In the meetings of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee from July 29 and August 18, MKs from Likud and Yamina and settlers whom they hosted, openly declared what the natural evolution of this process would be: The Palestinians must make do with Areas A and B; that is, no more than 39 percent of the West Bank, with non-contiguous strips of land. So said the man from the right-wing NGO Regavim, Meir Deutsch; so said Likud MK Nir Barkat, who also called for the settlement of two million Jews in the West Bank;
Archiv: areas of influence / hegemonies / occupations / colonies / annexations
Netanyahu Used Doctored Video of Abbas to Influence Trump’s Policy, Woodward Reveals
The incident occurred on May 22, 2017, at a time when Trump was beginning to have doubts about Netanyahu and wondering aloud if the Israeli prime minister might be the real obstacle to peace with the Palestinians, Woodward wrote, according to excerpts from the book published by U.S. media.
Chile: September 11 Protesters Clash with Police All Over Chile
Chileans took to the streets to pay homage to former president Salvador Allende, in the 47th anniversary of his death, and to condemn the coup d’etat which brought about the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
International Criminal Court condemns US economic sanctions
The new measures, announced pursuant to the US Executive Order 13928 dated 11 June 2020, are another attempt to interfere with the Court’s judicial and prosecutorial independence and crucial work to address grave crimes of concern to the international community as mandated under the ICC Rome Statute.
These coercive acts, directed at an international judicial institution and its civil servants, are unprecedented and constitute serious attacks against the Court, the Rome Statute system of international criminal justice, and the rule of law more generally.
The Court continues to stand firmly by its personnel and its mission of fighting impunity for the world’s most serious crimes under international law, independently and impartially, in accordance with its mandate. In doing so, the Court benefits from the strong support and commitment of two thirds of the world’s States which are parties to the Rome Statute.
International Criminal Court: Statement by the High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell on US sanctions
The European Union is unwavering in its support for the universality of the Rome Statute and for the ICC. We will resolutely defend it from any attempts aimed at obstructing the course of justice and undermining the international system of criminal justice.
U.S. blacklists ICC prosecutor over Afghanistan war crimes probe
Pompeo also said Phakiso Mochochoko, the head of the ICC’s Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division, had also been blacklisted under sanctions authorized by President Donald Trump in June that allow for asset freezes and travel bans.
“Today we take the next step, because the ICC continues to target Americans, sadly,” Pompeo told reporters.
US sanctions ICC prosecutor who allowed complaint of Israeli ‘war crimes’
The US has imposed sanctions on the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court just weeks after she allowed a complaint of Israeli “war crimes” to proceed.
Announcing sanctions against the ICC’s Fatou Bensouda, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the court “continues to target Americans”, in apparent reference to investigations into US Army actions in Afghanistan.
UK’s Raab Discusses Middle East With Trump Adviser Kushner
Prime Minister Boris Johnson also attended part of the meeting with the visiting Kushner.
„The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary were clear about their commitment to a negotiated two-state solution,” the spokesman said.
How the UAE and Saudi Arabia Now Hold Israel Hostage
The UAE and Saudi Arabia now have significant leverage over Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians. And Riyadh is Israel’s real prize
Netanyahu’s ‘Normalization’ Policy Will Turn Israel Into an Arab State
The fruits of the prime minister’s labors will ultimately propel Israel toward a single-state solution, but not before a long spell as an apartheid regime
Democratic Convention Proves That on Israel, This Is Still Joe Biden’s Party
Much of this was by design. Onstage and off, the convention organizers delicately and carefully walked a tightrope in order to create as unified a front as possible. They needed to show respect to Sanders, who came in second in the primary contest, and to win the trust of high-profile acolytes like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, so that the party’s activist progressive wing will remain engaged in the election.
The bombardment of Gaza continues: this was the city of Khan Younis last night
(21.08.2020)
#GazaUnderAttack
#StopBombingGaza
Turkey has cut water to 1 million people in Hasakah. Meanwhile the Kurdish SDF are helping US steal our oil, Gulf & Turkish-backed jihadists are running Idlib; UK, US, FR troops running around… All of these countries occupying Syria are like a fucking virus that won’t go away.
Why a U.S.-led Coup Seven Decades Ago Still Matters to Young Iranians
A nationalist and champion of secular democracy, Mossadegh (also spelled Mosaddegh and Mosaddeq) gained prominence in Iranian politics by focusing on two key issues: devolving more power from the monarchy to parliament, based on Iran’s 1906 constitution; and wresting back control of Iran’s oil industry, which had been dominated by the British.
In 1949, Mossadegh formed the National Front Party and spearheaded protests against Iran’s reigning monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the ongoing involvement of the British Empire.
