On this day last year, the International Association of Genocide Scholars declared that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, under the UN legal definition of the term. Israel has not stopped killing since.
Good morning and happy September, dear friends. May the cosmic energy from Augustās solar and lunar eclipses fuel our curiosity and empathy, help us heal and let go of our old wounds, and welcome us to a new day. Prem here, with all the news you need.
To start āFirst Draft,ā hereās someone, and his ferocity, we may soon be rid of if his voters finally decide enough is enough. Benjamin Netanyahu was just on Israeli television, openly bragging about how he tricked those stubborn and misinformed Americans into finally attacking Iran. Below, Iāll take you back to something else Netanyahu did, two years ago, inside Capitol Hill, on my first day at Zeteo.
Plus, Chief Justice John Roberts said Donald Trumpās ludicrous White House ballroom project was ālikely unlawfulā but really just argued about standing to sue ā and crocodiles ā with five other conservatives who had him outnumbered, thereby freeing Trump to erect his emiratic carbuncle where the East Wing once stood.
Come along, then, as we digest another insane day under Trump, but also another day on which āFirst Draftā is published without a paywall, so new readers can see what Zeteo brings to the table each weekday morning: reporting and opinion on all the news you need, on the political subjects that matter. Letās get to it.
Ask Not What Your Country Can Do Forā¦ Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu has spent decades pushing U.S. presidents to attack Iran. He asked four presidents point-blank to do so. Three refused, over and over. With Donald Trump, Netanyahuās luck finally changed. Now, as the Israeli prime minister scrambles to hold onto his job in election season, he is going around Israel bragging about how exactly he convinced the worldās most powerful military to bend to his will.
On Sunday, Netanyahu sat for an interview with the genocide-inciting Israeli TV network, Channel 14. There, he appealed to Israeli voters about why they ought to continue supporting him.
āIāve been against Iran for almost 40 years,ā Netanyahu said, adding that āit took a long time to bring the United States to its senses.ā
He was able to do it, Netanyahu said, because he had āclose to 1,000 hours on American television with the ability to influence the United States ā with the intimate knowledge of all its leaders, both those who support us and those who donāt support us ā the ability to navigate this field, through it.ā
The gall. In English, Netanyahu lavishes praise on U.S. leaders. In Hebrew, he boasts of how he manipulated them.
Thatās not all of it, though.
Some of you may not remember, but the following is forever seared in my memory. On my first day at Zeteo, two years ago, Netanyahu came to Washington. While he delivered a speech that had members of both parties applauding with a level of zeal they donāt show even for a U.S. president, the Israeli prime minister also attacked Americans protesting his visit outside.
I want to underline this: A foreign leader, whose entire project benefits from billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars each year, came to U.S. soil, and slandered U.S. citizens ā and U.S. representatives clapped like seals in response.
There is a straight line between that moment ā and the U.S. continuing to unconditionally fund Israel ever since, despite it killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and several Americans ā and today, when Netanyahu feels so comfortable bragging about how he asserted his will over the U.S.
Think what an indictment this is.
Netanyahu explicitly cites how the U.S. media has served as a compliant springboard, a vessel for his influence operation on, if not the populace, at least the consultants and members of Congress who engage with cable news more than their actual constituents.
And as for the American leadership class: You have unconditionally given this man more than $20 billion, at a conservative estimate, in the past three years. Even as he and his soldiers and his terrorist settlers have killed and brutalized and bullied a double-digit number of Americans, you have given him more and more. And anytime someone has gained enough momentum to criticize that dynamic with enough gusto to resonate with the people youāre supposed to represent, you either willingly or reluctantly scramble to defame them.
And as for the rest of us, the collective āweā: Do we have an ounce of self-respect? As the polls have shown, definitively, American public sentiment towards Israel has plummeted. Despite mainstream mediaās insistence, itās not even a question of divides over Israel in the Democratic Party ā itās nearly unanimous opposition. And independents are not far behind. Even in the Republican Party ā home to the Christian Zionists and the Trump-First MAGA movement ā opinion on Israel has become split, with no sure sign of it firming up again.
Still, one may hope that the level of condescension, power concentration, and weaponization expressed by the U.S. political class in order to shield its undying support for Israel will prompt something beyond earth-shaking public opinion.
Yes, pro-Israel politicians are beginning to pay the price, particularly in the Democratic primaries. And yes, tens of thousands of Americans, particularly young people, have put themselves on the line and protested against the parasitic U.S.-Israeli relationship and in support of human rights for Palestinians ā and subsequently, of course, been viciously targeted by the ruling party, and smeared by some members of the āoppositionā party and their mainstream media allies.
