{"id":11183,"date":"2026-09-17T09:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/nicht-kategorisiert\/with-fauda-netflix-is-doing-more-for-israel-than-any-other-media-outlet\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T09:51:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:51:56","slug":"with-fauda-netflix-is-doing-more-for-israel-than-any-other-media-outlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/news-en\/with-fauda-netflix-is-doing-more-for-israel-than-any-other-media-outlet\/","title":{"rendered":"With \u201cFauda,\u201d Netflix is doing more for Israel than any other media outlet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The fifth season of the Israeli series \u201cFauda\u201d is currently streaming on Netflix. The show follows the members of an Israeli Army commando unit working with the intelligence agency <\/strong>Shin Bet<\/strong> . Nothing contributes more to understanding the Jewish state and its people in the West and the Arab world than this series\u2014and especially the current season. By comparison, the uproar over the anti-Israel documentary \u201cNAZA\u201d is much ado about nothing. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

By Sacha Wigdorovits[i]<\/strong><\/sup><\/em><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n

The Israeli documentary \u201cNAZA\u201d illustrates that today\u2019s generation of filmmakers has also mastered the art of manipulation. Based on 24 anonymous interviews with (alleged?) soldiers and officers of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), the film shows how the Israeli army accepted civilian casualties in its fight against the terrorist organization Hamas during the Gaza War. <\/p>\n\n

The fact that these casualties resulted from Hamas operating in the densely populated area of Gaza and deliberately using the local population as human shields was of secondary importance to the filmmakers. The same was true for the audience at the Venice Film Festival, where \u201cNAZA\u201d\u2014made by two Israeli activists and funded by the left-leaning British newspaper *The Guardian*\u2014received the longest standing ovation in the festival\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n

However, this only proves that the largely left-wing European cultural scene frenetically applauds anything directed against the \u201ccolonial state\u201d of Israel and against the \u201cZionists\u201d (= Jews). For despite the subsequent widespread media coverage, there are so far no signs that \u201cNAZA\u201d will make much of a splash outside the screening room in Venice. It seems more as if, to quote William Shakespeare, much ado is being made about nothing.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cFauda\u201d is in the top ten in 11 Muslim countries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The situation is quite different for Season 5 of the Israeli series \u201cFauda,\u201d which has been streaming on Netflix\u2014the world\u2019s leading streaming platform with over 300 million subscribers\u2014since September 8. One week after its premiere, this series\u2014which centers on an Israeli counterterrorism unit\u2014is ranked in the top ten in 43 countries. These include many countries in the Muslim world, such as Lebanon (No. 1), Jordan and Bahrain (No. 2), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (No. 2\u20133), Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait (No. 3), Egypt (No. 3\u20134), Morocco (No. 5), Saudi Arabia (No. 8\u20139), and Turkey (No. 10).<\/p>\n\n

In Europe, \u201cFauda\u201d is currently performing best in Greece, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Cyprus (No. 2), followed by Poland and Croatia (No. 3), France (No. 4), as well as Switzerland, Germany, and Italy (Nos. 5\u20136).<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s no secret that the series \u201cFauda,\u201d broadcast in Hebrew and Arabic by the Israeli television network \u201cYes,\u201d has achieved a wide audience even in Muslim countries. In the past, even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has congratulated the series\u2019 creators\u2014journalist Avi Issacharoff and his co-writer Lior Raz (who himself formerly served in the IDF\u2019s \u201cDuvdevan\u201d special forces unit)\u2014on \u201cFauda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The Trauma of October 7 at the Center<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Nevertheless, it is remarkable that Season 5 actually breaks the previous records in the Muslim world. This is because it focuses on the massacre carried out by the terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, in which more than 1,200 people\u2014from toddlers to elderly women\u2014were murdered in southern Israel. This massacre is depicted in episodes 7 and 8 of the season, with an explicit note that viewers can skip these episodes without losing track of the main plot.<\/p>\n\n

