Israel

[pnwguy]

Apr 4, 2023 0:07:40 GMT AnBr said:

Qevin is a sleaze bucket.

And so is Bibi.

[LFC]

This piece at Foreign Affairs (archived link) says the obvious; the Two-State Solution is dead Israel killed it not through declaration but instead through creating a situation where it's undeniable. I haven't finished it but I think it's tough to make a case that there's any chance left of it happening.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power in Israel with a narrow, extreme right-wing coalition has shattered even the illusion of a two-state solution. Members of his new government have not been shy about stating their views on what Israel is and what it should be in all the territories it controls: a Greater Israel defined not just as a Jewish state but one in which the law enshrines Jewish supremacy over all Palestinians who remain there. As a result, it is no longer possible to avoid confronting a one-state reality.

Israel’s radical new government did not create this reality but rather made it impossible to deny. The temporary status of “occupation” of the Palestinian territories is now a permanent condition in which one state ruled by one group of people rules over another group of people. The promise of a two-state solution made sense as an alternative future in the years around the 1993 Oslo accords, when there were constituencies for compromise on both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides and when tangible if fleeting progress was made toward building the institutions of a hypothetical Palestinian state. But that period ended long ago. Today, it makes little sense to let fantastical visions for the future obscure deeply embedded existing arrangements.

It is past time to grapple with what a one-state reality means for policy, politics, and analysis. Palestine is not a state in waiting, and Israel is not a democratic state incidentally occupying Palestinian territory. All the territory west of the Jordan River has long constituted a single state under Israeli rule, where the land and the people are subject to radically different legal regimes, and Palestinians are permanently treated as a lower caste. Policymakers and analysts who ignore this one-state reality will be condemned to failure and irrelevance, doing little beyond providing a smokescreen for the entrenchment of the status quo.

[LFC]

It's over. There isn't a chance now that the West Bank won't eventually be completely subsumed by Israel.

Israel Is Officially Annexing the West Bank

A quiet bureaucratic maneuver by Netanyahu’s government has begun transferring control over the occupied territory from military to civilian leadership—violating international law.

[LFC]

Who didn't assume it was a play for time and forgetfulness right from the start?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday his government intends to move ahead on contentious plans to change the country’s judicial system after talks aimed at finding a compromise solution appeared to be crumbling.

The government’s plans to overhaul the judiciary plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises ever earlier this year. Negotiations between the government and opposition parties somewhat alleviated the crisis with attempts to find a middle ground over proposed changes to the country’s justice system.

Those talks were jolted last week over a crisis surrounding the powerful regular committee responsible for picking the country’s judges.

Opposition leaders said negotiations were frozen until the committee is formed.

At a meeting of his Cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu said the opposition wasn’t negotiating seriously and that his government would move ahead cautiously on the overhaul.

[jackd]

Does a new system dismiss the charges against him?

[indy]

Jun 20, 2023 23:32:35 GMT jackd said:

Does a new system dismiss the charges against him?

As I understand it, it gives the Knesset the power to override Supreme Court decisions with a simple majority. So I suppose the potential would be there but I'm far from knowledgeable about the in-n-outs.

[jackd]

Seems like a likely motive, doesn't it?

[indy]

It certainly seems conveniently timed. Imagine if the House here in the US were able to override the Supreme Court's decisions with a simple majority? Yikes. At least we have a bicameral legislative system so a simple majority House vote could never do that. Israel, on the other hand, ...

ETA: Just to be clear and again from what I understand, the Israeli judicial system looks like it is overly insulated from any sort of oversight. I think it might actually benefit from reform, but the particular reforms here seem pretty suspect, as if reasonable reform wasn't really the goal.

[pg]

Bibi is an international jerk who has been a craven media whore ( I still have a working # for media booking) in US and abroad. He may want the world to think he cares about his people, but the truth is where he lies: For decades, the only thing he's ever cared about is himself.
Stop-down.

[pnwguy]

Jun 21, 2023 20:02:06 GMT pg said:

Bibi is an international jerk who has been a craven media whore ( I still have a working # for media booking) in US and abroad. He may want the world to think he cares about his people, but the truth is where he lies: For decades, the only thing he's ever cared about is himself.
Stop-down.

No wonder Dumpster likes him. Authoritarian sociopaths stick together

[pnwguy]

Israeli religious extremists voted to essentially suspend democracy. America’s religious extremists may follow suit in 2024. ☹️

[goldenvalley]

To the extent that Trump is aware of this...it is what he aspires to if he wins the presidency again.  

