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TitleDescriptionDate
Hamas-Fatah tension takes its toll on reconciliationMohammed Haboush - Al-Monitor - Tension between Hamas and Fatah has been surging, particularly since the latter accused Hamas’ security services in Gaza of cracking down on Fatah leaders and cadres after the Interior Ministry in Gaza refused to allow Fatah to hold a 54th anniversary celebration in the Gaza Strip. Fatah spokesman in Gaza Atef Abu Seif said in a press statement Dec. 31, “Security services in Gaza have arrested more than 500 Fatah leaders and members since Dec. 30, 2018, against the backdrop of the movement’s activities for its 54th anniversary, which falls on Jan. 1 of every year.”-rh 29/1/2019
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Bernie Sanders could be US president in 2020 – and this is what it means for Israel and the Middle EastRobert Fisk - Information Clearing House - But let’s remember a few more things about Sanders. He’s always supported the “right of Israel to exist” and its right to self-defence, and he’s always condemned Palestinian attacks on Israelis. But he’s also kept away from pro- Israeli Jewish lobby groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and he didn’t restrain himself when he chose to condemn Israel for its illegal colonial project of building homes for Jews and Jews only in the occupied West Bank, nor when Israel has blatantly interfered in US domestic or electoral politics.-rh29/1/2019
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Sex scandal shakes Israelis` trust of judicial system Ben Caspit - Al-Monitor - It all started with an old mobile phone. This much-too-smart phone set off one of the juiciest scandals to hit Israel in modern times, threatening to tarnish the image of Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, whose meteoric political rise has generated speculation of a future run for the premiership. The phone belongs to attorney Effi Naveh, the all-powerful chair of the Israel Bar Association (IBA). Until his resignation this week, Naveh was a strategic ally of the justice minister’s. He was the one who helped her lead the dramatic double reform of changing the judicial appointments’ process and appointing to the bench many conservative judges (out of the hundreds appointed during her term as minister).-rh 29/1/2019
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Will seven politicians `Unite4Israel`? Akiva Eldar - Al-Monitor - Admittedly, most center-left Israelis are not stupid, but they are undoubtedly confused and embarrassed, having lost their way. The deep yearning to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his associates, among them Culture Minister Miri Regev, appears to have become their be all and end all, blocking the political and moral field of vision of wise and principled people. In other words, the dream of toppling Netanyahu and company in the April 9 elections has distorted the thinking of Israel`s best and brightest when it comes to the tremendous diplomatic, political and social challenges facing Israel.-rh 29/1/2019
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Israeli teen charged with terror in rock attack that killed Palestinian womanJACOB MAGID -The Times of Israel - The Central District Attorney’s Office filed an indictment Thursday against the Israeli teen suspected of killing a Palestinian woman three months ago, in the most serious incident of suspected Jewish terror since the 2015 firebombing of a Palestinian home in Duma. The 16-year-old from the central West Bank was charged with manslaughter, aggravated stone throwing at a moving vehicle, and intentional sabotage of a vehicle. Each of the charges connected to the killing of Aisha Rabi, a 47-year-old Palestinian mother of eight, was qualified as having been carried out “in the context of a terrorist act.”-rh 29/1/2019
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Demolition highway: Israel plans to force Bedouin from homes : `Developing` the Negev has entailed repeated efforts to displace Bedouin Palestinians from `unrecognised` villages.Ben White - AlJazeera - As many as 1,000 Bedouin Palestinian families are threatened with forced displacement by the Israeli government under plans for a major new highway in the Naqab (Negev) region. The route of the new section of Road 6 already entails the forcible relocation of some 100 Bedouin families. In December 2018, however, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel declared he intended to take advantage of the situation to expel a further 900 families.-rh29/1/2019
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Former IDF chief launches shocking right-wing campaign Shlomi Eldar - Al-Monitor - Gantz’s political campaign is wrapped in the human tragedy suffered by 2 million Palestinians. He boasts about how he had returned the Gaza Strip to the Stone Age. The Israeli public was eager to hear the ideas of Gantz the politician, but instead received shocking wartime videos from him.-rh 29/1/2019
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Netanyahu’s archrival before elections: the attorney general Mazal Mualem - Al Monitor - Netanyahu’s election videos are very brief, rhythmic and provocative. The thing is that they do not target some political rival; they are focused on Mandelblit, who, according to all observers, is expected to announce his decision to indict Netanyahu for bribery (subject to a hearing) in Case 4000 (a telecom- media affair), and that he will do this some time in February, just before the April 9 election.-rh 29/1/2019
