Showing posts with label Palestinians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palestinians. Show all posts

Wednesday 15 May 2024

76th Anniversary of Nakba

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) issued a statement on the 76th anniversary of the Nakba when Palestinians were violently expelled from their lands to make way for the formation of Israel.

The statement said the Nakba continues today through crimes of murder, destruction, forced displacement, and genocide as a result of the continuing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, Al Jazeera reported. 

“The OIC reaffirms the responsibility of the international community towards the necessity of putting an end to the Israeli occupation and activating international justice mechanisms to hold Israel, the occupying power, accountable for the crimes it has committed against humanity, and to rectify the historical injustice that continues to befall the Palestinian people,” the statement added. 

 

Saturday 11 May 2024

Israel orders Palestinians to evacuate more areas of Rafah

Israel called on Saturday for Palestinians in more areas of Gaza's southern city of Rafah to evacuate and head to what it calls an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, in a further indication that the military is pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack on Rafah.

In a post on social media site X, a military spokesperson also called on residents and displaced people in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, and 11 other neighbourhoods in the enclave to go immediately to places west of Gaza City.

The Palestinian health ministry said at least 37 Palestinians, 24 of them from central Gaza areas, were killed in overnight airstrikes across the enclave, including in Rafah.

"They threw fliers on Rafah and said, from Rafah to al-Zawayda is safe, people should evacuate there, and they did, and what has become of them? Dismembered bodies? There is no safe place in Gaza," Khitam Al-Khatib, who said she had lost at least 10 of her relatives in an airstrike on a family house earlier on Saturday, told Reuters.

Al-Zawayda is a small town in central Gaza Strip that has been crowded by thousands of displaced people from across the enclave.

The Israeli military said its aircraft struck tens of targets across the Strip over the past day, adding its ground troops had eliminated fighters in Zeitoun in recent hours.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least seven people in a house in Beit Lahiya town in the northern Gaza Strip, all from the same family, medics said.

In Rafah, residents told Reuters the new evacuation orders by the Israeli military covered areas in the centre of the city and left little doubt Israel planned to expand its ground offensive there.

"The situation is very difficult, people are leaving their homes in panic," said Khaled, 35, a resident of the Shaboura neighbourhood, an area where the new orders to leave have been issued.

The Israeli military said it was continuing operational activity against Hamas fighters in eastern Rafah and on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing.

Despite heavy US pressure and alarm expressed by residents and humanitarian groups, Israel has said it will proceed with an incursion into Rafah, where more than one million displaced people have sought refuge during the seven-month-old war.

Israeli tanks captured the main road dividing Rafah's eastern and western sections on Friday, effectively encircling the eastern side in an assault that has caused Washington to hold up the delivery of some military aid to its ally.

Israel says it cannot win the war without rooting out thousands of Hamas fighters it believes are deployed in Rafah.

About 300,000 Gazans have so far moved towards Al-Mawasi, according to Israeli military estimates released on Saturday.

Two crossing points vital for delivery of aid to Gaza were still closed on Saturday the Palestinian WAFA news agency said the Rafah crossing was closed for a fifth day, while another crossing, Kerem Shalom, has been shut for around a week.

The latest evacuation orders came hours after internationally mediated ceasefire talks appeared to be faltering, with Hamas saying Israel's rejection of the truce offer it had accepted returned things to square one.

The Palestinian militant group also hinted it was reconsidering its negotiation policy. It did not elaborate on whether a review meant it would harden its terms for reaching a deal, but said it would consult with other allied factions.

Israel says it wants to reach a deal under which hostages would be released in exchange for the freeing of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, but that it is not prepared to end the military offensive.

In Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands were sheltering, Palestinians mourned relatives during funerals on Saturday.

"Here they are, in pieces, here is my sister-in-law, without a head, my aunt is without a head, what is this injustice? Until when will this go on? We are exhausted, by God we are exhausted, I have lived in tents for the past seven months," said Khatib, sitting near bodies wrapped in white shrouds bearing the names of the dead men and women.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is under increasing pressure over its military campaign, including from longtime ally the United States.

The Biden administration said on Friday Israel's use of US-supplied weapons may have violated international humanitarian law during its Gaza operation, in its strongest criticism to date of Israel.

But the administration stopped short of a definitive assessment, saying that due to the chaos of the war it could not verify specific instances where use of those weapons might have been involved in alleged breaches.

Wednesday 28 February 2024

Hamas urges Palestinians to march to Al-Aqsa

Hamas has urged Palestinians to march to Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem at the start of Ramadan. The call by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh followed comments by Biden that an agreement could be reached between Israel and Hamas as soon as next week for a ceasefire during the Muslim fasting month expected to start this year on March 10.

Israel and Hamas, which both have delegations in Qatar this week hammering out details of a potential 40-day truce, have said there is still a big gulf between them, and the Qatari mediators say there is no breakthrough yet.

Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem's old city, one of the world's holiest sites for Muslims has long been a flashpoint for potential violence, particularly during religious holidays.

Haniyeh also called on the self-styled Axis of Resistance - allies of Iran including Lebanon's Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis, and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq - as well as Arab states, to step up their support for Palestinians in Gaza suffering under Israel's assault and blockade.

"It is the duty of the Arab and Islamic nations to take the initiative to break the starvation conspiracy in Gaza," Haniyeh said.

One Palestinian official with knowledge of the ceasfire talks told Reuters mediation efforts were intensifying, but there was no certainty of success.

"Time is pressuring because Ramadan is closing in, mediators have stepped up their efforts," said the official, "It is early to say whether there will be an agreement soon, but things are not stalled," he said.

Israeli Defence Minister Gallant, asked about Biden's optimistic comments that a deal could be reached by next week, said: "Who am I to express an opinion about what the president said? I very much hope that he is right."

Food aid reaching Gaza has severely declined over the past month, and international aid agencies say residents are close to famine. Israel says its blockade on Gaza is essential in its war against Hamas and that it is allowing in humanitarian supplies.

On Wednesday, Israel said it had cooperated with the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and the United States in an airdrop of food aid to southern Gaza.

In Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million population is sheltering, several masked men armed with clubs and some with guns toured the markets in what they said was a bid to keep prices in check.

Their head scarves read 'Committee of People's Protection.' A masked spokesman told reporters they were formed to back the Hamas-led interior ministry, and make sure people weren't being exploited.

Aid agencies say the situation is most dire in the north of the Gaza Strip, which has been almost entirely cut off. Gaza's health ministry said on Wednesday that four children had died as a result of malnutrition and dehydration at northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital, which had earlier said it was halting operations as it had run out of fuel.

 

 

 

Tuesday 26 December 2023

Moving Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai

According to a write up published in The Jerusalem Post, moving Palestinians to the Sinai Peninsula has been termed the ideal solution to resolve Gaza crisis.

The writer believes, the Sinai Peninsula comprises one of the most suitable places on Earth to provide the people of Gaza with hope and a peaceful future.

