Wednesday 28 July 2026

It is beautiful this morning. The wind is blowing and the Live Oak branches and the Spanish Moss are wafting across the luminous moon.

Oh Good Grief. Morning Joe is showcasing Joe Machin this morning. Great, after spending almost the entire show yesterday dissing the Democratic Party. Great. Now Joe is arguing that it’s hard to see if the Democrats have what it takes when you see all their advantages and the fact that some polls show them not way out in front of Trump.

I do not know why I start every morning of the week with this schizophrenic. I told Mike yesterday when he got up and trailed downstairs to join the kitties and I in the library that Joe Scarborough could make me madder than Trump. This is a campaign by the Republicans, the Never-Trumpers and the centrist Democrats to ruin what little momentum there is in the party and this momentum is coming from the left.

It reminds me so much of Bernie Sanders’ run. They all come together (Joy Reid and most of the MSNBC commentators) doing their darndest to ruin the left, anybody on the left. This new resurgence is driving them crazy. They are driving me crazy and they are going to lose this coming election for us.

I am not f…ing listening to Joe Machin. Sleazy, mercenary, traitorous Republican.

Article: Shtrasler, Nehemia (7/17/26) “Israel needs a ballot-box revolution to rid itself of Netanyahu.” Haaretz.

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES

· Sounds familiar?

· “Despite his obvious responsibility for the October 7th, 2023 debacle. Despite his failure in managing the war and despite the deaths. Of 1080 civilians. And 964 soldiers. Benjamin Netanyahu did the impossible and completed a four year term. Netanyahu did so not because he’s a political magician. But rather because he’s an unscrupulous crook ready to pay any price. He’s even willing to destroy his country and its democracy to remain in power.”

· As Shtr points out, the judiciary has no police. In fact, Netanyahu recently announced that he will not obey the Israeli High Court of Justice. This week he passed a law “weakening the attorney general’s authority.”

· This week leading up to a supposed election, he has made another “corrupt alliance” with the ultra-Orthodox giving them everything they wanted: 1) the Basic Law on Torah Study (making them superior to secular Jews, 2) the law halting arrests of draft dodgrs (against which the Hih Court issued a temporary injunction) and 3) the law torpedoing kashrut reform.” He also gave out handouts of several hundred millions of shekels to yeshiva students and Haredi education. He is, Shtrasler writes, “absolutely unfit to be prime minister.”

· The IDF chief of staff’s warning that the army will collapse from a shortage of soldiers didn’t seem to bother him. His sons have even changed their names to avoid the shame.

· Israelis consider their position as being a “vassal of the United States.” Israel has lost the support of the Democratic party and even some of the Republican party.

· There has been an increase in domestic violence. Emigration has increased. The very existence of Israel is threatened if doctors, engineers, mathematicians and high-tech professionals leave.

· He has turned Israel into a “weak pariah state”

· (Note: Remember that before October 7, hundreds of thousands of Israelis were in the streets protesting Netanyahu’s attempts to weaken the judicial system.

Article: Ravid, Barak (7/16/26) “Inside Bibi’s mystery Trump meeting.” Axios.

· “Our impression was that Bibi was trying to will a meeting into existence.” One official told Axois.

· The entire series of events where Netanyahu tried and failed to secure a meetingn with Trump demonstrates “Netanyahu’s increasingly precarious standing in Washington.”

Article: Solomon, Feliz (7/20/26) “The clock is now ticking on Netanyahu…” Wall Street Journal.

· The vote in Israel is scheduled for late October.

· Former army chief and political newcomer Gadi Eisenkot is Netanyahu’s biggest challenge. His centrist party, Yashar, is polling roughly equal with Likud.

(Note: So many times when I’m writing some notes about Netanyahu, I think about a student I had years ago who got an interview for a job at NPR as a newsperson. We were thrilled and I couldn’t wait until she finished up and phoned to tell me when she would start. It was a shocker. She phoned, but she was irate. When I finally got through all the anger, I found out that first of all, she had worn a halter top and low cut pants to the interview. She sent me a photo. But the real kicker was that she didn’t know how to pronounce Netanyahu. They told her that she would be expected to pronounce correctly all the names of important people in the news to have the job. SHE OBJECTED. She told them that Netanuahu was not part of her culture and she should not be expected to know how to pronounce his name or the names of other world leaders if they were not part of “her culture.” Oy vey. I remember sitting at my desk with my head in my hands. Twenty-five years later, Netanyahu is more in the news than ever.)

