ISRAELI ELECTIONS: FROM ONE EXTREME TO ANOTHER

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES FROM A CHILDLESS CAT LADY (PER J. D. VANCE) WORKING AWAY IN ONE OF THE SUB-BASEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF SNARK

Wednesday 28 October 2026

Comment:

Yesterday, I listened to a podcast where the journalist was interviewing people who had flown back to Israel just to vote in the election. All the people interviewed had serious criticisms of Netanyahu, but when the interviewer asked who they were voting for they all said “Bibi.”

It made me think of an interview I heard a few months after October 7, when criticism of the devastating bombing of Gaza and failure to extract hostages was at its highest, but several of those interviewed stressed how they felt they still had to back Netanyahu. It was a matter of loyalty, they said, of solidarity. No matter what failures Netanyahu was guilty of, the country had to stand together. It appears that this sentiment still stands.

Except for a sense of national solidarity in the face of overwhelming international criticism what would cause a country of people to vote again for a man who had been facing criminal charges since before October 7, and who had been warned numerous times, by Middle Eastern heads of state that Hamas was planning an attack from Gaza? Who would vote again for a man who had been funneling money to Hamas for years. I don’t understand it. I just don’t understand it.

TUESDAY WENT FROM ONE EXTREME TO THE OTHER

Article:

“ISRAEL BRACES FOR UNCERTAINTY WITH EARLY ELECTION RESULTS POINTING TO DEADLOCK.

The Wall Street Jornal (10/28/26)

• The opposition evidently overestimated its strength, and Neyanyahu, considered somewhat of a genius at political maneuvering, is still in the lead even though his party does not have enough seats to win conclusively. He may, however, become the first tapped by the President to try to form a new government.

Article:

“FLAVIO BOLSONARO LANDS IN MIAMI AFTER BRAZIL ELECTION LOSS.

The Guardian (10/28/26).

• After losing Sunday’s election (Note: and being turned down by Trump after an appeal for help in overthrowing the election) Bolsonaro (son of Jair Bolsonaro) flew first to Argentina then Ecuador.

• He left Miami airport under police escort. Trump agreed to approve the family’s move to the US.

• In a statement that only Trump would make, he said of the Bolsonaro family: “Brazil is their second homeland. Their first homeland is licking the boots of the US, as they’ve become accustomed to doing.” (WTF)

• Federal police in Brazil are facing criticism for failing to prevent Flavio Bolsonaro him from leaving the country.

• Bolsonaro is under investigation in at least two criminal cases, “one of them examining suspicions that the senator was involved in a money-laundering scheme worth about 680 M (905m) involving betting companies.”

• Because of this case, Brazilian police asked the supreme court to prevent Flavio Bolsonaro from leaving the country.

• Eduardo Bolsonaro, Flavio’s brother, is in self-imposed exile in the US. A local Brazilian newspaper reported that the plan to decamp to the US had been worked out by Eduardo and planned for weeks.

Article:

‘THE ISRAELI ELECTION IS OVER. NOW COMES THE POLITICS.”

The Observer (10/28/26).

• “Every party in the country’s history has falen short of an out-right majority, and every Israeli government has been a coalition of compromisers.”

• Gadi Eisenkot, The former army chief who leads the centrist Yashar Party, campaigned on a pledge to replace Benjamin Netanyahu and heal a divided country. To do so, he will be forced either to form a minority government or to work with the elected representatives of Israel’s Arab citizens…. Netanyahu has plainly lost. The public asked for a change of government while withholding from the alternative camp the whole of its power, and a minority government may be the most faithful expression of that verdict.”

• “Arab citizens. Make up roughly 1/5 of Israel’s population, and their parties have almost always been kept outside of the circle of power. Their achievement in this election is remarkable and 1/5 of Israel’s democratic public will be hard to ignore.”

• “Netanyahu “has been in the dock since 2020 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, all of which he denies, in a trial that fueled his government’s efforts to overhaul the judiciary. Now that the public has tired of him and sent him home, he must decide whether to allow an orderly transfer of power or turn the loss of office into yet another national crisis. Alongside this stands the legal question, a plea bargain that would end his trial at a personal and political cost, or a fight to the verdict with the risk of conviction and imprisonment. In the end, the question is simple. Can Netanyahu imagine a life beyond the prime minister’s office and separate his own fate from the fate of the state?”

• The public badly wants change.