The 365 km² Gaza Strip has remained a flash point in Israel-Egypt relations since its conquest by the Egyptian Army in 1948 as part of Egypt’s failed attempt to annihilate the newly-born State of Israel.

Egypt invaded Israel along two main axes, reaching the outskirts of Jerusalem and only 20 km. short of Tel Aviv, but the Israel Defense Forces pushed off this offensive. These battles generated a wave of refugees that found haven in the Gaza Strip, which remained under Egyptian military control until 1967.

Since 1948, and up until the current partial release of some of the Israeli babies, children, and women taken hostage by Hamas terrorists, the Egyptians have been significantly involved in the politics and economy of the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptians locked the residents of Gaza and the refugees of the 1948 War in the Gaza Strip, and, with the backing of the United Nations, still deny them the right to rebuild their lives in all Arab countries, including in the adjacent Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. This harsh policy was one of the major and long-term catalysts for the intensifying human stagnation of now circa 1.8 million inhabitants within the Strip.

According to the writer, beyond the abduction, mutilation, burning, rape, and murder of 1,200 Israelis and other nationals, the Hamas terrorist invasion of Israel on October 07 destroyed many Israeli agricultural villages. This barbarian murder-fest led the IDF to conquer the northern Gaza Strip and the Hamas-infested Gaza metropolis as part of Israel’s goal to destroy Hamas terror capabilities. As civilians were ordered to move south, the southern Gaza Strip became a haven for most of Gaza’s residents.

The battles in the northern Strip generated significant damage and destruction of buildings utilized by Hamas. Damage to the immense terror-tunnel system further destabilized the metropolis’s substrate. Major portions of the metropolis are considerably incapacitated and cannot be simply fixed. Rather, the damaged and destroyed structures must be completely torn down. The tunneled – and consequently exploded and bulldozed – soil must undergo extensive environmental and engineering rehabilitation.

In other words, the metropolis has to be fully evacuated, redesigned, monitored, and only then rebuilt to provide habitable and economic conducive conditions. Such an effort requires unique expertise and immense funding and will take considerable time that cannot be calculated.

Therefore, the war is anticipated to end with a unique humanitarian challenge of how to construct a better future for the people of Gaza.

Since Israel’s unconditional turnover of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority in 2005, Gazans have completely failed to generate a productive Palestinian-administered entity, despite generous economic support, mainly from America, Europe, Qatar, and the UN.

This may be associated with the coupled effect of an intrinsic hatred-focused, fanatic, anti-Israel Islamic culture, and links with Iran, along with limited geographical conditions, poor natural and human resources, and a high population density.

This situation raises serious doubts that any type of future self-sustainable efforts will yield a stable and free socioeconomic culture and promising future in the Strip. A creative solution is needed ASAP.

The adjoining Sinai Peninsula, in essence, is the exact opposite of the Gaza Strip, comprising one of the most suitable places on Earth to provide the people of Gaza with hope and a peaceful future.

Covering 60,000 km² (165 times larger than the Strip), its population is barely around one-third of Gaza’s, making it one of the emptiest places in the Mediterranean region.

Although under Egyptian governance, it is an integral geographic-geological continuation of Israel and the Gaza Strip, with which it shares a 200 km. and 14 km. long border, respectively.

Therefore, the geographic setting of the Mediterranean coast of northern Sinai is also a physical continuation of the Gaza Strip with ample, shallow groundwater in the northeast.

Due to the intensive smuggling of arms to Hamas via Sinai in the last few years, Egypt fully destroyed the residential infrastructure bordering the Gaza Strip, and expelled the local population.

In northwestern Sinai, Egypt has invested immensely in building for agriculture, including freshwater canals.

Furthermore, Egypt has surprisingly wired Sinai with excellent infrastructure, overshooting its civilian and industrial needs. These include an array of paved roads and highways connected by tunnels beneath the Suez Canal to mainland Egypt.

The facts demonstrate that the northern Sinai Peninsula is an ideal location to develop a spacious resettlement for the people of Gaza. Its open areas, along with the existing infrastructure, can easily host large-scale development projects that, if led by the Chinese and supported by local labor, for example, can easily mature in just one to two years.

Firm American and international guidance lined with financial and operative support can surely pave the way to this creative and prosperous solution and jointly help Egypt’s dire demographic and economic situation that is challenging its political authority.

Israel will also be cooperative in sharing its hi-tech-oriented agricultural capabilities with Egypt as it did following the Peace Treaty in the early 1980s.

If Egypt bravely chooses to change its rigid, old-fashioned policy of keeping Palestinian Gazans in constant distress and consents to such an endeavor, its geopolitical gains will be threefold: It will be hailed by the international community as the savior of the dire plight of Gazans; it will strengthen its status as a leader of the Arab world; and it will finally fulfill its 30+-year-old plan to settle the Sinai and strengthen its control of this zone.

However, history has taught us that Gazans, despite their complaints about their humanitarian situation, may object towards genuine rehabilitation programs. This stubbornness substantially relies on their desire to destroy Israel, which repeatedly comes at their own expense.

The ongoing obliteration of Hamas, which terrorizes Palestinian Authority officials and many Gaza residents, may pave the way to the emergence of the proposed Sinai solution, if presented in a wise and discrete manner that conforms to the Middle East mentality.

 

 

Wednesday 20 December 2023

Malaysia bans Israeli-linked shipping

Malaysian government announced on Wednesday imposition of a ban on all Israeli owned and flagged ships, as well as any vessels headed to Israel, from docking at its ports.

The announcement by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s office said the ban would take place with immediate effect and was in response to Israel’s conduct in its conflict with Hamas.

“This sanction is a response to Israel’s actions that disregard the basic humanitarian principles and violate international law through the ongoing massacre and continuous cruelty against the Palestinian people,” the statement read.

Muslim-majority Malaysia has long championed Palestinian rights and causes. Like Indonesia, Brunei, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Pakistan, it does not recognize Israel.

The ongoing bombardment of Gaza by Israel’s military has sparked mass rallies in Malaysia and put domestic political pressure on Anwar.

Anwar remains one of the most outspoken world leaders against Israel as well as its backers in the United States, although the latter remains a major trading partner.

In a parliamentary speech made in November, Anwar said that the government would maintain ties with Hamas and would not punish the group.

Malaysian passports also bear the inscription “Valid for all countries except Israel.” Israeli passport holders are forbidden to enter Malaysia without prior permission.

In its statement, the Malaysian government said Israeli-registered companies and ships had been previously allowed to dock in the country since 2005. “However, the government today has decided to override the past Cabinet’s decision to not allow ships using Israeli flags to dock in the country.”

The statement on Wednesday also singled out the Israel-based global shipping company ZIM. Its vessels have been docking in Malaysia since 2002, the statement said.

In addition, Malaysia has also imposed a ban on any ship that is heading to Israel from loading cargo at Malaysian ports.

Monday 11 December 2023

Israel trying to clear Palestinians from Gaza

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said Israel appears to be trying to clear Gaza of its Palestinian population through its military offensive and evacuation orders.

