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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israeli lawmakers debate controversial 80% tax bill on foreign government donations to NGOs

2025-05-06

[IsraelTimes] Likud’s Ariel Kallner says law will ‘preserve’ Israel’s Jewish and democratic character; Hadash-Ta’al MK Tibi counters that it is intended to suppress Arab vote

Lawmakers in the Knesset

…Israel’s parliament…

Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Monday began debating a controversial bill that would levy massive taxes on nongovernment organizations funded by foreign governments, and erode their right to file lawsuits in Israeli courts.

The bill, sponsored by Likud MK Ariel Kallner, would allow the government to tax foreign government donations to domestic nonprofits at a rate of 80 percent, while also stipulating that courts need not consider petitions by groups "primarily financed by a foreign political entity."

If passed into law, the legislation would apply to NGOs that do not also receive Israeli state funding. The finance minister, with the approval of the Knesset Finance Committee, would be allowed to exempt organizations from the new rules "in special circumstances."

Arguing in favor of the legislation, which passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum in February, Kallner argued that sanctions imposed on ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful settlers by the Biden administration "came as a result of despicable blood libels by delegitimization organizations such as Breaking the Silence and others" — adding that between 2012 and 2024, "a little more than NIS 1.3 billion ($360 million) flowed from foreign countries to 83 left-wing organizations, some of which are downright anti-Zionist."

"This is a psychotic reality that distorts the discourse," he declared, railing against "foreign-funded legal warfare against the state" by human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
groups petitioning the High Court of Justice.

"The law is not against civil society, but for it, against its distortion," Kallner asserted. "The law will preserve a Jewish state, preserve democracy, and block illegal foreign intervention."

Committee chairman Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) agreed, claiming that foreign money funded opposition to the coalition’s judicial overhaul agenda, while "the attorney general prohibited the justice minister from using state money to produce public diplomacy [relating to] the reform."

Groups such as B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, and the New Israel Fund have long been targeted by the Israeli right and even the political center over their focus on alleged Israeli human rights abuses against the Paleostinians.

"When it comes to the Arab public, there is no doubt that part of the politician’s intention is to prevent campaigns to encourage voting in Arab society," Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi told the committee.

Accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party of seeking to harm Arab political representation, Tibi lamented that the coalition was also working to pass a bill "that aims to make it easier to disqualify Arab lists."

Where the Arab lists are funded by foreign interests — like the US State Department during the Obama and Biden administrations — yes.

Last month, politicians voted 22-0 to approve the first reading of a bill to disqualify a candidate or list of candidates from running in municipal elections on the grounds that they have denied the existence of the State of Israel as Jewish and democratic, or expressed support for terrorism or armed struggle against Israel.

"If anyone is worried about foreign interference, let them go check past laws to see where the money of oligarchs who support political parties over the years went, and what happened in the Prime Minister’s Office," declared Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovich, alluding to the ongoing Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
gate scandal.

The Shin Bet and police are currently investigating members of Netanyahu’s inner circle over alleged ties between them and Doha as part of the probe. They are suspected of multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corruption charges involving lobbyists and businessmen.

Speaking with The Times of Israel in February, Noa Sattath, the executive director of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, accused the government of attacking liberal civil society groups while leaving right-wing organizations untouched.

"This proposed legislation is a direct assault on Israel’s democracy and part of the ongoing judicial coup. It represents a systematic attack on all institutions that check government power, and specifically targets human rights organizations working to protect minorities in Israel and Paleostinians in the occupied territories," Sattath said.

"The selective taxation targets only foreign state funding from Israel’s closest allies — including the United States and European Union

...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
member states — who support democracy, human rights, and minority protection. Meanwhile,
...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38...
right-wing organizations relying on private donations remain unaffected, and the finance minister has discretionary power to exempt certain organizations, while those receiving state funding are automatically excluded."

A previous version of the bill was shelved during an international uproar, nearly two years ago.

That proposal, also sponsored by Kallner, did not touch on NGOs’ legal standing, but mandated that any nonprofit group that engaged in public advocacy two years before or after receiving a donation from a foreign government would lose its status as a public institution and would no longer be eligible for tax exemptions, and in addition would be hit with a 65% income tax.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

'A Group of Anarchist Pensioners': Discontent with War Growing in the Israeli Army

2025-04-15

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] Over the past few days, the Israeli government has been forced to find a way to approach its own army. An overly harsh reaction to an open letter from retired military pilots dissatisfied with the protracted war in Gaza has provoked similar letters from other units and even the intelligence services.

And although the escalation is taking place mainly “on paper,” without spilling over into street protests and sabotage, for the Israeli government, the wavering army poses a much greater threat than it seems at first glance.

LETTER FROM THE PILOTS
The first sign of the image crisis was an open letter from veterans and reservists of the Israeli Air Force, published on one of the national Internet portals. The letter was signed by more than 950 soldiers and officers - mostly retirees, but among them there were also reservists and contract soldiers.

The signatories lashed out at Benjamin Netanyahu's government, saying the protracted war in Gaza serves the political and personal interests of the Israeli establishment rather than the security interests of the Jewish state.

Moreover, the escalating Operation Power and Sword in the enclave, which the Israeli government is trying to present as the final stage of defeating Hamas, is seen by the retirees as a “deferred military catastrophe.” It puts the hostages still in Gaza on the brink of death, depletes the military reserves, and increases Israel’s vulnerability to external enemies.

The Israeli leadership reacted unexpectedly sharply to the attack against it.

Less than a day after the letter was published, Chief of General Staff Eyal Zamir and Air Force Commander Tomer Bar announced at a joint briefing that all "troublemakers" had been dismissed from military service and the reserves. Moreover, according to Bar, the Air Force command "managed to bring to their senses" at least two dozen servicemen, and they withdrew their signatures.

Netanyahu himself completed the public rout of the military pilots. Commenting on the scandal, he called the authors of the letter "an anarchic group of pensioners" that is financed from abroad and undermines domestic stability.

WORKSHOP SOLIDARITY
Although the authorities' harsh response should, in theory, have nipped unrest in the army in the bud, the overly emotional attacks of senior army officials produced the opposite effect.

Within a few days, the appeal of military pilots was supported by representatives of all key branches of the armed forces. The total number of signatories of open letters exceeded three thousand people.

The IDF has roughly 169,500 active duty soldiers and 465,000 reserves at the moment, totalling 634,500. Three thousand is less than 1/2 of a per cent, a tiny fraction of the total…

The most numerous were representatives of the airborne and infantry units (about a thousand people), combat divers from Shayetet 13 (about 170 people), missilemen from the Moran special forces unit (120 people), and special forces from the Shaldag group (50 people). The remaining signatories expressed their position anonymously, without mentioning their assigned units.

In addition, at least 250 Mossad employees (mostly under pseudonyms), about 150 military doctors and several dozen electronic intelligence officers from Unit 8200 have signed the already published appeals “out of count”.

Despite the fact that many military personnel expressed their civic position as private individuals, the totality of their open letters can well be considered a manifesto of the security bloc and the first sign of the army’s dissatisfaction with the government’s policies.

EVEN THE PRIME MINISTER'S COLLEAGUES ARE UNHAPPy
Of course, the outraged retirees are only a small part of the active reserve of the Israeli armed forces, the total size of which exceeds 500 thousand people. Nevertheless, their discontent can greatly affect the situation inside the country, as well as on the external contour.

