Middle East Press on: Galilee, Gaza, Israel, Haifa, Terrorism, Khamenei, Hamas: New Age Islam's Selection, 3 December 2024
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
3 December 2024
'You Are Not Alone': The Shared Pain Of The US-Israel Hostage Crisis
How Jerusalem’s Inaction Fuelled The ICC’s Anti-Israel Agenda
How Intifada And Razzia Shape The Palestinian Struggle And Global Perception
Creating A Compassionate Society For Israel’s Newly Disabled After The War
Strategic Pause: Israel’s Lebanon Ceasefire And Preparations For Regional Threats
Addressing The Crisis Facing Israel’s Children Is Key To Building A Better Future
The A-G Is Bad For Business And Israel's National Unity
Gaza Genocide Reveals The Limits Of Israeli Propaganda
-----
'You Are Not Alone': The Shared Pain Of The Us-Israel Hostage Crisis
By Jpost Editorial
December 3, 2024
The heartbreak emanating from the Hamas attack on October 7 continues to create fresh wounds.
On Monday, the IDF announced the death of Capt. Omer Maxim Neutra, 21. Until now, it had been believed that Neutra, a tank platoon commander in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion, was alive and being held hostage. However, according to the announcement, his body was abducted by Hamas along with members of his tank crew.
Neutra’s parents, Ronen and Orna, became high-profile advocates for their son and all of the hostages held in Gaza over the last 14 months, often speaking at public events and meeting top officials in Jerusalem and Washington.
The announcement of Netura’s death came two days after the dramatic release by Hamas of a propaganda video in which hostage Edan Alexander described the hell that he and his fellow hostages were living through and pleaded for their release.
Alexander, a Golani Brigade soldier stationed at Nirim near the Gaza border, was abducted by Hamas on October 7.Besides being soldiers on active duty on that date, what unites the stories of Neutra and Alexander is that they were both American citizens – lone soldiers who came to Israel by choice to serve in the army of the Jewish people.
Before time runs out
Neutra, born in Manhattan and raised in Long Island, joined the IDF after spending a gap year in Israel. Born in Tel Aviv, Alexander grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, and joined Golani after graduating high school in 2022.
Five other US citizens are still unaccounted for and presumed to be held alive by Hamas. They are all symbols of the strong bond between Israel and the US and the values of freedom and democracy that they share.
As such, the Biden administration has gone above and beyond to push for their release and the release of all of the hostages. During this transition period ahead of the January 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, it’s imperative that the ball is not dropped and that both teams work in coordination to probe every possible avenue to secure a deal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, emphasized that importance when she met with Trump on Sunday in Miami. She wrote on Instagram that she had “raised with the president the immense suffering our country has endured since October 7 and the inhumanity of the Hamas terrorists... I emphasized the urgent need to act for their [the hostages’] release and swift return.”
In his video message, Alexander called on Trump to “use your influence and the full power of the United States to negotiate for our freedom... I do not want to end up dead like my fellow US citizen Hersh [Goldberg-Polin – who Hamas killed in September].”
Alexander’s father, Adi, speaking at a rally in New York on Sunday, appealed to both Biden and Trump, urging the former to negotiate a deal “before it’s too late” and advising Trump not to wait until taking office in January “to make an impact.”
To their credit, the US leaders seemed to have internalized that message. Adi Alexander said Trump’s team told him they were “shoulder-to-shoulder with the current administration to resolve the issue.”
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CBS on Sunday that there had been good coordination between the Biden and Trump teams about “all aspects” of the Middle East crisis.
“This is how it should be in a transition. This is what we’re going to keep driving for every day that we have left in office,” he said.
These efforts are being made because Americans, like Israelis, cherish life and will go to extreme means to rescue their citizens.
The Post’s Hannah Sarisohn reported that Adi Alexander told the attendees of the Sunday rally that “the world is watching. To everyone listening – friends, neighbors, Americans, and Israelis – please amplify our voices and call on your leaders to secure a deal. Call on them to act now. We cannot afford to wait,” he said as supporters chanted, “You are not alone!”
