Zvika Klein
@ZvikaKlein · Israeli English-language press & book authors
Zvika Klein is the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.
Last October, on the eve of the release of the last twenty hostages, Hostages Square cheered Jared Kushner and booed the prime minister. A few months later, the Israeli media called Kushner a loser. He and Ivanka are in first place on our list of the 50 most influential Jews of the Jerusalem Post.
Translated from HebrewLast October, Israel cheered this couple in Hostages Square and booed its own prime minister. Eleven months later, Israeli TV called him a loser. They're No. 1 on our Jerusalem Post Most Influential Jews list this year. The story is about why Israel forgot.👇 #1 Jared Kushner & Ivanka Trump.
Nigel Farage, one of the leading figures of Brexit and leader of Reform UK, which has become a significant force in British politics in recent years, speaks exclusively with Mathilda Heller of the Jerusalem Post. Farage says that if his party comes to power, it will work to repair the damage that, in his words, the Labour government caused to relations with Israel. The interview came after a conversation with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, which he described as “very productive.” He pledged to strengthen ties with Israel in the areas of security, trade, technology, and innovation. The article is in the first reply.
Translated from HebrewEXCLUSIVE: Nigel Farage tells The Jerusalem Post that a Reform UK government would “undo the damage done” to Britain’s relationship with Israel under Labour. He spoke with our Mathilda Heller after what he called a “very productive” conversation with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, pledging stronger UK-Israel ties on trade, security, technology and innovation. A significant interview at a significant moment for UK-Israel relations: https://t.co/P5XIsJ6seU
John Malkovich cancelled his Tel Aviv performance this week and @Jerusalem_Post has ended up in the middle of it. The coverage has left out the sequence. The quote came from the Israeli promoter's press release. We were then told it hadn't been approved and were given a different one, which we ran. After that we were told the second quote was wrong as well and were given a third, which we ran too. He cancelled only after all of that. So by the time he pulled out, the line he says he couldn't tolerate had already been taken down twice, at the request of the people who wrote it in the first place. His statement gives a few lines to the attribution and then several paragraphs to explaining that performing in a country is not solidarity with its cause, or with killing innocents, or with terrorism, or with barbarity. He performed here in 2008 and again in 2013 without needing to say any of that. The show was set for April 2027, nineteen months away. There was time to sort out a quote, and it had already been sorted.
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: The Biden administration was unaware of any UAE warning that Hamas was planning a major attack before Oct. 7, according to two sources familiar with the matter, The Jerusalem Post’s Amichai Stein reports. The revelation raises fresh questions about reports that MBZ warned Netanyahu that Sinwar was planning a “major move.”
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: The Biden administration was unaware of any UAE warning that Hamas was planning a major attack before Oct. 7, two sources familiar with the matter tell @Jerusalem_Post. That directly complicates reports that UAE President MBZ warned Netanyahu that Yahya Sinwar was planning a “major move.” A major new wrinkle in the Oct. 7 intelligence story. By @AmichaiStein1: https://t.co/5nVAVtfW6Y
The British like to hand out grades to us during the day and go to sleep peacefully at night thanks to the Mossad. In 2015, we saved them from a massive Hezbollah attack in London. Now they are imposing sanctions on us and talking to us about “recalculating the route.” Fine, let’s recalculate the route. In a column I published in Walla!, I explain why Jerusalem should simply turn off their security faucet. Let’s see them manage on their own when the next bomb starts ticking beneath their parliament. For reading >> [in the replies]
Translated from HebrewBritain says it wants a “reset” with Israel. Fine. Then the whole relationship should be part of the reset, including the parts London rarely discusses in public. In 2015, MI5 found roughly 3.5 tons of ammonium nitrate in northwest London, stockpiled by Hezbollah as a contingency for a possible future attack. Senior British ministers knew. Parliament did not. Years later, Israeli officials said the Mossad had provided the intelligence that led Britain to the cache. This week, as London moves to punish Israel economically over the West Bank, British ministers are simultaneously insisting that Israel remains an “important security ally” and that intelligence cooperation should continue. That contradiction is the point. Britain cannot steadily redefine its political relationship with Israel while assuming the most valuable parts of the strategic relationship remain automatic. My column on the Hezbollah file Britain kept secret, what London gets from Jerusalem, and what a real “reset” would actually mean.