“The developments we are witnessing point to attempts to move Palestinians into Egypt, regardless of whether they stay there or are resettled elsewhere,” he wrote in the Los Angeles Times.

On Sunday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also accused Israel of being determined to push Palestinians out of Gaza.

“We are seeing a systematic effort, it seems to empty Gaza from its people,” he said at a conference in Doha, Qatar.

Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesperson, called the allegations outrageous and false.

Israel has said it is prepared to fight for months or longer to defeat Gaza's Hamas rulers, as its ground offense intensifies with more airstrikes and artillery fire.

On Monday, the Israeli army announced that 101 soldiers had been killed so far in the military offensive which began on 27 October.

Qatar, which has played a key mediating role between the warring parties, says efforts to stop the war and have all hostages released will continue, but a willingness to discuss a ceasefire is fading.

Israel faces international outrage after its military offensive killed more than 17,700 Palestinians in Gaza, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.

About 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory, where UN agencies say there is no safe place to flee.

With only a trickle of humanitarian aid reaching a small portion of Gaza, residents face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods.

Wednesday 25 October 2023

Palestinians 56 years of suffocating occupation, says UN Chief

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the October 07 military operation against Israel did not happen in a vacuum, noting that the Palestinians have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.

The remarks by the world’s top diplomat angered Israel. The regime’s envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, called for the resignation of Guterres, saying Israel must rethink its relations with the world body.

“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing,” Guterres said.

Following such remarks, the foreign minister of Israel also canceled his scheduled meeting with the UN chief.

Also, in a post on X, Guterres said, "The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas. These horrendous attacks also cannot justify subjecting the entire Palestinian population to collective punishment."

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in an annual report on Palestine has said Gaza has endured 16 years of de-development, as well as suppressed human potential and the right to development.

 

Thursday 12 October 2023

World in support of Palestinians in Gaza

With the increasing wave of bombardments by Israel on Gaza that has so far cost the lives of more than 700 people, including 300 women and children, the people of different countries demonstrated in support of the residents of Gaza as well as the resistance forces and asked the international community to break their silence against the crimes of the Zionist regime. 

Turkish citizens of Diyarbakir came to the streets in a demonstration on Monday and declared their support for the people of Gaza. 

American citizens also came to the streets in San Francisco and Chicago and declared their support for the defenseless people of Gaza and condemned the Zionist criminals. 

In Philadelphia and New York, the citizens also condemned the oppression of the Zionist regime in Gaza. 

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in New York on Monday to denounce Israel and demand that the United States stop its support for the Zionist regime. 

With signs reading “Israel go to hell!” and “NYC stands with Gaza,” people of all ages stood in front of the Israeli consulate general waving Palestinian flags. 

Protesters also showed their support for Palestinians during a rally in front of the Opera House in Sydney Monday. 

On the other hand, the fans of the popular Al-Ahly team in Egypt also announced their support for Palestine and the people of Gaza by chanting the slogan "We will sacrifice our blood and soul for Palestine". 

Hundreds of British people with different backgrounds also gathered in front of the Israeli embassy in London on Monday in support of the Al-Aqsa Storm Operation and to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people. 

The event was organized by several UK groups, including Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Stop the War, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Muslim Association of Britain, and the Palestinian Forum in Britain. 

Dr. Ismail Patel, founder of FOA, said, “We have gathered here in London to say Palestinians must be free, Israel must end the occupation, (and) we will stand with the Palestinians until they are free. 

“European governments and the British government must stop supporting Israel’s racist xenophobia against Palestinians.” 

Israel intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Monday, vowing to destroy the military and governing capabilities of the enclave’s Hamas rulers, as Israeli soldiers fought to dislodge Gaza resistance fighters from areas of southern Israel. 

Israeli War Minister Yoav Gallant announced that “no electricity, no food, no water, no gas” would be allowed to enter Gaza.

 

Monday 19 June 2023

Israeli troops kill five Palestinians in West Bank

Israeli commandos backed by helicopter gunships killed five Palestinians including a teenager and wounded as many as 66 others as a raid in the West Bank led to an hours-long gun battle with armed fighters, the military and health officials said.

Seven Israeli personnel were wounded after troops came under fire during an operation in the flashpoint town of Jenin to arrest two Palestinians suspected in attacks, the military said. At least two of the Palestinians killed in the fighting belonged to the armed Islamic Jihad group.

With US-sponsored peacemaking stalled for almost a decade, Jenin and other areas of the northern West Bank have been a focus of months of stepped-up sweeps by Israel amid a spate of Palestinian street rampages in its cities.

As troops faced heavy fire and a rain of explosive devices from gunmen in the town, the army was forced to mount an extraction mission to pull out a number of its vehicles blocked in the fighting.

"So that's why you saw also our forces in a very problematic area and we had to bring in a helicopter," an army spokesman told reporters.

Video obtained by Reuters showed an explosion enveloping an armored troop transport as shots ring out. Other clips showed a military helicopter launching a missile and releasing flares.

A military spokesperson said an Apache helicopter fired on an open area in order to drive back gunmen as casualties were extricated from the troop transport.

"We're aware Palestinians are hit, quite a big number. We'll know more about it in the next few hours," the spokesman said. "It will take a few hours. It's going to be pretty harsh."

There was no immediate confirmation the helicopter also released flares - an apparent precaution against launches of shoulder-fired missiles at it.

An official from the Fatah party said fighters from the nearby cities of Nablus and Tulkarem had arrived in Jenin to support the local fighters.

"We tell this occupation that all their operations are a failure, our people will win, and the dialogue between us will only be the battlefield," Atta Abu Rmeileh said.

The unusual use of helicopter gunships in the operation underlined the severity of the fighting in Jenin, where armed militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad have long had a strong presence in the adjoining refugee camp.

An Islamic Jihad official said the use of aircraft will push our fighters to use tools that will surprise the enemy.

However, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would employ whatever means it thought necessary.

"There are no compromises in the fight against terrorism; we will continue to take an offensive approach. We will use all the means at our disposal," he said on Twitter.

The Palestinian health ministry said the dead included a 15 year old. Islamic Jihad claimed two of them as members. Another 66 Palestinians were wounded, the ministry said.

Another such group, Hamas, said its fighters also took part in the clashes. At least one Palestinian was detained during Monday's raid, witnesses in Jenin said.

 

 

Saturday 7 January 2023

Israel has already annexed West Bank

The UN General Assembly has referred the West Bank issue to the World Court. There are again rumblings about possible annexation, especially with Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-Right government assuming power in Jerusalem.

Annexation is viewed as something terrible Israel might do to the Palestinians. However the reality is that Israel has already incorporated the West Bank long ago.

It has not formally annexed this not-very-large area in order to avoid provoking the region and the world – and mainly to avoid having to extend the right to vote for the Israeli parliament to the region’s three million Palestinians.

