organization:zionist union

In Israel, there’s no left. There’s only a right in different forms - Opinion
Gideon Levy – Jan 03, 2019 4:17 AM
▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/in-israel-there-s-no-left-there-s-only-a-right-in-different-forms-1.6805651

Two days ago, there was another rift in the Israeli right: The Zionist Union faction split apart. The two main right-wingers, Tzipi Livni and Avi Gabbay, Likud traitors both, dissolved their partnership.

The sad and unbelievable joke: Israel fancies this a rift on the left; as if there are seriously two camps in Israel, left and right, locked in fierce battle over the face of the nation. There is no left, not even half a left. There is only a right, in different forms.

What is going on in our political system ahead of the upcoming election can be described like this: Right A versus Right B, a split in Right C, a possible merger in Right D, and a new glimmer of hope in Right E.

Meretz and the Joint List, the only Israeli left there is, one small and fading and the other ostracized and excluded, and both without any influence, look on from the other side of the fence. And still people say that Israel is “polarized,” that we’re this close to civil war breaking out. It’s hard to think of anything more ridiculous.

Most leaders of Israeli political parties are former Likudniks: Livni, Gabbay, Avigdor Lieberman, Ayelet Shaked, Naftali Bennett, Moshe Ya’alon and Moshe Kahlon. Orly Levy-Abekasis also grew up in a Likud household. Right, center, supposed left – they all came out of the Likud. And that’s no surprise – the right was their home and it remains their home.

This is the Likud’s real victory since the 1977 upheaval – its amazing takeover of the entire map, the way it continues to spread its tentacles in every direction. (...)

Israeli Druze commander quits army over nation-state law in open letter to Netanyahu

In a Facebook post, Capt. Amir Jmall calls on leaders of his community to work toward putting an end to the compulsory conscription of Israeli Druze

Yaniv Kubovich
Jul 30, 2018 5:36 PM

▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-druze-quits-idf-over-nation-state-law-in-letter-to-netanya

In the letter, Jmall also called on leaders of his community to work toward putting an end to the compulsory conscription of Israel’s Druze. The Facebook post has since been removed.
“This morning, when I woke up to drive to the [army] base, I asked myself, why? Why do I have to serve the State of Israel, a state that my two brothers, my father and I have served with dedication, a sense of mission and a love of the homeland, and, in the end, what do we get? To be second-class citizens,” Jmall wrote.
>> ’When we’re in uniform they treat us well’: Israel’s Druze no longer feel like blood brothers
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"Continue serving the country? I do not want to continue and I am sure that hundreds more people will stop serving and will be discharged from the army following your decision, Netanyahu, that of you and your government,” he continued.
"After many thoughts ran through my head, I decided to let go and to discontinue serving the country, a country that has a government that takes and does not give back.”
In conclusion, Jmall wrote: “I ask everyone who is against the nation-state law to share and share my proposal to community leaders to stop the conscription law for members of the Druze community.”
The Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, also known as the nation-state law, approved by the Knesset on July 19, affirmed that only Jews have the right to self-determination in Israel. It also downgraded Arabic to a language with “special status,” among several other controversial measures that affect the Israeli Druze.
The nation-state law is designed to alter the application of the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty in court rulings, and permits judges to give priority to Israel’s Jewish character in their rulings.

Last week, Druze lawmakers were the first to file a High Court of Justice petition against the legislation. A hundred Druze Israel Defense Forces reserve officers added their voices to that effort on Wednesday, prompting Education Minister Naftali Bennett to speak out in support of “our blood brothers” on Twitter.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon echoed similar sentiments on Thursday, telling Israeli Army Radio, “The enactment of the nation-state law was done hastily,” and adding: “We were wrong and we need to fix it.”
On Saturday, Israeli Arab lawmaker Zouheir Bahloul (Zionist Union) announced his intention to resign from the Knesset in protest of the law. "The law oppresses me and oppresses the population that sent me to the Knesset,’’ he said.

Labor party’s support of deportation, imprisonment of asylum seekers cheapens the Israeli opposition - Haaretz Editorial - Israel News | Haaretz.com

▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/1.824258

Under the leadership of new Labor Party Chairman Avi Gabbay, the MKs of the Zionist Union gave their support Monday to a disgraceful government bill for the deportation and imprisonment of asylum-seekers. If the draft law is passed, the Holot detention center would be shuttered and asylum-seekers given a choice: deportation to Rwanda or indefinite incarceration in Israel.
Any attempt to ignore Israel’s legal and moral obligations to refugees for the sake of solving a supposed conflict with the needs of long-time residents of south Tel Aviv or of Arab citizens is nothing but cheap demagoguery. Israel has no difficulty meeting its obligations without hurting its own disadvantaged communities; anyone who uses economic arguments to justify the failure to lend a hand to refugees is lying. The state wasted over 1 billion shekels ($284 million) on building and operating Holot; four years later, it is in effect admitting its error and closing the facility.

Hungarian premier praises Hitler ally, Israel accepts clarification to avoid marring Netanyahu visit

Viktor Orban’s remarks placed Israel in an embarrassing position in light of Netanyahu’s slated visit. After protesting remarks, Israel decided to consider matter resolved even though Hungary didn’t apologize

Barak Ravid and Amir Tibon Jul 02, 2017
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.798853

Two weeks before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to join a diplomatic summit in Budapest, tension erupted between Israel and Hungary over a speech by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in which he praised the leader of Hungary during the Holocaust, Miklos Horthy, who collaborated with the Nazis. Israel protested the remarks, but according to a senior Israeli official, Jerusalem agreed to accept a weak clarification by the Hungarian foreign minister in order to avoid damaging the upcoming summit.

The affair began on June 21, when at a political rally of Fidesz, the party Orban heads, the prime minister said of Horthy, who was regent of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1920 to 1944: “The fact that history did not bury us after World War I was thanks to a number of extraordinary statesmen like the regent, Miklos Horthy. This fact cannot be contradicted by mentioning the unfortunate role of Hungary during World War II.”

