Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Political correspondent Tal Schneider joins host Jessica Steinberg for today’s episode.

WATCH the full episode here:

With northern Israel battered by barrages of rockets from Hezbollah throughout the weekend, Schneider discusses criticism aimed at the government for allowing the situation to continue, while noting that Israel’s hands are tied: it can’t disrupt US negotiations with Iran, and the regime in Tehran controls Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Schneider also talks about Beaufort Castle, a strategic fortress in Lebanon last controlled by Israel in 2000 and now taken by the IDF once again.

MKs are set to further advance a bill on Monday to dissolve parliament, and to choose one of several possible dates for elections in September or October.  Schneider reviews the limited options, given that elections must be held by October 27 at the latest.

Check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

Soldier killed in Hezbollah drone strike in Lebanon; IDF captures strategic Beaufort Castle

Plurality of far-right voters oppose government with ultra-Orthodox parties — poll

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.

Check out yesterday’s episode here:

Today’s transcript:

Jessica Steinberg: Hi, welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing. It’s Sunday, May 31. I’m Jessica Steinberg, here today with my colleague, political correspondent Tal Schneider. Tal, hi. Good morning.

Tal Schneider: Hi, Jessica. Good morning.

Steinberg: Hi. We are going to talk about the very intensive and grave situation in Israel’s north. An IDF soldier, Michael Tyukin, was killed by a Hezbollah drone as troops captured the strategic Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon. There are thousands of schoolchildren who are home today in the North amid this unending barrage of Hezbollah attacks over the course of the weekend. So as I said, we’ll talk about that. We’ll also talk about what’s going on in the Knesset, as there is an expected vote on dismantling the Knesset, the 25th Knesset. And setting a date for elections. Stay with us.

Intensified fire with Hezbollah in the North this weekend

Steinberg: Okay, Tal, let’s get started on what’s happening in the North, what you’ve been hearing, what politicians are saying, but really what we’re talking about in terms of this ceasefire that’s not a ceasefire.

Schneider: Right, Jessica. It’s a very, very rough weekend over the upper north part of the country. As you said, it’s a ceasefire, which is not a ceasefire. Actually, Israeli media stopped calling it a ceasefire. They start nicknaming it hemeshech ha’aish, which is a continuation of fire, because this is a day and night bombardment that is taking place almost since mid-April with no stops and people have to take shelters and, or stay in the safe rooms. And during this weekend, it intensified, but also the range was broadened. It’s not only communities right on the border, such as Rosh HaNikra or Shlomi or Kiryat Shmona. Now it reached Nahariya, and then it reached Tzfat. These are places that are a couple of miles away from the border, and they all had to take shelter and sit in the safe rooms for hours, not being able to do anything. And today, Sunday, and for tomorrow, Monday, everything is closed, including public schools, including everything. No businesses, no events, nothing can take place. They all have to stay in, which is a very harsh situation up there. We also know that some of the rockets hit midtown and hurt businesses and they had to shut down.

So people are without a job and without the ability to get out. Horrific situation up there. And there is a lot of criticism of the government because the government’s, the military, hands are pretty much tied for what they can do as a reaction up in Lebanon. Obviously, the IDF is in the field inside Lebanon.

Israel’s control of Beaufort Castle

During the weekend, they took control of yet another big location, which is called the Beaufort. It’s a very well-known old castle. They took it. It’s a controlling area. It’s like on the top of a very high hill, and you can actually control it also, if you look south, it’s a controlling area. From which you can shoot Metula, which is another city on the border. But also, you can view almost all the way to the eastern side, to the sea, or to the western, I’m sorry, to the western side, to the sea or to the eastern valleys. So, the military took control of this place, of this location. But having said that, the IDF hands are tied in a way because the IDF and the governments want to align themselves with the [President Donald] Trump administration and with the United States.

And since the United States is during those high times of negotiation with the Iranians, and obviously the Iranians control the Hezbollah military in the southern Lebanon area, so the IDF doesn’t want to blow up things in order not to ruin the entire negotiation process. So it’s a very thin line, a very problematic line, and a lot of public criticism about the way things are going up there.

