Ground invasion looking likely: <\/strong>“Every Hamas member is a dead man,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> in a speech yesterday, accompanied by his newly formed wartime cabinet, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and opposition leader Benny Gantz. “Hamas is ISIS, and we will crush and eliminate it just as the world crushed and eliminated ISIS.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Israel is in one of its darkest hours ever,” said Gantz. Following this past weekend’s massacre<\/a> of Israelis by Hamas, the military is sending troops to the Gaza border, which signals the increasing likelihood of a ground invasion. Israeli airline El Al will, for the first time since the 1980s, fly on Shabbat<\/a>, carrying army reservists back from around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hamas has abducted more than 150 people total\u2014almost all civilians\u2014and “threatened to execute them one by one and videotape the killings each time an Israeli airstrike hits Gazans in their homes,” per<\/a>\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>. Some of the hostages are confirmed to be Americans, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on the ground<\/a> in Israel now. (The total American death toll<\/a> went up to 25 overnight.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, power has gone out in Gaza after Israel blockaded the strip, cutting off access to fuel that’s used for the region’s only power plant. Generators are powering the main hospital, Al-Shifa, but authorities in Palestine say they only have three days’ worth of fuel, max, left. “It feels like the world is collapsing,” one Gazan told reporters<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pentagon abortion policy? <\/strong>If you read\u00a0Roundup\u00a0<\/em>yesterday, you’ll note that I mentioned that the U.S. currently has no ambassador to Israel<\/a>. The reason why? Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R\u2013Ala.) is protesting a controversial Pentagon policy<\/a> that facilitates<\/a> service members traveling to get abortions by reimbursing their travel expenses and allowing them up to three weeks of paid leave for this purpose.<\/p>\n

As part of this protest, Tuberville is holding up the confirmations of not only the ambassador to Israel but also two nominees for Joint Chiefs and tons of high-up military promotions.<\/p>\n

“Tuberville’s blockade is unique because it affects hundreds of military nominations and promotions,” reports<\/a> the Associated Press. “Democratic leaders would have to hold roll call votes on every one to get around the hold, an unwieldy and time-consuming process in a chamber that already struggles to finish its basic business.”<\/p>\n

For people with deeply held moral objections to abortion\u2014like myself\u2014the fact that so many workplaces (Meta, Airbnb, KPMG, JP Morgan<\/a>, Tesla, Disney, Amazon, Netflix<\/a>) now offer “abortion benefits” in the wake of the Supreme Court’s\u00a0Dobbs <\/em>decision is disturbing. But more practically, it creates problems when those issuing such benefits are divided on their prudence and morality; Tuberville and many of his Republican colleagues clearly stand in opposition to the federal government providing such lenience for abortion-seekers, which has now resulted in the bizarre ambassador holdup as war breaks out in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

“Partisan antics have gotten in the way of key nominations and military promotions for too long,” Sen. Chris Coons (D\u2013Del.) said<\/a> recently. Coons unfortunately seems oblivious to the idea that it’s actually partisan antics on both sides that have led to this situation.<\/p>\n

Congressional kerfuffles: <\/b>Representatives in the House remain unsure who they want to elect as speaker following the historic ouster<\/a> of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R\u2013Calif.) last week. After meeting privately yesterday, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R\u2013La.) seems like the narrow favorite.<\/p>\n

He “won the GOP conference’s nomination for speaker by a 113-99 vote, but he needs 217 votes to become speaker and thus can only afford to lose around four Republican votes on the House floor,” reports<\/a>\u00a0Axios.<\/em><\/p>\n

That said, “if Republicans aren’t able to line up behind either of the two leading contenders to be speaker of the House\u2014<\/span>Representative Steve Scalise<\/span><\/a> of Louisiana and <\/span>Representative Jim Jordan<\/span><\/a> of Ohio\u2014there is a third possibility that a bloc of Republicans favors: the former speaker, Representative Kevin McCarthy,” <\/span>reports<\/span><\/a> The New York Times<\/span><\/i>. We will be living through Groundhog Day<\/em>, forevermore.<\/span><\/p>\n