Likud launches billboard ahead of elections with the four Horses Asses of the Apolcalypse

Likud billboard with Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem. August 16, 2026. 

Likud has apparently decided that the best way to kick off election season is to remind Israelis that, when it comes to political enemies, there is always room for a few more.

The party unveiled a billboard featuring Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem. Israeli social media accounts shared images of the billboard Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu helpfully reposted the image with the caption: “Don’t let them win.”

The billboard itself reportedly reads: “They want Netanyahu to lose, don’t let them win.”

The Jerusalem Post, however, believes the billboard is not actually in Jerusalem, as social media posts claimed, but in Tel Aviv overlooking the Ayalon Highway. Apparently even billboards are getting caught up in the Israeli election geography dispute.

Naturally, Israeli politicians were not going to let Likud have all the fun.

Yashar, the party led by former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, produced its own version. Its billboard read: “They want the IDF to collapse, don’t let Netanyahu win.”

“Netanyahu, we fixed for you,” the X/Twitter caption read. “Only Eisenkot will establish a fully Zionist government.”

Then MK Naama Lazimi entered the fray with perhaps the most politically loaded Photoshop job of the day.

She replaced Likud’s four villains with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Netanyahu’s current strategic adviser Yonatan Urich, former media adviser Eli Feldstein, and former political adviser Srulik Einhorn, all of whom are believed to be connected to the Qatargate affair.

Qatargate concerns an investigation into Netanyahu aides who allegedly received payments from Qatar while involved in hostage negotiations with Hamas. Nothing says Israeli political unity quite like accusing your opponent of being compromised by the country associated with Hamas.

Lazimi changed the billboard's message to: “They want Netanyahu to win, don’t let them lose.”

“Netanyahu, I updated this to the Qatargate version,” she wrote. “The invoice will be submitted on October 7.”

At this point, Israeli election campaigning has apparently evolved into a national Photoshop competition with the added benefit of an occasional national security implication.

And the polls suggest voters have plenty of choices. Eisenkot’s Yashar currently leads with 24 Knesset seats, followed by Netanyahu’s Likud with 22 and Naftali Bennett’s B'Yachad with 15.

The election has not even arrived yet, and the candidates are already putting each other on billboards with Ayatollahs, terrorists, foreign leaders and alleged scandal participants.

Israelis may want to buckle up. Election season is apparently going to be a long one.

Thanks for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee at any amount if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.

Tweet

Israel's Political Class Flirts With Civilian Control Becoming Political Control

Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot (Channel 12 screenshot)

There are moments in the life of a democracy when the greatest danger does not come from an external enemy, but from the temptation of those in power to bend the state's institutions to their own political ambitions. Israel, a nation whose security depends on an independent and professional military, has once again found itself confronting that uncomfortable reality.

The latest controversy erupted after Defense Minister Israel Katz announced during a live television appearance that he was replacing IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, despite lacking the legal authority to make such a decision. Whether one supports or opposes the current government, the episode raises a far more consequential question than the fate of a single general. It asks whether political theater is beginning to eclipse the rule of law in matters of national defense.

Opposition leader and former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot wasted little time condemning the move.


"The spectacle that took place on [Channel 14] was an unprecedented lowpoint in relations between the political and military echelons, an improper and unlawful act," Eisenkot wrote on X. "The State of Israel is no one's private property, and the IDF is not a tool to be used in primaries by politicians who've lost their way."

His criticism lands at an especially delicate political moment. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party is preparing for August 17 primaries, where more than 100,000 party members will determine the party's Knesset slate ahead of Israel's October 27 general election. Katz is widely viewed as seeking a higher position on that list, making any appearance of politicizing military leadership especially damaging.

Eisenkot did not stop there. He argued that the government "is not fit to safeguard the security of the state," adding that "very soon, the people of Israel will have worthy and responsible leadership, with Israel's welfare and security as its sole concern."

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was equally unsparing, accusing the government of turning against the very institution charged with defending the nation.


"After dismantling the IDF from the outside and paving the way for mass draft evasion, the October 7 government has now decided to dismantle the IDF from within and guarantee complete chaos," Bennett wrote. "Tonight, I say to every citizen of Israel, and to all IDF soldiers and commanders, both active-duty and reservists: Hold on tight, the reinforcements are on their way. Soon, we will replace them, and together we will set things right."

Israel's security has always rested on a delicate constitutional understanding. Civilian leaders rightly command the military, but they do so through established legal authority and institutional restraint, not televised declarations or campaign calculations. Democracies survive because governments change while institutions endure.

Whether this latest dispute proves to be an isolated political misjudgment or a symptom of something more corrosive remains to be seen. But history offers a consistent lesson: once military appointments become instruments of partisan advantage, public confidence in both government and the armed forces begins to erode. That is a price Israel, surrounded by enemies and dependent upon the professionalism of the IDF, can scarcely afford to pay.