This is a neat little trick that has worked well; it has fooled most people most of the time, including, amusingly, a few clueless Jewish nationalists who never got the memo and are now calling for annexation.

To understand that the West Bank is already part of Israel, consider the following:

By law, Israelis abroad cannot vote in elections unless they are diplomats or other envoys of the state; generally only citizens present in Israeli sovereign territory on Election Day can vote. Are the half a million West Bank settlers allowed to vote? You bet they are, and in impressive numbers they do. That is in contrast to Palestinians who may be living in a village just across the road.

Countries do not generally build towns and villages on territory that does not belong to them (and democratic countries certainly do not build anything for only one ethnic group only). Is Israel building Jewish settlements in the West Bank? It certainly has, and now it will again; there’s an accredited university there as well.

Israel controls all entry and exit to and from the overall West Bank, as well as passage between the Palestinian Authority autonomy islands. Israel controls the airspace and the water, natural resources and construction rights in most of the territory, and also provides the currency. Israel has the overriding security and justice authority, and even the autonomous islands are essentially subordinate.

Is there any other country with such a level of control on territory that isn’t part of it? Certainly not democratic countries; the US territories like Puerto Rico are an interesting case – and the locals there are US citizens. The situation is analogous mainly to the colonial era, which wound down in the middle of the previous century.

Defenders of the situation will say the occupation is necessary for security reasons, because otherwise the West Bank would fall to Hamas and terrorists would fire rockets from strategic highland at Israel’s major cities. That’s a very reasonable concern, given that this precise thing happened after Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 – but it does not justify the settlements.

Apologists will argue that the occupation is temporary, until the Palestinians agree to Israel’s conditions for partition. But they will not agree to Israel’s terms. The excuse of temporariness is preposterous after 55 years, with no end in sight and the new government preparing to further deepen the settlement enterprise; it plans to legitimize illegal outposts deep inside the territory.

Some argue that most settlers live quite close to the old pre-1967 border, and incorporating them only, would usefully expand Israel’s narrow waist, which at its narrowest point is less than 20 kilometers (about 10 miles) wide. But this does not apply to the 100,000 settlers who live deep inside these territories – well beyond the security barrier established in the 2000s (and which eats into about 15% of the West Bank); the purpose of those settlements, and most of what the new government plans, is to make any partition impossible.

Some right-wingers now want Israel to stand supposedly strong by formally annexing so-called Area C, which is the 60% or so of the West Bank that surrounds the autonomy areas – an unwieldy map created by the 1990s Oslo Accords.

It is doubted that people know the map. Such an annexation, which would leave islands of non-annexed Palestinian areas surrounded by Israeli territory, would not produce what a reasonable person would consider a partition. If anything, it would invite comparisons to South Africa’s apartheid-era Bantustans. It is only slightly less childish than suggesting Israel annex everything except the homes of Palestinians.

If the current government actually lasts four years and deepens the settlement project, the situation will gradually escalate. The Palestinian Authority is likely to collapse – or at least move on from 87-year old leader Mahmoud Abbas. There may well be a renewed Palestinian uprising. And before long, there will be a growing Palestinian demand for Israel to really annex the West Bank – all of it, giving the Palestinians the same voting rights enjoyed by the two million Arab citizens in Israel proper.

This is the likely outcome of an occupation that includes colonization of the kind that is taking place. This is the only formal annexation scheme that will actually mean anything, and it will be backed by the entire world, probably with economic sanctions.

The result will be a country of some 13 million that is barely over half Jewish – and you can expect further conflicts, including between secular and religious Jews, that will cause mass emigration among the sector currently responsible for Israel’s economic and high-tech miracle.

The result will be a new country called Palestine, not Israel. This understanding of demographic reality (and the leverage it bestows) is why the Palestinians have not made things easy for Israel by seriously engaging with previous peace and partition offers made by more intelligent governments.

An Israel that wants to survive in the long term should freeze all settlement activity beyond the security barrier line – and project to all audiences that its strategic imperative is a secure way to separate from most of the West Bank.

In the wake of last week’s UN decision, the World Court could do peace a major service by expediting procedures and nudging Israel in this direction.

Annexation is not something Israel should threaten – but something it should strenuously seek to avoid. Instead, under the new government, it is headed off a cliff in a way that can only leave its enemies incredulous with joy. It is a genuine failure of democracy – and a very flawed one at that, because millions of Palestinians are effectively residents who cannot vote.

Tuesday 23 August 2022

Jerusalem belongs to all, not Jews alone

Jerusalem is the united capital of Israel, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Monday morning as he pushed back at former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who attacked him on social media over his previously announced stance.

“Jerusalem is the united capital of the State of Israel – so it has been, and so it will be,” Gantz told Radio 103 FM.

Netanyahu on Sunday tweeted the headline of an interview Gantz gave to a Saudi paper in 2020 in which he said there was room for a Palestinian capital in a united Jerusalem.

 “The answer is no,” Netanyahu tweeted. The issue of a united Jerusalem is one he often campaigns on and has in the past warned that his opposition would give it away to the Palestinians. He famously did so when he campaigned against former Labor Party leader Shimon Peres.

Gantz clarified in his radio interview that he had made those comments around the time former US President Donald Trump had unveiled his peace plan, which called for a Palestinian capital in Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem that were on the opposite side of the security barrier. Netanyahu also supported that plan.

Trump’s plan also called for a two-state resolution to the conflict. Gantz in his public comments since then has spoken of a resolution that involves two entities.

Gantz told the radio station he did not believe it was possible “to get to a permanent agreement with the Palestinians in the coming years.”

What needs to happen instead is to reduce the points of conflict and strengthen Palestinian self-governance over their own affairs, particularly their internal security, Gantz said.

It’s important to prevent the creation of a bi-national state, “which no one wants,” he said.

With respect to a Palestinian foothold in Jerusalem, Gantz said there are people who say there are “civilian villages that Palestinians call Jerusalem, which is not in the metropolitan envelope of Jerusalem, and they can be defined as their capital.”

Gantz also clarified that he would not sit in a government in which Netanyahu was a Prime Minister or a Minister.

 

Benjamin Gantz was born in Kfar Ahim, Israel, in 1959. His mother Malka was a Holocaust survivor, originally from Hungary. His father Nahum came from Romania, and was arrested by the British authorities for trying to enter Palestine illegally, before reaching Israel. His parents were among the founders of Moshav Kfar Ahim, a cooperative agricultural community in south-central Israel. In his youth, he attended the Shafir High School in Merkaz Shapira and boarding school at the HaKfar HaYarok youth village in Ramat HaSharon.

Gantz is a graduate of the IDF Command and Staff College and the National Security College. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from Tel Aviv University, a master's degree in political science from the University of Haifa, and an additional master's degree in National Resources Management from the National Defense University in the United States. Gantz is married to Revital, with whom he has four children. He lives in Rosh HaAyin

In February 2011, following the government decision to promote Gantz to Chief of the General Staff, Attorney Avi'ad Vissuli of the Forum for the Land of Israel unsuccessfully petitioned to revoke the appointment.

