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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it    
Commentary

TitleDescriptionDate
A wake-up callSam Bahour - Your “light unto the nations” shpiel uprooted an entire indigenous people. You then claimed Israel is reserved for Jews forever. However, your subsequent actions contradict that. Every day that you delay your arrival here, a benighted Palestinian refugee thinks he might return. You simply cannot let that happen; God forbid. Israel did not win successive wars and undertake major military onslaughts to remain at risk forever. No, you must join in protecting the only (well, maybe second) place in the world that is yours. [bz] 31/12/2020
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Israel needs to form a Jewish-Arab party to change the gameGershon Baskin - Jerusalem Post - We need a genuine Jewish-Arab political party. The easiest way to create such a party is for Meretz and Hadash to merge, and from my point of view, I would like to see Ayman Odeh lead the party. (...) This party would work for legislating the Basic Law for Equality for all Israelis. [bz]31/12/2020
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The Race for the US Senate: Why Should Americans Care What Candidates Think of Israel?Doug Bandow - AntiWar - "The question is, who cares? Why should one’s position on Israel matter when voting for a U.S. Senator? At least, why should it matter if one is focusing on issues of importance to America?" [ry] 28/12/2020
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Whoever wins, we’ll be a fundamentally changed Israel when this election is overDavid Horovitz - The Times of Israel - Our political pendulum has stopped swinging. The next leadership and legislature will be unprecedentedly right-wing. The center-left Labor party, which led modern Israel for its first three decades, is almost certain to disappear. So will the Blue and White alliance, to which Benny Gantz drew hundreds of thousands of center-left voters by pledging repeatedly that he would not join forces with a Benjamin Netanyahu facing corruption charges, will vanish too. Some of the voters Gantz abandoned will remain in the center-left, voting for Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. But most, the surveys indicate — including at least some of the masses who have for months been demonstrating nationwide against Netanyahu — are heading toward the latest champions of the “anyone but Bibi” movement: the Orthodox-nationalist Naftali Bennett’s resurgent Yamina, and the hawkish Likud rebel Gideon Sa’ar’s newly formed and remarkably popular "New Hope". [ak]23/12/2020
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The Hidden Cost of the Abrahamic AccordsKhaled Saffuri - The American Conservative - The Middle East needs peace. However, that requires a commitment by all nations, including Israel, to treat other nations and peoples with respect. Instead of seeking to build a better and more just regional order, U.S. policy has enhanced Israel’s dominance and maintained the subjugation of millions of Palestinians, ensuring future unrest, violence, and instability. The final insult has been to sacrifice multiple American policy objectives for Israel’s benefit. Washington is strengthening repression in Bahrain, underwriting aggression by UAE, sacrificing the Sahrawi people, undermining reform in Sudan, and even abandoning justice for Americans harmed by Sudan. The administration calls this an “America first” policy? [bz]23/12/2020
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With the Nation-State Law, Israel’s religious right is deciding who is a JewEtan Nechin - +972 - Israel`s Nation-State Law does not see Judaism as a diverse religion, but as an identity that guarantees supremacy over other people — including other Jews [ry] 21/12/2020
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This peace is the peace of the richMerav Batito|- Ynet - The agreements between Israel and the UAE proves that the Government of Israel only likes to make deals with Arabs who are wealthy and generous, while ignoring their brethren who live in devastating poverty within its borders and in Gaza. [ak]16/12/2020
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As if the reality of Israeli squatters wielding guns and parading them around our home, which they forcibly removed us from, isn’t enough...Mohammed El-Kurd - +972 - “I get that Israel isn’t the kindest to Palestinians,” someone commented in response to my Instagram post reporting the news from my neighborhood. “But [your post] is antisemitic and a dismissal of the Holocaust.” My post, however, did not allude to the Holocaust or the Jewish faith: it highlighted that the home takeovers in Sheikh Jarrah are part of a calculated plan to erase Palestinian presence from our city. Systematic efforts to create ethnically homogenous geographies through the mass expulsion of unwanted populations have a name: ethnic cleansing. And that’s what I called it in my post. [bz] 9/12/2020
