Category: Israel

Israel

Anyone But Netanyahu? That’s the common rallying cry for Tuesday’s elections in Israel, but few opponents are offering real alternatives. Only the Joint List is directly addressing the crisis in Arab-Jewish relations.

Benjamin Netanyahu

A new party, Kulanu (“all of us” in Hebrew), formed by ex-Likud minister Moshe Kahlon—who made a name for himself by introducing competition into the cellphone market and sharply reducing monthly bills for Israelis—is campaigning solely on the cost-of-living issue. He has made fighting the bank and land monopolies his top priority, and while identified as a rightist, he has left open the possibility of joining a government led by the Zionist Union.

Another new party that could upset the usual electoral calculations and is currently polling as the third largest is the Joint List—or, as many Israelis have been referring to it, “the Arabs.” It is an alliance between four parties—three Arab and one Arab-Jewish—formed against all odds and expectations just days before the deadline for submitting candidates in January. The merger between Islamist Ra’am, nationalist Balad, progressive Arab-Jewish Hadash and secular Ta’al, a first in Israeli history, was prompted by last year’s passing of the Governance Bill, which raised the threshold a party needs to enter the Knesset from 2 percent (three seats) to 3.25 percent (four seats). The law, co-sponsored by Yisrael Beiteinu’s Avigdor Lieberman—who champions the “transfer” of the Israeli Arab population and whose most recent campaign promise is to behead Palestinian citizens of Israel suspected of terror—was largely seen as a way to eliminate Arab Knesset members.

The Joint List’s campaign slogan is “My answer to racism,” and its leader, Ayman Odeh, a member of the Hadash Party, insisted at a press conference in Tel Aviv last month that the reason behind the merger was not only to make the higher threshold, but the long-overdue need to combat racism, discrimination and physical attacks against the Arab minority in Israel, who comprise 20 percent of the population. Specifically, Odeh mentioned the need to be a strong legislative actor inside the Knesset to combat the Jewish Nation-State bill, which seeks to codify into law the state’s definition as belonging solely to its Jewish citizens, forgoing any explicit commitment to equality. Currently polling between thirteen and fifteen seats, the Joint List, which dubs itself the “democratic camp,” is the only party directly addressing the crisis in Arab-Jewish relations. However, it is likely that following this election, the parties, which represent a highly diverse and divided Arab society, will fall apart.

Even if the Likud doesn’t garner the most Knesset seats, Netanyahu still appears to be the candidate most likely to build a ruling coalition in post-election negotiations, since more of the other parties—among them the ultra-Orthodox Shas and hyper-nationalist Jewish Home—will recommend him over Herzog. This was the case in 2009, when Tzipi Livni’s Kadima Party won the election, but after she failed to form a coalition consisting of at least 60 out of the 120 Knesset seats, the premiership went to Netanyahu.

This picture could change if the Zionist Union invites the Joint List to join the ruling coalition—something that has never been done in Israeli history—and assuming they agree. Both Herzog and Netanyahu insist they will not enter a national unity government, since they represent opposing ideological camps. But if they do, the Joint List would then lead the opposition. That means the prime minister would have to provide Odeh with regular briefings, even on such sensitive national security matters like going to war—an interesting scenario. Whatever happens, the fact that Israeli news broadcasts have been forced to discuss the Arab sector as part of the Israeli political landscape is already a game changer.

Israel

Israel election: Netanyahu claims victory as main rival concedes – CNN.com

Netanyahu speaks as he chairs the weekly cabinet meeting on November 24, 2013 at his office in Jerusalem. Netanyahu slammed a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers as a "historic mistake."

Israel election: Netanyahu claims victory as main rival concedes – CNN.com.

Israel

Arab Alliance Rises as Force in Israeli Elections – NYTimes.com

Arab Alliance Rises as Force in Israeli Elections – NYTimes.com.

Israel

Why Netanyahu tried to move the political discussion away from domestic cincerns in Israel

Paul Krugman

Why did Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel feel the need to wag the dog in Washington? For that was, of course, what he was doing in his anti-Iran speech to Congress. If you’re seriously trying to affect American foreign policy, you don’t insult the president and so obviously align yourself with his political opposition. No, the real purpose of that speech was to distract the Israeli electorate with saber-rattling bombast, to shift its attention away from the economic discontent that, polls suggest, may well boot Mr. Netanyahu from office in Tuesday’s election.

But wait: Why are Israelis discontented? After all, Israel’s economy has performed well by the usual measures. It weathered the financial crisis with minimal damage. Over the longer term, it has grown more rapidly than most other advanced economies, and has developed into a high-technology powerhouse. What is there to complain about?

The answer, which I don’t think is widely appreciated here, is that while Israel’s economy has grown, this growth has been accompanied by a disturbing transformation in the country’s income distribution and society. Once upon a time, Israel was a country of egalitarian ideals — the kibbutz population was always a small minority, but it had a large impact on the nation’s self-perception. And it was a fairly equal society in reality, too, right up to the early 1990s.

Since then, however, Israel has experienced a dramatic widening of income disparities. Key measures of inequality have soared; Israel is now right up there with America as one of the most unequal societies in the advanced world. And Israel’s experience shows that this matters, that extreme inequality has a corrosive effect on social and political life.

Consider what has happened at either end of the spectrum — the growth in poverty, on one side, and extreme wealth, on the other.

According to Luxembourg Income Study data, the share of Israel’s population living on less than half the country’s median income — a widely accepted definition of relative poverty — more than doubled, to 20.5 percent from 10.2 percent, between 1992 and 2010. The share of children in poverty almost quadrupled, to 27.4 percent from 7.8 percent. Both numbers are the worst in the advanced world, by a large margin.

And when it comes to children, in particular, relative poverty is the right concept. Families that live on much lower incomes than those of their fellow citizens will, in important ways, be alienated from the society around them, unable to participate fully in the life of the nation. Children growing up in such families will surely be placed at a permanent disadvantage.

At the other end, while the available data — puzzlingly — don’t show an especially large share of income going to the top 1 percent, there is an extreme concentration of wealth and power among a tiny group of people at the top. And I mean tiny. According to the Bank of Israel, roughly 20 families control companies that account for half the total value of Israel’s stock market. The nature of that control is convoluted and obscure, working through “pyramids” in which a family controls a firm that in turn controls other firms and so on. Although the Bank of Israel is circumspect in its language, it is clearly worried about the potential this concentration of control creates for self-dealing.

Still, why is Israeli inequality a political issue? Because it didn’t have to be this extreme.

You might think that Israeli inequality is a natural outcome of a high-tech economy that generates strong demand for skilled labor — or, perhaps, reflects the importance of minority populations with low incomes, namely Arabs and ultrareligious Jews. It turns out, however, that those high poverty rates largely reflect policy choices: Israel does less to lift people out of poverty than any other advanced country — yes, even less than the United States.

Meanwhile, Israel’s oligarchs owe their position not to innovation and entrepreneurship but to their families’ success in gaining control of businesses that the government privatized in the 1980s — and they arguably retain that position partly by having undue influence over government policy, combined with control of major banks.

In short, the political economy of the promised land is now characterized by harshness at the bottom and at least soft corruption at the top. And many Israelis see Mr. Netanyahu as part of the problem. He’s an advocate of free-market policies; he has a Chris Christie-like penchant for living large at taxpayers’ expense, while clumsily pretending otherwise.

