When searching for a location to film part of his first Star Wars film, George Lucas visited areas in Morocco and Tunisia that were once home to major Jewish communities. Not only that, writes Matt Austerklein, but there is a striking physical resemblance between the bearded desert hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi and Rabbi Raphael Encaoua (1848-1935), “the great sage of the Jewish community of Salé in northwest Morocco.” Austerklein adds:

George Lucas’s immersion in this North African setting made its impression on the unfolding Star Wars story; it is said that Lucas based the Jedi master Obi-Wan on this local rabbinic legend. Luke Skywalker’s own home planet of Tatooine was further adapted from the name of another town in southern Tunisia—Tétouan—which once had a flourishing Sephardi community. As with so many Jewish communities following the founding of the state Israel in 1948, Arab pogroms and the threat of further violence led to the emigration of almost the entire community.

Other scenes were filmed on the island of Djerba, which is home to North Africa’s last intact Jewish community. In the same post, Austerklein reflects on how Jewish music passed on memories of both liberation and exile:

It is no mistake that the iconic musical scene in the Torah, [the song at the splitting of the Red Sea in] in Exodus 15—is the song-child of . . . the birth of the Jewish people into freedom. Moreover, it forms the archetypal Jewish experience of going out, in which we carry our melodies, like matzah, on our backs.

This phenomenon resounds across Jewish history. Sephardi Jews, following their expulsions from Spain (1492) and Portugal (1497), brought their melodies and Spanish romances all over the world, uniting them in their exile as a transnational community.

While the current Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has never been friendly to Hamas, his government has objected strenuously to the Israeli campaign in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip. Haisam Hassanein explains why:

Cairo has long been playing a double game, holding Hamas terrorists near while simultaneously trying to appear helpful to the United States and Israel. Israel taking control of Rafah threatens Egypt’s ability to exploit the chaos in Gaza, both to generate profits for regime insiders and so Cairo can pose as an indispensable mediator and preserve access to U.S. money and arms.

Egyptian security officials have looked the other way while Hamas and other Palestinian militants dug tunnels on the Egyptian-Gaza border. That gave Cairo the ability to use the situation in Gaza as a tool for regional influence and to ensure Egypt’s role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would not be eclipsed by regional competitors such as Qatar and Turkey.

Some elements close to the Sisi regime have benefited from Hamas control over Gaza and the Rafah crossing. Media reports indicate an Egyptian company run by one of Sisi’s close allies is making hundreds of millions of dollars by taxing Gazans fleeing the current conflict.

Moreover, writes Judith Miller, the Gaza war has been a godsend to the entire Egyptian economy, which was in dire straits last fall. Since October 7, the International Monetary Fund has given the country a much-needed injection of cash, since the U.S. and other Western countries believe it is a necessary intermediary and stabilizing force. Cairo therefore sees the continuation of the war, rather than an Israeli victory, as most desirable. Hassanein concludes:

Adding to its financial incentive, the Sisi regime views the Rafah crossing as a crucial card in preserving Cairo’s regional standing. Holding it increases Egypt’s relevance to countries that want to send aid to the Palestinians and ensures Washington stays quiet about Egypt’s gross human-rights violations so it can maintain a stable flow of U.S. assistance and weaponry. . . . No serious effort to turn the page on Hamas will yield the desired results without cutting this umbilical cord between the Sisi regime and Hamas.