By early 1951, the Shah was overwhelmed by widespread public demonstrations.
#IDF strikes Gaza Strip after rocket launched: @DanielTsemach with the scoop from #Israel-Gaza border
House Democrats, Working With Liz Cheney, Restrict Trump’s Planned Withdrawal of Troops From Afghanistan and Germany
The NDAA that was approved last night by the Committee also imposed restrictions on Trump’s plan to withdraw troops from Germany. Trump’s plan called for the removal of roughly 9,500 troops from German soil, reducing the number of U.S. troops in this extremely prosperous and rich European nation from 34,500 to 25,000. But by an overwhelming vote of 49-7, the Armed Service Committee approved an amendment to the NDAA that “bans the administration from lowering troop levels below current levels until 180 days after Pentagon leaders present a plan to Congress and certify it will not harm U.S. or allied interests.”
South Korea Under United States Occupation, 1945-48
Before United States forces had landed in Korea in September 1945, the Koreans had established self-governing bodies, or people’s committees. The leaders of these committees had organized the Central People’s Committee, which proclaimed the establishment of the „Korean People’s Republic“ on September 6, 1945. Exiles, abroad, mainly in China, had organized the „Korean Provisional Government“ in Shanghai as early as 1919 and had sustained a skeletal organization in other parts of China until 1945.
The United States recognized neither the republic nor the provisional government. T
Pompeo Sends Well Wishes for Liberation Day
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday issued a message celebrating Liberation Day on August 15, which marks the day Korea was liberated from Japan’s colonial rule.
What’s behind Mike Pompeo’s visit to the Dominican Republic?
This Sunday, August 16, will be the third time, after the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, that a Secretary of State of the United States attends the inauguration of a Dominican president. This action sends a direct message of the expectation about the fundamental issues that the United States has with the government that Luis Abinader will lead as of August 16.
The North American authorities are interested in halting the decline of its hegemony as a political and commercial partner of the Dominican Republic and in solidifying relations between the two countries, which were affected by the foreign policy developed by the outgoing president, Danilo Medina.
President @realDonaldTrump was able to get Israel to agree to a two-state solution with the Palestinian people—and, for the first time in history, agree to a map that outlined the territory.
(13.08.2020)
UAE committed to Palestinian state, Arab Peace Initiative, spokeswoman tells ToI
The United Arab Emirates remains committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state and to the terms of the Arab Peace Initiative, a senior official from the Arab Gulf state told The Times of Israel on Thursday, in rare on-the-record remarks to Israeli media.
Jordan’s King Does Not Want a Palestinian State
(06.08.2020)
King Abdullah II of Jordan does not really want a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, despite his repeated opposition to the extension of Israeli sovereignty to the so-called “West Bank.”
After Netanyahu Commits to Future Annexation, Trump Says It’s ‚Off the Table for Now‘
„Israel agreed not to annex parts of the West Bank. It is more than taking it off the table – they agreed not to do it. This is a very smart concession by Israel. It is off the table now,“ Trump said during a White House briefing.
How Biden VP Kamala Harris Could Tip U.S.-Israel Ties
Not long after her election as California senator, but well before her presidential bid, Harris was the star performer at the powerful pro-Israel lobby’s 2017 Policy Conference, in a much-quoted appearance: “Having grown up in the Bay Area, I fondly remember those Jewish National Fund boxes that we would use to collect donations to plant trees for Israel,” she said at that conference, followed by a rapturous travelogue of a recent tour of Israel and the West Bank, which she visited with her Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff, whom she married in an interfaith ceremony in 2014.
Is France helping Lebanon, or trying to reconquer it?
Macron himself firmly rejected the idea of reviving the French mandate.
“You can’t ask me to substitute for your leaders. It’s not possible,” he said. “There is no French solution.”
But he made a point of noting that he plans to return to Lebanon to verify that promised reforms are being undertaken on Sept. 1, the 100th anniversary of the declaration of Greater Lebanon – and the beginning of French rule.
The US 2020 election presents two drastically different visions of German’s future. „This is the most important US election in the history of Germany… This means almost as much to the future of Germany as it does to the US“
(1/5) #NBCNewsThreads
Biden to review Trump move pulling troops from Germany if elected, aide says
President Trump confirmed last month his administration plans to cut the U.S. troop size in Germany roughly in half. The decision drew backlash from both sides of the aisle.
U.S. Jews Are Clear: We Won’t Back Bibi’s Conspiracies, Colonial Inclinations or Corruption
We believe in a Jewish and democratic Israel. We feel no obligation to defend Netanyahu’s pathological viciousness, monumentally stupid annexation, incitement and self-enrichment
Mitsotakis: Greece will not accept conditions on coronavirus aid
The former „troika“ of Greece’s creditors, the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund had „forced (Greece) to do reforms“ even though „there was never really any domestic buy-in“
A six-monthly review of economic performance carried out by the European Commission was sufficient, Mitsotakis said.
