In Tractate Ta’anit, the Talmud discusses a variety of minor festivals, celebrating events in late- or post-biblical history, that had been removed from the calendar in the wake of the destruction of the Second Temple. Among them is “Nicanor’s Day,” which commemorated the defeat and death of the eponymous Seleucid general who menaced Jerusalem not long after the Maccabean Revolt. This talmudic discussion, which summarizes a narrative found in 2 Maccabees, appeared on Tuesday in the daily cycle of Talmud study known as daf yomi. Elliot Goldberg explains that behind the story of Nicanor is that of a disgruntled priest named Alcimus:

According to numerous critics, many of whom have positions at prestigious think tanks and publications, the normalization agreements the Jewish state reached with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain constituted an abandonment of the Palestinians. Peter Berkowitz argues that, to the contrary, the Abraham Accords can help to improve the lot of the Palestinians, and to reduce the intensity of their conflict with Israel: