The Wrap: Israel on the Brink. Of Elections and...Civil War?
Moral corruption of Israel's political leadership leads to destruction from within.
Editor’s Note: I have been down and out with a really intense and disruptive episode of sciatica for three weeks now. For those of you who have had the experience (40% of adults do) then you understand. For those of you who have been spared to now – be grateful.
I seem to be turning a corner but am reluctant to say so with certainty. It’s a slow road back…but if things go well, then you should receive two podcasts in the coming week. I have not been nearly as productive as usual. Thanks for your understanding.
Lindsey Graham z”l
Senator Lindsay Graham’s suddden passing last Saturday night was shocking and distressing to so many.
He was among the last of an increasingly rare type of public figure; serious, thoughtful principled, courageous. He was politically brilliant and understood how to navigate and manage power. He also knew history, the best predictor for the future.
As with anyone who has been kicking around in political life for decades, I had the good fortune of being in the room with Senator Graham on several occasions. His gentlemanly demeanor, wickedly sharp humor, and moral clarity have been remarked upon by many who knew him well.
In recent days, we have all seen so many clips and heard stories about what a mensch Senataor Graham was. I thought I’d share with you a beautiful remembrance from Channel 12’s man in Washington, Barak Ravid.
Ravid is a superb journalist who has established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the toughest shark pool anywhere - the press corps covering the White House. He seems to speak constantly with President Trump. (This must drive Netanyahu crazy. Bibi regards Ravid as being the quintessential Tel Aviv leftist, elitist, deep state kind of guy.) Ravid also had a very close relationship with Senator Graham. He shared his thoughts about Lindsey Graham shortly after his passing:
Senator Lindsey Graham z”l .
And now – to the Wrap…..focusing, as we do, on important issues going down in Israel that enhance your understanding of this long, drawn out moment of crisis.
All English subtitles were done on Wednesday night by our editorial assistant and social media maven, Maya Naftolin.
Shin Bet – Loyal to – Whom?
“I took this job because of my loyalty to Bibi.”
For some reason, David Zini – the head of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service– felt compelled to make that comment early last week.
Zini was appointed by Prime Minister Netanyahu in October 2025 to run the “Shabak” (as Israelis call it – they have a nickname for everything). His remark about loyalty ignited a national uproar. It is written – in the law creating and constituting the Shabak – that the loyalty of all service members is first and foremost to the State of Israel. One would hardly think that merits stating. The separation of political and state interests is as basic as it gets in a democracy.
In the wake of the public blowback to Zini’s comment, a remarkable (and unprecedented) meeting was convened. President Isaac Herzog invited Zini and Israeli Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg, to meet in his residence in Jerusalem. Sohlberg also serves as the Chair of the Elections Committee, which is tasked by law to ensure that free and fair elections are held.
Zini stated (for the cameras) that he understands his legal duty and loyalties. Beneath the surface politeness lurked something very dark. The link below shows edited excerpts of the at the President’s residence. That the President thought it necessary to host this highly unusual meeting is disturbing. The clip below is subtitled in English. It opens with President Herzog’s very pointed remark: “Elections are not civil war. Elections are a very important, meaningful, social. democratic political process in a nation’s life.”
Herzog speaks first. then Sohlberg. Zini is last.
(Excuse the odd spelling slip. We know. “Manor” should be “manner.” And one or two others. I did not want to delay getting this out any longer.)
As you can see, President Herzog took the opportunity to reassure the Israeli public that no off-side partisan or political interests will be invoked to prevent a free and fair election from taking place. Concern regarding the possbility of Netanyahu attempting to subvert the election in order to preserve his hold on power has been discussed quite openly in recent weeks. Among the speculative scenarios? That if the polls were not favoring the extremist Netanyahu bloc - he might engineer a crisis. War, perhaps. The threat of war. And that his loyal deputy - David Zini - would back up such a move by saying that in light of the volatility in the country and region, elections must be postponed. Security concerns.
The reaction from the Israeli media and public to Zini’s loyalty pledge to the Prime Minister set off a thermonuclear chain reaction throughout society. And the hypothetical scenario I raise above is not considered to be exaggerated. Given what this government has been doing throughout its tenure, but particularly in the last few weeks, general concern regarding the health of Israeli democracy is intense.
Last Thursday’s meeting presented an opportunity for this troika – Zini, Sohlberg and Herzog – to state what should be taken for granted in a democracy: that collectively they are committed to ensuring the integrity of the election.
In this government, denigrating the judiciary has become normalized. The Minister of Justice and Speaker of the Knesset have refused (pretty much throughout the life of this coalition) to acknowledge the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court – even at ceremonial functions. The process by which he was appointed is seen by this government to be rigged and skewed to favoring leftist elitists. Had their judicial overhaul legislation been pushed through in 2023, he would not have assumed the position.
So, rather than graciously managing the interruption to their radical judicial “reform” plans as a result of October 7, political leadership decided to refuse to interact with the Chief Justice and his subordinates. At all.
Yaakov Katz (a regular guest on our podcast) wrote a superb column last Friday about this issue. He cautions that a democracy can very quickly turn into something else….in plain view; the culmination of many small steps along a continuum. You can read Yaakov’s column at the link below:
Israel might be headed towards its own January 6 moment - opinion
This is far from trivial. Ever since taking office in January 2023, this coalition has done everything it possibly could to undermine the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and the attorney-general.
Sidebar: Justice Sohlberg’s home was vandalized in early June by a mob of ultra-orthodox men who were protesting recent arrests of haredi draft dodgers. The thugs smashed windows, caused damage to the garden, entry way, a car and attempted to break into the house while Sohlberg was inside with his family. This is civil war type conduct.
This. Is Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel.
And a late-breaking relevant development: On Wednesday night Israeli media reported that Minister of Transporation, Miri Regev (hardcore Bibi loyalist) is working with staff to possibly limit increased air traffic into the country in the days leading up to the election. All Israelis - including the 1-million citizens living abroad - are super motivated to cast their vote this time. (Voting must be done in person in Israel, with limited exceptions made for diplomats and some military personnel.)
Election 2026 is seen to be the most important ever in this country. More so than 1948. And the fear among Likud is that most of those who would fly from abroad to vote will not support the extremist bloc.
This is how gutter things in Israel have become.
Haredim and the Core National Value of Israel: Service
Israel has been built on an ethos of self-sacrifice in the interest of the greater good.
We serve. We show up. And we leave no one behind.
Without the IDF, the country would never have stood a chance. And until now, resentment and anger regarding the ultra-orthodox communities’ normalization of draft dodging (since 1948) has been tolerated. Barely.
I have written often about the increasingly severe shortage of soldiers since October 7, and the ultra-orthodox insistence that haredi young men of draft age be excluded from this sacred duty.
The haredi parties supported this coalition on several conditions, all cementing their autonomous and entitled position in Israel. Their foremost demand for supporting Netanyahu’s government was that religious study be enshrined in Basic Law (the country’s equivalent of a soft, draft constitution) as being a paramount national value, equal in importance to IDF service.
In the fraught national conversation on this topic, haredim refer to the law they have been determined to pass since pledging support to this coalition as the Torah Foundation law. Everyone else calls it the “Shirker’s/Draft Dodger’s” Law.
The passing of a law enshrining the idea that the study of Jewish religious texts, full time, is a foundational value of Israel is all the haredim care about. Because from that pledge, they believe, all else flows; exemption from army service and state financial support for the entitlements demanded by their constituents. Those of us who work, pay taxes and serve should, the haredim demand, pay for everything: a separate haredi education system, housing, utilities, gold plated universal medical and dental care, nurseries and child care, and more.
This issue came to a head last week.
Netanyahu and his coalition have been focused on a frenzied effort to jam a slew of laws through the Knesset before it dissolves in a few days, on July 17. Among the last minute legislation prioritized in this blitz is the Shirker’s Law, mentioned above.
This matter dominated the agenda of the Knesset House Committee last week. Public hearings were attended by United Torah Judaism faction leader, Yitzhak Goldknopf, among other MKs. It was a week like no other. Day after day, combat veterans suffering from PTSD, the mother of a murdered hostage, loved ones of those affected, blasted the Committee with desperate rage.