According to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Horthy led anti-Semitic policies, passed laws against the Jews over the years, was an ally of Adolf Hitler and collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. From 1942 to 1943, Horthy resisted German pressure to place the Jews in ghettos and deport them to extermination camps. But after Germany conquered Hungary in 1944, Horthy appointed a puppet government obedient to the Nazis and gave it full authority to act against the Jews. As a result, half a million Hungarian Jews were sent to extermination camps; most were murdered in Auschwitz.

Orban’s remarks were made as part of an extremist nationalist and racist campaign he is conducting ahead of elections in 2018 and to prevent his party’s voters from leaving it for the extreme right-wing party Jobbik. One of Orban’s close advisers is the American political consultant Arthur Finkelstein. The latter served as campaign director for Benjamin Netanyahu’s and Likud’s campaigns in 1996 and 1999, and for Yisrael Beiteinu and its chairman, Avigdor Lieberman, in 2006. He was also deeply involved in the Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu’s joint campaign in 2013.

Orban’s statements drew criticism from the Hungarian Jewish community and the World Jewish Congress. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., the leading institution in Holocaust research in the United States, released an unusually harsh statement in response to Orban’s remarks: “The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum condemns any attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of Hungary’s wartime leader, Miklos Horthy, who was a vocal anti-Semite and complicit in the murder of the country’s Jewish population during the Holocaust.”

The U.S. museum also wrote that Orban’s praise for Horthy as a statesman was “a gross distortion of historical fact and is the latest in a long series of propagandistic attempts of the Fidesz political party and the Hungarian government that Mr. Orban leads to rewrite Hungarian history.”
Orban’s remarks placed Israel in an embarrassing position considering that Netanyahu is to meet his Hungarian counterpart at a summit in Budapest on July 18, and the next day he and Orban are to meet with the leaders of Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. This is Netanyahu’s first visit to Hungary since he returned to the prime minister’s office in 2009.
Still, Orban’s remarks required a response by the government in Jerusalem and four days after the speech, Israel’s ambassador in Budapest, Yossi Amrani, issued a statement noting that Orban’s words were very disturbing and the collaboration of the Horthy regime with the Nazis must not be forgotten, as well as the race laws enacted during his time and the destruction of Hungary’s Jewish community. “Whatever the reason and national goal might be, there is no justification for such statements,” Amrani said in a public statement.
A senior Israeli official said that Amrani also communicated through quiet channels with senior officials in the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry in Budapest, demanding clarifications and saying Israel hoped Orban’s statements would not cast a pall over the upcoming summit. A few days later, when the Hungarian government had still not issued a clarification, Amrani gave an interview on a major Hungarian television station and reiterated Israel’s demand for clarification and a warning that the tension could hurt the summit.
Quiet diplomatic contacts had been underway since Wednesday in an attempt to resolve the crisis, and on Saturday Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto spoke by phone to Amrani to put an end to the affair. In a statement to the press released after the phone call, Szijjarto said he had made clear to the Israeli ambassador that the Hungarian government had zero tolerance for any kind of anti-Semitism.
Szijjarto also said that he told Amrani that “the regime of Miklos Horthy had its positive times but also very negative times and we must respect the historical facts that clearly indicate this.” The foreign minister added that the positive part of Horthy’s legacy was his work to stabilize Hungary after World War I, but the very negative part was “his historical sin,” when contrary to his promises he did not protect the Jewish community, passed laws against it and that hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust. “All of these are historical sins whose seriousness cannot be diminished,” Szijjarto said.
Although Szijjarto did not clarify Orban’s remarks, apologize or express regret for them, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, with an eye on the upcoming summit, decided to act with restraint and end the affair. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in response: “Israel believes that the statements by the Hungarian foreign minister to the Israeli ambassador in Budapest constitute an important clarification with regard to recognition of Horthy’s crime against the Jews of Hungary. We will always remember the 564,500 of our brothers and sisters of the Jewish community of Hungary who were murdered in the Holocaust.”
Zionist Union Ksenia Svetlova turned to Netanyahu on the issue. “As you dared to cancel your meeting with the German foreign minister after he met with Breaking the Silence, I demand that you cancel your visit to Hungary and your meeting with Viktor Orban, who has expressed sympathy for his country’s dark past from the time of the Holocaust, and not for the first time.”
"I expect the person who turned the ’whole world is against us’ [mantra] into a career to have the same standards against people from the extreme right in the world," she added.
“These says I am working on an amendment to the proposed entry into Israeli law so that it prohibits the entry into Israel of declared anti-Semites, people who oddly enough have become his party’s partners, and are even invited by them to visits to Israel,” Svetlova said.

#Israel #genocide #Hungary #Hongrie

On his first visit to the Middle East, Trump’s envoy Jason Greenblatt surprises everyone

Greenblatt leaped effortlessly from a Palestinian refugee camp to meeting settler leaders, making positive impressions on all, along with a clear message: Trump’s serious about peace, and Israel ought to be too.

