John Cleese. Photo: BANG Showbiz

British actor and comedian John Cleese took to social media on Tuesday to clarify claims about him canceling a series of sold-out shows in Israel, a move that a local promoter blamed on pressure from supporters of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish state.

The “Monty Python” actor, 86, was set to perform a series of shows in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in late November and early December. All of the performances were to be moderated by Israeli entertainer and comedian Tzivka Hadar.

Alon Yurik Productions, the promoter behind the shows, issued a statement on Monday night claiming that Cleese called off the sold-out shows after he “succumbed to threats from BDS organizations,” according to The Jewish Chronicle.

In a social media post on Tuesday morning, Cleese explained that “contrary to the claims made by Alon Yurik Productions,” he rescheduled his shows in Israel “following advice about safety” because “at 86, that is obviously all important.”

“I will rearrange these shows as soon as it’s possible – and I would be happy to perform without receiving any fee,” he added. “I am hugely fond of Israeli audiences and send my sincere apologies to all the people who bought tickets.” The same performances were originally scheduled for June, but Cleese, who in 1975 created and starred in the sitcom “Fawlty Towers,” postponed the shows because of the war between Iran and Israel at the time.

The actor has recently shared on social media several posts that criticize Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He shared a video of Jewish actor Mandy Patinkin blasting Netanyahu and another clip of American actor Mark Ruffalo talking about severing ties with friends who justify Israel’s military actions targeting the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip over the past two years. Cleese also shared posts that promote fake news, including a claim that a former IDF soldier admitted to killing “countless babies for Israel,” which he never said.

Hezbollah artillery gun is seen in Jroud Arsal, Syria-Lebanon border, July 31, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Ali Hashisho

The Israeli military accused Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah on Tuesday of seeking to rebuild its combat abilities in south Lebanon to the point of threatening Israel‘s security and undoing last year’s ceasefire deal.

Military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said Iranian-backed Hezbollah was operating south of the Litani River in violation of the truce accord and that Israeli forces were conducting strikes on Hezbollah targets in that area. Hezbollah, which has refused to disarm in accordance with the ceasefire, nonetheless says it is committed to the deal.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam say Israel is violating the truce deal, pointing to the occupation of five hilltop positions in southern Lebanon by Israeli troops as well as Israeli air strikes and ground incursions into Lebanese territory.

TENSION OVER DISARMAMENT PUSH

Shoshani told a news briefing that Hezbollah was also trying to smuggle in weapons from Syria and via other routes to Lebanon. “We are working to prevent that from happening and to block the ground routes from Syria into Lebanon to a high level of success, but they still pose a threat to us,” Shoshani said.

“We are committed to the agreement, but it must be held. We will not return to the reality of Oct. 7 [2023] with a threat of thousands of terrorists on our border within walking distance of our civilians.”

Several recent reports have said that Hezbollah is, with support from Iran, intensifying efforts to bolster its military power, including the production and repair of weapons, smuggling of arms and cash through seaports and Syrian routes, recruitment and training, and the use of civilian infrastructure as a base and cover for its operations.

Hezbollah denies it is rebuilding its military capabilities in south Lebanon. It has not fired at Israel since the ceasefire came into force, and Lebanese security officials told Reuters that Hezbollah has not obstructed Lebanese army operations to find and confiscate the group’s weapons in the country’s south.

In a televised speech on Tuesday, Hezbollah head Naim Qassem said Hezbollah remained committed to the 2024 ceasefire and that there was “no alternative” to that deal.

He said if Israel withdrew, stopped its attacks on Lebanon, and released Lebanese nationals detained in Israel, then northern Israeli towns would have “no problem” with security.

But he reiterated Hezbollah‘s rejection of full disarmament and said Israel‘s destructive and deadly strikes “cannot continue,” adding: “There is a limit to everything.”

The comments came after Hezbollah recently threatened protests and civil unrest if the government tries to enforce control over its weapons.

Israel has been pressing Lebanon’s army to be more aggressive in disarming Hezbollah by searching private homes in the south for weaponry, according to Lebanese and Israeli officials.

The army is confident it can declare Lebanon’s south free of Hezbollah arms by the end of 2025, but has refused to search private dwellings for fear of reigniting civil strife and derailing a disarmament strategy seen by the army as cautious but effective, Lebanese security officials told Reuters. The terrorist group still wields considerable power among Shi’ites in Lebanon’s fragile sectarian-based system of governance.

Experts have expressed a different assessment.

Under last year’s ceasefire agreement, the Lebanese government committed to disarm Hezbollah, which for years held significant political and military influence across the country while maintaining large-scale terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon, which borders northern Israel. The deal was reached after Israel decimated much of Hezbollah’s leadership and military capabilities with an air and ground offensive following the Islamist group’s attacks on northern Israeli communities — which Hezbollah claimed were a show of solidarity with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas amid the war in Gaza.