In February 2019, an Israeli-American woman accused Gantz of exposing himself to her 40 years earlier, causing her traumatic disorders. Gantz denied all allegations, claiming that such an incident never took place, and that the allegations were politically motivated. Gantz has since sued the woman for defamation.

 

Tuesday 14 June 2022

Why Biden is visiting Saudi Arabia remains a mystery?

Despite Israeli media reports that US President Joe Biden’s planned visit to Israel and the Middle East had been rescheduled to July 14, there has been no confirmation from Washington. 

Biden didn’t mention Israel but said that he hasn’t decided yet if he’ll travel to Saudi Arabia next month. 

Speaking to reporters before Air Force One departed from Los Angeles, Biden also addressed a question about whether there are commitments he is waiting for from the Saudis or about negotiations on peace talks, before announcing his trip.

“No,” said Biden. “The commitments from the Saudis don’t relate to anything having to do with energy. It happens to be a larger meeting taking place in Saudi Arabia. That’s the reason I’m going. And it has to do with national security for them – for Israelis,” he continued. “It has to do with much larger issues than having to do with the energy prices.”

What will he try to achieve in this visit?

The United States is in a years-long process of downsizing its involvement in the Middle East, said Natan Sachs, Director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings.

“It still has a large military presence and still expends resources on the region, but it is looking to partner more extensively with countries in the region on security matters. This trip would be part of that effort, with the Biden administration visibly joining in an Arab-Israeli partnership for defense, especially against Iranian and Iranian-backed unmanned platforms,” he said. “It’s a significant shift in the Biden posture and another sign of a dramatically different Middle East.”

Michael Koplow, Chief Policy Officer at the Israel Policy Forum, said Biden’s visit is about US-Saudi ties first and foremost, “and I don’t expect any big American initiatives with respect to Israel or to Israeli-Palestinian issues.”

“He is trying to avoid the mistake that President Obama made in skipping Israel on his first visit to the region, and thus the Israel component seems to me more of a box-checking exercise,” Koplow said.

“The reference to Israeli security is likely about the Saudi-Egyptian agreement on transferring the islands of Tiran and Sanafir from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, which requires Israeli approval, and is viewed as another step toward Israeli-Saudi normalization and toward a broader regional security architecture in which Israel is integrated. Assuming that the JCPOA is not resurrected – increasingly the likely scenario – the US wants greater agreement and cooperation on dealing with Iran going forward, and this is a piece of that puzzle.”

Mark Dubowitz, Chief Executive at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, said that Biden should be trying to achieve closer coordination with Israel on a pressure campaign against Iran, expanding efforts toward greater Saudi-Israeli normalization, “and sending a clear message to the Palestinian leadership that they can be part of the expanding process of normalization or it will pass them by.”

“The major obstacle to Saudi-Israeli normalization is in Washington not in Riyadh or Jerusalem,” Dubowitz said. 

“Biden has the opportunity to repair the damage in the US-Saudi relationship and to lay out a plan for greater regional military and intelligence integration against Iran and greater political and commercial integration between Israel and the Arab world. He has the opportunity to be remembered as the president who brought the most important Muslim country into the Abraham Accords.”

According to reports in Israeli media, Biden’s visit is expected to also include a visit to east Jerusalem. The plans follow Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf’s visit to Israel and the West Bank, and as the State Department signaled on Twitter that it upgraded its Jerusalem office to the Palestinians, and changed its name to the “US Office of Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem.”

“The separation of the Palestinian unit from the embassy is a partial step, well short of reopening the consulate general in Jerusalem, which Biden and Blinken both promised the Palestinians,” said Sachs.

“It’s a measure meant to blunt some of the worst criticism from the Left about going forward with the regional rapprochement without any major push on the Palestinian front.”

According to Koplow, “Biden wants to signal that he is continuing to repair relations with the Palestinians despite US moves falling short of Palestinian expectations.

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still relatively low on his list of priorities, and that is unlikely to change in the near future, but Biden wants to demonstrate that he is not ignoring Palestinian concerns and is taking a different tack than president Trump did,” he said. “It’s more about the optics of a new US approach than it is about a big substantive shift or a shift in priorities.”

Dubowitz said that Biden should “avoid walking into the same trap on the Palestinian issue, which normally entails State Department efforts like the recent changes to its Jerusalem office to reward the Palestinian leadership without making reciprocal demands or holding them accountable.”

“Biden should be telling Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, “You can join normalization efforts and lead your people into greater prosperity and security or you can continue to obstruct, incite and deflect,” said Dubowitz. “That will guarantee only more misery and violence, the collapse of the PA and the rise of Hamas on the West Bank.”

Monday 4 April 2022

UNHRC approves 4 anti-Israel resolutions, also calls for limited arms embargo

The United Nations Human Rights Council approved four anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian resolutions, including a call for a limited arms embargo against the Jewish state, as it wrapped up its 49th session.

Israel was the only country the UNHRC censured multiple times. Russia, which is a UNHRC member, was censured only once for its invasion of Ukraine, with a resolution passed 32-2, with 13 abstentions.

Other countries – North Korea, Iran, Belarus, Myanmar, Nicaragua, and Syria – were taken to task for human rights abuses with only one resolution per country.

Israel is not a voting member of the UNHRC but spoke multiple times about UNHRC bias during the voting process on Thursday and Friday.

When it comes to Israel, Ambassador Meirav Eilon-Shahar said, the council was an echo chamber of fantasy and hatred against Israel.

“The problem with this echo chamber is that no reality comes in but certainly the hatred seeps out,” she said.

Out of the four resolution texts, the accountability resolution which spoke of the arms embargo is considered to be the most contentious. It was approved by the UNHRC in a 37-3 vote, with seven abstentions.

The three countries that stood with Israel were: Brazil, Malawi, and the United States, which rejoined the council as a voting member this year.

US Ambassador to the UN Michele Taylor said that the Biden administration was disappointed that UNHRC member States continue to disproportionately single out Israel and are dismayed by the many repetitive and one-sided resolutions that run year after year.

The countries that abstained from the vote on accountability were: Cameron, Honduras, India, the Marshall Islands, Nepal, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

All the European Union countries on the council supported the text, including France and Germany.

It urged “all states to refrain from transferring arms when... they assess that there is a clear risk that such arms might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations or abuses of international human rights law or serious violations of international humanitarian law.”

Last year, the resolution passed 32-6, with eight abstentions. The shift in the voting pattern had to do with changes to the rotating membership of the 47-member body and was not reflective of shifts in the positions of individual countries.

The Palestinian Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Ibrahim Khraishi said that it was important to hold Israel accountable for its actions against his people.

“This draft resolution should ensure justice and should hold to account all those who violate international humanitarian law and… to provide reparation and compensation to the Palestinian loved one of the victims,”

The other three resolutions were voted on under Agenda Item 7. The UNHRC is mandated to debate alleged Israeli human rights violations at each session. No such requirement is leveled against any other of the UN’s 193 members.