IDF veterans with severe PTSD have been overlooked by this government (and those that preceded it). They are allocated dreadfully inadequate psychological and life support. A handful appeared before the Committee last week, day after day. Their raw testimony left the country deeply distressed.
“We’re begging you,” said one burly man, sobbing, addressing Goldknopf directly. “We respect Torah learning. All our families came here with the same faith. But we want what we deserve.”
Another: “You are playing politics with our lives. Our blood. Six years you’ve been telling us that legislation is coming. Six years. What have you been doing?”
Another. “We are alive but dead inside.”
Another. “Where have you been for the last three years? What have you done? We gave of ourselves, our friends died, to protect all of us. “
Goldknopf at one point (to the veterans): “Tell me what you want. Write the law. Bring it to. Me. I will support everything you want. To my last drop of blood.”
One man, who literally got in the personal space of Goldknopf, his face mere inches from the portly old man (who has a weakness for Louis Vuitton scarves), pounded the table with his fist.
“Why are your exemptions more important than our mental health? We are not against Torah. It is in the Torah that we must fight to protect our people. On what basis do you declare that you are better than us? Superior? You have done nothing – for three years. Another soldier will die tonight. And you sit there and do nothing.”
Below, a collage of various heart-rending scenes from the Committee. Watch how they target Goldknopf. The soldiers “beg” Goldknopf. To understand that their souls are suffering. They were there. Everywhere. In the worst of it.
This Committee was tasked with ensuring that the Shirker’s Law be passed before the Knesset disperses in five days. That was done on Monday, July 13.
In its compromise form, the law states simply that Torah learning is a national value. It does not explicitly elevate religious study to be on a par with military service, as the haredim insisted on until the bitter end.
This is just one of many reasons that the haredim are so widely despised in Israel today. And if the majority of Israelis have their way, there will be no haredi involvement in any coalition going forward, unless they agree to serve in the IDF.
In the clip below, an IDF veteran shouts in Goldknopf’s face. He points to Einav Danino, the mother of murdered hostage, Ori Danino. He was a career IDF officer who was also held hostage by Hamas, before being murdered in a tunnel on August 30, 2024. “Do you know who that is? Her son was murdered in captivity. He was religious.”
Things were very heated in the Committee room. And Goldknopf just sat there. Saying little. (There are no subtitles. You don’t need them. I provided examples above as to what is being said. The clip is here so you can see the fury directed at the haredi lawmakers. Note that the security staff to not step in to hold them back. That tells you a lot.)
The vets are demanding that they be the priority of the nation. Them and serving soldiers. Too many have been wounded, and suffer from PTSD. And there is nowhere near adequate funding allocated to physical and mental health support for them. They let Goldknopf have it.
Among the most gut-wrenching moments before this committee was the appearance of Einav Danino. When she began to speak faintly, Danino seemed so vulnerable. MKs in the room were talking to one another and checking their phones. An IDF veteran sitting beside her exploded. (The same gentleman shown in the short clip, above.)
He hammered the MKs for several minutes. They were shocked into silence, the Committee members.
Einav Danino began again, quietly but not timid. She rebuked the Committee members for their shameful treatment of psychologically wounded veterans who had risked their lives for the country. To protect all Israelis - including the haredim. Who risked their lives to bring her son home. In a body bag.
“Why do you treat them so badly?”
“Do you not see them? Are they invisible?”
A few days before Einav Danino’s appearance at Committee, Goldknopf had the temerity to lecture MK Meirav Cohen of the moderate Yesh Atid party on national values, saying that even founding Prime Minister David Ben Gurion valued religious scholarship deeply. He exempted 400 haredi students from military service when the state was founded, Goldknopf said, because he saw their study it as being of equal importance to army service.
In response, Cohen blasted Goldknopf, telling him to spare her his revisionist history. Ben Gurion, as is a well-established historical fact, allowed the exemption in order to ensure that the anti-Zionist haredim remained quiet and did not go to the United Nations to tell the world that they opposed the creation of a Jewish state.
