Israel elects new President

Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog will be the 11^th President of Israel after he received 87 votes from MKs in a secret ballot vote in the Knesset plenum. Herzog's opponent, Miriam Peretz, prize-winning educator of Israel received 27 votes and three MKs abstained. Had she been elected, Peretz would have become Israel’s first woman president.

It was the largest victory in any presidential election in Israel's history. Herzog will take over from the current President Reuven Rivlin when his term ends on 9th July 2021.

Herzog thanked all the MKs who voted for him and said it was an honor to serve the entire people of Israel. He called Peretz a hero and an inspiration.

"I will be the president of everyone," Herzog said, singling out Israelis across the political spectrum and Diaspora Jewry.

Herzog said alongside Netanyahu that he was ready to work with any government and any prime minister.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yamina leader Naftali Bennett, who is trying to replace him, congratulated Herzog and wished Peretz well.

Rivlin spoke with Herzog on the phone, and also called Miriam Peretz to thank her.

“I send you my warmest greetings, Mr. President,” Rivlin said. “I can tell you that the responsibility of the role that you are about to assume is unlike anything you have done until now. The Jewish and democratic system we established here, in the land of our ancestors, has a body and soul. If the Knesset is a place of argument, as we have certainly seen recently, the President's Residence is a place of discourse, partnership and statehood.”

Rivlin said the title of ‘first citizen’ and the task of guarding the character of the State of Israel, particularly at this point in time, are heavy responsibilities.

"I have no doubt that you will bear these responsibilities superbly," Rivlin said. "I am proud to pass on the baton to you in a month’s time.”

With his victory, Herzog become the first president whose father had been president. Chaim Herzog was Israel's sixth president. 

Both Herzog, who visited the Western Wall on Tuesday to pray for success, and Peretz continued their efforts to meet with as many MKs as possible ahead of the vote.

Every Knesset faction granted its MKs the freedom to vote their conscience, rather than binding them by faction discipline. None of the factions endorsed a candidate.

This is the first presidential race in Israel in which none of the candidates were current MKs.

Peretz said she was thrilled that after her background coming to Israel from Morocco and going to a transit camp, she was considered worthy to stand against someone of Herzog's caliber. She said she would continue in her mission to heal the rifts in the nation.

In her concession speech, alongside Netanyahu, Peretz said that by running, she accomplished what as a child she could not have even dreamed of.

"A fitting president who honors us was elected," Peretz said. "I will pray for his success, because his success is our success."

Michael Siegal, The Jewish Agency’s Chairman of the Board of Governors, said Herzog's "unwavering dedication to the Jewish people and to serving the State of Israel is an inspiration, and we will all undoubtedly continue to benefit from his leadership."

 

Istanbul Canal: Commencement of a crazy project

On 6^th May 2021, I had posted a blog titled Istanbul Canal: Benefits and pitfalls reporting Turkey’s intention to start work this year on Istanbul Canal project, an artificial canal connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. 

Today, I was astonished to read a Bloomberg report, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying the construction of a multi-billion dollar canal, an alternative to Istanbul’s Bosporus strait, will begin by end June.

Erdogan’s announcement came a decade after he first revealed his “crazy project” and at a time when his support has hit an all-time low. The 45-kilometer (28-mile) Canal Istanbul would cost around US$15 billion and link the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara.

The government says it is meant to ease shipping traffic and the risk of accidents in the Bosporus, which bisects Turkey’s biggest city.

Erdogan is betting that the building of the canal and the rise of new cities along its route will create thousands of jobs and wealth that will dramatically boost the country’s economic growth and reverse the slide of his popularity ahead of the 2023 presidential elections. Discontent has grown over the Erdogan government’s handling of the economy and over allegations of corruption from a mafia boss, which he’s dismissed.

During the president’s 18-year rule, Turkey has poured tens of billions of dollars into giant infrastructure projects, including the new Istanbul airport, a new bridge over the Bosporus and massive city hospitals.

The planned waterway is projected to create a new city of half a million, with several bridges connecting the two sides. Shares of Turkey’s state-run property developer Emlak Konut and cement-maker Akcansa Cimento, a partnership between HeidelbergCement and Sabanci Holding, climbed as much as 6.4% and 7.6%, respectively on Monday.

“We will lay the foundations of the Canal Istanbul at the end of June,” Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of a TV signal tower on the anniversary of the capture of Istanbul by Ottoman Turks in 1453 on Saturday, a day after inaugurating a giant mosque in Istanbul’s central Taksim square. “We will build two cities on the right and left of the Canal Istanbul. With these two cities,” Istanbul’s beauty and strategic importance will increase, he said.