United Nations Human Rights Council approved four anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian resolutions, condemning Israeli settlement activity and calling for a boycott of settlement products and an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines was approved 38-4, with five abstentions.

Of the three Agenda Item 7 resolutions, the one condemning Israeli settlement activity and calling for a boycott of settlement products and an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines was approved 38-4, with five abstentions.

Those who stood with Israel were: Malawi, the Marshall Islands, the United Kingdom and the United States. Those who abstained were: Brazil, Cameron, Honduras, Lithuania and Ukraine. Last year the same text passed 36-3, with eight abstentions.

The resolution on the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination was approved 41-3, with three abstentions.

Those who stood with Israel were: the Marshall Islands, the United Kingdom and the United States. Those who abstained were: Cameron, Honduras and Lithuania. Last year, it passed, 42-3, with two abstentions.

Those who opposed or abstained from the text were not making a statement against Palestinian sovereignty, but wanted to take a stand against the council’s anti-Israel bias.

The resolution with the least amount of support was the text that asked Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights, which was approved 29-15, with three abstentions.

United Nations Human Rights Council approved four anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian resolutions. Resolution that asked Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights, which was approved 29-15, with three abstentions.

Those who stood with Israel were: Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, the Marshall Islands, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Korea, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Those who abstained were: Brazil, Cameroon and Honduras.

Khraishi defended the continued presence of Agenda Item 7.

The focus should be on ending Israel’s “occupation” and not the debate about it, Khraishi said, as he accused Israel of “colonialism and apartheid.” Earlier in the session, the special investigator into alleged Israeli human rights abuses submitted a report in which he accused Israel of the crime of apartheid.

Taylor said that “the continued existence of this agenda item calls into question the credibility of this body. None of the world’s worst human rights violators, some of whom are the subject of resolutions at this session, have their own stand-alone agenda item at this Council. Only Israel receives such treatment.

“Further, we strongly reject the characterization voiced by some that Israel’s actions constitute apartheid,” Taylor added.

Monday 27 December 2021

Gaza groups getting ready to face growing tension in West Bank

According to a report by The Jerusalem Post, the military wings of several Palestinian factions have launched a large-scale, joint maneuver in the Gaza Strip. This became evident amid growing tensions in the West Bank after Hamas and other Gaza-based factions called for stepping up attacks against Israel.

The move was made in the wake of unconfirmed reports that Egyptian mediation efforts to prevent an all-out military confrontation between the Palestinian groups and Israel have failed.

The maneuver, the second of its kind aims to raise military readiness for a possible confrontation with Israel and increase coordination between the factions, according to the “Joint Room of the Palestinian Resistance Factions,” which includes most of the armed groups in the Gaza Strip.

The maneuver will continue for several days at training sites, it said in a statement. At least 12 groups were taking part in the exercise, Palestinian sources said.

Earlier this month, Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, held a military exercise called Shield of Jerusalem. The drill was held to mark the 34th anniversary of the founding of Hamas.

Late last year, the Gaza-based groups held a similar joint exercise in the Gaza Strip to exchange expertise and enhance combat preparedness.

The latest joint maneuver came one week after the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said they had reached an agreement to strengthen the resistance against Israel and increase coordination between the two groups. Hamas and PIJ praised the growing attacks against Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem, saying they came in response to settler terrorism and crimes of the Zionist occupation soldiers.

The groups also expressed full support for all forms of attacks against Israel.

Over the past two weeks, senior Hamas and PIJ officials held a series of meetings in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon to discuss preparations for a possible military confrontation with Israel.

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and PIJ Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhalah, who met in Beirut two weeks ago, issued a joint statement in which they agreed on the importance of strengthening the resistance especially in the West Bank. 

They emphasized their adherence to the option of resistance as the only way to confront the occupation, liberate the land and restore rights of Palestinians.

Mustafa al-Sawwaf, a Hamas-affiliated political analyst, said the meetings and the joint maneuver aims to send a warning to Israel that the groups are ready to repel any aggression on the Gaza Strip.

 “This could be the last warning before the explosion,” he told the Quds News Network, adding that the warning was also directed toward the Egyptians, who have been acting as mediators to avoid another war in the Gaza Strip.

Mohammed Abu Askar, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, said the joint exercise was aimed at sending a message to Israel that the Palestinian factions are ready for a military confrontation.

Another Hamas official, Zaher Jabarin, said the West Bank is witnessing a massive popular uprising.  The Palestinians are ready to make sacrifices until they achieve victory, he said.

The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, said the Palestinians will not allow the continued aggressions of the occupation and its settlers in the West Bank.

PA presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudaineh accused Israel of playing with fire, adding that the situation in the West Bank has become unacceptable and intolerable.

The Palestinians possess all the means to defend their rights, and their capabilities and determination should not be underestimated, he said.

Abu Rudeineh said more than 250 Palestinians were injured in violent clashes with soldiers and settlers in the northern West Bank over the past 24 hours.

He also criticized the international community for remaining silent in the face of these repeated crimes.

Hussein al-Sheikh, Head of the PA’s General Authority of Civil Affairs and a member of the Fatah Central Committee, called on the international community to provide immediate protection for the Palestinians, who are being killed and are having their homes and lands burned by organized racist gangs.

The PA Foreign Affairs Ministry said it was astonished by the failure of the international community to speak out against the violence by the IDF and settlers.

The clashes that erupted in the village of Burka in the northern West Bank over the past two days prove that international protection for the Palestinians has become a necessity, the ministry said.

Wednesday 10 November 2021

United States succumb to Israel pressure

Biden administration abstained, but did not reject a General Assembly resolution affirming the right of return for Palestinian refugees to sovereign Israel. In doing so, it broke with the voting pattern on Israel set by former US President Donald Trump in which all such texts received an automatic "no" vote.

Obama administration, however, had traditionally abstained from this particular text, which comes annually before the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

"This year, the United States returns to a position of abstention on the text 'Assistance to Palestine Refugees,'” American Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills told the UNGA's Fourth Committee late Tuesday afternoon.

He spoke as the committee gave initial approval to six anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian draft resolutions that will come up later this year at the UNGA plenum for a final vote.

Three of those texts affirmed the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which services 5.7 million Palestinian refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

All three of those resolutions call for the right of return for Palestinian refugees to sovereign Israel or for their receipt of compensation for the property they lost when they fled their homes.

Out of the three, the resolution titled "assistance to Palestinian refugees" is considered to be the most benign. 

Canada similarly abstained on the text called assistance to the Palestinian people, while Australia supported it. The US and Canada joined Israel in rejecting the other two resolutions on UNRWA. Australia abstained on one of those and rejected the other.

The European Union supported all three UNRWA texts. Only Israel totally opposed the text "assistance to Palestinian refugees" which passed 160-1, with nine abstentions.

The other countries that abstained on the "assistance to Palestinian refugees" resolution were Cameron, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papa New Guinea and Uruguay.

