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xtruss · 9 months

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Analysis: What Israel Can Teach the U.S. About Confronting a Constitutional Crisis

Sometimes you not only need to vote—you also need to vote with your feet.

— By Aaron David Miller and Daniel Miller | Foreign Policy | March 18, 2023

A protester waves an Israeli flag during a massive protest against the government's judicial overhaul plan on March 11 in Tel Aviv, Israel (Illegally Occupied Palestine). Amir Levy/Getty Images

Over the past four months, in an extraordinary display of national resolve and resistance, millions of Israelis have rallied in the streets to protest their government’s efforts to revolutionize the judiciary. Because Israel does not have a written constitution or bicameral parliament, these so-called reforms, if enacted, would eviscerate an independent judiciary, remove the one check and balance standing in the way of unbridled government power, and fundamentally undermine Israel’s democratic system.

In a recent conversation with the author, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak noted that the behavior of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government during the current crisis evoked thoughts of the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

Can the United States learn anything from Israel in its own efforts to stop democratic backsliding and combat a future constitutional crisis in the event, for example, that a president seeks to hold on to power, overturn the results of a free and fair election, and threaten the very essence of constitutional government?

At first glance, the sheer size of the United States and fundamental differences between the two countries’ political cultures and governance systems might appear to render comparisons moot, if not irrelevant. But a closer look reveals important takeaways from Israel’s situation that are worth considering. If Israelis succeed in checking this judicial juggernaut, and even if they don’t, there are lessons for Americans should U.S. liberal democracy be seriously threatened.

The biggest takeaway from what has been happening in Israel has to do with the size, tactics, and endurance of the protests themselves. For months, the world has watched Israelis engage in sustained, massive, nonviolent protests and civil disobedience in cities and towns across the country, drawing participants from nearly all sectors of society.

The scale, scope, and composition of these demonstrations are unprecedented in the country’s history. Hundreds of thousands regularly attend the protests, which are largely grassroots demonstrations, locally organized with former officials and intellectuals recruited to speak. On April 1, close to 450,000 Israelis took to the streets. That is close to 5 percent of the population, roughly equivalent to 17 million Americans. A recent poll showed that 20 percent of all Israelis have protested at one time or another against the judicial coup.

Given the vast disparity in size, replicating this kind of sustained protest movement is no easy matter. As a point of comparison, the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21, 2017, drew between 1 and 1.6 percent of the U.S. population. But that doesn’t mean this is impossible. Indeed, the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in the United States in the summer of 2020 were largely spontaneous and may have included as many as 26 million—and perhaps more—protesters in total.

Size is critical, but so is the character of demonstrations. The essential element is nonviolence. As Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan have demonstrated in studying civil resistance movements that occurred between 1900-2006, using nonviolent tactics—which can include protests, boycotts, and civil disobedience—enhances a movement’s domestic and international legitimacy, increases its bargaining power, and lessens the government’s efforts to delegitimize it. Although the vast majority of Black Lives Matter protests were peaceful (despite the false or misleading media and government claims to the contrary), there were acts of violence, looting, and rioting. Any future protest movement in the United States must shun this kind of destructive behavior.

The Israeli movement’s endurance and persistence has also been an asset. The struggle for democracy is not a 100-yard dash—as demonstrated in other countries, such as Serbia. In Israel’s case, the perception that the so-called judicial reform wasn’t just some technical adjustment to the political system, but rather a fundamental threat to Israelis’ way of life, sustained the protests. The profound anger and mistrust toward the Netanyahu government further catalyzed Israelis from virtually all sectors of society to turn out in the streets.

A second essential part of the response to the judicial legislation in Israel has been the active participation of military reservists who have signed petitions, participated in protests, and boycotted their formal and volunteer reserve duty. These reservists play a critical role in both intelligence and air force operations that are key to the current security challenges Israel faces.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is the most respected institution in the country. In fact, what led Netanyahu to pause the judicial legislation was the surge of protests that followed his (since rescinded) decision to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant had publicly called for a halt to the judicial overhaul, arguing that it was jeopardizing Israel’s security. Adding to the pressure, a host of former IDF chiefs of staff, commanders, and former directors of Mossad have publicly opposed the judicial legislation. And even active, lower-level Mossad employees have been given permission to participate in the protests.

