Scary Stuff

Susan Estrich on Jul 16, 2026

Representative Ro Khanna was touring the West Bank in Israel when, he says, a group of armed Israeli settlers detained his group. A terrifying incident, it would seem. A publicity stunt, Khanna's critics were quick to point out. IDF forces said they arrived at the scene and disbanded the settlers. Khanna said, "The IDF is lying," and that four soldiers did arrive, but they continued to detain them until Khanna reached a representative at the U.S. Embassy.

Regardless, that wasn't the scariest part to me. What was scarier was what Khanna said about the young Israelis: "I saw the arrogance in the eyes of those settlers, 21- and 22-year-olds with guns, laughing that they had detained us," Khanna said in a video interview he reposted to X. "It is the arrogance of power, of a power that has had no accountability, total impunity, and has created a toxic culture of oppression."

Is that what he really saw in their eyes? Or was it in the eyes of the beholder? This is a man who is running for President of the United States. This is how he views young Israelis. Settlers and soldiers ...

That was not the only scary talk this week. Two Justices of the Supreme Court took the unusual step of going to Capitol Hill to ask Congress for more money for their security. Justice Amy Coney Barrett told of her son asking her about the bulletproof vest she was sent home with and the "swatting" incident at her house, during which police responded to a false report of gunshots at her house.

But this is what scared me most: Reuters' report that many federal judges have received pizza deliveries at their houses in the name of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas' son, who was murdered by an angry litigant. "Many of us, me included, have received threatening, anonymous deliveries designed to intimidate and harass us," Barrett added, "I think the message on these deliveries being sent in his name is clear." I hope her teenage son was not watching her testimony. Yes, it should take courage to be a judge, the courage to stand up for what's right, not the courage to don a bulletproof vest to go to work.

Meanwhile, ICE keeps shooting. There were two fatal incidents this week, both involving cars, part of a series of such stops gone wrong. The latest one, in Biddeford, Maine, the home state of Susan Collins, who was almost the luckiest member of the U.S. Senate, when she was running against the fatally flawed womanizer and phony working class hero, Graham Platner. Now, whoever is running against her will accuse her of giving ICE a blank check; the candidates to take Platner's spot already are.

On Tuesday, Collins attacked her critics, saying their criticisms of her were "absurd." Said Ms. Collins: "It's disappointing to see potential candidates use a tragedy to try to advance a political agenda." But the agenda is real: Susan Collins didn't join Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis in calling for Kristi Noem to step down after the killings in Minnesota, and has prided herself on a centrist-style approach that has failed to come to grips with the excesses of ICE. Which are indeed scary. After the killing in Maine, ICE finally put an overdue limit on non-emergency vehicle stops.

And of course, we are back at war, with no end in sight, which is a very scary way to end the week. Have a good weekend.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.