Barak Ravid Mar 17, 2017
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.777881

Jason Greenblatt’s Twitter account was the best show in town this week. Anyone following his tweets might have thought he wasn’t the U.S. envoy for the peace process, but the Energizer bunny. 
Greenblatt didn’t rest for a moment during his four days here. He bounced from Jerusalem, to Ramallah, to Jericho, to Bethlehem, to Amman and back to Jerusalem. After every meeting, he tweeted pictures and updates.
On the eve of his visit, the New York Times published an article describing him scornfully as a man with no diplomatic experience who landed his job almost by chance. But Greenblatt proved this week that even if he lacks the experience of veterans of the peace industry in America, he is blessed with sharp instincts, seriousness, common sense and a great deal of personal charm and emotional intelligence. Everyone on the Israeli side who met with Greenblatt this week, on both the right and the left, as well as everyone on the Palestinian side, had a positive impression.
“Greenblatt is a serious, honest envoy,” tweeted MK Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union) after meeting him. “There’s no doubt President Trump is committed to peace, and that’s good news. It won’t be easy – but there’s hope.”
On his first visit to the region as Trump’s envoy, Greenblatt came mainly to listen and learn. Alongside his meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, he held a great many meetings with segments of the population that until now most U.S. envoys had passed over. 
He surprised many on the Palestinian side by meeting with residents of the Jalazun refugee camp near Ramallah, and surprised others on the Israeli side by meeting with two mayors of settlements, Oded Revivi and Yossi Dagan. He met with Palestinian and Israeli students, with residents of the Gaza Strip, with senior Jewish, Christian and Muslim clerics.
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Wednesday night, Greenblatt took a tour of Jerusalem’s Old City. One stop on the tour was Yeshivat HaKotel, from which he tweeted a picture of the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. Five minutes later, he visited the house of a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem and tweeted a picture of the same holy sites from a different angle.
“Peace and coexistence are not just possible in this extraordinary city, they exist already and have for centuries,” he added in a follow-up tweet.
The message Greenblatt reiterated against and again, to both Israelis and Palestinians, was that President Donald Trump is very serious when he talks about his desire to make “the ultimate deal” and that Israeli-Palestinian peace is very high on his priority list. Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) said after meeting with Greenblatt that he got the impression Trump was very committed to this issue and plans to launch a serious diplomatic process. A senior minister in the ruling Likud party got the same impression.

Kerry offered Netanyahu regional peace plan in secret 2016 summit with al-Sissi, King Abdullah - Israel News - Haaretz.com

▻http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.772531

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took part in a secret summit in Aqaba a year ago where then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry presented a plan for a regional peace initiative including recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and a renewal of talks with the Palestinians with the support of the Arab countries.
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Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi were also present at the meeting in the Jordanian city.
Netanyahu did not accept Kerry’s proposal and said he would have difficulty getting it approved by his governing coalition. Still, the Aqaba summit was the basis for the talks that began two weeks later between Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) on establishing a unity government.
Details about the summit and the plan emerged from conversations between Haaretz and former senior officials in the Obama administration who asked to remain anonymous. The Prime Minister’s Bureau refused to comment.
It was Kerry who initiated the conference. In April 2014, the peace initiative he had led collapsed, negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians entered a deep freeze and U.S. President Barack Obama declared a time-out in U.S. attempts to restart the peace process. Over the next 18 months Kerry focused on attaining an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program; an agreement was reached in July 2015 and ratified by Congress in mid-September.
In October that year, Kerry renewed his work on the Israeli-Palestinian process following an escalation of tensions over the Temple Mount and a wave of violence in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
At the end of October, Kerry was able to achieve understandings confirming the status quo on the Temple Mount by Israel, the Palestinians and Jordan. As part of these understandings, Israel and Jordan launched talks over the placement of closed-circuit cameras on the Temple Mount, an idea that was never implemented.
Two weeks later, Netanyahu came to Washington for his first meeting with Obama in more than a year – a period when the two leaders badly clashed over the nuclear deal with Iran.

For us Jews, our Land Registry is with God - Opinion - Israel News | Haaretz.com
▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.770356

There’s a name for the reality in which a government that sees itself as representing only one nation determines the future of two nations and creates two separate and unequal systems.

Amira Hass Feb 08, 2017

They settled there in good faith; there’s a consensus on the settlement blocs; previous governments took care to build only on state land; it’s all the fault of the Palestinian law against selling land to Jews; property rights are sacred. These are few of the positions that have been tossed into the air in recent days, before and after the Knesset vote on the land expropriation law. The internal Israeli dispute created a cacophony of deceptions from both the bill’s supporters and its detractors from the center-right (Zionist Union, Yesh Atid). Both camps seemingly speak in parallel tracks that never meet, but only seemingly.
The law’s supporters speak of good faith and of settlements without malice aforethought. If it was indeed in good faith, then how is it that the builders of the outposts have created rings upon rings of violent harassment around them and, with the aid of their private army (the Israel Defense Forces), prevent Palestinian farmers from reaching the parts of their land on which innocent mobile homes and villas have not yet been erected?
The law’s detractors say that up to now, Israeli governments were careful not to establish settlements on privately owned land. Really? How many times do we have to repeat that this is a fiction? Beit El sits entirely on private land, as does Ofra. There are dozens more thriving settlements and outposts that were built in part or entirely on private Palestinian land that was seized for military needs – even after the Elon Moreh ruling of 1979, in which the High Court of Justice prohibited construction on privately owned land. Fertile agricultural lands were confined within the borders of settlements such as Elkana and Efrat, where they became recreation areas for Israeli walkers and lovers.
The law’s supporters say that nowhere on earth is it impossible to purchase private land. But when British nationals buy homes in France and in Spain, it isn’t for the purpose of imposing British sovereignty.
The law’s detractors make a distinction between state-owned land and privately owned land. A reminder: All seizure of land and construction in occupied territory, against the will of the conquered population, is illegal according to international law. The Jewish mind has come up with innumerable inventions, as the saying goes, in order to declare Palestinian-owned land as state land. Those for whom only private Palestinian ownership is sacred devalue international law and the tradition of sharing public land. They prove that to them, the Palestinians are a random collection of individuals, not a collective with historical, material and cultural rights to the area in which it was born and has lived for centuries, irrespective of any real estate classifications. The distinction between private and public, which the High Court of Justice makes with such joy, portrays the Palestinians as being entitled to live only within the crowded confines that conform to the records of the Land Registry Office. For us Jews, our Land Registry is with God.
The law’s detractors say there’s a consensus on the settlement blocs and the land expropriation law messes things up for us abroad. Consensus? By whom? Not only the settlers but also the law’s detractors fail to count some six and a half million people, Palestinians, on either side of the Green Line (and us, a handful of Jewish Israelis). Both camps, the right and the center-right, simply do not see any problem with the fact that it is only the Jewish consensus that decides what will happen to both Jews and Arabs. After all, it’s been that way for decades, and that is the essence of the celebrated Jewish democracy.

