Benjamin Netanyahu has done much for Israel over a long career and deserves to be remembered as one of its most consequential leaders. I particularly admire his leadership against Iran’s regime and his economic reforms that helped unleash Israel’s technology boom. But his failure to grasp the potentially devastating threat of U.S. financial and economic warfare against Israel—and his faith in a “resistance economy” as the answer—are deeply troubling. I say this as someone who helped design the Iran sanctions playbook over more than two decades and remains passionately committed to defending democracies like Israel, Taiwan. Ukraine and others. I know firsthand the power of these weapons. If the current coalition returns to power with the same policies, and Democrats take the White House in 2029, this financial warfare campaign against Israel is inevitable.

💥 On the day 2 IDF soldiers are buried, Netanyahu's ultra-orthodox coalition partners– those demanding full tax exemptions, full draft exemptions– revel at an electoral rally singing "In the rule of heretics we do not believe, and to their offices we won't report."

Some common sense. 📰🚨 Bank of Israel responds to Netanyahu’s remarks on Saturday: “Cryptocurrencies cannot serve as a way to circumvent sanctions. The right course of action for Israel’s economy is to preserve our economic relationships with our major trading partners and focus on preventing sanctions and their negative impact on the economy.”

1/ Benjamin Netanyahu got the last set of polls last night. They argue Likud and his block are eroding fast. Then, came his remarks on Israel's economy. These are among the most extraordinary he has made in a long political career. Whatever their intent, they carry real weight for the Israeli economy – before Tuesday's election, and regardless of who forms the next government. In an interview with journalist Roy Katz, aired Friday, the prime minister said American military aid to Israel is coming to an end. "It's over. It's only a question of time," he said. Israelis should get used to no longer receiving tens of billions of dollars in U.S. defense assistance, he added, "because America has changed." That alone is remarkable. There is a growing recognition in Israel that U.S. military aid in its current form will have to change, and might end, as bipartisan support for Israel erodes in Washington. Netanyahu himself has spoken before about wanting to wean Israel off the aid. But there is a distance between that recognition and a sitting prime minister effectively announcing the end of one of the pillars of the U.S.–Israel strategic relationship. The current Memorandum of Understanding – $38 billion over ten years – runs through September 2028. It is embedded in a web of interests that includes the American defense industry, and Israel's diplomats in Washington work hard to sustain it. Israel's friends in Congress, operating in an increasingly difficult political environment, are still fighting to preserve the special relationship. When the prime minister himself says "it's over," that is a hard message for Israel's defense establishment, and for those in Washington still trying to help. And that was only the opening. "There could be sanctions, including banking sanctions," Netanyahu said. Israel, he explained, must prepare an economy capable of bypassing them. This is a different order of magnitude entirely. Some background is needed. In the world of international sanctions, comprehensive banking sanctions against a country are among the most powerful tools available to major powers. They are not import restrictions, consumer boycotts, or even arms embargoes. Broad financial sanctions go after an economy's circulatory system. Israel's banks depend on the global financial system: correspondent banks, clearing, credit lines, the ability to move money across borders. Without access to banks abroad, the Israeli economy stops functioning. And such sanctions don't hit only the banks. They hit everyone who banks with them – companies, exporters, importers, investors, employers. When foreign banks become nervous about a country's financial institutions, they tend to cut ties well beyond what the law strictly requires. In other words, a sweeping financial sanctions regime would push Israel toward the category of Iran or Russia. It would be worse. Iran and Russia sit on vast oil and gas reserves. Even under sanctions, they keep selling – mainly in Asia and parts of the Global South. Israel's economy is not built on commodities. Its strength comes from integration into the global economy: human capital, technology, research, advanced services. According to the Israel Innovation Authority, Israeli high-tech exported roughly $85 billion in goods and services in 2025 – 58 percent of all Israeli exports – and accounted for about half of the economy's growth. It is the engine of the economy, and it depends on foreign markets, foreign capital, and the free movement of money. Netanyahu did not say who might impose banking sanctions. A prime minister raising this possibility, in the same breath as forecasting the end of U.S. aid, should prompt immediate questions. Is he referring to European sanctions? American ones? above all: how did Israel get to the point where this is being discussed at all? There was more - and much worse.

💥Stop everything and watch a ghoulish Netanyahu promise to be the overlord of an underground, sanctioned Israel, a Super Sparta in which he promises bitcoin and blockchain will protect Israel's "bypass economy" and pluckily declares he's "already ordered plans for it." #NotAI

נתניהו לפני עשור: אני אחזק את מעמד ישראל בעולם, תהיה לנו מדינה חזקה עם יחסי חוץ מעולים. נתניהו היום: נתבצר על הר קירח במדבר יהודה ונאגור מטבעות וירטואליים.