· Both are projected to win 20 seats, far short of the 61 needed to form a government. If neither party wins enough votes, Netanyahu will stay leading a caretaker government “keeping him in power even if he doesn’t win.”

· In order to try to form a coalition, Netanyahu has rushed through a slate of divisive laws designed to cater to the far right and the Ultra Orthodox parties.

· The new legislation, according to critics (Note: according to critics? It either does or it doesn’t) “The new legislation could curb. The power of the judiciary give the government greater influence over the media. And effectively exempt haredi men from mandatory military service..”

· Opinions of the Attorney General are currently binding, but a new law set to take effect in January allows the government to disregard some opinions of the AG.

· Another law enshrines Torah study as a “fundamental value under Israel’s Basic Laws. This bolsters the argument against military conscription of the ultra-Orthodox. A separate order seeks to stop the ability of the government to arrest ultra-Orthodox Haredi “who refuse to complete compulsory military service.”

· (Note: Joe Scarborough: “The Republicans will do whatever it takes to win. The Democrats will do whatever it takes to lose.”)

Article: Shipigel, Noa (7/19/26) The four defining failures of Netanyahu’s coalition…” Haaretz.

· “By the time Netanyahu’s government leaves office, Israel will no longer be the country it was.”

· This Knesset ended by “…passing a law that undermines the principle of equality and explicitly discriminates between one person’s blood and another’s.”

· During these final years, “…it steadily Emptied itself. Of power and stature. The opposition was silenced, the coalition became little more than a rubber stamp for the government, and the government pursued its agenda largely unchecked under a prime minister’s standing trial on criminal charges.”

· Haaretz outlines four defining characteristic of this last term. The Netanyahu government “fundamentally transformed Israel.”

· The 2023 plan to overhaul Israel’s judiciary included Abolishing the reasonable this standard. Introducing an override clause that would allow a majority of 61 MKS to overturn Supreme Court rulings. Politicizing the Judicial Appointments Committee and implementing other sweeping changes.”

· Defense Minister Yoav Gallant opposed the changes and was subsequently fired, only to be reinstated after public protests. The public protests grew larger, but the government took no heed.

· Then, ten months later came the October 7 massacre. “After a brief period of paralysis, during which civil society organizations stepped in to fill functions the state had abandoned, the coalition resumed pursuing the same agenda. Neither the war with Hezbollah nor the war with Iran slowed it down. Judicial overhaul bills returned to the Knesset one after another, all aimed at weakening the judiciary. Professional gatekeepers and the system of checks and balances. Along the way. Came efforts to trample press freedom. Weaken civil society organizations, target government critics, restrict freedom of expression, and strengthen anti-liberal values.”

· In the final days of the Knesset, they approved legislation allowing gender segregation in graduate-degree programs. Then, they passed a bill allowing greater control over public broadcasting.

· “Once there is an external enemy, anyone who opposes the government is portrayed as helping that enemy.”

Article: Hauser, Michael (7/19/26) “Netanyahu threatens to cancel Likud primary amid Iran escalation.” Haaretz.

· Netanyahu is trying to tighten control over his party’s Knesset slate. He is making efforts to cancel the primary and personally determine the placement of Knesset candidates on the Likud list.

Article: Lis, Jonathan (7/22/26) “Netanyahu rejects October 7‘treason’ theory, says security failures must be investigated. Haaretz.

· In a study conducted in late 2025, it was revealed that 56.7 percent of coalition voters believe that “some Israelis knew ahead of time about Hamas’ attack or enabled it.”

· “Nearly 50 percent of coalition voters believe that former Israeli security officials helped Hamas in order to overthrow Netanuahy, while slightly more than 20 percent reject this theory.

· “Among opposition voters 23% believe that Israelis enabled the attack. In the public as a whole, the rate of those believing in the treason from within theory nears 50%.”

qw