Benjamin Netanyahu Says He Opposes Palestinian State In Any Postwar Scenario

From AP via HuffPost [link:https://www.huffpost.com/entry/benjamin-netanyahu-israel-palestinian-state_n_65a95efee4b076abd7aac36b|]

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has informed the United States that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario.

The announcement on Thursday exposed the deep divisions that have emerged between the close allies three months into Israel’s war against Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

The U.S. has called on Israel to scale back its offensive and said that the establishment of a Palestinian state should be part of the “day after.”

In a nationally broadcast news conference, Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the offensive until Israel realizes a “decisive victory over Hamas.” He also rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood. He said he had relayed his positions to the Americans.

“In any future arrangement … Israel needs security control all territory west of the Jordan,” Netanyahu told a nationally broadcast news conference. “This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do?”

“The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends,” he added.

An Israeli airstrike on a home killed 16 people, half of them children, in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, medics said early Thursday. The military continued to strike targets in areas of the besieged territory where it has told civilians to seek refuge.

Education Ministry Withdraws Funding of Jewish Event Over Arab Israeli Host

Not a good look right now for Israel . . .

'A woman who represents mixed marriage cannot represent Jewish culture' said the ministry about journalist and host Lucy Aharish, who is married to Jewish Fauda star Tsahi Halevi; the Israeli council that hosts the annual event to 'promote a pluralistic, progressive and free Judaism' demands the ministry to retract its decision

...
"We host religious and secular, Ashkenazim and Mizrahi, right-wing and left-wing, settlement and city people. The flag of the event is the promotion of a pluralistic, progressive and free Judaism with great respect for the Jewish tradition," continued Virba.

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After Virba's request was denied, Itzik Holevsky, Head of the Megiddo Council submitted his own appeal. "Aharish's lecture was moving and fascinating, about marrying a Jew, about the Jewish holidays and the multicultural education of her children in Israel. It was a Jewish lecture in every sense of the word," Holevsky wrote in the notice of appeal.

"We were surprised by the division's decision to deny the proportional part of the annual support, due to the participation of Lucy Aharish at the event and due to the fact that she is not Jewish," Holevsky continued.

"We at the Megiddo Regional Council do not know of a regulation or law that prohibits receiving support for a non-Jewish participant. Moreover, Lucy Aharish was deemed worthy of lighting a torch on the Independence Day of the State of Israel," said Holevsky.

"Lucy Aharish saved dozens of Jews on October 7. Lucy Aharish sends her husband to fight with the Duvdevan [special forces] unit in Gaza. We think she is worthy enough to receive the support of the Division for Jewish Culture. We would appreciate it if you would reconsider the decision and give Megiddo your full support," wrote Holevsky in his appeal.

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Bar Levi's statement to the council goes on to say, "We live in a 'Jewish State' and as the Wing of Jewish Culture, it makes sense that a woman who represents mixed marriage cannot represent Jewish culture." The letter bore the symbol of the Ministry of Education.

Memorandum of Shin Bet Law Will Enable Israel's Security Agency to Spy on Journalists

The law grants the intelligence agency authority to conduct covert searches of computers, mobile phones without their owners' knowledge. While some professions are protected in the memorandum, journalists are not. Civil rights groups say memorandum 'ignores dangers of political influence'

The memorandum of the Shin Bet law, which aims to grant the domestic intelligence agency the authority to conduct covert searches of computers and mobile phones without the knowledge of their owners, does not exclude journalists from surveillance.

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The comprehensive memorandum concerning amendment of the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) Law, which is being updated for the first time since 2002, is intended to grant the organization additional powers, including sweeping access to databases of state authorities such as the Israel Police, the National Insurance Institute, and government ministries.

Among other things, the amendment proposes allowing the Shin Bet to search computers and phones using spyware – as was the case in the Pegasus affair – subject to the approval of the prime minister's approval, but with minimal Knesset supervision and without any supervision by the courts.
Continued . . . read at link

How Israel's Inspection Process Is Obstructing Aid Delivery. Senator Chris Van Hollen describes what he witnessed on the

Egypt-Gaza Border.

From The New Yorker:

Q&A

Last week, the Democratic senators Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen travelled to the Rafah border crossing in Egypt, the entry point for many of the aid trucks into the Gaza Strip. The humanitarian situation in Gaza, where more than twenty-three thousand people are estimated to have been killed in Israel’s military campaign, is extremely dire, and the number of trucks full of food and medicine and other vital goods is insufficient. As recently as Thursday, the United Nations reported that only a hundred and forty-five trucks entered Gaza through Rafah and Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, which is close to Rafah, but on the Israeli side; human-rights groups have stated that more than three times that many are required. Israel contends that aid trucks have to be closely scrutinized to insure that weapons are not being smuggled into Gaza, but after watching the inspection process at Rafah, Merkley and Van Hollen called the Israeli approach “arbitrary.”

