Plus, a question about the RNC rejecting our application for a press pass.
I’m Isaac Saul, and this is Tangle: an independent, nonpartisan, subscriber-supported politics newsletter that summarizes the best arguments from across the political spectrum on the news of the day — then “my take.”
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Today's read: 13 minutes.
Our Kamala Harris deep dive.
First, a hearty welcome to the thousands of new readers joining us today. We're glad to have you on board, and we hope you're excited for a new way to consume political news.
Second, a reminder that we published our deep dive on Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday. In Part 1, we covered everything you need to know about her upbringing, rise in politics, positions on major issues, and how those positions have changed. Read Part 1 here.
In Part 2, we broke down arguments from Harris's supporters and from her critics. Then, we shared our take on her five biggest strengths and weaknesses. You can read Part 2 here (paywall).
Quick hits.
- The head of Venezuela's electoral commission declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner of the country's presidential election. Opposition leaders are alleging fraud, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had serious concerns about the election. (The election)
- The Justice Department accused TikTok of collecting user data on social issues like abortion, religion and gun control, then storing that data on servers in China. (The accusation)
- Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed an executive order to clear homeless encampments across the state. (The order) Separately, the Park Fire in northern California has now burned through over 350,000 acres and destroyed more than 130 buildings. (The fire)
- President Biden announced his support for dramatic changes to the Supreme Court, including a constitutional amendment that would prohibit blanket immunity for presidents. (The reforms)
- An Iowa law took effect today that restricts abortions after cardiac activity is detectable in a fetus (with exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother). (The ban)
Today's topic.
Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress, his fourth such address as Israel’s leader. Netanyahu was invited to speak by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA); the next day, he visited with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, then met with former President Donald Trump.
In his address, Netanyahu pledged to achieve "total victory" against Hamas, saying a "new Gaza can emerge" only after Hamas is destroyed. "The war in Gaza could end tomorrow if Hamas surrenders, disarms and returns all the hostages," he said. "But if they don’t, Israel will fight until we destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and its rule in Gaza and bring all our hostages home."
Netanyahu described a post-war vision of a demilitarized and de-radicalized Gaza, saying Israel would not seek to resettle Gaza but would "retain overriding security control" and work with regional partners to find new leaders for the territory. Netanyahu also emphasized the longstanding ties and shared security interests between the U.S. and Israel, noting Iran’s role in funding proxy groups against both countries and telling Congress “our fight is your fight, and our victory will be your victory.”
During his address, Netanyahu thanked President Biden for his “half a century of friendship to Israel,” his "tireless efforts" to get the hostages home, and for proudly calling himself a Zionist. He also thanked former President Donald Trump for brokering the Abraham Accords, moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers boycotted the address in protest. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — the only Palestinian-American member of Congress — attended, but held up a sign that said "war criminal" on one side and "guilty of genocide" on the other. Hostages freed from Gaza and families of those still in captivity protested inside the House chamber, with some donning t-shirts demanding a ceasefire and hostage deal. Those protestors were removed from the chamber. Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C., to protest the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s ongoing military operation.
Videos capturing chaotic scenes of protesters clashing with Capitol Police and some people burning American flags went viral on social media. Vice President Harris condemned those protesters in a statement.
"I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews," the vice president said. "I condemn the burning of the American flag. That flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America."
Netanyahu took a harsh tone with Americans protesting Israel's response in Gaza, calling them "useful idiots" of Iran and suggesting groups like "Gays for Gaza" were akin to "Chickens for KFC.”
On Saturday, three days after the address, a rocket strike in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights killed 12 people, most of them Druze teenagers and children (the strike hit a playground in Majdal Shams, a Druze town). Israel and the U.S. accused Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based political party and militant group that the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization, of responsibility for the strike. Hezbollah denied any connection. Netanyahu ended his U.S. trip early to return to Israel, and Israel responded with an airstrike of its own deep in Lebanon on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the war in Gaza goes on. Israeli ground troops are currently fighting Hamas in Khan Younis, a town in the southern Gaza Strip, while backed by airstrikes. The Israeli military ordered civilians to evacuate the area a week ago before pushing forward with tanks as part of its attempt to clear out Hamas militants.
Negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release continue, with negotiators from Israel, Egypt, and Qatar meeting with CIA Director William Burns in Rome, Italy, this weekend. Aid groups and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry say more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting (that number does not distinguish between combatants and innocents). The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) estimates Palestinian fighters account for about one-third of the Palestinians killed. Israel has lost about 325 soldiers in the fighting since the October 7 attacks that killed over 1,200 people. Over 100 hostages remain in Gaza.
Today, we are going to break down some arguments from the left, right, and Israeli and Palestinian voices on Netanyahu's speech and the state of the war. Then my take.
What the left is saying.
- The left is mostly critical of the speech, arguing it amounted to political posturing.
- Some note that Netanyahu’s comments foreshadow a broader war in the Middle East.
In MSNBC, Nayyera Haq wrote “Netanyahu wanted to project strength. His Trumpian speech did the opposite.”
“Netanyahu’s bombast was out of sync with reality. He essentially delivered an Israeli version of Trump’s infamous ‘American carnage’ speech, offering no calls for peace and instead playing on the idea that ‘the world is in upheaval’ in a ‘clash of barbarism versus civilization.’... Implied is the idea that Netanyahu’s view of Israeli policy is the only legitimate one,” Haq said. “Meanwhile, two-thirds of Israelis want Netanyahu to follow Biden’s lead and exit stage left, with recent polling showing dramatic support for Netanyahu to resign.”
“Netanyahu could have quietly maintained the U.S. financial support and left the American public to wrangle with its own political demons. Instead, he decided the value of standing ovations from mostly Republicans and levying direct insults to American college students by calling them ‘useful idiots’ was worth the risk of reminding a divided American public what an opportunist Netanyahu is,” Haq wrote. “All Netanyahu has shown to the global community is that he is a failed leader who lives in a world of alternative facts and that, like Trump, he is a danger to the democratic future of his people.”
In Bloomberg, James Stavridis said Netanyahu “succeeded in sending a message to Tehran.”
Netanyahu “successfully used the occasion to send three distinct messages to three different audiences. First, he was speaking to the American people. He urged them to give Israel the popular support and the tools for a fight against the ‘barbarism’ of Hamas. Second, he was speaking to the Israeli people, insisting that Hamas must be completely destroyed, a task that will take months if not years,” Stavridis wrote. “Third, while it received far less media attention, he was speaking to the mullahs in Tehran. His message to them was a sharp warning to cease and desist or face a wider war in the Middle East.”
“Netanyahu talked of building an ‘economic corridor’ from the Gulf to Europe, involving energy, transportation and communications technology. In a war with Iran, however, Israel’s biggest need would be vastly more robust military support from Washington… The US would need to increase not only dollars — most of which would flow back to US defense contractors — but also enhanced technology transfer,” Stavridis said. “Netanyahu’s speech reminded me of what Churchill later called ‘a gathering storm’ in Europe in the late 1930s, which led to World War II. It is beginning to feel that way in the Middle East today.”
What the right is saying.
- The right praises the speech and criticizes the Democratic lawmakers who boycotted.
- Some say Netanyahu failed to lay out a coherent vision for the end of the war in Gaza.
In The American Enterprise Institute, Samuel J. Abrams argued “Netanyahu is right” about the threat of terrorism in the Middle East.
“Netanyahu delivered a masterclass address to a joint session of Congress. In his remarks, Netanyahu argued that the current conflicts and the dangers in the Middle East—from Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran—are not just issues that threaten the safety and security of Israel, but existential threats to Western stability and institutions,” Abrams said. “Sadly, these powerful words were missed by many Congressional Democrats who refused to attend Netanyahu’s address to Congress and will not listen to, or even consider, the Prime Minister’s valuable ideas.”
“While one can disagree with Israel’s approach to self-defense, Netanyahu’s larger point on the global order should not be ignored,” Abrams added. “There are nations and terror groups scattered throughout the world that are organized and funded and want to remake the world order to undermine democracy. The violence that we see around the nation and in Europe related to Israel shows that this battle is far bigger than Israel itself; Hamas and its supporters are trying to create chaos and disruptions.”
In Newsweek, Daniel R. DePetris wrote about “Netanyahu's boring speech to Congress.”