So Mr. Netanyahu tried to change the subject from internal inequality to external threats, a tactic those who remember the Bush years should find completely familiar. We’ll find out on Tuesday whether he succeeded.

Israel

Israel elections: rising panic in Likud ranks as opposition gains ground Polls indicate growing lead for Zionist Union led by Yitzhak Herzog over Binyamin Netanyahu’s party with less than a week before vote

Yitzhak Herzog attends an election campaign event as polls suggest his Zionist Union party leads by three or four parliamentary seats.

Israel’s opposition leader, Yitzhak Herzog, appears to be gaining momentum in the runup to next week’s general election, triggering a rising sense of panic in Likud, the party of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.

Two new polls suggest a lead of three to four parliamentary seats for the Zionist Union, with internal polling from both parties indicating a wider gap.

A text message sent to Likud activists, imploring them to get friends and relatives to vote on Tuesday, reads: “We are in danger of really losing!”

It goes on: “We must save the day and make sure that every single one of our friends/acquaintances/family makes it to the polls on election day and votes for the Likud. Wake up!”

Herzog, the Labour leader who has formed an electoral alliance with former justice minister Tzipi Livni under the Zionist Union banner, has been running neck and neck with Netanyahu, who is campaigning to serve a fourth term as prime minister.

Under Israel’s system of proportional representation which invariably produces coalition governments, Netanyahu still has an advantage. But in the last days of the campaign, there is a new sense of optimism among Zionist Union’s supporters and MPs.

At a campaign meeting on Tuesday in Be’er Sheva, in the Negev desert, Herzog told a gathering of the faithful, the curious and a handful of supporters of other parties that he represented hope for those who felt excluded within Israel’s dysfunctional economy and for those who sought the possibility of peace. He and Livni promised to end Israel’s increasing isolation in the international community.
Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog address a rally in the Israeli city of Be’er Sheva on Tuesday night with his Zionist Union’s co-leader Tzipi Livni.

Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog addresses a rally in Be’er Sheva. Photograph: Peter Beaumont for the Guardian/Peter Beaumont

According to MP Erel Margalit, Zionist Union supporters were buoyed by the large turnout at an anti-Netanyahu rally in Tel Aviv at the weekend and by leaks of internal surveys that suggest Netayanhu’s position is worse than published polls suggest.
Advertisement

“I’ve become optimistic in the last few days,” Margalit said. “I wasn’t so optimistic before. In the last few days I have felt a sense of building momentum. I feel a change is coming. People want a leadership based on something else than fear.

“The sense of fatalism that has been around in a large part of the campaign – people thinking that whatever happens they will get Netanyahu as prime minister again – I think that is what has changed.”

Aron Klipper, 71, a retired engineer echoed Margalit’s sentiments. “I’m here because we desperately need a change of atmosphere in Israel. We need young people to be able to earn enough and afford places to live,” he said.

But with six days to go before the election, a key question is whether Herzog can defeat Netanyahu when it comes to the post-election horse-trading over forming a government.

In the tortured electoral mathematics of Israel’s coalition-building, Netanyahu still has a theoretical marginal advantage with six potential parties he can negotiate with to form a government, against Herzog’s five.
Young supporters of Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog cheer as he enters a rally of supporters in the Israeli town of Be’er Sheva on Tuesday night.
Young supporters of Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog cheer as he enters a rally of supporters in the Israeli town of Be’er Sheva on Tuesday night.

Among the factors that will come into play is whether some of the smallest parties – including the leftwing Meretz – win enough votes to meet the electoral threshold for representation in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

And if the election turns out as close as the polls currently suggest, President Reuven Rivlin could insist on negotiations for a national unity government embracing both Likud and Zionist Union.

Herzog has tried hard to increase his visibility in a campaign dominated by the personality of Netanyahu, not least in a long interview with the author and columnist Ari Shavit that sympathetically depicted the opposition leader munching peanuts for energy on the campaign trail and visiting Likud strongholds.

The stall Herzog has laid out has been a practical and emotional soft nationalism, open to negotiating a two-state solution with the Palestinians, and seeking a pragmatic middle way through Israel’s problems.

“I am a social democrat who wants both a free market and a just state. I am a pragmatist who tries to act fairly. I try to bring the contradictions into harmony and unity,” he told Shavit.

In contrast, rivals have often sounded inflammatory appeals, not least foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman on disloyal Israeli Arabs: “Those who are against us, there’s nothing to be done – we need to pick up an axe and cut off his head.”

In the last days of the campaign, Herzog has aimed his fire most heavily at the area where Netanyahu is seen as being most vulnerable – his failure to deal with Israel’s domestic problems.

But the party of his roots – Labour, the dominant political force in the early years of the Israeli state – has not occupied the prime minister’s office since Ehud Barak in 1999. Before that Israel had returned only one Labour prime minister since 1977 – Yitzhak Rabin.

“It used to be the thing that parties were from the cradle to grave,” said Einat Wilf, a former Labour MP and author of a book on Israel’s electoral system.

“Now they are built on shifting sands. People make their decision at the last minute or people vote for different parties from election to election.

“One reason is a global one: the end of ideology. So the party machines have declined and everywhere it has become much more personal. Large parties have became small and small parties have become large.”

Israel

Israel FM dismisses Palestinian threat over axe remark: he wants to be Minister of Defense

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman delivers a speech on February 15, 2015 in Jerusalem

Israel’s outspoken Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday brushed off Palestinian threats to haul him before an international court for proposing to behead Arab citizens disloyal to the state.

“I saw the Palestinian Authority will go to the International Criminal Court in Haag over my remarks that we must act forcefully against our enemies and those who act against the State of Israel,” he wrote on Facebook.

The ICC is based in The Hague in the Netherlands.

“They will get an answer to that from me as defence minister,” he said, reflecting his aspirations for the powerful post after the March 17 general election.

Lieberman on Sunday attended an elections panel at a college, with media reports quoting him as saying of Israeli Arabs that “those who are with us should get everything”.

However “those who are against us… one must take an axe and chop their heads off, otherwise we won’t survive here”.

Lieberman has for years called for the revocation of citizenship of Arab citizens not sufficiently “loyal” to Israel and its symbols.

During the current election campaign he also said that imposing the death penalty for “terrorists” would be a prerequisite to his joining a coalition.

The Palestinian Authority in a statement denounced his “barbarism” and demanded his arrest and prosecution before the ICC.

The Palestinians will be eligible to file complaints to the ICC from April 1.

Lieberman Tuesday also denounced remarks by a spokesman of the Arab Joint List, in which he compared the Islamic State group and the Zionist movement.

“Where did IS learn these crimes? Look what the Zionist movement did in 1948. Rapes, pillaging, murders, massacres, committed here in these parts as well,” Raja Zaatry said at an elections discussion at a university in central Israel.

Lieberman said he would act to revoke Zaatry’s citizenship “after the elections”.

Polls predict Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu will win no more than five seats in the 120-member parliament, which would make it difficult for him to receive a significant ministerial position, were he to join a coalition.

Israel

Why Are US Taxpayers Subsidizing Right-Wing Israeli Settlers?

A Palestinian boy in Hebron, in the Israel-occupied West Bank. Shutterstock

A few weeks before Benjamin Netanyahu’s delivered his controversial address to Congress, the Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli Prime Minister was considering a campaign trip to Hebron, a right-wing settler community in the Israel-occupied West Bank. The proposed March 10 trip to Hebron, which would have been the first by an Israeli PM in more than a decade, raised eyebrows among Israel’s political class and inflamed tensions with Palestinian groups. Last week, Netanyahu called it off, citing security threats.

