Fauda

I actually mentioned this on our Kitchen Cabinet briefing earlier in the week.

There is a Israeli television program called Fauda, uh, which is into-- Fauda means chaos.

Uh, it's in, um, it's in Hebrew with, um, you know, but by watching the subtitles.

And, um, the first four series are, are, are brilliant, and the fifth series has just come out.

That horrible film that got a 25 minute standing ovation.

Um, that is all over the headlines and very, you know, with just lobbying the worst allegations against Israel that's peaking at the same moment that Fauda is reaching number one on Netflix.

And this season of Fauda is, the founders said they had to throw out the original storyline because it was written before October 7th and they rewrote the whole thing in the context of October 7th.

So for you, I wanted to ask, first of all, what's it like to watch the trauma that you experience now become culture and entertainment, And and also, what do you how do you think that that plays into, you know, what you were saying before Israel can do a better job of making itself more vulnerable, like communicating the Israeli narrative? Like, how do you see these sort of cultural events, you know, from your vantage point?

Yeah, so I'm actually watching Fauda.

I got a couple episodes into the season.

I had to kind of take a break, and I'm pacing myself.

I think it's really important work.

But what makes this story particularly bizarre is that while millions of people immediately formed a strong opinion about this film, the number of people who actually watched this film is smaller than the number of people listening to this episode of Call Me Back.

And it is certainly smaller than the number of people who've watched the new season of Fauda on Netflix, which, though fictional, does recount the story of Hamas's atrocities on October 7th.

Having not seen this film, I did not feel like I had anything to add to this discourse, nor did I think that many of the people who did actually contributed much to it.

That's until I listened to Yossi Klein Halevi and Danielle Hartman's most recent episode on Ark Media's For Heaven's Sake podcast.

I'm not necessarily saying that the United States is as weak as they may think it is, but the impression they're getting is that the United States is consumed by internal political divisions, is more concerned about inflation and high gas prices than anything else, and that therefore in these serial preoccupations, their shared hatred of the United States, which is longstanding, not recent and historical, that this is the ideal time to sharpen their spears and swords and stick it to us.

I just watched the last episode of the new season of Fauda, the counterterrorism drama.

The Hamas militants tried to organize a big terrorist attack on the anniversary of the October 7th attacks, which is Remembrance Day in Israel.

Do you see anything coming, Peg, to October 7th?