Such actions by former and current government officials are precisely what is needed to imbue the protests with additional legitimacy and to amplify the seriousness of the moment. Active members of IDF units have not refused to serve, and we’re not recommending that active U.S. military units join the protests. Indeed, given the U.S. tradition of the subordination of military to civilian authority, uniformed military would be hard-pressed to intervene in a political crisis.

Still, before the November 2020 election, when then-U.S. President Donald Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power pending the results, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley issued a public statement that the military had no role in an election and would “obey the lawful orders of our civilian leadership.” And senior military officials might well publicly remind the U.S. military—as the Joint Chiefs of Staff did in the wake of the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021—that their mission is to defend the U.S. Constitution.

At the same time, civil servants from throughout the federal government should consider joining the protests and have their organizational representatives (the American Foreign Service Association at the Department of State, for example), issue statements in support. These employees need not resign, at least at first, but they should make clear their nonpartisan opposition to efforts to undermine the rule of law and constitutional norms. The nonpartisan nature of these actions would be reinforced if they involved not just federal employees in Washington, but also the much larger workforce throughout the country. Furthermore, calls to protest could also involve state employees, particularly if the constitutional crisis stemmed from state action.

Third is the importance of strikes. The Histadrut—Israel’s largest trade union, with an estimated 800,000 members—called for a general strike that followed more limited strikes in the preceding months. That decision shut down departures from Ben Gurion Airport. Israel’s research universities and medical facilities (all public hospitals and community clinics) also called to strike, in addition to the closing of banks, businesses, and restaurants (including the ever-popular McDonald’s).

These tactics worked in Israel because, along with other measures (such as closing highways through acts of civil disobedience), they communicated to government ministers and Knesset members that unless they reassessed the situation, the country would shut down, with grave economic and political consequences. The tech sector had already begun to express major concerns that judicial reform as envisioned by the Netanyahu government could turn Israel’s image as a start-up nation into one of a shut-down nation, raising risks that foreign investment might be curtailed and Israeli entrepreneurs might decide to move out of the country.

To be sure, the same tactics could not be so easily deployed in the United States. First, 25 percent of Israeli workers are in a union, compared to 10 percent in the United States. Second, shutting down a country the size of the United States would simply be impossible (although such a strategy might have more success in a small enough state). Additionally, it is unclear if such strikes would help or hurt the opposition politically, particularly in light of the fact that COVID-19 school closures and other lockdown measures were fraught. But strikes should be explored and studied as possible tools. In the summer of 2020, tens of thousands of U.S. workers participated in a “Strike for Black Lives.”

Furthermore, taking a page from the sports strikes in the wake of the 2020 police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, there are more creative measures to explore in place of or in conjunction with traditional worker strikes. Sports leagues at both the college and professional level might suspend games until the crisis was resolved. If individual leagues were unwilling to participate, their stars could—and many likely would. What better way to cause a sustained, nationwide conversation about a specific topic that punctures all information bubbles than by forcing the cancellation of college football games, or the NBA playoffs, the World Series, or even the Super Bowl? In recent years, sports figures have increasingly become involved in politics, including ones from places you might not expect.

Similar strategies could be considered in the realm of Hollywood, the music industry, and other areas where Americans have a shared cultural appreciation and imbue their idols with the recognition and respect once enjoyed by political leaders. To avoid the appearance that these measures were partisan or political, these actions would need buy-in from actors, singers, entertainers, and writers from across the political spectrum, including from those who have always stayed above the political fray or who belong to the opposing political parties.

Fourth is the importance of respected political leaders, both current and former, joining the response to a severe political crisis. In Israel, former prime ministers have participated in the protest movement, including Barak and Ehud Olmert, as well as foreign and justice ministers such as Tzipi Livni. Former U.S. presidents have generally avoided this kind of participation, but in a severe crisis one can imagine former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, as well as other former senior officials from across the political spectrum, speaking out and participating in demonstrations.

Leadership extends beyond mere symbolism. Israeli opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid made calls for a general strike, among other involvement by elected officials. Similar kinds of bipartisan leadership from those in the U.S. House and Senate would be important to amplify the message of the protests and provide legitimacy. And of course, if the constitutional crisis originated from Congress itself, elected representatives could use their authority to shut it down. In this case, the protesters and other stakeholders, such as businesses, should view their opposition as a way to lobby Congress, including by promising to withhold financial backing to any member who participates in the unconstitutional scheme. There were similar actions in the wake of Jan. 6.