Joint List to EU: Suspend Ties with Israel if It Won’t Desert Annexation
In letters to senior EU officials, including foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the 15 Joint List MKs wrote that “the traditional approach based on providing incentives to Israel has thus far failed to achieve our shared legitimate positions.” According to Hadash MK Youssef Jabareen, “We requested that top EU officials act to prevent annexation including re-evaluating the EU-Israel partnership agreement, recognizing a Palestinian state according to the ’67 borders and labeling goods from the occupied Palestinian territories. Palestinians deserve independence and freedom.”
Joint List Urges Major British Parties to Oppose Annexation
The Joint List called on Britain’s biggest political parties to vigorously oppose Israel’s plans to annex parts of the Palestinian occupied West Bank. The two letters, dated June 26 were penned by Hadash MK Yousef Jabareen, the head of the Joint List’s international relations committee, and were sent to the UK Conservative party leader, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and the Labour party’s leader, Sir Keir Starmer. In the letters, the Joint List parliamentarians said the UK needed to “actively oppose” attempts by Israel to unilaterally annex territory.
“History has demonstrated the tragic consequences of illegal annexations,” the letter read. “We fear that if Britain and its European allies do not urgently act to prevent this impending annexation, our region may witness yet another major upheaval.”
Palestinian-Israeli Joint List urges US Democrats to stop annexation
(25.06.2020)
So far, the party has only verbally denounced Israel’s plans. The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has categorically ruled out setting conditions on US aid to Israel.
In the Senate, a letter warning that annexation would „erode the strong support among the American people for the special relationship and diplomatic partnership with the United States that Israel currently enjoys“ only gained the support of 21 legislators.
US claim of ‘Russian Bounty’ plot in Afghanistan is dubious and dangerous
Max Blumenthal breaks down the “Russian bounty” story’s flaws and how it aims to prolong the war in Afghanistan — and uses Russiagate tactics to continue pushing the Democratic Party to the right
Engel bragged, ‘I sit down with AIPAC on every piece of legislation’ coming out of Foreign Affairs Committee
(20.06.2020)
Embattled congressman Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has bragged that he sits down with the rightwing pro-Israel organization AIPAC on “every piece of legislation coming out of the Foreign Affairs Committee.”
In a 2018 speech to an AIPAC gathering in his NY district, Engel noted that he and Rep. Nita Lowey had both been in the House 30 years and were soon to assume chair positions that they could use to help Israel.
Netanyahu Will Miss Trump, But Can Live With Biden
In the last three Israeli electoral campaigns, Trump worked hard to keep Bibi in office. Now it is Trump who is running for re-election. The president fully expects Bibi to reciprocate.
But loyalty and gratitude are not among Bibi’s virtues.
Many Will Take Credit, but This Is the Real Reason Netanyahu Delayed His Annexation Plan
Joe Biden is the main reason Netanyahu is not annexing.
There are few politicians who have a keener understanding of polls than Netanyahu. He has several pollsters on his official and unofficial payroll, and keeps in touch with others. His polling brain-trust is heavily American and though they have misled at least once in the past, when he thought that Mitt Romney had a chance of denying Barack Obama a second term in 2012. He is fully aware now that Trump’s chances of winning in November are vanishing.
15 members of the Israeli Knesset’s Joint List sent a letter to Democrats, calling on them to oppose annexation: „Democrats have a decision to make. Will they keep wringing their hands and expressing ‘concern,’ or are they going to do something about it?“
Palestinians offer negotiations days before planned annexation – report
The Palestinian Authority dispatched a letter on Monday addressed to the Quartet on the Middle East stating that it’s prepared to renew negotiations with Israel and agree to „minor territorial exchanges,“ according to reports by Ynet News on Monday night.
The Quartet on the Middle East, a foursome consisting of the United Nations, the US, Russia and the European Union involved in mediating the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.
Coronavirus Israel Live: Public Gatherings Capped Amid Fears of Second Wave
Palestinian Authority to lock down all areas with confirmed cases
Joint List MKs to Democrats in the US Congress: Stop the Annexation
Hadash MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Joint List), who initiated the letter, said about the appeal to Congress: “The annexation and the occupation are international issues. The US administration constantly intervenes in the region and gives backing to the oppression of Palestinians. The administration can give the green light or put the brakes on annexation. Therefore, we have asked members of the Democratic Party, who might assume power soon, to express their clear objection to Israel’s annexation plans, to denounce the entire Trump plan, and to clarify that, if such plans are implemented, future administrations will not recognize their legitimacy. Annexation is illegal according to international law and is a crime against the Palestinian people. The entire international community must stand against it.”