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Starting a new party, Sa’ar steps out of Netanyahu’s shadow, and will likely cost him the premiershipHaviv Rettig Gur - Times of Israel - A quickly produced poll showed Sa’ar’s broad appeal on the center-right. He would draw three to four seats apiece from Likud, Blue and White, centrist Yesh Atid, and rightist Yamina. A second poll found Sa’ar would win a stunning 17 seats. That’s bad news for Netanyahu, especially after Sa’ar openly declared his opposition to Netanyahu’s leadership and vowed not to serve in a government with him. Likud had changed, said the former party no. 2, becoming “a tool for the personal interests of the person in charge” and “a cult of personality.” “I can no longer support the Netanyahu-led government or be a member of a Likud party led by him… Today Israel needs unity and stability — Netanyahu can offer neither.” That’s a more direct challenge to Netanyahu, and a more explicit vow not to serve with him, than anything Yamina leader Bennett has said in public. The danger is now so acute for the prime minister that he may look for ways to avert an election at the last minute, even if it means passing a state budget for 2020 and 2021 and being forced to hand the rotating premiership to Gantz. Netanyahu may decide that it’s better to have a weakened Gantz polling now at perhaps six seats as prime minister than allowing Bennett, Sa’ar or Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid to take the post. [bz]9/12/2020
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Alon Ben-Meir`s Israeli-Palestinian Confederation Alon Ben-Meir - Israel will have to accept that the Palestinians will establish their capital in East Jerusalem, while (...) the Palestinians must redefine the right of return—not to the exact towns and villages (and in some claims, exact homes) from which they and their ancestors fled, but to a return to the State of Palestine in general, which is in line with the international legal principle of right of return, which grants this return to “one’s own country.” If a confederation between Israel and the Palestinians of the West Bank is established, Gaza could eventually join as a third party if it chooses to participate, not necessarily as part of the Palestinian state located in the West Bank. [bz] 9/12/2020
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Why are Palestinians being forced to prove their humanity?Mohammed El-Kurd - +972 - For years I policed the language that I used to describe my oppressor. But what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah has a clear name: ethnic cleansing [ry] 7/12/2020
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Ashrawi: Voting for UN resolutions on Palestinian Rights should be followed by demanding Israeli Accountability Dr. Hanan Ashrawi - PLO Dept. For Public Diplomacy - We welcome the adoption of several UN General Assembly resolutions affirming the international consensus on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people appreciate this principled support. At the same time, we call on all states to reflect these supportive votes in their policies and relationship with Israel, the belligerent occupier. Absent accountability, Israel will continue to make a mockery of these resolutions and undermine the standing of international law. The occupier must face real and actionable consequence for its abject disregard for the internationally- recognized national and human rights of the Palestinian people.[ak]3/12/2020
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Biden’s Opportunity To End The Israeli-Palestinian ConflictAlon Ben-Meir - For Biden to succeed where his predecessors failed, he must repair the severe damage that Trump has inflicted on the entire peace process and restore the Palestinians’ confidence in a new negotiation that could, in fact, lead to a permanent solution. Preliminary measures should include reestablish the PLO mission in Washington, resuming the financial aid that the Palestinians had been receiving from the US, informing the Israeli government of his total objection to any further annexation of Palestinian territories and insist that Israel impose a temporary freeze on the expansion of settlements. The American embassy should remain in Jerusalem, but with the firm declaration that Jerusalem`s final status will be determined in negotiation. Hamas should be formally invited to participate in the negotiations, jointly with the PA or separately, but provided they renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist. Unlike Trump’s envoys who openly supported the settlements and paid little or no heed to the Palestinians’ aspirations, Biden’s envoys should be known for their integrity, professionalism, and understanding of the intricacies of the conflict, and be committed to a two-state solution. Saudi and German official observers should be invited to take part, who can render significant help in their unique capacity as leading Arab and European powers.[ak]2/12/2020
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