“For those of us who hoped the prime minister would provide more information on how he plans to wrap up the war in Gaza and manage the Palestinian enclave once the fighting stops, the hour-long address was a massive disappointment,” DePetris said. “Netanyahu did what he thought he had to do. He thanked Republicans and Democrats as well as Donald Trump and Joe Biden for their support to Israel throughout the years. He threw red-meat into the crowd of lawmakers by stating emphatically that ‘America and Israel must stand together.’”
“Netanyahu was also extremely defensive. He essentially equated all American protesters against the war as sympathizers of Hamas and ‘Iran's useful idiots’... No specifics were offered about the state of the truce talks, why Netanyahu reportedly toughened the terms at the last minute and why his government still believes full victory against Hamas is possible despite reservations from Israel's own military officials,” DePetris wrote. “We didn't learn more about Israel's post-war plans either. Who will take over control over Gaza? Who will take over the job of reconstruction?... Answers to all of these questions are about as thin as tissue-paper.”
What Israeli and Palestinian writers are saying.
- Israeli writers say Netanyahu’s speech was strong but question the timing of his trip to the U.S.
- Palestinian writers argue the U.S. should not have hosted Netanyahu at all.
In The Jerusalem Post, Susan Hattis Rolef wrote “Netanyahu's address to Congress only painted part of Israel's reality.”
“There is no question that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fourth address to a joint session of Congress last Wednesday was an impressive performance… He presented Israel’s basic arguments fully and succinctly: The vicious Hamas attack on the Gaza border communities on October 7 left over 1,200 men and women, from children to senior citizens, mutilated and butchered; homes ransacked, looted, and/or burned down,” Rolef said. “He also spoke of the dangers confronting Israel, and all Western democracies, from Iran and its proxies.”
“The greatest problem is that Netanyahu’s address portrayed only part of Israel’s reality. Glaringly, there is Netanyahu’s total refusal to assume any responsibility for the surprise attack of October 7, or for the many mishaps and failures of the past nine and a half months. Furthermore, Netanyahu is rapidly losing his hold over many of his ministers, and the support of a majority of the citizens of Israel, thereby making his bravado somewhat hollow,” Rolef wrote. “With so many unresolved, painful issues on the Israeli agenda, perhaps last week was not the right time for Netanyahu to appear before Congress.”
In The Electronic Intifada, Basem Naim said “Netanyahu’s visit is a shameful moment for America.”
“Why does the US continue to roll out the red carpet for a leader who stands accused by the International Court of Justice of genocidal crimes against Palestinians? America’s longstanding self-portrayal as a champion of democracy, justice and human rights doesn’t deceive us. We are the victims of US wars, keenly aware of how far Washington deviates from the principles of justice and liberty,” Naim wrote. “Americans should be ashamed of welcoming and honoring an individual accused of the most appalling war crimes, including genocide, and providing him a platform to propagate his distortions.”
“In a just international order presided over by a fair superpower that adheres to international law and courts, Netanyahu would have been questioned or even arrested upon his entry into the US. However, we know this is not how the world operates. Thus, we urge the American people to closely observe how this moment unfolds and listen to what Netanyahu says. This is one of those pivotal times that will be remembered in history,” Naim said. “History will neither forget nor forgive those who have subjugated the Palestinians or supported their subjugators.”
My take.
Reminder: "My take" is a section where I give myself space to share my own personal opinion. If you have feedback, criticism, or compliments, don't unsubscribe. Write in by replying to this email, or leave a comment.
- Some aspects of the address were effective, but for the most part it didn’t provide any clarity about the next steps in this conflict.
- Netanyahu faces many issues at home, and speaking to Congress did nothing to solve them.
- On the whole, the speech was divisive, over-simplified, and troubling to watch.
I’m going to resist getting too much into my general stance on this conflict, but if you’re looking for a summary of where I stand, I suggest reading these two pieces: my Zionist call for a ceasefire and my follow-up piece making the best argument that I was wrong.
My reaction to Netanyahu’s speech specifically was much less complicated: I felt despair.