It would also be imperative for leaders to come from outside government, including from media organizations that represent a broad spectrum of U.S. politics. Given the United States’ problem with misinformation, this would be essential to accurately portray what was happening on the ground, including dispelling any untruths—for example, the notions that the protests had turned violent or that they were simply partisan reflections of one political party or another.

Finally, perhaps the most important lesson of all is to look for ways to motivate the public with an inclusive national response that transcends party and partisan affiliation. The reason the Israeli protests have been so effective is that even in a society rent by so many divisions, Israelis have gone into the streets because they believe deeply that their very way of life—the character of their society, and the image they have of Israel as an open, tolerant, and democratic polity with all its weaknesses, including and especially the Israeli occupation—is fundamentally threatened. As journalist Gal Beckerman has written, Israeli protesters have wrapped themselves in their flag—the most visible symbol of the protests. And this is something, according to Beckerman, that Americans should take to heart.

It is important to emphasize, though, that most Palestinians—including both those who are Israeli citizens (roughly 2 million out of a total population of 9.7 million) and those under Israel’s occupation and control—see the protests as an effort to protect Israeli Jewish democracy, not a movement to extend equal rights or statehood to them. Arab political parties in Israel have backed the protests, but the majority of Palestinian citizens of Israel, even while they have a great deal to lose should the judicial legislation pass, feel the demonstrations don’t address their needs, including equal rights and rising crime.

But without holding the line against a government whose objectives include de facto if not de jure annexation of the West Bank, continued second-class citizenship for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and enabling violence against Palestinians—as seen in the settler rampages through the West Bank town of Huwara—there will be no chance for peace, an end of the occupation, or statehood for the Palestinians.

And while we remain gloomy about any chance in the near term for an equitable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this protest movement has imbued Israel with a new energy and dynamism. It has created a focus on democracy, rights, and equality that hasn’t been seen in years and that could, under the right leadership, drive home the message that the preservation of Israel as a Jewish democratic state depends on ending the Israeli occupation and extending equal rights not just in principle but in practice to Palestinian citizens of Israel. One can at least hope so.

For the United States, the greatest challenge would be finding a way to wrap a movement in the U.S. flag and identify a broader set of unifying purposes that creates the biggest tent under which millions of Americans could rally. In today’s perniciously partisan environment, this would be hard—some might say impossible. To quote the historian Henry Adams, politics in the United States has become a “systematic organization of hatreds.” Without a written constitution, Israelis have turned to their Declaration of Independence as a source of inspiration, even as a set of principles for a future constitution. Perhaps the United States could do the same, turning to the basic founding principles that have shaped the country’s self-government.

The United States is perhaps the only nation in history founded on an idea: self-government in the interest of securing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Fundamentally, no matter the differences between Americans, what makes the United States special is its ability to self- correct, reinvent itself, and make progress toward guaranteeing opportunity, equality, and dignity for all. A truly national protest movement must be grounded in this dream and the aspiration of making it more accessible to everyone. We are hopeful and inspired by the younger generations in the United States today—by their commitment to making the country a better place for all Americans, and by how they would rise to meet the challenge if the United States were truly tested.

Of course, the best way to avoid illiberal backsliding, let alone a constitutional crisis, is to vote for candidates who respect the rule of law, abide by the Constitution, and adhere to democratic norms and standards. Once authoritarians entrench themselves in power, they can use their authority to remain there. But sometimes you not only need to vote—you also need to vote with your feet.

Some of this may seem naive and Panglossian. But the fight for U.S. democracy has always mixed the pragmatic and the aspirational. What has happened in Israel these many months has shown the power that people possess to safeguard their democracy when threatened. It’s not an easy conversation to have. But it’s worth having now because the stakes are so very high, and sadly, the dangers to the United States’ own democratic system are all too real.

— Aaron David Miller is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former U.S. State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator in Republican and Democratic administrations. He is the author of The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President.

— Daniel Miller is a Lawyer and Activist. Since 2016, he has engaged in various forms of Pro-democracy work and has written for the Washington Post, CNN, Daily Beast, and New York Daily News on democracy issues.

