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Rahm Emanuel, who is exploring a run for the US presidency in 2028, came to Tel Aviv last week to warn that Israel was losing international legitimacy, that its current trajectory with the Palestinians was unsustainable, and that fundamental changes are needed to preserve the alliance with America. He’s right – but he’s also only telling half the story. The other half is Israel-hating fanatics in the Democratic Party he seeks to lead.

Something is badly out of balance between the United States and the Iranian regime: the Iranians benefitted from a monumental American capitulation, yet could not take yes for an answer. Now it seems that at least low-scale warfare will be around for a while, at the very least, even though American voters don’t seem to want it and the midterms are approaching. Asked about this on I24 just now, what I could come up with is that the Iranians simply pushed Trump too far.

As Israelis prepare for what may be the most consequential election in the country’s history, now set for Oct. 27, the Netanyahu coalition has launched an extraordinary legislative blitz before the Knesset’s summer recess, which begins at the end of this week. Already they passed a pair of laws legitimizing Haredi draft evasion, and next is a raft of bills weakening democratic oversight.

As we discussed in the first installment of this two-part series, the most obvious problem with soccer (let us call it that, in honor of the American-hosted World Cup) is its infuriating imprecision. Unlike basketball, American football, or ice hockey, soccer cannot tell fans how much time remains in a game. Stoppage time is estimated, additional time is added at the referee’s discretion, players waste time, and matches routinely continue beyond the number displayed on the board.

Against some fierce competition, Israel’s Netanyahu government has been competing pretty hard for the Gold Medal in Elected Autocracy. This week it struck what may be the winning blow in a unanimous Cabinet vote announcing that the Supreme Court can be ignored. Trump appoints rubber-stamp judges, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan jails them, and under Putin they certainly fear assassination. But Netanyahu’s solution may be the most elegant of all.

America at 250 presents one of the strangest paradoxes in modern history. No democracy has accumulated greater economic, military, technological and cultural power. Few are less content. The anniversary – in marked contrast even to the Bicentennial, despite troubles in those times as well – is being celebrated amid a hurricane of angst and anger. Upgrade to a Paid Subscription to unlock full to AQL, support independent journalism, and anable us to afford a real cartoonist.

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -2:43 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. In today’s edition of Critical Conditions, Claire Berlinski and I tackled that most vexing of institutions, the US Supreme Court, which, despite widespread fears (heck, evidence) that it had become little more than an extension of the Trump administration, showed this week that it still has lines it is prepared to draw.

Two extraordinary developments illustrate how unsettled Israel is in advance of elections this year: Supreme Court Justice Noam Solberg, chairman of Israel’s Central Elections Committee, publicly outlined the legal conditions under which elections could possibly be postponed during a national emergency, and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might try to sabotage elections and have to be physically removed from office.

The month of the summer solstice has been busy at Ask Questions Later. War. Diplomacy. Iran. Ukraine. AI. Journalism. Democracy. Kosovo. Technology. Language. Podcasts. Essays. Guest contributors. Videos. Travel. Long-form analysis. If it felt like we’re publishing constantly, it's because we practically were. Which brings us to the cartoon above. One character orders another $10 Coors Light. Another wants to bet on the races. A third is absorbed in social media, wearing bling and sporting tattoos.

Here’s what I’m thinking as I contemplate the framework deal signed in Washington this weekend in which Israel and Lebanon resolved to make peace. I’m thinking that the surest path to looking ridiculous these days is to offer enthusiastic support for a scheme concocted by Trump and Netanyahu. I’ll admit that right off the bat — and yet this case is rather tempting.