Yuli Edelstein seems to be leaving Likud for a slightly less antidemocratic party-in-formation, being dubbed "Likud B". We shouldn't forget, though, that, as Knesset speaker in 2020, he helped undermine the judiciary by refusing to obey a High Court order. www.timesofisrael.com/senior-likud...

Barghouti's son "said his father still supports a two-state solution and believes a Palestinian state should exist alongside Israel, AFP reported. He also said his father views the current Israeli government as undermining that outcome." www.haaretz.com/west-bank/20...

Ehud Barak issued this warning in 2011 and folks scoffed when nothing substantive changed. That's because we've become used to a reality in which 'stuff' happens fast - and have a hard time appreciating that historical change still moves slowly. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

The Israeli left has spent years ducking and weaving around its identity and so ended up contributing to its own delegitimization, writes Eitan Lehrer. "A Place for Us All", he argues, is the first party in years to escape that self-destructive dynamic and speak Leftish. www.zman.co.il/699375/

"[T]ransformative moments rarely begin with majorities. More often, they begin with a shift in what people believe is possible... before people build a different future, they must first be able to imagine one." Libby Lenkinski on the A Place for Us All party. forward.com/opinion/8352...

"Separatist politics," Rula Daood, A Place for Us All co-chair, correctly argues - with "Jewish parties ... and Arab parties" each with only symbolic representation of the other community - feeds the Israeli right since it "creates seclusion, hostility and fear". www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026...

Folks say Yair Golan's tepidness about 2 states is an outgrowth of Oct. 7. But even in 2019, his focus was "separation", as it is today, and he said: "I do not know if [2 states] will happen tomorrow, and I think it’s too early to discuss its exact format.” www.timesofisrael.com/after-joinin...

"Most of those warning of votes going down the tubes [admit] that they actually support what the new party stands for and would vote for it if they didn’t fear that their vote would be lost." blogs.timesofisrael.com/filling-the-...

Two very good journalists. Well done, @haaretzcom.bsky.social! www.haaretz.com/us-news/2026...

Shockingly, HaDemocratim's Elections Cmte has disqualified Mossi Raz + Avi Dabush (and 3 other candidates) from running for the Knesset slate slots guaranteed to Meretz in the Labor/Meretz merger deal. They'll be appealing to the party tribunal. www.haaretz.co.il/news/electio...

There's a very mixed bag of candidates, with widely varying priorities and emphases. Who the membership selects to realistic slots on the slate will be a strong indication of what this union 'will be when it grows up'. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

The Republican Party needs to apologize to Barack Obama. www.haaretz.com/middle-east-...

In Haaretz (Hebrew only RN), Avrum Burg says he'll vote for A Place for Us All. "We need to relinquish ego, unite movements and organizations...What's on offer is genuine Arab-Jewish partnership, whose central idea is equal citizenship for all those who live here." www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/202...

The Israel/South Africa cases aren't identical - no two cases ever are - but they are comparable, and Kallas' remarks, it should be noted, related to the militarily-occupied territory (not Israel proper), where Israel's "only democracy" defense falls flat. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

In its emphasis on Jewish-Arab equal partnership and belonging, A Place for Us All's message offers Israel a vital new direction. We hope the party will succeed in playing a constructive role in task #1 - bringing down Netanyahu and his extremist government. www.timesofisrael.com/standing-tog...

Best success to "A Place for Us All" in attempting to turn out voters who'd otherwise abstain. The party's message is crucial to Israel's future. But also wishing them the wisdom to drop out if they see they're coming up short in this first effort. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Netanyahu is now trying to convince the Israeli electorate that the war achieved exactly what he planned for it to achieve. His Feb. 28 statement declaring the war, with its repeated reference to regime change in Iran, suggests otherwise. www.gov.il/en/pages/sta...

Yair Golan, HaDemocratim chair, says Netanyahu should never should have launched the war on Iran. Had he said this when the war was getting started, he might now be better positioned to reap political rewards. Instead, it feels like Monday-morning QBing. www.kan.org.il/content/kan-...

Most interesting piece of data here is that Trump seems to have lost the trust of Israelis: 62% don't trust him to "look after Israel's interests in a deal with Iran", vs. only 21% who think he would; 17% don't know. www.mako.co.il/news-israel-...

"Understanding power should sharpen our moral analysis, not replace it." We mustn't lose sight of the power asymmetry, but we also have an "obligation to distinguish between governments and citizens, between armed actors and civilians." - Libby Lenkinski www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026...

The role of a left-Zionist party in Israel right now would be to say "it's the occupation, stupid!" (or some derivative thereof). But, alas, Meretz is no more and Yair Golan of HaDemocratim prefers not to mention the word "occupation". www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

Walter Ruby offers post-Zionism as a 3rd way. It can, he says, still work with left-Zionism, though they "think [...] differently" about history, post-Zionists believing that Zionism both represented liberation for Jews AND "had within it a fatal flaw". forward.com/opinion/8299...

Anniversary of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon/regime change effort was 6/6. These soldiers could be the parents, even grandparents, of today's soldiers. They sang: "Descend to us, airplane, Take us to Lebanon, We'll fight for Sharon, And return in a coffin” www.facebook.com/watch/?v=619...

Trump equating Israeli bombing of Beirut with Iranian missile fire on Israel ("Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don't need another one.") is rather significant.

The key question is whether "ask" means "request" or "ask" means "instruct". www.axios.com/2026/06/07/t...

"At this stage ... If fire from Iran or Hezbollah expands, officials are preparing for the possibility of closing Israeli airspace." www.ynetnews.com/article/r1ik...