It was a Faustian bargain that Ben Gurion felt he had to make in order to receive UN support for the establishment of the State of Israel. But he was also certain that the few hundred young haredi men opting out of service would become a fleeting phenomenon.
Goldknopf has the chutzpah to state (at the beginning of this clip) that he is certain that the draft dodgers to which MK Cohen refers are in Tel Aviv. (Pointing fingers at the decadent, left-wing, secular Tel Aviv population is a favorite “go to” attack tactic of the haredim.)
Pay attention to Goldknopf’s face and body language when MK Cohen yells at him. He seems genuinely shocked. They swagger and. have done so for decades; the haredi tail wagging the dog. But what they do not seem to understand is that in the last three years something very profound has changed. They have pushed too far and overshot the mark. Their arrogance is leading this nation to the brink, and perhaps over. Civil war? Many Israelis fear that possibility may come to pass.
The next clip shows the raucous Knesset session on Tuesday, when a Bill freezing the arrests of haredi men became law. You can see Prime Minister Netanyahu enter the chamber. The Opposition MKs stand and shout “shame” while pointing at Netanyahu. His visage is frozen. Checks his phone. He looks straight ahead, barely interacting with the two men he sits between; Minister of Justice Yariv Levin (the driver of the judicial reform legislation) and Minister of Defence, Israel Katz.
The perp walk. At about the 1:45 mark of the clip below, Bibi rises (while speaking on his phone) to leave the chamber. He endured the requisite humiliation like a champ. As he leaves the Knesset chamber the Opposition group continues to heckle him, changing their chant to “lech!” (Meaning “go” in Hebrew. As in - “get out of here, Bibi.”
It is difficult to process that in the State of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has presided over a colossal betrayal of Israel’s core, founding ideals. Service. A national bond that supersedes all else. Safety. Security. Loyalty to the state and its people. Not a corrupt partisan “bloc.”
The gravity of the moment is reflected on Netanyahu’s face. A portrait of moral depravity.
If he has any hope of forming another government, he must have the support of the haredim. Benjamin Netanyahu needs them to retain power.
On Tuesday, Bibi forsook everything that matters. Loyalty. Security. Integrity. He sold out the IDF, the fathers and husbands and sons who serve, so that he may - at age 76 - remain in the top office. He has put the ability of the IDF to defend Israel in peril. The betrayal is complete.
This is not just another crazy day in Israel. This is a turning point.
At a press conference in the Knesset shortly after the vote, MK Avigdor Lieberman - a former political ally of Netanyahu’s - was clear. He is politely saying that we are on the verge of civil war.
Lieberman in the clip below: If we don’t end the draft dodging it will end us. We must understand this. Draft dodging has hurt our foundational values, in terms of our national resilience and also security.
Election Date. Finally.
On Sunday, the government decided that the election will be held on the last day that is legally possible. October 27.
Until late spring, the smart money was on Netanyahu doing everything possible to avoid going to the polls in October. A cursed month in Israel.
Since October 7, the prime minister has been obsessed with rehabilitating his legacy. He sees himself as a great leader in the arc of history, one who (as he has reminded us many times) will liberate the people of Iran, remake the map of the Middle East, and in his world, all will be forgiven.
Two years ago, a long-time senior aide to Bibi told me that the prime minister was very focused on managing the impossible - so that October 7 would be eclipsed by his greatness. As was explained to me at the time, if he stepped down or called an early election (based on prevailing circumstances then) then October 7 would be his eternal legacy. He could not abide that. So – the thinking among his close aides was that if they succeeded in creating a “safety zone” in Lebanon to keep Hezballah at bay, defeated Hamas and saw normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia – this would erase the dark, indelible stain of October 7.
None of those three achievements has been accomplished. The “trifecta” is how his advisers referred to their three-legged stool. Get the job one and his greatness in the historical arc would be restored. Of course, that has not happened – yet. Should the trifecta be pulled off in the next three months, well, then, perhaps Bibi will yank yet another rabbit out of the hat.
Or not.
(We will soon drop a podcast, which was recorded on Monday with Yaakov Katz, in which we discuss the many miracles that could come to pass in Bibi’s favor between now and October 27. We have all come to understand, over time, that the man may be infallible.