Prime Minister Netanyahu's critics point out that the purges of the reserves initiated by him and his protégé in the General Staff weaken the national air force before a hypothetical conflict with Iran.

Official Tel Aviv does not have much faith in the success of American-Iranian negotiations around the nuclear program and is preparing to eliminate the “Iranian dossier” by force, relying on an airstrike on key nuclear infrastructure facilities.

However, skeptics point out that after the scandal with the dismissal of pilots, the Air Force reserve has weakened and, if the operation suddenly goes wrong, the personnel available for operational use may simply not be enough.

The change in mood in the ranks of elite units like the Sayeret Matkal counter-terrorism unit, in whose ranks Netanyahu himself once fought, is also alarming. About twenty commandos, including former colleagues of the prime minister, signed the open letter.

In small Israeli special forces units, the idea of military brotherhood is strongly developed, and any attempts to put pressure on individual soldiers “from above” are perceived as a challenge to the unit as a whole.

And although the Netanyahu government is certainly not at risk of a “palace coup” in the spirit of the Egyptian “Free Officers,” unrest in the army ranks is fraught with the weakening of electoral support for the ruling coalition.

BATTLE FOR SUPPORT
Opposition figures in uniform are rushing to take advantage of the weakening of contacts between the authorities and the army: former Defense Minister Benny Gantz (leader of the parliamentary opposition), former Chief of the General Staff Gadi Eisenkot (State-minded Camp), and retired commander of the IDF's elite units Yair Golan (Democrats Alliance), whose tactical alliance is called the "generals' opposition."

They had previously criticized Netanyahu for his mistakes in the fight for the hostages, and now they have the opportunity to link their own criticism to the position of the “lower ranks of the army” and to enlist their support. Some military pilots who were fired after the scandal have already received an offer from the opposition to join their party actions in support of the hostages and even to become their face.

The opposition has a reason to rush to involve the wounded army men. The planned elections in Israel are scheduled for October 2026, but they may be held early - the coalition has already teetered on the brink of losing legitimacy several times.

Moreover, public opinion polls provide contradictory information.

According to estimates by the conservative Channel 14, in a hypothetical election, the ruling Likud party would still be in the lead and would even show a slight increase in mandates (controlling up to a quarter of the Knesset), while the military-led Statist Camp and Democrats parties would be at the bottom of the list and could, at best, count on a dozen seats in the overall standings.

The weekly newspaper Maariv paints a different picture. In its polls, Netanyahu's party receives at best two dozen mandates, and the gap with the opposition is reduced to a minimum. Moreover, the "generals' opposition", having joined forces, is quite capable of bypassing Likud.

Given the gradual drift of the army towards rejection of the policies of the current government, the likelihood of such an outcome increases significantly.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

The Real Politics of Israel Part 1: The U.S.-Israel Deep State

2025-04-06

[PJMedia] Thanks to the mainstream media in the United States, most Americans believe that Israeli politics are simple; that Israelis are about to have a civil war over hostages and what should be done with Hamas
Hamas

..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
; that most Israelis cannot stand Benjamin Netanyahu; and that Netanyahu is a corrupt leader who has betrayed his people for political opportunism.

Nothing could be further from the actual truth on all of these points.

Before going into the details of each of these issues, it is important to remember where these reports are coming from-- namely, the same "news" outlets that said Hunter Biden’s computer was fake, the Russian collusion propaganda was real, and that Donald Trump
...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down...
is a fascist
...anybody you disagree with, damn them...
dictator who wants to be the king of America. The exact same people who made those fallacious claims domestically in the United States are making the same type of claims about Israel... and with the same agenda.

The "deep state" in America is mirrored in Israel, where there is a partnership between a leftist media and leftist corrupt leaders who have for years been attempting to take over the politics of the Holy Land. In the same way that we have seen this Deep State attack President Trump, the same has been happening for years against Netanyahu, and for the same reasons: both men truly want what is best for their respective countries; and both men are not willing to succumb to Deep State alliances of media, ~~babus~~ bureaucrats, and corrupt leftists.

For Trump's entire first presidency, we saw an attempted coup to remove him from office that utilized everything from false charges and ridiculous impeachments, to propaganda put out by media outlets, to staged riots and well-funded demonstrations. Looking back, most Americans have recognized the corruption that was involved in these attempts, and that there really was a coordinated effort to remove him from office by any means possible.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has been and is experiencing the same thing. And in the same way that the Deep State of America was exposed and, as a result, weakened, the same exposing must take place of the Israeli Deep State.

It is simplest to start with understanding the man, and why he is hated by his opposition. Benjamin Netanyahu, who has served on and off as prime minister for over 17 years starting in 1996, has dedicated his life to serving Israel. Having first enlisted in 1967 as part of the IDF special forces unit, Sayeret Matkal, he came to the U.S. for college. He earned multiple degrees from both MIT and Harvard; reenlisted in the IDF each time there was a conflict or war; and always strove to honor the memory of his brother and best friend Yonaton, who died rescuing the hostages in the raid on Entebbe, in which more than 100 hostages were rescued in 1976.

By 1978, he had returned to Israel and founded the Jonathan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute. He started to develop political relationships and became involved in Israeli politics, becoming Israel's ambassador to the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
from 1984 to 1989. Netanyahu became a member of the Knesset in 1988, became leader of the Likud party, and first became prime minister in 1996.

From 1967 onwards, this man dedicated his life to the defense of Israel, and specifically since 1978, to fighting terrorism. His political beliefs have always been reflective of the man himself. Willard Mitt Romney, aka Pierre Delecto
...former governor of Massachussetts, the Publican nominee for president in 2012, now Senator from Utah. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals. He is currently a trans Republican and a member in good standing of the Never Trump Party, attempting to assume the mantle of the late John McCain...>
, with whom he worked at Boston Consulting Group directly out of college, described Netanyahu almost 40 years ago as "a strong personality with a distinct point of view." Shaped by the tragic loss of his brother, Netanyahu has, for almost half a century, worked to fight evil and defend Israel.

As in the United States and President Trump's case, having the values of defending your nation and fighting evil do not necessarily make you popular with the "swamp."

Netanyahu was always a polarizing figure in Israel, but everything changed for him and for the world with the election of the self-appointed Messiah, Barack Obama
How much damage could he do in four years?... Eight, then...
, in 2008. Obama, whose actions demonstrated an anti-Semitism that liberal American Jews did not want to recognize at the time, expected Netanyahu to kowtow to his slightest whim. Obama was entirely ignorant of Middle Eastern history, and was committed to a Paleostinian state with 1967 borders and to being allied with Iran.

Netanyahu knew that these values were antithetical to the survival of the State of Israel. Despite Obama's attempts to control Netanyahu through either "the carrot or the stick", Netanyahu kept his commitment to his values, which enraged Obama. In his 2022 memoir, Netanyahu wrote that Obama "had given [Paleostinian Authority President] the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
a secret commitment to establish a full-fledged Paleostinian state before he left office," something that Israel could not and should not ever accept.

The autobiography makes clear the hatred of Obama towards Netanyahu, and the many ways that Obama strove to both hurt Israel politically and Netanyahu personally. He speaks about Obama acting like a gangster with threats, and Obama's fury at Netanyahu not capitulating. When Netanyahu was invited by Congress to speak in 2015 without Obama's blessing, Obama's anger was increased exponentially yet again. And with his anger came actions against Netanyahu.

