Israel Brief: Monday, July 20
Iron Dome fires into a war Israel is not in, while Likud hands Netanyahu his slate and the attorney general reaches for Ben-Gvir's seat.
Israel's part in the ninth night of this war was a single interceptor, fired at falling debris from a missile Tehran aimed at Jordan. Washington is closing a deal that lets Riyadh enrich uranium without the inspectors who could check it, hosting a Lebanese president whose disarmament plan his own army cannot execute, and parking its tankers on Israeli runways. Ankara has put in for a guarantor's seat over any future Israeli-Palestinian agreement, inside a 769-page volume on the presidency's own website. J Street's student arm co-sponsored the College Democrats convention that handed Hasan Piker the Saturday stage, and he used it to tell the room to stop funding Israel. Jeremy Ben-Ami's answer is that J Street chose no speakers (see Briefly Noted). The one fight Israel still runs alone is at home, and it has reached the point where the state cannot send a tax inspector into Bnei Brak.
Flash Brief: The Day in 90 Seconds or Less
Iran: Iron Dome fires its first interceptor since April at debris from an Iranian missile aimed at Aqaba. See The War Today.
Lebanon: Hezbollah kills a Lebanese soldier inside the zone Beirut is about to receive from Israel. See The War Today.
Judea and Samaria: Two arrests turn the Havat Gilad fire that destroyed thirteen homes from accident into attack. See The War Today.
Likud: The Constitution Committee hands Netanyahu eight reserved slots and a clause to cancel the primary. See Inside Israel.
Ben-Gvir: The attorney general declares the police framework dead and asks the court to remove him. See Inside Israel.
Bnei Brak: The state pulls its tax inspectors out of the city and freezes its war-damage claims. See Inside Israel.
Saudi nuclear: Washington finishes a deal letting Riyadh enrich uranium without the short-notice inspections the protocol requires. See Israel and the World.
Beirut in Washington: Aoun carries a Hezbollah disarmament plan into the Oval Office tomorrow and asks pressure on Israel. See Israel and the World.
Influence campaign: Israel's $45 million persona operation surfaces, and its own American allies are asking who bought them. See Israel and the World.
J Street: Its student arm co-sponsored the College Democrats convention that gave Hasan Piker the stage to tell the room to stop funding Israel. See Briefly Noted.
Turkey: Ankara publishes a 769-page case for Hamas and claims a guarantor seat over any agreement. See Israel and the World.
Italy: Activists crowd-source a register of Jewish and Israeli addresses before public pressure takes the form down. See Israel and the World.
Hormuz: Trump reportedly orders a forced tanker convoy once Iran's southern launch sites are flattened. See Developments to Watch.
The decisions that will shape Israel's next decade are being drafted in rooms where Israel is not seated. Riyadh's centrifuges and the guarantor's chair Ankara has claimed over any future Israeli-Palestinian agreement are both other people's work, and Jerusalem's leverage on each was surrendered before the drafting began. What Israel still governs is the ground under its own feet, and that is where the harder contest sits: who controls the police ministry and the party slate when the voters get their turn in October.
Today: the interceptor Israel fired into someone else's war, a Saudi enrichment deal with the inspectors removed, and Likud's hand-picked slate.