Netanyahu presses for action against Iran his own military chief already resisted, days before election.

…(cont) That's the order. I laid it out, I didn't say anything.

Now here's the one I can't put down, and I apologize in advance, because I'm going to come back to it more than once before I'm through with it.

The New York Times reported this week that Israel's military chief resisted the prime minister on a strike against Iran; the prime minister then pressed, in recent days, for a separate action short of an overt strike — that's according to an official and a person briefed on the matter, not the general himself. I want that sourcing attached every time, because it matters who's saying it and who isn't.

First time through, and I'm sorry, it's the date that gets me. "In recent days" puts the pressing somewhere in that same stretch of calendar as the lockdown, the barred lawmakers, the UN report — the same stretch where the ballots were already printed. Somebody was pressing for something short of a strike in the very week the country was being told to go vote.

I'm sorry, I keep going back to this, but the second time it's the sourcing that bothers me. Not the general. An official. A person briefed on the matter. Two people, neither one wearing the uniform — which means the resisting and the pressing both come from the same two unnamed sources, and I don't know how to weigh one against the other.

Third time, and I promise I'm getting somewhere. I was out in the garage this weekend — the fan belt's going again — and the replacement part I had was a half-inch short of what the car needed. Not wrong. Short. My guy at the shop can refuse to put in a part that's a half-inch short — that's resisting — or he can rig the thing to turn over anyway, which isn't the repair, it's a separate action, short of the repair, and from the driveway you cannot tell which one he did. I carried that belt back and forth across the garage twice before I worked out which.

Fourth time, I'm sorry, it's the word "overt" now. Overt just means out in the open. Short of overt means not out in the open. I keep asking what a person presses for, days before his own election, that isn't supposed to be out in the open.

Here's the sentence one more time, and this is the last time, I promise, exactly the way it was written: Israel's military chief resisted the prime minister, who then pressed in recent days for a separate action, short of an overt strike, according to an official and a person briefed on the matter. I wanted it whole.

Okay. I'll let you go.

Oh — excuse me, one more thing before you go. This pressing, the "recent days" part — was that before this morning's polls opened, or after?

The paper says ahead of the election. So: before.

Short of an overt strike. Before the vote. That's the order I started with, and I still haven't said what it means.