#Analysis #Illegal Regime of Isra-hell #Occupied Palestine 🇵🇸#Constitutional Crisis #Aaron David Miller and Daniel Miller #Judicial Overhaul #War Criminal and Terrorist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu #Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak #United States 🇺🇸#Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan #Israel Defense Forces (IDF)#Mossad #United States Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley #Ehud Olmert #Strike For Black Lives #Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid #Palestinians 🇵🇸#Henry Adams #Politics in the United States has Become a “Systematic Organization of Hatreds

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ivovynckier · 1 year

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Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert spent time in jail for corruption and obstruction of justice.

#ehud olmert #israel #history #donald j trump #donald trump #donald #trump #trump indictment #trump indictments #trump is a criminal #trump crime family #trump is a national disgrace #gop #republican #republicans #corruption

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izraelinfo · 1 year

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Kártérítésre kötelezte a bíróság a Netanjahu családot elmebetegnek nevező Ehud Olmertet

Jelentős kártérítés megfizetésére kötelezte a tel-avivi polgári bíróság Ehud Olmert volt miniszterelnököt az ellene folytatott rágalmazási perben – jelentette a Jediot Ahronot című újság hírportálja, a ynet hétfőn. Benjamin Netanjahu és családja azért perelte be rágalmazásért Olmertet, mert egy tévéműsorban 2021-ben elmebetegnek nevezte őt és családját. Olmertnek a 62 500 sékel (6,5 millió…

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#Benjamin Netanjahu #bíróság #bírósági ítélet #Ehud Olmert #rágalmazás

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kirstythejetblackgoldfish · 2 years

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Bastille Day, Paris, France, 2008

#Assad #Bashar al-Assad #Syria #Bastille Day #France #where Bashy famously turned his back on Ehud Olmert

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zvaigzdelasas · 7 months

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"Why doesn't Hamas just have elections?'

The result was a victory for Hamas, contesting under the list name of Change and Reform, which received 44.45% of the vote and won 74 of the 132 seats, whilst the ruling Fatah received 41.43% of the vote and won 45 seats.[1][...]

In the lead-up to the elections, on 26 September 2005 Israel launched a campaign of arrests against PLC members. 450 members of Hamas were detained, mostly those involved in the 2006 PLC elections. The majority of them were kept in administrative detention for different periods.[19] In the election period, 15 PLC members were captured and held as political prisoners.[20]

During the elections, the Israeli authorities banned the candidates from holding election campaigns inside Jerusalem. Rallies and public meetings were prohibited. The Jerusalem identity cards of some PLC members were also revoked.[21] The Carter Center, which monitored the elections, criticised the detentions of persons who "are guilty of nothing more than winning a parliamentary seat in an open and honest election".[22][...]

On 21 December 2005, Israeli officials stated their intention to prevent voting in East Jerusalem, which, unlike most of the Palestinian-inhabited areas that are planned to participate in the election, is under Israeli civil and military control. (Israel annexed East Jerusalem in the wake of the Six-Day War; this move has not been recognized by most other governments, or by the PNA, which claims Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital.) Israel's stated motivation was not the argument about sovereignty over the area (Palestinian voters in East Jerusalem had been allowed to vote in previous PNA elections despite the dispute) but concern over Hamas' participation in—and potential victory in—the election.[...]

The Israeli police arrested campaigners of Hamas and closed at least three Hamas election offices in East Jerusalem during the campaign.[26][27][...]

On 29 March 2006 a new government was formed by Hamas leader Ismail Haniya.

After the kidnap of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on 25 June 2006, Israel launched a series of raids into Gaza and West Bank. Israel destroyed civilian infrastructure and arrested dozens of Hamas supporters, including elected cabinet ministers and members of the PLC. On 28 June overnight, the army invaded Gaza and performed airstrikes, bombing infrastructure such as bridges and an electricity station. On 29 June, the IDF detained from the West Bank 8 ministers and 26 PLC members in addition to many other political leaders.[19][41] By August 2006, Israel had arrested 49 senior Hamas officials, all from the West Bank, including 33 parliamentarians, "because technically they were members of a terrorist organisation although they may not be involved in terrorist acts themselves". Most of the Hamas detainees were moderate members from the West Bank who had been calling on the Gaza leadership to recognise Israel and make the party more acceptable to the international community. Hamas has accused Israel of trying to destroy the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.[42][...]