In order to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the economy, his government is struggling to open up the economy and revive the tourism industry by ramping up vaccinations. The goal is to narrow the current-account deficit and alleviate sufferings of businesses that have complained about insufficient government support and families that are withering under soaring inflation.

Erdogan has dismissed concerns of his political rivals that the project would hit taxpayers, the environment and undercut a 20th-century agreement meant to ensure stability and security in the Black Sea. Erdogan has said Turkey won’t exit the 1936 Montreux Convention but said warships will be able to use the canal.

Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who’s seen as a potential future challenger to Erdogan, is firmly opposed to the project, saying it would “annihilate” water resources for Istanbul’s 16 million residents, ruin the province’s nature beyond repair and make it unlivable. Turkish prosecutors on Friday demanded imprisonment of Imamoglu, whose victory in 2019 ended more than a quarter-century of control over Istanbul by Erdogan’s party and its predecessors, on charges of allegedly insulting the country’s election watchdog.

“The people of Istanbul elected Imamoglu on March 31 to prevent the destruction of the green, the city from being buried in cement, the people from being treated loutishly and finally block the formation of that freak system called the Canal Istanbul,” Meral Aksener, head of the opposition Iyi Party which backed Imamoglu’s candidacy, said at a competing ceremony marking the capture of Istanbul on Saturday.

Two States Concept: Solution or Prolongation of Miseries

After recent 11-days deadly encounter between Israel and Hamas many international organizations, humanitarian institutions and observers are expressing concerns about the settlement based on two-state solution: Palestine and Israel. 

There is growing consensus that the proposed solution does not offer a viable settlement to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel is facing global condemnation because it did not take into account the repercussions of storming Al-Aqsa, arresting worshipers, putting them into prison, and humiliating them in front of the eyes and ears of the world. Most radios and televisions across the world covered the event. Israelis were also under the impression that the Palestinian cause has lost color with the passage of time and some Arab countries normalizing their ties with Israel.  

In the recent crisis in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where the Palestinians have been facing discrimination since 1972, an Israeli plot to displace them and build settlements on the ruins of their homes under the claim that the land on which their homes were built by the Jordanian government was rented. These are intended to legalize their existence and occupation.

The international community, including the General Assembly of the United Nations and the Security Council, as well as the United States of America, European countries, and official and unofficial bodies are talking a lot about the two-state solution to resolve the crisis between Israel and Palestine.

Concerted efforts have been made in putting an end to such a situation, including nearly three decades of diplomacy; the Oslo Accords, the Camp David summit, the Clinton Parameters, the Taba summit, the Arab Peace Initiative, the road map for the Middle East, and Abbas and Olmert's talks in the context of the Annapolis process, and John Kerry's efforts to achieve peace and other relentless attempts.

The Zionist regime considers the formation of any future Palestinian government is synonymous with facing a huge human force that is not stopped by the F-35 fighters or cruise missiles and is not prevented by tanks.

Some Israelis who believe in building a state based on their military power designate the Palestinians as terrorists groups willing to cut settlers into pieces while others, who are more realistic, believe that the Palestinians are a people who do not compromise their cause and do not accept trading their homeland despite the fact that the world has abandoned them. They were fighting with stones, but with the establishment of the state, they would target Israel with missiles, fighters, and all that they would possess.

Accepting a Palestinian state means living alongside the Palestinians in their vicinity, and not to continue bombing, killing, displacing, or desecrating the sanctities of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the rest of the holy sites for Muslims and Christians until hearing the last Palestinian breath out.

Many analysts don’t expect that Israel will accept the idea of a two-state solution, which means the establishment of a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza alongside itself. It should be noted that the West Bank, including Jerusalem, for the Jews, is the core and essence of the biblical land.

Another obstacle facing the two-state solution is settlement operations; the presence of settlers, and the absolute control of Israel over more than half of the West Bank, according to the Oslo agreement, makes it difficult for the establishment of a Palestinian state with real sovereignty, due to lack of independence, security and economic components as it is surrounded by Israel from four sides. In addition Israel is not likely to abandon Jerusalem due to political, religious, economic and tourism considerations.

One of the other main obstacles to achieve the two-state solution is the idea of returning of Palestinian refugees to their homeland from which they were forcibly evicted. 

The right of return is the essence of the Palestinian cause. Their leadership constantly reiterates the right of return, they are fully aware that this will not be achieved in light of the circumstances that Palestine is experiencing at regional and international levels.

 What is the benefit of the two-state solution if half of the Palestinian people remain homeless and scattered? It seems impossible that Israel to accept this level of embarrassment; and even though it is now not in a position to be forced to make all these concessions, knowing that this step can put existence at stake.

What to forget Nakba or antisemitism?