The Trump administration had opposed UNRWA and cut US funding to the organization. Both the Trump administration and Israel have charged that textbooks used in the agency's schools are antisemitic and incite against Israel. 

They opposed the UNRWA policy of applying refugee status to the descendants of Palestinians who fled their homes in 1948; a move which they explain creates an ever-increasing population of refugees.

Prior to Tuesday's vote, an Israeli representative spoke out against UNRWA at the UNGA Fourth Committee meeting.

"We cannot stand idly by when a UN humanitarian agency promotes a political agenda under the guise of true assistance," the Israel representative said.

"UNRWA must be accountable for the hateful indoctrination of children in its classrooms. It must put an end to the spreading of antisemitic lies by its employees and it must show a genuine commitment to transparency and accountability," the Israeli representative said.

She added that UNRWAA resources and infrastructure must not be hijacked by Hamas in conducting acts of terror," she added.  

Israel has also opposed the right of return for Palestinians to sovereign Israel, a move which it argues would destroy the country's identity as the ethnic-national homeland for the Jewish people. It has explained that in the essence of a two-state resolution to the conflict, Palestinians would have a right of return solely to a Palestinian State, much like Jews would have a right of return solely to Israel.

The Biden administration, however, has restored US funding and support for UNRWA.

"As many members know, under President Biden, the United States announced it would restore its financial support to UNRWA, which we do believe is a vital lifeline to millions of Palestinians across the region," Mills told the UNGA. 

"Since April, the US government has provided more than US$318 million to UNRWA in Fiscal Year 2021, including critical support for education, health and social services benefiting millions of Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA," he said.

The US, he said, has noted that some changes were made to the text of the resolutions on the agency "that reflect our priorities in line with strengthening UNRWA," adding that "the United States will continue to work with UNRWA; work to strengthen the Agency’s accountability, its transparency, and its consistency with UN principles."

Mills called on UN member states to support the agency financially, noting that many of those who voted in favor of the three UNRWA resolutions were not willing to spend money on the organization.

"I would also like to take a moment to point out the overwhelming support from member states for these resolutions voted here today, compared with the relatively few member states that financially support UNRWA," he said. 

"In light of the Agency’s urgent shortfall, the United States urges member states to support UNRWA’s services for Palestinian refugees not only in word but in action – and to do so on an expedited basis," Mills said.

The resolutions were voted on in advance of a donor pledging conference for UNRWA scheduled to take place in Belgium on November 16.

Thursday 21 October 2021

How do Israelis view Lapid’s foreign policy?

On June 14, 2021 a day after the new government was sworn in, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid delivered his first speech in his new role at a ceremony in the Foreign Ministry where he took over from Gabi Ashkenazi. His speech was essentially a broad outline of where he would like to take Israel’s foreign policy and the Foreign Ministry during his tenure.

On Tuesday, the Mitvim Institute, a left-leaning think tank, published its Ninth Annual Public Opinion Survey on Israeli Foreign Policy. The poll, in collaboration with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, was taken in September and carried out by the Rafi Smith Institute among a representative sample of the Israeli population (700 men and women, Jews and Arabs), with a sampling error of 3.5%. It provides an instructive look at how the public views the country’s foreign policy.

What follows is a look at some of Lapid’s assumptions and policy goals, and what the public believes to be the case. In many instances what emerges are significant gaps between the two.

Israel’s global standing

“In recent years, Israel has disgracefully neglected its foreign service and the international arena,” Lapid said in that speech in the Foreign Ministry. “Then it woke up in the morning and was surprised to find that there was considerable erosion in its international standing.”

Lapid’s premise was simple, Israel’s stature in the world arena was low. But the public, according to the Mitvim survey, does not necessarily agree with that basic assumption.

Asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, Israel’s standing in the world today, almost three-fourths of the country gave it a score of 5 or higher, with the average rating being 5.58. That does not indicate a country that believes its international standing is in the doldrums.

What is even more interesting, and what flies in the face of Lapid’s premise, is that this figure – the poll was taken with him firmly in the foreign minister’s chair – is at its lowest since 2017, with the poll showing that Israel’s stature was better from 2018 to 2020, when Benjamin Netanyahu was premier.

The poll also showed that the public was more satisfied with the government’s handling of foreign policy in 2019 and 2020, under Netanyahu, than it is today under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Lapid.

As for Lapid’s claim that Israel has neglected its foreign service, while the poll finds that a vast majority of the public wants to see the Foreign Ministry strengthened, when asked how satisfied the public is with the Foreign Ministry’s status today, more were satisfied in 2019 and 2020 than they were in 2021. That result shows that at least in the eyes of the public, Lapid has not yet succeeded in bolstering the image of the ministry.

Israel and United States

Lapid blasted the former government in this speech for “abandoning” major international arenas.

For instance, he said, the policy toward the US Democratic Party “was both disgraceful and dangerous,” and in his estimation, the former government took a “bad, dangerous and hasty bet” on the Republicans, and abandoned its traditional position of bipartisanship.

Four months into his tenure and his efforts at making inroads with the Democrats, how does the public view the current ties with the US? On a scale of 1 to 10, the public gave the current state of Israel-US relations a grade of 6.46, the lowest rating since 2016, when Barack Obama was president. Under the four years of President Donald Trump, this rating varied from a low of 6.88 in 2017 to a high of 8.05 in 2020.

Lapid has said repeatedly it was a mistake for Netanyahu to focus on the Republicans, but the public – according to this poll – believes that in the years when this was the policy, Israel’s ties with the US were better.

Even though the Biden administration has been careful up until now not to pick public fights with Jerusalem, or apply heavy public pressure – as was the case during the Obama years – some 53% of the public, and 58% of the Jewish respondents, believe the Biden administration is “less beneficial for Israel” than the previous administration. And this is even before disagreements over Iran and the opening of a Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem fully break out into the open.

Relations with the EU

“The situation with the countries of the EU is also not good,” Lapid said in June. “Relations with too many governments have been neglected and turned hostile. To shout that ‘everyone is antisemitic’ is neither a policy nor a plan of action, even if it sometimes feels right.”

Lapid said at the time that he had already spoken to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and French President Emmanuel Macron, who believe there is a need to deepen the dialogue between Israel and Europe. His first four months in office have been marked by an effort to improve ties with Brussels and certain Western European countries, and to distance Israel from the “illiberal” EU countries such as Hungary and Poland.

The public, however, largely does view the EU as a foe.

Asked if the EU is now more a “friend or an opponent of Israel,” 46% of the general public, and 51% of Jews, said “more of an opponent.”

If a condition for joining various EU programs was that the settlements would not be included in them, 47% said Israel should not join, while 35% said they should – a figure that belies the premise that Israelis are unconcerned by policies, such as the Ben & Jerry’s boycott, that “only” target those Israelis living beyond the Green Line.

