Daily Briefing July 19: Knesset disbands with bangs and whimpers

Deputy Editor Amanda Borschel-Dan is the host of The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, What Matters Now and The Reel Schmooze podcasts, and heads up The Times of Israel’s features.

Tal Schneider is a Political Correspondent at The Times of Israel

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 Amanda Borschel-Dan for today’s episode.

The Knesset voted early Friday morning to disband itself ahead of the October 27 election, heading into a recess after the coalition’s last-ditch blitz succeeded in passing a spate of controversial legislation into law.

Addressing the plenum, Knesset Speaker MK Amir Ohana, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, called the 25th Knesset the “most challenging” in Israeli history, encompassing Israel’s longest war and widespread social upheaval.

Schneider takes us back to the beginning of the Knesset session and explains which aspects of the judicial overhaul package have passed — and what moves the Supreme Court has made to counter some of them.

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

Knesset officially disperses, after coalition completes its drastic legislative blitz

Coalition passes media overhaul law, giving government greater regulatory control

Coalition’s ‘legislative blitz’ is designed to shore-up, unshackle right-wing power

Coalition passes law gutting attorney general’s powers, removing key check on government

Iran said to tell Hezbollah, allies to prepare for wider conflict, which could rope in Israel

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.

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.

As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.

— Stav Levaton, military reporter