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UMKR Newsletter - Winter-Spring 2019
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IN THE NEWS: ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Israeli Elections: Racism and Annexation
Game-changer or more of the same?
10 April 2019– Israelis went to the polls
on Tuesday April 9th, and it looks like
Netanyahu will have a fifth term as Prime
Minister. In the flood of Israeli and
worldwide press coverage during this
election season, the two biggest themes
have been: (1) the blatant racism that
the candidates have embraced in their
campaign messages, most notably
the decision by Benjamin Netanyahu
to bring the formerly untouchable,
extremist Kahanist movement into
his coalition, and, (2) happening shortly
before election day, Netanyahu's
announcement, that he plans to
formally annex large portions of the West Bank to Israel if he wins the election.
The racism on display in this campaign period has been shocking, but it's not actually breaking news to those who have followed developments in Israeli society in recent years. Statements by Israeli leaders that compare Palestinians to beasts, calls for the expulsion of Palestinian Israeli citizens from Israel, and even incitement to kill Palestinians - so many utterances heard in the Israeli political scene over the last decade would have been cause for political shunning and demise in most democratic societies, but have passed with minor if any political consequences within Israel.
Which is unsurprising from a historical perspective: an objective analysis of the intrinsically racist, colonialist Zionist planning for the creation of a Jewish-majority nation – predicated as it was on the ethnic cleansing of the non-Jewish majority living in historic Palestine for centuries – should lead one to expect the Israeli society that has now flowered from those racist roots. Just as the apartheid era and its continuing repurcussions in troubled South Africa and the enduring consequences of U.S. slavery seen in American society's new Jim Crow are undeniable legacies of the racist, settler-colonialist roots of both nations.
Perhaps the second development - Netahyahu’s
recent commitment to West Bank annexation -
could be considered gasp-worthy news, for no
Israeli Prime Minister to date has been so candid
about intentions to flout international law and
permanently seize that occupied territory. But
activists for Palestinian rights have long realized
that Israel was moving steadily and not at all
stealthily along the path to annexation throughout
the now truly dead "peace process," That process,
which began with the Oslo Accords and seemed to
offer such hope in the early 1990s, has now been
proven a disastrous diplomatic failure for the
Palestinian people. As numerous political analysts
have noted, throughout the Oslo years and dating
back to soon after Israel's military occupation
began in 1967, the illegal colonization and
oppression suffered by Palestinians in the
occupied territories has continued and expanded
inexorably with Israeli governments led by
progressives as much as conservatives.
So why did Netanyahu chose this election cycle to
make such an explicit declaration? The most
immediate cause would be his perceived need to
appeal to the growing segment of the Israeli public
who would support such a move, as seen in recent
Israeli polls. And it would seem Netanyahu has been
emboldened to such candor by President Trump's
disregard for international law – seen most recently
in his recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the
occupied Syrian territory, the Golan Heights –
and his embrace of the radical right, both in U.S. society
and autocratic leaders abroad. The Israeli PM
probably does not expect much if any backlash to this
ultimate abandonment of the peace process and
the two-state solution, at least not from Israel’s
primary enabler, the U.S. government, while Trump is in the White House. America’s previously spineless acceptance of so many Israeli misdeeds notwithstanding, U.S. acquiescence to formal West Bank annexation is something that would not have been contemplated before the current White House administration.
Of course, it remains to be seen if and how Netanyahu will attempt to make good on that campaign promise of annexation, and if so, how international bodies and leaders will respond. Netanyahu's frankness in pursuit of votes might backfire and elicit international responses he did not anticipate. Perhaps this campaign promise – or his attempt to implement it – will require those many world leaders who have been clinging disingenuously or foolishly to the possibility of reviving the Oslo peace process to finally admit the obvious: the time for those bad faith negotiations is long gone.
Is it too much to hope that they might begin to see such activism as the BDS movement offers – focused on universal human rights for all in Israel/Palestine – in a new light? That it is not only not anti-Semitic (as so many politicians in the U.S. and Europe insist on labeling it), but it may be the only thing that can effectively help the Palestinians while saving Israel from itself? In other words: that the time has come not only for boycott and divestment campaigns, but for the so far largely absent BDS element: government sanctions?
Whenever the Sanctions discourse begins in the halls of Western power - and begin it will, for the determination of world citizenry to end the apartheid regime in Israel/Palestine is even more inexorable than Israeli determination to dominate all of historic Palestine – THAT will be a game-changer.
Indeed that discourse may already have begun, with such legislation as the bill to ban Israeli settlements products moving rapidly forward in Ireland and the McCollum bill (H.R. 4391), the first ever U.S. legislation to champion Palestinian human rights, having 30 co-sponsors in the House. Regardless of what right-wing coalition Netanyahu now forms and how they try to implement blatanly illegal annexation of occupied territory, justice advocates can look forward to – and will work vociferously to guarantee – expansion on those fronts. Is it ironic or just predictable that we may have Benjamin Netanyahu's latest campaign to thank for galvanizing the global progress of the politically essential "S" in BDS?
Either way, our sense of deja vu during this recent Israeli election debacle and/or our hope that it might lead to positive change in the long term mustn't lead to dismissing the increased suffering that Palestinians will endure as a victorious Netanyahu and his cohorts grow bolder in their violations of human decency and universal principles of justice. It is fine for those of us who are activists for Palestinian rights to find encouragement in the silver lining we may see in the frightening clouds over Israel today. But we cannot forget that those for whom we act are living with more – and more – and more – of the same, the terrible daily reality of the storm raging around them.
____________________________________________________
News & Analysis UMKR News & Alerts
See this graphic at the source: Visualizing Palestine
ABOUT OUR NEWS SOURCES
The articles we include in our lists to 'Read More' – in our newsletters and on our website – are provided as an informational service for our readers, and the views expressed may or may not be shared by UMKR.
Some selections may be repetitive;because some periodicals have paywalls, we provide a variety of sources in the hope that every reader will find some of them accessible, with or without a subscription.
Read these sections of the
Winter-Spring 2019
newsletter:
TAKE ACTION:
• NO US $$$ for Abuse of Children - goes to our action alert eblast
• Rise Against Racism, Counter CUFI
• UNITED METHODISTS' NEWS:
Response to GC2019; 2019 Resolutions;
Oppose Anti-Free Speech Bill; MFSA Says "No"; UMC Board's Actions
• PARTNERS' NEWS
Two Steps Forward for Lutherans; AMP: 500 Strong on Capitol Hill; JVP: "Zionism, a false & failed answer"
IN THE NEWS: ISRAEL/PALESTINE
• SUMUD: The Great March Continues
• UN Report: Israeli War Crimes
• Removing Last Restraints in Hebron
• Palestinian Revenues, Economic Crisis
• Waging War on Prisoners
• Deporting and Denying Entry
• Israeli Elections: Game-changer or...?
IN THE NEWS: UNITED STATES
• Ilhan Omar and a New Frontier
• US, Israel Fight Int'l Criminal Court
• Airbnb Whirlwind Ends in Disgrace
• Occupied no longer? Golan Heights
• Deal of the Century...Not!
IN THE NEWS: SPOTLIGHT
• Black-Palestinian Solidarity
• SEIZE THE DAY
Coming Events, June-Dec 2019
• THE HOLY LAND BECKONS:
News on ethical tourism AND
Upcoming 2019 Trips
READ MORE
IMEU: Israeli Election Guide 2019
• Quick Facts
• Israel’s Political System
• Notable Campaign Developments
• Parties & Notable Candidates
On this page:
1. General News & Commentary, Pre-election
2. Netanyahu's Career & Legacy
3. Racist Election
3B. Netanyahu and Kahanists
3C. The Elections Committee
4. Netanyahu: Criminal Charges, Indictment
5. Arab Voters: Election Boycott, Turnout, Suppression and Spying
6. Netanyahu's Campaign Promise: Annexation of West Bank
6B. U.S. Leaders React to Annexation Promise
7. Election Results and Response
1. PRE-ELECTION NEWS & COMMENTARY
See results of election at bottom
Newsweek: Benny Gantz: Election Ads for Centrist Boast 'Terrorist' Deaths and
Bombing Gaza Areas 'To Stone Age' Under His Command
A former army general and prime ministerial candidate in the upcoming Israeli
elections has launched a controversial PR campaign lauding the death and
destruction inflicted on Palestinians during military campaigns he oversaw in
the Gaza Strip. Benny Gantz, the leader of the Israel Resilience party, released
a series of militaristic videos Sunday with the title, “Only the strong survive,”
boasting of his military record and celebrating the deaths of Palestinian militants
in Gaza, The Times of Israel reported.
Middle East Monitor: Gantz’ election videos shouldn’t come as a surprise
We Palestinians know from experience that with every Israeli general election,
a massacre of some sort is bound to happen, especially if those in power are
so close to their contenders in opinion polls. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu would find any pretext to flex his muscles by bashing Palestinians,
other Arabs or any easy target.
Competition between army veterans and other politicians who did not
previously hold top army positions leads them to prove themselves by competing
in spilling Palestinian blood. The latter are sometimes more aggressive and
assertive than veterans because they are keen to prove themselves to their
voters in the field of security. They want to fill that “shameful” gap in their CVs.
They want to prove that they are as ruthless as military people with an
added value; they have brains.
Mondoweiss: Ultra-nationalists join forces ahead of Israeli elections as
liberal and Palestinian blocs splinter
Yesterday night was the deadline for Israeli parties to present their slates
towards the April 9th parliamentary elections. In order to strengthen their blocs,
several leaders worked hectically this week to join forces with those they perceived
as possible allies in prospect of creating future government coalitions. Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked hard at having the ‘David Dukes’ of Israeli
politics – the Jewish Power party – join with the Jewish Home party and secure
a far-right bloc that would be part of his future coalition (the fear was that votes
would be lost under the 3.25% electoral threshold). Netanyahu’s main rival contender, centrist Benny Gantz, chided him for it, using the occasion to tarnish a Palestinian party that promotes equality in a secular state, as equal to Jewish Power (positing that he would have nothing to do with either).
As news was coming out about the Netanyahu lobbying to the right, Gantz called upon centrist leader of Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid, to meet with him immediately – “tonight” (Tuesday), even though they had already announced their separate lists. They met, and created a new centrist party, called “Kahol Lavan” – “Blue and White” (referring to the colors of the Israeli, and earlier Zionist, flag). The militaristic aspect was bolstered by featuring two former military chiefs of staff in the leadership profile – Moshe Ya’alon and Gabi Ashenazi.
Allison Kaplan Sommer of Haaretz points out: The political landscape of 2019 is looking very military, very male and really puts the ‘general’ in ‘general election’.
Mondoweiss: Gantz’s effort to bring down Netanyahu may hinge on – AIPAC and a Palestinian party
The political news out of Israel over the weekend has been stunning. Let’s review, then bring in Yossi Gurvitz to explain what it all means.
Mondoweiss: Liberal Zionist nightmare: Netanyahu is defeated and — nothing changes
In recent days, liberal Zionists have been confronted with a sobering prospect. Even if the center-left opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu manages to cobble together a slim majority after the April elections, and the great bogeyman of Netanyahu is finally brought down… Israeli policy may not change at all on what liberal Zionists regard as the country’s existential question: establishing a Palestinian state.
NY Times: We Are Too Weak to Stop Israel
Israel is holding an election on Tuesday, and Palestinian communities in the occupied territories are not following it with much interest. This is not because whoever is elected will not have a strong impact on our lives. It’s because none of the leading candidates has a program for peace. The main contenders are committed to maintaining the illegal Jewish settlements that have been established in the West Bank. They do not seek to end the occupation.
Mondoweiss: The Israeli spring won’t happen next week (and that should cause reflection)
For anyone following the Israeli elections from afar, the polling this week has been very dispiriting indeed. The country prefers Netanyahu as leader. And though the opposition party will likely surpass Netanyahu’s party next Tuesday, what kind of opposition is it anyway? The opposition refuses to break bread with the “Arab” parties. It runs to Netanyahu’s right on Gaza. No one even debates withdrawing from the occupation, after 52 years. And rightwing parties dominate the path to the premiereship. One liberal Zionist prepares his American flock for the Israeli spring that isn’t: “my hunch is that Netanyahu is ultimately going to be at the head of a far right-wing government after everything shakes out.”
Here is something even more dismal to consider. The polling on young/old Israelis. The young love Netanyahu.
Times of Israel: The kids are all right-wing: Why Israel’s younger voters are more conservative
While American millennials have a reputation for liberal politics, young Israeli Jews have gone
the opposite direction over time. For at least the past 10 years, these voters have identified as
right wing at much higher levels than their parents.
Jerusalem Post: Election 2019: The Zionist litmus test goes nuclear
The question of the Arab citizens’ place and status in Israeli society, especially politically, has
become a central issue in the current election campaign. Last time around, Netanyahu waited
till the 11th hour to trot out his “droves of Arabs” boogeyman to prod his complacent base to
the polls on election day. This time, as he contends for votes with ultra-security heavyweight
Benny Gantz, the anti-Arab incitement went nuclear at the outset of the election campaign.
Haaretz: Israelis, You Are Scary
You are scary. Yes, you, Jewish Israelis. Particularly now, as we head into an election. For you, the Center is someone who supports continued land theft, but not necessarily the expulsion of Palestinians. A legitimate candidate who could get your vote is someone who supports the expulsion of Arabs and the repeal of the minimum wage, but who also supports the legalization of cannabis. For you, the Left is a tall Ashkenazi general who boasts of the thousands of Palestinians whom he has killed and who, when he thinks about a bloc of parties that would stand in the way of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection, doesn’t include the Arab parties. And the Center-Left are those who scream that Gaza has to be attacked because Netanyahu isn’t ordering it crushed.
NY Times: Democracy, Israeli Style
When will the “deal of the century,” as President Trump has called his forthcoming plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, finally be unveiled? Certainly not before April 9, when Israel holds its next election. But how soon after? “In less than 20 years,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noncommittally told a congressional committee recently.
…The history of these past 50 years is what we should recognize as the real deal: the one that is
already in effect, the deal of the half-century. In this deal, as long as Israel advances its
occupation enterprise while applying a measure of brutality just below the level that would
prompt international outrage, it is allowed to carry on, while still enjoying various international
perks justified by grand, but obviously hollow, commitments to — as Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu recently put it — the “shared values of liberty and democracy.”
…Which brings us to April 9, when Israelis will cast their votes for a Parliament that rules both
Israeli citizens and millions of Palestinian subjects denied that same right. Israeli settlers in the
West Bank don’t even need to drive to a polling station inside Israel to vote on their Palestinian
neighbors’ fate. Even settlers in the heart of Hebron can vote right there, with 285 registered
voters (out of a total population of about 1,000 settlers), surrounded by some 200,000
Palestinian nonvoters. Or as Israel calls it, “democracy.”
…This will be the 15th national election since the occupation began, and perhaps the one in which
Palestinian lives are least discussed — except when tallying up their deaths and celebrating their
destruction.
…Instead of the rights and freedom of Palestinians, the campaign season has focused on Mr.