“The Hebron Fund has supported, either directly or indirectly, a wide array of acts that are definitely not charitable,” says Avaaz lawyer John Tye.

Here in the United States, meanwhile, few politicians have questioned why American taxpayers continue to subsidize the Hebron settlers, accused by international observers of human rights violations that include thefts, battery, and murder. In 2003, the most recent year for which figures are available, an estimated 45 percent of the settler community’s funding came from the Brooklyn-based Hebron Fund, whose status as a tax-exempt nonprofit allows Americans to write off donations to the group.

“The Hebron Fund has supported, either directly or indirectly, a wide array of acts that are definitely not charitable,” says John Tye, the legal director for the global activist group Avaaz, which last week petitioned the IRS to revoke the Hebron Fund’s nonprofit status. “They are basically using a small group of Jewish settlers in the West Bank to push Palestinians out of their homes. These settlers are arming themselves, they are engaged in military and paramilitary acts, some of them have connections to terrorism, and they are committing a wide range of crimes against Palestinians.”

The Hebron Fund declined to make anyone available for comment for this story, or to respond to my written questions.

Hebron, a community of some 200,000 Palestinians located about 30 miles south of Jerusalem, is home to several ancient Jewish holy sites. The modern Jewish occupation began in 1967, after the Six Day War. The Hebron Fund was founded in 1979 to support the settlers, who now number around 850.

After years of conflicts between Palestinians and settlers, the historic center of Hebron has come to be known as “The Ghost Town.” It is largely abandoned, with the doors of Arab shops welded shut by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during the second intifada. Palestinians are forbidden from entering much of the area. In other parts of downtown Hebron, Jewish settlers live in buildings above Palestinian shops. The shopkeepers have stretched nets and metal grates over the streets to catch the garbage that settlers routinely throw from their windows:

Grates erected to catch garbage thrown by settlers living above ISM Palestine

The behavior of Jewish settlers in Hebron has been repeatedly denounced by human rights groups. In 2001, Human Rights Watch called Hebron “the site of serious and sustained human rights abuses,” including “a consistent failure [by IDF] to protect Palestinians from attacks by Israeli settlers.” In 2011, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem wrote that settlers “have been involved in gunfire, attempts to run people over, poisoning of a water well, breaking into homes, spilling of hot liquid on the face of a Palestinian, and the killing of a young Palestinian girl.”

In recent months, vandals in the Hebron area have destroyed Palestinian olive groves, an Israeli human rights group reports.

In 2013, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed “deep concern” at the abusive treatment and harassment directed at a Palestinian activist in Hebron by settler groups and the IDF. Breaking the Silence, another Israeli human rights group comprised of IDF veterans, offers guided tours of Hebron—but only rarely, the group writes on its website, due to “the Hebron settlers’ violence towards our tours and the limited ability of the Hebron police to protect our tours from this violence.”

Just in the past two months, according to B’Tselem, vandals in the Hebron area have destroyed Palestinian olive groves in four locations.

At least one former member of a terrorist organization has joined the Hebron settlement. Baruch Marzel, a one-time spokesman for the extremist Kach Party, which is listed by the United States and Israel as a terrorist group, lives in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida outpost. In 2011, he helped organize a manhunt for a Palestinian man, Hani Jaber, who’d just been released from jail after serving 18 years for killing a Jewish settler. Posters appeared on Hebron walls with Jaber’s face and the words, “Rise up and kill him.”

Racist graffiti in Hebron: “Gas the Arabs.” JDL is the Jewish Defense League. Jill Granberg

At times, the Hebron Fund has specifically sought to raise money for controversial settler activities. In 2007, according to Salon, it held a fundraiser on a cruise ship in New York’s Hudson River to support a settler who’d taken property from a Palestinian family. A year and a half later, the Israeli government ruled that the house had been illegally seized from the family and ordered the settlers out. Once evicted, the settlers set fire to Palestinian houses, olive trees, and cars—25 people were wounded, including a man shot at close range.

In 1974, the Supreme Court said the IRS could revoke the nonprofit status of Bob Jones University for its refusal to admit black students.

The United States tax code does not provide detailed information about what can disqualify groups from nonprofit status, though precedent suggests that it includes illegal and discriminatory behavior. In 1974, for example, the Supreme Court ruled that the IRS was justified in revoking the nonprofit status of Bob Jones University over its refusal to admit black students.

The Hebron Fund has not released detailed financial information, making it impossible to determine whether it directly bankrolls prohibited activities. Yet Tye of Avaaz argues that the settlements’ finances are sufficiently fluid and dependent upon the Hebron Fund to make it inherently complicit in any abuses. “I can’t tell you precisely where every dollar has gone,” he says. “But when there is a doubt, the legal burden is on the Hebron Fund to produce documents that show how its money is spent.”

This isn’t the first time a group has asked the IRS to revoke the Hebron Fund’s nonprofit status. In 2009, a similar complaint was submitted by the Washington-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. The IRS never responded.

Though Tye believes there’s already sufficient public evidence to revoke the fund’s nonprofit status, he at least wants the IRS to conduct a thorough investigation. A spokesman for the IRS declined to comment on the case, citing a federal law that bars the agency from discussing specific taxpayers.

Israel

Bibi in big trouble: New poll shows Israeli PM in danger of losing bid for fourth term – Salon.com

Bibi in big trouble: New poll shows Israeli PM in danger of losing bid for fourth term

 

Bibi in big trouble: New poll shows Israeli PM in danger of losing bid for fourth term – Salon.com.

Israel

​Israeli FM calls for beheading of Arab citizens disloyal to Israel: Andrew Bolt support’s Netanyahu

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Reuters/Ronen Zvulun)

 

​Israeli FM calls for beheading of Arab citizens disloyal to Israel — RT News.

Israel

Tens of thousands of Israelis rally against PM ahead of vote – Israel

Israelis take part in a rally to ask for a change in the Israeli policy on March 7, 2015, on Rabin Square in the costal city of Tel Aviv

Tens of thousands of Israelis rally against PM ahead of vote – Your Middle East.

Israel

Truthdigger of the Week: Rabbi Michael Lerner (from @Truthdig)

Truthdigger of the Week: Rabbi Michael Lerner (from @Truthdig).

Israel

Israeli women had enough – it’s time to rise up against decades of conflict – Your Middle East

isrwomen.jpg

Israeli women had enough – it’s time to rise up against decades of conflict – Your Middle East.

Israel

Netanyahu, ‘Censored Voices’ and the False Narrative of Self-Defense (from @Truthdig)

Netanyahu, ‘Censored Voices’ and the False Narrative of Self-Defense (from @Truthdig).

Israel

Bill Blum: In the Shadow of FDR, Netanyahu Preaches a Politics of Fear – Bill Blum – Truthdig

Bill Blum: In the Shadow of FDR, Netanyahu Preaches a Politics of Fear – Bill Blum – Truthdig.

Israel

Juan Cole: Netanyahu’s Clash With Obama ‘Intolerable,’ Risks End of U.S.’ U.N. Veto, Says Former Mossad Head – Truthdig

 

Juan Cole: Netanyahu’s Clash With Obama ‘Intolerable,’ Risks End of U.S.’ U.N. Veto, Says Former Mossad Head – Truthdig.