Earlier this year, Lebanese officials agreed to a US-backed disarmament plan, which called for the terrorist group to be fully disarmed within four months — by November — in exchange for Israel halting airstrikes and withdrawing troops from the five occupied positions in the country’s southern region.

The Lebanese government is now facing mounting pressure from Israeli and US officials to follow through and establish a state monopoly on weapons.

“It is definitely unrealistic for the Lebanese army to achieve full disarmament by the end of the year,” Hanin Ghaddar, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told The Algemeiner, noting that the subsequent phases, for which they refuse to provide a timeline, could take months or even years.

“The goal should be to reach a better agreement now. The ceasefire was a good start, but it lacked a clear timeline, and Hezbollah is using this period to rearm and rebuild itself militarily, financially, and politically,” she continued. “The stronger Hezbollah becomes, the weaker Lebanon gets, and the prospects for disarmament and peace will continue to diminish.”

Hezbollah last week rejected any talks between Israel and Lebanon, even as the Jewish state ramps up military operations amid rising border tensions.

The Western Wall and Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

An October 2025 ranking of the world’s economies, using 2026 projections from the International Monetary Fund, indicates that in spite of two years of existential war against multiple enemies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and the Houthis, Israel’s economy is performing surprisingly well.

Gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to increase to nearly 700 billion dollars, ranking 27th in the world — impressive for a small country with a little more than 10 million people. Per capita, the situation looks even better. Israel’s per capita GDP ranking is 16th, edging out Germany (18th) and the UK (19th) and well above Canada (22nd) France (26th), and Italy (28th).

These numbers could not help but remind me of a column by Alistair Heath in the June 2025 Daily Telegraph on “Israel’s Divine Survival.” Heath starts by saying there is something about Israel that makes people uncomfortable:

A nation this small should not be this strong. Period. Israel has no oil. No special natural resources. A population barely the size of a mid-sized American city. They are surrounded by enemies. Hated in the United Nations. Targeted by terror. Condemned by celebrities. Boycotted, slandered, and attacked. And still, they thrive like there’s no tomorrow.

Is Israel thriving?

Well, besides economic measures, other indicators also defy expectations. For example, it was also recently reported that life expectancy in Israel increased by one full year, a significant jump, to 83.8 years, between 2023 and 2024. Life expectancy in Israel is now the fourth highest in the 37 member OECD, exceeded only by Switzerland, Japan, and Spain.

Israel also ranks near the top for measures such as low infant mortality and success in disease prevention. Israel is among the countries with the lowest mortality rate from heart disease. And this high level of care is delivered efficiently at relatively low cost. OECD-member states typically devote 11 to 12 % of GDP to health care. The value for Israel is only 7.6 %. (Health care expenditure in the US is about 17% of GDP.)

Then there is the “Global Flourishing Study,” a new study that asks the question “What makes people flourish?” Published In April 2025 in the journal Nature Mental Health, the study, headed by Tyler J. Vanderweele of Harvard University, is a multi-year survey of 200,000 people, across 22 culturally and geographically diverse countries, including Israel, the US, Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The domains measured included: happiness and life satisfaction, physical and mental health (how healthy people feel, in body and mind), meaning and purpose (whether people feel their lives are significant), character and virtue (how people act to promote good), social relationships (both friendships and family ties), and financial and material stability.

Israel ranked number two (of 22 nations), behind Indonesia when financial indicators are included, and number four (after Indonesia, Mexico, and Philippines) when financial indicators are excluded. The primary finding of the study so far (the study will be completed in 2027) is that high income countries are not necessarily flourishing countries. Israel is the outlier.

The 2025 World Happiness Index also shows Israel is still high up the list of 147 countries, at number 8.

If you ask Google AI why Israel continues to thrive in conditions not normally conducive to success, you get a prosaic answer: Israel’s ability to thrive, in spite of regional challenges and limited natural resources, is due to the combination of an emphasis on higher education and research, a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, significant foreign support and investment, defense needs, and a democratic institutional framework that protects property rights and promotes a market economy.

But to Alistair Heath Israel doesn’t make sense unless you believe in something beyond the math. “There is no historical precedent for surviving the Babylonians, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Inquisition, the pogroms, and the Holocaust, and still showing up to work on Monday in Tel Aviv,” he wrote. Perhaps the secret to understanding Israel’s success is not any different from appreciating the resilience displayed by the Jewish people through the ages. Or, as expressed by a quotation attributed to the noted Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”

Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, University of Waterloo.