Benjamin Netanyahu and the 'Otherwise Enlightened'
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How Palestinians Can Burst Israel's Political Bubble
Al-Shabaka Policy Brief Policy Al-Shabaka March 2018 WHEN LEFT IS RIGHT: HOW PALESTINIANS CAN BURST ISRAEL’S POLITICAL BUBBLE By Amjad Iraqi Overview the allies holding up his fragile rule, from the ultra- orthodox Jewish parties to his personal rivals within Although no indictments have been issued yet, Israelis Likud. “King Bibi,” however, survived them all. A are speculating whether the latest developments in skilled politician, he has been adept at managing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption Israel’s notoriously volatile coalition system, and [email protected] scandals finally mark the beginning of his political has remained in power with three consecutive demise. The second-longest serving prime minister governments over nine years – each more right wing after David Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu has had a than the last.2 profound impact on Israel’s political scene since the 1990s. It is therefore troubling, especially to Netanyahu directly influenced the country’s media Palestinians, that if these corruption cases are the landscape by shaping the editorial stance of Israel harbinger of Netanyahu’s downfall, they will have Hayom (the nation’s gratis, most-read newspaper, had nothing to do with the more egregious crimes for funded by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson), which he is responsible, and for which he – and future and used the Communications Ministry to threaten Israeli leaders – have yet to be held accountable. and harass media outlets that were critical of him. Despite crises and condemnations throughout This policy brief analyzes Israel’s political his career – including mass Israeli protests for transformations under Netanyahu and maps out the socioeconomic justice in 2011 and, more recently, current leadership contenders from a Palestinian weekly protests against widespread government perspective.1 It argues that Israel’s insular political corruption – Netanyahu withstood public pressures discourse, and the increasing alignment of Israeli to step down. -
Monday, July 3
Israel and the Middle East News Update Wednesday, May 27 Headlines: After Rocket Attack, Israeli Jets Strike Targets in Gaza Strip Ya'alon: Gaza Will Pay a Heavy Price if Calm is Not Maintained Palestinians Reject Proposal to Discuss Settlement Borders US Says Reported 'Settlement Borders' Proposal New to its Ears Netanyahu Embarks on Senior Civil Service 'Beheadings' Kahlon: I Will Not Take Part in Gas-Related Decisions A New Headache: Begin Refuses to Resign Amnesty Report: Hamas has Committed War Crimes in Gaza Commentary: Yedioth Haronoth: “The Jerusalem Paradox” By Haim Ramon Foreign Policy: “Benjamin Netanyahu’s Grade A Pork-Barrel Politics” By Neri Zilber S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org ● Yoni Komorov, Editor News Excerpts May 27, 2015 Times of Israel After Rocket Attack, Israeli Jets Strike Targets in Gaza Strip The Israeli Air Force launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip early Wednesday morning, hours after a projectile fired from the coastal enclave fell in southern Israel, causing no damage. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the bombardments across the Palestinian coastal enclave. The IDF said in a statement that it targeted four sites of terror infrastructure in the southern Gaza Strip in response to the rocket fire at southern Israel on Tuesday evening. The military said it confirmed direct hits. “The reality that Hamas’s territory is used as a staging ground to attack Israel is unacceptable and intolerable -
My Aunt's Mamilla
My father’s eldest sister has always served in My Aunt’s Mamilla my mind as a potential family encyclopedia. Helga Tawil-Souri “Potential” because I never had the opportunity to spend much time with her. She had come and visited us in Beirut once in the mid 1970s – I vaguely remember. My grandmother, with whom I spent much of my childhood, would often mention Auntie M. under a nostalgic haze, perhaps regret, that her first-born was so far away. That longing tone for her eldest led my other aunts, my father, and my uncles to joke that Auntie M. was their mother’s favorite. For years Auntie M. endured only in my imagination. Whatever tidbits I had caught about her were extraordinary, a fusion of new world mystery and old world obscurity. She lived in faraway places that sounded utterly exotic: Sao Paolo, Etobicoke, Toronto; that they always rhymed only added to their enigma. The haphazard trail I constructed of her life seemed improbable too: old enough to remember family life in Jerusalem; married and sent off to Brazil; had a daughter ten years older than me who didn’t speak Arabic. Auntie M. hovered behind a veil of unanswered questions: How old was she? Did my grandparents marry her off or did she choose to wed Uncle A.? How is one “sent” to Brazil? Could one even fly to Brazil back then? Did she flee with the family to Lebanon first? Did she really have another daughter besides the one I knew of? What happened to the other daughter? How did Auntie M. -