Palestinian Members of Israeli Parliament Call on Democrats to Oppose Annexation
House Democrats are currently circulating a letter opposing annexation, but its wording is based around concerns for Israel’s security and there’s no mention of holding the country accountable for any of its actions towards Palestinians. A letter developed by Senate Democrats earlier this year implied that the United States/Israel relationship could be threatened by annexation, but any mention of this possibility was quickly removed.
This letter was sent to democratic members of US congress. The Joint List calls on Democrats to state loudly and clearly that they oppose Israel’s illegitimate annexation plans and the occupation.
(26.06.2020)
The Blatant Moral Bankruptcy of U.S. Jewish Groups Shilling for Israel’s Annexation
How is it that despite the warnings of three previous Israeli prime ministers, including two IDF Chiefs of Staff and a former justice and foreign minister, that these sorts of steps towards annexation would lead to „apartheid,“ that not a single leader of a dominant Jewish organization in America can bring themselves to use the same word publicly?
How is it that in just a generation, the muscular Jewish leadership that existed in the Diaspora has been replaced by an Israeli caricature of itself: weak galus yidn, unwilling to stand up for our own beliefs, whose only role is to support our strong brethren in the Holy Land?
Gantz Disappoints Time and Again
This isn’t how a political leader talks, and certainly not one who is interested in being an alternative to the inciter in the Prime Minister’s Office. Gantz’s contempt for the Palestinians demonstrates arrogance, pettiness and lack of understanding of the national conflict between the two peoples. If there’s any “deep shit” in which the Palestinians are drowning, it’s the 53-year-old occupation, a messianic project of oppression that has been perpetuated by successive Israeli governments and maintained by the army, formerly headed by Gantz himself.
Labour leader Keir Starmer confirms his role as establishment Thought Crime Enforcer, purging Rebecca Long-Bailey after she innocently shared an interview with a celebrity who happens to support BDS. Only pro-apartheid thoughts allowed in Labour!
From Occupation to ‘Occupy’: The Israelification of American domestic security
(December 2, 2011)
Back in New York, the NYPD set up a secret “Demographics Unit” designed to spy on and monitor Muslim communities around the city. The unit was developed with input and intensive involvement by the CIA, which still refuses to name the former Middle East station chief it has posted in the senior ranks of the NYPD’s intelligence division. Since 2002, the NYPD has dispatched undercover agents known as “rakers” and “mosque crawlers” into Pakistani-American bookstores and restaurants to gauge community anger over US drone strikes inside Pakistan, and into Palestinian hookah bars and mosques to search out signs of terror recruitment and clandestine funding. “If a raker noticed a customer looking at radical literature, he might chat up the store owner and see what he could learn,” the Associated Press reported. “The bookstore, or even the customer, might get further scrutiny.”
The Israeli imprimatur on the NYPD’s Demographics Unit is unmistakable. As a former police official told the Associated Press, the Demographics Unit has attempted to “map the city’s human terrain” through a program “modeled in part on how Israeli authorities operate in the West Bank.”
Israel Security Forces Are Training American Cops Despite History of Rights Abuses
(September 15 2017)
In the aftermath of 9/11, Israel seized on its decades-long experience as an occupying force to brand itself as a world leader in counterterrorism. U.S. law enforcement agencies took the Jewish state up on its expertise by participating in exchange programs sponsored by an array of pro-Israel groups, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and the Anti-Defamation League. Over the past decade and a half, scores of top federal, state, and local police officers from dozens of departments from across the U.S. have gone to Israel to learn about its terrorism-focused policing.
Yet Israel’s policing prowess is marred by its primary purpose: occupation.
With Whom are Many U.S. Police Departments Training? With a Chronic Human Rights Violator – Israel
(August 25, 2016)
Baltimore law enforcement officials, along with hundreds of others from Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington state as well as the DC Capitol police have all traveled to Israel for training. Thousands of others have received training from Israeli officials here in the U.S.
Many of these trips are taxpayer funded while others are privately funded. Since 2002, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs have paid for police chiefs, assistant chiefs and captains to train in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
Tzipi Hotovely Is the Ugly, Extremist Face of Israel. British Jews Should Welcome Her
(19.06.2020)
Hotovely is the right Israeli ambassador for our time. She will remind British Jews how powerless they are (as is the British government, to be fair) to influence matters in Israel and how distant the current Israeli leadership is from the mainstream of British Jewry.
And if left-wing British Jews are serious about trying to get their community to finally wake up to the damage the occupation is doing to Israel’s soul, then having Hotovely as ambassador is the best thing that could happen to them.