Steinberg: Tal, I just want to go back to what you were mentioning about Beaufort Castle, which of course, this is not the first time that Israel has taken control of that high point in Lebanon. Back in the [19]80s, this was a very significant location in Lebanon. And, and really resonates for Israelis to think that soldiers are back there again.

Schneider: Right. It’s a big symbol. It’s been discussed over and over again, through many years, dozens of years. Actually, the parents, the fathers and the mothers, and mostly the fathers of the soldiers that are just in there, served themselves in the Beaufort and also some of the grandparents, because this is, you know, from the ’80s. And then again, 2006, the Second Lebanon War. Very well-known terrain, very well-known area. The place, the Beaufort itself, one of the harshest battles took place in that area. Many soldiers were killed. And I have to tell you, I mean, this place is so big in Israel’s historical thinking and historical understanding. It went into the books, into the movies. And into the songs. So, everybody knows the name. And it feels this morning, hearing from the IDF that we are back in the Beaufort, it’s — some people are, you know, I don’t want to say delight, but, you know, many people are, they have this sour feeling of repeating history, repeating itself without an end. It’s over and over again without an end in sight. And it’s very sad, by the way. So, I mean, no one wants to be inside Lebanon.

And we know there is a population out there. It’s not a good thing.

Political implications of continued war with Lebanon

Steinberg: So Tal, just on the political end, though, you mentioned this beforehand; there’s really no way out of this, in a sense. The army’s hands are tied. You know, the opposition can yell at the government, but in a sense, what is there really that can change in this situation?

Schneider: Right. The opposition leaders are slamming the government, both Bennett-Lapid [Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid], [Gadi] Eisenkot and [Avigdor] Lieberman. They keep on saying, “What are you doing? Your hands are tied. You are managed by the White House.” The White House issued — I mean, Trump issued a statement a couple of days ago saying, “oh, [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu will do whatever we tell him to do.” So they play on that. They keep saying you cannot neglect our citizens and our soldiers in such a manner. As we said, having said that, you know — you got the Trump administration and the American military on board with respect to Iran, so you cannot, you cannot expect to have it in a different way. And the opposition in Israel, we have to put it in perspective. This is the election period, and part of their criticism comes with this political point of view. And Jessica, to be honest, if we had things otherwise, the order was different and Netanyahu was in the opposition and they were managing, he would slam them for what we see in the Upper North when you have businesses being shuttered and citizens not being able to live and kids stay at home, you would have all of the Likud [National Liberal Movement] members are all around the place yelling and rightfully so.

So, but part of the people up in the North are very, very upset. They moved back to those areas just recently, like a couple of months, I mean, almost less than a year ago. And they can’t, they cannot contain a life like that. It’s impossible.

Steinberg: Right. Okay, Tal, let’s move from the North for a moment. We’ll take a break. When we’re back, let’s talk about what the expectations are for actually dissolving the 25th Knesset and setting a date for elections. So stay with us.

Discourse over dissolving the 25th Knesset and upcoming election dates

Okay, so we’re back. Tomorrow is, in theory, possibly the day when the Knesset will be dissolved, will vote to dissolve itself in essence, and will set a date for upcoming elections. There’s a few possibilities out there. Tal, I’d love for you to take us through it. What are the various possibilities? Something that we’ve discussed many times, and it might be here, right? This moment.

Schneider: Right. So basically, the election takes place on October 27th. The ultra-Orthodox parties, who are now trying to distance themselves from Netanyahu, according to what they say, if you believe that. They say, “No, we want to go to election early on September 1st because this is a month of forgiveness, a month of selichot, lots of prayer time, lots of times in the synagogue and inside the communities.” It’s a good atmosphere for them to convene and to preach and to bring people for a higher voter turnout. They think only about their own public. It’s not a good time at all for secular or both liberal, I mean right and left, or secular or even Masorti traditional. It’s not a good time to have elections on September 1st.

Steinberg: The first day of school, right?