With the US’s deep investment in securing all of the hostages’ release, Israel indeed knows that it’s not alone.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-831692
---
How Jerusalem’s Inaction Fuelled The ICC’s Anti-Israel Agenda
By Maurice Hirsch
December 3, 2024
The decision of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant is a result of blatant antisemitism on the side of the court, and persistent inaction in Jerusalem.
The actions of the court are clear. To get to this point, the ICC had to adopt a number of problematic steps. First it had to admit an entity – the “State of Palestine” – that is not a real state. Then the court had to act ultra vires and decide on the borders of the nonexistent state.
The ICC prosecutor then needed to act on the baseless complaints of the Palestinians and adopt the narrative of the terrorists who led the October 7 massacre and their supporters.
Jerusalem was given multiple opportunities to pull the rug from under the process. When the Palestinians asked the United Nations, in 2012, to recognize the “State of Palestine,” Jerusalem should have declared that the move was a fundamental breach of the Oslo Accords, and implemented sanctions against the Palestinian Authority/the Palestine Liberation Organization. When the “State of Palestine” joined the ICC in 2014/2015, Jerusalem had a second chance.
When the Palestinians met on scores of occasions with the ICC prosecutor with the declared goal of opening an investigation against Israel, Jerusalem had a third chance. When the ICC prosecutor announced, in 2020, the opening of the investigation against Israel, Jerusalem had a fourth chance. When the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber decided, in 2021, to ignore history, reality, and the law, Jerusalem had a fifth chance. When the current ICC prosecutor decided to turn the terror narrative into a request to issue arrest warrants, Jerusalem had a sixth chance.
Catastrophic inaction
So what could and should have been done?
As part of the Oslo Accords, Israel agreed to waive billions of shekels of taxes in favor of the PA. As the PA/PLO was breaching the accords, Israel collected over NIS 100 billion on behalf of the PA. The tax income from Israel accounts for no less than 65% of the PA’s total income. Without this income, the PA cannot exist.
In other words, out of every NIS 100 the PA/PLO spent hunting Israel in the ICC, Jerusalem provided NIS 65. Jerusalem literally funded the Palestinian Jew-hunt. As the PA/PLO fundamentally breached the Oslo Accords, Jerusalem acted like an ostrich, shoving its head into the sand.
Unfortunately, this course of action is not unique to the ICC. When the Palestinians asked, and succeeded, earlier this year, to upgrade the status of the “State of Palestine” in the UN, Jerusalem failed to act. When the PA/PLO pushed the UN General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice to provide an advisory opinion attacking Israel, Jerusalem did nothing. When the Palestinians then asked the UNGA to adopt the biased ICJ advisory opinion, thereby, effectively rebirthing, on steroids, the infamous UN resolution comparing Zionism to racism, Jerusalem did nothing.
The abject failure, time after time, to use the substantial financial leverage that Jerusalem holds over the very existence of the PA has now proven to be disastrous, and the Palestinians have registered a substantial success, not only in the ICC but also, and no less importantly, in the court of public opinion.For the ICC, Jerusalem’s inaction could also prove to catastrophic.
The ICC was created to be an international forum that would prosecute the worst offenders. It was created to allay the fears that the punishment of war criminals would be dependent, as had historically been the case, on which side won the war. The neutrality of the court stands at its very core.
The court’s repeated decisions to acquiesce to the Palestinian political weaponization of the court against Israel is a fundamental breach of the court’s raison d’etre.
Already plagued as being another failed, cash sapping international institution, for many years the court was predominantly seen as a forum for the prosecution of rogue African leaders.
Instead of honestly addressing these shortcomings, the ICC decided to double down on its bias, in the thought that hunting the Jewish state would restore some of its legitimacy. In reality, however, the oblique politicization of the court will not improve its image. Rather, it is more likely to signal the last nail in the coffin and death knoll of an institution that could potentially have served a noble goal.
Given the circumstances, Jerusalem must act. Since it is totally unacceptable that Jerusalem continue funding the PA-PLO-ICC Jew-hunt, Jerusalem must inform the PA that until it waives its status in the UN and withdraws from the ICC, both fundamental breaches of the Oslo Accords, it will not see another agora. Palestinian malfeasance must have consequences.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-831690
-----
How Intifada And Razzia Shape The Palestinian Struggle And Global Perception
By Alex Joffe, Asaf Romirowsky
December 3, 2024
Two Arabic phrases have taken centre stage since the Hamas massacres of October 7. The first is intifada – literally throwing off – which has echoed on campuses and on streets worldwide.