[goldenvalley]

Well this is not good. The Hamas attacks are horrible and I fear the Israeli (meaning Netanyahu and his radical allies) will retaliate in ways that will make the world just as angry at Israel as at Hamas.  I have friends who just landed in Tel Aviv on Thursday.  Not under attack there, but they didn't plan to spend their whole vacation in that city.  A couple of friends' kids are also in the city as exchange students.  The younger one is being sent home to the US, a sign that the school he attends thinks this will last several months at least.

And first world whine time for GV, I was supposed to go there in a couple of weeks.  Am canceling everything. Had planned a nice antiquities tour in Jordan and Egypt too. Ancient history will have to wait.

[Bact PhD]

Oct 10, 2023 21:39:52 GMT goldenvalley said:

Well this is not good. The Hamas attacks are horrible and I fear the Israeli (meaning Netanyahu and his radical allies) will retaliate in ways that will make the world just as angry at Israel as at Hamas.  I have friends who just landed in Tel Aviv on Thursday.  Not under attack there, but they didn't plan to spend their whole vacation in that city.  A couple of friends' kids are also in the city as exchange students.  The younger one is being sent home to the US, a sign that the school he attends thinks this will last several months at least.

And first world whine time for GV, I was supposed to go there in a couple of weeks.  Am canceling everything. Had planned a nice antiquities tour in Jordan and Egypt too. Ancient history will have to wait.

It’s tough to have to call off something you had anticipated for some time.

Unfortunately, I share the opinion of that school; I strongly suspect this may be something of a slog where ultimately nobody wins (except for defense contractors & associated folks).

[pnwguy]

As much as I detest Bibi and the ultra-conversatives keeping him in power, the attacks from Hamas truly are evil barbarism. One can be very supportive of the Palestinians without cheering on this depravity.

[AnBr]

As I said, I hate that this plays right into Netanyahu's hands, giving him the excuse to slaughter all of the Palestinians for a greater Israel. A final solution. It also gives him the distraction he needs to shift focus from his assault on Israeli democracy. What a boneheaded move on the part on Hamas. How could they possibly think they could win anything but their own destruction?

[pnwguy]

Oct 12, 2023 13:29:38 GMT AnBr said:

As I said, I hate that this plays right into Netanyahu's hands, giving him the excuse to slaughter all of the Palestinians for a greater Israel. A final solution. It also gives him the distraction he needs to shift focus from his assault on Israeli democracy. What a boneheaded move on the part on Hamas. How could they possibly think they could win anything but their own destruction?

Martyrdom. If you have been brainwashed into thinking the only success is measured in the next life, you use different logic.

[goldenvalley]

Oct 12, 2023 13:29:38 GMT AnBr said:

As I said, I hate that this plays right into Netanyahu's hands, giving him the excuse to slaughter all of the Palestinians for a greater Israel. A final solution. It also gives him the distraction he needs to shift focus from his assault on Israeli democracy. What a boneheaded move on the part on Hamas. How could they possibly think they could win anything but their own destruction?

Hamas doesn't care if they survive. They're killing Jews and that's what they want. I don't think Hamas cares that Palestinians are killed too. And the people that fund Hamas are getting what they paid for.

[goldenvalley]

As I feared things are only getting worse.  Hitting hospitals is beyond horrible. In the fog of war lots of bad actors can be busy making things worse.  

[jackd]

And the only photos of Joe's trip will be Joe and Bibi shaking hands. The Arab officials are not going to meet with him. A poorly considered trip.

[goldenvalley]

Oct 18, 2023 0:18:03 GMT jackd said:

And the only photos of Joe's trip will be Joe and Bibi shaking hands. The Arab officials are not going to meet with him. A poorly considered trip.

Yeah the Arab Street will score big points with this photo.  

[jackd]

He got lucky with the evidence indicating the hospital blast was from a Hamas rocket. If he can get relief to Gaza residents, the trip will have been worth it.

[goldenvalley]

Oct 19, 2023 14:21:43 GMT jackd said:

He got lucky with the evidence indicating the hospital blast was from a Hamas rocket. If he can get relief to Gaza residents, the trip will have been worth it.

Only if the world press spreads the word of the relief and who was responsible for it as they do photos of blown up buildings and dead people.  

[pg]

Oct 19, 2023 16:16:27 GMT goldenvalley said:

Oct 19, 2023 14:21:43 GMT jackd said:

He got lucky with the evidence indicating the hospital blast was from a Hamas rocket. If he can get relief to Gaza residents, the trip will have been worth it.

Only if the world press spreads the word of the relief and who was responsible for it as they do photos of blown up buildings and dead people.  

Relief is on it's way, yes? Sparingly. Will it matter how/if media coverage happens? My guess is nope. It's not nearly enough. Yet each faction- media and social media- has their own take. It spreads like a disease with no controls. 

[goldenvalley]

Things just get worse.  I would say this is a lesson to us not to give extremists power but given what's happened in the House today it's too late.