The polls also showed that as Lapid steers Israel away from countries like Hungary, he is going against a position articulated by 43% of the public, which believes that Israel “should not consider regime type as a factor when building its foreign relations.” However, an equal percentage of people (42%) said it should “give priority to developing ties with democratic countries.”

Israel and the region

Lapid’s assertion that Israel needs to strive for more agreements with Muslim nations is very much in the national consensus. Interestingly, however, 31% of the respondents did not feel that Israel’s position in the Middle East has changed significantly as a result of the Abraham Accords, though 34% did detect a change.

While this government has not made any public moves to improve ties with Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey, a country that has proven implacably hostile to Israel, some 61% of the population think Israel should try to do so. Even with the Abraham Accords, and following an initial enthusiasm in visiting the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, some 48% of the country said they had no interest in visiting an Arab country in the region, up from 41% who said the same thing three years ago.

Tellingly, only 2.7% of the public has an interest in visiting Jordan, down from 8% in 2018 and a sign that Israelis have no great desire to visit countries – even those close by – where they do not feel welcome.

Israel and Palestinians

Lapid, in his speech, said that while a diplomatic breakthrough with the Palestinians is not in the immediate offing, there is much Israel can do to improve the living conditions of the Palestinians and to improve the dialogue.

The public, does not feel that this should include strengthening the Palestinian Authority. Asked whether, in light of the political and economic crisis in the PA, Israel should work to strengthen it, only 28% said this would be the wise policy, while 38% said Israel should not intervene.

And as far as a dialogue with the PA is concerned, even as Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Meretz ministers traveled to Ramallah to meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas in recent weeks, only 32% said this was a positive development that will contribute to improving relations, while 46% said it was either a symbolic move that will not impact Israel-Palestinian relations (29%) or a negative development (17%) that actually harms Israeli interests.

Israel and Iran

One area where there was much compatibility between what Lapid said and what the public believes is in regard to Iran, where he said that in preparing for the possibility that the US will return to the nuclear deal, Israel’s guiding principle needs to be that it will prevent in any way the possibility that Iran will get a nuclear weapon.

There is a wide consensus on this, though the country is split regarding whether it should do so independently through military action, be it covert or overt (31%) or through forming coalitions with other Mideast countries against Iran (34%). Only 17.5% thought that Israel should support the international efforts to renew and improve the 2015 nuclear deal.

Tuesday 15 June 2021

Lapid condemns Flag march disgrace

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said that he supported having the Jerusalem flag march in its current format, but criticized participants who sang racist, violent songs. "The fact that there are extremists for whom the Israeli flag represents hate and racism is abominable and intolerable," Lapid said. 

"It is incomprehensible how one can hold an Israeli flag in one's hand and shout 'death to Arabs' at the same time."

Lapid added that "this is not Judaism and not Israeli and it certainly is not what our flag symbolizes. These people shame the people of Israel."

During a situation assessment that took place at the end of the flag march, Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev - who initially approved the march only a day beforehand - thanked police for successfully completing their operation, saying they "acted wisely, considerately, within a complex system of constraints and a changing picture of reality." 

"The operational plan presented to me last night proved itself and led to a successful conclusion of the event," he said. "Thank you to all the forces and commanders on the ground.'


Ra’am Party head MK Mansour Abbas said on Tuesday afternoon that his party, a coalition partner, urged all sides to show restraint as the flag march proceeded through the Old City of Jerusalem, a move which he said was an "unrestrained provocation" and which should have been canceled.  

The march stopped outside the Damascus Gate for dancing and proceeded outside the Old City walls to the Jaffa Gate where participants wound through the Arab market between the Jewish and Muslim quarters and into the Western Wall plaza. 

 The march was staged by nationalist right-wing and religious organizations. In normal years, marchers frequently chant anti-Arab slogans during the procession through the Muslim Quarter.

"There is no doubt that the aim of the initiators of the march was to challenge the new government and exhaust it in a series of explosive incidents in the near future, and to take us back to an unnecessary escalation that will endanger human lives, similar to what we experienced last month."

"Ra'am calls for political efforts to be made in order to reach a political settlement between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, one that would fulfill the vision we strive for: achieving peace, mutual security, partnership and tolerance between the two peoples. This is the only vision that can put an end to a bloody conflict," Abbas concluded.

“We are against any action which is a provocation and doesn’t draw people close. Anyone who watches and has watched this march knows what its purpose is,” said Abbas on 103FM, part of the Jerusalem Post Group, but did not call for the event to be canceled.

He noted that events in Jerusalem “have consequences for the whole region,” an allusion to the attack on Israel by Hamas in Gaza last month amid tensions around Jerusalem and the severe inter-communal violence within Israel that took place at the same time. 

MK Ofer Cassif - the sole Jewish member of the Joint List - tweeted during the march that "the Judeo-Nazis have arrived. Screaming "Muhammad is dead," "Death to Arabs" and "May your village burn."

"In a law-abiding state, this herd would be taken to prison one by one for incitement to murder," Cassif added.

Meretz MK Yair Golan, whose party is also a coalition partner, called outright for the march to be canceled. 

“It’s not just the flag march, there will be more nationalistic initiatives whose only goal is to create a war of Gog and Magog,” tweeted Golan. 
Likud MK Nir Barkat defended the march in a tweet, saying that "The flag march is a tradition that has existed for years and symbolizes our sovereignty in Jerusalem. I supported it as mayor of Jerusalem and even today - we will not give in to threats and we will continue to celebrate in Jerusalem the eternal capital of the Jewish people."

Friday 26 February 2021

No alternative to two state solution, says King Abdullah of Jordan

Speaking at the Brookings institute webinar, King Abdullah of Jordan said, “It is time to turn toward conflict resolution not management of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” He urged upon all parties to “focus on the end goal instead of losing ourselves in the process.”

“We owe this to our world” adding “Let us learn from past mistakes and take the higher path of peace.”

He noted that he spoke 19 years ago during the institution’s inaugural event about the need to solve the conflict, which he called the core issue in the Middle East. “You can only imagine the frustration of the people still living in the midst of this protracted conflict, unable to move forward,” the king said.

“Occupation and peace simply cannot coexist,” he continued. “The Palestinian people have a right to an independent, viable and sovereign state on the June 4, 1967, lines, to live alongside Israel in peace and security.”

He declared that there is no alternative to the two-state solution, “and continued unilateral steps will only kill the prospects of peace.”

“Occupation, injustice, despair, apartheid – history has shown us there are no winners in this formula, only losers and tragedy,” King Abdullah said.

“There is an opportunity to build on recent positive developments, and we need to restore hope in the viability of peace and bring our youth closer to a future that for so long has been tantalizingly out of reach – and United States leadership here is essential.”

Jordan, he said, will always be ready to play its part in any effort to re-launch peace negotiations.

He also addressed the regional challenges of COVID-19, saying, “The pandemic has taken away from our focus on fighting terrorism and extremism. Although the battle may be won, the war is not yet over. Rising inequalities and emerging crises caused by the pandemic will fuel the recruitment efforts of ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab and al- Qaeda.”