Katz's announcement included a sad-fascinating framing: "today we liberated a new area of Jerusalem". The defense minister is representing an Israel, or at least a large segment of Israel, that seems stuck in a never-ending past. www.jpost.com/israel-news/...

TODAY! Still time to register for EITHER or BOTH sessions (note - sessions are ticketed): secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/... Session A, 11am ET. Speakers: -Tirza Leibowitz, Deputy Director, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel -Brian K. Barber, nonresident senior scholar - Middle East Policy Council

War, children It's just a shot away It's just a shot away... I tell you, love, sister It's just a kiss away #ShabbatShalom www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kl6...

40% of Israeli respondents planning to vote for an opposition party say if the Jewish opposition isn't able to form a gov't on its own, it should include an Arab-led party; 18% preferred a Jewish ultraorthodox party. Maybe the voters are a bit ahead of the pols? www.mako.co.il/news-israel-...

8.6% of those who voted for a Netanyahu bloc party in 2022 are undecided as to which bloc they'll now support; among those who didn't support a Netanyahu bloc party last time - 6.2%. That doesn't account, of course, for those who've already switched blocs. www.zman.co.il/686781/

Color me cynical, but the coalition collapse might be staged: Netanyahu gets to soothe (a tad) mainstream anger over ultraorthodox draft exemptions, hold elections before the triggering Oct. 7 anniversary; and the ultraorthodox get an issue to stir up the base. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

👉"'Look at the diversity here. All ethnic communities, all sectors – with kippas and without kippas – all of Israel'," Bennett said. "The former prime minister omitted mention of the country's Arab citizens, who make up more than 1/5 of the population." www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Co-authored by Yair Golan, this op-ed strains under its contradictory messages, e.g.: "recognizing that a two-state solution is unrealistic for the foreseeable future, even while continuing to strive to this end at all times". www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026...

Yossi Verter reviews both the form and content of Netanyahu's 60 Minutes interview: Tired, pale, and basically admitting that the "total victory" he's been boasting about - regarding both Hamas and Iran - hasn't been achieved. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

"Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says." "It is NOT!" "It is!" "Not at all!" "It is!" The Pythons would've had a field day with social media platforms! #ShabbatShalom www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp2z...

The HaDemocratim executive decided this week that a representative of the "Arab and Druze community" would be placed 11th or 12th on the party slate. That's too low: With the party generally polling at 8-11 seats, that might mean no representation at all. www.davar1.co.il/674912/

Not much good polling news out of Israel recently. But maybe there's a sliver here: Military power alone won't bring security, most Israelis realize. Israel Democracy Institute: Which of the following will better ensure the future of Israel’s security, short term and long term? (total sample; %)

Based on the reported details of the emerging deal, future historians might conclude that Trump launched the war in order to get back into the JCPOA. www.axios.com/2026/05/06/i...

2 separate headlines in Haaretz that seem very connected: * IDF Strikes in Beirut for First Time Since Israel-Lebanon Cease-fire * Security Source: Israel's Security Chiefs Say U.S.-Iran Deal 'Disaster for Israel'

Yair Golan called on the other Jewish opposition heads to publicly accept the Ra'am party's legitimacy. But that's not enough, @davidiss.bsky.social writes: "He should condition his participation in the next coalition on the inclusion of Arab parties willing to join." www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

After Oct. 7, ADL started counting (based on IHRA) "certain expressions of opposition to Zionism" as antisemitism, causing antisemitism stats to inflate. It'd be great if @nexusproject.bsky.social had access to the same data and we could compare its conclusions. www.haaretz.com/jewish/2026-...

Spikes in OCD, PTSD, insomnia, substance abuse, levels of stress hormones, with Israel now greatly exceeding the numbers in comparable countries. Not discussed here, but in need of examination, is the relationship btwn psychological distress and political orientation. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Interesting, underreported poll by Israel's Kan news. Critically, it found that 73% of those polled agreed with the statement that "leaving Hamas or Hezbollah armed presents a danger of another October 7-style massacre"; 10% disagreed. www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-ea...

Largely (but don't completely) agree with @jeremybenami.bsky.social's "Are you a Zionist": Agree that arguments over the label are often a distraction, that the issue is "more complex than a yes-or-no answer allows". jstreetdotorg.substack.com/p/are-you-a-... 1/

"... and yes, it involves discrimination". Revealing remarks, including re rules of engagement and administrative detention, made in a non-public forum, by IDF Central Command chief, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Chili Tropper is leaving Gantz. That's good news. Gantz's Blue & White was/is poised to be a vote-waster, and the sooner he suspends its campaign, the better. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Now the strikes were bloody and the strikes were black, as hard as they were long. In the dark of night, Joe would stay awake and write; In the morning he would raise them with a song Lyrics: Phil Ochs; performed by Billy Bragg #mayday #shabbatshalom www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYYT...

Israel continues to expand its de facto borders (Gaza, Lebanon, of course the West Bank) and is adding more and more non-citizens over whom it rules. "This," writes @dahliasc.bsky.social, constitutes "regime change" as it moves away from being "a potential democracy". www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

The "Board of Peace", however, has denied on Twitter that this is happening: "Any claim that the CMCC is closing is wrong." www.reuters.com/world/middle...

