Israel Brief: Tuesday, July 14
Washington seizes Hormuz and strikes Iran a third night — at home the Knesset writes Torah study into a Basic Law and adds two months to the men who serve.
Washington seized the Strait of Hormuz and struck Iran a third night — the war most likely to land on Israel is being fought without it, and largely without its say. Trump did in an afternoon what Tehran spent a month failing to do, putting a price on the strait it could only threaten to close, then naming the one nuclear site the war never reached as the target of the next round. At home the coalition gave its final week before dissolution to writing Torah study into a Basic Law and adding two months to the men who already serve.
Flash Brief: The Day in 90 Seconds or Less
Hormuz: Washington reinstates the blockade, tolls Gulf cargo, and strikes Iran a third night as oil tops 85 dollars. See The War Today.
Yemen: Saudi-backed forces crater Sanaa's runway to block an Iranian landing, and the Houthis fire back at Riyadh. See The War Today.
Gaza: Israel kills the Hamas commander rebuilding its naval force as the UN, rarely, names Hamas's aid racket. See The War Today.
Torah study: The Knesset writes yeshiva study into a Basic Law and adds two months to conscripts' service. See Inside Israel.
AG override: Rothman's bill clears final readings, letting ministers overrule the attorney general's binding legal opinions. See Inside Israel.
Likud list: Netanyahu wins eight reserved slate slots as his party's own court weighs petitions against the deal. See Inside Israel.
ICC: Rubio opens a State Department campaign to pull governments out of the court that warranted Netanyahu. See Israel and the World.
IRGC: Britain designates the Revolutionary Guard a state threat after seven Iran-backed attacks on British Jewish sites. See Israel and the World.
Church of England: The Synod votes to "engage with" a text branding Israel genocidal since its 1948 founding. See Israel and the World.
PEN America: Its president resigns rather than back a report defending Jewish writers the literary world is shutting out. See Israel and the World.
Hospital wards: Thirty Australian medics describe Jewish patients sabotaged and abused once a Jewish name hits the chart. See Israel and the World.
EU sanctions: Brussels drops the failed settlement-sanctions push for a bloc-wide trade ban on Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. See Developments to Watch.
Two of the day's three fronts are being decided by hands that are not Israel's. The war that could reach it runs between Washington and Tehran over a strait it does not border. What is fully Israel's own is the smallest front and the only one it can lose outright: a coalition spending its final week before dissolution to bind the High Court with a Basic Law and strip the veto of the attorney general who might still contest it.
Today: Washington seizes Hormuz and names its next nuclear target, the Knesset makes yeshiva study a Basic Law, and Rubio moves to break the ICC.