New York is facing a 3 billion dollar budget deficit, second only to California. But in the middle of the legislative session at the end of November, longtime Brooklyn assemblyman Dov Hikind led a group of American Jews to Israel to check out real estate in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. We headed up to Assemblyman Hikind’s district of Borough Park to find out how the trip went – and his favorite Christmas song.

Israeli actor and IDF reserve army engineer Ohad Knoller speaks on the state of Israel today with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israeli settlement building, and Israel’s place in the world.

Israeli actor and IDF reserve army engineer Ohad Knoller speaks on the state of Israel today with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israeli settlement building, and Israel’s place in the world.

Israeli actor and IDF reserve army engineer Ohad Knoller speaks on the state of Israel today with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israeli settlement building, and Israel’s place in the world.

Israeli actor and IDF reserve army engineer Ohad Knoller speaks on the state of Israel today with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israeli settlement building, and Israel’s place in the world.

Israeli actor and IDF reserve army engineer Ohad Knoller speaks on the state of Israel today with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israeli settlement building, and Israel’s place in the world.

Two years ago, we had the pleasure of meeting a talented film director named Michal Zilberman. She took us to what turned out to be a drag bar, but hey–it had atmosphere. And at some point the conversation turned to the 2nd Lebanon War, and what had happened with the IDF reservists.

We said, “What a great topic for a movie!”

She said, “But everyone already knows about this here.”

And we said, “No one knows about this in the U.S.”

That was how we started down the long and…interesting…path of our first production, “Reporting For Duty,” which will be excerpted this Friday, July 17, on “NOW” on PBS (check here for airtime).