Israel

Israel’s democracy: ‘Theatre of the absurd’ – Al Jazeera English

Divesting ourselves from the parliament is the first step to putting an end to Israeli 'democracy', writes Ghantous [EPA]

Israel’s democracy: ‘Theatre of the absurd’ – Al Jazeera English.

Israel

Mr. Netanyahu’s Unconvincing Speech to Congress – NYTimes.com

Mr. Netanyahu’s Unconvincing Speech to Congress – NYTimes.com.

Israel, USA

WATCH: In United Nations Speech, Noam Chomsky Blasts United States for Supporting Israel | Democracy Now!

Noamchomskyatun

 

WATCH: In United Nations Speech, Noam Chomsky Blasts United States for Supporting Israel | Democracy Now!.

Iran, Israel

Here Are Five Surprising Ways Iran Is Better Than Israel (Video) (from @Truthdig)

Here Are Five Surprising Ways Iran Is Better Than Israel (Video) (from @Truthdig).

Israel

Former Mossad head urges Israeli voters to oust Binyamin Netanyahu |The facist right are too much for an Ex head of Mossad

Binyamin Netanyahu

Former Mossad head urges Israeli voters to oust Binyamin Netanyahu | World news | The Guardian.

Israel

Israel tax freeze aims ‘to collapse Palestinian Authority. When you control Gaza you control life

Saeb Erekat, Palestinian chief negotiator, speaks to journalists during a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah on January 2, 2012

Israel tax freeze aims ‘to collapse Palestinian Authority’ – Your Middle East.

Israel

Netanyahu Campaign Ad Says Islamic State Will Prevail if Israelis Vote Left in Election | VICE News

 

Netanyahu Campaign Ad Says Islamic State Will Prevail if Israelis Vote Left in Election | VICE News.

Israel

The Real Debate Over Israel’s ‘Jewish Nation-State’ Bill It’s not about whether systematic discrimination against Arab citizens should continue—it’s about whether it should be codified in explicitly racist legislation.

Benjamin Netanyahu

A key factor in the dissolution of the Israeli government in early December was a serious debate around the “Jewish Nation-State” bill, proposed legislation that emphasizes the Jewish ethnic character of the state. Surprisingly, the debate created the impression that the government collapsed over the question of equality for Israel’s Arab citizens. But is this really the core of the debate?

The Jewish Nation-State bill would explicitly codify such principles as ensuring a Jewish demographic majority, establishing Hebrew as the only official language (today Arabic is also an official language) and positioning Jewish religious law as a legitimate source of law for the State of Israel. The proposed bill also makes clear that Israel is a state in which only the Jewish people can exercise self-determination.

The bill caused a serious rift between two political camps. The right-wing parties, the majority in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, lent their full support to the bill, arguing that there is no reason not to enshrine the reality of Israel as a Jewish State in the law, given that the concept lies at the heart of consensus among the Israeli Jewish public. The Zionist center parties, led by now-former Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, forcefully opposed the bill.

In fact, if we closely examine the bill, we might assume that it came from the Zionist center camp itself. First, the bill is essentially a legal anchoring of Israel’s historical “Jewish-democratic state” doctrine. In 2000, the Israeli Supreme Court determined that Israel’s Law of Return (which guarantees the right of Jews anywhere in the world to live in Israel and gain citizenship), the preservation of a Jewish majority, Hebrew as the central language, Jewish holidays, Jewish heritage and the Jewish symbols of the state all comprise the minimal core aspects of the “Jewish state.” The new bill, which adds that “the State of Israel will have a democratic regime,” does not go beyond the Supreme Court’s decision. Furthermore, the bill closely mirrors the ethnic provisions of the draft “Constitution by Consensus,” prepared by the center-left Israel Democracy Institute in 2004-06. At that time, the IDI’s Constitution by Consensus was challenged by the Arab citizens’ “Future Vision” documents, due in part to the Jewish ethnic dominance that prevailed in its clauses.

Second, contrary to the intentions of their right-wing sponsors, the Jewish Nation-State bill actually bolsters the program of “two states for two peoples.” For the first time, the Israeli political right is proposing a Basic Law (a law that is equivalent to a constitutional law in a country that does not have a Constitution) that distinguishes between the “Land of Israel” (Eretz Israel) and the “State of Israel” in regards to the fulfillment of self-determination. The Nation-State bill declares that “the Land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people…” and that “the State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its aspiration for self-determination.” Legal analysts would understand this distinction to mean that Tel Aviv and Hebron, located in the occupied West Bank, are not equal in the eyes of the law. Consequently, for example, the minority opinion of Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy—who found that Gaza is part of the Land of Israel, and thus settlement there constitutes fulfillment of the Jewish people’s self-determination—clashes with the Nation-State bill. Conversely, Livni’s statements as foreign minister under the Ehud Olmert government, in which she contended that Arab citizens should fulfill their collective rights in a future Palestinian state, fits with the Nation-State legislation that denies Arab collective rights in Israel.

So why, then, are many among the Israeli center opposed to the Nation-State bill? It is not because most of them favor “a state of all its citizens.” (This phrase encompasses the call for a civic state and full equality between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel.) Rather, it is because the new legislation seeks to challenge the longstanding “Ben-Gurionist” tradition regarding the rule of law. This tradition asserts that, apart from a few exceptional laws like the Law of Return and the Absentees’ Property Law, Israel should refrain from enacting ethnically based legislation—laws that are clearly written in discriminatory language—in order to present the state as democratic in the international arena. Under this tradition, the executive and judicial branches would carry out the discriminatory and repressive policies instead, without the existence of ethnic legislation. Because of this tradition, there was no need, for example, for the 2011 Admissions Committees’ Law to discriminate against Arab citizens in housing, because in practice these committees and the Israel Land Authority already kept these communities “clean” of Arabs while also maintaining the “cleanliness” of Israeli law. Likewise, there was no law mandating military rule over Arab citizens from 1948 to 1966; there is no law today imposing military occupation over the Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967; and there is no law designating Gaza as the target of a military siege since 2007. In all of these examples, the government, the army and the judiciary do the work instead of ethnic laws.

This tradition also sometimes works in the opposite direction. For example, despite the fact that Israeli law states that Arabic and Hebrew are official languages of the state, the Supreme Court has ignored this legislation and even ruled that Hebrew is the central language. While the court accepted a few appeals regarding the use of Arabic, it determined in the same breath that the specific use of Arabic does not detract from the supremacy of the Hebrew language.

Through these methods, the tradition of “the Israeli rule of law” has maintained discriminatory policies and practices even when there are positive laws (as in the case of the official status of Arabic) and even in the absence of direct ethnic laws. This tradition is contrary to the principle of the separation of powers, and in fact suspends the essence of the rule of law.

The public debate around the Jewish Nation-State bill thus primarily centers on this legal tradition. The Netanyahu government refused to comply with the tradition; instead, it sought to legislate existing racist practices and reclaim the Knesset’s authority, changing it from a passive to an active body. The “traditional camp,” represented by the center, opposed this move mainly because there is no need for ethnic laws, as the work has already been accomplished efficiently since 1948 without “embarrassing legislation.” The traditional camp’s concern is therefore not to eliminate the discrimination, but rather to conceal it in order to preserve the state’s image internationally. In contrast, the Netanyahu government’s goal is to make Jewish supremacy apparent and to make Arab citizens explicitly inferior—both in the Arabs’ own eyes and in the eyes of Jews. As such, the Nation-State legislation is anti-Arab and racist at its core.

