I really don’t like the way this lede casts Bibi as a victim of love.
Caught between the opposing views of President Trump and Democratic leaders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now considering barring Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) from visiting Israel during a scheduled trip to start on Sunday, according to U.S. and Israeli officials familiar with the matter.
But it just takes a couple of graphs to get to Bibi’s true love:
With three weeks to go before a repeat election on Sept. 17, Netanyahu is fighting a bitter battle to stay in office and wants to appear strong to his fractured right-wing support base.
Wasn’t this guy indicted a few months ago? Everything I can find online about his indictment shows that it sort-of fizzled out in the Spring.
This seems like yet another example of how members of “the Squad” seem to provoke overreactions from their enemies. From the political perspective of the US, a Omar/Tlaib trip to Israel is no big deal – half of Congress visits that country during the August recess. Keeping them out is a major slight that’s going to provoke a lot of criticism from “friends of Israel” in Congress.
karen marie
You had me all the way to “a major slight” but then you ended with a joke, I see.
Barbara
He has not yet been indicted, but is expected to be indicted in September, or that was the status the last time I read about it.
Leto
Maybe our congressional leaders need a different August vacation spot.
[Individual 1] mistermix
@karen marie: Well, Steny Hoyer is supposedly pushing back. He’s a huge AIPAC guy.
MattF
If Trump and Netanyahu are determined to give the Squad free publicity…
Baud
We’ll see if he does it. Right wingers like to “consider” lots of things they don’t follow through on. It upsets the left and makes them look macho to their rabid base. Sometimes they actually follow through on their threats, but often they don’t.
Betty Cracker
The NRA put all its chips on Trump. So has Israel, thanks to Netanyahu. I don’t think it’s going to work out well for either of them, not in the long run, anyway.
chris
Admin trying to walk it back?
Yarrow
@Betty Cracker: Well, sort of. The NRA is funded by Russia and Russia didn’t put all its chips on the NRA or Trump. They’ve got plenty of irons in the fire. Putin is buddies with Bibi, so there’s that angle too.
MattF
@chris: Admin trying to make sense out of Trump’s demands. It’s got to be one or the other, so why not both?
chris
@chris: Guess not.
ETA MSNBC says Israel to block the two women
NobodySpecial
@[Individual 1] mistermix: I’m sure his brow is also unusually furrowed.
Raoul
@Leto: Black Sea resorts? Dachas in the birch forests outside Moscow? If you’re Republican, those seem au courant choices.
Baud
@chris:
Well, we’ll see how the Dem contingent responds.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@karen marie: Isreal doing that is one thing, Trump telling Isrial to do that is another. It gets into the whole separation of powers thing and what will the next Democrat president do to the Republicans in Congress in retaliation.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
From what I can tell, Bibi is blaming Trump for his decision.
Amir Khalid
Netanyahu is usually nicknamed Bibi. Who’s Binny?
[Individual 1] mistermix
@Amir Khalid: You’re right, I fixed it.
SiubhanDuinne
Trump’s hatred of these two Members of Congress knows no bounds. His behavior is both vengeful and petty in the extreme. And the bright line signifying “separation of powers” grows dimmer by the day.
Michael
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Maybe you will hit on the correct spelling if you give it one more try.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Poooor li’l Bibi. No agency of his own.
? <———- (as usual, enlarged for detail)
opiejeanne
Bibi shooting himself in the foot because Trump told him to.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
I don’t read or watch Fox News often, but I saw this today:
State Dept. updates ‘anti-Semitism’ definition following Omar’s anti-Israel resolution
If opposing Bibi’s policies and drawing comparison to similar Nazi policies is anti-Semitic, I might as well go ahead and put on my Brown Shirt & Swastika. ?
opiejeanne
@Michael: I’m surprised autocorrect didn’t fix that. It guesses at words and inserts them into stuff all the time when I’m writing.
BretH
“It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep.Tlaib to visit….”
As usual, we’re in the upside-down since barring them out of fear is about the weakest thing you can do. Won’t matter to Trump’s base base though. And his monstrous ego will get a boost from thinking he influenced the decision.
Is it 2020 yet?