I want to thank you for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to simply check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.

Tweet

Netanyahu confirms Israeli airstrike on Iranian weapons storehouses in Syria

At the start of last Sunday's cabinet meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Syrian media reports that Israel bombed the Iranian capital airport over the weekend.

“We are determined more than ever to take action against Iran in Syria,” Netanyahu declared at the beginning of the Sunday cabinet meeting.

“Just in the last 36 hours, the air force attacked Iranian warehouses with Iranian weapons at the international airport in Damascus,” the prime minister stated. “The accumulation of recent attacks proves that we are determined more than ever to take action against Iran in Syria, just as we promised.”

The Syrians filed a formal complaint Saturday with the United Nations Security Council over the attack on a “Ministry of Transport warehouse” at the Damascus airport late Friday night. Netanyahu clarified that the airstrike was part and parcel of the Jewish state’s ongoing efforts to stop Iran’s military from setting up a permanent presence in close proximity to Israel.

"How can we destroy Israel if they're going to blow up our weapons? This isn't fair," Iranian military official Hassan al Hassan said. "They keep doing this stuff just as we're about to attack."

Bibi, as he is warmly known as in Israel, was speaking in the context of thanking retiring Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot for all his success in leading the IDF action against the Iranian threat. [The IDF stands for Israeli Defense Forces.]

“The IDF – under your command – worked with exceptional cooperation with all of the security arms – the ISA, Mossad, Israel Police and other bodies,” Bibi said. “We worked with impressive success to block Iran’s military entrenchment in Syria. In this framework, the IDF attacked Iranian and Hezbollah targets hundreds of times.

“We worked together against the manufacture of precision weapons in Lebanon,” Netanyahu continued. “We worked to dismantle Hezbollah’s tunnels weapon in Lebanon, in Operation Northern Shield. We took action against Hamas tunnels on the Gaza border. We thwarted hundreds of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria and we carried out very many other actions, open and covert. The IDF has major achievements under your command. We yet have much work to do and we will do it.”

In fact, the IDF uncovered and demolished the sixth Hezbollah attack tunnel on Saturday afternoon, after which it announced the successful completion of Operation Northern Shield. The tunnel began about two thousand meters inside Syria and several hundred meters into Israel.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights publicized on Saturday that “two areas hosting military positions of Iranian forces and the [Iranian-backed] Lebanese Hezbollah movement” had been the targets, with the Hezbollah site being missile depots in the Al-Kiswah neighborhood of the capital.

Syrian military sources told the SANA news agency that the country’s air defenses had intercepted many of the missiles launched towards Damascus “and downed most of them.”

Despite their alleged success, the foreign ministry still turned to the U.N. to accuse Israel of being “no different” than the Islamic extremist organizations fighting the Syrian regime in their years-long civil war, and even stated that Israel had a “joint agenda” with those terrorists. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense--Israel working with the most religious people of a religion whose scripture calls for the killing of Jews.

Syria also accused the United States of helping Israel and of being guilty by association.

Let's hope that's true--we should unashamedly be helping our allies whenever they need our help. Especially Iran who calls for the death not only of Israel but of the United States.

Who does Syria think  is leading the USA, Barack Obama?

Will 2019 be the year you follow Brain Flushings and have a few laughs while you get a conservative viewpoint? Let's hope so, because politics is the new NFL without the mindless kneeling and this blog will both inform you and hopefully entertain you bigly.




Tweet

Hezbollah leader killed by his own men

Jerusalem -- Israel has determined that Hezbollah's top scumcrumpet commander, Mustafa Badreddine, was killed in Syria last May by rivals within the Shiite militant group, Israel's military chief Lt. General Gadi Eisenkot said Tuesday.

The announcement is an indication of a growing feud between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group sworn to Israel's destruction.

Hezbollah has over 100,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel and they are seen as a powerful enemy of the Jewish State. But Israel believes the group has been weakened and demoralized after fighting  alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria.

Eisenkot said that the death of Badreddine illustrates "the depth of the internal crisis within Hezbollah," and also said that it reflected "the extent of the cruelty, complexity and tension between Hezbollah and its patron Iran."

One Israeli official said his country believes that the order to kill Badreddine was given by Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. 

Israeli intelligence believes Badreddine had been feuding with Iranian military leaders in Syria over the numerous losses his fighters suffered in battle. Both Iran and Hezbollah are backing Assad's government forces.

Hezbollah had no comment other than to say that Badreddine was killed as a result of insurgent shelling in Syria.

Badreddine was considered Hezbollah's top military official and was among five members on trial in absentia in the Netherlands for the bombing that killed Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri along with 21 others in Beirut in 2005.

Hezbollah doesn't want a confrontation with Israel right now because it's bogged down in the Syrian fighting and has lost hundreds of militants.


Tweet