Netanyahu’s likely indictment on corruption charges. But does it really matter to the Palestinian
family whose son will be killed with impunity or whose home will be bulldozed if the prime
minister responsible for these policies is corrupt or squeaky clean?
NY Times: Will the Israeli ‘King’ Be Recrowned?
I wish I could say this election was about something — the Palestinian conflict, the bottoming out
of the middle class, Iranian threats — other than Netanyahu. It’s not. This gives it an almost
ritualistic quality: Israelis have gotten used to going through the ballot-box motions and then
bowing to their “magician.” The prime minister’s instincts are as feral as Trump’s. His hold on the
Israeli imagination is tenacious. The question is whether this grip can be broken in a country
where the start-up economy is humming, the American Embassy is in Jerusalem, and military
conflict has been contained. A lot of Israelis feel good, or good enough, about Netanyahu’s
nation.
NY Times: How Israel Chooses a Leader and What’s at Stake
nytimes.com/2019/04/08/world/middleeast/israel-election-explainer.html
But Israeli elections are complicated and unpredictable, with many parties vying for votes and at times forming opportunistic alliances to secure a parliamentary majority. • Who are the main contenders? • What makes this election different? •How does the voting work? • Will the outcome of the vote be clear immediately? • What about the Arab citizens of Israel? • What about Palestinians in occupied territory? • Could the election affect a potential peace plan?
+972 Magazine: The best outcome of these elections is if things don't get worse
These elections have turned into a referendum on the annexation of the West Bank — but
that’s not something for Israel to decide. Five thoughts on Israel’s upcoming elections.
Mondoweiss: This Israeli election is between the right wing and the even more right wing
Israel’s election campaign, now in its last days, must be the first in which a sitting Israeli prime
minister has sought to win over voters by boasting about how much he insulted a president of
the United States. One of the last campaign videos by Benjamin Netanyahu spliced together media clips of U.S. analysts voicing disbelief back in 2011 at the Israeli prime minister’s public humiliation of Barack
Obama. The ad not only described Netanyahu as “lecturing” Obama, but showed him visibly angering the U.S. president by berating him for chasing “illusions” in his pursuit of peace talks with the
Palestinians. It closed with Likud’s campaign slogan: “Netanyahu. Right-wing. Strong.” Netanyahu’s electioneering has rarely been subtle. But after Israel’s attorney general announced during the campaign that the prime minister faced corruption indictments, Netanyahu has had every incentive to plumb new depths.
2. NETANYAHU’S CAREER AND LEGACY
NY Times: Netanyahu’s Road Through Israel’s History
“Bibi, King of Israel!” That is a shout from his fervent supporters that might have given pause to King David, let alone King Solomon. But Benjamin Netanyahu, despite all his faults and all the allegations of corruption and cynicism that surround him, is on his way to becoming Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
+972 Magazine: Win or lose, Netanyahu has already cemented his legacy
In his 10 years in power, Netanyahu has engaged in race-baiting against his own citizens, declared the occupation a permanent feature of Israeli reality, and shifted both the national and international conversation on Palestine. It is time to acknowledge that these are no mere trends — but his very legacy.
The New Yorker: The Trump-Netanyahu Alliance
Just as Netanyahu provided Trump instruction on the political possibilities of right-wing populism, Trump has provided Netanyahu with instruction on the possibilities of outrageous invective, voter suppression, and disdain for the law. Netanyahu now delights in the use of such phrases as “fake news.” Investigations into his financial adventures are “witch hunts.” To suppress the Arab vote in last week’s election, his supporters mounted more than a thousand cameras at polling places where Arab citizens ordinarily vote, the better to intimidate them. And, of course, both men like a wall. As Trump put it, “Walls work. Just ask Israel.” To which his proud mentor tweeted, “President Trump is right. I built a wall along Israel’s southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great success. Great idea.”
Anshel Pfeffer, a reporter for Haaretz and the author of an astute biography of Netanyahu, writes that both men thrive on resentment and “have an uncanny ability to sense their rivals’ weak spots and sniff out their voters’ inner fears.” Netanyahu was initially wary of Trump, suspecting that an erratic dunce had entered the Oval Office. Over time, he was not necessarily dissuaded from that impression, but he was beyond enchanted when he realized that Trump was prepared to do whatever he asked.
NY Times: Bibi Trump and Donald Netanyahu
There are two countries that I’ve been professionally, emotionally and intellectually involved
with my entire journalism career — the United States and Israel. I’ve never been more worried
about both, because President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are essentially
the same person, and they pose the same threat to their respective nations. They are both men utterly without shame, backed by parties utterly without spine, protected by big media outlets utterly without integrity. They are both funded by a Las Vegas casino magnate, Sheldon Adelson. They are both making support for Israel a “Republican’’ cause — no longer a bipartisan one. And they each could shoot an innocent man in broad daylight in the middle of Fifth Avenue and their supporters would say the victim had it coming.
3. RACIST ELECTION
The Independent: Racism against Arab Israelis will reach
unprecedented levels by Israel’s April elections – and the world won’t care
There was little to no reaction abroad when the Israeli parliament pushed
through the Nation State Law last year, which critics said was akin to
apartheid legislation. Issues like racial discrimination were once kept in
check by the left in Israel and the Jewish diaspora in countries like the
United States. But that backlash seems to have quietened.
Forward: How Did Israeli Elections Get So Racist?
A disturbing new trend has emerged in the political ads of the Israeli
elections. Campaign ads seem to be competing over which candidate has
killed the most Palestinians. These ads are horrifying. But they also tell
us a lot about what — and who — is at stake in the current elections.
Huffington Post: Benjamin Netanyahu Sinks To New Lows In Israel’s
Election Campaign
He made pacts with far-right extremists, promised new restrictions on
Palestinian rights and showed he was willing to go to any length to stay in power.
Haaretz: ’Israel Is the Nation-state of Jews Alone': Netanyahu
Responds to TV Star Who Said Arabs Are Equal Citizens
Prime minister reacts to Rotem Sela, who in her Instagram story
criticized culture minister's warning against Arab parties: 'Arabs, too,
God help us, are human beings'
3B: NETANYAHU AND KAHANISTS
+972 Magazine: Israel's fascist sideshow takes center stage
For the first time in over 30 years, a proper Kahanist party could be
entering the Knesset. But is the rise of a party that advocates for
Jewish supremacy, theocracy, and ‘total war’ as unprecedented as the
outcry has suggested?
NY Times: Netanyahu Sparks Outrage Over Pact With Racist Party
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made something of an art form of
cutting deals with small Israeli political parties, but his latest alliance has earned him
denunciations from quarters where he has usually been able to count on unshakable support.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency: An extremist rabbi’s legacy is again haunting Israeli politics
In the 1980s, Israel’s right and left fought three fiercely close elections over the direction of the country, splitting the vote so evenly in one case that they were forced to share powers. Throughout it all, however, the Likud and Labor parties agreed on one thing: Rabbi Meir Kahane, the right-wing extremist, was unfit to serve in Israel’s parliament. Kahane called for Arabs to be expelled from Israel, and his Kach party had a history of harassing Israeli Arabs. Before coming to Israel, Kahane was the leader of the militant Jewish Defense League in New York City. Kahane served time in prison both in the United States and Israel.
Council on Foreign Relations: Background on Kach and Meir Kahane
Kach and Kahane Chai are two marginal, extremist Israeli groups that have used terrorism to pursue their goals of expanding Jewish rule across the West Bank and expelling the Palestinians. Both groups grew out of the anti-Arab teachings of Rabbi Meir Kahane, a U.S.-born extremist who founded and led Kach until he was assassinated in New York in 1990. Israel outlawed Kach and its offshoot Kahane Chai in 1994, a month after a Kach supporter shot and killed twenty-nine Muslim worshippers at a West Bank mosque [in Hebron].