On 28 January 2006, Israel said it would prevent Hamas leaders, including newly elected PLC deputies, from travelling between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. On 29 January, Ehud Olmert said that after Hamas sets up a Government, Israel would stop transferring to the PA custom duties and taxes it had collected on their behalf until it was satisfied that they would not end up in the hands of "terrorists". US Secretary of State Rice declared that "The United States wants other nations to cut off aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian Government, also ruling out any US financial assistance to a Hamas Government." [45] On 17 February, one day before the new parliament was sworn in, the then Fatah-led government returned $50 million US aid that Washington did not want to come in the hands of the new government. The money had been intended for infrastructure projects in Gaza.[46][...]

Just before the January 2006 elections, and after witnessing Hamas' gains in municipal polls, the House of Representatives passed H.Res. 575 (December 16, 2005), asserting that terrorist groups, like Hamas, should not be permitted to participate in Palestinian elections until such organizations "recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, cease incitement, condemn terrorism, and permanently disarm and dismantle their terrorist infrastructure."[54] The Palestinian Authority chose to ignore this external decision[...]

The New York Times reported in February 2006 that "The United States and Israel are discussing ways to destabilize the Palestinian government so that newly elected Hamas officials will fail and elections will be called again. The intention is to starve the Palestinian Authority of money and international connections to the point where, some months from now, its president, Mahmoud Abbas, is compelled to call a new election."[56] Just how much further matters would be taken was revealed in April 2008. Tom Segev (in Ha'aretz) reported:

a "confidential document, a 'talking points' memo,[57] was left by the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, Jake Walles, on the desk of Mahmoud Abbas . … According to the paper left behind … he wanted to pressure Abu Mazen to take action that would annul the outcome of the elections that had catapulted Hamas to power. … When nothing happened, Walles … warned the Palestinian president that the time had come to act. Instead, Abu Mazen launched negotiations with Hamas on the establishment of a unity government. … At this point the Americans moved to "Plan B." That was a plan to eliminate Hamas by force. In fact, it was to be a deliberately fomented civil war Fatah was supposed to win, with U.S. help."[58][...]

Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. The plan was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America's behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. (The State Department declined to comment.) Some sources call the scheme "Iran-contra 2.0," recalling that Abrams was convicted (and later pardoned) for withholding information from Congress during the original Iran-contra scandal under President Reagan. There are echoes of other past misadventures as well: the C.I.A.'s 1953 ouster of an elected prime minister in Iran, which set the stage for the 1979 Islamic revolution there; the aborted 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, which gave Fidel Castro an excuse to solidify his hold on Cuba; and the contemporary tragedy in Iraq.[59]

The Jerusalem Post confirmed that the documents cited by Vanity Fair "have been corroborated by sources at the US State Department and Palestinian officials", and added:

The report said that instead of driving its enemies out of power, the US-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. David Wurmser, who resigned as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief Middle East adviser a month after the Hamas takeover, said he believed that Hamas had no intention of taking over the Gaza Strip until Fatah forced its hand. "It looks to me that what happened wasn't so much a coup by Hamas but an attempted coup by Fatah that was preempted before it could happen," he was quoted as saying. Wurmser said that the Bush administration engaged in a "dirty war in an effort to provide a corrupt dictatorship [led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] with victory." Wurmser said he was especially galled by the Bush administration's hypocrisy. "There is a stunning disconnect between the president's call for Middle East democracy and this policy," he said. "It directly contradicts it.".[60][...]

The original article was cited by the Irish Times, the Israeli historian and political analyst, Tom Segev, in an article entitled "Bay of Pigs in Gaza", and also by Suzanne Goldenburg of The Guardian, who added "A state department memo put the cost for salaries, training and weapons at $1.27bn (£640m) over five years."[50]

The 2008 exposé by Vanity Fair (of plans to reverse the democratic 2006 PA parliamentary elections) confirmed a CF Report of January 2007, over a year earlier, by Alistair Crooke:

Deputy National Security Advisor, Elliott Abrams ... has had it about for some months now that the U.S. is not only not interested in dealing with Hamas, it is working to ensure its failure. In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas elections, last January, Abrams greeted a group of Palestinian businessmen in his White House office with talk of a "hard coup" against the newly-elected Hamas government — the violent overthrow of their leadership with arms supplied by the United States. While the businessmen were shocked, Abrams was adamant — the U.S. had to support Fatah with guns, ammunition and training, so that they could fight Hamas for control of the Palestinian government.

