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Helen Mirren plays Golda Meir in a new film. The two are also (kind of) related.

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Helen Mirren will soon become linked with Golda Meir in the minds of many viewers when she plays the late Israeli prime minister in a new film. But the award winning actress has another, real-life connection to Meir: the two are related, Israeli genealogical researchers revealed on Thursday.

Mirren was in Jerusalem for the Israeli premiere of “Golda,” the dramatic film she’s headlining about Meir’s handling of the Yom Kippur War — when Egypt, Syria and a coalition of their allies invaded Israel and made significant headway before ultimately being rebuffed. 

The movie is headlining the Jerusalem Film Festival, with a red-carpet screening scheduled for Thursday night.

During a press conference before the screening, researchers with MyHeritage presented Mirren with evidence linking her to Meir, who served as prime minister from 1969 to 1974 and remains the only woman to head Israel’s government. 

The connection is distant, stretching nine generations back through Mirren’s paternal Russian ancestry, and through marriage only. (The genealogy also connects Mirren to two Israeli presidents, Chaim and Ezer Weizman, and to the British royal family.) Still, Mirren — who is not Jewish — said the revelation offered an important lesson.

“It’s miraculous, isn’t it, really? It just goes to show that we are all one family actually,” she said. “In times of divisiveness and strife as I know Israel is in right now … It would be a very good thing to remember that fact.”

Israel’s political turmoil was a central topic of conversation during the press conference. Mirren and her Israeli collaborators — including director Guy Nattiv and co-star Lior Ashkenazi – reflected on the widespread protests against the right-wing government’s efforts to sap the power of the country’s Supreme Court.

“I am not Israeli. … I’ve watched it from afar these past weeks,” said Mirren, who said at the Berlin premiere of “Golda” in February that she thought Meir would be “utterly horrified” by the current government’s efforts. 

“I’m personally moved and excited when I see those huge demonstrations,” she added. “I think maybe it’s a pivotal moment in Israeli history.”

Nattiv said that he had been attending the demonstrations with his father “to stop this crazy thing from happening” and that he had encountered a veteran of the Yom Kippur War who compared the current moment to the existential threat that Israel faced — and overcame — then.

“In a way we are fighting to shape the future of our country,” he said.

The film portrays Meir being caught flat-footed by aggression from neighboring Arab countries, then overseeing a military response that transformed from fumbling to triumphant — and eventually led to Israeli-Egyptian peace in 1979, years after Meir left office. It shows her deeply struggling over the deaths of Israeli soldiers who might have lived had she heeded warnings of war. In 1974, Meir resigned amid divisions within her party over where to assign blame.

“She understood that as the leader of the country she had to take responsibility, and she did — unlike many other leaders who, when things go pear-shaped, start pointing fingers at other people,” Mirren said. “I think that must have been incredibly painful.”

Mirren’s connection to Israel dates back to 1967, when she traveled with a Jewish boyfriend to work for a month on a kibbutz in the country’s north. “I’m amazed every time I come,” she said.

Her casting drew criticism for the decision to have a non-Jewish actress play one of history’s most prominent Jewish women. About the debate over whether roles should be filled by actors whose identities overlap with the characters’, Mirren said, “I adhere to both camps.” She noted that she collaborated closely with the British theater director Peter Cook, who pioneered color-blind acting in the 1970s and died last year at 97.

Nattiv said one of his Israeli colleagues had initially suggested Mirren because of her resemblance to his own grandmother. He said, “I saw the Jewish soul in Helen immediately. We feel like it was the right move.”

Mirren said her motivations for taking the role were simple.

“I’m a horribly greedy actress. All I want to do is play great women,” said Mirren, who won an Oscar for portraying Queen Elizabeth II and has also played Queen Elizabeth I, among other historical figures. “And Golda was one of the greatest.”

Before “Golda” hits screens worldwide next month, Mirren has another major role — as the narrator in “Barbie.” She said both movies offered portrayals of strong women, and suggested a possible addition to the mounting list of promotional tie-ins for the hotly anticipated live-action film about the iconic doll.

She said, “I think we need a Golda Meir Barbie, don’t you think?”


The post Helen Mirren plays Golda Meir in a new film. The two are also (kind of) related. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says

Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.

At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.

Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.

Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.

“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.

“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”

The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.

Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”

There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”

Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.

Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.

A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.

The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike

Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki

Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.

A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.

President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.

Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.

“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.

“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.

The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.

Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.

On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.

NETANYAHU STATEMENT

Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.

He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”

Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.

Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.

After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.

“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.

The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks

FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo

Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.

The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.

Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.

Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”

Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.

The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.

The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.

The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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