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Why American are breaking their silence on IsraelRobert Fisk - Information Clearing House - It’s easy to accuse a white American of being an antisemite for “breaking the silence” over US- Israeli shenanigans; quite another to condemn a black American without giving the impression that such condemnation is not itself racist. And just read what Alexander actually wrote. If the US is to honour King’s message and not merely the man, she insisted, “we must condemn Israel’s actions: unrelenting violations of international law, continued occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, home demolitions and land confiscations. We must cry out at the treatment of Palestinians at checkpoints, the routine searches of their homes and restrictions on their movements.”-rh29/1/2019
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Election 2019 shaping up as a festival of purported indignation over leftism : Substantive policy debate is out as campaigns look to manipulation and defamation to define their opponentsHAVIV RETTIG GUR - The Times of Israel - Earlier this week, Benny Gantz, the popular ex-IDF chief who attracted nearly half as many Knesset seats in polls as the ruling Likud before even registering his new political party, naming his Knesset slate or expressing a political opinion (or, perhaps, because he had not yet done those things), sided with Druze activists seeking to amend the nation-state law. Gantz promised to do everything in his power to ensure the law would reflect their equal standing in the Jewish state. Likud’s reaction was revealing not only for its content but for the coordinated way it deployed its response. It was as though the party’s entire cabinet cadre had turned out on social media, online videos and press statements to pronounce Gantz a “leftist.”-rh22/1/2019
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Mandelblit in the middle: He’ll seal Netanyahu’s fate and maybe shape Israel’sThe Times of Israel - In the next few months, with attacks on him expected to ramp up yet further as he nears a decision on indicting the prime minister, the thickness of his skin and his commitment to those ideals will be put to the ultimate test. The widespread expectation that he will invite Netanyahu to a pretrial hearing, reportedly some time next month, will likely take the attempts by the prime minister’s loyalists to delegitimize and discredit him to a whole new level.-rh22/1/2019
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INSS: Israel could face three-front war in 2019Itamar Eichner - Ynetnews - Israel could face military conflicts on three different fronts—Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip—at the same time in 2019, according to an annual assessment of security challenges done by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), a national security think-tank. "The main three fronts are: Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and they are very volatile. Despite the continued mutual deterrence between the sides, there is a potential for a military escalation, which could eventually lead to an all-out three- front war … Israel is ought to be prepared for this scenario,” said the assessment, which was submitted to President Reuven Rivlin last week.-rh22/1/2019
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Netanyahu`s well-oiled war machineTali Ben Ovadia - Ynetnews - Undermining the legitimacy of the justice system, trampling on the pillars of democracy, in this election race the prime minister takes no prisoners. Only a joint political campaign starring Lapid, Gantz and Ashkenazi could eat away at Netanyahu`s electoral advantage.-rh22/1/2019
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Is Israel spying on its visitors? Yossi Beilin - Al-Monitor - I found a Jan. 16 item written by Nahum Barnea in Yedioth Ahronoth discussing a form that visitors invited to attend conferences and meetings in Israel are asked to complete. It is a seemingly simple form that asks for personal details, but it also includes two rather astonishing questions: what are the visitor’s plans when not at the conference and with whom does he intend to meet in his leisure time. The second question concerns anyone the visitor knows in Israel — that is, names of family, friends, business contacts, academics, and diplomats and other people in government roles — and requests their phone number. As it turns out, this is (allegedly) a gesture of hospitality the state has decided to bestow on its guests. There is (seemingly) no requirement that one fill out the form, but those who do will be registered as a VIP and not subject to an interrogation upon exiting the country. Any attempt to learn what brilliant mind invented this new procedure encounters some difficulty.-rh 22/1/2019
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OCHA: 10% increase in Israeli demolition of Palestinian structures in 2018Ma’an News Agency - "During 2018, Israel demolished or seized 460 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, a 10% increase compared to 2017, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory confirmed in a new report” [ry] 21/1/2019
