I’ll spare you the standard “One Week Out” story, and spent the day seeking “ground truth” in MN, IA, SD, and NE but I was really awaiting the results of Israel’s parliamentary elections. In Brazil, despite the attempts to thwart voters supporting progressive candidate Lula, he won by a 4% margin over Trump crony Bolsonaro. The Trump administration promptly sent Bolsonaro and his family Visas and one of the Air Force Ones is probably at the ready to spirit Bolsonaro here, despite Trump’s promises to keep “The worst of the worst” criminals out of our country. The Brazilian result won’t have a huge effect here, but it sets off a winning streak for democracy!
Israel has quite a bit more import- Damn near as many Jews call the U.S. home as live in Israel, making our country essentially the second Jewish homeland. Thus U.S. and Israel’s politics are intertwined and hopefully outgoing PM Netanyahu with his over reaction to the October 7th Hamas attack hasn’t helped matters- Especially for the Democratic Party which needs both Jewish and Arab votes to win. If the more moderate Yashar wins they’ll be less bombings of Palastinian homes and schools and thus they’ll deprive the anti-Israel Democratic Socialists of an issue, though they no doubt have an inexhaustible supply of grievances in reserve. As I write they’re a couple hours into counting votes and it appears Netanyahu’s Lukid Party will have 51 seats, Yashar also 51, and Arab Parties will have the remaining 18 seats in the 120 seat parliament. making the Arab Parties the power brokers… But this will take weeks to sort out.
But with democratic candidates in heavily Jewish districts watching the Democratic Socialists chase those Jewish voters to the GOP, Netanyahu can’t be defeated soon enough!