Similar to the case of President Trump, Obama successfully started using his relationships in the media and the bureaucracy to attack Netanyahu. The Deep State was already well entrenched in Obama's regime. We all now know how it used its partnership with mainstream media to attack Trump repeatedly. But it also attacked Netanyahu.

It wasn't just American media that attacked Netanyahu. As in the United States, there are many leftists involved in Israeli media. The Jerusalem Post is almost identical to the New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
in tone and agenda. As of this week, the editor of the Post, Zvika Klein, is even being questioned about Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
’s financial support of the paper and Klein’s suspected involvement with foreign agents. The Times of Israel, although it does have some conservative voices, is also essentially a mouthpiece for leftist values, as are many of the Israeli television channels. The Deep State in Israel, supported and aligned by the leftists here in the United States, has been attacking Netanyahu for years. And like in America, it is not just the media, but self-serving politicians who seek their own power rather than the good of their nation.

Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition party, was briefly prime minister in between Netanyahu's terms. Like the stereotypical politician, he is concerned with his own power rather than the well-being of his country and people. Even when asked by his government not to travel to the United States, Lapid has taken every opportunity to meet with Obama, Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. The very model of probity....
, and others in the Democratic party leadership to garner their support and his hopeful election. But his efforts to weaken Netanyahu pale in comparison to the attempts by Israeli courts to destroy Netanyahu and legislate from the bench.

Unlike the United States, Israel does not have a formal written constitution. Although in its Declaration of Independence there is a commitment that there would be one, this was supplanted by a concept of Basic Laws in 1950 that eventually became the base of a written constitution. But because of a series of legal judgments by the Israeli High Court, that never happened.

Instead, the Israeli High Court actually holds a tremendous amount of the power, including the ability to change any laws passed by the Knesset. High Court judges are appointed positions and serve until they are 70 years old. Currently, three judges were appointed by Shimon Peres, who had been one of the officials in 2005 supporting Israel's entire withdrawal from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
. Four other judges were appointed by current President Herzog, who is a great man on many levels, but a center/left politician who appointed left-leaning judges.

Because the judges of the High Court are not elected but have control over Israeli legislation, there have been many conflicts, especially during the terms of Netanyahu. Recently, in July of 2023, the Knesset passed legislation to prevent the High Court from overturning legislation that was passed by elected officials of the Knesset. This bill was passed to prevent the court from forcing Israel to act based upon the liberal interpretations of the Court, as opposed to the desires of the prime minister, Knesset, and the people themselves. Because of the very odd way the basic law is structured, the High Court was deciding for itself whether it should lose power or not. Unsurprisingly, the court voted 8-7 to overturn this legislation written by elected officials, but that would weaken their own personal power and prohibit them from continuing to legislate from the bench.

A Deep State that includes politicians, media, and the judicial branch: Israel mirrors the United States in this dangerous alliance. And again, just as in the United States, this alliance is joined by well-financed "activists" and demonstrators. In America, this has led to the many attempted coups to remove President Trump from office. In Israel, this same cabal is working in the same way to attempt a coup on Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Qatari Money for Netanyahu's People: A Huge Scandal Evolves in Israel

2025-03-21

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

Is this a big deal or is this just another case of the Israeli Deep State trying to take Bibi Netanyahu down by any means possible, as they’ve been twisting and turning to do since he became prime minister for the second time in 2009? With the various wars Israel is currently fighting — or war fronts, anyway — I’ve been ignoring this situation. Perhaps I should not have done so.

[REGNUM] The scandal over leaks of confidential data from the Israeli prime minister's office (known as the Feldstein affair) continues to gather momentum. Now it involves one of the powerful monarchies of the Persian Gulf.

Despite the fact that the case is hidden under the heading of “special investigation”, imposed by the special services at the initial stage, information about individual turns of the investigation periodically becomes public knowledge.

In particular, recently new major figures have become known – the investigation has involved not only the Israeli political class, but also the business community.

The Feldstein scandal has long gone beyond a simple investigation into abuse of office and has acquired the colorful name “Qatargate,” with a hint that the investigation could end with the resignation of the country’s top officials.

However, potential defendants in “Qatargate” are also in no hurry to give up without a fight.

THE CRUX OF THE MATTER
Israeli Prime Minister Eliezer Feldstein, a top aide, was arrested in November 2024. According to investigators, he was involved in the transfer of confidential documents to the foreign press, bypassing military censorship, and also organized “insider leaks” from high offices.

Allegedly, this was done with the permission of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, who was thus “fighting fakes” about Israel’s foreign and domestic policies.

Later, the scope of the case expanded significantly - the number of defendants increased to five, and most of them turned out to be connected in one way or another with the prime minister's office.

It also turned out that Feldstein managed not only to pass on confidential documents, but also to consult (based on the same documents) the Qatari authorities, helping the monarchy become a key intermediary in the return of Israeli hostages.

Given the close ties between Doha and Hamas, this turn of events seriously shook the Israeli public and sparked speculation about the real extent of the damage to national security. However, as it turned out later, it was far from the last.

COMPLEX SCHEME
The new public figure is Israeli businessman Gil Birger, who works with the Gulf states. It was he who paid Feldstein fees for his work on improving Doha's image when he combined work for the prime minister's office and political consulting.

However, as Birger himself claims, he was only a link in a complex lobbying scheme. Thus, the main services to Qatar - including the development of a strategy for "whitewashing" the reputation - were provided by the American political consultant Jay Footlick, who officially worked for the Qatari government. He was also the initiator of hiring Feldstein.

However, due to the complexities of tax legislation and the organization of transfers from Qatar to Israel, the lobbyist asked Birger to act as an "accountant" for their mini-enterprise for some time. The parties cooperated in this manner for several months.

Despite the fact that Birger's testimony is largely indirectly confirmed by the testimony of witnesses, as well as by the materials of the intelligence services' own investigation, the businessman clearly downplayed his participation in "Qatargate".

In particular, he did not mention that he and Futlik are connected with the arrested Netanyahu supporters from the Likud party, including through cooperation in several election campaigns, as well as participation – albeit very indirectly – in the development of shadow channels of trade between Israel and the Arabian monarchies.

In addition, according to the testimony of individual witnesses, Futlik allegedly worked with representatives of Hamas, seeking (albeit, apparently, unsuccessfully) the release of Israeli hostages for generous profits to individual field commanders.

It would hardly have been possible to take such a risky step without the approval of higher-ups. And it would hardly have been possible for a lobbyist working in the interests of Qatar to do so at his own expense.

CONFLICT WITH COUNTERINTELLIGENCE
There are many among the Israeli elites who are trying to extract additional dividends from the Feldstein affair. Especially in the context of the scandal affecting the reputation of the “unsinkable” Netanyahu, whose role in the schemes of the arrested political strategists is still unclear.

Among those in favor of “shaking up” the prime minister’s office is the head of the General Security Service (Shabaq), Ronen Bar, who has been authorized by the authorities to investigate the high-profile case.

Bar's dissatisfaction is partly dictated by wounded professional pride. The Shin Bet chief was one of the leaders of the official negotiating team with Hamas for a year and a half. He regularly encountered criticism from the authorities because the dialogue had reached a dead end, and several times found himself on the verge of resignation because of this.

The information that the prime minister’s office was playing its own diplomatic game behind his back – not always taking into account national interests and even contradicting the statements of official negotiators – was an unpleasant discovery for him.