Over the last twelve months, the United States has supplied guns, ammunition and training to Palestinian Fatah activists to take on Hamas in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank. A large number of Fatah activists have been trained and "graduated" from two camps — one in Ramallah and one in Jericho. The supplies of rifles and ammunition, which started as a mere trickle, has now become a torrent (Haaretz reports the U.S. has designated an astounding $86.4 million for Abu Mazen's security detail), and while the program has gone largely without notice in the American press, it is openly talked about and commented on in the Arab media. Of course, in public, Secretary Rice appears contrite and concerned with "the growing lawlessness" among Palestinians, while failing to mention that such lawlessness is exactly what the Abrams plan was designed to create."[61]

Voice of America reported that the Bush administration had denied the Vanity Fair report.[62]

In 2016 a 2006 audio tape emerged that contains an interview by Eli Chomsky of the Jewish Press with Hillary Clinton. Clinton opined that pushing for elections "in the Palestinian territories ... was a big mistake", adding "(a)nd if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win."[63][...]

In June 2007 the Washington Post reported: "Hamas … leaders have accused Fatah's security services of working on behalf of Israeli and American interests because of a $40 million U.S. aid package to strengthen Abbas's forces. … The Israeli government has openly supported Fatah forces against Hamas, whose tightening control of Gaza alarmed Israeli defense officials.[67]

In a wikileaks cable dated 13 June 2007, Shin Bet security chief Yuval Diskin told U.S. Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones that: "Fatah had thus turned to Israel for help in attack Hamas", which he termed a new and unprecedented development in Jerusalem's relations with the Palestinian Authority.

In the cable sent to Washington, Jones said that Yadlin had been quite satisfied with Hamas' seizure of the Gaza Strip. If Hamas managed to take complete control then the Israel Defense Forces would be able to relate to Gaza as a hostile territory and stop looking at the militant group as an undiplomatic player, Yadlin apparently told Jones."[68]

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cavalierzee · 2 months

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I Support A 2 State Solution

I support the 2 state solution:

Palestinians get Palestine, and israelis return to their original countries.

Every single Israeli prime minister is from Eastern Europe.

They have no connection to Palestine whatsoever.

David Ben-Gurion – Poland

Moshe Sharett – Russian Empire

Levi Eshkol – Russian Empire

Yigal Allon – Belarus

Golda Meir – Ukraine

Yitzhak Rabin – Eastern European

Yitzhak Shamir – Poland / Belarus

Shimon Peres – Poland

Benjamin Netanyahu – Poland

Ehud Barak – Lithuania

Ariel Sharon – Georgia

Ehud Olmert – Ukraine/ Russia

Naftali Bennett – America / Europe

Yair Lapid – Serbia / Hungary

Israelis are white European colonizers who came to Palestine to steal land and use religion as an excuse.

The US and UK support them so they keep the Arab world in chaos (divide and conquer) and have an illegal military outpost on someone else’s land.

Richard Medhurst

Image: “The Germans Destroyed Our Families and Homes. Don’t You Destroy Our Hopes.”

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loving-n0t-heyting · 5 days

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in a recent lawfare episode, Ben Wittes (who I find to be one of the most sober-minded natsec ppl I know of) said, of the West Bank, something like "the settlers conduct, let's be real, pogroms of the people there, which the israeli government could stop aiding at any moment, but these people have [clout]. The Israeli security forces are good at controlling terrorists and they choose not to do it [regarding the settlers]. It would require a lot of political willpower to do it but they could do it. And they choose not to, every day." which really caused things to click for me regarding what the material thrust of charges of "settler-colonialism". hard not to see the connection now between manifest destiny and this, assuming it is true.

