Israel/Palestine Thread

IDF - hypocrisy 101

Haaretz
Days ahead of the first meeting of U.S. President Trump's Board of Peace, Palestinian officials in Gaza reported that Israeli strikes overnight into Sunday killed at least 11 people, which the IDF said were a response to a "blatant violation" of the cease-fire

The war is definitely so alleged war criminal #1 (at large) stays out of the domestic courts whilst waiting for his pre-emptive pardon from Herzog.

To keep the war going, he even brought back Ben-Gvir to cabinet to pass a budget and avoid a govt. collapse.

Ben-Gvir is a convicted terrorist and racist.

There is no level too low.

IMO those nutters are the biggest existential threat to Israel in the long term, from an objective point of view. (Bibi is on the list as well, of course).

There are far too many people in this thread, and IRL, who treat Israelis as a monolithic block, when in reality there are huge divisions in Israeli society, as you know (as with most large groups… that equally applies to Palestinians).

As I've said before on this thread, one of the biggest problems in the Gaza conflict is that both sides are very badly led, and by extremists. Those nutter's votes have contributed significantly to that. Religious extremism never mixes well with politics.

Tense times ahead. Good Haaretz summary:

Israeli defense officials expect the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan to be particularly tense, amid what the IDF concedes is a worrying rise in violent friction between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank.

As Haaretz recently reported, police data shows that Israelis committed an average of four nationalist crimes against Palestinians daily during the first half of January.

Sources in Israel's defense establishment added that a series of Netanyahu government policy decisions regarding the number of worshippers allowed into holy sites and the legalization of unauthorized settlements are perceived by the Palestinian Authority as violations of signed agreements and de facto annexation, and that the Palestinian public feels humiliated.

These assessments are being made in the shadow of the possibility of a U.S. attack on Iran. IDF officials believe that if the United States acts, Israel may find itself coming under Iranian missile attacks. Such a scenario, intelligence officials estimate, will encourage lone wolf terror attacks by individuals who want to demonstrate support for Tehran.

More detail on the Haredi riots reported a few posts back:

On Sunday, hundreds of Haredim rampaged through the city of Bnei Brak, torching trash cans and tipping over a police car in response to an official IDF visit by women soldiers, who were attacked by residents and had to be evacuated by police.

Following the riot, PM Netanyahu said that "any instance of Israeli citizens harming IDF soldiers is severely crossing a red line," but stressed that the rioters were "an extremist minority that does not represent the entire Haredi community." 

On Monday, Israeli courts released all 26 detainees.

One of the soldiers who was attacked told Israeli news outlet Walla that she "had asked my commanders not to go there and they didn't listen to me," adding that they tried to hide in a garbage can and escape the scene, but the crowd found them anyway.

A relative of one of the detainees told Haaretz that "there was no lynching of female soldiers, it was a legitimate protest," adding that "soldiers cannot feel safe in Bnei Brak. They are not welcome in Bnei Brak. You want to forcibly recruit Haredim."

Sunday's riot is the latest in a series of violent clashes between the Haredi community and law enforcement in protests by the former against mandatory military service.

Israeli Govt. desperate to take Palestinian land in the WB (in violation of ICJ rulings). Of course, there's a lot of condemnation - including from the US.

Haaretz

Amid a concerted push by the Netanyahu government to "kill the idea of a Palestinian state," as far-right Finance Minister Smotrich said last week, Israel's cabinet approved a resolution on Sunday to register 15 percent of the land in the West Bank's Area C, which is under Israeli civil control.

According to the resolution, should Palestinians fail to prove ownership of the land, it will be registered as owned by the state. Experts who spoke to Haaretz believe that many Palestinians will struggle to prove ownership and will be dispossessed of their land because of this measure.

The Israeli government argued that the measure was taken in response to attempts by the Palestinian Authority to regulate land in Area C, which falls outside its jurisdiction.

A member of the Planners for Planning Rights NGO told Haaretz that the Palestinian regulation process is meaningless in areas under Israeli civil control, and that "the government is using it as a baseless argument to justify renewing land regulation in a way that violates international law."

Countries crucial to President Trump's Board of Peace have condemned the resolution, with⁠ Saudi Arabia, ‌the UAE, Turkey, Egypt, and Qatar calling it a "dangerous escalation that will further ‌heighten tensions ⁠and instability" in the ‌territory and wider region, and are a "flagrant violation of international law."

Meanwhile, at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Monday evening, U.S. Senator Graham said that annexing the West Bank would be a "mighty blow" to Israel on the world stage that will isolate it "even more."