MattF
OT. Kevin Drum tells the story of how the WeWork ‘entrepreneur’ sold his trademark to himself for millions of dollars.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/08/wework-announces-ipo-while-the-announcing-is-good/
Amir Khalid
@opiejeanne:
Autocorrect acts out of malice to make people look stupid. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
jonas
So the Israeli public is supposed to be impressed with their prime minister asking how high the US president wants him to jump, just to stick it to a couple of critics of Israel’s Palestinian policy? Bibi and Trump: what a pair of thin-skinned, WATBs. They deserve each other.
Bill Arnold
@[Individual 1] mistermix:
Yeah, interesting. Trump and Netanyahu arrogantly walked full speed into this one:
Israel bars Omar, Tlaib from entering country, as Trump lashes out – The controversial decision came despite pleas from top lawmakers in both parties to allow the delegation visit to take place. (SARAH FERRIS, JOHN BRESNAHAN and HEATHER CAYGLE, 08/15/2019)
The AIPAC-funded trips are poorly-disguised propaganda tours. Disallowing non-propaganda-tour visits by US politicians to Israel is stupid. As Betty says (paraphrased), the Israeli right has bet all its US chips on Trump, which was/is pretty stupid.
(To be clear, I’ve done an Israel tour with a Jewish group; had to consciously work every day at seeing through the decades-honed sometimes-subtle propaganda. Mostly it was fine (I like the country), and without guides talking it was fine, and the rabbi with us was the thoughtful self-aware type.)
Ian G.
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):
To the collection of anti-semites that is the Republican Party, anti-semitism is the same thing as criticizing the current Israeli government, because they don’t see Jews as actual Americans, they see them as foreigners whose real home is Israel and who will eventually be made to live there, especially if Jesus is to return on time.
Likud Israel is the best thing that ever happened to anti-Semitic Americans and Europeans, as they see it as a way to eventually rid their countries of Jews without having to resort to violence. Plus, the IDF can kill Muslims over there so good Christian American or French or Hungarian boys don’t have to. Why do you think a fascist like Viktor Orban is such good friends with Netanyahu?
Netanyahu is fine with this, of course, even if he’s friends with people who inspire synagogue shootings. I don’t think Netanyahu considers liberal diaspora Jews to be real Jews anyway.
PaulWartenberg
I think Netty Bot has the same legal protection trump has from getting indicted while serving in office as Prime Minister. The second he’s no longer PM, he can get handcuffed and dragged off to see a judge. Which is one of the reasons why he couldn’t form a coalition a few months ago: Nobody wanted to let him keep his Get Out of Jail Free card. I dunno if the coming election will flip enough seats so that an opposition coalition can form, but we’ll see.
Kay
Another new low by the Trump Administration. They’re coming closer together now. There’s really a new low on something major or minor every single day.
The truth is they’ve gotten steadily and consistently worse since the election. There doesn’t seem to be a bottom with these low quality hires. IMO there never is- mediocre hires can and do sometimes get better, but bad hires always get worse.
SiubhanDuinne
@opiejeanne:
Every time I try to type “Bibi,” autocorrect wants to change it to “Bobic.”
Yarrow
@Raoul:
Mike Huckabee was in Russia last week. Maybe he’s still there. It’s definitely trendy among Republicans.
kindness
The WaPo says Bibi has barred our Congresswomen from visiting Israel.
I supported Israel for my whole life having grown up in the NYC suburbs. But with Likud leading the country and Bibi specifically in charge, it has become an Apartheid state. When Democrats win in 2020 we need to eliminate the $4 billion a year we give Israel. Yea I know, half that is credits for purchasing US weapons. Cry me a river merchants of death.
Ken
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): Wait, so now Nazis are bad? I thought the administration’s position was that there are good people on both sides.
Kay
I love how everyone ignores the increasing corruption in both that country and this one. Like it’s a minor problem.
They can’t just keep getting more and more corrupt every single year and continue on as before. That isn’t how it works. It starts to show and impact every single person in these countries, and that is already happening. This downward ethical trajectory has to be stopped. It isn’t going to just level out magically. Someone is going to have to actually do something to stop it. Inevitable that it gets worse without intervention. Guaranteed.
catclub
@MattF: That guy is getting every dollar he can, while the getting is good. I applaud the chutzpah.
