The Galilee, which has suffered severely from Hezbollah attacks, is being positioned for a tourism comeback only if hopes for a peaceful relationship between Israel and Lebanon become a reality. The column says that once the security situation eases, the swimming season on the shores of the Sea of Galilee will go into full swing, with swimmers, hikers and domestic and overseas tourists expected to return. For now, the region remains trapped in the logic of war and security management, with ordinary life put on hold until the apparatus decides conditions are safe enough for leisure.
Who Waits for Permission
In readiness, the Kinneret Association of Municipalities appointed Tiberias Mayor Yossi Nevea as its chairman and Yosef Ben-Yosef as its CEO. Nevea has served as Tiberias mayor since 2024 and also chairs the board of directors of the Mei Reket water corporation. He previously served as CEO of the Tiberias Municipality, CEO of the Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Institutions in Tiberias and director of Bezeq's northern region. Ben-Yosef served for the past three years as VP of human resources at the University of Haifa. His previous positions include CEO of the Yavne'el Local Council and commander of the Tiberias Fire and Rescue Authority branch.
That is the kind of leadership stack that tells you who gets to manage the recovery. The same names move through municipality, water corporation, religious institutions, telecom, local council, fire and rescue, and university administration. The region's future is being organized by people who already know how to work the machinery.
Ben-Yosef holds a master's degree in emergency management from the University of Haifa and a bachelor's degree in social sciences and humanities from the Open University. He is also a graduate of the Mandel Center for Leadership in the North, an Interior Ministry CEO training course and a Technion-Israel Institute of Technology director training course. The column says members of the association believe that once the security situation eases, the swimming season on the shores of the Sea of Galilee will go into full swing. The phrasing is neat, but the dependency is obvious: tourism waits on security, and security is not in the hands of the people who want to swim.
What Gets Celebrated
The column says that despite political and military uncertainties, May is a festive month that celebrates May Day, Lag Ba'omer, VE Day, Mother's Day, Jerusalem Day and Shavuot. It adds that Israel's Christian communities will mark Pentecost and Whit Monday, the Muslim community will celebrate Eid al-Adha, and certain members of the Asian community living in Israel will celebrate Buddha Day. The calendar is crowded with observances, but the social order underneath remains managed by institutions, officials and security conditions.
VE Day falls on this Friday and marks the 81st anniversary of the Allied Forces' victory in Europe and the end of the Second World War. The date is folded into the column's broader sweep of commemorations, a reminder that official memory and public ritual are always close companions of power.
Who Gets the Stage
Congregants at Jerusalem's Great Synagogue were in for a special treat on Friday for a Shabbat service slated to include a special liturgical recital by cantors Yechiel Nahari, Elchanan Mishmarti, Netanel Cohen and Moshe Dweck. The service was also set to include Sephardi Chief Rabbi David Yosef, who is the third member of his family to hold that position, and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, who is himself a singer and, during his army service, was a member of the IDF's rabbinical choir.
That lineup says plenty about who gets elevated in the public religious and civic sphere: hereditary religious authority, municipal power, and military-linked cultural prestige. The service is presented as a special treat, but it is also a display of hierarchy, with the synagogue, the city, and the army all folded into the same ceremonial frame.
On Tuesday, May 12, Rabbi David Sabato will deliver an address in Hebrew at the Hazvi Yisrael Synagogue on Hovevei Tzion Street in Jerusalem, sharing insights from his upcoming book, Prophetic Revolutions: The Great Visions of the Biblical Prophets. The topic of the talk is 'Enveloped in light - Isaiah's Jerusalem from the beginning till the end of days,' and the column says the timing is appropriate because Jerusalem figured frequently in Biblical prophecy.
The article is by Greer Fay Cashman and was published May 8, 2026 at 13:04. Its facts trace a familiar pattern: public life organized through institutions, security conditions deciding who gets to move and who gets to wait, and cultural and religious ceremony serving as the polished surface of a much more rigid order.