Israeli forces trained cops in ‘restraint techniques’ at Minneapolis conference
(03.06.2020)
Neta Golan, co-founder of International Solidarity Movement (ISM), said: “When I saw the picture of killer cop Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd by leaning in on his neck with his knee as he cried for help and other cops watched, I remembered noticing when many Israeli soldiers began using this technique of leaning in on our chest and necks when we were protesting in the West Bank sometime in 2006.
“They started twisting and breaking fingers in a particular way around the same time. It was clear they had undergone training for this. They continue to use these tactics—two of my friends have had their necks broken but luckily survived—and it is clear that they [Israel] share these methods when they train police forces abroad in ‘crowd control’ in the U.S. and other countries including Sudan and Brazil.”
Engel Teaches Dems That Backing War and Apartheid Has a Downside
Engel was one of blue America’s most enthusiastic supporters of the war in Iraq. He was an opponent of Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran. After the Obama administration allowed the passage of a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, Engel introduced a House resolution condemning the U.N. In 2016, as Saudi Arabia was starving and bombing Yemeni civilians, Engel joined Republicans in defeating a measure that would have restricted Riyadh’s access to cluster munitions, weapons that leave behind mine-like explosives that can kill civilians for decades after a conflict has ended.
Gantz on Annexation: Palestinians ‚In Deep Shit,‘ Israel ‚Won’t Keep Waiting for Them‘
Gantz, who in the past publicly backed dialogue with the Palestinians toward an agreement leading to a two-state solution, said the Israeli government should “not only to manage the conflict but shape it as well.” And if the Palestinians choose not to hold talks with Israel about the annexation, “then we will have to move forward without them,” he said.
Egypt, Jordan likely to opt for symbolic response if Israel annexes West Bank parts: report
Mossad (Israel’s foreign intelligence) chief Yossi Cohen and his Egyptian counterpart Abbas Kamal reportedly spearheaded the talks, which yielded an agreement on the scale of the response.
While the world is busy in dealing virus & regional tensed situation, Greater Israel Plan is happening on 1st July,2020.
(…)
Netanyahu caters to Right, divorces Palestinian statehood from annexation
(31.05.2020)
IT WILL likely go like this. Netanyahu will rely on the formal public pledge he made in his 2009 Bar-Ilan speech to support a demilitarized Palestinian state. That pledge was made when former US president Barack Obama was in power and was designed to satisfy an administration that wanted a two-state solution based on pre-1967 lines.
Netanyahu did not speak of the 1967 lines in the speech, but Obama accepted Netanyahu’s statehood pledge nonetheless.
Caught between annexation and his public’s apathy, Abbas hopes for symbolic wins
But that won’t stop the initiatives, a Palestinian official says.
“The current plan is to keep appealing to UN institutions in order to be recognized, even if the proposals are vetoed over and over. Many countries support this move, so the leadership supports it as well.”
He adds: “There are already 12 or 13 European states that are willing to recognize a Palestinian state under occupation in the event of an Israeli annexation, and that’s the price Israel will have to pay.”
Did Putin save Israel from Obama at UN, and why are we hearing this now?
Danon appealed to his Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin, and the matter went up to the Netanyahu-Putin level. The Russians did not agree to veto Resolution 2334 condemning settlements, but they were opposed to the second one, and generally did not approve of the Obama administration making these last-minute moves right before Trump took office.
The Israeli source posited that the Obama administration did not want to be seen as less pro-Israel than Russia, so they backed down from the second initiative.
Report: Putin nixed Obama initiative to create Palestinian state within 1948 borders
In late 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin prevented former US President Barack Obama’s attempt to pass a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution demanding Israel relinquish the West Bank territories captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and accept a two-state resolution based on 1948 borders, freshly declassified documents appear to show.
Will Germany Be Bombing Afghanistan With Israeli Drones?
Israel’s drone deals with Germany began in 2009, when it first leased drones to the German army for use in Afghanistan. Seven years later there was a similar transaction, this time to operate the drones in Mali.
Willkie Sues Defense Agencies For Info On Taliban Payments
(yesterday)
International law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP has sued U.S. defense agencies for records of protection payments that government contractors in Afghanistan allegedly made to the Taliban, saying the agencies have failed to hand over the requested documents.
In five separate lawsuits filed in a D.C. federal court Tuesday, Willkie accuses the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the Defense Contract Management Agency, the Drug Enforcement Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency of failing to fulfill the firm’s Freedom Of Information Act requests for documents that allegedly show eight Afghanistan reconstruction companies paid the …
Netanyahu mulls applying sovereignty to West Bank areas in two phases: report
Under the Middle East peace plan unveiled by US President Donald Trump, Israel has been given a green light to annex some 30 percent of the West Bank.