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Why is it getting worse?

Well, it’s getting worse in terms of the level of hunger, and that is the result of people who’ve been denied access to the food they need for too long, and are not getting adequate levels of humanitarian supplies, as well as a dramatic reduction—it went down to zero in early December—of commercial trucks going through the crossings, and of course those trucks used to supply goods to the people of Gaza.

You also said that the inspection process was “arbitrary.” What does that mean in practice?

One of the things we witnessed personally was a large warehouse filled with humanitarian goods that had been rejected at Israeli inspection points. Goods like medical kits used to deliver babies, water-testing kits, water filters, solar-powered desalinization units, tents that people said might’ve been returned because they had metal poles.

So a whole collection of rejected items that seemed purely arbitrary. And I will also say that when one item on a truck is rejected, the entire truck is turned back, and in talking to a truck driver and others we learned that some of these trucks take twenty days to go from the starting point to delivering assistance. So when I say, “a whole truck is turned back,” it goes all the way back to the beginning of the process.

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I want to return to your trip to the Rafah border crossing. You’ve laid out what you thought the facts were, but what is your analysis of what is going on? Why was this inspection process like this?

Well, if I look at the totality of issues, it was clear that there was not sufficient will by Israeli authorities to address the scope and severity of the crisis, and you saw that in many different ways. I would just start on some major data points here, which is, it shouldn’t have taken so long to open the Kerem Shalom crossing. And we know that it wasn’t open because of a political decision by the Netanyahu government, that they did not want to see humanitarian goods transiting through Israeli territory to get to Palestinians in Gaza.

How do we know that?

I know that from conversations I’ve had with multiple people in the [Biden] Administration. And, of course, even today we’re trying to get the Erez crossing open. [The Erez crossing connects northern Gaza with Israel.] So those are some of the big data points when it comes to humanitarian assistance, and then there are all these other facts along the way: the fact that you have a broken deconfliction system within Gaza—I think we need a humanitarian timeout, but absent that you could still have a much better deconfliction process that reflects the way they’ve done it in other conflicts around the world—and again, all these obstacles that have been put in the way of getting goods into Gaza, including the arbitrary rejection of things like medical kits and water-testing kits.

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Analysis Gaza Genocide Case Against Israel: The Key Legal Questions Facing the International Court of Justice

From Haaretz:

By Ayel Gross - a member of the Faculty in Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Law where he teaches International Law and Constitutional Law.

This is a really well outlined analysis of what the ICJ will be reviewing, how the case will or will not be made, etc. I recommend reading the whole article to learn more. There is also an explanation about the difference with proving genocide and proving war crimes and the difference in the ICJ and ICC and what kinds of crimes they review and process for bringing cases before them (important as some DUers seem interested in that)

South Africa's case against Israel is not the first time the world court is being asked to rule on potential genocide. Previous decisions will give hope to both the Palestinians and Israel, but may ultimately highlight the limitations of international law

Under international law, in order to prove genocide is being committed, it is necessary to show both a physical and a mental element: one or more acts have to be done with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

The acts that can fulfill the physical element include killing members of the group, causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group, and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

As there is no doubt that Israel has killed many Palestinians in Gaza, and caused bodily harm to many others, the issue on which South Africa's claims before the International Court of Justice that Israel commits genocide against Palestinians in Gaza will rise or fall is the question of intent.

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At the same time, given the statements by Israeli officials and the harsh reality in Gaza, the United Nations' top court may end up accepting South Africa's claim. But it is important to recall that because of the special intent required in genocide, it is much harder to prove it than to prove war crimes – where, for example, it would be enough to show an attack was launched intentionally knowing it will cause incidental loss of life to civilians in a way excessive to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the attack.

However, while alleged war crimes committed by both Hamas and Israel are now under investigation in the other international court located in the Hague – the International Criminal Court – the International Court of Justice would not have jurisdiction regarding claims on "merely" war crimes.

This is because the world court – unlike the International Criminal Court, which deals with criminal prosecution against individuals – deals only with claims against states, only has jurisdiction based on the consent of states. In this case, such consent exists because both South Africa and Israel are members of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which determines that disputes relating to the convention shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.

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However, direct compliance is not the whole story. While a U.S. veto may protect Israel from enforcement decisions in the Security Council, an order by the world court may lead to different forms of international pressure upon Israel: diplomatic and political, economic and legal.

Whether the court proceedings will help alleviate the huge suffering caused to civilians during this war remains to be seen. Ending the horror afflicting so many, both Israelis and Palestinians, is a noble goal. The question of whether international law, with all its limitations – be it ones of jurisdiction, merit or compliance – can assist in reaching this goal is one we will be attuned to in the next few months.