if what you are leaving open as to its truth is the allegation that israeli settlers conduct "pogroms" in the west bank, dont take it from me! take it from likud prime minister ehud olmert in 2008, or from idf major general yehuda fuchs in 2023, or from maj. gen. yair golan in 2022

as to whether the israeli security forces could put an end to them if the national leadership had the will... well, they certainly seem to take the pogroms less seriously than they do palestinian resistance, to say the least

#ask #tototavros

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odinsblog · 6 months

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Effectively, Netanyahu's entire worldview collapsed over the course of a single day. He was convinced that he could make deals with corrupt Arab tyrants while ignoring the cornerstone of the Arab-Jewish conflict, the Palestinians. His life's work was to turn the ship of state from the course steered by his predecessors, from Yitzhak Rabin to Ehud Olmert, and make the two-state solution impossible. En route to this goal, he found a partner in Hamas.

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” he told a meeting of his Likud party's Knesset members in March 2019.

“This is part of our strategy - to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

—BENJAMIN NETANYAHU actively supported Hamas, to sow division amongst Palestinians and undermine a Two State Solution

#politics #palestine #gaza #israel #hamas #benjamin netanyahu #divide and conquer #two state solution #hamas ≠ palestine #benjamin netanyahu is a war criminal #war crimes #genocide #never again #never again to anyone #bds #boycott divest sanction

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mapsontheweb · 5 months

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Israel's Peace Offer: Ehud Olmert 2008.

#maps #israeli palestinian conflict #2008

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stephobrien · 2 months

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The ICJ ruled that it's plausible that Israel's assault on Gaza could amount to a genocide.

Being a signatory the Genocide Convention means America has an obligation to prevent genocide.

And yet, America's ambassador just vetoed yet another attempt to pass a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza.

According to the above article, "She told reporters the Arab draft did not link the release of the hostages to a cease-fire, which would give Hamas a halt to fighting without requiring it to take any action. That would mean “that the fighting would have continued because without the hostage releases we know that the fighting is going to continue,” she said."

This excuse seems to ignore the fact that that Hamas has offered a deal that would involve both the release of the hostages AND an end to the fighting.

It's the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the most reluctant to stop the fighting. And he's been very clear about the fact that, despite Israel having given a nod to international law by participating in the ICJ hearing, he has no intention of actually abiding by the ruling.

“No one will stop us, not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anyone else," Netanyahu said in televised remarks.

In a statement to media, he also said, "We’re continuing the war to the end. It will continue until Hamas is destroyed — until victory…until all the goals we set are met: destroying Hamas, releasing our hostages and removing the threat from Gaza."

(If you think this sounds reasonable, imagine if Hamas had killed 29,000 Israelis, restricted most of Israel's access to food, water, and medicine to the point where Israelis were starving, and damaged or destroyed over half of all the buildings in Israel, and then said they would continue until the Likud and IDF were completely destroyed, so they could never attack Palestinians again.)

Netanyahu has long opposed a two-state solution, even going so far as to prop up Hamas. He endangered innocent Israelis' lives so he could use Hamas as an excuse to avoid real negotiations, which could lead to Palestinian statehood and a chance for REAL peace that's based on justice and equality rather than oppression and control.

His policies and rhetoric have drawn criticism from his fellow Israelis, including thousands of protestors, and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the latter of whom said:

“It isn’t fashionable to trust Palestinians, any Palestinians. This is the time when you’re meant to hate them. But this is bullshit. When I argue with people, sometimes I say, ‘What is the solution? What do you think can be done? Do you think that we can continue to control 4.5 million people without rights, with unlimited occupation, forever? Do you think that can work?’ Then they, of course, don’t have an answer.”

Netanyahu won't end the war, or abide by international law, willingly. We need to keep pressuring our governments to take TANGIBLE ACTION to make the Israeli government stop, whether that's sanctions, cessation of aid and military cooperation, or whatever your country is in a position to do.

Don't stop contacting your representatives, and urging them to put pressure on the Israeli government.

And for those who need to be reminded: please direct your anger toward the government officials who are in a position to do something about this, and toward the companies that are complicit in Israel's violence.

Do NOT direct it toward random Jewish people, businesses, or places of worship that have absolutely no influence on or complicity in the violence you're protesting.

