FUEL AMBITIONS PHIL MICKELSON BALLET IS BACK DAIMLER TESTS GOLF CHAMP JOINS MOTION AND EMOTIONS HYDROGEN TRUCK A GROWING CLUB RETURN TO LONDON STAGES PAGE 8 | BUSINESS PAGE 12 | SPORTS PAGE 14 | CULTURE .. INTERNATIONAL EDITION | TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2021 How Biden Making can seriously Israel’s bring peace mixed cities more Jewish LOD, ISRAEL Thomas L. Friedman Religious nationalists aim to bolster presence in areas with large Arab populations OPINION BY ISABEL KERSHNER Leon Trotsky once supposedly ob- served, “You may not be interested in Years before the mixed Arab-Jewish war, but war is interested in you.” To city of Lod erupted in mob violence, a President Biden I’d say today, “You demographic shift had begun to take may not be interested in Middle East root: Hundreds of young Jews who sup- peacemaking, but Middle East peace- port a religious, nationalist movement making is interested in you.” started to move into a mostly Arab Here’s why: All three key players in neighborhood with the express aim of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have strengthening the Israeli city’s Jewish been dealt some huge painful shocks identity. over the past year. They know, deep A similar change was playing out in down, that another round of fighting other mixed Arab-Jewish cities inside like the one we saw in the past two Israel, such as nearby Ramla and Acre weeks could unleash disastrous conse- in the north — part of a loosely orga- quences for each of them. Henry Kis- nized nationwide project known as To- singer forged the first real peace rah Nucleus. They say that their inten- breakthrough between Israelis and tion is to lift up poor and neglected areas Arabs after they were all reeling, vul- on the margins of society, particularly in nerable and in pain mixed cities, and to enrich Jewish life The Israel- as a result of the there. Its supporters have moved into Palestinian 1973 War. They each dozens of Israeli cities and towns. knew that something “Perhaps ours is a complex message,” conflict could had to change. DAN BALILTY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES said Avi Rokach, 43, chairman of the To- result in a Today, if you look Jewish residents of Ramat Eshkol, a mostly Arab neighborhood in the Israeli city Lod. Tensions have erupted amid the latest outbreak of warfare between Israelis and Palestinians. rah Nucleus association in Lod. “Lod is a peace deal and listen closely, Jewish city. It is our agenda and our reli- — if the you can sense a gious duty to look out for whoever lives Americans similar moment here, be they Jewish, Muslim or Hindu.” are willing shaping up in the But in reality, the newcomers’ pres- to broker it. wake of the latest ence, at times, created tensions, which Hamas-Israel war. built up for years and erupted amid the The Palestinian latest outbreak of warfare between Is- Authority in the The great cactus bust raelis and Palestinians. Arab and Jew- West Bank, led by Abu Mazen, was ish mobs attacked each other in the dealt a significant blow when Presi- a profound sadness to Mr. Cattabriga. Copiapoa cineras- worst violence within Israeli cities in dent Donald Trump last year managed A huge illegal collection “Here is an organism that has evolved cens, a cactus, in decades, raising fears of a civil war. For to get the United Arab Emirates, over millions of years to be able to sur- Pan de Azúcar many, the intensity of the animosity Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan to each is shining attention on vive in the harshest conditions you can National Park in came as a shock. normalize relations with Israel — global plant trafficking find on the planet, but that finishes its Chile’s Atacama For decades, hard-line Israeli nation- without waiting for a Palestinian- life in this way — just as an object to be Desert. Hundreds alists have sought to shift the demo- Israeli peace deal. The message to the BY RACHEL NUWER sold,” he said. of cactuses stolen graphics of the occupied West Bank by West Bank Palestinian leadership was As with the market for tiger bones, from Chile and building Jewish settlements, undermin- crystal clear: You are utterly messed Andrea Cattabriga has seen a lot of cac- ivory, pangolin scales and rhino horn, a discovered in a ing the prospect of a two-state solution up, corrupt and ineffectual, and we tuses where they didn’t belong. But he’d flourishing illegal global trade exists for raid in Italy last to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian Arab states are no longer going to let never seen anything like Operation Ata- plants. “Just about every plant you can year were sent conflict. With far less attention and fan- you have a veto over our relations with cama, a bust carried out last year in Ita- probably think of is trafficked in some home in April. fare, the Torah Nucleus movement set Israel. Have a nice life. ly. A cactus expert and president of the way,” said Eric Jumper, a