Haaretz: ‘A Lamentable Failure’: Dozens of Orthodox Rabbis Condemn Netanyahu for Deal With Kahanists
Public statement warns Israeli counterparts in religious Zionist community: ‘The stain of your association with evil will be permanent’
Electronic Intifada: AIPAC ignores Netanyahu’s racism
Powerful Israel lobby group AIPAC won applause this week for a tweet, but in reality sidestepped the racism controversy enveloping Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party.
3C. ISRAEL'S ELECTIONS COMMITTEE VS. HIGH COURT
Haaretz: Israeli Arab Slate, Far-left Candidate Banned From Election Hours After Kahanist Leader Allowed to Run
Arab political sources say the move is evidence of racism and the delegitimization of Arab society in Israel, accusing Netanyahu’s Likud party of anti-Arab incitement
Washington Post: Israeli electoral committee bans Arab candidates, allows extreme right to run
A decision by Israel’s electoral committee to ban two Arab parties and a candidate from a third Arab-led slate from running in elections, while allowing a far-rightwing candidate despite recommendations from the attorney general to ban him, was sharply criticized Thursday by leaders of Israel’s Arab community.
The ruling was called unreasonable and racist, and it sparked fears among Israeli Arabs that the country’s 1.8 million Arab citizens could be further politically marginalized ahead of April 9 parliamentary elections.
The decision to ban the parties, which are running on a united ticket, and candidate, Ofer
Cassif, followed petitions submitted by three right-wing factions, including Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.
Haaretz: The Israeli Elections Committee Embraced Jewish Supremacists and Expelled Arab Radicals. So What Else Is New?
The board’s decisions may be overturned by the High Court but they will be seen by critics as proof of Israel's slide to the darkness of nationalism and ethnocentrism
Haaretz: Outlaw Israel's Arabs
The time has come to put an end to the stammering and going around in circles: Outlaw
the Arabs, all of them. Make them all illegal dwellers in their land and have the Border
Police hunt them down like animals, as they know how to do. They are already regarded
as illegitimate citizens. It’s time to say so and to anchor it in law.
haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-outlaw-israel-s-arabs-1.7003010
Haaretz: U.S. Jewish Groups Slam Israeli Decision to Let Kahanist Party Run in Election
Some 7,500 American Jews from 11 US organizations expressed support for Kahanist party ban, voicing dismay at Central Election Committee's ban of far-left candidate, Arab joint slate
Middle East Eye: Israel court bars extreme-right election candidate Ben-Ari
Israel's supreme court on Sunday disqualified the controversial leader of the extremer ight Jewish Power party, Michael Ben-Ari, from running in next month's elections. Ben-Ari has come under fire for comments he made about Palestinian citizens of Israel, which Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said earlier this month amount to "incitement to racism". The elections committee had approved Ben-Ari to run in the April polls, but the opposition left-wing Meretz party successfully appealed the decision to the supreme court. "The place of people who believe in the superiority of race is behind bars not in
parliament," said Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg in a statement.
Mondoweiss: High Court bans racist from running for Knesset, while Israeli politics remain racist to the core
The Israeli High Court has ruled yesterday on several petitions regarding the upcoming elections. Taking the recommended position of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, the court reversed the Knesset Elections Committee decision to ban the Palestinian-Israeli party union of Balad-United Arab List; to reverse the ban on Jewish Ofer Cassif who is part of Hadash (Hadash-Ta’al is another dual Palestinian-Israeli union); and finally, to ban the leader of Jewish Power Michael Ben Ari from running – Ben Ari was otherwise approved by the committee.
The merger of the rabbi Kahane disciples of Jewish Power with the Jewish Home party was a move orchestrated by Netanyahu, which drew widespread critique, as the Jewish Power is an extension of the Kahanist Kach party, which was banned from the Knesset in 1988 on grounds of racism. Netanyahu thus offered it political legitimacy, also in order to secure a future coalition and not lose votes under the 3.25% threshold.
Middle East Eye: Courtroom drama exposes the paradox of Israel's claim to be Jewish and democratic
Arab representatives are forced to jump through legal hoops each time they wish to campaign for Knesset seats. This has become the routine prior to elections in Israel: the Central Elections Committee, comprising legislators from various Knesset factions, disqualifies registered Arab lists or
candidates, decisions that are then typically overturned by the Supreme Court on appeal.
These disqualifications are predicated on Israeli law, which specifies that a candidate or list that negates the existence of Israel as a democratic and Jewish state, or incites people to racism, cannot run. The bitter irony is that this clause, originally drafted to keep American-Israeli Orthodox rabbi Meir Kahane out, is now being wielded by his successors in an attempt to prevent Kahane’s victims, Arab parties, from running. (Kahane's party, of which he was the sole representative in the Knesset in the mid-1980s, was eventually banned for being "racist" and "anti-democratic".)
4. NETANYAHU: CHARGES, INDICTMENT
+972 Magazine: Netanyahu to be indicted on bribery charges. Here's what you need to know
The indictment would mark the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister has been charged with a crime. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced his intention to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday on criminal offenses in all three corruption cases against him. The attorney general decided to charge Netanyahu with bribery in one case alone, pending a hearing, while bringing a lesser charge of breach of trust in the other two.
NY Times: The Cases Against Netanyahu and a Decision to Indict
After an investigation of more than two years, Israel’s attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, announced Thursday that he planned to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Mr. Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing and says he is being persecuted by Israel’s left, is entitled to a hearing before an indictment is formally issued. But if he fails to persuade Mr. Mandelblit to back down, he would become the first sitting prime minister in Israel to face criminal prosecution.
Here is a summary of the allegations against Mr. Netanyahu, as well as the charges Mr. Mandelblit is pursuing and his reasoning for doing so. It is based on documents released Thursday by the Ministry of Justice.
NY Times: With Netanyahu Facing Indictment, Israel Braces for a Wild Election
Israelis were confronted with a rude new reality on Friday: a prime minister running for re-election while facing indictment for corruption. While there were hints that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be losing support, his right-wing allies appeared to be sticking with him and no one was foolish enough to write off a politician who still retains a strong base and has shown Houdini-like skill in escaping seemingly impossible jams before.
The only certainty was that Israel was in for a wild ride between now and the April 9 ballot, with analysts predicting that the country’s political scene — loud, fractious and heated at the best of times — would become only more divisive as Mr. Netanyahu, who is seeking a fourth consecutive term, fights for his political life.
Washington Post: Netanyahu should be indicted on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust, Israel’s attorney general recommends
Israel’s attorney general recommended Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust in connection with three corruption cases, casting uncertainty over his political future just six weeks before he faces an election.
….The legal challenge is a serious blow to Netanyahu ahead of April 9 elections, which he had been predicted to win comfortably on the way to becoming the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history. But in recent weeks, as the attorney general’s announcement neared, Netanyahu slipped to second place in some opinion polls, especially after his two main rivals, Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, decided to run against him on a joint ticket. Polls have projected that the indictment announcement could cost Netanyahu’s party an additional four seats in parliament. Even if he does win, the scandal could make it more difficult for Netanyahu to build the coalition he needs to govern.
5. ARAB VOTERS: BOYCOTT, TURNOUT, SUPPRESSION AND SPYING
+972 Magazine: Who gets to vote in Israel’s version of democracy
Israel is about to hold elections, but not everyone living under Israeli rule gets a vote. A
breakdown of who has rights and who doesn’t. On April 9, 2019, Israel will hold general elections. Israelis will head to the polls to choose their elected leaders and representatives. If they are unhappy with the way things are going, like citizens of democracies around the world, their votes will help shape the ideological and political direction of the government and the institutions it controls.
