Hello,
Here are the five things you need to know today:
ISRAEL. Netanyahu loses his majority, but not his power.
SAUDI ARABIA. YEMEN. Another oil hub attack sends prices soaring.
UKRAINE. RUSSIA. Putin suddenly has a choice of interlocutors.
EL SALVADOR. HAITI. The coolest dictator steps into the hottest kitchen.
THE AMERICAS. Florida becomes the latest refuge of the scoundrel.
You’re reading one of today’s five analyses.
Subscribe to read all five, every weekday.
ISRAEL. Devil-may-caretaker
Netanyahu loses his majority, but not his power.
Benjamin Netanyahu said “this is only the beginning” as the Likud party led a close election in early counting, despite his coalition’s loss of its majority. Israel and the US would launch strikes after the midterms, the Wall Street Journal said.
INTELLIGENCE. A potentially long period of coalition negotiations begins, and Netanyahu can potentially use military force, allowable under caretaker provisions, to complicate discussions and bring wavering opposition members to his side. He’ll also use the spectre of a bigger bloc of Arab and left-wing parties to convince those opponents they’re better off with him than against. Either way, there seems little chance of a shift in Israel’s strategic and foreign policy.
FOR BUSINESS. Netanyahu has wrangled all sorts of alliances in his 19 years in power, and he doesn’t need the far-right bloc he assembled in 2022 to be belligerent on Iran or Palestine. And even if the presumed opposition leader, Gadi Eisenkot, takes charge, hardliners in the Knesset, as well as his stated beliefs, augur for a similarly hawkish stance. And while a 77.7% turnout and a swing toward the pro-Palestinian Joint List are notable, they’re not enough.
SAUDI ARABIA. YEMEN. Chokepoint chicken
Another oil hub attack sends prices soaring.
Yemen’s Houthis claimed to have hit Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil hub Tuesday and to have repelled an advance near the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. Brent hit $116 as Iran said it would begin targeting tankers that had not paid its Hormuz tolls.