Can someone shut up Bezalel Smotrich?

It is highly disgusting that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday openly demanded the the elimination of blockaded Gaza enclave, destruction of cities and refugee camps where 2.3 million Palestinians are still battling their survival.

"There are no half measures," said Smotrich at a government meeting. "Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat—total annihilation."

"'You will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven,'" he added, quoting the biblical story of the nation of Amalek, whose people God commanded the Israelites to exterminate and which right-wing Israeli leaders have long invoked to justify the killing of Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also referenced Amalek in the first weeks of Israel's current escalation against Gaza; Smotrich's comments came as he and other government officials pushed Netanyahu to forge ahead with a planned attack on the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1.5 million people have been displaced as other cities across Gaza have been decimated by Israeli forces.

Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), called on President Joe Biden to stop condemning thousands of US college students who have demanded a ceasefire and an end to military aid for Israel and direct his ire toward the Israeli government, which he has repeatedly insisted is targeting Hamas despite its genocidal statements and indiscriminate attacks.

"In case the Israeli government's genocidal intent in Gaza was unclear to anyone despite its daily war crimes against the Palestinian people, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's words should serve as another wake-up call," said Hooper.

"The intent of the Netanyahu government has always been Palestinian land without Palestinians, and violence has always been the route to achieve that heinous goal. Instead of condemning college students, President Biden must condemn Israeli leaders for making and acting on their genocidal threats."

In recent months, Israeli officials have stated that the "migration" of Gaza residents is their ultimate goal in relentlessly attacking the enclave, that all Palestinians in Gaza are "responsible" for a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October and are legitimate targets, that the enclave should be "flattened," and that the Israel Defense Forces is fighting "human animals."

Journalist Mehdi Hasan sardonically suggested that Smotrich's comments will be deemed acceptable by the Biden administration, members of Congress, and the U.S. corporate media because he didn't "say it on a college campus."

"Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of the security cabinet, ought to be fired immediately over his latest remarks," read an editorial in Haaretz Tuesday night that was published as police in New York were storming Columbia University to arrest students.

"That's how any properly run country would act, and all the more so a country against which the International Court of Justice in The Hague has issued provisional measures requiring it to refrain from genocide, including one requiring it to deal properly with incitement to genocide."

Smotrich and others have objected to what National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Tuesday called a "reckless" deal that would allow for the release of scores of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners who have long been detained in Israeli jails. The deal would include a 40-day halt in fighting.

CAIR also pointed out Tuesday that five units of Israel's security forces have been accused of committing a "gross violation of human rights," according to a U.S. State Department analysis.

"Our nation's repeated claim that it supports international law and human rights," said national executive director Nihad Awad, "is a cruel illusion."

 

Bennett sworn in as Prime Minister of Israel, ending Netanyahu era

Knesset voted to approve the new government formed by Yamina leader Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid. This ended Benjamin Netanyahu’s record-breaking term as prime minister on Sunday night. The new government passed with the support of 60 MKs, while 59 opposed it. Ra’am (United Arab List) MK Saeed Alharomi abstained. 

The MKs in the new coalition and their family members in the visitors’ gallery erupted in applause when the results were announced. The ministers then took turns being sworn in. Bennett was sworn in as Israel’s 13th prime minister and Lapid as the 14th.

When Bennett started his speech introducing his government, Religious Zionist Party Head Bezalel Smotrich and other MKs shouted, “Shame,” while waving posters of victims of terrorism. They were removed from the plenum.

“I am proud that I can sit in a government with people with very different views,” Bennett told his hecklers in the Knesset plenum, adding that they seemed to have a problem with losing power.

Bennett called on all sides of the political spectrum to display restraint. In recent years, Israel had stopped being managed as a country, he said.

“The loud tone of the screams is the same as the failure to govern during your term in office,” Bennett snapped back at the Likud MKs.

Shas and United Torah Judaism MKs heckled Bennett, calling him a liar and a cheat. But Bennett promised to help the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector, even though its MKs would not be part of his government. He pledged to build a new haredi city for the sector’s growing population.

“This is not a day of mourning,” Bennett said. “There is no disengagement here. There is no harm being caused to anyone. There is a change of government in a democracy. That’s it. And I assure it is a government that will work for the sake of all the people.

“We will do all we can so that no one should have to feel afraid. We are here in the name of good and to work. And I say to those who intend to celebrate tonight, don’t dance on the pain of others. We are not enemies; we are one people.”

In the address, Bennett said his government would prevent the nuclearization of Iran and would not permit rocket fire on Israeli citizens from the Gaza Strip. Bennett thanked US President Joe Biden’s administration for its support during the war in Gaza and pledged to maintain bipartisan support in the US.

Bennett made a point of starting his address by praising outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his hard work over the years for the State of Israel and his wife, Sara, for her dedication. Netanyahu deserved credit for his outreach to Ra’am head Mansour Abbas, he said. The new government would take unprecedented steps to reach out to the Arab sector, he vowed.

Lapid canceled his planned speech and merely said the behavior of MKs in the outgoing government reminded him, his mother and all citizens of Israel why it was so important to replace them.

While Netanyahu spoke, MKs in the coalition being formed were completely silent, making a point of showing him respect. The only MKs who heckled him were from the Joint List, until Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz mentioned the criminal charges against Netanyahu near the end of the address.

A crisis was avoided earlier when Ra’am MK Saeed Alharomi said he would not oppose the new government, following a threat.