This main storyline revolves around the period two years later, when Israel has begun hunting down the perpetrators and is starting to eliminate them. Unlike in previous seasons of \u201cFauda,\u201d the focus is not on Gaza or the West Bank, but on France. This is because many of the October 7 perpetrators have gone into hiding within France\u2019s large Muslim community to plan another major attack on the Jewish state\u2014an attack that the Israeli domestic intelligence service, Shin Bet, ultimately manages to prevent for the most part.<\/p>\n\n

The most important thing about Season 5 of \u201cFauda,\u201d however, is not this (partial) success. What matters most is that the collective trauma that has gripped Israel since October 7, 2023, is given a human face in \u201cFauda.\u201d This is particularly true of the main character, \u201cEli,\u201d whose wife and two children were murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7.<\/p>\n\n

Even in \u201cDoron,\u201d the impulsive and contradictory \u201chero\u201d of \u201cFauda,\u201d the deep emotional scars left by October 7 are evident: He witnesses more than 400 participants\u2014mostly teenagers\u2014at the Nova Festival being set on fire, raped, and shot in cold blood by Hamas, and has since suffered from post-traumatic, intermittent memory loss.<\/p>\n\n

Instead of the Islamist narrative, now the Israeli narrative<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Of course, it may be that certain viewers in Arab countries and in Muslim communities in Europe will cheer the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7\u2014which are depicted\u2014albeit with restraint\u2014in episodes 7 and 8. But many others will likely be deeply moved by what they see in \u201cFauda.\u201d Because for the first time, they are seeing and hearing the narrative of that massacre from the Israeli perspective and through the eyes of those directly affected by it.<\/p>\n\n

This is also important for non-Muslim civil society in the Western world. For in the years since the massacre in Israel, media coverage here has mostly focused on the suffering of the people in Gaza. The fact that this war was triggered by the largest pogrom in postwar history\u2014perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists\u2014has, however, been forgotten in many places. Or, as in the case of \u201cNAZA,\u201d it is deliberately ignored for political reasons.<\/p>\n\n

Season 5 of \u201cFauda\u201d now serves as a powerful reminder of this, showcasing the suffering that this brutal act of terrorism caused in Israel\u2014and continues to cause to this day. This is evident not only to the audience in a single movie theater in Venice, but also to the millions of Netflix subscribers around the world. <\/p>\n\n

With \u201cFauda,\u201d Netflix thus fosters greater empathy for the Israeli population, which remains traumatized by the events of October 7 to this day, and does more to promote understanding of the Jewish state than any other medium has been able to do in the past nearly three years.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

[i]<\/sup><\/a>[i]<\/sup>Sacha Wigdorovits is president of the Fokus Israel und Nahost association, which operates the website fokusisrael.ch. He studied history, German language and literature, and social psychology at the University of Zurich and has worked, among other things, as a U.S. correspondent for the SonntagsZeitung, served as editor-in-chief of BLICK, and co-founded the commuter newspaper 20minuten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fifth season of the Israeli series \u201cFauda\u201d is currently streaming on Netflix. The show follows the members of an Israeli Army commando unit working with the intelligence agency Shin Bet . Nothing contributes more to understanding the Jewish state and its people in the West and the Arab world than this series\u2014and especially the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_socialbar":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[823],"tags":[1110,626,6212,6218,6207,6213,1793,1799,6215,643,654,6220,6208,6216,6214,2236,6217,6209,6206,6210,1111,6205,826,6211,6219],"class_list":["post-11183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-7-oktober","tag-anti-semitism","tag-avi-issacharoff","tag-duvdevan","tag-fauda","tag-fauda-season-5","tag-focusisrael","tag-gaza-war","tag-guardian","tag-hamas-en","tag-israel-en","tag-israeli-society","tag-israeli-television","tag-israeli-tv-series","tag-lior-raz","tag-middle-east-2","tag-muslim-world","tag-naza","tag-netflix","tag-netflix-top-10","tag-sacha-wigdorovits","tag-shin-bet","tag-terrorism","tag-the-trauma-of-october-7","tag-venice-film-festival"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t