But yes, it is a problem. On the piece of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea live two nations. There is a name for the reality in which a government that sees itself as representing only one nation determines the future of two nations and creates two separate and unequal systems of rights, laws and infrastructure, with the eager support of its people. It’s called apartheid – a crime according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and also according to a global consensus that was created over the years.

#apartheid #palestine #israel #ICC

Coalition whip prefers Israel’s Arab citizens not vote
Doubling down on Netanyahu’s Election Day race-baiting, David Bitan says: ’I’d rather the Arabs won’t go to the polls in droves, and won’t come to the polls at all.’ Arab lawmakers respond: ’Bitan says what Netanyahu thinks.’

Haaretz Dec 10, 2016 6
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.758120

The whip of the ruling coalition said Saturday that he prefers Israel’s Arab citizens not vote in the national election.
“Ninety-five percent of them vote for the Joint List that doesn’t represent Israeli Arabs, but Palestinian interests,” Knesset member David Bitan told the audience at a public event in Mevaseret Zion, near Jerusalem, referring to Israel’s predominantly Arab party.
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Bitan was asked for his opinion on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s use of social media, including his Election Day video in which he called on his supporters to vote, warning that the “the Arabs are going to the polls in droves.” Bitan, who is considered close to Netanyahu, said: “I’d rather the Arabs won’t go to the polls in droves, and won’t come to the polls at all.” 
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Netanyahu’s Election Day remarks.
Netanyahu has been under fire for his Election Day comment. Eighteen months later, he posted a new video on Facebook apologizing to Arab citizens for any offensive comments and urges them to join in Israeli society “en masse.”
The head of the Joint List, MK Ayman Odeh, called Bitan “Netanyahu’s mouthpiece” and said he “continues to prove that all this leadership has to offer is explicit racism and cheap populism.” 

“His pathetic daily comment expresses the prime minister’s fear of our growing political power,” he added.
Isaac Herzog, the chairman of the Zionist Union and the head of the opposition, accused Bitan of calling to take away voting rights from minorities, “just like the top anti-Semites in Europe did in the past to the Jewish people.”
"The disease of racism has metastasized in the heart of Israeli society, and is embarrassing both right and left-wing voters," he added.

With New Israel Aid Deal, Obama Is Patron of the Occupation
U.S. generosity, which costs American taxpayers $300 a year, is detrimental to Israel will only help Israel make more war.

Gideon Levy Sep 17, 2016
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.742521 - Opinion - Haaretz - Israel News Haaretz.com

Barack Obama is a bad president for Israel. If the military aid he approved for the coming decade is the largest ever, then as a president he is the worst ever for Israel. The last thing Israel needs is more arms, which will push it toward more acts of violence. But Obama is president in a country in which each home has a small tin container — like the blue and white Jewish National Fund boxes over here — into which every U.S. citizen must place a few coins as assistance and charity for poor, needy Israel, weak as a frail leaf.
One hundred and fifty dollars per person or $300 for each U.S. taxpayer for the next 10 years. Not toward America’s considerable social needs, not to assist truly needy countries – imagine what $38 billion would do for Africa – but to provide weapons for an army that is one of the most powerfully armed in the world, one of whose main enemies are girls brandishing scissors; to finance an army that is not fighting any other serious army now; the army of a country that few others can match in sheer recalcitrance, one which methodically defies the United States and the international community. And worst of all, this country will receive another free gift, without having to give anything in return. The money will go only toward arming it, which will push it toward more acts of aggression. That’s the deal and there has been no serious debate over it, neither in Israel nor in the United States.
In America only a few are asking why. What for? How long? What comes in exchange? And not even what American interest is served by the huge outlay of the American taxpayer. But let’s leave America to the Americans. The only discussion in Israel is whether the Americans can be squeezed for more. It’s good that it stopped at $38 billion. MK Shelly Yacimovich (Zionist Union) said the prime minister has already told senior security officials that they can “go wild.” More assistance would ensure even more wildness. Some of the money will go for defense systems but another part will go for maintaining the occupation and especially to fund violent showy actions, in Gaza and Lebanon, and megalomaniacal useless training exercises against imagined dangers.

WATCH: Verbal Clashes in Knesset After Lawmaker Calls Israeli Soldiers Murderers

Israeli Arab MK Zoabi causes storm during debate on reconciliation with Turkey, prompting calls to have her barred from legislature.
Jonathan Lis Jun 29, 2016 5:46 PM
▻http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.727913

A clash broke out at the Knesset plenum on Wednesday after MK Haneen Zoabi (Joint List) called Israeli soldiers who participated in the takeover of the 2010 Gaza flotilla “murderers.” Her comments took place during a legislature session on the reconciliation agreement with Turkey, formally announced on Tuesday.

Lawmakers Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid), Oren Hazan (Likud) and Hilik Bar (Zionist Union) gathered around the podium and demanded that Zoabi be removed. Levy even ran from his seat and tried to forcefully remove her from the podium. The meeting’s chairman, Deputy Knesset Speaker Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beiteinu) removed Zoabi from the platform and the plenum. Other lawmakers, including Hazan, Levy, Meretz chairwoman Zehava Galon and Joint List MK Jamal Zahalka, were also removed.

Turkey and Israel have reconciled after a six-year rift. The agreement renormalizes diplomatic relations between the two countries and ends the crisis that erupted following the death of nine Turkish civilians during a raid by Israeli commandos on the Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza Strip in May 2010 – on which Zoabi was also present.