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Applying the law by ethnicity: Israel`s dual legal systems explainedVideo by Tal Frieden - +972 "In the occupied West Bank, everyone is subject to Israeli military law. Unless, of course, you’re an Israeli settler. The dual legal systems — separate laws and court systems for different people in the same territory — are one of the reasons some refer to Israel’s occupation as apartheid." ca19/1/2019
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Trump’s Full Spectrum Assault on Palestinian PoliticsIlana Feldman - MERIP - he Trump Administration announced on August 31, 2018 that it was ceasing all US contributions to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), rejecting what it termed “an irredeemably flawed operation.”[1] UNRWA provides education, healthcare, job training, and limited food aid for millions of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, the majority of whom are descendants of those Israel forcibly displaced from their homes in historic Palestine in 1948, in what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba (catastrophe).[2] Unlike most UN agencies, the entirety of UNRWA’s operational budget comes from voluntary contributions by member states. The US has historically been UNRWA’s biggest donor, last year providing about one-quarter of its $1.24 billion budget. The US refusal to contribute is therefore potentially catastrophic for its recipients.-rh16/1/2019
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Are U.S. newspapers biased against Palestinians? Analysis of 100,000 headlines in top dailies says, YesDorgham Abusalim - Mondoweiss - A study released last month by 416Labs, a Toronto-based consulting and research firm, supports the view that mainstream U.S. newspapers consistently portray Palestine in a more negative light than Israel, privilege Israeli sources, and omit key facts helpful to understanding the Israeli occupation, including those expressed by Palestinian sources.-rh15/1/2019
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In Three Years, Israeli Military Courts Have Fined Palestinians $16 Million Amira Hass - Haaretz - In 2016 the fines came to 21.97 million shekels, and in 2017 to 20.59 million shekels. It’s hard to find a system and uniformity in the scales of the fines, as reports by the Machsom Watch rights group reveal. Despite the meticulous breakdown in the military courts’ reports, in July 2018 the Israel Defense Forces spokesman said in response to a question by the group Combatants for Peace – based on the Freedom of Information Law – that he could not provide figures on the fines and guarantees paid in military court. [ak]15/1/2019
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Unseen enemy: Doctors in Gaza battling superbug epidemicThe Bureau of Investigative Journalism - Doctors in Gaza and the West Bank warn they are battling an epidemic of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, a growing problem in the world’s conflict zones and one that risks spilling over borders and diminishing the global medical arsenal against serious illness. The rise and spread of these virulent infections adds to the devastation of war, increasing medical costs, blocking hospital beds because patients need longer care and leaving people whose injuries might once have been healed with life-changing disabilities.-rh8/1/2019
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23 police officers, 4 settlers hurt in violent clashes at Amona outpostJACOB MAGID - The Times od Israel - Israeli security forces early Thursday morning clashed with roughly 300 settler youths who gathered overnight inside a pair of mobile homes illegally installed on the West Bank hilltop where the Amona outpost once stood. Officers who arrived on the scene to carry out a Jerusalem District Court order to remove the caravans encountered “very severe violence from dozens of rioters who threw stones, burned tires and threw irons bars” at the forces, a Border Police spokesman said.-rh8/1/2019
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Exporting the Technology of OccupationAntony Loewenstein - The New York Review of Books - Speaking recently to an audience in Tel Aviv via satellite from Moscow soon after the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden alleged that Saudi Arabia had used Israeli-made spyware to track Khashoggi’s movements before his death. Snowden said that the Israeli cyber-intelligence company NSO Group Technologies had developed software known as Pegasus that was sold to the Saudis and allowed Khashoggi to be monitored by infecting the smartphone of one of his contacts, another Saudi critic, based in Canada.-rh 8/1/2019
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Gaza’s public servants outraged at Hamas’ recent spending Huda Baroud - Al-Monitor - On Dec. 17, media sites circulated a leaked document from Hamas’ Popular Action Department detailing the movements’ expenses for the celebrations of its 31st anniversary in mid-December in Gaza City. The expenditures included travel and accommodation costs to bring Al-Waad band from Beirut to Gaza to participate in the festivities, buses to transport citizens to the event location, monitors at the festival site, Hamas flags and banners, promotion on social media and personal visits by Hamas members to Gaza. The movement also paid to install a stage in Katiba Square, west of Gaza City, and rented seating and generators. The leaked document said total expenditures up to Dec. 13 were some $534,350 — a bill that has angered many Hamas government employees in Gaza who have not been paid their full salary since 2013.-rh 8/1/2019
