From the streets of New York to Netflix screens across the Middle East, the latest episode of ALL CAPS examines a question increasingly confronting Israel and Jewish communities abroad: Who is shaping the story, and who is listening?
Returning after Rosh Hashanah and ahead of Yom Kippur, the panel opens Episode 27 with a rapid-fire discussion of the moments that have caught their attention over the past week, including controversy surrounding New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Macklemore’s pro-Palestinian remarks on Ed Sheeran’s tour and the international success of the new season of Fauda.
All Caps ep. 27
(Video: Lior Sharon)
At the center of the episode is Ofir Akunis, Israel’s consul general in New York, who joins the panel to discuss what he sees as a changing climate for Israel and Jewish communities across the United States, and the growing challenge of representing Israel in America.
New York takes center stage
The show begins with footage from New York’s 9/11 commemoration showing Mamdani smiling briefly while attending the ceremony. Panelists criticize the moment as inappropriate given the setting and the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks.
The discussion also acknowledges another interpretation. One panelist notes that even some Mamdani critics have suggested the smile appears to come during a greeting and might not have been directed at the ceremony itself. The panel nevertheless argues that public officials carry an added responsibility to recognize the gravity of memorial events.
The discussion comes shortly after the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Earlier in September, Mamdani signed executive orders establishing Sept. 11 as an official New York City Day of Remembrance and Service and strengthening the city’s emergency preparedness.
For Akunis, however, the larger issue is not a single viral clip but what he describes as a broader deterioration in the climate surrounding Jews and Israel in New York.
“America is changing in front of us,” he tells the panel, arguing that many Jewish residents increasingly feel unsafe and that anti-Israel activism has become more visible in parts of the city and on university campuses.
Asked directly whether Jews in New York feel safe, Akunis answers: “They are not safe, unfortunately.” He also points to families leaving New York and other parts of North America for Israel, while noting that his diplomatic position prevents him from actively encouraging aliyah.
Akunis has made similar arguments publicly in recent weeks, repeatedly criticizing Mamdani’s approach to Israel. Mamdani and his supporters, meanwhile, have rejected accusations that his criticism of Israeli policy amounts to hostility toward Jews.
The conversation expands to universities, foreign funding and the influence of Qatar in American institutions. Akunis says successive Israeli governments, including governments in which he served, have failed over decades to adequately confront what he sees as Qatar’s growing influence.
But his message to Jewish communities is ultimately one of greater public engagement. “Raise your voices, speak, do something, arrange a rally,” he says. And when asked whether Israel itself needs to rethink the way it communicates abroad, Akunis emphasizes strength and unity, closing his interview with a repeated message: “Unity, unity, unity.”
Can Fauda reach audiences traditional advocacy cannot?
The episode also turns from politics to popular culture, with the panel examining the extraordinary international reach of Fauda Season 5. Episodes 7 and 8, the panel notes, depict events surrounding the October 7 massacre, prompting online reactions from international viewers who say they had not previously understood the scale or character of the attack.
Fauda Season 5
(Photo: Courtesy of Yes)
The panel argues that the response demonstrates something conventional advocacy often struggles to achieve: storytelling can reach audiences who might immediately reject a political argument. “Arguments and debates online close people’s minds. But stories, stories, they really open people,” one panelist says.
There is evidence of just how far the series is traveling. Netflix’s official rankings place Fauda Season 5 at No. 1 among television series in Lebanon for the week of Sept. 7-13. Season 1 also returns to the Lebanese Top 10 at No. 5. Netflix says the fifth season was fundamentally reshaped by October 7, which occurred while its creators were already working on the new installment.
For the ALL CAPS panel, that reach is significant precisely because Fauda is being watched well beyond Israeli and Jewish audiences, including across Arab and Muslim countries.
From Macklemore to NAZA
Culture remains a recurring theme throughout the episode. The panel discusses rapper Macklemore’s pro-Palestinian statements while opening for Ed Sheeran at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where he calls for a “free Palestine” and performs “Hind’s Hall,” a song supporting pro-Palestinian campus protests.
The performance triggers a backlash from some Jewish organizations and eventually leads to Macklemore being removed from the remaining U.S. dates of Sheeran’s tour. Sheeran later says the decision was made by promoters and venues rather than by him personally.
The episode later moves from music to cinema, focusing on NAZA, the Israeli documentary that has ignited a fierce debate since its appearance at the Venice Film Festival.
The film, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, is based on testimony from 24 Israeli soldiers and intelligence personnel alleging serious misconduct and systemic civilian harm during the Gaza war. The witnesses are anonymized, and Israeli officials have sharply disputed the film’s portrayal of IDF conduct. NAZA received the Special Jury Prize at Venice.
On ALL CAPS, Shurat HaDin president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner delivers a forceful challenge to the film and its creators, arguing that allegations of war crimes must be subjected to legal scrutiny rather than accepted on the strength of anonymous testimony and festival acclaim. “A prize at the Venice Film Festival is not evidence, applause is not testimony,” she says.
Darshan-Leitner says Shurat HaDin is seeking a coordinated legal and public response and calls for Israeli authorities to investigate whether laws were violated in the production of the film. She concludes with a demand to take the dispute “from the red carpet to the courtroom.”
A different message from the NBA
The show ends with another example of the way celebrities and athletes increasingly enter debates over Israel and Gaza.
The panel highlights a social media message attributed to Milwaukee Bucks player Kyle Kuzma, who previously played alongside Israeli NBA star Deni Avdija in Washington. In the post shown on the program, Kuzma argues that supporting Palestinian freedom should also mean calling for freedom from Hamas and Iranian-backed terrorism.
What stands out to the panel is not simply that Kuzma is speaking about the conflict, but that his framing does not fit neatly into the binary language that dominates much of the online debate.
For Episode 27, that becomes the thread connecting the entire show: whether the arena is City Hall, a university campus, a stadium stage, a Netflix drama or a Venice screening room, the fight over Israel is increasingly also a fight over narrative, and over which stories audiences are willing to hear.
Click here to watch the full episode and for more unfiltered conversations, exclusive interviews and analysis of the stories shaping Israel and the Jewish world.
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, founder and president of Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, one of Israel’s leading legal advocacy organizations dedicated to combating terrorism, antisemitism and anti-Israel lawfare through the courts and legal action around the world. To learn more about Shurat HaDin's efforts to fight terrorism and defend Israel through legal action, visit Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center.