#Palestine #Free Palestine #Gaza #Gaza genocide #Israel Palestine conflict #Israel Palestine war #Israel #collective punishment #Netanyahu is a war criminal #genocide Joe #Canada is complicit #America is complicit #UNSC #UN security council

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workersolidarity · 3 months

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[ 📹 Al-Qassam video to the criminal Netanyahu government to cease the genocide on the people of Gaza and win your hostages' freedom. (Subtitles were generated and may not always accurately represent the meaning of what was said.)]

🇵🇸⚔️🇮🇱 🚨

AL-QASSAM ISSUES STATEMENT ON THE STATE OF THE WAR AND THE STATE OF THEIR HOSTAGES

The Mujahideen of the al-Qassam Brigades issued a statement Saturday on the state of the war with Israel, as well as the state of their Israeli hostages.

The statement translates as follows:

Day 113... Al-Qassam sends a message to the families of the prisoners

Al-Qassam - Special:

For the 113th day in a row, the Qassam Brigades continue to confront the Zionist forces penetrating into several fronts, which has so far resulted in the killing of (557) officers and soldiers and the wounding of more than (2748) others according to the enemy’s army’s confession, and more than (6400) wounded according to hospital reports. Zionism, in addition to completely or partially destroying hundreds of vehicles, also continued to bomb enemy sites and settlements in the Gaza Strip, and to destroy its military concentrations in various areas of the incursion.

Since the first day on October 7, the Qassam Brigades were able to kill hundreds of soldiers and capture about 250 Zionists, while Qassam missiles struck Ben Gurion Airport, Ashkelon, Ashdod, the blocs, and others with large missile salvos, as part of the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle operations, which were launched by order of the Qassam Chief of Staff. In defense of Al-Aqsa and the holy sites, and in response to the call of the women of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.

Today, Saturday, Rajab 15, 1445 AH, corresponding to January 27, 2024 AD, the military media published two photographic materials showing the engagement of the Qassam Mujahideen with enemy vehicles in the city of Khan Yunis, and a number of aircraft that our mujahideen seized in Gaza City and were used for special intelligence and operational missions, and a number of military communications about various operations. Jihadism carried out by the Al-Qassam mujahideen, and our mujahideen confirmed the destruction and damage of a number of vehicles on various fronts of the fighting.

This evening, the Al-Qassam Brigades published a new message in which it addressed the families of the Zionist prisoners being held by it. “ If the Netanyahu government continues the war on Gaza, they should expect news of the killing of all prisoners due to the raids carried out by the enemy army on the Gaza Strip.”

Yesterday, Friday, the Al-Qassam Brigades broadcast a video clip of three captured Zionist female recruits, calling on the occupation government to stop the war on the Gaza Strip and return them to their homes. The female prisoners addressed their families and the Zionist society by saying: “Our government is lying to you. Do anything to return alive ,” demanding a prime minister. The enemy concluded an exchange deal with Hamas.

In a related context; Former Zionist Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched an attack on the current occupation government, demanding "an immediate halt to the war and the return of the kidnapped people." Olmert added in a television interview: "If I were prime minister now, I would not announce the elimination of Hamas."

This comes at a time when thousands of Zionist usurpers went out on Saturday evening in massive demonstrations in central Tel Aviv, demanding the return of prisoners held by the Qassam Brigades, and the overthrow of the Netanyahu government due to its failure to achieve the goals of the aggression against Gaza, during which they raised the slogan “Early elections immediately.” ".

In the meantime; The Axios website quoted the Families of Zionist Prisoners as saying: “If Netanyahu’s sons were in captivity with Hamas, he and his wife would be with us in the protest square. ” The site added, quoting the families of the prisoners: “If we do not mobilize support for the release of the kidnapped, their fate will be like the pilot Ron Arad.” .

It is noteworthy that Netanyahu is facing intense pressure to recover the detained prisoners who were captured by the Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian resistance on October 7, after hordes of Mujahideen from the Qassam Brigades stormed the settlements and military sites in the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air, where they were able to kill hundreds of soldiers and capture about 250 Zionists.

The following is a follow-up to what was issued by the military media of the Al-Qassam Brigades today:

09:52 | Al-Qassam Brigades target a Zionist troop carrier with an “Al-Yassin 105” shell in the Al-Amal neighborhood, west of the city of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

04:32 | Al-Qassam Brigades target a Zionist Merkva tank with an Al-Yassin 105 shell in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza

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#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

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