“I stood here six years ago, some of you remember the hatred and hostility toward me, and look where we got to,” Zoabi said in her speech. “Apologies to the families of those who were called terrorists. The nine that were killed, it turns out that their families need to be compensated. I demand an apology to all the political activists who were on the Marmara and an apology to MK Haneen Zoabi, who you’ve incited against for six years. I demand compensation and I will donate it to the next flotilla. As long as there’s a siege, more flotillas need to be organized.”
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QVW2fOMVjQ

#Haneen_Zoabi

Trying to Drive a Wedge Between ’Good’ and ’Bad’ Arabs - Opinion - Haaretz - Israeli News Source Haaretz.com
►http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.706443
The law to oust Arabs is designed precisely to avert the day in which Jewish Israeli society realizes that its dispossession-settlement legacy is dangerous to Arabs and Jews alike.
Amira Hass Mar 02, 2016 6:00 AM

http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.706544!/image/122991774.jpg_gen/derivatives/headline_1200x630/122991774.jpg

Apparently we’ll have to start getting used to the Knesset minus our representatives from the Joint Arab List. Without Aida and Jamal, without Haneen and Dov, without Ahmad and Ayman. It won’t be easy, because their presence there provided a sliver of hope that sanity was still possible; the sanity of a state that exists for all its citizens, who belong to two national groups.

The so-called Suspension Law, which passed its first Knesset vote on Monday, aims to cause a rift between “good” and “bad” Arabs. Suspending Balad party members from Knesset sessions, and outlawing the Islamic Movement’s northern branch, were added episodes in the series of exclusions, and passed fairly easily. But as list chairman Ayman Odeh pointed out, if the “bad” ones (Balad) are expelled, it will be difficult for him to remain in the Knesset. We, their voters – Arabs and Jews alike – will be deterred from voting for the ones Uri Ariel, Avigdor Lieberman and Ayelet Shaked, in their Judeo-democratatorship generosity, approve as “good.”

The law to expel Arab Knesset members also aims at the left (Jewish and Arab). It seeks to drive a wedge not only between “good” and “bad” Arabs but between the left and the liberals-lite. The law very likely will not target the social feminists of the Labor Party; even without it, they are very gingerly when talking about blood, Gaza Prison and the settlements.

No law would be enacted forbidding “incitement” against CEOs, or against the owners of companies that pay disgraceful wages to female employees. The Jewish discourse allows such subversive statements as long as pay remains low, and the corporate chieftains continue to get extraordinary tax breaks. The members of Meretz can even continue to proudly and freely represent the interests of the LGBT and secular communities in Israel. It isn’t sure, though, that Zouheir Bahloul (Zionist Union) can bite his tongue forever, or that Esawi Freige (Meretz) will concentrate on expanding the Kafr Qasm industrial zone and nothing more in order to be deemed kosher by Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi).

On Monday, Revital Swid (Zionist Union) said, rightly, “Hatred of Arabs is blinding the MKs into passing a law that no attorney general supports.” Indeed, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, formerly the IDF’s chief military advocate, called the law problematic, but also clarified that the problem is not constitutional. The law is legal, just as it is legal to demolish Umm el-Hiran and expel its Bedouin residents again, like it is legal not to supply water and electricity to “unrecognized” Palestinian villages (on both sides of the Green Line), and it is legal to expropriate their land.

Swid also told the chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice committee, MK Nissan Slomiansky: “The day will come that it [the law] gets used against you. One day there will be a majority here who decides that anybody who does not condemn the hilltop youth and support the kingdom of Israel is subverting the State of Israel as a Jewish, democratic state. What will you do on that day?”

That’s the thing: Once the psychosis of expulsion gains momentum, we have to brace for an even crazier, rightward-leaning, repressive stage. The law to oust Arabs is designed precisely to avert the day in which Jewish Israeli society realizes that its dispossession-settlement legacy is dangerous to Arabs and Jews alike.

The Joint Arab List, despite and because of its tensions within, represents a chance for genuine normalcy in our binational state. Yes, with contradictions, with problems that haven’t been solved yet, with resentments and differences in viewpoints. The fact that Palestinian MKs represent Jewish voters (however few we may be) and that a Jewish MK represents Palestinian voters, too, laid the groundwork for a different future. This future is now looking all the more illusory.

Brésil:des militants israéliens ont demandé le rejet de l’ambassadeur à Brasilia | i24news - 21 Septembre 2015
▻http://www.i24news.tv/fr/actu/israel/diplomatie-defense/86511-150921-bresil-des-militants-israeliens-ont-demande-le-rejet-de-l-ambas

Un groupe de militants de gauche, dont trois anciens ambassadeurs israéliens, ont demandé au gouvernement brésilien de ne pas approuver la nomination de Dani Dayan au poste d’ambassadeur au Brésil, rapporte lundi le site israélien Haaretz.

La demande a semble-t-il été entendue puisque samedi, la présidente brésilienne Dilma Rousseff s’opposait publiquement à la nomination au poste d’ambassadeur d’Israël dans son pays de Dayan qui a présidé de 2007 à 2013 le Conseil de Yesha, une organisation liée au Conseil des implantations en Cisjordanie.

Lors d’une réunion il y a deux semaines avec les ambassadeurs du Brésil en Israël et dans l’Autorité palestinienne, les militants ont affirmé qu’accepter la nomination de Dayan reviendrait à légitimer « l’entreprise de colonisation ».

Cette campagne est menée par des membres du comité diplomatique du Forum des ONG pour la paix, une organisation qui coordonne les activités entre les ONG israéliennes et palestiniennes qui soutiennent une solution à deux Etats, présidé par Mossi Raz, ancien député du Meretz (gauche).

Les trois diplomates qui ont fait campagne contre Dayan (l’ex-directeur général du ministrère des Affaires étrangères Alon Liel, l’ancien ambassadeur en Afrique du Sud Ilan Baruch, et l’ancien ambassadeur en France Eli Bar-Navi) ont rencontré les ambassadeurs du Brésil peu après l’approbation par le Cabinet israélien de la nomination de Dayan.