For these reasons, the debate between the two camps is not about whether discrimination should or should not be stopped, but rather about how to continue it. Ironically, the Netanyahu government’s approach is consistent with the formal principle of the rule of law. But this also exposes the clear similarity between the current Israeli government and the former apartheid regime of South Africa, which explicitly anchored the practice of racial supremacy in legislation.

Israel

Israel jails Palestinian girl, 14, for throwing stones

By October 2014, there were 18 imprisoned minors between the ages of 14-15, according to <span>DCI's</span> most recent figures [AP]

Six hundred Palestinian children were brought before Israeli military judges in 2014 alone, says rights group.

Ramallah, West Bank – Ali al-Khatib and his wife, Khawla, waited outside Ofer military prison on the outskirts of Ramallah for hours before they were allowed to attend a final court hearing for their 14-year-old daughter, Malak, who has been incarcerated since December 31, 2014.

In the course of at least three other hearings they heard the Israeli prosecutor make allegations about the 8th grader from Beitin, near Ramallah, that they did not believe to be true. Malak’s charge sheet included stone-throwing and possession of a weapon (a knife).

The Khatibs said they were shocked when the judge sentenced Malak to two months in prison, including time served, and a 6,000 shekel ($1,500) fine, making her the youngest Palestinian female held by Israel.

During the hearings, the Khatibs were not allowed to speak to Malak, who was brought into the courtroom handcuffed, her ankles shackled together.

“Malak was out near a bypass road when the army detained her,” Ali said. “They said she was throwing stones there. She was so scared, she confessed to whatever charges they brought before her.”

RELATED: Toddler caught up in Israeli crackdown

The young teen spent almost three weeks in detention pending sentencing. At the time of arrest, she was handcuffed and blindfolded before she was taken in for interrogation, where she was questioned without the presence of her family, the Khatibs said.

“She is a child,” said Malak’s mother, Khawla. “She should be in school, with her friends. She was framed. She did not throw stones, nor did she carry a knife.”

The Palestine chapter of Defence for Children International said 600 children were brought before military judges in 2014 – the average number of minors held in Israeli military detention stood at 197 per month.

By October, there were 18 imprisoned minors between the ages of 14-15, according to DCI’s most recent figures.

“The Israeli authorities’ policy of child detention contravenes with all international conventions on the rights of minors,” said the Palestinian Prisoners Society’s Jawad Bulous, who represented Malak.

Israeli authorities said they have made significant changes in practices related to child detention, which include requiring police officers to conduct interrogations using the minor’s own language.

Audio or video recordings of these sessions must be made if the interrogation is documented in Hebrew, and if the offences carry a sentence of more than 10 years.

Military Order 1745, which came into effect in September 2014, however, does not apply to children, like Malak, who are suspected of committing “security offences”  such as throwing stones.

“Military Order 1745 is the latest attempt by Israeli authorities to provide cosmetic legal improvements that in the end have zero practical impact,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability programme director at DCI-Palestine.

The majority of Palestinian children arrested, detained or prosecuted through the Israeli court system are arrested for throwing stones, and so would not be protected by the new law.

The Israeli military says that stone-throwing can endanger lives, irrespective of the age of the assailant.

In November, Israel’s cabinet approved an amendment to the country’s criminal law which would have significantly raised the penalty for Palestinians convicted of throwing stones – up to 20 years.

The draft law, however, did not go through the necessary three Knesset votes.

The cabinet’s decision to back the draft law came during the height of tensions in Jerusalem, when a 16-year-old Palestinian boy was burned alive in apparent revenge for the killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the legislation was meant to help restore security and calm to the Holy City.

And while the bill would have only applied to Israeli citizens or residents, including East Jerusalemites, some observers argued – at the time – that its message was clear; any “Palestinian caught throwing a stone will go away for a long, long time.”

Israel

Cricket loving anti- Zionist Jew Mike Marqusee has died.

One of our favorite guests, Mike Marqusee died last week. He appeared on This is Hell! six times, reporting on war protests, arguing with Chuck about Bob Dylan, and explaining his complicated views on Zionism, Judaism and his own religious heritage.

Here is Mike from 2008, talking about his book “If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew”

Israel

Middle East Israel PM slams impending war crimes probe Netanyahu calls decision by Hague-based ICC to launch investigation into possible war crimes in Palestine “absurd”.

Netanyahu said Israel is defending itself against what he called Palestinian terrorists

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed the decision by the International Criminal Court to launch a preliminary investigation into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, saying it is “absurd”.

Speaking in West Jerusalem on Saturday a day after the decision was made, Netanyahu said: “It’s absurd of the ICC to ignore international law and agreements under which the Palestinians don’t have a state and can only get one through direct negotiations with Israel. The rules of the ICC are clear: No state, no standing, no case.”

The preliminary probe does not mean war crimes were committed but will seek to determine whether preliminary findings merit a full investigation into alleged atrocities, which could result in charges being brought against individuals in either Israeli or Palestinian territories.

Palestine applied to join the ICC in December and has since signed the Rome treaty, the charter that led to the formation of the ICC in 2002. It is due to join the court in April but its membership will be backdated to June 2014, meaning that the court will have jurisdiction to look into last summer’s offensive between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

The conflict, which left the Gaza Strip run by Hamas devastated, killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Israel says it lost 73 people, most of them soldiers.

Netanyahu said Israel upholds “high standards of international law” and that the country’s “actions are subjected to careful and constant review of … world-renowned and utterly independent legal system”.

“But this decision is even more preposterous given that Israel is legitimately defending itself against Palestinian terrorists who routinely commit multiple war crimes,” said Netanyahu.

“They deliberately fire thousands of rockets at our civilians while hiding behind Palestinian civilians whom they as human shields.”

Hamas hails decision

The comments were a veiled reference to Hamas, which said on Saturday it welcomed the ICC’s decision.

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, said the group would provide the ICC with “thousands of reports” suggesting “horrible crimes” were committed.

“What is needed now is to quickly take practical steps in this direction and we are ready to provide [the court] with thousands of reports and documents that confirm the Zionist enemy has committed horrible crimes against Gaza and against our people.”

Israel rejected the court’s Friday decision as hypocrisy and the US State Department said it was “a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighborhoods, is now being scrutinized by the ICC”.

Israel in 2005 pulled its settlers and troops out of Gaza, which remains under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade.

Palestinians seek statehood in Gaza and the West Bank.

Palestinian foreign minstry officials said on Friday that “everything is going according to plan” and that “no state and nobody can now stop this action we requested”.

Israel

Juan Cole: What Would Happen If the International Criminal Court Indicted Israel’s Netanyahu? – Juan Cole – Truthdig

 

Juan Cole: What Would Happen If the International Criminal Court Indicted Israel’s Netanyahu? – Juan Cole – Truthdig.

Israel

After Gaza War, One-Third of Israelis Consider Emigrating:

 

After Gaza War, One-Third of Israelis Consider Emigrating | Portside.

Israel

William Pfaff: A Brief Military History of Israel and a Prediction for the Future – Truthdig

William Pfaff: A Brief Military History of Israel and a Prediction for the Future – Truthdig.

Israel, Israeli Arabs

As the Israeli Left fails, Bibi builds his very own Kingdom – Your Middle East

Peace Now at the Rabin memorial rally in Rabin Square, 1 November 2014

 

As the Israeli Left fails, Bibi builds his very own Kingdom – Your Middle East.