May 15, marks the 73rd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe). During the Nakba between 750,000 and 1,000,000 Palestinians were driven out of their homes and ethnically cleansed at the hands of Zionist militia and the Israeli army to force the creation of the state of Israel. 

This year's commemoration took place against the backdrop of renewed Israeli aggression and bloodshed against Palestinians. The Nakba did not end in 1948 and continues to this day with Israel relentlessly pursuing the dispossession of the Palestinian people. 

Here are 10 facts the world needs to know about the Palestinian Nakba: 

1- Between 1947 and 1949 Israel and pre-state Zionist militia forced approximately 750,000 to 1,000,000 Palestinians into exile making them refugees. 

2 – At present, there are around 8 million Palestine refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and neighboring Arab countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. They are denied their UN-sanctioned right to return to their homes, lands and other property by Israel.

3 - The Nakba was a deliberate and systematic act carried out in order to create a Jewish majority state in historic Palestine, which was overwhelmingly indigenous Palestinian Arab prior to 1948.

4 - Contrary to Zionist mythology, pre-state Zionist militia begun its ethnic cleansing of Palestinian towns and villages months before the creation of the State of Israel. The massacre and depopulation of the Palestinian village of Deir Yasin took place in 9th April 1948. 

5 - Approximately 150,000 Palestinians remained inside what became Israel's borders in 1948, many of them internally displaced. They were granted Israeli citizenship but to this day live as second-class citizens in their own homeland, subjected to dozens of laws that discriminate against them because they are not Jewish.

6 - Israeli forces systematically destroyed about 530 Palestinian towns and villages to prevent refugees from returning. Many homes that remained standing were repopulated with its Israeli Jewish population. 

7 - The Jewish National Fund (JNF) acquired approximately 78 percent of its land holdings from the state between 1949 and 1953, much of it the land of Palestinian refugees that the state confiscated as “absentee property.” The JNF holds this land stolen as “the perpetual property of the Jewish People,” which means Palestinians are unable to get it back

8 - The Nakba did not end in 1948 and continues to this day, in the form of Israel’s ongoing theft of Palestinian land for settlements and for Jewish communities inside Israel, its destruction of Palestinian homes and agricultural land, revocation of residency rights, deportations, demographic engineering, periodic brutal military assaults, and forced displacement.

9 - Many residents of Sheikh Jarrah were ethnically cleansed from their homes during the Nakba. They currently face becoming refugees for the second or third time. What is happening now in Sheikh Jarrah and Jerusalem is a prime example of the Nakba in action. It repeats itself in the Jordan Valley, in the Naqab and across the territory under Israeli control. Indigenous Palestinians are being forced from their homes by state sponsored violence at the hands of Israeli soldiers, Israeli police, and armed Israeli citizens.

10 - Israel has a law that prohibits Palestinians who are second-class citizens of the state from commemorating the Nakba on May 15. This does not stop Palestinians from remembering. Share the stories of the Nakba from Palestinians and join BDS campaigns, the most effective way to support our struggle to achieve our internationally recognized rights, including the Right of Return for refugees.

Israel resisting reopening of the US consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that his country opposes reopening of a US consulate for Palestinians in sovereign Israel. His announcement came hours before the US went public with its plan to do so in Jerusalem.

Blinken did not specify where in Jerusalem the new consulate would be. Many other countries have consulates or embassies to the Palestinians in east Jerusalem, which is part of Israel under Israeli law but not recognized by most countries, or in Ramallah.

The Trump administration then merged the US consulate for Palestinians, on Jerusalem’s Agron Street, into the US Embassy to Israel in West Jerusalem in March 2019; the move was mostly symbolic as most consulate workers continued doing the work they did before, but under the title of “Palestinian Affairs Unit.”

Blinken said in a press conference that he is not sure what the time frame will be on reopening the consulate.

“I can tell you that it’s, I think, important to have that platform to be able to more effectively engage not just the Palestinian Authority, but Palestinians from different walks of life, the NGO community, the business community, and others. And so we look forward to doing that,” he stated.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said soon after that reopening the consulate “is an important step in our view, in terms of continuing to rebuild the relationship with the Palestinian leaders that was cut off for several years because of the closure of the consulate, because UNRWA funding was cut off in 2018, and there really wasn’t a method for engaging with Palestinian leaders and others.”

Israeli Ambassador to the US and UN Gilad Erdan said that it is the US’s prerogative to reopen the consulate, but that Israel “indeed expressed clear opposition to reestablishing the consulate on Jerusalem’s municipal territory.”

“It can be in Abu Dis [or] Ramallah,” Erdan told KAN. “The fact that the Americans may have a security concern from opening a consulate for their workers in these places only shows what we’re talking about.”