There comes a point when every dam breaks. It shouldāve happened decades ago. Years ago. Months ago. Every single day delivers another reminder of how heartlessly violent the Israeli state is, and how that behavior is carried out on the U.S. dime. Most Palestinian children killed by Israel are not like Hind Rajab, whose name is now known around the world. In the global mind, most remain nameless. Americans have been killed, defending our Palestinian siblings or while simply trying to live their own lives in Palestine.
If it has not already completely lost its meaning, without action, the promise of American patriotism will ultimately come to be void. With each crime committed against an innocent Palestinian; with each American humiliated or killed with no justice; with each boast Israeli leaders like Netanyahu let loose about how they successfully manipulated the foolish Americans, despite it all; with each such step, any semblance of āprideā in being American is more and more unearned.
As far back as 2001, Netanyahu was caught on camera as he spoke with Israeli settlers during the second intifada. āI know what America is,ā he said. āAmerica is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction.
āThey wonāt get in the way.ā
Looks like he was right.
š®š· Iran War Updates
Loose talk: Donald Trump said āWeāre going to hit them hardā and āThere will be a responseā to Iranian strikes on U.S. bases in Jordan on Sunday ā strikes launched after the U.S. hit Iranian launchers near the Strait of Hormuz, after a month with no attacks. Trump also said the U.S. might āsmack them to see what happens.ā
Strait talk: Iran said a tanker in the Strait hit mines and caught fire. The U.S. denied it. A British monitor said it āreceived a report of an incident involving a tanker and military forces in the Indian Ocean.ā Trump claimed the Strait was in āextremely good shape.ā
Sloppy second: Vice President JD Vance said Trump was āsending a messageā by posting AI videos of blasts on Kharg Island, an oil hub. Iran called the videos ālaughable.ā
āLashing outā: At the G20 meeting in North Carolina, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iran was ālashing out kinetically because they are losing economically.ā
Penta-gone: Dan Driscoll resigned as U.S. Army Secretary after clashing with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. With the military under strain from prolonged war, Fox said Driscoll opposed the firing of generals responsible for transformation and readiness.
Lebanon latest: Lebanon asked Greece to help secure peace with Israel, on the same day Athens signed a multibillion-dollar weapons deal with the Israelis. Lebanonās national news agency said Israeli forces continuing strikes in the south despite a supposed ceasefire dropped illegal white phosphorus munitions.
āI Want To Look at a Crocodileā
Chief Justice John Roberts signed the dissent to the unsigned ruling by which Donald Trumpās pet Supreme Court said he could continue building his White House ballroom because drones, or something. Roberts joined the three liberals, but it was hard to escape the feeling that the man who has done more than most to give Trump what he wants might be crying crocodile tears. Not least because he decided to write about crocodiles.
The majority confined itself to the matter of standing. (Maybe on crocodiles, Roger Mooreās Bond-style. Maybe not.) It said the plaintiff didnāt have it. Roberts said she did. In his words, Alice Hoagland of the National Trust for Historic Preservation āregularly visits the White House to take in the historic buildingās beauty and to appreciate its symbolism. By overshadowing the traditional White House, Hoagland explains, the new ballroom will detract from the buildingās message of republican simplicity and thereby worsen her viewing experience.
āHoaglandās injury suffices for standing. A historic preservationistā¦ can be aesthetically injured in a concrete, particularized way by the transformation of a historic building that she frequently enjoys, just as an environmentalist can sustain a concrete, particularized aesthetic injury from the extinction of a particular animal or the transformation of a particular forest or river that he regularly enjoys.ā
Precedent included Friends of the Earth v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, from 2000. Roberts continued: āWith the Courtās rejection of Hoaglandās standing today, however, it now is the case that āI want to look at a crocodileā can adequately answer the ever critical āwhatās it to you?ā question of Article III standing, while āI want to look at the White Houseā cannot ā no matter how distinctive the particular viewerās interest in looking at it may be.ā
Funny the alleys up which legal arguments take one, when one is not a lawyer. It also seemed, to this non-lawyer, that so much ink need not have been spilled.
āConstruction of the ballroom has proceeded apace for the better part of a year,ā Roberts wrote. āThat construction is likely unlawful. Pursuant to its plenary constitutional authority over the District of Columbia and federal property, Congress has explicitly prohibited the construction of any ābuilding or structureā¦ on any reservation, park, or public grounds of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia without express authority of Congress.ā
Surely the whole thing shouldāve been that simple. Trumpās ballroom is unlawful. But then, this is constitutional law, which is never simple, and always political, and the presidential crocodile Roberts helped create has long escaped control. On Monday, five of Trumpās six right-wingers were happy to let him carry on running amok.
