Israel Brief: Thursday, August 6
Israel answers southern Lebanon with the narrow round and leaves the rest unsettled — while the campaign at home turns on who serves.
Two reservists are dead in a house nobody had checked, in a village Israel has held since March, and the scale of the answer is still being argued inside the government this morning. The narrow version went out within hours — an evacuation warning at Mansouri, then the 91st Division's fire brigade working weapons stores from the air and the ground. The army wanted more and is still pushing. Rome broke up three hours early the same afternoon, and at home the campaign has organized itself around who serves. We also have a new dossier out, part two of our Islam series (details below).
Flash Brief: The Day in 90 Seconds or Less
Lebanon: A charge at Majdal Zoun kills two reservists, and the scale of Israel's answer is still unresolved. See The War Today.
Hormuz: Two ships cross the strait, and Trump and Hegseth fight over what is left in the magazine. See The War Today.
Gaza: Zamir promises a permanent hunt for October 7's planners, days after the signature moved to him. See The War Today.
Elections: Illouz quits Likud for Liberman, Erdan launches tonight, and a haredi party forms behind real conscription. See Inside Israel.
Ben-Gvir: Netanyahu tells the High Court the appointment stands, and a new party bids for the ministry. See Inside Israel.
Energy: Israel and Gulf states are working a route to the Mediterranean that misses Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb. See Israel and the World.
Michigan: Harris raises money for El-Sayed within a day, and the pro-Israel Democrat loses his Detroit seat. See Israel and the World.
Canada: October 7's defenders advised the national human-rights museum on the Nakba exhibit it opened in June. See Israel and the World.
Federations: JFNA drops the consultant who told its next lay leaders to avoid the word "Zionism." See Israel and the World.
Sbarro: Jewish leaders press Washington to get Ahlam Tamimi out of Jordan, twenty-five years on. See Israel and the World.
Reserves: Katz stops the IDF from releasing the Gaza-border standby squads it calls superfluous. See Developments to Watch.
The decisions that matter today all got held over. Israel's cabinet hasn't fixed how hard it hits back in Lebanon, Washington is counting what's in its own magazine before it writes a target list, and the Gulf states are out shopping for a road around a strait Iran shut in February. The only one on a deadline is the decision Israelis take on October 27, and that one is about who serves.
Today: two reservists dead in southern Lebanon with the answer unwritten, Washington short of ordnance, and a haredi party running on the draft.
The Jewish State — Mitzpe's eight-session live course on Israeli history from the Mandate to October 7, taught the way the brief reads. Cohort 1: eight Sundays from Oct 11. mitzpe.org/the-jewish-state
If you’re looking for some more shabbat reading, we have a new dossier today:
Islam Is Plural, Within Real Limits
Islam’s internal arguments run along a few mappable fault lines — authority, geography, engineered state religions, mysticism, and rival renewals — each contested and each with an impact on the wider world.