Erdan also pointed out that opening the PA embassy in Jerusalem contradicts American policy recognizing the city as Israel’s capital, as former US president Donald Trump did in 2018 and Biden said he would not reverse. Still, Erdan said, “we can disagree with the current government and not every disagreement has to become a crisis.

Creation of a fact-finding mission to investigate Israeli actions against Palestinians

Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have submitted a resolution on the creation of a fact-finding mission that will be voted on Thursday when the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) holds a special session on the matter in Geneva.

The United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to establish a commission of inquiry into Israeli actions against Palestinians doing the period leading up to and including the 11-day Gaza war that ended on May 21.

In particular, the committee would investigate Israeli activity in Gaza and Jerusalem as well as the ethnic riots that broke out in mixed cities within sovereign Israel.

"The commission would be authorized to make recommendations, in particular on accountability measures, all with a view to avoiding and ending impunity and ensuring legal accountability, including individual criminal and command responsibility, for such violations, and justice for victims," the Resolution states. 

It would explore the "alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021, and all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity."

Israel's mission to the UN in Geneva responded immediately, noting the absence of Hamas's firing of rockets against Israeli cities and towns.

"No mention of Hamas. No mention of 4300+ rockets," it stated, adding, "we call on Member States to speak up and oppose this resolution."

Thursday's special session will be the 30th one that the UNHRC has held since its inception in 2006, out of which nine focused on Israel. No other country has been the subject of so many special sessions.

There have been at least five fact-finding missions into Israeli military actions in the past, including one on the Hamas-led "Great March of Return" as well as on past Gaza wars.  

Iran presidential lineup

The Iranian Interior Ministry finally issued the much-awaited list of candidates who were found eligible to run for president, ending a wave of rumors and speculations over the potential array of candidates in the June presidential election. 

The Ministry said in a statement that it received the list of candidates whose qualifications were confirmed by the Guardian Council. The list included a number of prominent figures such as Saeed Jalili, Seyed Ebrahim Raisi, Alireza Zakani, Seyed Amir Hossein Qazizadeh Hashemi, Mohsen Mehralizadeh, Mohsen Rezaei, and Abdolnaser Hemmati.

These candidates are now allowed to start election campaigns and promote themselves in the eyes of millions of voters across the country. 

The list of candidates came as a surprise to many observers as it did not include some prominent figures that have been widely thought to be qualified for the 13th presidential election of the Islamic Republic. Former Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani, First-Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri, and Saeed Mohammad, the former Chief of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps’ engineering conglomerate Khatam al-Anbiya, were among the disqualified candidates. 

According to Fars News, the election vetting body disqualified at least 18 candidates who are principlist or close to the principlist faction. It also rejected 14 candidates who are reformists or close to the reformist faction. 

This was a clear indication that the Guardian Council refused to vet candidates on the basis of their political affiliation. In fact, the council set a clear example of impartiality and abiding by law by disqualifying Larijani, who currently serves as an advisor to the Leader on international affairs. 

Larijani was widely promoted by moderate and reformist political circles as a candidate whose ties to the establishment enable him to earn qualification from the council and turn the tide in favor of reformists and their moderate allies in the government of Hassan Rouhani. 

But the Guardian Council made it clear that its vetting process is by no means subject to political or “expediency” considerations. Instead, it would examine the candidates in strict accordance with the law. 

In fact, the disqualification of Larijani indicated that the council never discriminates against candidates from different political and social backgrounds. At the end of the day, Larijani has held high-level posts in the Islamic Republic for years and now is currently serving as an advisor to the Leader. This is another indication that the Guardian Council can discharge its legal duties even when it comes to disqualifying high-level figures.

This brings us to the issue of the fluidity of the vetting process, which is more subject to present-day considerations than to past experiences. In some cases, the Guardian Council confirms individuals who have been disqualified in the past and vice versa. This does not mean that council’s criteria for screening are changing from time to time. The standards and criteria of the Guardian Council are subject to the law as a yardstick for who will be qualified or disqualified.

Regardless of the standards, the council performs its duty in legal but quiet ways. Usually, the oversight body does not publicly reveal the reasons behind its decisions regarding the candidates. And this has paved the way for some political factions to unfairly blame it for disqualifying certain candidates. Despite these criticisms, the council continues to protect the confidentiality of the vetting process. This has much to do with protecting the privacy of candidates.  

If the council reveals the reasons behind the disqualifications, the disqualified candidates’ reputation may be damaged; at the end of the day, the vetting process also includes security details about the candidates. That’s why the Guardian Council continues to vet candidates in a legal way while protecting the candidates’ reputation from being undermined by a formal process that is designed to increase social and political cohesion.