Israel

Labor and Liberal MPs call for Australia to recognise Palestine: Bolt has gone silent

Palestinians hold a large Palestinian flag during a rally in Rafah.

Demonstrators hold a large Palestinian flag during a rally in Rafah

Australian Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group says international recognition is the only way to end deadlock and bring peace to Middle East

Australia must recognise Palestine as a separate state to help facilitate international peace, a Labor MP said.

Maria Vamvakinou tabled a motion in parliament on Monday calling for the government to support Palestine, in response to the UN international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people, which was on Saturday.

“On this day, we need to acknowledge and understand that the prospects for a two-state solution are increasingly dissipating and we are left with very few options,” Vamvakinou said in tabling the report.

“We are, potentially, embarking on a road map that leads to nowhere. Such a prospect will have horrendous implications not only for the Palestinians and the Israelis, but for the international community. Essentially there will be no peace for any of us.”

Vamvakinou, who co-convenes the Australian Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group, said international recognition was the only way to end the deadlock.

“Australia and indeed this parliament must now recognise the state of Palestine and Australia must vote yes at the UN for Palestinian statehood,” she said.

The motion had bipartisan support, with Vamvakinou’s co-covenor the Liberal MP Craig Laundy, speaking for the motion.

“The people of Palestine, for the last almost 60 years, haven’t had a fair go,” he said. “Imagine if you will, coming home this afternoon to your home, going to put your key in the door and it didn’t fit.

“You knock on the door. Someone you don’t know opens the door and they’re in your home. That’s what happened here, that’s what happened all those years ago. And a people have been displaced and fighting for an identity ever since.”
Advertisement

He accused lobbyists of hijacking the debate. “The things we discuss in this chamber should not be influenced by the lobby. They should be influenced by what’s right.”

Laundy told Guardian Australia that he is using his position as co-chair of the friendship group to “continue the discussion with my colleagues and try to progress the debate towards a meaningful, two-state solution”.

A number of countries – most recently, Sweden – have formally recognised the state of Palestine in a diplomatic push to get UN backing for a resolution on ending some Israeli settlements.

Three state branches of the Labor party – New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland – have adopted positions recognising Palestine, a move the head of the Palestinian delegation to Australia, Izzat Abdulhadi, calls encouraging. “We need international support … We’re not asking for the moon,” Abdulhadi told Guardian Australia.

He said he has regular dialogue with the government over the issue. “We’d like to have a Palestinian state based on negotiation [with Israel] … but it is impossible now,” he said.

Guardian Australia contacted the Israeli embassy for comment.

Relations between Australia and the Palestinian delegation have been strained for more than a year, since Australia softened its stance on Israeli settlements.

“This shift reflected the government’s concern that Middle East resolutions should be balanced,” the foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said in November 2013.

“The government will not support resolutions which are one-sided and which prejudge the outcome of final-status negotiations between the two sides.”

Supporters of Australia’s policy shift see it as vital for a more fair and frank discussion on the vexed Israeli-Palestinian issue within the UN, which they say is biased towards Palestinians.

Israel, Israeli Arabs

Jerusalem: Don’t call it a religious conflict – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

Jerusalem: Don’t call it a religious conflict – Opinion – Al Jazeera English.

Rachel Shabi
Rachel Shabi is a journalist and author of Not the Enemy: Israel’s Jews from Arab Lands.
Israel, Jewish State

Opinion The ‘Jewish state bill’ doesn’t matter to us, Palestinians The ‘Jewish state bill’ will simply put on paper what is already a reality in apartheid Israel.

Palestinian women are blocked by Israeli security forces outside the al-Aqsa mosque compound [AFP]

http://bcove.me/1h4m7089

Despite the uproar over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet passing the new “Jewish nation-state” bill, its discriminatory contents are part and parcel of Israel’s long history of marginalising and discriminating against the country’s Palestinian minority.

The bill, which still needs to be passed by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, defines Israel as the “nation-state for the Jewish people” and enshrines the Zionist principles that the state was founded on at the expense of all Palestinians more than six decades ago.

Its defenders point out that it protects “the personal rights of all [the state’s] citizens”, ignoring that it only guarantees “communal rights” to Jews, who, regardless of their ancestral origins, have always been permitted to immigrate to Israel and gain citizenship.

Within Netayahu’s cabinet, the bill was passed by a 14-6 vote and reportedly sparked a passionate debate. As usual, that debate didn’t focus on the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20 percent of the total population, but centred on the state’s Declaration of Independence and founding ideology of Zionism.

For the 1.7 million Palestinians who were forced to take Israeli citizenship and continue living in what became Israel after the Nakba, this bill is nothing more than Israel finally taking off its mask in front of the world.

The debate it has thus far sparked is also nothing new: Despite our nominal citizenship, we have always been rendered second-class citizens with limited rights, for no reason other than not being born Jewish.

Discrimination from day one

Whether Netanyahu’s latest bill passes is irrelevant to Palestinians everywhere – in present-day Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora, where millions of refugees are waiting to return to the lands they were violently expelled from in 1948.

For those of us living in present-day Israel, the law is merely symbolic, as there are already dozens of laws that “discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel in all areas of life, including their rights to political participation, access to land, education, state budget resources, and criminal procedures,” as  Adalah Legal Centre has revealed.

Was it not already clear that Palestinians in Israel are living under the same occupation as Palestinians in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the imprisoned Gaza Strip? Treating us as a “demographic threat”, Israel champions our citizenship in front of the world as alleged proof of its democratic nature, while simultaneously attempting to limit our presence and influence in society.

Following the state’s declaration of independence, the first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, dismayed at the number of Palestinians who stayed in their ancestral lands, lamented that Israel wouldn’t be able to “clear the entire central Galilee region” of the then 100,000 remaining indigenous residents without a war.

But Israeli leaders have actually attempted to do so, even in peacetime. In recent years, a plan to demolish the Galilee village of Ramiyya and expel its people is one example of attempts to make Ben Gurion’s dream come true. As Professor Hilel Cohen of the Hebrew University said, “The project of ‘Judaizing the Galilee’ commenced when the state [of Israel] was founded and has continued in various guises to the present day.”

In the Negev region, Palestinian Bedouins with Israeli citizenship have been exposed to home demolitions and denied basic services, such as water, electricity and education. Living in more than 40 “unrecognised” villages across that region, an estimated 53,000 men, women and children face impending eviction.

Al-Araqib, for instance, has been razed by Israeli bulldozers 78 times since July 2010. Its residents, however, refuse to leave, returning and rebuilding it each time. Was it not already clear to them that Israel’s leaders viewed us as second-class citizens from day one? And can a Jewish “nation-state” bill, largely devoid of practical content, possibly make their daily lives any more difficult?

The opposition to the law by Israel’s so-called “centrists” and “liberals”, such as finance minister Yair Lapid and justice minister Tzipi Livni, exposes the whole affair as yet another case of Israel’s political establishment debating over and controlling our future without our input.

A failed project

Nonetheless, Palestinian political parties in Israel continue to sit as lawmakers in the Knesset. Ostensibly convinced that they could impact the laws being pumped out of the parliament, they continue to vie for our votes and encourage us to support them each time campaign season comes around.