Israel is starving Gaza - report from B'Tselem

Settlers killed a Palestinian teen. Israeli forces didn't stop it. From Washington Post

[link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/01/09/israel-settler-violence-qusra-west-bank/|]
Free Link [link:https://archive.is/zyU7A|]

The threats were sent via Facebook on Oct. 9 to residents of Qusra, a Palestinian community in the Israeli-occupied West Bank: “To all the rats in the sewers of Qusra village we are waiting for you and we will have no mercy. The day of revenge is coming.”

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A Washington Post review of exclusive visuals of the attack, medical records and interviews with witnesses and first responders reveals that one of the Palestinians killed, 17-year-old Obada Saed Abu Srour, was shot in the back by settlers, probably as he was running from gunfire.

Israeli troops, meanwhile, did not forcefully intervene, despite their obligation under international and Israeli law to protect all residents of the West Bank, including Palestinians. Soldiers and police were photographed at the scene of the deaths only after the attack ended, even though troops stationed at nearby military outposts were within earshot of the gunfire and had views of an earlier attack by settlers, the visual evidence shows.

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Abu Srour, the eldest of four children, with aspirations to become a policeman after finishing high school, was killed along with civil engineer and new father Muath Raed Odeh, 29. They were trying to protect the home of 30-year-old blacksmith Awad Mahmoud Odeh from attack. Musab Abdel Halim Abu Rida, 20, who worked in the fields and could always make his grandmother laugh, was killed near Abu Srour.

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In the month after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, more than 800 Palestinians were displaced from their West Bank homes amid increased violence by the radical Israeli settler movement, which has long held the aim of expelling Palestinians and expanding the Jewish footprint in the occupied territories. Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 4, more than 300 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers, a dramatic increase in the rate of killing in the last months of 2023, the deadliest year since the United Nations began recording casualties in 2005.

Editorial The IDF Must Investigate the Kibbutz Be'eri Tank Fire Incident - Right Now

There is no demand more justified than that of relatives of people killed in the hostage incident at Kibbutz Be'eri to investigate the army's actions and to receive answers about the circumstances of their loved ones' deaths.

Moreover, the families should not have to make this demand alone. The Israel Defense Forces must give them and the public an explanation for the army's conduct on October 7 outside the home of Pesi Cohen.

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Porat, who was held as a hostage but released by one of the terrorists at the height of the incident, said in a television interview that members of the police's special counterterrorism unit had questioned her outside the house, and she told them there were 40 terrorists and 14 hostages inside.

Dagan, who was in the house when a tank fired two shells at it, was the only Israeli to survive, and she confirmed Porat's account.

The families' demand of the IDF – that it "conduct a comprehensive and transparent investigation of the decisions and actions that led to this tragic result" and release its findings "first to the families, and then to the public as well" – is based on what Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, who was in charge of the fighting in that area, said in an interview with The New York Times.


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The public has a right to know the following: Did Hiram act in accordance with the IDF's rules and ethos, or contrary to them? And is the spirit of the Hannibal Directive the dominant one in the IDF during its war on Hamas?

The answers to these questions are critical to what is happening right now. And the IDF therefore owes the public answers to them now.

Thousands Protest Across Israel Calling For Elections & Netanyahu's Dismissal

Opinion Keep Our Mouths Shut and Salute? It's Not the Time for Israelis to Keep Quiet

Written by Zehava Galon - an Israeli politician, the president of the research institute ZULAT for Equality and Human Rights and former leader of Meretz.

On October 7, in wake of the terrible massacre and war crimes committed by Hamas, the diplomatic and security conceptions of the Israeli governments over the past two decades collapsed. If all we learn from this is, once more, "Quiet, we're shooting," then we haven't learned anything. The conceptions that fell apart here did not belong solely to Benjamin Netanyahu, their progenitor. They were also taken for granted by politicians and military officials and commentators. We held entire election campaigns as though there were no Palestinian question at all. Naftali Bennett, who is currently warming up on the sidelines, referred to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a "piece of shrapnel in the ass."

Three months into the fighting in Gaza, more than 500 soldiers have been killed and thousands wounded. Estimates from Gaza say that more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, 70 percent of them women and children. These are not numbers that we've seen in the past, in any previous operations or previous ground incursions. Is it a consequence of imprecise bombings, as the Americans claimed, and as did some of the released Israeli hostages, who said they feared for their lives from the bombardments? Must we really be discussing proposals like the one to starve out the Gazans, even at the cost of thousands more dead, even at the cost of starving the Israeli hostages? Isn't it time that we discuss the need to bring more humanitarian aid into Gaza, and not because the United States is pressuring us to do so?

It is the government that sets our policy in Gaza. There is no reason for us to just accept it as the gospel from on high. We don't need easy talk about unity, we need an intelligent discussion supported by facts. And we need it now, for one thing because the way we fight in Gaza directly affects the lives of the Israeli hostages there, the lives of thousands of Gazans who didn't do anything, our international legitimacy to carry on fighting, and the solutions that will be possible to implement once the fighting ends.