Bari’s Picks of the Week: Americans Get It Done

There was one huge story driving the news this week: the deal between Israel and Hamas. It’s no doubt a fragile peace, and Hamas has already not kept up its end of the bargain, sending home only some of the remains of murdered Israeli hostages. Hamas has also resumed its terror campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, carrying out mass, public executions as it looks to reassert its authority. Check out Tanya Lukyanova’s fantastic coverage of what’s going on in Gaza here and here.

We’ll have more on the peace deal below, including Niall Ferguson on how a handful of New York real estate developers succeeded where professional diplomats had long failed. But we have a number of other pieces I want to highlight as well, such as the latest from our America at 250 series, a remembrance of Diane Keaton from her close friend and longtime collaborator Woody Allen, and more.

Let’s jump right in, shall we?

Inside the Gaza Deal

We’ll start with Niall’s piece, in which he admits that he may have misjudged the diplomatic acumen of Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s friend and fellow real estate mogul. Together with the president and Jared Kushner—Trump’s son-in-law and yet another product of the New York real estate world—the three got the job done amid much skepticism.

“Kushner and Witkoff are accustomed to taking big risks on low-probability deals with potentially high payoffs—and if they fail, that’s just business,” Niall writes. “Instead of sitting Israelis and Arabs in a room and expecting them to negotiate an outcome, their fundamental approach has been to exert leverage through other players in the region.” Read his whole piece on how the deal happened below.

Meanwhile, Matthew Continetti took another look at how Trump’s approach differed from his predecessors, and why Trump’s victory lap this week was well deserved.

“Perhaps it was inevitable that Trump’s instinct for challenging conventional wisdom found its greatest expression in a region encrusted with liberal guilt, diplomatic pieties, and multilateral claptrap,” Matthew writes. “He won’t succumb to moral equivalence between Israel and its enemies. He won’t pretend that diplomacy without the credible threat of force is useful. ‘I love Israel,’ Trump told the Knesset. ‘I’m with you all the way.’ ” Read the whole piece here.

And our Eli Lake argued that the peace deal shows that not only did Trump have the right approach, but so did Israel, which pursued Hamas relentlessly for two years despite increasing international isolation and claims of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Now that the war might finally be over, Lake examines the various charges leveled against the Jewish state in its defensive war and finds the evidence simply doesn’t back up Israel’s critics.

“The nation accused of wanting to wipe out—in whole or in part—the Palestinian population of Gaza was willing to end the war in exchange for 20 people,” he writes. “And when the fighting stopped and the hostages came home, the jubilation in Israel was palpable.” Read it all here.

And stay tuned this weekend for the exclusive interview with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff on 60 Minutes, which airs Sunday night at 7 p.m. on CBS.

A Great American

When we think of American innovation, many of our minds turn to products like the personal computer, the iPhone, or the Model T. But much of our world revolves around the humble shipping container, which allows for global trade on the scale we’ve become accustomed to.

You could be forgiven for thinking the shipping container has always been around, and to some extent it has, in one way or another. But it took a trucker from North Carolina, Malcolm McLean, to figure out how big steel boxes loaded with goods could revolutionize shipping.

“By making it possible to transfer freight almost seamlessly between trucks, trains, ships, and barges, the container revolutionized cargo transportation,” Marc Levinson writes as part of our America at 250 series. “Starting in the late 1960s, when it first came into international use, this simple steel box paved the way for explosive growth in foreign trade as goods could be shipped around the globe at remarkably little cost.”

It’s a remarkable story, and one you should read in full.

And while you’re at it, check out this great piece from Noah Smith on the dangers of America and Europe indulging in an anti-tech backlash. People are increasingly skeptical of everything from AI to vaccines to green energy, but Smith convincingly argues this is no time for us to turn into Luddites: “Take away vaccines, add heat waves without allowing AC, and starve countries of energy, and Westerners will quickly find out why being a medieval peasant was not actually a good life at all.” Read it here.

Diane Keaton, RIP

We lost a true American legend last week in Diane Keaton, the inimitable star of everything from the Godfather films to Reds, Something’s Gotta Give, and, of course, Annie Hall. So who better to eulogize her than Woody Allen, the legendary filmmaker who knew her as well as anybody?

Allen’s piece is a marvelous waltz down memory lane, from their first meeting—he fell in love instantly—through their many films together. Their romance didn’t pan out in the end, but they always stayed close.

“As time went on I made movies for an audience of one, Diane Keaton,” Allen writes. “I never read a single review of my work and cared only what Keaton had to say about it. If she liked it, I counted the film as an artistic success. If she was less than enthusiastic, I tried to use her criticism to reedit and come away with something she felt better about.”

It’s a must-read and deeply intimate look at one of the great artistic pairings of our time and a friendship for the ages. Do yourself a favor and give it a read.

Before we go, I want to make sure you saw my Honestly interview with María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. She’s one of the world’s great heroes—someone who has risked quite literally everything to bring peace and democracy back to her country. Check it out here.

And I need to give a shout-out to this marvelous excerpt from Victor M. Sweeney’s new book. Sweeney is a mortician in a small Minnesota town, and while that might sound a tad bleak, it’s anything but for Sweeney. He sees his job as a privilege, helping people navigate the deaths of their loved ones and bringing a kind of peace to the brokenhearted. It’s a great piece.

That’s it for me this week. But stay tuned for the very exciting launch of The Weekend Press, where you’ll find must-read stories from Suzy Weiss, Kara Kennedy, and much more, in addition to fantastic installments of Things Worth Remembering and Ancient Wisdom. Are you excited? Because I sure am.

See you next week.