Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet.

Netanyahu Hoped Hamas Would Reject the Cease-fire Offer. When It Didn't, He Turned to Sabotage
Israel's criminal defendant prime minister, more focused on saving his incompetent far-right government than saving the hostages who have spent seven months trapped in Gaza, is doing everything he can to torpedo Israel's last and best chance at bringing the hostages home

"Hysteria for political reasons," Minister Benny Gantz termed the statement issued over the weekend by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (also known as "the diplomatic official"), in which he reiterated that with or without a temporary pause in the fighting for the release of our hostages, "We will enter Rafah and eliminate the remaining Hamas battalions."

Later, before the end of Shabbat, Netanyahu sent another announcement, in which he denied reports saying Israel had agreed to a cease-fire as part of a deal.

Gantz hit the nail on the head this time. Netanyahu is fleeing from a hostage deal. The closer it gets, the faster he runs to avoid it. At least twice in recent months he has sabotaged the sensitive moves toward a deal, whether through public statements or covert messages, or by curbing the mandate of the negotiating team. It was no different this time.
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Scared about America losing democracy? Texas is already gone
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's chilling pardon of the killer of a 2020 BLM protester is a rejection of democracy in a state banning dissent.

“I might go to Dallas to murder looters,” a then-active duty U.S. Army sergeant named Daniel Perry texted a friend in the spring of 2020, as protest marches over the police murder of George Floyd swept across Texas and the nation. It wasn’t a stray thought. A right-wing extremist, Perry repeatedly told friends of his intention to use violence against people protesting police brutality. He wrote: “I might have to kill a few people on my way to work they are rioting outside my apartment complex.” ... At his 2023 trial, Perry’s lawyers’ argument of self-defense was not only undercut by witnesses who said Foster never raised or aimed his rifle, but by the sergeant’s own statement to the police: “I believe he was going to aim at me. I didn’t want to give him a chance to aim at me.” Perry was found guilty of murder by a jury of his peers and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Just over one year later, Perry is a free man — pardoned by a Texas governor who all but declared open season on political protesters whose views are not favored by his extreme authoritarian state. Gov. Greg Abbott appointed the state pardons board members who recommended Perry for freedom, a decision that Abbott had urged and immediately rubber-stamped. It was a gross injustice in a former Confederate state that reeked of the bad old days of Southern jury nullification, a modern update on the impunity with which white men lynched Emmett Till and then laughed at justice.
Benny Gantz’s resignation threat has Netanyahu in a bind
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet is at risk of falling apart as the country’s defence establishment turns on him. Last night, Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity party and a member of Netanyahu’s coalition, issued the Prime Minister with an ultimatum. In an extremely critical speech, Gantz blamed Netanyahu for letting personal interests interfere with decisions of national security and allowing a group of extremists to take the helm.

Gantz’s ultimatum includes six demands: the return of the hostages held by Hamas; the destruction of Hamas and the demilitarisation of Gaza; replacing Hamas’s rule with an alternative government; allowing civilians from Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, who were evacuated from their homes months ago, to return to their homes by 1 September (the start of the school year); progress on normalising relations with Saudi Arabia; and passing a law that will force Orthodox Jews to do national service.

If the demands are not met, Gantz warned that he would withdraw from the coalition. His National Unity party makes up eight seats in Netanyahu’s 64-seat coalition (out of a total of 120 Knesset seats). Netanyahu’s government can just about survive Gantz’s exit, but it could nevertheless create several difficulties.
Rubio, a Trump V.P. Contender, Won’t Commit to Accepting 2024 Results
In an NBC interview, Senator Marco Rubio also repeated false claims of electoral fraud in the 2020 election.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has been floated as a possible running mate for former President Donald J. Trump, on Sunday refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 presidential election and repeated conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

Asked in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” whether he would accept the outcome this year “no matter what happens,” Mr. Rubio replied: “‘No matter what happens?’ No, if it’s an unfair election, I think it’s going to be contested by each side.”

He deflected follow-up questions — including when the interviewer, Kristen Welker, rephrased the question to “no matter who wins” — by falsely claiming that Hillary Clinton had denied her loss in 2016 and by referring to a small group of Democrats in Congress who objected to certifying George W. Bush’s victory over John Kerry in Ohio in 2004. Mrs. Clinton conceded, and the objections in 2004 were not endorsed by Mr. Kerry or his campaign.
With unending petulance, gerrymandered Ohio Republicans decline simple Biden ballot solution
What a joke. In a pique of partisan petulance, the gerrymandered-for-life Republican supermajorities in the Ohio Statehouse have visited yet another national embarrassment on the state. “I think we’ve officially sunk lower than Alabama at this point,” Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, dryly observed about the state’s descent into autocratic hell. The latest humiliation from Columbus making headlines was entirely self-inflicted by MAGA-pandering pols.

Our lovely legislative overlords torpedoed what should have been an easy bipartisan fix to a ballot scheduling snafu that still threatens to keep President Joe Biden off the general election ballot in Ohio. Ballot adjustment in a presidential election year is a non-issue. But Republican lawmakers decided to make it one by picking a fight and stomping their feet when things didn’t go their way. Like toddlers who need a nap.

The straightforward legislation the GOP-controlled Ohio Senate and Ohio House blew up (for no good reason) would have remedied a problem with candidate filing deadlines in state election law that has come up before in presidential election years with Democrats and Republicans. It has typically been resolved as a bipartisan matter without incident. Until now. (Hence the Russo observation).
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Voters key to past Democratic wins are skeptical and undermotivated
New polling reinforces President Biden’s struggles as the general election nears.

Joe Biden’s 2020 election can be broadly attributed to two overlapping factors: Americans generally like him and generally disliked Donald Trump. But the latter factor was stronger. Asked why they planned to vote the way they did, a large chunk of Biden supporters consistently indicated in the months before that election that they planned to back him because they wanted to kick Trump out of the White House. Pew Research Center analysis of the electorate in 2020 found that it was more heavily non-White (up to 28 percent of the electorate from 26 percent in 2016) and more heavily young (voters under 30 went from 13 to 15 percent of voters). They helped give Biden his large popular- and narrow electoral-vote win.

Now, as new polling indicates, those same groups are more skeptical of Biden and less enthusiastic about voting for him.

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