In a vacuum, that sounds like fairly standard democratic practice. But there is nothing standard about Israel’s democracy. Israeli citizens get to vote in Israeli elections, choosing elected leaders and how they rule the country. But the Israeli government doesn’t just rule over Israeli citizens, or just over Israel, for that matter. Nearly 14 million people live under Israeli rule. The extent of that control varies, as does the ability of those 14 million people to exercise control over the policies, personalities, and institutions that determine so much about their day-to-day lives.
Haaretz: Israel's Arabs Could Kick Netanyahu Out of Office. There's Only One Problem
A young Arab woman walking past election ads in Nazareth, March 28, 2019.Gil Eliahu In 2015, on the afternoon of Election Day, Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Facebook that Arabvoters were “streaming in great numbers to the polls, bused in by left-wing NGOs.” No evidence was ever produced showing that any Arabs relied on Jewish left-wingers to transport them to their polling places, but the prime minister’s cry of “gevalt” did rouse previously apathetic rightwing Jewish voters from their easy chairs.
Adalah: Disenfranchised: Thousands of Bedouin citizens prevented from voting in upcoming Israeli election
Adalah demands Israel provide voting stations in unrecognized Naqab Bedouin villages; thousands of people with no access to public transportation forced to travel up to 50 kilometers to vote. Eleven unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel's Naqab (Negev) southern desert region have no polling stations or public transportation and some of their thousands of residents will have to travel up to 50 kilometers to vote in the upcoming national elections on 9 April 2019.
+972 Magazine: Palestinian citizens of Israel debate an election boycott
Frustrated with the breakdown of internal Arab party politics, and beset by an endless stream of attacks by politicians from across the political spectrum, many Palestinian citizens of Israel are expressing reservations about voting in this week’s elections. Despite a historically high voter participation rate, a small but prominent movement is urging Palestinian citizens to boycott the vote.
Al-Shabaka: Should Palestinian Citizens of Israel Boycott the Elections? An Al-Shabaka Debate
Palestinian citizens of Israel have organized a campaign to boycott the April 9 Knesset elections. Under the banner of the “Popular Campaign for the Boycott of the Zionist Elections,” the campaign calls on Palestinians to refuse participation in the Israeli general elections so as not to recognize the Knesset as a legitimate entity. In this roundtable debate, Al-Shabaka Analyst Nijmeh Ali and Al-Shabaka Palestine Policy Fellow Yara Hawari argue against and for the boycott, respectively.
+972 Magazine:Left-wingers are busing Arabs to the polls in droves — for real this time
Playing on Netanyahu’s warning about Arab citizens of Israel voting in the last elections, a grassroots campaign raises tens of thousands of shekels to bring Bedouin from unrecognized villages to the polls — not quite in droves, but mini-bus by mini-bus.
Haaretz: Netanyahu's Party Places 1,200 Hidden Cameras in Arab Polling Sites
The Likud party spent hundreds of thousands of shekels to provide its observers in polling stations in Arab communities 1,200 hidden cameras. The police confiscated Tuesday dozens of these cameras, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there should be cameras everywhere in order to ensure a "kosher" voting process. The Central Elections Committee's legal counsel said, however, that polling officials could not film voters arriving at the polling stations nor the voting process and Judge Hanan Melcer, the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, agreed in a snap opinion, prohibiting filming and allowing audio recording but only if a genuine concern emerges that the integrity of election is in danger.
Mondoweiss: Netanyahu confirms his party spied on Palestinian voters in apparent effort at voter suppression
A few Likud activists were caught Tuesday morning as the polls opened in Israel, carrying hidden cameras (one was disguised as a pen) into poll stations in Palestinian towns. An unofficial Likud statement later said Likud deployed 1,300 such cameras in alestinian poll stations; this number is so far unconfirmed. Netanyahu himself acknowledged the deployment of cameras, claiming
they’re supposed to “keep the voting process kosher.”
The Israeli public relations firm Kaizler Inbar claimed credit for dispatching 1350 volunteers with cameras in , stating they pleaded “guilty” to suppressing Arab voter turnout and alluded to coordinating with the Likud party.
“Thanks to us placing observers in every polling station we managed to lower the voter turnout to under 50 percent, the lowest in recent years!” the post said, “After a long preparation period, an amazing logistical base and deep and close partnership with the best people in Likud, we put together an operation that contributed crucially to one of the most important achievements of
the right-wing bloc: Keeping the Arab vote legal!”
Haaretz: PR Firm Behind Likud's Hidden Cameras in Arab Polling Sites Boasts of Lowering Voter Turnout
MK Ayman Odeh, head of the Hadash-Ta'al slate, told Haaretz: "Now it's official – the Likud tried to lower the Arab turnout through illegal means. Hidden cameras, monitoring and voter suppression. This is what de-legitimization of a fifth of the citizenry looks like. What started out as unleashed racist incitement continued in the nation-state law and could end with a transfer government and revoking rights."
Times of Israel: Arabs blast ‘racist’ Likud scheme to install cameras at polling stations
Many residents of Tamra and Shfaram say cameras did not frighten them; party attorney claims they were intended ‘to preserve the integrity of the vote’
“Everyone should be subject to the same procedures and protocols,” 32-year-old Mohammed Yassin, a construction worker, said, standing outside the Ibn Sina School in Tamra. “If they want election observers to wear cameras in Arab villages, they ought to make sure the same is done in Jewish towns.”
6. NETANYAHU’S CAMPAIGN PROMISE: ANNEXATION OF WEST BANK
Jerusalem Post: Netanyahu: A Palestinian state won't be created
The United States is aware of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to annex West Bank settlements and his rejection of full Palestinian statehood, Netanyahu told Israeli media on Sunday as he continued to expand on his historic announcement regarding Israeli sovereignty. In an interview with Arutz 7, Netanyahu spoke of a three-stage plan with regard to the West Bank, the third stage of which “is to apply Israeli law to the communities in Judea and Samaria, which we will do in the next term. I want to do it gradually. I want to do it if possible with American support.”
NY Times: Netanyahu Vows to Start Annexing West Bank, in Bid to Rally the Right
Struggling to rally right-wing voters before Tuesday’s elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that he would start to extend Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank if given a fourth consecutive term. Such a move has been ardently sought by the settler movement but resisted until now by Mr. Netanyahu, and by more moderate Israelis, as a potentially fatal blow to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the eyes of most of the world, it would also be a violation of international law that bars the annexation of land seized in war. But Mr. Netanyahu trailed his main challenger, Benny Gantz, a former army chief of staff, in final polls of the campaign published Friday. And he has been frantically trying to mobilize conservative Israelis to vote for his Likud party rather than for other, more extremist parties whose leaders have joined his government but have often portrayed him as more of a brake on the settler movement than an accelerator.
NY Times: As Netanyahu Seeks Re-election, the Future of the West Bank Is Now on the Ballot
As Israelis get ready to go to the polls on Tuesday, a stark, fateful and long deferred choice has suddenly reappeared to confront them after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unexpected promise to begin extending sovereignty over the West Bank if he is reelected. Do voters want to make permanent their country’s control over the West Bank and its 2.6 million Palestinian inhabitants? Or do they want to keep alive the possibility that a Palestinian state could be carved out there one day?
NY Times: Netanyahu’s Talk of West Bank Annexations Is a Blow to Peace but No Surprise, Palestinians Say
If Israel were to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised in his re-election campaign, it would be a potentially fatal blow to the already tattered prospects for a peace agreement with side-by-side states, and could unleash a new round of violence, Palestinians warned on Monday. But among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world, the reaction to Mr. Netanyahu’s campaign promise was largely muted, colored by a deeply skeptical view of Israeli vows and intentions.