The Shin Bet chief was among the first to voice the term "Qatargate", transparently hinting at the real scale of the damage done to the country. Netanyahu's attempts to quickly remove Bar from his post under the pretext of incompetence only made things worse.

Many believed that the Israeli prime minister was trying to hinder the investigation and hush up Qatargate. The country was rocked by protests in support of the high-ranking counterintelligence officer.

PRIME MINISTER ASKS FOR AUDIT
As for Netanyahu himself, he is in no hurry to comment on the voiced accusations, apparently working out an escape route.

The prime minister does indeed have reason to be concerned - Feldstein's lawyers unanimously insist that their client was not aware of the real state of affairs and believed that he was acting on the prime minister's instructions, receiving fees from him - simply in the form of a "gray" salary.

He is echoed by businessman Birger, who stated that “Qatari money” allegedly went to pay salaries to office employees on Netanyahu’s orders, and none of those accused in “Qatargate” intentionally cooperated with the authorities of a foreign country.

This approach raises the risk of a broader audit of Netanyahu's office's financial flows over the past year - something the government may well decide to do under growing public pressure.

The risk that the "Qatargate" that has become public knowledge will in fact turn out to be only a small part of political schemes and multi-move schemes is not illusory. And Netanyahu himself will have to justify them.

Link

Arabia

'The Qatar Files': How the Sheikhs Hired People from Netanyahu's Circle

2025-02-12

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] Eli Feldstein, a former employee of the press department of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office who was taken into custody in November 2024, risks becoming a defendant in a new high-profile case. This time, Feldstein is accused of secretly helping Qatar.

Although the evidence base for the new case is somewhat shaky in places, it could cause far more damage to the prime minister's reputation than the situation with controlled leaks to the press from high offices.

PART-TIME FRIEND
As a press officer in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, Feldstein spent several years combining government work with private practice, providing political consulting and branding services.

Qatar was also among his clients.

In particular, in the interests of Doha, Israeli consultants led by Feldstein developed a reputational protection strategy in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. And later, they helped partially regain the positions of Qatari brands in the Gulf market, lost as a result of the diplomatic crisis of 2017-2021.

It is noteworthy that with the beginning of the conflict with Hamas, Feldstein, using his official position, actively broadcast to the journalist pool the idea of Qatar’s “exceptional role” in resolving the crisis in Gaza.

And he did this so successfully that at some point the Israeli press itself began to put Qatar in the foreground, emphasizing its decisive contribution to the negotiations, compared to Egypt and Jordan.

Doha, for its part, only further multiplied positive news items, using for these purposes the capabilities of its own “pocket” media holding “Al Jazeera”.

However, the contract had to be hastily terminated in the fall of 2024, immediately after Feldstein’s arrest by Israeli security forces.

"EMPTY SPECULATION"
The first appearance of the "Qatar dossier" in the Israeli press raised questions rather than outrage.

Moreover, Feldstein, like the two other defendants in the “Qatar dossier” – Yonatan Urich (creative director of the Likud party’s campaign headquarters) and Srulik Einhorn (former Likud press secretary, adviser to the prime minister) – was active in international work and consulted not only Qatar, but also other potential partners of Israel in the Middle East and beyond.

If they had not used confidential materials from the Prime Minister's office for these purposes, such work could well have become part of the "backroom diplomacy" of the Jewish state.

However, the Hamas factor has made its own adjustments to the perception of the situation.

It quickly became clear that Qatar’s status as an “equidistant force” in the dialogue between Hamas and Israel was not just a coincidence and was “greatly exaggerated.” For example, Doha’s decision not to put pressure on Hamas’s “political office” was presented as “an act of flexibility and diplomacy.”

Also, by a strange coincidence, the scandal surrounding the Hamas training camps in the Syrian region of Afrin, in the construction of which Qatari contractors were allegedly involved, was very quickly hushed up.

A series of such coincidences only strengthened the conviction of the prosecution's supporters that the figures in the "Qatar dossier" helped Doha to nip international scandals "in the bud" until the very end, using documents from the prime minister's office for these purposes, among other things. Especially since all three could theoretically have used the corresponding access.

And although Feldstein’s lawyers call such conclusions “empty speculation,” the accused are still unable to explain how Qatar managed to respond to unpredictable crisis situations with minimal image losses.

An additional touch to the case is the fact that Urich and Einhorn are simultaneously suspects in the case of intimidation of official Shlomo Filber. The latter was allegedly forced to withdraw testimony about Netanyahu's corrupt ties after "many days of psychological pressure" from Likud functionaries.

DID THE PRIME MINISTER KNOW EVERYTHING?
At first glance, the emergence of the “Qatar dossier” in the case of leaks from the Prime Minister’s Office does not bring any significant revelations. The arguments about the use of confidential documents in advising Qatar are very shaky and have no evidentiary basis.

In search of confirmation, the prosecution partially even relies on statements from “anonymous journalists” who previously worked with Feldstein.

Moreover, the consolidation of the two cases into one is a logical step, especially since the key figures in both cases are the same, and most of the charges can be reduced to one - abuse of office.

However, the long-term impact of the “Qatar dossier” on international politics should not be underestimated.

It gives Netanyahu's opponents a good and, more importantly, long-lasting trump card. The opposition has effectively gained the opportunity to say that the "strong Hamas", which Israeli troops have been unable to completely destroy in a year and a half of military action, was nurtured with the direct participation of the prime minister's close associates.

More broadly, there may have been “criminal negligence,” since Qatar’s consultants were aware of the risks of leaking information from Doha to Hamas officials and went ahead with the dangerous deal anyway. And what’s more, Netanyahu himself was aware of the risks and was likely aware of the actions of his spokesman and his partners.

This formulation of the question already allows us to “throw a bridge” to the convening of a special commission to investigate the reasons for the unpreparedness of Israeli structures for a Hamas attack, the establishment of which Netanyahu has successfully torpedoed time and again.

And the "Qatari dossier" in this case may become an argument against the prime minister. Especially considering that the long-awaited exchange of hostages did not bring relief to Israeli society.

On the contrary, the Israelis saw hundreds of new fighters on the ruins of Gaza, ready to continue the confrontation if necessary. And the very idea that the first person of the state could be involved in strengthening Hamas, even if only very indirectly, is capable of provoking a new round of political crisis in Israel.

Especially when Netanyahu is studiously keeping quiet.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Tortured a subordinate and are approaching his wife: will Netanyahu retain power?

2025-02-05

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] During his long political career, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly become a defendant in criminal cases, most of them with a pronounced corruption component. However, the prosecution has never managed to unequivocally prove the politician's involvement in gray schemes.

Despite this, the "prosecutor's subpoena" remains a favorite tool of the current prime minister's opponents. They do not abandon the hope of sooner or later finding a weak spot in Netanyahu's defense and undermining the position of his government.

However, in pursuit of sensations, the opposition often loses previously gained advantages in cases that have not yet been closed.

HUSBAND AND WIFE
Although previous cases against the Israeli prime minister either fell apart or (like the Feldshein affair about controlled leaks from the prime minister’s office) did not cause significant damage to his reputation, the attacks on “the unsinkable Bibi” (as Netanyahu is ironically called in Israel) continue. He remains acquitted of charges of corruption, fraud and breach of public trust in three separate cases.

In addition, checks are constantly being carried out in relation to the prime minister’s “inner circle”.

