After being ambushed with demands for him to call for a ceasefire in December last year, he replied: “No, I will not. On the contrary … I want [Israel] to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on.
“These people are vicious animals who did horrifying crimes.” To the activists, he added: “I hope you guys post that, because that’s my position.”
US President-elect Donald Trump is expected to tap Senator Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state and Rep. Michael Waltz as national security adviser, The New York Times reported Monday, pushing the emergent cabinet in a hawkish, pro-Israel direction.
The choice of Mr. Hegseth was outside the norm of the traditional defense secretary. But he was a dedicated supporter of Mr. Trump during his first term, defending his interactions with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, embracing his “America First” agenda of trying to withdraw U.S. troops from abroad and energetically taking up the cause of combat veterans accused of war crimes.
(…)
He served in the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
A Minnesota native, Mr. Hegseth graduated from Princeton University, where he was the publisher of The Princeton Tory, a conservative magazine, for which he wrote about seeing the statue of Saddam Hussein toppled in Baghdad in 2003.
(05.02.2024)
Ist man eigentlich noch bei klarem Verstand, wenn man behauptet, dass es die Demokratie fördert, wenn die Regierung per „Demokratiefördergesetz“ ermächtigt und beauftragt wird, Geld an behördlich ausgewählte „zivilgesellschaftliche“ Organisationen zu geben, damit diese Oppositionsparteien und oppositionelle Medien bekämpfen? Die (wohl mangels ausreichender Demokratieförderung) in den Hessenwahlen krachend gescheiterte Bundesinnenministerin Nancy Faeser meint Ja.
Im Dezember 2022 hatten Feaser (SPD) und die Ministerin für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend, Lisa Paus (Grüne) den Entwurf eines Demokratiefördergesetzes vorgestellt, mit dem „Populisten und Extremisten“ bekämpft werden sollen, die „versuchen besonders in Krisenzeiten, unsere offene, plurale Gesellschaft zu spalten“.
Bisher haben sie dafǘr zum Glück keine Mehrheit im Bundestag zustande gebracht. Doch nun, angesichts der Demonstrationen gegen die AfD, wittert Faeser Morgenluft und versucht es erneut.
It’s likely to be a moment of high drama at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Peace Palace in The Hague on Friday afternoon when Judge Joan E Donoghue, the president of the court, announces the decision of the 17 judges on South Africa’s request to the court to issue provisional measures against Israel to stop its alleged genocide in Gaza.
International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor will be in the court as the head of a South African delegation and representatives of Israel and Palestine will surely be in the court too, and probably outside it.
Israel‘s War Cabinet gathered overnight on Friday to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip after the nation‘s war against Hamas ends. The meeting was reportedly cut off after lawmakers clashed with the defense establishment over the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) investigation of the mistakes leading to the October 7 tragedy that had previously been promised to start after the Israel-Hamas war.
Miri Regev, Minister of Transport and Road Safety, pointed out that the decision over the probe had been made without lawmakers‘ knowledge and argued that the army should be fully focused on the combat in the moment.
(Today, 4:47 pm)
“In recent days I’ve heard a question: Will Israel return to fighting after this stage of returning our hostages is over? My response is an unequivocal yes,” the premier says. “There is no way we won’t return to fighting until the end.”
(Nov. 29, 2023, 9:34 a.m. ET)
“Stopping the war = breaking apart the government,” said Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, who threatened to leave the governing coalition.
(26.11.2023)
In the majority of the cases, the indictments included accusations of supporting or identifying with a terrorist organization, according to section 24a of the Law of the Fight Against Terror and accusations of incitement to terrorism according to section 24b of the same law.
According Adalah, Israeli authorities have accused dozens of individuals of “supporting terrorist organizations” or engaging in “incitement to terrorism” for planning protests and expressing their opinions on social media platforms. The posts, interactions, and other means of expression largely fall within the rights protected by freedom of expression. The speech includes opposition to the targeting of civilians in Gaza, expressions of sympathy for the Palestinian people in Gaza, opposition to collective punishment and war crimes, and the dissemination of news about Gaza.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir threatens to break apart the government if Israel does not restart its war with Hamas, currently on a negotiated pause.
“Stopping the war = breaking apart the government,” he threatens in a statement.
In exchange, Israel has agreed to a ceasefire for at least four days for the first time since the outbreak of the war.
(18.11.2023)
Some world leaders are already discussing a worldwide refugee resettlement scheme and saying they would welcome Gazans to their countries. This could be supported by many nations around the world, especially those that claim to be friends of the Palestinians.
This is an opportunity for those who say they support the Palestinian people to show these are not just empty words.