2007 Israeli Democracy Index Is Dedicated to Captain Zur Zarhi from Nahalal, a Beloved Friend Who Went to War and Did Not Come Back
Auditing Israeli Democracy – 2007 Cohesion in a Divided Society Asher Arian, Nir Atmor, Yael Hadar The Israel Democracy Institute is an independent, non-partisan body on the seam of academia and politics. The Institute proposes policy recommendations and reforms for government and public administration agencies. In its plans and endeavors, the Institute strives to support the institutions of Israel’s developing democracy and consolidate its values. The Institute’s research is followed up by practical recommendations, seeking to improve governance in Israel and foster a long-term vision for a stable democratic regime adapted to the structure, the values, and the norms of Israeli society. The Institute aspires to further public discourse in Israel on the issues placed on the national agenda, to promote structural, political, and economic reforms, to serve as a consulting body to decision-makers and the broad public, to provide information, and present comparative research. Researchers at the Israel Democracy Institute are leading academics directing projects in various areas of society and governance in Israel. The IDI Press produces, markets, and distributes the results of their work in several series of books (“The Democracy Library”), policy papers, the Caesarea Forum Series, periodicals, and conference proceedings. The Guttman Center was established in its present form in 1998, when the Guttman Institute for Applied Social Research became part of the Israel Democracy Institute. Professor Louis Guttman founded the original Institute in 1949 as a pioneering center for the study of public opinion and the advancement of social science methodology. The goal of the Guttman Center is to enrich public discourse on issues of public policy through the information retrieved from the Center’s databases and through public opinion surveys conducted by the Center. -
Grapevine: Happy 80Th Anniversary!
June 22, 2013 Saturday 14 Tammuz 5773 16:40 IST Grapevine: Happy 80th Anniversary! By GREER FAY CASHMAN 29/11/2012 The fact that 'The Jerusalem Post' is still going strong after 80 years is a tribute to his vision, especially because it is an English-language paper in a mostly Hebrew- speaking country. Photo by: Jerusalem Post Archives Tomorrow, December 1, marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of The Jerusalem Post by Gershon Agron, who later went on to become the mayor of Jerusalem. Beit Agron, on the capital’s Hillel Street, was named for him, as was nearby Agron Street. Beit Agron was once the hub of journalism, housing the Government Press Office, a branch of the Army Spokesman’s Office, bureaus of numerous foreign media agencies and outlets and the Jerusalem Journalists’ Association. It used to have a restaurant and bar where local and foreign journalists rubbed shoulders and traded stories, and there was always an aura of anticipation and excitement. But then things changed. As print media started to go downhill, many major newspapers began cutting down on their foreign bureaus and began relying more on wire services or a feed from some local source, which was not quite the same as getting the perspective of their own representative who had a special rapport with his or her editor. Those media outlets that remained either chose to work out of Jerusalem Capital Studios or moved their offices to Malha, the new Mecca of the media. The GPO recently followed suit. In 2009, Dion Nissenbaum, the McClatchy bureau chief in Kabul, writing in his agency’s Checkpoint Jerusalem blog, recalled that at one time, “the fourth floor of Beit Agron was coveted real estate. -
Israel and Overseas: Israeli Election Primer 2015 (As Of, January 27, 2015) Elections • in Israel, Elections for the Knesset A
Israel and Overseas: Israeli Election Primer 2015 (As of, January 27, 2015) Elections In Israel, elections for the Knesset are held at least every four years. As is frequently the case, the outgoing government coalition collapsed due to disagreements between the parties. As a result, the Knesset fell significantly short of seeing out its full four year term. Knesset elections in Israel will now be held on March 17, 2015, slightly over two years since the last time that this occurred. The Basics of the Israeli Electoral System All Israeli citizens above the age of 18 and currently in the country are eligible to vote. Voters simply select one political party. Votes are tallied and each party is then basically awarded the same percentage of Knesset seats as the percentage of votes that it received. So a party that wins 10% of total votes, receives 10% of the seats in the Knesset (In other words, they would win 12, out of a total of 120 seats). To discourage small parties, the law was recently amended and now the votes of any party that does not win at least 3.25% of the total (probably around 130,000 votes) are completely discarded and that party will not receive any seats. (Until recently, the “electoral threshold,” as it is known, was only 2%). For the upcoming elections, by January 29, each party must submit a numbered list of its candidates, which cannot later be altered. So a party that receives 10 seats will send to the Knesset the top 10 people listed on its pre-submitted list. -