However, one of the options Netanyahu is considering is to start off with 10 percent, beginning with settlements located deep into the area.
After that, the Palestinian side would be invited to hold negotiations; if no talks materialize, Israel would go ahead and apply sovereignty to the remaining 20 percent, the newspaper reports.
Trump’s move to pull troops from Germany draws bipartisan warnings
“The United States’ military presence in Germany is mutually beneficial to both nations, and bolsters the transatlantic alliance. It’s also an invaluable hub for U.S. military operations,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, said in a statement Tuesday.
Full text of the letter from House Democrats warning Israel about annexation of the West Bank
We remain steadfast in our belief that pursuing two states for two peoples is essential to ensuring a secure, Jewish, democratic Israel able to live side-by-side, in peace and mutual recognition, with an independent, viable, de-militarized Palestinian state.
Unilateral annexation would likely jeopardize Israel’s significant progress on normalization with Arab states at a time when closer cooperation can contribute to countering shared threats. Unilateral annexation risks insecurity in Jordan, with serious ancillary risks to Israel. Finally, unilateral annexation could create serious problems for Israel with its European friends and other partners around the world. We do not see how any of these acute risks serve the long-term interest of a strong, secure Israel.
As committed partners in supporting and protecting the special U.S.-Israel relationship, we express our deep concern with the stated intention to move ahead with any unilateral annexation of West Bank territory, and we urge your government to reconsider plans to do so.
Sincerely,
Stop Calling Israel a Jewish Democracy
(08.06.2020)
The looming annexation of the West Bank will create a one-state reality, forcing American elites to choose between a commitment to the country’s Jewishness and democratic values.
U.N. rights experts condemn Israel’s annexation plan and U.S. support
The joint statement, signed by nearly 50 independent experts, voiced dismay at U.S. support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “unlawful” plan to extend sovereignty, de facto annexation of land that the Palestinians seek for a state.
Trump confirms plan to cut US troops in Germany to 25,000
“We’re putting the number down to 25,000 soldiers,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“Germany’s delinquent,” Trump added. “They’ve been delinquent for years, and they owe NATO billions of dollars, and they have to pay it. So we’re protecting Germany, and they’re delinquent. That doesn’t make sense.”
Only a third of Israelis support annexing parts of the West Bank in July
(10.06.2020)
Support for a two state solution, while not a majority opinion, continues to be the favored result overall – 42% backed a two-state solution as their preferred course of action in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A quarter of respondents wanted annexation to be the next step, while 22.8% thought that the government ought to continue with the status quo.
Polls: Only 1/3 of Israelis Support Netanyanu-Trump Annexation Plan
According to the Midgam Institute poll, support for a two state solution continues to be the favored result overall: 42% indicated that this is the course of action the prefer; a quarter of the respondents wanted annexation to be the next step; while 22.8% thought that the government ought to continue with the status quo.
However, a clear majority (54.3%) of the respondents to this poll maintained that Palestinians to have the right to establish an independent state next to Israel, within the framework of a peace agreement.
International Criminal Court oversight chief ‘deeply regrets’ US decision to target officials investigating Afghanistan war crimes
The decision, announced on Thursday by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, defence secretary, Mark Esper and attorney general, William Barr, targets ICC officials investigating war crimes allegedly committed in Afghanistan by all sides, including the US, and will also see visa restrictions imposed on their families.
Report: Palestinian leadership fails to rally crowds for protest against annexation
While the annexation plan met with harsh criticism from the Israeli left, as well as parts of the international community, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party could secure a meager turnout of some 200 protesters at a rally in Ramallah, according to Haaretz.
Assassinations, Terror Attacks and Even Castration – the Hidden Actions of Israel’s Pre-state Militia
Such operations continued right up to the establishment of the state. At the end of March 1947, Mordechai Berger, who worked in the Mandatory police’s traffic division, was murdered in the street after being suspected of divulging information about the Haganah to the British. “The assailants gagged him and hit him over the head with clubs. Berger fell bleeding,” wrote Prof. Yehuda Lapidot, an Irgun member who later researched the history of Mandatory Palestine.
“None of the organizations emerges with clean hands from this dark matter,” Haskin wrote. He added that the fingers of right-wing organization members were lighter on the trigger, but emphasized the role of Haganah members in assassinating Jews.
Israel: 400 Jewish studies professors condemn annexation as ‚crime against humanity‘
The annexation, the letter argues, will result in a system where small Palestinian enclaves in the annexed territories are effectively controlled by Israel in, what it alleges, will amount to „conditions of apartheid.“
Apartheid is seen as a crime against humanity under the international law, the letter warns, adding that Israel could grant citizenship to residents of the target areas, but the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided against that.