Anti-Arab racism up after Gaza war and election campaign, report says Survey by Coalition Against Racism also shows increase in racist comments by elected officials.
By Jack Khoury | Jul. 14, 2015 | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.666020

The summer Gaza war and winter election campaign increased the incidence of racism in Israel, including anti-Arab acts, the group the Coalition Against Racism said Tuesday.

The report was due to be presented at the Knesset at an event launching a parliamentary caucus against racism.

Facebook and the Internet in general have been a locus for racism, but the report discusses both physical and verbal incidents, including racism in Knesset bills and comments by elected officials.

Over the past year there have been 237 racist incidents, 160 of them during the war, the report states. It cites 192 anti-Arab incidents, compared with 113 in 2013. The report discusses both physical and verbal incidents.

“We are living in this country and are aware of the increase in racist violent incidents, but the report uses statistics to confirm the deep sense and danger,” said MK Aida Touma-Suliman (Joint Arab List), who with Michal Biran (Zionist Union) heads the new Knesset caucus.

“The report shows a disturbing increase in incidents of incitement and expressions of racism by elected officials and decision makers,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Religious Action Center of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism has unveiled a report on incitement against Israeli Arabs on the web. According to the survey, conducted between July and October last year, 30 percent of racist incitement called for violence against Arabs or expressed support for such violence.

Forty percent of the cases called for a boycott of businesses employing Arabs, or for Jewish-only labor. Despite efforts during the war to act against people running racist Facebook pages, law-enforcement officials don’t appear to have taken a cohesive long-term position on how to curb incitement on the Internet, the report says.

#Israel #racisme

Zionist Union, don’t join Netanyahu - Opinion - Israel News | Haaretz

By David Ricci
▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.651681

It’s clear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants center-left Zionist Union to join his next government. But why Zionist Union would want to do that is murky at best: Zionist Union - and Israel - have much to lose from such a partnership.

First, it would be bad for the center-left party. It would demoralize many of that party’s 786,000 voters who rejected a right-wing worldview in the March 17 election. These voters know Zionist Union cannot improve a Netanyahu government. No matter who joins him, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud associates - to say nothing of Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett and his colleagues - will continue to promote the construction of illegal settlements at the expense of dealing with housing, employment and healthcare problems inside the Green Line, while taking a head-in-the-sand approach to the foreign policy implications of these moves.

Discussions secrètes entre Netanyahu et Herzog sur une union nationale : les militants du Camp sioniste sont stupéfaits et angoissés, les ténors ne seraient pas contre. Quelle que soit la solution trouvée, elle suscitera de fortes déceptions et tensions dans certains secteurs de la population

Likud official : Netanyahu mulling unity government with Herzog - National - Israel News | Haaretz
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Although there have been no coalition talks between Likud and Zionist Union as yet and members of both parties believe that the chances of them forming a government together are slim, there are increasing signs that the parties are considering such a possibility.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told a senior Likud figure in recent days that he does not reject the idea of a unity government with Zionist Union.

“Netanyahu understands the importance of a centrist coalition, both domestically and abroad,” the senior figure said. Nevertheless, since the election Netanyahu has consistently denied he would form a coalition with Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog.

Meanwhile, Zionist Union sources claim that senior Labor faction officials, led by Herzog, have spoken with President Reuven Rivlin about joining a Netanyahu-led government. As far as is known, Rivlin is not dealing with the matter, having decided to avoid getting involved in political processes. Herzog denied having the discussion with Rivlin.

According to a report on Channel 1, Netanyahu and Herzog met several days ago outside the framework of the routine briefings between the premier and the head of the opposition. According to the report, even their close associates and aides didn’t know about the meeting.

Will Iran deal pave way for unity government? - National - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.650638

Opposition MK Eitan Cabel’s statement of support of the prime minister’s stance on Iran raises suspicions in the Zionist Union that the stage is being set for the party to join the coalition.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to try to get the Zionist Union to join his coalition within the next few weeks, but the chances of this actually happening are slim, say party sources.

“Netanyahu is stressed out; he is worried about the response from the United States and the European Union if he establishes a narrow right-wing government, which is why there’s a good chance he will turn to us in the coming weeks,” one party source said.

But another source said that the struggle against a nuclear Iran could be the key common ground for the establishment of a unity government with Netanyahu. “The odds of our establishing a coalition with Netanyahu are low,” the source said. “But if there is a sincere desire on both sides to establish a joint government, the struggle against the nuclear agreement and the need to repair Israel’s ties with the United States could make it easier for [co-party leader Isaac] Herzog to explain to his voters the problematic step of joining Netanyahu.”

Because of the speculation regarding contacts with Likud, Zionist Union is very suspicious of any expression of support for Netanyahu from within its ranks. Thus some in the party wondered whether a Facebook post Sunday by faction chairman Eitan Cabel, in which he expressed support for Netanyahu’s stance on the nuclear deal reached with Iran, was meant to facilitate the party’s entrance into the coalition.

Cabel vehemently denied this, noting that he had expressed support for the premier solely with regard to the deal with Iran announced late last week following intensive negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland. “On this issue only, I stand behind Benjamin Netanyahu,” Cabel wrote on his Facebook page.

“With all the criticism of the way he handled the campaign against the agreement-in-progress, the bottom line is that his struggle is correct.”

Cabel added that he refused to join “the chorus of applause for the agreement with Iran. The truth is, it gives me sleepless nights. President Obama promised yesterday that ‘if the Iranians cheat we will know,’ but isn’t that exactly what the Americans promised after the agreement with North Korea?” This is not a matter of left or right, Cabel added.

“When a mad, religious regime, with a proven record of terror and deception, receives permission to get within touching distance of a nuclear bomb, I am very worried. And when those who are meant to ensure that the agreement isn’t broken have a proven record of contempt for the red lines that they themselves set, I’m doubly worried,” Cabel wrote.

