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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 trick too farGush Shalom - About Netanyahu`s desperate efforts [bz]30/3/2021
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Israeli politics can no longer ignore Palestinian citizens — even if it may end up boosting the right.Edo Konrad - +972 - The outcome was no stroke of luck; Abbas has been building up to this moment for months. In January, he pushed his Ra’am party to split off from the Joint List; and unlike in previous elections, in which Abbas promoted a moderate political and religious agenda, Ra’am made conservatism a cornerstone of its new political program, including an emphasis on its opposition to LGBTQ rights. In addition, Abbas re-branded himself as a “pragmatist” by making public overtures to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli right wing based on “mutual interests.” This included Ra’am’s (and the Joint List’s) demand to increase the government budget for addressing the most serious issues plaguing Palestinian society in Israel, including organized crime, gun violence, and housing construction in Arab communities. [bz] 25/3/2021
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Israel Election Results: Mansour Abbas, Don’t Believe NetanyahuHaaretz editorial - Joining forces with Netanyahu wouldn’t just be a moral and strategic mistake, it would be pure naivete. Netanyahu’s word is worthless. Abbas knows very well that agreements with Netanyahu aren’t worth the paper they are written on, and that whoever shakes Netanyahu’s hand needs to check afterward that he still has all his fingers. If Abbas still has any doubts about this, he should call Benny Gantz, whom Netanyahu deceived before the whole world, while Shas chairman Arye Dery supposedly vouched for the rotation agreement. Abbas also ought to recall that Netanyahu prevented Israel from passing a national budget and dragged it to a fourth election in the midst of a pandemic – just to wiggle out of the rotation agreement. [bz]25/3/2021
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Not Just to Save It: Five Reasons to Vote Meretz in Israel`s Election Zehava Galon - Haaretz - [Reason no 3] (...) What do you think will happen to the fight against the occupation if it remains solely in the hands of the Joint List? Our Palestinian allies need the solidarity of Meretz. [bz]18/3/2021
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Israelis hold elections and Palestinians also hold elections - but is this democracy?Salem Barahmeh - The Guardian - For the first time in decades, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel will hold legislative elections a few months apart. Many in the international community and media will see this as a joint exercise in democracy but it is, in fact, a window into the reality of a two-tiered system that denies Palestinians the basic freedom and rights that many across the world take for granted. Drive across the winding roads of the West Bank this spring and you will see election posters interrupting the beautiful landscape of olive and almond trees. Upon further inspection, you may soon realise that the candidate advertised is not an eager Palestinian campaigning for a parliamentary seat. It is likely to be an Israeli candidate running for the Israeli Parliament. This raises a very valid question: why are Israelis campaigning in the West Bank, the territory designated by international law and consensus to become part of a future Palestinian state? Israel occupies and controls the entirety of the West Bank and has de facto annexed large portions of it through the settling of 650,000-750,000 Israelis on Palestinian land. Under the Rome statute of the international criminal court, a settlement enterprise of this nature is not only illegal but also considered a war crime. Yet these illegal settlers are able to run, campaign, and vote in Israeli elections and have come to occupy the position of king-makers in Israeli coalition-forming. [ak] 18/3/2021
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What peacemaker? Gush Shalom - Under Netanyahu`s leadership, also the decades-long peace with Jordan is eroded and shaken. [bz]16/3/2021
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The ICC and Israel’s Charge of Anti-SemitismNeve Gordon - CounterPunch - “The ICC is on Israel’s target list. This becomes clear when searching for the terms ‘ICC ruling’ and ‘Israel’ together; instantaneously, an ad pops up at the very top of Google’s list of 1,390,000 results: ‘ICC & Israel: No Standing. No Jurisdiction. No Case’” [ry] 15/3/2021
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Meretz Might Not Make It Into Knesset. This Is What Its Disappearance Would MeanNoa Landau - Haaretz - Merav Michaeli’s election as chairwoman of Labor, together with the makeup of her party list, prompted a theory that there’s no longer any real difference between Labor and Meretz. Many among what remains of the left are attracted to what is sparkly and new, and more emotionally thrilling. Meretz chairman Nitzan Horowitz is trying to highlight Michaeli’s Achilles’ heel: the fight against the occupation. One statement by Horowitz last week indeed slashed a dividing line between him and Michaeli – and this line runs through The Hague: “The settlements and the right are dragging Israel to The Hague,” he tweeted. “The ongoing construction and threats of annexation are embroiling Israel in accusations of war crimes. The settlement obsession must stop and the peace process with the Palestinians must be restarted.” From a left-wing point of view, this does not count as a brave, or even problematic statement. But it stands in stark contrast to Michaeli’s response: “The [international] court’s decision is grave and problematic. It assumed authority it doesn’t have and imposed it on Israel in a distorted way. I have full faith in the Israeli justice system and in the IDF. If Meretz is not in the next Knesset, there will be no more representation for the Zionist left that recognizes the reality of the occupation and its implications, at a time when the proceedings in The Hague are likely to ramp up the persecution of anyone who dares to argue that there is a basis for investigating suspected war crimes in the territories. This would be the real effect of Meretz’s disappearance. [bz]11/3/2021
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Why does the ICC pick on us? Gush Shalom - We are a democratic country! Aren`t we? [bz]9/3/2021
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‘Engaging the World’: The ‘Fascinating Story’ of Hamas’s Political EvolutionRamzy Baroud, Romana Rubeo - CounterPunch - "As Moscow continues to cement its presence in the region by offering itself as a political partner and, compared with the US, a more balanced mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, Hamas sees the developing Russian role as a rare opportunity to break away from the US-Israel imposed isolation" [ry] 8/3/2021
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Jewish CrimeAmos Gvirtz - I suppose any Jew would sense antisemitism in the headline above. And still I used this provocative headline. In recent days the Hebrew media are filled with reports on the criminality of Negev Bedouins, totally ignoring the State’s crimes against them. (...) Indeed, during this Corona year the Israeli government broke all previous records of house demolitions in the Negev! This, in spite of the government’s own Attorney General’s instructions to avoid home demolitions during the pandemic… [bz]3/3/2021
The Um El Fahm paradoxGush Shalom - The demonstrators in Um El Fahm were protesting police ineffectiveness in confronting the rising crime wave in Israel`s Arab towns. But, the police proved quite capable of a vigorous use of force - Against the demonstrators. [bz] 2/3/2021
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