šļø What You Need to Know
Donāt blame Canada: A YouGov survey found that 43% of Americans approve of Canadaās 50% tariffs on U.S. goods in Trumpās trade war, and only 40% disapprove. It also found 61% opposed to renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, to 19% in favor.
Elections news: A federal judge refused to lift a block on the U.S. Postal Service attacking mail-in votes. The administration appealed again. DHS said it plans to āsurgeā voter fraud investigations. Military chief Gen. Dan Caine said there are no plans to deploy troops to polling places. The New York Times reported āaround $1 billion in anonymous moneyā has been spent on elections this year.
Data glitch: Trump went all-in for AI data centers, which are very unpopular, saying that communities should only reject data centers āif they want to end up being backwards and poor.ā JD Vance, for his part, said: āI donāt think data centers are that controversial.ā
ICE watch: In Biddeford, Maine, where an ICE agent killed an immigrant father in July, GOP Senator Susan Collins defended her support for $70 billion extra for the agency through Trumpās second term. A federal court enjoined a Virginia law preventing localities from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
āHighly unusualā: New CDC head Erica Schwartz has not added two measles deaths in Pennsylvania, reported by Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro, to the national tally for the current outbreak, the Washington Post reported, noting staff unease given Health Secretary (and anti-vax crank) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. disputes the causes of death.
Congress watch: Speaker Mike Johnson backed GOP Ohio Rep. Max Miller, who denies abuse claims. Ex-New York GOP Rep. George Santos was banned from prediction market Kalshi for improper trading. Four Democrats introduced a resolution to ācondemn and denounce socialism in all its forms, including the Democratic Socialists of America.ā Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries defended meeting Jared Kushner.
Epstein news: Bloomberg obtained the Bureau of Prisonsā application to move Ghislaine Maxwell, the sex trafficker associate of late sex offender and Trump pal Jeffrey Epstein, to a minimum security facility. The justification was redacted.
š§ Pop Quiz!
What nationality was John Candy, the legendary comic who played a belligerent American sheriff initiating an invasion of Canada in his final film release, the 1995 Michael Moore satire āCanadian Baconā?
Keep your eyes out for the answer below!
š Anywhere But America
šµšø Donāt forget Gaza: Israeli airstrikes killed at least five Palestinians, officials said. Two were killed and several were wounded near a park in Gaza City packed with displaced families. More than 1,325 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the so-called āceasefireā of October last year.
šµšø West Bank update: In remarks reported by the New York Times, retired Israeli generals and officials condemned settler violence and compared Israeli violence in the occupied territories to Nazi violence against the Jews. āIāve earned the right to speak,ā said Asaf Agmon, a former Air Force general whose soldier grandson was killed in Lebanon last year. āI am ashamed of what our people are doing here.ā The U.S. condemned a settler attack on an NBC News crew.
šØš³š³šµNew warning: Rescuers were racing to find workers believed trapped in tunnels at hydropower sites after catastrophic flooding in Nepal and China last week. The death toll passed 1,000 with 3,900 still missing.
š·šŗšŗšø G20 protest: As jet-powered drones battered Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, European finance ministers slammed Russian involvement at the G20 meeting in North Carolina, including sideline talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Spain and South Africa, U.S. allies attacked by Trump, were not present.
š¬š§ Elite entry: British Museum staffers expressed concern, The Guardian reported, after pro-Trump, Epstein-linked Palantir billionaire Peter Thiel attended a VIP viewing of the Bayeux tapestry.
šØš© Ebola update: Authorities in DR Congo said the caseload in the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record had passed 6,000, with 2,911 deaths.
š WTF?!
In the Oval Office, Dr. Oz referred to āthe ravages of obesityā while gesturing toward (a supposedly) 238-pound President Donald Trump. Mightāve been unwise, had Trump been awake.
š§ Trivia answer: Canadian.
ICYMI From Zeteo
Zeteoās Martin Pengelly contributed to this newsletter.
Still want to get Zeteo content, but not this newsletter? You can unsubscribe directly from āFirst Draftā by going to āmanage subscriptionā in Substack, scrolling down, and toggling the button for āFirst Draftā off.
So Netanyahu bragged about influencing our low IQ president and his low IQ followers ?
Gee, I wonder who owns US cable news. Oh look, it is the jews. Nothing to see here folks.