In the meantime, I offer you this election visual which popped up on social media within an hour or so of the date being set.
The photograph shown was taken when the coalition government was sworn in early in January, 2023. Most cabinet members are present. Netanyahu sits in the front alongside President Isaac Herzog.
“Put the date in your calendar,” the visual reads. “27.10.”
Just above the photo it it states: “We are changing (more like throwing out in this charged context) the Government of the Massacre (as October 7 is often called in Israel).
And note the date. How 7.10 is in red, to emphasize that we are still there. We are stuck in and on October 7, 2023. It is exactly this kind of association that had led Bibi’s aide to say to me – two years ago – that an October election would be avoided. At all costs.
And, here we are.
IDF Chief of Staff Warns That the Army is on the Verge of Collapse
Also on Monday, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir wrote a letter to Netanyahu telling him – yet again – that if passed, the law exempting the haredim from service will cause the military to collapse. Reservists who have served hundreds of days in the last three years received fresh call up notices for the next calendar year - on the day that the haredim rammed through the law that exempts them from service.
Israel’s Exposed Flank. The Border with Jordan.
We learned several days ago of an unfolding crisis along the porous border between Jordan and Israel. It is wide open. In parts there is a simple chain link fence.
Residents of communities who run the local security squads told a news reporter that there are near-constant intercepted incidents along the border. People attempting to infiltrate Israel. Weapon drops - often by drone. These serious security events are constant.
One man said that he had taught his wife to use an automatic weapon. “I’m not going out to defend my community and leave my wife and kids at home undefended,” he said. “It’s not a question of ‘if’ but when it happens.” (The “it” is an October 7 style attack.)
And when that happens, so many Israelis ask, what will Netanyahu say? “They didn’t tell me? I didn’t know?” (That has been his stance since October 7. “Nobody told me about security concerns along the border with Gaza.”)
IDF Chief of Staff Zamir has put his concerns about how Netanyahu is degrading the army’s capability to fulfill its mandate in writing. On multiple occasions. And he is doing so in order to pre-emptively remove the possibility of Bibi asserting any future claim of plausible deniability.
“I am waving ten red flags”, IDF Chief Zamir said to the Security Cabinet in early April. “The IDF cannot sustain the demands placed upon it if we do not have an immediate infusion of more soldiers.”
At the time they were short 20,000. Today, the deficit is greater. And this in the context of a continuing multi-front war, as well as the planned construction of dozens of new West Bank settlements. Each one, as Zamir has warned, repeatedly, requires IDF security.
Netanyahu is leading this country over the precipice. Eyes wide open. In broad daylight.
October 27 cannot come soon enough.
P.S. Throughout Wednesday the haredi extortion blitz continued in the Knesset. They have a knife to Bibi’s throat and are beginning to pierce the skin. In spite of their agreement to support various laws of importance to Netanyahu and his Likud party (after they first passed the Shirker’s law), the haredim are not honoring their commitment….unless….
They are demanding tens of millions of shekels to provide day care for haredi families. This, of course, is while the IDF is being destroyed.
Not only will the army collapse in on itself but so will many households unable to be squeezed so unconscionably.
The plot thickens.
Sara Netanyahu (Bibi’s wife) was reported in the last two days to be demanding that she and her two sons be granted lifetime security details at the state’s expense. Just in case her husband does not come out on top following the next election. This is the stuff of dictatorships. Not Israeli democracy. The Netanyahu sons do not even reside in Israel, never mind serve. (Thath is something that everyone here knows but does not raise in public.) Who would have the authority to approve this “request”?
David Zini. Head of Shabak.
Also this week, Bnei Brak, a Tel Aviv-adjacent city that is 99% haredi, passed municipal legislation approving that several streets be gender segregated. Yup. You read that correctly. And they indicated that this is just the beginning.
As I have remarked many times in the last year or so, in a decade, Israel could well become a grindingly poor, theofascist nation. And Iran? Tehran may be the new Tel Aviv. It is not at all a fanciful possibility.
Meanwhile, the haredi parties have two more days to extort additional “concessions” from Netanyahu. I shudder. We all do.
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