But this has proven to be a failed project. Despite giving the opportunity to speak in the Knesset, they have not made our daily reality any better. The onslaught of racist laws hasn’t slowed down, the incitement from Israeli politicians has also grown and our ability to organise as a unified political force has been impeded by internal divisions and competition between the Arab political parties.

Palestinian lawmaker Hanin Zoabi was recently expelled from the Knesset for six months after remarking that Palestinians who kidnapped and killed three Israeli settlers this past summer were not “terrorists”.

Now, Netanyahu and his rabid rightwing cohorts are pushing a new bill to expel Knesset members “who in a time of war or military action against an enemy state or terror organization offers public support for military struggle”. It was aptly named the “Hanin Zoabi bill” by its sponsors.

Israel’s claim to not be an apartheid state has always relied on the fact that Palestinian citizens of Israel can vote and participate in the Knesset. Do we need any more proof that this was a facade from the outset?

With a law that outright declares that this state exists solely for the Jewish people, it’s high time that Palestinians in Israel drop the idea that participating in this theatre of absurdity that is the Israeli political process will improve our lives and further our cause.

It is time to take steps to dissolve our political divisions and build ties with our compatriots in the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora in order to build a joint struggle capable of posing a serious challenge to world’s last settler colonial occupation. 

Waad Ghantous is a Haifa-based Palestinian activist and a member of the Al-Awda organisation. 

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
Israel, Syria/iraq, Tony Abbott

Empathizing with Gaza Does NOT Make Me Anti-Semitic, Nor Pro-Hamas or Anti-Israel. It Makes Me human….. 4 beheadings dehumanised us

 

Islam, Israel

Crime-fighting London Jews help protect Muslim community

Photo: AFP

Crime-fighting London Jews help protect Muslim community

A 25-strong haredi group has joined forces with local police to catch criminals, as well as protect mosques amid spike in anti-Muslim hate; ‘We are both sons of Abraham after al

LONDON – The unusual sight of crime-fighting Orthodox Jews pounding the streets of a tough London neighbourhood after dark has captured the attention of grateful locals, but their ongoing protection of local Muslims has seen their profile go global
The work of the 25-strong “Shomrim” even caught the eye of US Secretary of State John Kerry, who praised the neighbourhood patrol group’s “remarkable courage”.
Members of the Haredi Jewish community in Stamford Hill formed the group – named after the Yiddish word for guards – in 2008 in response to high crime levels.

Police initially feared vigilantism but now cooperate closely with the volunteers, who helped in 197 arrests last year and even apprehending the area’s “most wanted burglar”.

It is Shomrim’s role in helping protect the area’s large Muslim population, however, that has secured its place in the community and garnered international praise.
The group was called upon by local councillors in Hackney, north London, following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby by Islamic extremists in the British capital in 2013.
“There was a spike in anti-Muslim hate crime. All over England, mosques were being firebombed,” explained Shulem Stern, a young man sporting the “payot” haircurls and “kippah” skullcap associated with the Haredi faith.
“The councillors thought: ‘We’ve got Shomrim in the local area, who don’t we utilize them’?”
They continue to protect local mosques as Muslim communities across Britain are back in the spotlight following the rise of the Islamic State organization in Syria and Iraq.

“In many ways they’re a really well organized neighbourhood watch,” explained police Superintendent Andy Walker. “They are very much the eyes and ears of the police.”

From his car parked outside a warehouse owned by one of the group, Shomrim volunteer Chaim Hochhauser shows off the stab vests provided by police, highlighting the everyday danger faced every day by these unlikely crime fighters.
Shomrim also receive regular advice sessions from local officers, and use their new knowledge to help to defend the main local mosque.

“Their doors are open all the time, so anyone who wants can walk and do what they want, chuck in a firebomb,” explained Hochhauser
The arrangement was lauded by Kerry when he launched the annual US report on International Religious Freedom in July.
“Their courage goes unremarked, but that makes it all the more remarkable. Believe me, that’s the definition of courage,” the top US diplomat said.
However, Stern insisted there was nothing remarkable about their work.
“The local Muslims and local Jewish people do so much business together. In religious aspects as well there are loads of similarities,” he said.

“Also, because we’re visible and suffered a long history of hate crime, we’re very alert to anything unusual.”

“The (Haredi) community is not known for being too inclusive, but where necessary they will help the wider community,” said Michael Desmond, the leader of the local council who recently hosted an event honoring the group.
“We are both sons of Abraham after all,” added Ian Sharer, an Orthodox Jewish councillor.
Local Muslim councillor Dawood Akhoon, who worked with Sharer to bring the two communities together, said the Muslim response had been “really good and positive”.
“It’s part and parcel of each of our faiths, we have to take care of our environment and out neighbors,” he told AFP.
Ties between the two communities came under renewed scrutiny in July, when anger at Israel’s operation in Gaza led to a spike in anti-Semitic incidents across Britain.
But Shomrim insist that any problems, such as the recent appearance of swastikas graffitied on local walls, originate from outside the area.
“I want to make this clear, none of the suspects that we’ve dealt with have been local Muslims,” said Stern.
Councillor Sharer added: “To the incredible credit of the Muslim community, there has not been one incident in this area. That’s down to one word: respect.”

Israel, Syria/iraq

Israel’s suggestion….stand back

Netanyahu waxed broadly of a Middle East in turmoil on Sunday, in his first public comments on the threat posed to the region by ISIS, a terrorist militia conquering swaths of territory in eastern Syria and northern Iraq.

Threatening a borderless conflict between “extremist Shi’ites,” funded by leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and equally extreme Sunnis— a soft “alliance” between ISIS and al Qaeda— the Israeli prime minister suggested the United States should largely stay out of the fight, and instead allow the parties to weaken one another.

Western diplomats working to end the nuclear crisis holding up such plans should fashion a deal with Iran similar to an agreement reached last fall, brokered by Russia and the US, that rid Syria’s President Bashar Assad of his massive chemical weapons stockpile, Netanyahu said, calling the Syrian accord a “good deal.”

World powers are currently negotiating with Iran in Vienna towards a comprehensive solution to the crisis. The US, Israel and its allies suspect Iran’s nuclear program has military dimensions.

In August, Foreign Policy reported that Islamic State was also trying to develop biological weapons. The report cited information found on a laptop computer seized from an IS operative.

Foreign Policy obtained the computer from a moderate Syrian rebel group who seized the laptop in the Idlib province from an Islamic State hideout whose fighters had fled.

The laptop, belonging to a Tunisian operative of the Islamic State, named Muhammed S., with a background in chemistry and physics, included a 19-page document on developing biological weapons and weaponizing the bubonic plague.

“The advantage of biological weapons is that they do not cost a lot of money, while the human casualties can be huge,” the document says in Arabic, according to Foreign Policy.

Among the files on the seized computer is also a ruling from a Saudi cleric justifying the use of weapons of mass destruction. “If Muslims cannot defeat the unbelievers in a different way, it is permissible to use weapons of mass destruction…Even if it kills all of them and wipes them and their descendants off the face of the Earth.”

The British newspaper The Sunday Times reported on Sunday morning that Islamic State is calling on its members to brace for war with Iran in order to take over its nuclear secrets. The newspaper cited a document believed to have been written by top Islamic State member Abdullah Ahmed al-Meshedani, a member of the group’s highly secretive six-man war cabinet.

Israel

It’s not uncommon to refuse to enlist in the IDF


Daughter of ex-Mossad chief refused the Israeli army (VIDE

There is no question that 2013 will continue to add more complexities to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Rather than delve into one right now, let’s go back to 2008, for the sake of reintroducing the world to Omer Goldman.