If Venture capital is going to subsidize Uber rides, I will take their money.
If venture capital is going to treat a commercial real estate company like the next tech breakthrough, I would take their money.
JustRuss
And I’m proud to be an American
Where at least I know the President is free to tweet that members of congress should be denied entry to certain countries
The Moar You Know
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): Well, guess I’m an anti-Semite, then.
catclub
@JustRuss:
that we provide $billions in foreign aid to. So much for oversight.
The Moar You Know
@kindness: The neat thing, when we sell Israel a new version of a weapon, or a new weapon, the first one they get gets sent to Russia and the second to Iran. They’ll usually throw one to France as well.
This is why Israel has not gotten and will not get either F-22 or F-35 fighters. They want them, badly. But we know what happens when we give them new tech.
J R in WV
So. Off Topic:
Yesterday the tree service guys took down a 4+ foot thick beech tree behind the house. Hollow up high, the base was intact all the way through, later on I will attempt to count rings. Hate to have done the forest giant in, but eventually it was a threat to the house, and loomed over the deck by our bedroom. Huge crash when it landed in the rocks across the tiny creek.
Now they are running giant branches into a maximum sized Vermeer chipper – like over a foot thick balks of hardwood. They used a big winch truck to pull the pieces of beech tree down the creek beside the house, and now a smaller winch on the chipper pulls a single large branch up into the gaping maw of the chipper. The noise is incredible. There are bass tones you can feel in your gut, below the mid tones as the hardwood is converted into wood chips.
Wife is upset at the loss of the forest ancient, and I don’t blame her, I am too. Not sure how they’ll get the 4 foot thick chunks of tree trunk loaded up… The bucket truck they used for the smaller tree out front was also amazing, guy running the bucket around was like flying. I have some pics for later on. No sound recording, tho. Don’t really want to remember it past the day after it’s all done.
Not a cheap job to have done, glad they’re real pros at the work! The basso rumble is kind of upsetting…
chris
@Yarrow:
Would it surprise you to learn that David Duke, R-KKK, maintains an apartment in Moscow?
Kay
I worry about the physical safety of these representatives. The President puts people at risk with his cynical and wholly self-serving inability to keep his big stupid yap shut and we know that.
I hope Our Institutions aren’t too weak or compromised to protect them. Perhaps they should consider private security. It’s one more rung down the ladder into “completely corrupt country” but I would feel better.
kindness
@JustRuss: How very fascist of you.
Your Mama ain’t proud of you son.
Frankensteinbeck
@Yarrow:
Racist right-wing assholes know who the real enemy [email protected]
@Ian G.:
True. Trump said it plainly recently.
WAY more important than the Rapture stuff. Yes, there are Rapturists who support Likud for that purpose. Mostly, in the Republican hate-filled mind, Muslims are inherently evil terrorists and the only moral position is to wipe them out. Israel is our champion doing that. Not supporting maximum Israeli brutality and aggression means supporting the evil Muslims who want to wipe out Israel. And damn, do Republicans get a giddy thrill out of genocide against Muslims.
Republicans are pretty open about those beliefs, honestly. Sun Pony knows I’ve heard it all my life.
Spanky
@Kay:
Mike Pence will save us!
(Dog help me if I ever lose the will to snark.)
rikyrah
@MattF:
relates to the earlier post about these crooks.
Steeplejack
“Caught between the opposing views”? Yeah, no. Bibi has been pro-GOP and pro-Trump all down the line. Look no farther tban when the Repukes invited him to give a speech to Congress as basically a “fuck you” to Obama. Thank you, Washington Post, for both-sides-ing it.
Spanky
Hmmmmm.
Just One More Canuck
@Leto: a lot of the GOP seem to think Russia is a fine place to spend the summer
Mike in NC
@jonas:
Putin’s petulant puppets, one might even say.
