Ben Af Rothenberg #🟦

Sometimes you’re trying to work on your new hour in Omaha but instead you have to talk to a crazy person. Phoenix up next.

Gadi Eisenkot's closing ad. The former IDF Chief of Staff and leader of the centrist Yashar party, is running neck-and-neck with Bibi. It all comes down to turnout tomorrow.

Final Pre-Election Polls: The Big Picture 🔵Filber: Netanyahu Bloc majority 🔴Midgam & Rosner: Opposition-Ra'am majority possible ⚪All others: Deadlock

THE #GIANTS MAY HAVE A STAR: New York QB J.J. McCarthy has now won his last five #NFL starts. McCarthy is still 23 years old and was the #10 overall pick in the 2024 draft. Minnesota gave up on him. The Giants may have found a future franchise quarterback. JJ has been ELITE.

1/ Benjamin Netanyahu got the last set of polls last night. They argue Likud and his block are eroding fast. Then, came his remarks on Israel's economy. These are among the most extraordinary he has made in a long political career. Whatever their intent, they carry real weight for the Israeli economy – before Tuesday's election, and regardless of who forms the next government. In an interview with journalist Roy Katz, aired Friday, the prime minister said American military aid to Israel is coming to an end. "It's over. It's only a question of time," he said. Israelis should get used to no longer receiving tens of billions of dollars in U.S. defense assistance, he added, "because America has changed." That alone is remarkable. There is a growing recognition in Israel that U.S. military aid in its current form will have to change, and might end, as bipartisan support for Israel erodes in Washington. Netanyahu himself has spoken before about wanting to wean Israel off the aid. But there is a distance between that recognition and a sitting prime minister effectively announcing the end of one of the pillars of the U.S.–Israel strategic relationship. The current Memorandum of Understanding – $38 billion over ten years – runs through September 2028. It is embedded in a web of interests that includes the American defense industry, and Israel's diplomats in Washington work hard to sustain it. Israel's friends in Congress, operating in an increasingly difficult political environment, are still fighting to preserve the special relationship. When the prime minister himself says "it's over," that is a hard message for Israel's defense establishment, and for those in Washington still trying to help. And that was only the opening. "There could be sanctions, including banking sanctions," Netanyahu said. Israel, he explained, must prepare an economy capable of bypassing them. This is a different order of magnitude entirely. Some background is needed. In the world of international sanctions, comprehensive banking sanctions against a country are among the most powerful tools available to major powers. They are not import restrictions, consumer boycotts, or even arms embargoes. Broad financial sanctions go after an economy's circulatory system. Israel's banks depend on the global financial system: correspondent banks, clearing, credit lines, the ability to move money across borders. Without access to banks abroad, the Israeli economy stops functioning. And such sanctions don't hit only the banks. They hit everyone who banks with them – companies, exporters, importers, investors, employers. When foreign banks become nervous about a country's financial institutions, they tend to cut ties well beyond what the law strictly requires. In other words, a sweeping financial sanctions regime would push Israel toward the category of Iran or Russia. It would be worse. Iran and Russia sit on vast oil and gas reserves. Even under sanctions, they keep selling – mainly in Asia and parts of the Global South. Israel's economy is not built on commodities. Its strength comes from integration into the global economy: human capital, technology, research, advanced services. According to the Israel Innovation Authority, Israeli high-tech exported roughly $85 billion in goods and services in 2025 – 58 percent of all Israeli exports – and accounted for about half of the economy's growth. It is the engine of the economy, and it depends on foreign markets, foreign capital, and the free movement of money. Netanyahu did not say who might impose banking sanctions. A prime minister raising this possibility, in the same breath as forecasting the end of U.S. aid, should prompt immediate questions. Is he referring to European sanctions? American ones? above all: how did Israel get to the point where this is being discussed at all? There was more - and much worse.

I’ve been released from IDF custody with a “warning,” apparently because of my public profile (I told them I wasn’t even a congressmember yet, just a nominee). But several dozen rabbis & participants harvesting olives with me are still in detention. For harvesting olives. They should all be released immediately. To be clear: Palestinians face far worse consequences every day. These detentions by the IDF are one more attempt to undermine Palestinians’ right to harvest their olive groves, travel on their roads, and live in their homes. Yet one more element of escalating, and very clearly state-sponsored ethnic cleansing. We’ll update on their status as soon as we hear.

I looked into this Dan Quinn lipreading

James Hetfield of Metallica has ALWAYS been apolitical. The left will never grasp that it’s okay for musicians to do that.

Just kill the children in quiet and let us enjoy music. Very radical