In contrast to Netanyahu’s hard line on the accord with Iran, Zionist Union leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni have refused to criticize the United States and have called for an improvement of mutual ties following the signing of the framework agreement. “We need to work closely with the powers, and in particular with the United States, over the coming days in order to roll back Iran’s nuclear program and prevent it from getting nuclear weapons,” the two said in a statement published immediately after the framework agreement was announced last week. They added that “it is necessary to rebuild our cooperation with the United States because it is the most important factor in defending the security interests of Israel and the region.”

Netanyahu and Likud won by taking poorer Jewish towns, West Bank settlements - Israel election 2015 - Israel News | Haaretz
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Segmenting the voting by socioeconomic levels reveals a major and probably decisive difference between Likud and Zionist Union; the former got lots of votes in wealthier communities, but the latter did very well almost solely in those richer areas.

Zionist Union got its highest rate of support – 53 percent - in Kfar Shmaryahu, one of the three towns in the 10th and wealthiest decile. The rate of support for Zionist Union in the 33 towns in deciles 8 through 10 was 34.8 percent. The party came in first in 85 percent of these towns; the five exceptions were Alfei Menashe, Oranit and Mevasseret Zion, where the Likud came in first, and Elkana and Givat Shmuel, where Habayit Hayehudi ranked first.

In most of these 33 wealthier towns, the pattern was similar – Zionist Union first, Likud second and Yesh Atid third. Overall, Likud got 22.9 percent of the vote in these economically strong towns.

It was there that Yesh Atid lost a lot of its strength. In 2013, the party’s support in the top two deciles was 26.2 percent, with 24.4 percent in the 8th decile. But on Election Day the party got only 16.5 percent of the vote in deciles 9 and 10, and only 15.1 percent in the 8th decile.

The 7th decile is considered the most middle-class; it includes locales like Ramat Gan, Nes Ziona and Haifa. Here Zionist Union won seven of the 12 cities, while Likud took the other five. Moving further down the scale, however, the Likud took almost all of the towns considered middle- and lower-middle class, winning in 13 of the 15 cities in the 6th decile, 31 of 33 in the 5th decile, and 15 of 17 in the 4th decile. The towns not won by Likud in this range were generally won by Habayit Hayehudi.

Likud did not just win decisively in the West Bank, but also in the socioeconomic periphery within the Green Line, scoring decisive wins in places like Sderot (42.8 percent), Ashkelon (39.8 percent), Or Yehuda (40.5 percent), Ramle (39.8 percent), Tiberias (44.5 percent) and Kiryat Shmona (39.9 percent).

Support for Likud actually rose in the middle-class and peripheral towns compared to the last election, despite the social agenda pushed by the center-left camp and the fact that these voters didn’t benefit much, if at all, from the economic policies promulgated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It seems the messages Netanyahu broadcast in the days before the election made a grea

Netanyahu Wins by Blatantly Disrespecting the U.S. and the U.N. | The New Republic

▻http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121319/netanyahu-wins-blatantly-disrespecting-us-and-un

http://www.newrepublic.com/sites/default/files/u189000/netanyahu.jpg

TEL AVIV— It was 10 p.m. and the rave beats were pumping at the Drive In Arena in north Tel Aviv. Recently built as the new home of the Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball club, on Tuesday it was the election night base camp of the center-left Zionist Union, led by Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog and Hatnua’s Tzipi Livni. Young people pogoed to the music and waved Israeli flags. Parents held their children aloft as crane cameras swooped past. A movie screen behind the arena stage flashed with stylized portraits of Zionist Union leaders set amid animated fireworks.

#israël #élections

Elections israéliennes :
ce matin, le décompte des voix donne à droite et extrême droite 30 sièges au Likoud, 8 à Habayit Hayehudi (Naftali Bennett), 7 à Shas, 6 à United Torah Judaism, 6 à Israel Beiteinu (Avigdor Lieberman),

au centre droit 11 à Yesh Atid (Yair Lapid), 10 à Kulanu (Kahlon),

et à « gauche » , 24 à Zionist Union (Herzog), 14 à Joint List (PC et listes arabes) et 4 à Meretz.

Le Likoud a donc réussi son pari : faire peur et récupérer des voix qui s’étaient reportées à sa droite.

Il est intéressant de noter que les Israéliens vivant près de Gaza ont voté en majorité pour l’Union sioniste de Herzog, alors que les colons ont donné leurs voix au Likoud.

La droite (et extrême-droite) totalise 57 sièges, alors qu’il en faut 61 pour obtenir la majorité.

Si le Likoud veut former une coalition, il devra faire avec Kahlon (parti Kulanu), ancien membre du Likoud, qui sera très courtisé ces prochains jours et qui a déjà annoncé qu’il rejoindrait tout gouvernement qui prendrait des mesures sociales en faveur des Israéliens.

Face aux sondages catastrophiques pour lui et à quelques jours seulement des élections, Netanyahu se livre à son jeu préféré : la théorie du complot contre lui :
le camp sioniste aurait orchestré une campagne contre le Likoud et contre lui, en collaboration avec des organisations et ONG avec le soutien de gouvernements étrangers, notamment pour promouvoir un retrait d’Israël aux lignes de 1967, la division de Jérusalem, la création d’un « Hamastan B » sur les hauteurs de Tel Aviv et l’acceptation par Israël d’un Iran nucléarisé)… Quand on pense que des Israéliens boivent les discours empoisonnés de cet homme...

Netanyahu accuses leftists, media of conspiring to bring him down - Israel election 2015 - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/1.646800

“Numerous testimonies by Yedioth Ahronoth employees that have reached us recently indicate that [Yedioth Ahronoth publisher] Noni Mozes is leading an orchestrated campaign against the Likud and against me, in collaboration with organizations and NGOs that are acting for that purpose with the support of tycoons in Israel and abroad and also the support of foreign governments,” Netanyahu wrote.

