Something to talk about: 8 things to know for May 12

1. Threat or theater: Tensions between the US and Iran are continuing to skyrocket, with a fleet of B-52 bombers landing in Qatar making America’s intentions crystal clear.

• Israel is watching developments closely, given its closeness with the US and its belligerent relationship with Tehran.
• Channel 12 news reports that the US and Israel are sharing intelligence and that Israel fears if Iran is cornered it could try to flex its muscles in the Golan Heights or Lebanon, but does not provide any source for the information.
• The same speculation was included, nearly line for line, in a post on the Breaking Defense website several days earlier: “If Iran grows desperate enough, they may direct attacks or rocket fire on the Golan Heights, and perhaps on the Lebanese border.”
• An unsourced Channel 13 report Friday says the Iranians were “considering various aggressive acts” against American or American-allied targets, but targeting American bases in the Gulf had been deemed too drastic.
• The main target they were interested in was “Saudi oil production facilities,” the TV report said. Such a strike would also send world oil prices soaring and enable Iran to get more income from its oil sales, the report added.

2. Here’s his number, call him, maybe: At the same time that the US is threatening Iran, it’s also sending explicit messages that all it wants to do is talk, making it seem not unlike gun-toting, smooth talking Jules Winnfield from the Big Kahuna scene in “Pulp Fiction.”

• According to CNN, the US went as far as sending Iran Trump’s personal phone number, via Switzerland, in what is more than likely a symbolic gesture rather than an actual play for diplomacy.
• Haaretz’s Amos Harel notes that the American deployments to the Gulf, while accompanied by bellicose threats, are actually quite limited.
• “That raises the questions of whether the Americans are following a written script, and what they hope to accomplish. Does Trump, who is not keen to launch new wars in the Middle East, seek to return the Iranians to the bargaining table, in a bid to reach a new nuclear agreement more favorable to the United States than the one signed by the Obama administration in Vienna in 2015,” he writes. “Or do the hawks in the administration, who include John Bolton, the national security adviser, want to go to war against Iran in order to achieve regime change there?”
• JTA’s Ron Kampeas, noting that the US seems a bit hypocritical by reacting harshly to Iran’s pullback from a deal it pulled out of itself, writes that “Trump, reportedly wary of Bolton’s overseas interventionism, might want to replicate his direct overtures to North Korea by talking directly with Iran.”
• Or as AFP puts it more simply, the Trump administration’s foreign policy is “schizophrenic.”

3. Kill the plan to save it: One thing the administration seems to be dead set on is pushing back the timing for the release of its peace plan. After White House aide Jared Kushner said it won’t be released until after Ramadan, Trump envoy Jason Greenblatt tells Fox News it won’t be until after the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which pushes it back another week.

• It’s “false to say that it’s only an economic plan. It’s both political and economic. Once everyone has read and given their thoughts on it, there is still a long way to go before a final signing agreement, and that will be up to the parties themselves to negotiate,” he’s quoted telling the news site.
• While many have dismissed the plan, Robert Satloff, who interviewed Kushner at a conference earlier this month, says what he understood from the conversation was that there are parts of the plan that can work. But he concludes that the plan is so likely to fail, and take everything down with it, including its best ideas, that it might be best to kill it before it can get off the ground.
• “Kushner may think that his plan will survive as the new reference point for future negotiations even if it fails to achieve a peace breakthrough, but it is at least as likely that those ideas—even if they are solid, worthy, valuable ideas—get tossed in the diplomatic dung-heap by Trump’s successors,” he writes in The American Interest. “Given America’s deeply tribal political partisanship, it is not difficult to imagine a future administration—especially a Democratic one—refusing to reconsider proposals on such issues as security arrangements, refugee resettlement, Palestinian political reform, and regional economic development if they bore the Trumpian stamp. And because the Kushner team approaches these issues with a deep affinity for Israel, this is likely to harm ideas that seem especially friendly to the Jewish state. This is why I hope that Netanyahu comes to his senses and does what he can to scuttle the “deal of the century” before it becomes formal U.S. policy.”

4. Friends forever: Israel’s most widely read newspaper, Israel Hayom, would likely disagree, with the Trump- and Netanyahu-backing tabloid going all in on love for the White House.