Rally to be held outside Prime Minister’s Office; Gantz, Eizenkot to meet with relatives, who say they received no answer from Netanyahu, Gallant or Dermer: ‘Look us in the eye!’
(13.11.2023)
(November 9, 2023)
Some speculate the ambitious Braverman’s sole aim was to upset left-wing opinion and so enhance her standing with the grassroots Tory members — a famously right-wing cohort — who will decide a future Tory leadership contest.
If so, she likely succeeded.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took the highly unusual step on Sunday of suspending a far-right minister from his government, after the minister said that dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza and killing everyone there was “one way” of dealing with the threat from Hamas.
During the interview, Eliyahu raised his objection to allowing any humanitarian aid into Gaza. “We wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid… there is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza,” the minister was quoted as saying.
Eliyahu also backed retaking the Gaza Strip’s territory and restoring the settlements there, the report added. Asked about the fate of Palestinian civilians Eliyahu said, “They can go to Ireland or deserts, the monsters in Gaza should find a solution by themselves.”
Heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu of the Otzma Yehudit party is quoted by the Times of Israel as saying in an interview that the Palestinian people “can go to Ireland or deserts, the monsters in Gaza should find a solution by themselves”, adding that those who wave a Palestinian or Hamas flag “shouldn’t continue living on the face of the earth”.
It quotes him saying that dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip “is one of the possibilities”, and that humanitarian aid to the population should be restricted, saying “we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid. There is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza.”
Tory MP Paul Bristow, who served as Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan’s parliamentary private secretary, was ousted from that role following a letter he sent to Sunak last week accusing Israel of carrying out “collective punishment” on the people of Gaza.
“Paul Bristow has been asked to leave his post in government following comments that were not consistent with the principles of collective responsibility,” a Downing Street spokesperson says.
The disaster that befell Israel on the holiday of Simchat Torah is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister, who has prided himself on his vast political experience and irreplaceable wisdom in security matters, completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession, when appointing Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir to key positions, while embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.
Ministers criticized the Chief of Staff claiming he did not find the time to brief them on Saturday. Some wondered if he had wanted to avoid their difficult questions about the failure of the military intelligence to detect the Hamas plan.“
„Every Israeli citizen wants to know how this failure was possible?“ Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis said. „Why are the Chief of Staff and Intelligence chief not here now? We need more information.“
A Meta spokesperson said: „The overwhelming majority of Brits already rely on apps that use encryption to keep them safe from hackers, fraudsters and criminals.
Advertisement · Scroll to continue
„We don‘t think people want us reading their private messages so have spent the last five years developing robust safety measures to prevent, detect and combat abuse while maintaining online security.“
Although friction from policymakers has clearly made the “pivot to privacy” which founder Mark Zuckerberg announced all the way back in 2019, when he said the company would universally apply E2EE on its services, slow going.
Finally, though, this August, Meta announced it would enable E2EE by default for Messenger by the end of the year.
That sentiment was echoed by Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, also of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party: “Of course.”
Interior and Health Minister Moshe Arbel of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party took a similar tone. “Yes, unequivocally,” he responded when asked if High Court rulings need to be followed.
Gotliv, speaking about a dispute between the Prime Minister’s Office and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir regarding visits allowed for Palestinian security prisoners, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “it’s good to know the IDF and Shin Bet work for terrorists and security prisoners.
“The entire deep state is against Ben-Gvir,” she alleged. “Bravo, Ben-Gvir, on displaying right-wing authority,” the MK wrote after it was reported by media that Ben-Gvir had blocked visits for prisoners, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releasing a statement denying that was so.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara rejected the idea, noting that it would violate Arab citizens’ democratic rights.
One of the four victims killed earlier tonight in Abu Snan was running in the upcoming race. The director of Tira gunned down last night was also targeted in a dispute related to the upcoming election.
When cabinet ministers, under the leadership and guidance of the prime minister and justice minister, two human demons who have taken over the state, insult and denounce the High Court of Justice merely for hearing petitions (which it could end up rejecting), Israel can no longer be seen as a democratic, liberal state. Nor is it Jewish, because what Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir and Eliyahu and Strock represent is not Judaism. It is messianism, racism and degradation.
“We have 64 mandates that aren’t willing to give up on the judicial system. We have 64 mandates that demand judicial reform,” he says, referring to the number of seats the coalition holds in the 120-member parliament.
“We say to the High Court of Justice political party… we don’t want your reasonableness,” adds Eliyahu, a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party.
It would be highly unusual for the prime minister to fire the attorney general but also rather difficult as long as the Supreme Court can use the reasonableness test to reinstate her. Should that be removed from judges’ toolkits, however, it would be easier.