I genuinely believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a failed leader. I deem him responsible for the security failures of October 7 — a responsibility he has yet to take ownership of. I deem him responsible for the nine-month war that has followed, and for which there is no end in sight. And I deem him responsible for the deepening divisions within Israeli society before the war and for the current toxicity of Israel's government.
Many Israelis agree with me, which is not surprising. Few Israeli prime ministers have overseen a more tumultuous, tragic, and divisive period than Netanyahu has over the last few years. He is partially responsible for giving rise to Hamas, the very enemy he is now tasked with fighting, even if he refuses to discuss it. The criticisms of his speech that you’ll find in the Israeli press, even in the more conservative Jerusalem Post (under “What Israeli writers are saying”), are telling.
To be clear, I appreciated some elements of the speech. Netanyahu spoke effectively about the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas. Their stories are harrowing, and I think making sure that a U.S. audience understands their psychological impact was the right thing for Netanyahu to do. Recently, I interviewed Alon Gat, an Israeli man who escaped Hamas on Oct. 7, whose wife was held hostage for six weeks, and whose sister is still being held in Gaza nine months later. For his part, Gat was in the House chamber during the speech, wearing a shirt demanding a hostage deal. He was removed and arrested minutes later, which I think is shameful.
Netanyahu also effectively trumpeted Israel’s democratic, multi-ethnic values, pointing to Muslim soldiers serving in the IDF. He acknowledged the sacrifices made by Israeli soldiers in the audience, whose stories are often untold in the U.S. and foreign press. He spoke hard truths — and they are truths — about Iran's role in this conflict and the potential for a wider war in the region. He called for deradicalization in Gaza, where Hamas has provided disastrous leadership and continues to indoctrinate children into hating Jews and Israel. He also rightly criticized some ignorant American leftists who have gone beyond protesting the humanitarian crisis and started adopting cheers, slogans, and talking points from Hamas — and those burning American flags outside Congress only bolstered his points.
But much of the speech was tough to listen to. It was meant to divide Americans further on an already incredibly divisive issue, and a foreign leader intentionally using rhetoric meant to incite anger among our own political factions in the halls of Congress should be genuinely offensive. While he did reference the hostages — people like Alon Gat's sister — he gave little update on the negotiations, took no accountability for his war cabinet's failure to get them home, and laid out no clear path to do so anytime soon.
Netanyahu’s definition of "total victory" provided a harrowing reminder of where the war is headed. U.S. intelligence estimates that Israel has only killed 30% of Hamas's military wing. Meanwhile, Hamas has used Israel's incursion to recruit thousands more combatants to the war, so the number of Hamas fighters and leaders is seemingly inexhaustible. That means the war will not end when "Hamas is destroyed" but when Netanyahu decides to stop. Even at its current aggressive rate (roughly 14,000 killed in the first eight months of the war), and without factoring in Hamas recruitment, the IDF would need another two years to kill some 90% of Hamas combatants — considering that Israel estimates about two Palestinian civilians die for every Hamas fighter, the implications of that kind of timeline are horrifying.
Relatedly, Netanyahu made no acknowledgment of the suffering of Palestinian civilians, or how that suffering will continue if this war goes on. All he could muster was that civilian death is a tragedy for Israel but a strategy for Hamas — no acknowledgment of the bad apples in his own ranks or the IDF’s mistakes that have killed Palestinian civilians, aid workers, and even Israeli hostages. Nothing.
Instead, Netanyahu completely flattened the conflict into a binary narrative of good versus evil, democracy versus barbarism. Many on the left criticized this language as dehumanizing and for dangerously conflating Hamas combatants with Gazan civilians. I think those are strong and important criticisms. Even if we can expect some level of dehumanization of enemies in war, reducing Hamas to simply "evil" and the Palestinian movement to "barbarism" makes it impossible to grasp this conflict with any depth. I interviewed Israeli analyst Haviv Rettig Gur, who made the strong point that Hamas is a group operating within a centuries-old context of complex political, religious, and philosophical thought. Understanding what motivates Hamas (and their supporters) is critical to achieving any lasting peace, but the reductive terms Netanyahu employs will only obscure that understanding.