Thus, the Israeli prosecutor's office recently announced the launch of a criminal investigation against the wife of the current Prime Minister, Sara Netanyahu. At the same time, according to the same press release, police investigations into the case began back in December 2024.

The initiator of the procedural investigation was Naama Lazimy, a Labor Party (Avodah) MK. Lazimy insists that the Netanyahu couple and some of their close associates (in particular, the former head of the Prime Minister's political office, Hani Bleiweiss ) secretly created a "militant wing" from among activists of the ruling Likud party.

The organization's goal, as noted, was to use social networks and other digital tools to "crush and divide" Netanyahu's political opponents, as well as influence investigative measures against him. Among those who suffered from the actions of the "military wing" is Hadas Klein, who was a key witness in corruption cases in the prime minister's office.

Considering that Netanyahu, when he was the leader of the Knesset opposition, really did use popular protests (especially on the Internet) extremely effectively to split the liberal coalition of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, and then to destroy the arguments of the investigation and return to the prime minister’s chair, the conclusions about the existence of a special mobilization resource in Likud (under the strict control of the party’s leader) are not without foundation.

On the other hand, the "Sara Netanyahu Affair", like previous investigations into the "secret Netanyahu empire", are based mainly on investigative journalism and anonymous sources. The opposition has not yet managed to win over any of the former activists of the ruling party.

POLITICAL GAMES
Lazimi’s attacks are clearly motivated by political interest – in the last elections, Avoda won only four seats in parliament. Even the tactical alliance with Meretz, which resulted in the creation of the inter-party platform HaDemocratim in the summer of 2024, did not greatly strengthen the left’s position.

Early elections could improve the party alignment, especially since after the long war in Gaza and the military adventure in southern Lebanon, the ruling coalition's position has been somewhat undermined, while the opposition, on the contrary, has increased its influence on the potential electorate.

Considering that Lazimi is one of the most significant figures not only in Avoda, but also in the entire HaDemocratim, early elections could well bring her a ministerial portfolio. However, to launch the procedures, ironclad arguments against the current cabinet are needed. And a major corruption scandal “at the top” partially solves this problem.

PRESSURE ON THE ACCUSED
While Netanyahu's enemies are looking for new reasons to accuse him of exceeding his authority and abusing his power, previous investigations, which could well have provoked a split in the ranks of supporters of the "unsinkable Bibi", are falling apart at the seams.

Thus, the other day, the former Director General of the Ministry of Communications Shlomo Filber filed a civil lawsuit against the state. In 2015, he was appointed to a senior position in the ministry, which was headed by Netanyahu himself.

Today, Filber accuses a large group of high-ranking officials from the Securities Authority, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the police of perjury in a case about the current prime minister's corruption connections.

The lawsuit claims his original testimony was "severely altered" under pressure from securities regulators, allegedly "on orders from above."

A former prosecution witness paints a very grim picture of the “testimony-coordination” process. According to him, investigators did not hesitate to use torture and even sexual violence against Filber “to make him more compliant,” as well as psychological pressure. The official was held in the Hadarim interrogation prison “under special conditions” and was subjected to psychological pressure during the 60 hours of interrogation – the lights in the interview room were turned off and he was forbidden to sleep.

Filber, although he felt remorse for his perjury, could not challenge his own testimony under threat of “career consequences” and possible criminal prosecution by influential participants in the “legal deal.”

Among the persons against whom the former official is demanding proceedings be opened are both retired and current officials. And despite the fact that the lawsuit is of a purely civil nature (with a demand for compensation in the amount of 10 million shekels), it is possible that it will soon turn into a serious multi-level investigation.

Moreover, the prime minister’s supporters are unlikely to miss the opportunity to intercept the “prosecutor’s subpoena.” The public defeat of the prosecutors’ camp (even if some of them have already resigned and have little to do with the remaining investigations against Netanyahu) will allow the prime minister’s supporters to claim that all the cases against him were fabricated and were a “political order.”

Such a turn of events is already fraught with image losses for key Israeli oppositionists, especially those who supervised the work of law enforcement agencies and "orchestrated" the investigations into Netanyahu during the Bennett-Lapid coalition. The prime minister himself will be able to exploit the image of an "innocent victim" with impunity in his zeal for the interests of the country.

The advisability of the opposition's fight for early elections in this context raises questions.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Elon Musk met Iranian UN envoy in bid to defuse tensions under Trump — report

2024-11-15

[IsraelTimes]

The second Trump administration is certainly going to be interesting.

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire closely allied with US President-elect Donald Trump
...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried....
, met Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
in a bid to defuse tensions between Tehran and Washington, The New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
reported Thursday.

The newspaper quoted anonymous Iranian sources as describing the meeting between the world’s richest person and Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani as "positive."

The two met for more than an hour at a secret location on Monday, the newspaper said.

Neither the Trump transition team nor Iran’s mission to the United Nations immediately confirmed the encounter, with the Iranian mission saying it had no comment.

The meeting, if confirmed, could offer an early indication that Trump is serious about diplomacy with Iran
Iran

...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and not choosing the more hawkish approach favored by many conservatives in his Republican Party as well as Israel.

It would also show again the extraordinary influence of Musk, the owner of Tesla and X who has been a near constant presence at Trump’s side, reportedly joining him on telephone calls with world leaders.

Trump in his last term in office tore up a deal on Iran’s nuclear program negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama
How much damage could he do in four years?... Eight, then...
, instead pursuing a policy of "maximum pressure" that included working to force other nations not to buy Iran’s oil.

But Trump has cast himself as a great dealmaker and during his latest campaign has voiced an openness to diplomacy, despite his avowed support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of whose Likud party allies said Wednesday that Israel is expecting the president-elect to take a hard line on Iran.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, considered a relative moderate within the holy manal state, on Thursday told the visiting head of the UN nuclear watchdog that Tehran wanted to clear up doubts about the country’s "peaceful" nuclear program.

Iran’s ambassador also urged Musk in their meeting to seek US sanctions exemptions and conduct business in Tehran, the Times said, citing an Iranian Foreign Ministry official.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

'Devil's Advocates': Netanyahu Finds Way to Put Pressure on Unwanted Generals

2024-11-13

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] The rift between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and influential members of the military continues to deepen. After a series of high-profile resignations in the ranks of the armed forces, Netanyahu continued to consolidate in his hands the instruments of pressure on the security forces.

The prime minister's entourage very opportunely recalled the special military intelligence unit "Ifcha Mistabra" (also known as "Devil's Advocates"), whose specialization is the critical analysis of proposals from the army and related institutions.

Now Netanyahu's supporters want to remove the "Advocates" from military intelligence and integrate them into the structure of the Prime Minister's Office, so that they can "reasonably challenge" the arguments of the army generals and intelligence services, as well as disperse the potential electorate of the "military opposition."

In practice, however, the plan to turn the Advocates into Netanyahu’s “personal intelligence service” is not as good as it seems at first glance. Moreover, it is capable of only worsening the Israeli prime minister’s already precarious position in the long run, making him a hostage to his own vision of the regional situation.

THE RETURN OF THE "ADVOCATES"
Although the Ifcha Mistabra unit has not formally ceased operations for a single day since its creation in 1973, its activities have long been overshadowed by its more publicized counterparts in the Shin Bet and Mossad.

However, recently, the "Advocates" once again made the front pages of most Israeli media. And all thanks to Likud Knesset member Amit Halevy, who submitted to the Ministerial Committee on Legislation a bill to reform this structure and transfer it from military intelligence to the structure of the Prime Minister's Office, reporting directly to the head of government.