He went on to accuse the newspaper of “cooperating and coordinating fully” with the leaders of Zionist Union. The Zionist Union platform, he added, “implicitly commits” the party to closing down Yisrael Hayom, a newspaper that supports the prime minister.

“The public needs to know the truth,” Netanyahu wrote. “Noni Mozes is leading a campaign against the Likud and against me out of commercial interests, with the objective of reviving the dangerous and undemocratic monopoly it enjoyed in the past.”

“The goal of Mozes is to bring about the rise of the left. He is joined by left-wing elements in Israel and abroad who are streaming tens of millions of dollars to NGOs running an ’Anyone but Bibi’ campaign in its various guises.”

The reason for the mobilization of the unnamed NGOs, the prime minister said, was not social or economic – but diplomatic: To bring about “a withdrawal to the ’67 lines, the division of Jerusalem, the establishment of Hamastan B on the heights overlooking Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion Airport and Israeli acceptance of a nuclear Iran.”

Les sondages privent le Likoud de deux sièges supplémentaires : il n’obtiendrait plus que 22 sièges, contre 26 pour le “camp sioniste”. La liste d’union arabe serait accréditée de 13 sièges, devenant la troisième formation du pays… Manipulation préélectorale ou reflet de la réalité ?

Ynet poll: Likud trails Zionist Union by 4 seats days ahead of elections - Israel News, Ynetnews

▻http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4636623,00.html
With four days to go ahead of vote, Netanyahu’s Likud suffers blow in polls, receiving only 22 Knesset seats, while Herzog’s Zionist Union reaches 26; Bayit Yehudi and Yesh Atid tied at 12, Yedioth Ahronoth poll says.

The Zionist Union has increased its lead over the Likud, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party polling at 22 as opposed 26 for his main rival, Isaac Herzog, giving his center-ticket a clear lead over the ruling party with only four days before Israelis head to the ballots.

(…)

The joint ticket of Israel’s three predominately Arab parties – the Joint Arab List - came in third with 13 seats. It was followed by a tie for fourth by two of Israel’s potential kingmakers – centrist Yesh Atid and rightist Bayit Yehudi, run by political allies-turned-rivals Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett.

C’est la panique au Likoud. Les sondages donnent au parti trois sièges de moins que la “gauche” de Herzog et Livni. Mais Netanyahu pense qu’il va rester “le roi d’Israël”

Likud officials blame Netanyahu for poor poll results ahead of Israeli elections - Israel election 2015 - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/.premium-1.646709

Likud officials blame Netanyahu for poor poll results
Officials in PM’s party aren’t waiting for the election results: To them, it’s already clear the campaign was a ’colossal failure,’ thanks to Netanyahu.
By Jonathan Lis | Mar. 13, 2015 | 8:14 AM

Likud officials aren’t waiting for the election results. On Wednesday, following less than favorable polls, senior officials labeled the election campaign a failure, and blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the party’s poor showing in the polls ahead of Election Day on Tuesday.

“The Zionist Union will be larger than Likud after the election. This, it seems, is already a fact. The question is what the gap between the two will be. Even if we manage to form the next government, this campaign was a colossal failure. Netanyahu is primarily responsible,” said a senior Likud member.

“Everything went through him during this election season, and the situation isn’t good. The election campaign didn’t function. Netanyahu kept Likud ministers far from decisions,” the senior party figure said. “His excessive focus [on himself in the campaign] and his lack of faith in the party’s Knesset members prompted him to staff the campaign with people who haven’t proven themselves.”

Another Likud official said, “Netanyahu was shown to be a very weak card in this election. He decided to put himself at the front, and forgot that he has an excellent team of ministers and MKs behind him. The public hardly saw them. It turns out the public is weary of Netanyahu, but he didn’t think that was a good enough reason to scale back his presence in the campaign.”

But Likud members don’t think all is lost. “As of right now, Netanyahu is the only one who can forge an independent coalition based on the latest polls. Herzog will have to include Likud in his government if he’s asked to form a coalition, and Netanyahu has already said he won’t allow that,” said one party official.

In an attempt to reverse the party’s downward trend in the polls, Netanyahu decided to grant interviews to Channels 1 and 2, as well as the Walla website, after refusing to do so for weeks. He called on right-wing voters who have shifted to other parties to return to Likud to prevent the emergence of a left-wing government.

Other Likud officials suggested that Netanyahu debate Herzog, believing it could only improve Netanyahu’s image. One of Netanyahu’s associates said, “TV interviews can be decisive in turning the trend around. If it turns out that Netanyahu didn’t manage to convince the public and improve his standings in the polls, we might as well say congratulations to Tzipi and Bougie.”

Netanyahu doubled down Wednesday on his opposition to a national unity government. After vowing previously that he wouldn’t form such a coalition, he declared he would not serve as prime minister in a rotation with Isaac Herzog. Addressing the idea of dividing the prime minister’s tenure, he said in his Channel 2 interview, “I don’t think there’s such an option. I don’t intend to do it, because I think there is a clear choice here between two paths. I will not be prime minister in a rotation, and that should be prevented.”

Regarding the recent polls, which show Likud running three seats behind Zionist Union, Netanyahu said there was a chance he won’t be prime minister again. “If we don’t close the gaps in the coming days, there’s definitely a danger that Bougie Herzog and Tzipi Livni will be the prime ministers,” but said he would win if enough of his supporters get out and vote.

Netanyahu declined to say he would leave politics if he is unable to form a government after Tuesday’s balloting. But behind the scenes, Likud members are already jostling to be the heir apparent.

“There are enough candidates in Likud who aren’t excited about the prospect of an election win, and who are actually waiting for Netanyahu to lose, in the hope of inheriting his place and running for prime minister in the next election,” said one party member.