I am significantly less likely to watch *anything* on CBS right now than I was at this time last year.

The anti-Netanyahu bloc loses a seat (67->66) if Eisenkot runs together with Bennett and Lapid. OTOH, the anti-Netanyahu bloc gains a seat (67->68) if Hadash, Ta'al, Balad, and Ra'am run together as The Joint List. www.kan.org.il/content/kan-...

"Macron's standing in Israel has deteriorated significantly over the past year following a series of moves ... includ[ing] France's recognition of a Palestinian state." Golan fears that legitimizing such moves would cost his party centrist voters. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Writing from Tel Aviv, Rachel Fink says Jewish Americans understandably wish to protect Israel from destruction. But "when it comes to the people who are actually destroying it," i.e. members of Netanyahu's gov't, "many are remarkably silent". forward.com/opinion/8289...

R' Elliot Cosgrove believes that Israel has become "a kind of secular religion for American Jews, sometimes supplanting Judaism itself." That seems very relevant when we consider the dustup over the Israel Parade. forward.com/opinion/7897...

Meretz is disappearing for the 3rd, possibly final, time. First, with the 2022 election results; then with the 2024 formation of HaDemocratim; now the finalization of the merger. What's left will be 2 Meretz-affiliated MKs, in the 6th and 8th spots. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

The Labor-Meretz "HaDemocratim" is making a strong effort to court Arab votes, writes journalist Bachar Zuabi. But the question remains, he notes, whether this is "repackaging" or about true political partnership. And, if the latter, what its "limits of change" are. www.mekomit.co.il/%D7%91%D7%96...

Israel called Lebanon's first phase of clearing Hezbollah’s weapons south of the Litani River “an encouraging beginning” but “far from sufficient.” But "All of that progress came to a stop on Feb. 28, when Israel and the United States attacked Iran." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/w...

"This indecision's bugging me". #Shabbatshalom www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-cj...

In 2014 for the Old JC, I watched the parade from the sidelines. My anthropological takeaway was "A Disunified Celebration", dominated by messianists. But the divisive role played by Israel in the Jewish-American community was peanuts then compared to now. jewishcurrents.org/disunified-c...

Israel's Jewish opposition leaders are worried that re-creating the Joint List will hurt chances of forming a gov't "without the Arabs". So maybe those party leaders need to find some courage and welcome a govt based on Jewish-Arab partnership, writes Mohammad Magadli. www.mako.co.il/news-israel-...

This seems related to a Shibley Telhami poll 3 years ago: If a two-state solution were indefinitely not possible, 73% of Americans (80% Democrats) would favor democracy over Israel's Jewishness vs. 17% (12%) vice versa. A two-state solution seems nowhere in sight. forward.com/news/827329/...

Senator @vanhollen.senate.gov deserves praise, not only for his column, but for managing to discuss lots of important issues and policy questions without invoking either "Zionism" or "AntiZionism". www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/o...

The term “as a Jewish state” should be 'decommissioned'. It's so ambiguous that it's been successfully exploited by those in Israel who want it to mean “Jews first” – sometimes “Jews only.” I wrote "Say Goodbye to 'the Jewish State'” 7(!) years ago: www.progressiveisrael.org/say-goodbye-...

In 2022, the pro-Bibi parties barely cleared 50% of the popular vote; yet they formed a stable coalition🫤. We sometimes forget the system can have as big a role as the players, parties themselves. Much obliged to Ilai Saltzman & Avraham Spraragen for digging into these issues tomorrow!

In 2022, the pro-Bibi parties barely cleared 50% of the popular vote; yet they formed a stable coalition🫤. We sometimes forget the system can have as big a role as the players, parties themselves. Much obliged to Ilai Saltzman & Avraham Spraragen for digging into these issues tomorrow!

Raviv Drucker does a lot of important work. But he makes a wrong turn here, arguing that, because Israeli rightwingers are largely racist, Arab citizens of Israel need to reduce their representation so as not to scare them back into Netanyahu's arms. www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026...

Netanyahu publicly chose a side in 2015. That decision is coming home to roost - for all of Israel. Only a distinct policy reversal by a new Israeli government (not a return to 'managing the conflict' and 'deluxe occupation') *might* undo this. www.timesofisrael.com/three-quarte...

“At best, we will get an agreement like Obama’s deal (the JCPOA)... [with] a period in which the Iranians don't advance toward a nuclear weapon and are under supervision, which is fine,” said Avner Vilan, an 'alum' of Israel’s intelligence establishment. www.jpost.com/israel-news/...

No wonder Netanyahu is fuming. If the report is accurate, none of his lauded war aims (nuclear issue, ballistic missiles, regime change) will have been achieved. Liga acheret, as they say. www.haaretz.com/middle-east-...

The ideas being offered by Yair Golan "belong to the 'conflict management' school of thought". Meanwhile, the party still has no official platform. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Vote thresholds, technical blocs, minority governments, constructive no-confidence, blocking blocs, disqualifications, party financing. B'Yachad, Yashar, Yesh Atid, etc. Deeply appreciative of Ilai Saltzman & Avraham Spraragen, who'll delve into the details of the upcoming Israeli election campaign.

Le Monde is reporting the passing of French-Israeli peace activist Ofer Bronchtein. Ofer was president/cofounder of Forum International pour la Paix and a Macron adviser, and I was privileged to organize a webinar with him last year to discuss the French/Saudi peace initiative. Yehi zichro baruch.

An understanding of what's gone wrong in Israel's politics might be tied to its psychological (ill)health. Recent reports are many. Sources in the IDF's mental health division say the army avoids publishing data, fearing the scale could damage public morale. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...