Baud
@Spanky:
Sounds like click bait. It’s irrelevant to anything whether the break is “more common” in a homicide than in a suicide, if it’s not uncommon in a suicide.
germy
@Yarrow:
Here’s what I don’t understand: We hear that Putin is buddies with Bibi. But Bibi wants Iran bombed into rubble. But isn’t Putin an ally of Iran?
I have trouble keeping all this stuff straight.
germy
Has the Washington Post done any reporting on warehouse conditions at Amazon?
It’s apparently a terrible place to work. Low pay, high temperatures. Sweatshop conditions.
Spanky
@germy: It is in Putin’s interest to maintain the “Let’s you and him fight” protocol that keeps Russia relatively free from international conflict.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
This would have been better with a well-placed typo in it.
germy
@Spanky: So Putin wouldn’t mind a war between Israel and Iran?
Spanky
@germy: A quick googling shows Vox, NY Post, Newsweek, Slate, the Verge, etc all have articles on the terrible conditions. Maybe the WaPo thinks that it’s been over-reported. Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.
randy khan
I assume Bibi’s calculation is that Sheldon Adelstein agrees with Trump on this, so he should do what Trump wants. But on our side of the ocean, this is really remarkably awful.
germy
@Spanky: But I was assured Bezos exerts no influence on WaPo editors. I know this because WaPo editors told me.
chris
Thread
Mandalay
It will be instructive to see the first loyalty of certain Democrats in Congress on this barring; is it to their party or is it to Israel, because there is no middle ground on this issue, and silence equates to condoning Israel’s policy.
Are they going to denounce the government of Israel, or hide under the bed for a couple of weeks?
And yes, I mean you Debbie.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ian G.:
I had forgotten until I saw your comment, but a couple of years ago, Trump gave a speech to AIPAC and referred to Netanyahu as “your Prime Minister.” To an audience consisting almost entirely of US citizens.
EDIT: Looked it up to make sure I had details right. I didn’t. It was the Republican Jewish Coalition, not AIPAC (a distinction without much of a difference, I suppose), and it wasn’t a couple of years ago, it was in freaking April of this year!!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/3398487002
Gin & Tonic
@Spanky: Except for the ones they instigate and continue to arm.
Mandalay
@randy khan:
I assume Adelson told Trump that if he sent out that tweet he would immediately write out a check for ten million dollars.
And if Trump refused then all of Adelson’s future donations to the Republican Party would be put on hold.
Spanky
@Mandalay: And yes, I mean you
Debbie.Steny.Edited for my own congresscritter, although I think the fact that he’s within a Nancy-arm’s reach will be a deciding factor.
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t know what happened but imo the people who are dismissing “they were incompetent and/or overworked and/or understaffed” as an explanation do not live in the real world.
There are 9 of these incidents:
The most protected person in the country at that time. Every lapse is bad personal behavior or incompetence. About one every year he was in office.
trollhattan
Fascinating to me that our elected officials evidently take an oath of office requiring them to be loyal to two countries.
Steeplejack
@J R in WV:
Too bad they didn’t salvage it for lumber. I thought that was a big thing now.
Chyron HR
@Mandalay:
The notion that the Democratic party owes “loyalty” to the Sunshine Justice Squad is about as preposterous as calling Israel an “ally” of the US.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
I do too. It would be a good thing if somebody could just make a nice clear list of “good guys” and “bad guys.” I would print it, embiggen it, and stick it up on the wall for E-Z reference.
Steeplejack
@kindness:
Adjust your snarkmeter, I think.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne: It would be sad to see the U.S. in the bad column.
Kay
The worst political reporting team in the country declares “winning!” – I’m sorry but this is something other than “reporting”. They are doing some other job. You can like that work product or not like it, but it isn’t “reporting”.
They’re starting to use his language too- “massive”. Guffaw.
Ken
@Kay: There’s a theory (of the conspiracy sort) that every President on taking office is briefed by the CIA, who first show him the Zapruder film, then show him the other films including one from the shooter’s viewpoint.
Maybe they follow-up with some short subjects showing these “incidents” filmed from hidden cameras, obviously set up by someone who knew of them in advance.
rikyrah
@Spanky:
Check the bank accounts of everyone on duty at that time.
And, their family members.