The prime minister’s remarks changed little, many Palestinians said, because in their view the two-state peace process was dead already and Israel was headed in the direction of annexation all along. Some Palestinians said they suspect Mr. Netanyahu is playing short-term politics more than making a serious long-term political statement.
+972 Magazine: Annexation is happening whether Netanyahu is reelected or not
Netanyahu’s declaration that he will annex parts of the West Bank is alarming, but it only names a process that was long ago put into action, and which is now part of the mainstream Israeli discourse. Four years ago, on the eve of Israeli elections, Benjamin Netanyahu promised in a television interview that there would never be a Palestinian state on his watch. He retracted the statement a few days after winning, but only those who wanted to believe him actually did. Opposing Palestinian statehood has always been Netanyahu’s policy. He has diverged from it on rare occasions, when he was under enormous pressure to do so, and even then with a conspiratorial wink to his supporters.
Haaretz: Annexing the West Bank: Why We Must Take Netanyahu's Preelection Stunt Seriously
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s interview on Israel’s Channel 12 News that he will extend Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank if re-elected prime minister is more than a publicity stunt. If Netanyahu is re-elected, and if he forms another right-wing government, he will be expected to follow through on his campaign pledge. What is more, Netanyahu has a friend in the White House, who judging by his policy announcements on Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, would appear to be more than willing to
recognize an extension of Israeli sovereignty over parts of the occupied territories, especially if it could be presented as part of a peace deal.
Jerusalem Post: Netanyahu: A Palestinian state won't be created
The United States is aware of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to annex West Bank settlements and his rejection of full Palestinian statehood, Netanyahu told Israeli media on Sunday as he continued to expand on his historic announcement regarding Israeli sovereignty. In an interview with Arutz 7, Netanyahu spoke of a three-stage plan with regard to the West Bank, the third stage of which “is to apply Israeli law to the communities in Judea and Samaria, which we will do in the next term. I want to do it gradually. I want to do it if possible with American support.”
Haaretz: Netanyahu Talks West Bank Annexation After Election
– but Thwarted All Efforts in the Past
If, two days before the election, you haven’t bothered to don your anti-spin protective vests, there’s no time like the present to do so. Anything that’s said or will be said in the week before the election not only should be taken with a grain of salt, but with at least two full shakers of it. The latest thing in the Netanyahu campaign is his supposed promise that the West Bank will be annexed during his next term. How can we tell that this is a key feature of the last lap of his campaign? Other than the timing, which already says almost everything, over the past few days Netanyahu has brought this message back onto his list of regular talking points, mentioning the possibility of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied territories no less than three times in a torrent of interviews and briefings to his favorite media outlets. That is not at all by coincidence, Haaretz was told by a few people aware of the goings-on behind the scene.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Netanyahu’s promise to annex the West Bank settlements, explained
The campaign promise is a last-minute bid to draw right-wing votes in a tight election race. But what does annexing West Bank settlements mean? How would it affect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and the general geography of the Jewish state? Will it actually happen? Here’s what you need to know. • What is the West Bank? • So is the West Bank part of Israel? • So it isn’t technically part of Israel, but Israelis live there? • Where does that leave the Palestinians? • How would annexation change things? • Why is this coming up now? • What are Israelis saying about it? What are Palestinians saying about it? • So will annexation happen?
+972 Magazine: Annexation is more than just a declaration
Benjamin Netanyahu declared on the eve of Israel’s April 9 elections that if reelected he would
begin annexing the West Bank. Only, if we’re being precise, he didn’t. Israeli leaders have almost
never used the word annexation, yet the absence of that terminology has never prevented the
country from permanently acquiring territory by force.
Netanyahu did not say that he will formally annex the West Bank but what he did say is that he
will gradually extend sovereignty to every last Israeli settlement in the territory. What he has
said countless times over the past decade is that Israel will maintain full military control over the
entire West Bank forever.
The only change is that Netanyahu has stopped paying lip service to the idea of a two-state
solution; now he is going to take explicit credit for implementing the policy he has pursued
unswervingly since entering politics — to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state .
For far too long the international community, supporters of Israel in the United States, and even
those on the left in Israel have, by allowing themselves to be lied to about Israel’s intentions
about a two-state solution, been naively deceiving themselves.
Much of that deception was rooted in the discourse of closing windows of opportunity. We need
to act before it’s too late, they would say, without any willingness to discuss when or where the
“too late” line lies. Worse, they refused to ask themselves honestly what would happen — or
what they would do — when it was crossed.
Foreign Policy: Separation and a Two-State Solution Aren’t the Same
Netanyahu is not the only one who opposes basic Palestinian rights. Almost all Israeli leaders reject the fundamental tenets of sovereignty that would make a Palestinian state genuine and viable....
Distinguishing between advocates of separation as opposed to statehood is vital, since for many
Israelis separation is not about Palestinian sovereignty or self-determination.
Rather, the goal is to reduce Israeli responsibility for governing Palestinians and manage the socalled
demographic threat they pose within Israel, as well as maintain control of all the territory
of pre-1948 Palestine while also ensuring a Jewish majority of citizens. The 2015 platform of
Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, which was folded into the Blue and White list, for example, argued that
“the dilemma between keeping sections of the land of Israel and maintaining a Jewish majority
requires us to give up Israeli territory.”
This motivation shapes the details of what Israel is putting on the table—and the likelihood of
Palestinians accepting it. Contrast the separation model with what real Palestinian statehood
would look like: an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its
capital that enjoys the full elements of sovereignty, including control of borders, airspace, and
territorial integrity.
Jerusalem Post: EU rejects Israeli annexation talk, warns of Middle East chaos
The European Union has rejected the idea of Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, which would
create chaos and violence in the Middle East, its foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told the
European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Such a move would destroy the possibility of a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mogherini said, adding that settlement construction was already making the idea of two-states impossible. “If it is not going to be a two-state solution then it is not going to be a solution,” Mogherini said....
Her pledge of support for a two-state resolution to the conflict comes in advance of the anticipated Trump administration’s publication of its peace deal, which it has warned would deviate from the parameters of past efforts toward a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 lines.
“The EU will recognize changes to the pre-1967 borders only if and when agreed by the parties, including with regard to Jerusalem,” she said. “The EU does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over any of the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, in line with international law and with UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 497.”
Yesh Din: Database of All Laws and Bills Indicating Annexation of the West Bank
On April 5 , 2019, a mere four days before Israeli elections, Yesh Din launched a comprehensive database of all laws and bills indicating elements of annexation of the West Bank. A marked shift in Israel’s incremental annexation of the West Bank occurred during the 20 Knesset with the transition from de-facto annexation to de-jure annexation. Sixty bills indicating annexation were proposed during the 20th Knesset, of which, for the first time, eight bills were approved and became law. This database provides detailed information on the various legislative steps undertaken towards de jure annexation, from bills submitted to laws approved by the Knesset and introduced into Israel’s statute book.
Al-Monitor: Netanyahu’s ‘Annexation for Immunity’ formula
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to get immunity in exchange for his willingness to annex West Bank settlements…. Netanyahu has thus far thwarted all attempts by the right to legislate annexation of the West Bank….Things are different now. Netanyahu will have no choice. Despite his tremendous achievement in obtaining the renewed trust of the Israeli electorate that granted him a fifth term in office, Netanyahu is more vulnerable to pressure than ever before.