Annexation? Israeli Apartheid? Hounding Journalists? Gantz Didn’t Come to Fight
The Kahol Lavan leader seems to have forgotten that his party was supposed to represent an alternative to Netanyahu’s aggressive ways
ASP President O-Gon Kwon rejects measures taken against ICC
I will convene an extraordinary meeting of the Bureau of the Assembly next week to consider how to renew our unwavering commitment to the Court.
I call upon the States Parties and all the stakeholders in the Rome Statute system to reiterate once more our relentless commitment to uphold and defend the principles and values enshrined in the Statute and to preserve its integrity undeterred by any measures and threats against the Court and its officials, staff and their families.
U.S. Decision to Sanction International Crime Court Was Coordinated With Israel, Source Says
The move was discussed in a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jerusalem last month, the source said on Thursday.
Israel’s High Court Strikes Down West Bank Land-grab Law as ‚Unconstitutional‘
Israel’s High Court of Justice ordered on Tuesday to nullify a law that would legalize the status of settlements partially built on privately owned Palestinian land under the claim that it is „unconstitutional.“
Israeli Leftists, Apologizing for Your Beliefs Won’t Spare You. Get Off the Defensive
Even if you say “Jewish left” instead of “Israeli left” because it sounds more patriotic, they’ll always have another loyalty test on the way. Because groveling, stammering and apologizing for what you believe in won’t spare you.
The right is ready to go on television, on radio, online, wherever necessary, to defend an apartheid plan, to defend billions being spent at a time of deep recession and to defend a corrupt prime minister. They’re ready to defend the most galling things, and you’re not ready to defend the truth? Try it sometime. Believe me, it’s easier.
How Bernie Sanders Came to Address an Anti-annexation Rally in Tel Aviv
Odeh and Sanders first met in February 2017, when the Odeh visited Washington to attend that year’s J Street conference.
Israeli Left’s Show of Strength Highlights Weakness of Anti-annexation Protest
One can argue about whether the disparate 100-year history of confrontation and occupation between Israelis and Palestinians totally negates parallels to white America’s 400 years of African American subjugation and discrimination. But one glaring gap is undeniable: The majority of U.S. public opinion now acknowledges the legitimacy of black grievances, while the majority of Israelis ‒ including most of the Jewish center-left ‒ continues to view Palestinians, at least those beyond the former Green Line, as a mortal enemy bent on their country’s destruction
Trump to Pull Thousands of U.S. Troops From Germany
Move would cut 9,500 American service members from Germany, where 34,500 are permanently assigned, amid strains between two key NATO allies
Blue and White Is My Race
The nation-state law is the constitutional cornerstone of apartheid. And naturally, Hauser’s arguments also tie into the intent to annex parts of the West Bank in the framework of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan: Israel intends to expand its violations of its residents’ equal rights on an ethnic/racial basis.
It’s turning out much sooner than expected that when parts of Kahol Lavan joined the right-wing government, their merger was an expression of a deep ideological partnership.
Netanyahu Says Palestinians in Jordan Valley Won’t Get Citizenship After Annexation
The Palestinians “have to recognize that we are the ones dictating security rules over the entire territory. If they agree to all of this, then they will have their own entity that President Trump defines as a state.” Netanyahu added that an American diplomat told him “’it won’t be a state,’” to which he replied “’call it whatever you want.’”
Transcript: Joe Biden foreign policy adviser Antony Blinken on COVID shortfalls, failures in Syria
Iran has now restarted some of the dangerous aspects of its nuclear program that the nuclear deal stopped dead in their tracks. And unfortunately, it’s taken a series of provocative actions endangering our own forces in the Middle East, in Iraq and Syria, as well as our citizens. And all of that has happened at the same time that we managed to alienate ourselves from our closest allies. We disagree fundamentally with the approach the administration took on Iran. So this is just not working on its own terms. If Iran comes back into compliance with the deal, then yes, Joe Biden said we would do the same thing, but we would use that as a platform to try to build a stronger and longer deal working with our partners.
And I think we’d have a decent chance of doing that because our partners would be with us, not alienated from us. And at the same time, much more likely to join us in trying to curb other actions by Iran that we find objectionable.
Terrible stuff from @JoeBiden . As the grandson of a Jew who escaped Nazi Germany in 1939, I hope he and his campaign will stop undermining our ability to address anti-Semitism by using it as a euphemism for peaceful opposition to human rights abuses by the Israeli government.