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Birthright-will-fail-if-it-cant-adapt-to-the-needs-of-young-jewsPeter Beinart - Forward - Since June, 22 Diaspora Jews have either walked off Birthright trips in protest against their tour guide’s refusal to take them to meet Palestinians or been kicked off for raising uncomfortable questions about Israeli policy. And If Not Now activists and members of Na’amod, a similar group in Britain, have distributed anti-occupation literature to people about to embark on Birthright trips at airports. All this is both necessary and tragic. It is necessary because taking Diaspora Jews to Israel without giving them the chance to hear from Palestinians who live as non-citizens under Israeli control in the West Bank is dishonest and immoral. It’s like organizing a tour to America in the 1950s without introducing participants to blacks in the segregated south.-rh 8/1/2019
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Detained Jewish teenagers suspected of murdering Palestinian woman — Shin BetJACOB MAGID - The Times of Israel - The Shin Bet security service on Sunday revealed that a group of Jewish teenagers arrested over the past week are suspected of involvement in the murder of a Palestinian woman in October. Aisha Rabi, 47, was struck in the head with a large stone while sitting in the passenger seat of a car being driven by her husband in the northern West Bank, the Shin Bet said in a statement, providing the first details on the investigation since a gag order was imposed on the case two days after the October 12, 2018, killing of the mother of eight.-rh 8/1/2019
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Legal official said to accuse PM of trying to ‘deceive public’ over graft probesMICHAEL BACHNER - The Times of Israel - In a live statement on prime time television Monday evening, Netanyahu demanded that police allow him to confront his former aides and colleagues who have reportedly provided incriminating evidence in the three graft cases in which he is a suspect. “Netanyahu wants to assert his power, weight and status to disrupt the investigation,” Army Radio quoted a “very senior official” in the State Prosecutor’s Office as saying. “In a confrontation with him, those state witnesses could give a different statement than what they gave police.” “The Israeli public is being deceived, and not for the first time, by Netanyahu, who is making use of the masses’ stupidity — meaning their lack of knowledge in those subjects,” the unnamed official was quoted as saying. “Anyway, no suspect has any right to a confrontation [during a police investigation] and it is inappropriate to hold an unnecessary and damaging confrontation.”-rh 8/1/2019
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Attacks by Jews against Palestinians in the West Bank tripled in 2018: ReportMiddle East Eye and agencies - Haaretz says 482 incidents, including damaging homes, cars and farmers` trees, reported by mid-December, compared to 140 for 2017 [ry] 7/1/2019
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IDF in West Bank refrains from arresting Jews Shlomi Eldar - Al-Monitor - This December was particularly dramatic. At least one price tag attack was recorded about every three days. These included the slashing of tires of cars belonging to Palestinians, anti-Arab graffiti in Palestinian villages, the throwing of stones, the cutting down of olive trees and more. After the terrorist attack at the Givat Asaf intersection on Dec. 13, dozens of price tag attacks were recorded in Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem. In Beit Hanina, for example, assailants slashed tires and sprayed slogans like “Death to the Arabs” and “We will not sleep when blood is spilled here.” The graffiti included the Star of David, which has been adopted by price Tag activists as a symbol of their nationalist crimes. Despite the steep rise in incidents, almost no suspects have been arrested.-rh 1/1/2019
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Seven hospitalized in settler attack on Hebron activistsEdo Konrad - +972 Magazine - Israeli settlers attacked a group of Palestinians who were attempting to rebuild part of a local youth center in the occupied city of Hebron over the weekend, sending seven of them to the hospital with minor injuries. On Saturday, according to eye witnesses, the settlers had demolished parts of a storage room being constructed at the home of local Palestinian activist Issa Amro, which also serves as a community center run by Youth Against Settlements. Amro filed a complaint with Israeli police against the settlers, who he says also tore off a metal gate from his neighbor’s house.-rh 1/1/2019