Nothing could interfere with the swearing in of the new government on Sunday night, Abbas told reporters at the Knesset, adding that “we will all vote in favor of the government.”

In return for his support of the new coalition, Alharomi demanded that a clause in the coalition agreement regarding illegal construction in the Negev be canceled.

Netanyahu and interior minister Arye Deri pressured Alharomi and offered him assurances, including on the topic of the Kaminitz Law that addresses illegal construction, in an attempt to get him to vote against the government.

Netanyahu would remain in power if the prospective new coalition’s razor-thin majority were to lose the support of even one MK in a vote of confidence in the Knesset. If Alharomi abstains in the confidence vote, Joint List MKs could come to its rescue and vote in favor.

The Likud responded that it would be shameful if the government were formed through the backing of MKs who support terrorists and do not recognize Israel as a Jewish-democratic state.

Jerusalem flag march cancellation gets mixed response from Muslims and Zionists

A flag march through the Old City of Jerusalem was called off on Monday after Israel Police rejected the organizers' request that participants be allowed to march through the Old City's Damascus Gate. The march was viewed as a possible way to set off violence on the eve of the swearing in of a new government in the Knesset.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz held a briefing on Sunday to discuss the march and urged the police to cancel it. 

On Sunday, Hamas Spokesperson Khalil al-Hayya warned that ‘provocations’ against Palestinians should be stopped, including the flags march, so that this upcoming Thursday ‘is not like 11^th May, or Jerusalem Day, when rockets were hurled towards Jerusalem.

In protest, Palestinian activists groups are planning a counter-march for Thursday, N12 reported.

Israel Police emphasized that the current route of the march has been rejected, but that it could be approved if the route were to change to exclude Damascus Gate.

Religious Zionist MK Bezalel Smotrich called the decision a shameful surrender to terrorism and Hamas threats. His fellow party member, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said that he would still march the planned route. "I do not plan to give up," Ben-Gvir said.

Likud MK May Golan, who was heavily criticized on Monday for referring to Yamina and New Hope Party leaders Naftali Bennett and Gideon Sa'ar as suicide bombers due to their decision to form a government without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said she would join Ben-Gvir in marching anyway.

The Joint List released a statement in response to the cancellation which said that "Racist hate demonstrations and calls for murder are not protected under freedom of expression and protest. Especially when it comes to occupied territory."

"We will continue to stand firm against the Right's attempts to ignite Jerusalem and the entire region and lead to bloodshed," the statement added.

Originally, the march was scheduled to pass through the Damascus Gate near the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Organizers said that the march was needed to make up for the one that was cancelled last month on Jerusalem Day due to the escalation in tensions on the Temple Mount and with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

A few hours before the controversial Flag March was scheduled to take place, the Sovereignty Movement is expected to launch the 'Greater Jerusalem' project, calling for the expansion of Jerusalem to include Gush Etzion, Mevaseret, Ma'aleh Adumim and parts of the Binyamin Regional Council.

The announcement of the project is scheduled to take place during the third Youth Sovereignty Conference in the Oz veGaon Nature Reserve in Gush Etzion and will "focus on the centrality of Jerusalem in the life of the people of Israel and the State of Israel," the group wrote in a statement.

The leaders of the sovereignty movement, Yehudit Katzover and Nadia Matar, said that the choice to focus on the conference on the centrality of Jerusalem in the life of Israel and the State of Israel stems, among other things, from a reaction to violent riots which shook mixed-ethnicity cities nationwide last month and the threats against Israel which were seen coming from Iran, Turkey, Hamas and Hezbollah.

"The struggle for the path of Zionism and the righteousness of the path of Zionism begins in Jerusalem," they said.

"The enemies of Israel clearly recognize the centrality of Jerusalem and they wave it again and again as a pretext for attacking Israel," the statement said, adding that last month's riots "also began under the pretext of Arab defense of Jerusalem."

"In the face of all this, the clear and distinct voice of the Israeli youth is imbued with the belief in the righteousness of his way, aware of his mission in the Zionist chain, and especially well aware of the importance and centrality of Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the eternal people," the statement continued.

According to Katzover and Matar, the conference's purpose is not just a celebration of Jerusalem. They are also hoping it leads to renewed calls for a unilateral annexation of territories which are currently under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

"In this spirit," Katzover and Matar said in their statement, "the third conference of the sovereignty youth will be held, and from it will emerge a renewed call for the application of Israeli sovereignty over the entire country from the Galilee through Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley to the Negev."

Critics of unilateral annexation of the West Bank say that forcing a regime on Palestinians without supplying them with full and equal voting rights would result in a form of apartheid and that forcing one while supplying them with equal voting rights would mean an end to the Jewish majority in Israel. 

The organizers of the conference said that at the end of the gathering, which has so far enrolled hundreds of youths from all over the country, buses will allocated to take interested participants to the march.

The Sovereignty Movement released another statement after police announced the cancellation, saying "It is very unfortunate that we are folding under Hamas threats. The sovereignty of Jerusalem is violated and our dignity as a free people in our country and our capital is trampled."

"The enemies feel and understand the spiritual power of Jerusalem, they know very well that Jerusalem is the center of our being and therefore harm it," the statement said, again referring to Hamas.

The statement reiterated the 'Greater Jerusalem' project, saying "Jerusalem must grow, become stronger and become a metropolis with satellite cities in order for its national and international status to be strengthened, so that its demographics change with an absolute Jewish majority."

The Sovereignty Movement has not announced whether the buses to central Jerusalem will be called off due to the march's cancellation.