Review: ‘Human Factor’ Gets Personal about Middle East Peace

President Bill Clinton, center, looks on as Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin, left, and PLO leader Yasser Arafat shake hands in the White House after signing the Mideast accord in Washington on Sept. 28, 1995. (AP)
President Bill Clinton, center, looks on as Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin, left, and PLO leader Yasser Arafat shake hands in the White House after signing the Mideast accord in Washington on Sept. 28, 1995. (AP)
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Review: ‘Human Factor’ Gets Personal about Middle East Peace

President Bill Clinton, center, looks on as Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin, left, and PLO leader Yasser Arafat shake hands in the White House after signing the Mideast accord in Washington on Sept. 28, 1995. (AP)
President Bill Clinton, center, looks on as Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin, left, and PLO leader Yasser Arafat shake hands in the White House after signing the Mideast accord in Washington on Sept. 28, 1995. (AP)

Ready for a documentary about three decades of agonizing fits and starts of the Middle East peace process, from the perspective of US negotiators? You’re probably thinking that doesn’t sound too enticing right about now.

But there’s a reason “The Human Factor,” by Israeli filmmaker Dror Moreh, escapes what would seem a likely fate of being interesting only to policy wonks and those with a direct stake in the issue, and it has something to do with the title, wrote The Associated Press. It’s a reference to a line from Dennis Ross, the best-known negotiator of the bunch.

“You can’t ignore the human factor,” he says at the beginning. “Someone who has a human touch treats someone else with respect. Someone who has a human touch doesn’t think they’re going to outsmart anybody.”

The film goes on to prove the point, threading a delicate line between giving us necessary facts and sounding like a dry history lesson. But the value is in the small, and yes, human details -- like the fact that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat took it upon himself to cut Ross’ chicken for him when they ate together. Or the incongruous sight of Arafat’s entourage watching “The Golden Girls” on TV.

The film is full of such humanizing touches, not just about Arafat but about Israeli leaders and American ones, too. Like Bill Clinton, depicted here as a man on a career-defining mission to achieve a peace deal. One small but stunning anecdote: As the Monica Lewinsky scandal is breaking, casting a cloud over Clinton’s presidency, Ross looks over at his boss’ notepad during a crucial meeting. Clinton is writing: “Focus on your job. Focus on your job.”

The film traces the long slog of peace efforts through archival footage and interviews with key negotiators: Ross, who played a huge role for more than a decade, working for presidents from Reagan to Obama; Martin Indyk, twice the US ambassador to Israel; and negotiators Gamal Helal, Aaron David Miller and Daniel Kurtzer.

Through these men, especially Ross, we get a close-up view of world leaders and how they behaved behind closed doors. There’s a fascinating description of a meal in the small dining room off the Oval Office between Clinton, Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Hussein of Jordan. Ross describes an offended Hussein admonishing Netanyahu as if he were a wayward schoolboy: “You don’t have the maturity to be a leader,” he tells him, according to Ross. “You have to grow up and become a leader.” There’s silence in the room.

At another point, Ross describes Clinton exclaiming about Netanyahu: “Who does he think the superpower is?”

This is, of course, after the death of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the hands of a Jewish extremist in 1995, as he pursued peace. The film effectively portrays the grudging respect that had slowly formed between Rabin and Arafat, from a moment when shaking hands was a painful gesture to a time when Arafat would casually drape his arm across Rabin’s back.

For this viewer, the most “human” factor of the film comes with the shock over Rabin’s death, especially from Ross himself. The negotiator recounts that he’d been taking one of his children home from a doctor’s visit when he was paged by Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

Once the news sunk, Ross’ wife had to explain to their children why Dad was crying. “They’d never seen me cry before,” he says. And, speaking to the camera today, the tears return. “It’s obviously still a moment I really can’t talk about,” he says.

Ross would, of course, stay on the job, trying to broker peace between Arafat and Netanyahu, or Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Clinton was determined, but that wasn’t enough. The high-stakes 2000 Camp David summit fails to produce an agreement, and we see Clinton in his last days in office in January 2001, in a call with Arafat, who calls him a “great man.”

“No, I’m not,” Ross quotes Clinton as saying. “I’m a failure.”

The film does not, of course, conclusively answer its primary question: What went wrong?

But there’s a hint. It is Miller who raises most directly one of the most serious issues: Was the United States ever really equipped to be an “honest broker”? Was real peace ever possible when the Americans were essentially, as Miller puts it in retrospect, acting as Israel’s lawyers?