And, of course, Netanyahu's vision for the future includes few realistic steps toward peace. He called for "overriding security control" of whatever post-war Gaza exists. It’s hard to interpret that any other way than as a return to 20 years ago, when Israeli soldiers occupied Gaza, putting Israel and Palestine in a constant state of low-level war for the foreseeable future.
So: No end to this war in sight, no imagined future without Israeli soldiers on the ground in Gaza, and not a single fresh idea for lasting peace.
In the end, Netanyahu's speech mostly did damage. The Israeli Prime Minister has not taken accountability for his failures, and it’s easy to see this diplomatic visit as an attempt to save his hide domestically against rising demands to hold an election to replace him. I think Susan Hattis Rolef summed it up best in her piece in The Jerusalem Post, which is worth reiterating: “Netanyahu is rapidly losing his hold over many of his ministers, and the support of a majority of the citizens of Israel, thereby making his bravado somewhat hollow... with so many unresolved, painful issues on the Israeli agenda, perhaps last week was not the right time for Netanyahu to appear before Congress.”
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Your questions, answered.
Q: Are you concerned that the RNC did not provide you with admission to their event? I’m asking because I don’t know if that is common or were you pegged as a liberal?
— Carol from Richfield, WI
Tangle: No, I’m not concerned! First, I don’t think it had anything to do with us. Humbly, I think we are one of the most balanced news organizations in the country — we have an audience of liberals, conservatives, and independents, and we’ve been rated “center” and “highly factual” by media bias watchdogs.
Second, I don’t think they were blacklisting reporters they saw as left-leaning. Loads of obviously liberal journalists got press passes to the RNC, from major TV news outlets like CNN to writers from The Atlantic.
Truly, I have no idea why our press pass application got rejected. Maybe we filled the application out wrong. Maybe we were too late. Maybe some organizer just didn’t know who we were and didn’t take the time to look us up. You usually don’t get explanations about this stuff, which is a bummer, and I would have loved to have been there. But I’m excited that we did get approved for the DNC in Chicago — and very excited to offer some unique coverage of that event in August!
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Under the radar.
U.S. fertility rates hit a historic low last year and are not expected to go up anytime soon. In 2023, a Pew Research survey found 47% of U.S. adults younger than 50 without kids said they are unlikely to have children, up 10 percentage points from 2018. A new Pew survey explored the reasons for this trend and found 57% of 18- to 49-year-olds said they "just don't want to" have children, while 44% said they were focusing on other things, and 38% said they were concerned about the state of the world. 36% cited the costs of raising a child, and 26% cited concerns about the environment. Pew has the story.
Numbers.
- 72%. The percentage of Israelis who think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to resign over the failures of October 7, according to a July 2024 poll from Israel’s Channel 12.
- 39%. The percentage of Israelis who say Netanyahu is most responsible for the security failures on Oct. 7.
- 64%. The percentage of Israelis who support a ceasefire deal with Hamas to secure the return of the hostages.
- 110. The estimated remaining number of hostages who have not been released by Hamas, one-third of whom are believed to be dead.
- 96. The number of U.S. lawmakers who did not attend Netanyahu’s address to Congress, according to Anadolu.
- 1. The number of Republican lawmakers who did not attend the address — Rep. Thomas Massie (KY).
- 290. The number of days since Israel’s military operation in Gaza began.
The extras.
- One year ago today we had just covered Florida’s new African American studies curriculum.
- The most clicked link in Thursday’s newsletter was the attack ad against Vice President Harris.
- Nothing to do with politics: Some of the best names of the horses competing in the Paris Olympics.
- Thursday’s survey: 1,685 readers took our ranked-choice survey asking whom Kamala Harris should select as her running mate with Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) breaching the majority threshold in the first round of voting with 1,147 votes. After 9 rounds, Kelly outpaced second-place finisher Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro 1,373 to 283. You can see the full results here.
Have a nice day.
The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians have a secret weapon against wildfires: goats. As part of their diet, the goats eat dry bush, grass, and other natural materials susceptible to fueling fires. In total, about 400 goats have been used in fire prevention in San Manuel and San Bernardino since 2019. Lynn Valbuena, chairwoman of the San Manuel Mission Band of Indians, comments that “caring for the land is a sacred duty of the Tribe” and “stewardship is a responsibility given to our people by the Creator.” KTLA5 has the story.
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