The Struggle for Hegemony in Jerusalem Secular and Ultra-Orthodox Urban Politics
THE FLOERSHEIMER INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES The Struggle for Hegemony in Jerusalem Secular and Ultra-Orthodox Urban Politics Shlomo Hasson Jerusalem, October 2002 Translator: Yoram Navon Principal Editor: Shunamith Carin Preparation for Print: Ruth Lerner Printed by: Ahva Press, Ltd. ISSN 0792-6251 Publication No. 4/12e © 2002, The Floersheimer Institute for Policy Studies, Ltd. 9A Diskin Street, Jerusalem 96440 Israel Tel. 972-2-5666243; Fax. 972-2-5666252 [email protected] www.fips.org.il 2 About the Author Shlomo Hasson - Professor of Geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and deputy director of The Floersheimer Institute for Policy Studies. About the Research This book reviews the struggle for hegemony in Jerusalem between secular and ultra-orthodox (haredi) Jews. It examines the democratic deficit in urban politics formed by the rise of the haredi minority to power, and proposes ways to rectify this deficit. The study addresses the following questions: What are the characteristics of the urban democratic deficit? How did the haredi minority become a leading political force in the city? What are the implications of the democratic deficit from the perspective of the various cultural groups? What can be done in view of the fact that the non-haredi population is not only under-represented but also feels threatened and prejudiced by urban politics initiated by the city council? About the Floersheimer Institute for Policy Studies In recent years the importance of policy-oriented research has been increasingly acknowledged. Dr. Stephen H. Floersheimer initiated the establishment of a research institute that would concentrate on studies of long- range policy issues. -
Netanyahu Formally Denies Charges in Court
WWW.JPOST.COM THE Volume LXXXIX, Number 26922 JERUSALEFOUNDED IN 1932 M POSTNIS 13.00 (EILAT NIS 11.00) TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2021 27 SHVAT, 5781 Eye in the sky A joint goal Feminist religious art IAI unveils aerial Amos Yadlin on the need to When God, Jesus surveillance system 6 work with Biden to stop Iran and Allah were women Page 6 Page 9 Page 16 How did we miss Netanyahu formally denies charges in court Judges hint witnesses to be called only after election • PM leaves hearing early the exit • By YONAH JEREMY BOB two to three weeks to review these documents before wit- Prime Minister Benjamin nesses are called, that would ramp? Netanyahu’s defense team easily move the first witness fought with the prosecution beyond March 23. ANALYSIS on Monday at the Jerusalem Judge Rivkah Friedman Feld- • By YONAH JEREMY BOB District Court over calling man echoed the prosecution’s witnesses in his public cor- arguments that the defense A lifetime ago when living ruption trial before the March had between one to two years in northern New Jersey, I 23 election. to prepare for witnesses. But often drove further north for It seemed that the judges ultimately the judges did not work. were leaning toward calling seem anxious to call the first Sometimes the correct exit the first witness in late March witness before March 23. was small and easy to miss. or early April, which they A parallel fight between the But there were around five would present as a compro- sides was the prosecution’s or so exits I could use to avoid mise between the sides. -
Israel Elections 2019 Update
Israel Elections 2019 Update September 10, 2019 With no party succeeding in forming a government following the elections that took place in Israel in April, 2019, a brand new election will now take place next week, on September 17. JFNA is pleased to present the following backgrounder summarizing what has occurred, and what may happen in the coming weeks and months. JFNA has also prepared a background briefing on why a second round of elections are taking place – which can be seen here, as well as a paper on how Israeli elections work. Elections: Round Two Perhaps the most crucial take away from the backgrounder papers (linked above) is that in practice, Israeli elections have two “stages.” The first - the actual elections - occurs when the population elects the 120-members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. Those are the national elections, but once the results of these elections are known, we don’t always have a clear picture of who will lead the country. This only occurs during what we can call a “second stage” when a potential prime minister seeks to form a governing majority coalition of at least 61, from among those 120 newly elected MKs (represented through their parties). September 2019’s theme: Mergers In the months that have passed since second elections were called, there has been little, if any, debate about policy or major issues of substance; or even discussions about personality. Instead, the focus has been on tactics, strategy and coalition building. So, in many ways, the September 2019 look like a redo of the elections that took place in April. -