Schneider: So it’s like the first day of school, instead of going to school after all of those years, you’re gonna start it with election day. But also, in order to campaign during July and August, it’s not perfect, to say the least. Yeah, people are away. Some people return from their summer break at the end of August 25th, August 27th. They don’t even bother to be at home a week before school. So this is the Israeli custom, the way you do vacations. You take it all the way up.

Steinberg: You push it. Right.

Schneider: Yeah, plus, it’s well known in Israel’s history that July and August are low-rating TV times because people are, they stay at the beach until very late in the day because of the heat. They don’t, they don’t trust the TV. How would you do a campaign if people are just outdoors and elsewhere in the rivers or on the beach? Very problematic. We had it only once in Israel’s history, having a campaign in September, right before Rosh Hashanah, before New Year’s Eve. It was back in 2019. It worked very badly for this coalition. And, you know, people who are secular, it’s not only lefties or liberal or centrist, it’s also that the Likud base is very secular as well. I mean, it’s not all religious people. So religious are more into the ultra-orthodox. So, I don’t get why Netanyahu is willing to go along with that. But, if he does want to go there and have the election taking place on September 1st, they have to pass the bill to dissolve the Knesset in the next 48 hours. So they will bring it up tomorrow to a vote for the first vote, but they need to bring the second and the third vote very close.

The latest they can do it is on Tuesday because you need to have 90 days before the election to conduct all of the preparations. And 90 days starts tomorrow. So for that reason, I have a gut feeling this is not going to work. The timetable is very stressed and we don’t see from Netanyahu any kind of willingness to have an election on September 1st. Then, you can go back all the way to October 27th, but the ultra-Orthodox, they keep on suggesting other dates which also are very uncomfortable. For example, September 15th, which is between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This is the 10 days of repentance. Exactly, selichot. And this is very bad for the coalition. If you think about what the graphic designers of the opposition can do with those 10 days, they can actually preach for forgiveness from the managers or the ministers of this country and so on and so forth. Also, since those 10 days are very sensitive in the Israeli calendar, meaning it’s a family time, it’s an introspective time, people are regretting and feeling sorrow for everything they’ve done.

Steinberg: Why would the ultra-Orthodox want it during the 10 Days of Repentance? That doesn’t make sense to me.

Schneider: I think, again, because this is convening time.

Steinberg: Convening time for them, everyone’s around.

Schneider: It’s a prayer time, so the ears are open to preaching in a way that they’re not during the entire year. The soul of a person, I think also for secular, also for secular, it’s this time of regret and sorrow and so on. But, the election committee said, “You know, guys, listen, we need to count the vote. We cannot count the vote on Yom Kippur. It’s not going to work. This is Yom Kippur. It’s impossible.” So, yeah, very problematic. I don’t get why the Likud wants to go there. So then you go back to the end of October, which another, it’s like between you and me, it’s a tiny game of dates. It doesn’t really matter. Some people say, “Oh, don’t go for election on October 27th because then you’re gonna have the number seven in those postcards and those memes and those internet schemes.” Where you can, you know, when the other side can, you know, make the seven bold, you know, the number seven is now a big number in Israel’s, you know, anniversary recognition of the massacre. You don’t wanna have an election on October 6th, it’s another Tuesday, because this is just the day before the massacre took place.

So I mean, I have to tell you, that game, this date game, is really getting on my nerves and everybody’s nerves because we want those politicians and those leaders to deal with the effects of the Lebanon situation. I’m not talking about — if you can’t finish off the war, which you can’t do immediately — at least give them some financial assistance, at least give them some benefits. And they’re not doing it. Those people up in the North are very upset when they see the entire country talking about Yom Kippur and October 7th and October 27th. And they say, “come on, guys, what are you doing? Where are we? We don’t have a place to vote.”

Steinberg: “Where are we in this?”

Schneider: “We won’t be able to go to vote, at all.” So yeah.

Steinberg: That’s where we are. Okay. Tal, thank you so much.

Schneider: Thank you, Jessica.

Steinberg: Thanks for being with me. And thanks to you for listening to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s installment. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht. As always, feel free to recommend this to other listeners and rate us wherever you find your podcasts. Until next time, take care. Be well. Have yourselves a good Sunday. See you soon.