It should be noted that the initiator of the controversial reform was not chosen by chance. In addition to belonging to the Likud party (the largest party in the government coalition, which is also headed by the current prime minister), Halevy is remembered for having acted as a "mouthpiece for Netanyahu" over the past year.

He has repeatedly criticized the army command and the leadership of the Israeli intelligence services for “systematic failures and silence.” He was also among the first to call on now former Defense Minister Yoav Galant to resign, even before the Israeli prime minister began to demand it.

Now, Halevy appears to be voicing Netanyahu’s idea in order to protect him from the reputational blow and present the reform as a parliamentary project, rather than the initiative of a specific person.

PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE
The transfer of Ifcha Mistabra to the Chancellery opens up new opportunities for the Israeli leadership. First of all, Netanyahu will be able to receive operational information and analysis of the regional situation “first-hand” and according to his own requests.

This will not only reduce the time it takes to obtain data, but also reduce the influence on decision-making of those political figures with whom the current prime minister is in a tough confrontation.

Secondly, in Netanyahu’s hands, the “Advocates” are turning into a convenient tool for pressuring unwanted representatives of the security bloc, since they are designed to criticize the proposals being made.

In addition to deconstructing reports submitted by the army and Shin Bet leadership, the spearhead of the “personal intelligence” work may well be directed against the parliamentary opposition, which is also headed by influential security officials (for example, former member of the “military cabinet” Benny Gantz ).

By building on the “Advocates” proposals, Netanyahu’s supporters can identify the weak points of their opponents and prevent them from strengthening their positions in parliament.

In addition, Netanyahu sees the creation of the new department as an opportunity to avoid responsibility for the “defensive failure” against Hamas in October 2023. Considering that the “Advocates” allegedly tried to warn the Israeli leadership about the impending attack from the Gaza Strip, but “were not heard by the army leadership,” the Israeli prime minister may well use their reports as confirmation of someone else’s “criminal negligence.”

REVERSE SIDE
While integrating the Ifcha Mistabra special forces unit into the Prime Minister's Office will provide the Israeli leadership with a constant source of quality intelligence, Netanyahu's office risks facing a number of problems if the reform is successfully implemented.

And the first is hidden in the specialization of the structure itself. The Israeli "Devil's Advocates" were created as a natural counterbalance within the "Research Department" of military intelligence and were focused not so much on criticizing the solutions proposed by military analysts (although they often did just that), but on working out unlikely scenarios. Removing the counterbalance will naturally lead to an imbalance in the work of the department.

Moreover, according to statements by military intelligence officers, the “Advocates” have proven themselves to be ineffective: their forecasts in most cases have not been confirmed in practice, and the only major success in recent years (the disclosure of the Hamas offensive development plan in the first days of Operation Storm Al-Aqsa in October 2023) is disputed by other relevant agencies.

Another obvious problem is the relatively weak protection of the Prime Minister’s Office from enemy subversion. After the high-profile leak of classified documents from Netanyahu’s office in the fall of 2024 (the “Feldstein affair”), the Prime Minister’s ability to ensure the safety of confidential data is increasingly in doubt.

Moreover, given the specific nature of relations between the Israeli intelligence services, any change in the balance of power opens up the possibility for intrigue. And the "Advocates" may well turn from an instrument of informing the Prime Minister into an instrument of discrediting the latter.

Moreover, the former head of military intelligence, Aharon Haliva, became the first victim of the army purges initiated by Netanyahu, and there are plenty of people in the department who want to get even with the prime minister. It is not worth excluding that such people will be found among the "Advocates" as well.

Finally, the personal factor plays a role. Netanyahu, who has a complex character and great charisma, is quite capable of “pushing through” the newly created department, imposing his own vision of both the domestic political and regional situation. And this, in turn, is fraught with the distortion of the data presented in the “personal intelligence” reports to please the customer.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Tel Aviv on fire after Gallant fired - but only thousands of protestors instead of hundreds of thousands; US officials ‘concerned’

2024-11-06

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Meanwhile Tel Aviv is on fire after Gallant was fired earlier.

This could very easily be exploited by the regime in Iran if they decide to carry about any attack.
pic.twitter.com/ktTDClpwcl
— 𝗡𝗶𝗼𝗵 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗴 ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) November 5, 2024

Pro-Netanyahu channel says protests ‘failed,’ noting low turnout
[IsraelTimes] A news station seen as heavily supportive of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says protesters “failed emphatically” to repeat the 2023 demonstrations that forced the premier to walk back his first attempted firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, noting the significantly smaller turnout.

“Hundreds, maybe thousands of protesters indeed went out into the streets, after millions of cell phones got text messages calling on them to take to the streets,” Channel 14 says in its coverage of the protests. “There were a few protests in various places, the largest among them on the Ayalon [highway] in Tel Aviv.”

Indeed, the number of protesters to show out appears to have paled in comparison to March 2023, though there are no crowd numbers from organizers or officials.

On the Ayalon, all protesters have now been removed from both sides of the Tel Aviv highway, according to media reports, though detritus from the rallies, including bonfires set by demonstrators, is still being cleared before traffic can resume.

Courtesy of Skidmark, the Times of Israel reports five arrested at the protests.

Netanyahu fires Gallant, says disagreements, lack of mutual trust helped the enemy
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday evening, citing a lack of mutual trust during a time of war as his reason for doing so.

Gallant will be replaced by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, while Minister without Portfolio Gideon Sa’ar will replace Katz in the Foreign Ministry.

In a terse letter that the Prime Minister’s Office said was handed to Gallant during an 8 p.m. meeting, Netanyahu informed him that his tenure would end "48 hours from the receipt of this letter."

"I would like to thank you for your service as defense minister," the curt letter concluded.

Following the brief interaction, Netanyahu left the room and recorded the video in which he announced the firing of his longtime Likud party rival, Channel 12 news reported.

"Unfortunately, although in the first months of the war there was trust and there was very fruitful work, during the last months this trust cracked between me and the defense minister," said Netanyahu in the video statement.

He said that the two disagreed on the management of the war, and that Gallant had made statements and taken actions that contradicted cabinet decisions. The premier also accused Gallant of indirectly aiding Israel’s enemies.

"I made many attempts to bridge these gaps, but they kept getting wider," he said. "They also came to the knowledge of the public in an unacceptable way, and worse than that, they came to the knowledge of the enemy — our enemies enjoyed it and derived a lot of benefit from it."

The "crisis of faith" with the defense minister "does not enable the proper continuation of the [military] campaign," Netanyahu continued.

He said that most members of the government and cabinet were in agreement with him "that this cannot continue. In light of this, I decided today to end the tenure of the defense minister."

Tuesday’s announcement is the second time in under two years that Netanyahu has fired Gallant from the post of defense minister. In March 2023, Netanyahu fired Gallant a day after the latter called for pausing the legislation process of the government’s contentious judicial overhaul plans, which he said caused divisions that posed a threat to Israel’s security. He was reinstated less than a month later, however, and was at the helm of the Defense Ministry when Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
committed its deadly terror assault in southern Israel on October 7 last year and had remained in his post throughout the subsequent war in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip, the fighting on the northern border and the ground operation in southern Leb
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
Following his dismissal on Tuesday, Gallant issued a one-line statement of his own, writing on X that "the security of the State of Israel always was, and will always remain, my life’s mission."

