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Israel’s Pager Attack Against Hezbollah Inspires New Spy Thriller With ‘Fauda’ Actors
An ambulance arrives at a hospital as thousands of people, mainly Hezbollah fighters, were wounded on Sept. 17, 2024 when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Israel’s operation last year that involved the explosion of pagers carried by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon has inspired a new film by Bleiberg Entertainment, which will launch sales for the project at the American Film Market (AFM) next month, Deadline reported.
The spy thriller “Frequency of Fear” will star “Fauda” cast members Doron Ben-David, Itzik Cohen and Marina Maximilian, as well as Israeli singer and actress Daniella Pick Tarantino (“The Perfect Gamble”), who is married to filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. The film is currently in post-production.
Israeli-American actor, director, and producer Danny Abeckaser is directing and producing with a script by Kosta Kondilopoulos. The two worked together previously on films including “Inside Man” and “The Engineer.”
The “Frequency of Fear” cast includes Ariel Yagen (“Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints”), actress and social media activist Emily Austin, Angel Bonanni (“Seven Days in Entebbe”), Herzel Tobey (“Damascus Cover”), Moran Attias (“Tyrant”), Aki Avni from Netflix’s “Beauty Queen of Jerusalem,” and Yarden Toussia Cohen from the Apple TV+ series “Tehran,” according to Deadline.
The AFM, held this year from Nov. 11-16 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, is an annual event where members of the international film and television industry can meet and collaborate.
The covert Israeli operation took place in September 2024 and targeted members of the Iranian-backed Islamist terror group Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon. The blasts took place over the course of two days, wounding thousands and killing more than 40 people. Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani was among those injured and reportedly lost an eye. The explosions took place across Hezbollah’s main stronghold in Beirut and in southern Lebanon. It was carried out following months of almost daily Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel and almost a year after the Hamas-led deadly terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023
Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad sabotaged thousands of explosive-laden communication devices, such as pagers and hand-held radios, before they were distributed to Hezbollah operatives. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Israel’s involvement in November 2024, telling his cabinet he had approved the operation.
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.