special agent out with an ideological mission to alter And by the way, despite Israel’s Association for Biodiversity and Con- with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. the balance of Israeli cities and promote relentless pounding of Hamas in Gaza, servation, Mr. Cattabriga often helps the Cactuses and other succulents are its brand of Judaism inside the country. none of those four states renounced police identify the odd specimen seized among the most sought after, along with The first families who moved into their normalization with Israel. from tourists or intercepted in the mail. orchids and, increasingly, carnivorous Acre and Lod 25 years ago came from But Israel also got a shock: It was This time, however, Mr. Cattabriga species. West Bank settlements, and they aimed surprised that Hamas chose to fire was confronted by a stunning display: Trafficking can take a serious toll. to make mixed or predominantly Arab rockets at Jerusalem — in effect invit- more than 1,000 of some of the world’s Over 30 percent of the world’s nearly communities more Jewish. ing this war. It was surprised by some rarest cactuses, valued at over $1.2 mil- 1,500 cactus species are threatened with With West Bank settlement firmly en- of the long-range rockets that Hamas lion on the black market. extinction. Unscrupulous collection is trenched — about 450,000 Jews now live was able to build in its underground Almost all of the protected plants had the primary driver of that decline, af- among more than 2.6 million Palestin- factories and deploy and keep deploy- come from Chile, which does not legally fecting almost half of imperiled species. ians — Torah Nucleus supporters see Is- ing — despite heavy blows by the export them, and some were well over a Yet this realm of illegal trade is typically raeli cities as a new horizon. Israeli Air Force. century old. The operation — which oc- overlooked, a prime example of “plant Most of the world considers Jewish But most of all, Israel was stunned curred in February 2020, but is being blindness,” or the human tendency to GRETCHEN MATTISON/ALAMY settlements in the occupied territories a by this fact: Hamas, by its actions, was made public now because of the cac- broadly ignore this important branch on violation of international law, but this FRIEDMAN, PAGE 11 tuses’ recent return to Chile — was most the tree of life. studies plant trafficking. “A lot of plant the largest known example of cactuses was an attempt to create change within likely the biggest international cactus “The basic functioning of the planet species are not receiving the amount of stolen from the wild being repatriated Israel’s recognized boundaries. And The New York Times publishes opinion seizure in nearly three decades. It also would effectively grind to a halt without attention they would be if they had eyes for reintroduction into their native hab- many cast it as the new Zionism. from a wide range of perspectives in highlights how much money traffickers plants, but people care more about ani- and faces.” itat. “Religious Zionism hasn’t abandoned hopes of promoting constructive debate may be earning from the trade. mals,” said Jared Margulies, a geogra- Yet the size of Operation Atacama Experts hope the case can be a turn- the old mission of Judea and Samaria,” about consequential questions. Seeing the collected cactuses brought pher at the University of Alabama who could be a notable exception. It is also CACTUS, PAGE 2 ISRAEL, PAGE 5 Rare alignment of stars in Australia portedly the first time in the country’s Locally made movies box-office history, the top three films were all Australian. Two of those — “The Unprecedented times. emerge as hits, drawing Dry,” starring and produced by Bana, national appreciation and “High Ground,” with Simon Baker Unparalleledcoverage. — were receiving American releases BY ASHLEY SPENCER this month, while the Naomi Watts-led Subscribe to The NewYork Times “Penguin Bloom” premiered globally on International Edition. Audiences know Eric Bana as a Trojan Netflix in January. prince, Mossad agent, time-traveling “It does feel significant that the nytimes.com/subscribeinternational Chicago librarian, and an easily angered stories are native to Australia and that Berkeley scientist. But as his Hollywood they have Australian leads and that the career took off, rarely did they get to see characters are Australian,” Bana said. the Melbourne native play an Austral- It’s been decades since “The Adven- ian. tures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” By and large “there are just no Aus- and “Muriel’s Wedding” had a similar tralian parts in any international films,” joint domestic theatrical coup in 1994, Bana said in a video interview from his and even longer since “Crocodile home in Melbourne, adding, “When you Dundee” became the country’s biggest consider the impact that Australian ac- commercial smash, a record it still tors have had internationally over the holds.