The statement was identical to the one he published on the night of his first firing, 18 months ago.

He elaborated at a presser later on Tuesday night, where he appeared visibly emotional as he explained that the reason for his dismissal was threefold: The need to draft Haredi men to the IDF, the imperative to bring back the hostages from Gaza, and the need for a state commission of inquiry in the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught and ensuing war.

The issue of the Haredi draft, he said, "isn’t only a social one, but is a topic central to our existence — the security of Israel and the nation that sits in Zion."

Israel will be facing complex challenges in the coming years, he said. "In these circumstances, there is no choice. Everyone must serve in the IDF, and participate in the mission of defending Israel."

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi sought to tie Gallant’s dismissal to his recent calls for the ousting of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara who, like Gallant, has clashed with the government several times over laws and decisions she deems to be illegal.

Meanwhile,
...back at the alley, Bugs Moroni was holding Slats from behind while his brother Greasy Thumb was pounding his face into paste ...
the Movement for Quality Government in Israel

…one of the brigades (or whatever the appropriate military unit is) in the [Biden -]Harris administration’s covert war on Israel’s Netanyahu government. The Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG), one of the key organizations protesting against the coalition’s judicial overhaul program before 10/7, is Antifa, and its cadres are paid agents of the U.S. State Department, loudly demanding the complete overthrow of Israeli democracy to achieve their demands for the rearrangement of Israel’s homegrown system. MQG was previously known as V15 (for Victory 15, 2015 being the previous election Bibi won against the will of a Democratic president), both names being fig leaves for its true identity as the Israeli branch of the Washington, DC-based OneVoice Movement founded by Progressive multi-billionaire Daniel Lubetzky in 2002 as an international “grassroots” front of his PeaceWorks Foundation to drive Israel to fulfill his vision for the region without him bothering to become a citizen. The US State Department gave V15 millions of dollars under President Obama, and more in recent years...

called on Baharav-Miara to “intervene immediately and examine the legality” of the decision to fire Gallant.

Just as they did in March 2023, protesters took to the streets up and down the country, joining spontaneous demonstrations

…astroturf rather than grassroots, so more “spontaneous”…

dubbed “Gallant Night 2,” though the rallies appeared to be significantly smaller than last year.

Protests erupted in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, while dozens were reported to be protesting in Haifa, Nahariya and other communities in northern Israel, in defiance of Home Front Command instructions to limit public gatherings amid persistent rocket fire from Lebanon.

In Tel Aviv, thousands took advantage of the spontaneous nature of the protest and descended onto the Ayalon Highway, blocking traffic in both directions as police were unable to seal the entrances to the thoroughfare with trucks, as they usually do for the weekly Saturday night protests.

In Jerusalem, crowds gathered near Netanyahu’s private residence on Azza Street, calling for the removal of the premier, whom they called a “tyrant,” and for the release of the hostages held by Hamas.

The Hostages Families Forum called the firing of Gallant a “direct continuation of the efforts to torpedo the hostage deal.”

Shifting tone, US official says Gallant firing ‘concerning,’ questions PM’s motives

They were last time Gallant was fired, too. But this time it looks like the Harris-Biden administration has more urgent concerns

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

No longer rumour: Netanyahu vows to carry on Lebanon strikes with ‘full force’ as allies pan truce report

2024-09-26

[IsraelTimes] Ben Gvir threatens to withdraw his party from coalition if PM agrees to proposal by US, France and other nations for a 21-day lull to negotiate an end to fighting

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office swiftly denied as false a report Thursday morning that claimed officials expected a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah within hours.

The United States, European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, and other allies including several Arab states had issued a joint call for a 21-day halt in the fighting in Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
, where a months-long border conflict has spiked in recent days, with Hezbollah bombarding Israel’s north and the Israel Defense Forces hitting the Iran-backed group’s infrastructure, much of which is embedded in civilian areas.

Headlines in various Hebrew media promised an imminent ceasefire based on a single report by Britain’s Sky News, which quoted unnamed US administration officials as saying they “expect” a three-week pause to be implemented “in the coming hours” in line with the joint call issued by the US, France, and several allies.

"This is an American-French proposal that the prime minister hasn’t even responded to," the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

The statement also cast as "opposite from the truth" a Channel 12 report that Netanyahu had ordered the IDF to tone down strikes in Lebanon, saying the premier has empowered the army to keep striking with "full force," and that the fighting in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
will continue until all the war goals are reached.

Rocket fire from Lebanon continued during the day as Israeli warplanes pounded Hezbollah targets.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz backed up Netanyahu, asserting that "there will be no ceasefire in the north."

"We will continue to fight the Hezbollah terror group with full force until victory and the return of residents of the north to their homes safely," added Katz, who is standing in for Netanyahu during the latter’s US trip but who doesn’t appear to have authority to make operational decisions on the prosecution of the war.

Israel has made a priority of securing its northern border and enabling the return of some 70,000 residents displaced by near-daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, which began attacking after Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
’s devastating October 7, 2023, onslaught, in solidarity with the Gaza terror group.

Headlines in various Hebrew media promised an imminent ceasefire based on a single report by Britannia’s Sky News, which quoted unnamed US administration officials as saying they "expect" a three-week pause to be implemented "in the coming hours" in line with the joint call issued by the US, La Belle France, and several allies. The lull was to be used for negotiations aimed at reaching a more permanent ceasefire.

Previous reports had quoted Israeli officials as saying the chances for a ceasefire were very slim, while others cited US officials as saying only that a decision from Israel and Lebanon on the ceasefire proposal was expected "within hours" — not that such a ceasefire would immediately come into effect.

The proposal was issued from the sidelines of the United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
General Assembly, which is underway in New York.

Israel’s envoy to the UN and Lebanon’s prime minister, who is attending the assembly, had both welcomed the proposal.

The Sky report, and the joint statement from the plan’s architects calling for a lull in the fighting — a step vehemently opposed by Netanyahu’s voter base and his far-right coalition partners — set off a flurry of responses from Israeli political figures.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir threatened to withdraw his far-right Otzma Yehudit party from Netanyahu’s government if he agrees to a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Following a meeting with politicians from his party, Ben Gvir warned the prime minister that acceding to a temporary deal would cause him to cease cooperating with the rest of the coalition and "if the temporary ceasefire becomes permanent we will resign from the government."

"The most basic and understandable thing is that when your enemy is on his knees, you do not allow him to recover, but work to defeat him," Ben Gvir said, claiming that to pause the fighting "conveys weakness, endangers the security of your citizens, and proves that you do not intend to win."

He continued, "If the temporary ceasefire becomes permanent...all the Otzma Yehudit ministers and MKs will resign from the government and the coalition."

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also declared he opposed the ceasefire proposal, insisting that continuing the war against Hezbollah was the only way forward.

"The campaign in the north should end with a single result: crushing Hezbollah and eliminating its ability to harm the residents of the north," Smotrich said on social media platform X. "The enemy must not be given time to recover from the heavy blows it has suffered and reorganize itself to continue the war after 21 days."

Culture Minister Miki Zohar of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party said he hoped what he termed the "reports" were untrue, adding that agreeing to a ceasefire would constitute "a serious error that endangers Israel’s major security achievements in recent days."

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that Israel should partially accept the joint US-French call for an immediate truce but only for seven days and not 21, in order to keep Hezbollah from regrouping.

