

• the relationship between Netanyahu and hostage families (spoiler - it is not a pretty picture)

• how the current political leadership is undermining Israeli solidarity