@naftalibennett @Jerusalem_Post @keshet_neev ² 'I don't want to see him in jail': Bennett backs Netanyahu pardon if he quits politics https://t.co/0Is2SUSTSM @Jerusalem_Post @naftalibennett
¹ "I don't want to see him in jail. I think he should go home." Bennett calls Netanyahu the man most responsible for October 7, and still says he'd back a pardon, as long as it comes with an exit from politics. Interview by Keshet Neev and Herb Keinon at B'Yachad HQ for The Jerusalem Post. 📸 Marc Israel Sellem
A review I conducted over the past few days shows that X's automatic translation into English replaces the names of Israeli politicians with the names of other politicians, and presents the result to the reader as though that is what was written in Hebrew. Findings so far: In three separate posts, from three unrelated accounts, Gilad Erdan's name appeared in the English version as Gideon Sa'ar. In another case, the name of Minister Amichai Chikli appeared as Amichai Eliyahu. In a third case, a photo of voters at a polling station at Binyanei HaUma in Jerusalem was translated as a polling station in the “United Nations buildings.” This involves two types of failure. A place name was translated literally. A person's name was replaced with that of another real person. What the two have in common is that the system did not recognize that it was dealing with a proper name, and that the interface has no marking distinguishing translation from completion. In some cases, it says that the translation was performed by Grok. What is still unknown: the scope of the phenomenon, how long it has been continuing, whether it is limited to Hebrew, and whether X is aware of it. These are the questions I am investigating now. The practical significance is not theoretical. Someone who reads Israeli politics in translation—immigrants who do not read Hebrew, diplomats, foreign correspondents, and Jewish communities abroad—receives, in an election year, information in which the attribution of names is wrong, with no way of knowing it. Anyone who encounters additional examples is invited to send them to me—or write in the comments.
Translated from HebrewX's auto-translation is replacing Israeli politicians with other real Israeli politicians in the English version of Hebrew posts. I didn't believe it until I checked it myself last night, after a reader messaged me about it. He'd spent a few days thinking Gideon Sa'ar was forming a new party. He hadn't misread anything. Like most English speakers here, he reads Hebrew posts with auto-translation switched on, and every time Gilad Erdan's name came up in the Hebrew, the English came back as Gideon Sa'ar. Different man, different party. I went looking and found the same swap in three posts from three unrelated accounts. It does the same with Amichai Chikli and Amichai Eliyahu, two ministers who happen to share a first name. The translation keeps collapsing them into one person. The one I actually enjoyed is smaller. A photo of people voting at Binyanei Ha'uma, the Jerusalem convention center, came out in English as a polling station at "the United Nations buildings." The Hebrew name means buildings of the nation, so the machine read it word by word and moved a Jerusalem polling station to New York. None of this arrives with a warning label. If you don't read Hebrew, there's nothing to tell you that the name in front of you isn't the name that was written. We're heading into an election. @grok @elonmusk
Smotrich in an interview with the Jerusalem Post: “I don’t believe — I know”: According to him, talks are already taking place between European countries and figures in the Democratic Party in the U.S., on the one hand, and Lapid, Bennett, and Eisenkot, on the other, about how to “do Delete” to the moves advanced by the current government. Watch the clip:
Translated from HebrewSmotrich: The Haredi perception is distorted. "They take the Torah and use it to obtain an exemption from the commandments. And in their attitude toward the state there is ingratitude toward the Holy One, blessed be He, and all His great messengers who built the state here." In an interview with Jerusalem Post
Translated from HebrewIn America, @DrMichaelOren is a celebrity. Ambassador, bestselling historian, the man you put on TV when Israel needs explaining. In Israel, he's the guy with the American accent who can talk about America. Not foreign minister. Never a candidate for it. He entered the Knesset in 2015 at #4 on a list one man decided. In 2019 the same man told him there'd be no realistic slot. That was the end of it. Voters never rejected him. They were never asked. My Editor's Notes this week: why no Anglo oleh has ever built real political power here, and why that's about to change. Pic Marc Israel Sellem
“They told the mayor that his rhetoric on Israel makes Jewish New Yorkers feel that he is ‘not for them' and makes them feel unsafe.” Our correspondent @MathildaHeller spoke exclusively with rabbis inside Zohran Mamdani’s closed-door City Hall meeting. They confronted him directly. What happened next surprised them: They left cautiously hopeful.
Connected stories
- Bennett Says He Knows UAE Warning to Netanyahu Was Genuine
- Four Opposition Leaders Pledge Oct. 7 State Inquiry After UAE Warning Report
- UAE Leader Warned Netanyahu of Hamas Move Before October 7, Report Says
- UAE Says It Does Not Comment on Reports About Leaders’ Conversations
- Netanyahu Orders Lawyers to File Libel Suit Over UAE Warning Report
- UK Announces Import Ban and Sanctions Regime Targeting Settlement Trade