• The paper’s first six pages are dedicated to fawning over the US on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the US embassy moving to Jerusalem (actually later this week, which leaves one wondering what else is in store for the next two days), declaring the transfer an unparalleled success despite all the naysayers.
• Most of the paper’s front page is taken up by a column by US Ambassador David Friedman, who writes that the move placed the US “on the right side of history.”
• “Contrary to all the negative predictions, the Jerusalem Embassy has been an extraordinary success, advancing peaceful coexistence, bilateral cooperation and cultural exchange between and among Israelis, Palestinians and Americans,” he writes.
• The paper doesn’t just celebrate the embassy, but also recognizing the Golan, America’s moves against Iran and other things on Israel’s government wish list. Reporter Ariel Kahane writes that “Trump and his people emphasize that what they are doing is for American interests and not necessarily for Israel, but to them Israel’s security and American security are linked — and that’s the main thing.”

5. Scarred by rockets: A week after it was wracked with violence, Gaza has mostly turned quiet, with Israel reopening the Strip’s fishing zone and crossings into the enclave.

• But Yedioth Ahronoth reports that the trauma of the violence is sticking with people in the south: in 2018, more than 4,000 people sought treatment for post-trauma, an increase of 25 percent over the year before. Near the Gaza border, the increase was an astounding 40%.
• The paper estimates that “given the last round of violence, which came on the heels of other rounds of violence this year, the numbers in 2019 will continue to rise.”

6. So excited, so scared: The rockets didn’t manage to cancel Eurovision though, with excitement for the song contest amping up with each day.

• Walla News’s Amir Bohbot warns, though, that “the threat in the Gaza region will rise as Eurovision and Nakba day get closer.”
• The final won’t be until Saturday, but events are already getting underway Sunday. Channel 13 news reports that the song contest officially kicks off Sunday with an “orange carpet” ceremony at Habima Square in Tel Aviv “after a year of waiting and long months of preparations.”

7. Boycott boycotts: As with everything else in Israel, the event is being politicized, and targeted by boycott activists.

• Israel is “hoping the Eurovision Song Contest may help burnish its image despite boycott calls,” AFP reports. “Although it has waded into complicated geopolitical waters in the past, this year’s competition has become embroiled in the deep divisions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
• Israel, fighting back, is seemingly attempting to co-opt the BDS brand, launching boycotteurovision.net, which touts Israel as Beautiful, Diverse and Sensational (see what they did there?)
• Breaking the Silence, a left-wing group, meanwhile, unveils a billboard urging those visiting Israel for the song contest to also hop over to Hebron for a tour of the West Bank occupation.

העזו לחלום, על חופש: @ShovrimShtika מפרסמים שלט חוצות באיילון שקורא לתיירי האירוויזיון להצטרף לסיורים בחברון. עד כה נרשמו עשרות תיירים לסיורים שיתקיימו בכל יום בשבוע האירוויזיון. המנכ"ל @AGvaryahu מסר: האירוויזיון בישראל משמח ומרגש. אנחנו מזמינים את האורחים לראות את התמונה המלאה. pic.twitter.com/sUJp41o4ib

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— Yoav Unger (@YoavUnger) May 12, 2019

• “We’re happy and excited about Eurovision. We invite visitors to see the full picture,” BTS’s Avner Gvaryahu tells Army Radio.
• The Burger Ranch chain goes viral with its own sign, wishing all the participants luck in English, while in Hebrew writing “Just kidding, good luck just to Kobi [Marimi].”

Un cartell de Burger Ranch. En hebreu diu ‘És broma, bona sort només per Koby’ (el cantant d’Israel) ???? pic.twitter.com/PxoDmmq5SQ

— ACAI (@ACAI_cat) May 10, 2019

• He’ll need it. Walla notes that betting site World Eurovision is giving him a less than 1% chance of winning.

8. Joke’s on everyone: The Burger Ranch sign is not the only thing lost in translation. A video put out by the Kan broadcaster making fun of Israel while also selling it is derided as embarrassing, tone-deaf, racist and misogynistic.

???? This is the land of honey, honey!

Let Lucy and Elia take you in a musical journey throughout the most important parts of Israel. We promise you won't regret it! ???????????? pic.twitter.com/djQlNXPoDe

— KAN Eurovision Israel (@kaneurovision) May 10, 2019

• “The controversy mounted to the point where the broadcaster felt it necessary to tweet defensively that the video was ‘satire and was meant to deal with stereotypes about Jews and Israel’ through ‘self-deprecating humor,’” Haaretz’s Allison Kaplan-Sommer writes.
• In the Forward, i24 anchor Eylon Levy defends the video, while admitting that it’s never a good sign when you have to explain a joke.
• “If the face Israel wants to project is of a country desperate to be loved on other cultures’ terms, perpetually walking on eggshells to please judgmental foreigners—then it would be a failure. But if the message is that modern Israeli culture is has the self-confidence to bare itself to the world—in English, and without filters!—then it’s a roaring success.”