Haaretz: Poll: 42% of Israelis Back West Bank Annexation, Including Two-state Supporters
The survey found that even proponents of the two-state solution who vote for Zionist center-left parties such as Labor, Meretz and Benny Gantz’s newly established Kahol Lavan don’t rule out at least partial annexation of the West Bank to Israel. In total, 42 percent of respondents support some form of annexation.
6B. U.S. LEADERS REACTION TO ANNEXATION PROMISE
Mondoweiss: Agonized US Zionists — and O’Rourke — see doomsday in another Netanyahu victory
The Israeli elections are tomorrow, and the growing odds in favor of Netanyahu returning to a fifth term, the longest any Israeli PM has served, is causing agony to American liberal Zionists– especially because he promised to annex the settlement blocs in the West Bank while campaigning this weekend. The warning that liberal Zionists have long issued– the Jewish state will no longer be a democratic state but will be inherently racist — has become impossible for even the warners to ignore. Indeed, J Street promptly issued an urgent call on the American Jewish “establishment” and American politicians to condemn Netanyahu’s remarks. And Beto O’Rourke did so unequivocally.
Haaretz: AIPAC-affiliated Democrats Warn Netanyahu Against West Bank Annexation
Four Jewish American lawmakers, who are considered strong supporters of Israel, warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday against annexing parts of the West Bank. The four representatives – Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel of New York, Florida's Ted Deutch, Brad Schneider from Illinois – are among the most pro-Israeli legislators in today’s Democratic party and have strong ties to AIPAC, the leading lobby group that supports the Israeli government. In a public letter they warned that “as strong, life-long supporters of Israel, a U.S.-Israel relationship rooted in our shared values, and the two-state solution, we are greatly concerned by the possibility of Israel taking unilateral steps to annex the West Bank.”
Haaretz: Trump Admin Refuses to Discuss Netanyahu's Remarks on Annexing West Bank
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to comment Monday on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent statements, in which he said Israel would annex parts of the West Bank if he's reelected in Tuesday's election. The question arose during a press conference at the State Department on the Trump administration’s decision to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization. Pompeo responded that he had nothing to say on the Israeli prime minister’s comments. Netanyahu has said in several interviews that he intends to annex parts of the West Bank if he wins another term as prime minister after Tuesday's election. He also said he has been discussing the issue with the Trump administration and hopes the administration will accept his position.
Mondoweiss: Dem presidentials ‘slam’ Netanyahu, and Israel advocates start doing post-election damage control
The conventional wisdom in the press over the last couple days is that Israel has become an issue in the US presidential race, and Netanyahu is driving that wedge along with his good buddy Donald Trump. Three Democratic candidates have “slammed” Benjamin Netanyahu over his promise to annex West Bank settlements, NBC says. The slammers are Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, and Pete Buttigieg, though Amy Klobuchar and Julian Castro have issued milder criticisms of the prime minister.
Mondoweiss: ’‘Things could move very quickly’ — Dems are now the anti-annexation party, taking on Netanyahu and Pompeo
One result of the Israeli election is that it cements the Democratic Party’s role as the anti-Netanyahu party, the party opposed to the rightwing goal the prime minister embraced in the last days of the campaign, to annex the illegal Jewish settlement blocs on the West Bank. In recent days, many leading Democrats have come out against the Netanyahu plan, with Pete Buttigieg echoing Bernie Sanders’s words of four years ago (you don’t have to agree with Netanyahu). Since Netanyahu’s reelection the warnings from Dems have become more dire.Dianne Feinstein, surely the most principled of the old-guard Democrats, said yesterday that
Israel cannot “maintain its military occupation of the West Bank in perpetuity”….
7. ELECTION RESULTS AND RESPONSES
LA Times: by Saree Makdisi: Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection underlines Israel’s apartheid reality
The results of Israel’s elections reveal a stark reality: Not only will Benjamin Netanyahu almost inevitably form a coalition government even further to the right than the one he already heads, but the country’s Jewish electorate has given its resounding endorsement to the policies for which he stands.
Netanyahu ran a manifestly racist electoral campaign, reaching out to embrace politicians who openly espouse the desire to expel Palestinians from the state and promising to annex parts of the West Bank, dealing probably a final blow to the moribund two-state solution. What Israeli voters want, clearly, is precisely what is on offer: more dispossession of Palestinians, more home demolitions, more indiscriminate bombing campaigns, more shooting of protesters, more settlements, more restrictions on Gaza and on Palestinian life in general, and deeper and deeper inequality between Jews and non-Jews in Israel and in the territories over which it rules.
Washington Post: Netanyahu clings on: Key takeaways from Israel’s election
If Netanyahu returns to power, he’ll be poised to become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. It’s quite the feat, not least because he battled through a torrid political campaign under the looming shadow of indictment on corruption charges. Even with the final official result still pending, here are a few takeaways from a momentous vote:
Haaretz: Netanyahu Won the Election. Will He Now Dismantle Israel's Democracy?
As Benjamin Netanyahu appears set to build yet another extremist coalition, we need to ask how far he could leverage his election win to lead Israel away from democracy. On Saturday evening, with just three days to go before elections, Netanyahu announced that, should he win, he would begin extending Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank. Doing so would be a calamitous error, a strategic and moral failure. A move to annex the occupied territories would corrode Israel’s international standing, rupture its relationship with the American Jewish community and likely extinguish any remaining chance for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. And it could very well mark the beginning of end of Israel as a democratic state.
Netanyahu’s hubris stands in stark contrast to the pragmatism and wisdom of virtually all of his predecessors, left, right and center over the last half century. Amidst the euphoria that swept the country in the wake of Israel’s victory in the Six Day War of June 1967, a towering figure emerged from self-imposed retirement to warn his fellow countrymen against being carried away by their astonishing success.
Haaretz: Netanyahu's Next Coalition: Annexation for Immunity From Indictment
The new Netanyahu government will have two main goals: to get rid of the indictments looming
in his future and to annex the settlements to Israel, in coordination with the Trump administration. These two goals could be summed up as "immunity in exchange for sovereignty."
Bezalel Smotrich, who will be the leader of the radical right in the next Knesset and coalition, marked out the direction: in exchange for enacting legislation that, in one way or another, buries the indictments against Netanyahu, the prime minister will have to coordinate the tarrying "deal of the century" with U.S. President Donald Trump in a manner that enables Israel to declare sovereignty over the settlements and assures that no settler will be evicted. Among the rumors leaking from Washington about the plan, there are hints that Israel will be able to keep Area C, which encompasses most of the West Bank and all of the settlements, the Israeli army's firing zones, and open areas. The Palestinians, whose political status in the plan is murky, will be compensated with economic aid. If they reject the plan, as expected, it will be easier to support Israeli annexation of areas conquered in wars of defense, as Washington justified its recognition of Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights. In any case, Israel chose the one-state solution, abjuring the two-state solution that would have involved sharing the land with a Palestinian state.
Haaretz: With Netanyahu Victory, It's Time We Admit: Israel Has Become a Dictatorship
If Benjamin Netanyahu manages to bribe his way to a ramshackle, immunity-from-prosecution coalition after his borderline showing in Tuesday's election, we will all know one thing for sure: Israel has become a dictatorship. You need look no further than his Election Day obscenities of voter fraud and voter suppression.
The Forward: The Lesson Of Netanyahu’s Victory: Israel Will Not Change Without Pressure
forward.com/opinion/israel/422343/the-lesson-of-netanyahus-victory-israel-will-not-change-without-pressure/
The lesson of Benjamin Netanyahu’s apparent reelection victory is simple, and old. Frederick
Douglass articulated it 162 years ago: “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”
For a decade now, commentators have bemoaned the demise of the Israeli left. They’ve attributed the left’s decline to a rising Orthodox population. They’ve attributed it to the legacy of the second intifada, which traumatized and embittered Israeli Jews. But there’s a more basic explanation: The left wants Israel to fundamentally change course. It wants to create a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which would require uprooting perhaps a hundred thousand settlers. For Israel, which has been steadily tightening its grip on the West Bank for more than fifty years, that would constitute wrenching change.
