On Oct. 25, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Oman with Sultan Qaboos Bin Said. Three days later, Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev and Israel’s national judo team were moved to tears when judoka Sagi Muki won a gold medal at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, and Israel’s anthem, “Hatikva,” was played for the first time in the United Arab Emirates. That same week, an Israeli film, “The Dive” was screened at the Duhok International Film Festival, in northern Iraq. These events do not attest to a new Middle East. None of the three Arab states has diplomatic relations with Israel.
“The Dive,” directed by Yona Rozenkier, won four prizes in August at the 35th Jerusalem Film Festival, among them Best Israeli Feature Film. Rozenkier was surprised to learn that “The Dive” would be screened in late October at the Duhok International Film Festival, in Iraqi Kurdistan. He and the film's producers, Efrat Cohen and Kobi Mizrahi, immediately grasped the political sensitivity of such a decision and the pressure that would likely be exerted on the festival's organizers. They therefore decided to keep the news to themselves, at least until the festival concluded.