‘Almost hard to believe’: Joe Biden attacks antisemitism on the left in US and UK
It comes as Mr Biden’s presidential campaign considers how he can appeal to progressives on the left of the Democratic party, and younger voters in particular, who criticise Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Mr Biden, who was asked about antisemitism among sections of the left in the US and UK, said that whilst antisemitism was “the mother of all conspiracy theories”, Americans had not heard enough about the dangers of the Holocaust happening again.
Jordan’s king warns of ‘massive conflict’ if Israel annexes land in West Bank
Jordan has been lobbying the EU to take “practical steps” to make sure annexation doesn’t happen. In a statement, Safadi “stressed the need for the international community and the European Union in particular to take practical steps that reflect the rejection of any Israeli decision to annex.”
Pompeo in Israel for Meetings on Annexation, Virus, Iran and China
“The most important thing is actually generating the information and then sharing the information,” Mr. Netanyahu interrupted Mr. Pompeo to say, an unmistakable reference to the Israeli intelligence services’ track record of developing information of value to the United States.
Notably, Mr. Pompeo’s short schedule of meetings included a session with the Mossad director, Yossi Cohen.
Netanyahu can’t get away with his criminal plans by promoting lies
Netanyahu, who is now forming the new right-wing government, is trying to propagate such lies to make his criminal plan a de facto reality by showing the Palestinians that they no longer have support from the Arab world, especially among the key Arab states whose support has kept the Palestinian struggle for independence alive.
Resuming international travel, Pompeo to visit Israel to meet with Gantz, Netanyahu
A staunch supporter of Israel, Pompeo will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his centrist rival turned partner Benny Gantz in Jerusalem on May 13, the day the government is expected to be sworn in.
Poll shows majority of Israeli Jews against West Bank annexation
The poll, commissioned by the group Commanders for Israel’s Security, an organization made up of ex-senior officials from the country’s defense establishment, shows that 26 percent of respondents support Israel extending its sovereignty into the West Bank.
Some 40% of those surveyed, however, said they prefer a two-state solution to put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while 22% favor a unilateral disengagement from the Palestinians.
Amb. Friedman: Asking Israel to give up its ‚biblical heartland‘ is ‚unreasonable‘
Israel’s withdrawing from the West Bank city of Hebron is an absurd proposition tantamount to the idea of the United States abandoning the Statue of Liberty, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Israeli media Friday.
Speaking to Israel Hayom, Friedman stressed the importance to Israel of Jewish communities outside the large settlement blocs in Area C of the West Bank, which is widely expected to remain under Israeli control.
Whatever you think of Israel’s decision on the West Bank, let’s be clear: The Trump peace plan leaves open the possibility of a two-state solution. Israelis will never accept withdrawal to ‘67 border, uprooting of hundreds of thousands of people.
(08.05.2020)
UAE warns of dangerous repercussions following Israel’s annexation of Palestinian territory
In a statement issued after the virtual meeting – held on the invitation of the State of Palestine – Arab countries condemned Israel’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank in contravention of international consensus.
UN: Israeli annexation plans ‚entirely unacceptable‘
“Israel’s decision to unilaterally march ahead with the planned annexation on July 1 undermines human rights in the region, and would be a severe body blow to the rules-based international order,” said Michael Lynk, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967.
11 European envoys warn Israel against annexation
The ambassadors of the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, along with the deputy ambassador to the EU, issued a warning to Anna Azari, Israeli Foreign Ministry’s European deputy, in a meeting via a Zoom conference call.
Israel: Dozens of ultra-Orthodox communities expected to go into full lockdown soon
The Israeli government is expected to declare full lockdowns of numerous ultra-Orthodox communities across the country and West Bank to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus.
A Knesset (Israeli Parliament) ministerial committee was formed late on Sunday to oversee the decision that is expected to affect at least eight cities that and more than a dozen neighborhoods.
Gantz Wants a Six-month Coronavirus Government, Netanyahu Wants Annexation
With Joe Biden possibly the U.S. president come January 20, many Likudniks think it’s now or never for a West Bank land grab
Former member of Israel-backed militia killed in Lebanon
The Lebanese-American man, Amer Fakhoury, had been jailed in Lebanon since September and charged with murder and torture of prisoners at the same SLA-run prison — charges he denied. A Lebanese judge ordered him released last week, saying more than 10 years had passed since the alleged crimes.
U.S. officials confirmed Fakhoury was aboard a U.S. Marine V-22 Osprey seen taking off from the U.S. Embassy compound northeast of Beirut on Thursday.
every man is the architect of his own fortune
Each person is the chief cause of their success or failure in life.
Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land. The Hague, 18 October 1907.
SECTION III
MILITARY AUTHORITY OVER THE TERRITORY OF THE HOSTILE STATE
Art. 42. Territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the
hostile army.