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Netanyahu`s election u-turn is meant to sway his criminal probesNahum Barnea - Ynet news - Nothing can separate the elections from the attorney general`s decision, and no decision will be to everyone`s satisfaction. If Mandelblit decides to postpone the decision until after the elections, many Israelis will wonder —and justifiably so—for whom are they being asked to vote. Is it for a man who is facing charges of bribery or for a man who is facing lesser charges? They will ask whether they are voting for someone whose criminal cases are about to be closed due to the fact that "there is nothing, because there was nothing," according to Netanyahu`s oft-repeated mantra. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit Will the prime minister announce his resignation when Mandelblit`s decision is released? Will a deal be reached? Will his future coalition partners abandon him if he has already formed a government? Will Netanyahu even be the Likud`s ultimate candidate or does his candidacy depend on the outcome of these investigations?.-rh 1/1/2019
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Three Israeli teens arrested in Jewish terror probeJACOB MAGID - The Times of Israel - Three Israelis were arrested Sunday on suspicion of involvement in a major security probe whose details are under gag order, a defence official confirmed to The Times of Israel. The investigation is being conducted jointly by the Shin Bet security service and the police’s nationalistic crime unit, which are probing the unspecified incident as a possible Jewish terror attack. A squad of Shin Bet agents and officers in the Yasam police reconnaissance unit raided a yeshiva in the northern West Bank and grabbed one student, who has since been prevented from speaking to a lawyer, said a spokesman for the Honenu legal aid organization that is representing the detained student.-rh1/1/2019
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Don`t believe the hype: The Israeli right is weaker than it seemsMeron Rapoport - +972 Magazine - Political commentators are in near- total agreement that a solidly right-wing government will be formed after the upcoming elections, set to take place in early April. Even commentators identified with the liberal left say they have no doubt Netanyahu and the right will win. I doubt they are genuinely convinced of these predictions; rather, there are trying to avoid being seen as esoteric and out of touch with the people, as those who forecast a defeat for the right usually are.-rh1/1/2019
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The case against Netanyahu: Is Israel about to reelect a corrupt prime minister?DAVID HOROVITZ - The Times of Israel - The prime minister, a self- proclaimed victim of a political witch hunt involving the opposition, the media and the police, is seeking reelection in April precisely as the attorney general weighs whether to indict him for bribery, breach of trust and/or other allegations in three corruption cases. Immediately after Netanyahu announced Monday that he was going to the polls, discussion turned to the question of whether the prime minister was calling elections seven months before their scheduled date in part to bolster his legal position. -rh 1/1/2019
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Memo from Israel: Game still on in Syria Ben Caspit - Al-Monitor - “We are not prepared to accept the Iranian military entrenchment in Syria which is directed against us. We will act against it vigorously and continuously, including during the current period,” Netanyahu remarked. “I have said that we will not be deterred from doing what is necessary. Therefore, we are called upon and we act. President Trump`s decision to withdraw the American soldiers from Syria will not change our policy. We are standing steadfast on our red lines in Syria and everywhere else.”-rh 1/1/2019
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‘NYT’ report on killing of Gaza paramedic Rouzan al-Najjar is a big step forward, though flawedJames North - Mondoweiss - The New York Times surprised us yesterday by running a long, front-page investigation into the Israeli army’s killing last June 1 of a 20-year-old Gazan health worker, Rouzan al- Najjar. Before we criticize, let’s state clearly that this article was inconceivable in the Times up until a year, or even 6 months ago. By contrast, when Israel killed four small boys who who playing soccer on the beach during its 2014 assault on Gaza, the paper swallowed the army’s dishonest explanation, without challenge, even though one of its own photographers had been an eyewitness to the killings. This time, the Times came right out and said its inquiry showed that “. . . the shooting [of Rouzan al-Najjar] appears to have been reckless at best, and possibly a war crime, for which no one has yet been punished.” The paper waited until the 9th paragraph to say this, but better late than never.-rh1/1/2019
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In 2018, Israel’s mask finally came offGideon Levy - Middle East Eye - Apartheid has been in place in the territories for a long time, and now it will be on the law books, too. Those who deny Israeli apartheid - the pro-Zionist propagandists who claim that unlike in South Africa, in Israel there are no racialist laws or legislatively institutionalised discrimination - will no longer be able to disseminate their baseless arguments. Some of the laws passed this year, and those in the legislative pipeline, undermine the claim that Israel is an egalitarian democracy. Yet, such legislation also has a positive side: these laws and the ones to come will strip away the disguise, and one of the longest masquerades in history will finally end. Israel will no longer be able to continue defining itself as a democracy - “the only one in the Middle East”.-rh1/1/2019
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