Deadly Druze Drama

In this episode we begin with the latest reports on how European leaders convinced President Trump to turn on Vladimir Putin; we reflect on how Putin has misplayed his hand with as potentially friendly a US president as he could have hoped for, and how Chancellor Merz’s request for long-range Typhoon missile batteries takes German defense policy to a place many analysts never expected. Then we move to the Levant and discuss the complex and troubling conflict between Israel and the new government in Damascus triggered by violence between Druze factions and their Sunni Arab neighbors. Is the Netanyahu government’s policy toward Syria becoming incoherent due to domestic political pressure? Relatedly, we discuss the murder of Florida-born 20-year-old Saif Mussallet in the West Bank at the hands of the Judeofascist terrorists who I was ranting about even before they killed a US citizen; I argue that Ambassador Huckabee’s call for an investigation is insufficient given how the extremists are vulnerable to laws prohibiting the hilltop settlements where they live, which National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has shown no interest in enforcing, and Grant wonders if the falling out between Trump and some of his conspiracy-addled supporters may give the administration room to pressure Israel on issues like this. Finally, we preview this weekend’s Japanese election, where the LDP-Komeito majority in the upper house of the Diet is under threat in part from Sanseito, Japan’s own conspiracy-addled populists.