Omer became the face of a fast growing group of young Israelis refusing to enlist in the Israeli Army. She, and many like her, as seen in the video above, state that what they saw the IDF do to the Palestinians was immoral, unethical, illegal, and simply against their beliefs. Omer’s case was specifically interesting.

Omer continuously refused to enlist, and served several sentences in prison as a result.

In her own words, here is why Omer refused to enlist with the IDF:

“I refuse to enlist in the Israeli military. I shall not be part of an army that needlessly implements a violent policy and violates the most basic human rights on a daily basis.

Like most of my peers, I too have not dared to question the ethics of the Israeli military. But when I visited the Occupied Territories I realized I see a completely different reality, a violent, oppressive, extreme reality that must be ended.

I believe in service to the society I am part of, and that is precisely why I refuse to take part in the war crimes committed by my country. Violence will not bring any kind of solution, and I shall not commit violence, come what may.”

Israel, Media

Is there room for objection in Israel? Or as Abbott suggests the media that don’t support the government are against it!!

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the letter as “baseless slander” and went on to say “this is an act that should be condemned…and that constitutes political exploitation of the Israeli Defense Forces”.

Israel’s defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, ordered Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz to deal with the 43 reservists “as if they were common criminals”

Israeli Labor MK Shelly Yechimovich slammed the reservists on her Facebook page:

“Your defamatory words on directed bugging of ‘sexual conversations,’ and other nonsensical things have no link to reality. You are falsely slandering the other members of your unit. On Saturday, I spoke with a number of them, men no less moral than you. They feel ridicule and anger towards you. They told me that if you really participated in such an unusual and ugly event, of dimming the lights and listening as a group to intimate calls, why did you not just stop the bug in real time?”

Earlier this year, 19-year-old Israeli Udi Segal refused being drafted into the military and was sentenced to 20 days in military prison.

 

 

Israel

Middle East Israel in ‘grave breach’ over informants

Israeli refuseniks declared a ‘moral duty’ to no longer “take part in the state’s actions against Palestinians.”

Pressuring Palestinians to pass on information to Israel is a violation of the Geneva conventions,says rights group.

Israel’s defence minister said the refuseniks would “be treated as criminals”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called their revelations “baseless slander”.However the 43 refuseniks maintain that the unit – despite its role in counterterrorism – is largely engaged with perpetuating “a non-democratic, military rule over the Palestinian people”.”In order to do that, it must infiltrate every aspect of Palestinian life, and this is something we cannot continue to do in good conscience,” they said.

According to the group, Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention says “compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power” is considered a ‘grave breach.’ War crimes include “grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.”

But an Israeli military spokesperson said concerns were never raised with superiors.

“Immediately turning to the press instead of to their officers or relevant authorities is suspicious and raises doubts as to the seriousness of the claims,” the spokesperson said. “The Intelligence Corps has no record that the specific violations in the letter ever took place.”

 

 

Australia, Injustice, Israel, Prime Minister

Given 43 Experienced Israeli Intelligence reservists wrote their resignation out of conscience and will now be criminally prosecuted I’m posting a report by John Pilger. It’s long but informative unlike Andrew Bolt.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/breaking-the-last-taboo-gaza-and-the-threat-of-world-war,6901

With Prime Minister Tony Abbott plunging Australia back into another war in the Middle East, John Pilger argues that the attack on Gaza poses a wider threat to us all, fuelled by a complicit media.

SAID THE VISIONARY Edward Said:

“THERE IS a taboo on telling the truth about Palestine and the great destructive force behind Israel. Only when this truth is out can any of us be free.”

Andrew Bolt, Israel

Veterans of Elite Israeli Unit Refuse Reserve Duty, Citing Treatment of Palestinians. What would Bolt advise?

Denouncing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians under occupation, a group of veterans from an elite, secretive military intelligence unit have declared they will no longer “take part in the state’s actions against Palestinians” in required reserve duty because of what they called “our moral duty to act.”

it is the first public collective refusal by intelligence officers rather that combat troops. Unit 8200 has a special role in Israeli society as a coveted pipeline to its high-technology industry.

“After our service we started seeing a more complex picture of a nondemocratic, oppressive regime that controls the lives of millions of people,”

said one of the group’s organizers, a 32-year-old sergeant major who was on active duty from 2001 to 2005. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because the military prohibits Unit 8200 members from being publicly identified.

“There are certain things that we were asked to do that we feel do not deserve the title of self-defense,” he added in a telephone interview. “Some of the things that we did are immoral, and are against the things we believe in, and we’re not willing to do these things anymore.”

The new refuseniks said their group began a year ago and was not motivated by Israel’s battle with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip this summer, which a member said was “just another chapter in this cycle of violence.” The veterans described exploitative activities focused on innocents whom Israel hoped to enlist as collaborators. They said information about medical conditions and sexual orientation were among the tidbits collected. They said that Palestinians lacked legal protections from harassment, extortion and injury.

The timing is nonetheless powerful, coming after many longtime Israeli critics of the occupation complained that their voices were stifled during a unified rallying around the war effort.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said specific incidents mentioned in officers’ testimonies presented with the group’s letter would be examined, and that “ramifications” for refusing to serve — including possible criminal prosecution — would be handled individually.

Hamas, International law, Israel

DEFENSE AGGRESSION OR PUBLIC OPINION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  The death toll Israeli operation in Gaza passes 1,000;  a humanitarian cease-fire takes effect; two IDF soldiers killed in Gaza, Palestinian officials have filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court, accusing Israel of war crimes. Has Israel’s defense been disproportionate? According to International law no.

Israel instigated a 12-hour humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza starting at 7 A.M. Saturday 26/7/14. The official went on to explain that the cease-fire was intended to allow the Palestinian civilian population to obtain food and water and to restock the hospitals with drugs, as well as to allow international aid organizations to provide humanitarian aid.  Hamas has renewed rocket attacks this morning even though Israel offered a 4 hour extension to the ceasefire.  

 Hamas has spent the past several years building to attack Israel, diverting humanitarian aid and building materials for that purpose. The rockets fired from Gaza are intended to kill all Israelis. With the right science and technology Hamas’s want is destroy Israel. It’s for this reason Israel sees itself under an exsistential threat needing to win every battle. Hamas says it’s only options are ‘war’ or ’embargo’ but rules out ‘peace’.

  Egyptians  while still hostile towards Israel, see Hamas as far more dangerous than  “Zionists”.  They mock Hamas and other Palestinian Islamist leaders who encourage young Arabs to die for the sake of “jihad”, while they themselves live in luxury away from the front lines.

  1. Hamas does not have the moral high ground quite the opposite.
  2. Israel has not acted in contravention to any International laws.
  3. Unlike Israel Hamas without uniforms hides it’s weapons and itself amongst the civilian population. It fires rockets indiscriminantly with no regard for targets civil or military. The Israelis notify and warn civilians of  targets to be hit and tells civilians people to leave.
  4. Israel has the capability to totally destroy Gaza but doesn’t.
  5. Israel has offered countless ceasefires and been rejected. It has an International legal right to defend itself.
  6. Israel is under world focus but is not ruled by world opinion.

 

 

Real Media, Alt News, Politics, Critical Thought, War, Global events, Australia, Headlines,
Blog at WordPress.com.