A lot of people figured that, once "centrist" Yair Lapid teamed up with pro-annexation Naftali Bennett, some of Lapid's voters would flow to Yair Golan's HaDemocratim. At least so far, per polls by a variety of pollsters, that hasn't panned out. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion...

"All the Zionist opposition parties, save the Democrats, headed by Yair Golan, oppose establishing a government that relies on Arab parties." But Golan should be brave, principled, do more: publicly call out these Opposition parties; it could also mark out his lane. www.haaretz.com/opinion/edit...

There's "no path to disarming Hamas that bypasses ... Israeli-Palestinian politics" and "no purely military or technocratic fix," write Celine Touboul, Dan Rothem, who note the need to address Palestinian statehood aspirations, despite Israeli opposition. blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-uncomfor...

Former Mossad head Tamir Pardo : “What I saw today is the existential threat to the State of Israel." A must see, as these former high level Israeli officials bear witness to the ongoing destruction and abuses of the Arab population in the Jordan Valley and issue an urgent clarion call:

Jabotinsky's ideology was an unfirm pairing of hypernationalism with liberalism, notes @dahliasc.bsky.social. "Likud has liberated itself from the paradox... Netanyahu severed [its] link to liberalism," but Naftali Bennett still wants to think the two are compatible. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

An electoral slate with the inclusive name, "Together", has made clear that it doesn't extend its inclusiveness to Arab-led parties and the 20+% minority they represent. themedialine.org/headlines/to...

Important to note that Yair Golan just recently pushed hard for a joint run with Lapid, who's now joining forces with one of Israel's most prominent proponents of annexation. What does that say about Golan politically? www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Everybody's just waiting to hear from the one Who can give them the answers And lead them back to that place in the warmth of the sun Where sweet childhood still dances Jackson Browne live #ShabbatShalom www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr-h...

New polling. 45% of Israelis say they'll vote "only for a party that opposes Netanyahu's continued tenure as prime minister" 31% said "only for a party that supports Netanyahu's continued tenure as prime minister." 24% don't know. www.mako.co.il/news-israel-...

The UN created the Blue Line in 2000 to give a "ballpark" confirmation of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon; but it deviated from the Mandate line and wasn't an agreed-upon border. Up to 17 sticking points, many small, remain. The INSS thinktank explains. www.inss.org.il/publication/...

The important distinction made in this column btwn 'existential threat' and 'real security threats' probably won't convince most Israelis. And that's because, as @dahliasc.bsky.social notes, Israel is "a country of people traumatized by centuries of persecution". www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Police cut the flag out of the kippa, saying it was illegal to display, but couldn't cite under what law. Sometimes it's these "small" things ("small" in the sense that no was killed, physically hurt) that paint such a bleak, dismal picture of Israel at 78. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

Israel tends to rank near the top of the annual World Happiness Report. @mushon.bsky.social explains that the subjective measure might "confuse flourishing with adaptation" and be "evidence of a society that has learned to normalize the unacceptable". www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026...

This should come as no surprise. American media outlets need to stop reporting Trump's commentary about the war as "news". www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-mo...

The US Senate takes power from urban voters and overweights rural populations. It is our most egregious gerrymander. Somehow these people never complain about that.

As Israel celebrates 78, the census numbers published by its Central Bureau of Statistics include all Jews living in areas under Israeli control, even those outside its sovereign borders, but exclude Palestinians living in the West Bank/Gaza. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

It's not that the Israeli opposition doesn't have or can't offer a security doctrine - it's that its leaders don't bother creating and advancing one; "as a result, the only vision remaining is the one laid out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: 'to live by the sword'."

The Disengagement wasn't a "pro-peace" move per se, but it was born out of the pro-peace push that started in the early 90s. Psychologically speaking, this is Netanyahu's government trying to put an end to that era's hope for a political settlement. www.haaretz.com/west-bank/20...

NY Times report frames this in two distinctly different ways: both "a remarkable concession from Hamas" and also "well short of the full disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza — a core demand by Israel and [Trump]". www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/w...

Give me love Give me love Give me peace on earth Jeff Lynne's rendering, live, of George Harrison's 1973 classic #ShabbatShalom www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_gO...

Wow. This is a humiliation to Netanyahu; it'll be interesting to see how he responds. Israel has always been guided by the mantra (if not the reality) that Israel won't be dictated to, even by its main ally. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

The ceasefire with Hezbollah is actually an electoral vulnerability for Bibi & bros, partly explaining Katz's bravado. The latest poll has Israelis opposing the ceasefire 51%-29%, though that's moderate compared to last week's 77% opposed (vs. 12% support). www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

Bad move by the NY Islanders professional hockey team. And Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky posed for a photo with the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association president holding a copy of the NY Post whose headline was "Jailed For Doing His Job." www.newsday.com/sports/hocke...

It's "better to jaw-jaw than to war-war," Winston Churchill once observed. But finding a way forward won't be easy: Israel's gov't seems to believe only in military force and Hezbollah remains a hostile armed militia resisting UN disarmament resolutions. www.cnbc.com/2026/04/16/t...

One would imagine the bulk of AIPAC- and DMFI-aligned Jewish American Democrats would be in the Conservative movement. And yet, even in that group, the advantage vs. disadvantage of an AIPAC endorsement is a wash. @jstreetdotorg.bsky.social / @gbaostrategies.com poll jstreet.org/wp-content/u...