Israel and the Middle East News Update
Israel and the Middle East News Update Wednesday, January 3 Headlines: ● Trump Threatens to Cut Palestinian Aid ● PA: Israel Law on Dividing Jerusalem is ‘Declaration of War’ ● Netanyahu Allies Rethink Remapping of Jerusalem ● State Dept Denies Shift on ‘Occupied’ West Bank ● Army: Islamic Jihad Fired Iran-Made Mortar Shells ● US Ambassador to Pay Shiva Call Over Green Line ● Egypt: Israeli Restraint Vital to Palestinian Reconciliation ● INSS Report Details Threat of Two-Pronged Northern War Commentary: ● Israel Hayom: “Finally, Ideological Clarity” − By Polly Bronstein ● Ynet: “In a Foolish Decision, Likud Gave BDS a Valuable Gift” − By Ben Dror-Yemini S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 The Hon. Robert Wexler, President ● Yoni Komorov, Editor ● Aaron Zucker, Associate Editor News Excerpts January 3, 2018 Ha’aretz Trump Threatens to Cut Palestinian Aid US President Donald Trump said the United States may withhold future payments to the Palestinians because they are "no longer willing to talk peace" with Israel, and that Israel would have "had to pay more" in return for his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December. Trump's tweet implied that he intended to extract possible future concessions from Israel for his speech recognizing Jerusalem as the Jewish state's capital. Trump's comments came hours after US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said that the Trump administration would cut funding to UNRWA, the UN's agency for aiding Palestinian refugees, unless the Palestinian Authority went back to the negotiating table. See also, “How Much Funding Does the U.S. -
1 Schlaglicht Israel Nr. 19/16 Aktuelles Aus Israelischen Tageszeitungen 1
Schlaglicht Israel Nr. 19/16 Aktuelles aus israelischen Tageszeitungen 1.-15. Oktober Die Themen dieser Ausgabe Beerdigung von Shimon Peres ................................................................................................................................. 1 UNESCO-Debakel .................................................................................................................................................... 3 Terror in Jerusalem ................................................................................................................................................... 4 Medienquerschnitt .................................................................................................................................................... 6 Beerdigung von Shimon Peres to Peres’s determined pursuit of peace, it was jarring Die Beisetzung von Israels früherem Staatspräsi- to observe the rejectionist front being represented, denten Shimon Peres, der Ende September den not just by a terrorist organization, but by a party of Folgen eines schweren Schlaganfalls erlag, ent- Israeli parliamentarians. Due to all of this, Abbas’s puppt sich rückblickend mehr und mehr als Politi- participation was an important step that should be kum. Mehrere Redner, darunter US-Präsident Ba- appreciated by Israel and the Netanyahu govern- rack Obama und der israelische Schriftsteller Amos ment. (…) Abbas took an important step on Friday, Oz, nutzen die Bühne zur Mahnung, das Erbe von especially considering the criticism that he faced Peres -
Sent a Letter
בצלם - מרכז המידע הישראלי לזכויות האדם בשטחים (ע.ר.) ﺑﺗﺳﻳﻠم - ﻣرﻛز اﻟﻣﻌﻠوﻣﺎت اﻹﺳراﺋﻳﻠﻲ ﻟﺣﻘوق اﻹﻧﺳﺎن ﻓﻲ اﻷراﺿﻲ اﻟﻣﺣﺗﻠﺔ B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories Jerusalem 25 November 2015 MK Benjamin Netanyahu The Prime Minister Dear Sir, Re.: Your responsibility for permitting a de facto death penalty The day before yesterday, a police officer in Jerusalem shot N.'A., a 16-year-old girl from Qalandiya as she lay injured and immobile on the ground. Her 14-year-old cousin, Hadil, was also shot in the same incident even after she had already been hit by gunfire and had fallen to the ground. Hadil was killed. The day before, soldiers shot dead Ashraqat Qatnani, a 16-year-old girl from Nablus, after she had already been injured when hit by a car. In October, Basel Sidr and Fadi ‘Alun were shot dead in Jerusalem; the gunfire did not stop even after they had already been hit and injured. In each of these five cases, even though the individuals involved had already been “neutralized,” they were shot at again. Of the five, four were killed and one seriously injured. Whether or not these individuals had been attempting to perpetrate attacks is a matter that cannot obscure the harsh reality at hand: these instances constitute public, summary street executions, without law or trial. And there is reason for concern that there are other such cases as well. The death penalty for murder was abolished in Israeli criminal law in 1954, over 60 years ago. And never was a death sentence a possible penalty for attempted murder or grievous assault.