MattF
Jen Rubin gives it to Netanyayu (with both barrels).
debit
Is there a response or statement from Pelosi on this yet? I would love to see her say, “Fine, then none of us will visit.” in solidarity.
Mandalay
Warren and Sanders have already stepped up:
Let’s see who else has the stones, and who doesn’t. Any Democratic candidate for president who stays silent on this is gutless and/or corrupt.
eric
@Kay: given that “massive boost” is a quantitative assessment and there have been no such assessments in the 10 minutes since the announcement, she is reporting what someone in the WH told her. But worse, she is not telling the reader that she got this from some inside source to give her opinion the illusion of independence.
WE know what she is, we are just haggling over price
MattF
@Kay: I’m pleased to say that it never occurred to me to see Netanyahu’s action that way. More like ‘Bibi bullied by buffoon’.
Bill Arnold
@Spanky:
Also, this is interesting. In the interview, JE’s former (MMA-trained) bodyguard says he thinks JE had help committing suicide. But the most interesting bit is near the end.
Jeffrey Epstein’s Bodyguard on His Former Boss’s Lifestyle, Cruelty, Suicide (M.L. Nestel, 2019/08/14)
Near the end … interesting (bold mine):
Mandalay
@Kay: In addition to your criticism, Haberrman’s tweet just doesn’t make any sense.
Some folks here might care about this issue intensely, but most voters won’t give a shit either way about this fifteen months from now, and there will have been a hundred other scandals between now and then.
And to claim that Trump got a “massive boost” from this is the kind of comment some doofus would post on a Brietbart thread. Perhaps Haberman is thinking that Trump has finally secured the vote of Islamaphobes and racists who have been sitting on the fence for the past 3 years, and only been Trump curious up until now.
Honus
So two sitting U.S. Congresspersons are being denied entry to our “only middle eastern ally” and “the only democracy in the Middle East” because of their religion? Or because as lawmakers they questioned our policy toward Israel?
Seems sort of un-American.
I mean, seriously, on what basis is netanyahu going to deny entry to U.S. citizens with valid passports?
Burnspbesq
@Yarrow:
Huckabee was perfectly at home in St. Petersburg, home of the most racist sports fans on earth.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Epstein had many powerful people who wanted him dead. That was part of the whole point of locking him up in the first place before trial. And unlike the other prisoners, everyone working the prison had to know that a fuckup with Epstein after the history of fuckups about Epstein had been revealed by the press, would get them put under a microscope.
Even incompetence isn’t normally that stupid. You slack off with prisoners who aren’t VIP.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
I know, Russia must be so pissed with them by now.
Mnemosyne
@Honus:
It’s their religion. Period. Even the “political” explanation is that they can’t be fair to Israel because they’re Muslim.
Mnemosyne
And, yes, this is an attempt to split Democrats along religious lines and force the Democrats to treat their Muslim colleagues as second-class citizens. I don’t think it will work, but that’s what they’re trying to do. ?
TenguPhule
Planned Parenthood sets exit from federal family planning program
This got buried among all the other shitty news yesterday.
Real people will suffer.
Immanentize
@Honus: I wonder if they will fly there and see whether they are allowed in.
Immanentize
Dual citizenship has always been conceptually difficult. But surely we should not allow officers of the federal government who are in positions of trust to hold dual citizenship, should we?
BellyCat
@J R in WV: Just heard a chipper like this nextdoor. Sonic overload and the ground actually shook! Reminded me of that crazy earth digger villain in the original Incredibles movie.
Bill Arnold
@MattF:
Jen Rubin updated that piece (well-done IMO) with the text of AIPAC’s extraordinary statement on twitter:
They are not wrong to be worried.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@TenguPhule – Real people have been suffering because of this sort of thing for years:
https://www.texasobserver.org/inside-texas-failed-experiment-to-replace-planned-parenthood-with-an-anti-abortion-group/
“In 2011, Republican lawmakers slashed the state’s family planning budget by two-thirds, shuttering 82 clinics. Two years later, they kicked Planned Parenthood and other abortion provider affiliates out of the state’s low-income women’s health program, forgoing millions in federal dollars to begin a state-funded program instead. At the time, less than a quarter of the estimated 1.8 million poor Texas women in need of publicly funded contraceptive services were getting them. The cuts resulted in tens of thousands more women losing access to reproductive health services like gynecological exams, birth control, cancer screenings and STD testing.”
Planned Parenthood was the source of a lot of health care beyond just abortions. It didn’t matter, the state of Texas would rather they get no health care, than that they get it from Planned Parenthood…
But you know “women’s issues” (although a lot of Planned Parenthood branches provide services for men, including cancer screenings, vasectomies, infertility screenings and referrals, erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation support, urinary tract infection testing and treatment, physical exams, PrEP and PEP for those eligible)
I’m so tired
Honus
@Mnemosyne: I understand, but can the PM can just ban any random citizen he wants form entering Israel, for no discernable reason?
Honus
@Immanentize: I wonder too. The PM of Israel is banning members of a government that gives them 3 billion a year in military aid. excuse me, but I’m still kind of having a problem with the legal authority for this, an aspect which the media seems to be completely ignoring. I guess I’m just missing something.
Honus
“In a statement, Netanyahu insisted that his government continues to respect the U.S. Congress but said there are limits to whom it will allow entry. “As a vibrant and free democracy, Israel is open to all its critics and criticism, with one exception: Israeli law prohibits the entry of people who call and operate to boycott Israel,” he said.”
OK, got it. Anything less than full-throated support for Israel is a boycott.
Mnemosyne
@Honus:
Probably? I think the US can ban foreigners from entering basically on a whim and their only option is to sue.
But it seems pretty clear that this is a deliberate attempt to isolate Omar and Tlaib from the rest of the Democrats based on their religion, which is fucking vile.
ETA: It’s the isolation that’s vile, not the religion. Phrasing!
Matt
Only if by “criticism” you mean “a massive scrum to see who can get their tongue the farthest up Bibi’s asshole”.
TBH, if I was in Omar et al’s shoes I wouldn’t WANT to go anywhere near that country – I’d worry the secret police would “disappear” me and Trump would pretend like he was very concerned while doing nothing to fix it.
JPL
@Bill Arnold: That was a bizarre interview.
Matt
@Chyron HR: LOL “Sunshine Squad” you’re almost as funny as a Trumpkin.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
Sorry
F”d up the link trying to post from my phone
rikyrah
@Kay:
Absolutely ridiculous, Kay.
She positively sucks.
rikyrah
@TenguPhule:
gonna say it again…check those bank accounts..
rikyrah
@TenguPhule:
Yes….real people will suffer. but, since it’s women and the ‘ others’, those doing this don’t care.
rikyrah
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
And, know…women have DIED in Texas due to a lack of access.
opiejeanne
@rikyrah: Women aren’t people. /
J R in WV
@Steeplejack:
Yes, well, it was mostly hollow, as elderly beech trees tend to be. We were surprised to find that the bottom 12 or 15 feet was solid, and how sturdy the hollow part was. We had a good view of the work from a solarium wall on the south end of the kitchen, where I watched in air conditioned comfort, mostly.
That bottom log, which is 4+ feet thick and 8 or 9 feet long, is what I would like to attempt to slice lengthwise, if possible. The thing is so heavy and unwieldy !!
Bobby Thomson
I don’t think Bibi needs any motivation to be an asshole. It’s who he’s always been.
Procopius
@Yarrow: At the same time Mike Huckabee is in Russia, a bunch of Republicans went to Israel. They sent a lot of Tweets and pictures. Funnily enough, a bunch of Democrats were there, too. Their trip was paid for by AIPAC, but who cares, amirite? Funny, though, you wouldn’t know about it from their Twitter feeds. Like, maybe they aren’t sure their constituents would rather they were doing something else?
Procopius
@The Moar You Know:
That’s funny, I read just a couple weeks ago that Israel had conducted an air strike on an Iranian “unit” in Syria using an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II_Israeli_procurement"> F-35i fighter. When I saw it I thought it might be a version of the Flying Swiss Army Knife especially built to Israeli specifications so it would work. Like the armored personnel carriers about thirty years ago, where the American versions had lots of problems, but the Israeli version worked.