Netanyahu Picks a Fight on Day One

Netanyahu opened the new Knesset by saying Arab MKs want Israel destroyed. The caretaker prime minister, whose bloc holds 53 of 120 seats, spoke after Tuesday's swearing-in and demanded a "national unity government." Gadi Eisenkot, who holds the mandate, called the speech "delusional, divisive, hate-filled and shameful." Arab party leaders called it incitement. ¹

Jewish voters moved a bit away from Democrats. A Jewish Electorate Institute poll of 800 Jewish voters found 69% voted Democratic, down six points from 2024. Over a third of Jewish Democrats said their party is too accepting of antisemitic rhetoric; one in four Jewish Republicans said theirs is too friendly to white nationalists. Each party got its bad grade on antisemitism from its own Jewish voters, and in our view that is the grade worth taking seriously. ²

Stanley Zabar died at 94. His parents opened Zabar's on the Upper West Side in 1934; he and his brother Saul, who died in 2025, ran it from the 1950s. Saul was the public face. Stanley, Forbes wrote, "kept much of the engine running behind the scenes." Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal: "We've lost a Manhattan icon." ³

Michael Rapaport is taking his October 7 documentary to Jerusalem for Hanukkah. Am I Cancelled Yet?, which Rapaport produced and Ruth Berdah-Canet directed, closes the 28th Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, running December 5 to 10 at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. It follows the New York comedian after the Hamas attack, as he reconnected with his Jewish identity and took heat for backing Israel. The Times of Israel says it mixes his "often raunchy comedy" with visits to the massacre sites and meetings with survivors and hostage families. Opening night belongs to Volker Schlöndorff, the 87-year-old German director of The Tin Drum, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. ⁴

Today is 1 Kislev, Rosh Chodesh. Hanukkah starts on the 25th, which this year is sundown on Friday, December 4, and runs through December 12. This week's parsha is Toldot, where Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for soup. Jacob later takes the blessing meant for Esau too, so the soup was the cheap part. ⁵⁶⁷

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