"The State of Israel should announce this morning that it accepts the Biden-Macron ceasefire proposal, but only for seven days so as not to allow Hezbollah to restore its command and control systems," he tweeted. "We will not accept any proposal that does not include removing Hezbollah from our northern border.

"Any proposal that is put forward must allow the residents of the north to immediately return safely to their homes and lead to the renewal of negotiations for a hostage deal" with Hamas, he continued.

Lapid’s statement came a day after he received a security briefing from Netanyahu.

Hezbollah is barred by UN Security Council Resolution 1701 from maintaining a military presence south of the Litani River. The Shiite terror group has blatantly violated that resolution and, since October 8, has regularly launched attacks on Israel from near the border.

It began its attacks a day after the war with Hamas erupted with a devastating cross-border terror onslaught in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 people were taken as hostages to Gaza.

So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 22 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 512 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 88 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed.

Lebanese officials say some 600 people in the country have been killed in Israeli ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s over the past few days, without differentiating between civilians and combatants. Lebanon’s foreign minister said the number of displaced Lebanese had soared to nearly 500,000 since Israel ramped up its military campaign.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hostage families chain themselves to bridge during protest on main Tel Aviv road

2024-09-14

[IsraelTimes] Activists paint yellow ribbons along route, stage sit-in as police attempt to wash them off; mother of hostage warns Netanyahu that she won’t allow him to abandon her son

A group of protesters led by relatives of the Gaza hostages blocked Namir Road in Tel Aviv during a Friday demonstration calling for the Israeli government to agree to a hostage release-ceasefire deal.

No crowd estimate given, so there weren’t very many of them.

Activists descended on Namir Road early on Friday morning in order to prepare for the protest, painting large yellow ribbons — the symbol of support for the hostages — at various intervals along the route.

Similar drawings were painted on other key routes across the country, including on Highway 2, where the word “abandoned” was emblazoned above the ribbon, and on Highway 4, where the words “because of you” were painted in the same font as the logo used by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

On Namir Road’s Hayarkon Bridge, where the main protest was taking place, the family members fighting for the release of their loved ones chained themselves together, tethering the chain to the bridge to ensure that no traffic could pass.

Among those leading the protest was Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.

Wrapped in chains and standing in front of a banner reading “Abandoned to their deaths,” Zangauker was joined by her daughter, Matan’s sister, Natalie, who two weeks ago was injured by mounted police during a Saturday night protest in Tel Aviv.

Bonfires were lit in the middle of the blocked road, and protesters set off colored smoke bombs in front of banners and posters accusing the government of neglecting the hostages, abducted more than 11 months ago during Hamas’s brutal October 7 invasion and massacre in southern Israel.

Footage of the demonstration showed that at one point, police officers were pushing a group of protesters increasingly close to a makeshift bonfire before other protesters stepped in, forcing them back moments before the large banner they were holding could be set alight.

Elsewhere along the protest route, dozens of demonstrators staged a sit-in, refusing to move even as police attempted to wash the painted yellow ribbons off of the road.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas issues rare statement attributed to Sinwar; hostage envoy floats safe passage

2024-09-11

[IsraelTimes] Terror chief congratulates Algerian president on election in message hailing Oct. 7 onslaught; US said to be at odds with fellow mediators over who to blame for lack of Gaza deal.

Sinwar, who was named Hamas’s top leader after Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in late July, is believed to be hiding in tunnels under the Gaza Strip and has issued few public statements since the launch of the October 7 attack that he’s accused of masterminding.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this week vowed Israel would kill Sinwar and his brother Muhammad, a senior commander in Hamas’s military wing, though the government’s official point person on efforts to free the Gaza hostages said Tuesday that if Sinwar relinquishes the terror group’s control of the Strip and releases all the hostages, Israel would provide him with safe passage out of the enclave.

Speaking to Bloomberg during a visit to Washington, Gal Hirsch said he was “ready to provide safe passage to Sinwar, his family, whoever wants to join him.”

“We want the hostages back,” he aded. “We want demilitarization, de-radicalization of course — a new system that will manage Gaza.”

Hirsch said that he presented the offer a day and a half ago, but did not elaborate on whether or not there has been any interest in the offer from the other side of the negotiating table.

MEDIATORS SAID DIVIDED ON WHO TO BLAME FOR LACK OF DEAL
Israeli television, meanwhile, reported Tuesday that the United States is at odds with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar regarding who is to blame for the failure thus far to reach a hostage-ceasefire agreement.

While the US is supportive of Israel, and has publicly stated that Hamas is to blame for the deadlock — including on its demands regarding the releases of Palestinian security prisoners — Egypt and Qatar “think the opposite,” Channel 12 news reported.

The disagreement is so profound that Egypt and Qatar have “considered issuing a joint statement blaming Israel for the failure of the contacts,” the report said.

White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby, saying Monday that the US was “working night and day” to try to get a deal in place, specified that “Hamas is the main obstacle to this right now.”

Earlier Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “not even a handful of issues” remain, and that they are “hard but fully resolvable.”

According to the Channel 12 report, Israel’s negotiators fear the differences between the mediators will further delay a possible deal.

The network also reported that Qatar and Egypt have no real leverage over Hamas.

Hamas has thus far brought in $500 million by commandeering and selling the supplies that enter the Strip at a rate of 200 trucks a day.

It noted that Hamas has been deprived of its smuggling route along the Philadelphi Corridor at the Gaza-Egypt border but is profiteering massively from humanitarian aid. It cited an estimate made known to the security establishment that Hamas has thus far brought in $500 million by commandeering and selling the supplies that enter the Strip at a rate of 200 trucks a day. Hamas, the report said, uses the money, among other purposes, to recruit new gunmen — of whom it said there are now 3,000 in northern Gaza.

According to the channel’s Arab affairs analyst Ohad Hemo, Hamas has reasserted “full governance” in northern Gaza, where it has resumed paying salaries to some of its officials.

BEN GVIR REPORTEDLY EXCLUDED FROM NEW SECURITY FORUM
Channel 12 also reported Tuesday evening on a brief disagreement that broke out between government ministers during the cabinet meeting in which they were shown footage of the tunnel in Gaza where the six hostages executed by Hamas were held.

The report said ministers were told that the footage was being shown to them at the request of the families of the hostages, who hoped that seeing the harsh conditions would help change the minds of lawmakers who opposed a deal for their release.

At this point, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir retorted that he, too, “spoke with the families,” and that “not everyone wants a deal, there are those who want to increase the military pressure,” the report stated.

Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel was said to have then told the ultranationalist leader to “stop shouting and let them show us the footage as the families requested.”

The report added that several ministers were brought to tears by the harrowing footage of the tunnel where the hostages were held and murdered, but did not specify which lawmakers.

Separately, the Kan public broadcaster reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has established a new forum to deal with matters pertaining to war management that does not include Ben Gvir, three months after the war cabinet was disbanded after the National Unity party left the government to protest the premier’s handling of the war. Ben Gvir has repeatedly voiced his desire to be among those making the decisions in the war.

The new forum will receive security briefings from IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and the heads of Israel’s defense establishments regarding developments on all fronts, the report said.

According to Kan, the limited forum is made up of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Shas party leader Aryeh Deri and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

A source close to Netanyahu alleged to the broadcaster that Smotrich was invited to join the forum because the premier “trusts him not to leak the proceedings, and to try and convince him to support the deal to release the hostages.”

Netanyahu’s Likud party previously accused Ben Gvir of leaking “state secrets and private conversations.”

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