Defamation

On the May 21, 2026, episode of Money & Markets (“Not Even a Little Bit”), discussing the unfortunate outcome of Congressman Thomas Massie’s primary, John Titus suggested that the loss was “a big win for Trump.” Catherine’s rejoinder: “I don’t think it’s a win for Donald Trump, I think it’s a win for AIPAC.” Thanks to the millions poured into the campaign coffers of Rep. Massie’s phantom opponent by AIPAC and other pro-Israel interest groups, the humble Kentucky primary became the most expensive in history.

The 2009 film Defamation by Israeli director Yoav Shamir is not about AIPAC, but the film does shed light on the inordinate influence wielded by the Israel lobby, both in Israel and the U.S. Defamation has been Solari Movie of the Week twice before, and Catherine frequently recommends it.

Reflecting that “antisemitism” is “a phrase that always seems to be in the air,” Shamir made Defamation to explore the influence of the antisemitism trope on Israeli and U.S. politics. He had also become curious about the term’s uses as a defamatory slur when he himself was labeled “antisemitic” (and called “the Israeli Mel Gibson”) for making the 2003 West Bank documentary Checkpoint, a cinema vérité film that captured “a saddening series of encounters between … humiliated Palestinians and the heavily armed, often very young [Israeli] soldiers” trapped in a situation in which “both sides are forced into positions that leave little room for human dignity.”

Among other films, Shamir has also made 5 Days (about events in Gaza in 2005), Flipping Out (about the after-effects of military service on ex-Israeli soldiers), and 10%: What Makes a Hero (about “the minority of people who will always do what is JUST regardless of circumstance”).

As we have noted before about Defamation, Shamir balances his serious topic “with extraordinary humor and grace”—and unfortunately, the topic has not yet gone out of date.

Watch Defamation HERE.