....
As a general rule, people don’t choose painful, convulsive change when they’re comfortable with the status quo. And, as Noam Sheizaf has long argued, Israeli Jews are comfortable.
....
Barack Obama predicted this. Early in his presidency, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, tried to convince Obama that the best way to get Israel to negotiate a Palestinian state would be to supports its government unconditionally. “If you want Israel to take risks,” argued Hoenlein, “then its leaders must know that the United States is right next to them.” Obama disagreed. “When there is no daylight [between the two governments],” he replied, “Israel just sits on the sidelines.”
The last decade has proved Obama right.
LA Times: Israeli government in Benjamin Netanyahu’s fifth term is likely to turn hard right but face stiff opposition
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election victory suggests the government he forms in a record fifth term is likely to espouse more nationalistic views and show little inclination to negotiate peace with Palestinians. Netanyahu finished neck and neck with his main opponent, former army chief of staff commander Benny Gantz, but has a larger number of political parties, many on the far right, willing to align with him to form a coalition and assume leadership of the government. The Blue and White alliance led by Gantz conceded defeat Wednesday, a day after voters went to the polls. The prime minister’s right-wing bloc will not be substantially larger than the one he has had up to now, but it is likely to include much more extremist figures after Netanyahu used the campaign to court fringe parties that advocate Jewish supremacy and what some critics consider racist ideas.
NY Times: In Netanyahu’s Win, Arabs See Another Nail in the Coffin of a Palestinian State
Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on Wednesday to be on his way to a fifth term as prime minister of Israel, solidifying the sense across the Arab world that the dream of a Palestinian state is more remote than ever — as is the chance that the United States will help create it….
“It closes all doors for any possible peace settlement and any chance for the Palestinians to have a state of their own,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political scientist from the United Arab Emirates. While that would cause frustration among the Arabs, there was little they could do about it, he said. “The Arabs are at their weakest. The Palestinians are divided like never before. Israel is stronger than ever and Trump backs it, so Israel can do whatever it wants,” he said.
NY Times: It’s Netanyahu’s Israel Now
Benjamin Netanyahu’s apparent re-election as prime minister of Israel attests to a starkly conservative vision of the Jewish state and its people about where they are and where they are headed. They prize stability, as well as the military and economic security that Mr. Netanyahu has delivered. Though in many ways they have never been safer, they remain afraid — especially of Iran and its influence over their neighbors, against which Mr. Netanyahu has relentlessly crusaded. They are persuaded by his portrayal of those who challenge him, whether Arab citizens or the left, as enemies of the state. They take his resemblance to authoritarian leaders around the world as evidence that he was ahead of the curve.
Times of Israel: Netanyahu, the divisive force of nature who refused to be beaten
In the end, the combined might of three former Israeli army chiefs proved no match for the political will of Benjamin Netanyahu. A divisive force of nature who commandeered the airwaves, took over the vegetable markets, monopolized social media and even called potential voters out of the sea at Netanya beach on election day, Netanyahu simply refused to be beaten.
He had help. President Donald Trump gifted him the sensationally timed US recognition of Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights late last month, and the branding of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Force as a terror group this week. President Vladimir Putin pitched in with Russia’s return of the remains of Zachary Baumel, 37 years after the Brooklyn-born IDF tank commander’s death in the Lebanon War.
Mondoweiss: For Palestinians, It Doesn’t Matter Who Wins Israel’s Elections
David Sheen, an independent Canadian-Israeli journalist, recently gave a talk about Israeli
politics and Israeli public opinion at the Palestine Center. In his presentation, Sheen outlines the
facts and realities of the Israeli public’s attitudes, and how they correlate with the platforms of
Israeli political parties.
Sheen uses an acronym – SIDE – to delineate four major political “camps” that Israeli voters
belong to:
Segregation – those who support a two-state solution
Integration – those who support one democratic state
Domination – those who support one apartheid state where Israeli Jews receive
preferential treatment
Elimination – those who support a unitary state that is ethnically cleansed of Palestinians
Washington Post: by Rep. Chris Hollen (D-Maryland) and Gerald E. Connolly (D-Virginia):
Congress cannot afford to ignore Netanyahu’s embrace of the far right
Netanyahu’s full-throated embrace of the far right’s extreme agenda has placed him on a dangerous track that is not in the interest of Israel, the Palestinians or the United States. As longtime supporters of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, we are deeply concerned about recent developments. If enacted, these policies would fundamentally change the character of Israel, undermine basic Palestinian human rights and violate long-held policies and values adopted by U.S. presidents of both parties to achieve a future two-state solution that enables Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and dignity alongside each other. That’s why Congress cannot afford to look the other way.
Haaretz: Without Addressing the Most Important Issue, the Israeli Left Will Continue to Lose
In the election campaign, there was barely a mention of the most significant issue. There is no doubt that the occupation is certainly one of the greatest achievements that the right wing has had going for it at the ballot box, the hen that generates Knesset seats, yet it wasn’t raised in the campaign by the right wing’s political rivals.
Imagine for a moment that there’s no occupation. Would the right be stronger or weaker? Would Bezalel Smotrich of the Union of Right-Wing Parties shine or fade? The answer is clear: Were it not for the occupation, Kahanist extremism would have remained beyond the bounds of legitimate discourse and no one would have joked about enjoying the scent of fascism.
Mondoweiss: Liberal Zionists must drop the Zionism if they really want to build an Arab-Jewish political partnership
“It’s a very black morning, and the Israeli left has received a serious blow.” Yael Patir, a leader of the liberal Zionist group J Street, was frank today about the huge defeat the Israeli left suffered last night. Jeremy Ben-Ami, the head of J Street, was just as direct. The left suffered a “radical defeat.” The liberal Zionist camp of “Jewish democratic values we all believe in… that camp received the
fewest votes that it’s ever received and shows real signs of potentially going extinct in Israel.” There is an opposition to Netanyahu, but it’s not left, and it’s not proud and strong, he lamented.
Much of the disappointment of liberal Zionists today concerns their Palestinian partners. The Arab vote in Israel was low yesterday. Patir said that activists and the young told the Labor/Meretz Jewish leadership to work with Palestinian voters– “reach out across the Jewish- Arab divide” — to build a coalition. But the leadership did not heed the call. “It was not well received by the leadership of the camp or it wasn’t taken on as a mission.”
+972 Magazine: Why the Zionist left died this week
Stuck in a Zionist paradigm, Israel’s mainstream left-wing parties are unable to put forth a
vision of equality and inclusion for all in Israel-Palestine.
…One of the most important stories that has been largely overlooked, however, is the spectacular implosion of the Zionist left. Tuesday’s election results, in which Labor plummeted to a record low of six seats, is as close as ever to a coup de grace. The Zionist Left, which includes the liberal Meretz party, is now reduced to just 10 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
Arab American Institute (AAI): Why I'm Glad Netanyahu Won, by James Zogby
We are on the threshold of a major change in how Israel will play out in American politics. I'm
afraid that it has come too late to save the two-states that were envisioned by the long dead
Oslo Accords. But it is a good thing that we will now finally be able to have an honest debate
about the dreadful situation created by American complicity in enabling Israel's continued
oppression of Palestinians. This debate might have been aborted for a time had Gantz won. The
occupation and settlements would have continued – but liberals would have been less inclined
to challenge him. With Netanyahu back, the debate will be energized. It might be late in the
game, but better late than never.
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