“I don’t think I am free from prejudgments,” he says. And he asks: “Did we have Palestinian lawyers?”



‘Superman’ Aims to Save Flagging Film Franchise, Not Just Humanity

 David Corenswet, left, and Rachel Brosnahan participate in the ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Building on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)
David Corenswet, left, and Rachel Brosnahan participate in the ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Building on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)
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‘Superman’ Aims to Save Flagging Film Franchise, Not Just Humanity

 David Corenswet, left, and Rachel Brosnahan participate in the ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Building on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)
David Corenswet, left, and Rachel Brosnahan participate in the ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Building on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)

Superman is often called upon to save the world from evildoers, but in his latest big-screen incarnation, he's also being asked to swoop in and save a franchise.

James Gunn's "Superman," which opened in theaters worldwide this week, is a reboot aimed at relaunching the so-called DC Universe of comic book-based superhero movies, which also features Wonder Woman and Batman.

The celluloid efforts of Warner Bros. and DC Studios have been widely eclipsed by Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe -- the world of Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther and the Fantastic Four, who are getting their own reboot later this month.

"Warner Bros. has invested a lot of energy and money in trying to refocus and renew DC Studios, and this is going to be the big release from that," analyst David A. Gross from Franchise Entertainment Research told AFP.

The heavy task falls on the shoulders of Gunn, the writer-director who won praise from fans of the genre with Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy.

The movie's rollout has already encountered several headwinds, including a right-wing backlash to Gunn's comments on Superman's role as an immigrant, and skepticism from fans of the previous Superman films helmed by director Zack Snyder.

Gunn has shrugged off the high stakes surrounding the movie's box office success.

"Is there something riding on it? Yeah, but it's not as big as people make it out to be," he told GQ Magazine.

"They hear these numbers that the movie's only going to be successful if it makes $700 million or something and it's just complete and utter nonsense."

The hype around the movie is real -- the White House even superimposed President Donald Trump onto one of the movie's official posters with the caption "THE SYMBOL OF HOPE. TRUTH. JUSTICE. THE AMERICAN WAY. SUPERMAN TRUMP."

- 'A diminished genre' -

Warner Bros. hopes the DC Universe can catch up with Marvel which -- after years of huge successes with the "Avengers" movies -- has seen more muted box office returns with the recent "Thunderbolts" and "Captain America: Brave New World."

Gross explained that superhero films hit a peak right before the Covid-19 pandemic, with box office earnings and audience enthusiasm waning ever since that time.

"It's really a diminished genre," Gross said.

However, the analyst said early buzz for "Superman" was "really good."

The film stars up-and-comer David Corenswet as the new Superman/Clark Kent, with "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" star Rachel Brosnahan playing love interest Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as arch-villain Lex Luthor.

The story follows the Man of Steel coming to terms with his alien identity as he finds his place in the human world.

The supporting cast boasts a selection of other DC Comics characters, from the peacekeeping Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) -- who is scheduled to reprise the role in upcoming TV series "Lanterns" -- to the mace-wielding Hawkgirl.

Gross noted that July "is the top moviegoing month of the year," leading tracking estimates to forecast a total of more than $100 million for the film's opening weekend in North America.

- 'The story of America' -

DC Studios however must shake off a reputation for producing mediocre films that did not score well with audiences.

The last round of "DC Extended Universe" films included the well-liked "Wonder Woman" (2017) starring Gal Gadot -- but also box office flops like "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" (2023) and the under-performing "Aquaman" sequel with Jason Momoa.

"The success was mixed, and they were spending a lot of money on some of the new spinoff characters who were not working particularly well," Gross said, pointing at 2021's "The Suicide Squad" -- directed by Gunn -- as an example.

The last films featuring Superman, starring Henry Cavill and directed by Snyder, were relatively successful for Warner Bros. until "Justice League" -- DC's effort at recreating the "Avengers" vibe -- which lost millions of dollars.

Fans of Snyder have stirred up negative buzz for the new "Superman" movie, voicing hope online that the reboot fails out of a sense of loyalty to the previous films.

The backlash was further widened after right-wing pundits groaned about Superman's specific characterization as an immigrant, lamenting the superhero had become "woke."

Gunn addressed the criticism, telling The Times newspaper that "Superman is the story of America," with the character reflecting those who "came from other places and populated the country."

"I'm telling a story about a guy who is uniquely good, and that feels needed now," he added.

Ultimately, time will soon tell if Corenswet's chiseled looks and Gunn's directorial vision will be the superpowers that DC Studios need -- or prove to be its Kryptonite.