Intifada originated in the Palestinian uprising of 1987, which escalated from rock throwing to full out street battles between Palestinians and Israelis. The Second Intifada, which began in 2000, escalated into a suicide bombing campaign. Today, “globalize the intifada,” which means something like “support the Palestinians,” is screamed proudly during pogroms in Amsterdam and protests in Oakland, but it also has a broader sense of throwing off the putative shackles of capitalism and the West.
But another Arabic phrase cuts closer to the heart of October 7, its intense violence and religious intent. That term is razzia, the Arabic word for raid, literally on the model of Muhammad and his army. For believers, it signifies religiously sanctioned murder, torture, rape, kidnapping, and theft.
As pointed out by many observers, notably the French scholar of Islam Giles Kepel, razzia explains precisely the tactics and rationale of Hamas on October 7, if not the strategic intent. The continual recitation of Allahu akbar (Allah is greatest) by the attackers who proudly recorded their deeds is a key. So, too, is their almost ritualistic use of rape to degrade and defile Jewish women, and the casual theft of people and property from Israeli communities by Hamas fighters – and by the thousands of Gazans who quickly followed them into Israel.
This was precisely a religious mission in which all was possible, and all the spoils given to the community of believers. The result was more than 1,200 mostly Israelis killed and over 250 kidnapped, followed by the destruction of Hamas and much of Gaza itself.
Palestine as a buzzword
For Palestinians as a whole, as a political entity and a people, the evolution from intifada to razzia is a stark example of the Islamization of their confrontation against the Jews. This was always implicit in their political language, albeit couched for decades in trendy terms of liberation movements. Referring to Israelis in English but Jews in Arabic was a clue long ignored by outsiders anxious to cast the conflict in secular territorial terms.
But as has been so long the case, the internationalization of the conflict relegates Palestinians to the margins. The placement of “Palestine” at the center of the Islamo-leftist alliance against the West and capitalism – exemplified by the phrase “globalize the intifada” – has turned Palestinians into symbols of broader rebellions. “Palestine” is “intersectionally” used to promote a slew of other causes, such as climate rebellion, decolonization, anti-racism.
With the breakthrough achieved through hyper-violence, Palestinians reclaimed the world’s attention only for other movements to hijack the brand. Intifada and the keffiyeh (the iconic symbol that was ironically mandated by the British as a means of social control) are trademarks used by Western enthusiasts who also wave Hezbollah and Houthi flags, who throw soup on masterpieces of Western art, and by hipsters making coffee.
If anything, however, Hamas’s embrace of the Islamic concept of razzia puts Palestinians in an even worse place. Though at first the violence was touted as the breaking of Israeli shackles, an epitome of decolonization that thrilled Western academics and intellectuals, the horrific and sordid nature quickly led Hamas itself to deny what its own proud warriors had recorded.
The global Left and their Islamic allies dutifully followed suit with denials of rape in particular that are a permanent mark of shame for “feminist” organizations. Detailed investigations by news organizations and NGOs also denied what Hamas itself had recorded: murder, torture, rape, kidnapping, and theft. Meanwhile, celebrations of razzia remain among the revolutionary Left (and its many academic supporters), always thrilled by killing for a cause.
The two paradigms of intifada and razzia and the evolution from the one to the other place Palestinians in an impossible position. To follow the path of intifada means permanent low level violence and insurgency, to be met with painful counterinsurgency from Israel. Perhaps as important, intifada means a position as impotent figureheads in a global psycho-drama, Communists and Muslims raging against modernity. But to follow razzia – religious hyper-violence – is to invite punishing retaliation and permanent disenfranchisement.
This is a crippling conundrum for a patriarchal, theocratic, and authoritarian culture that has only managed (at tremendous expense to the international community) to develop kleptocratic and theocratic institutions.
The existing institutions and paradigms available to Palestinians are shockingly limited; the thievery and incompetence of the one-time secular revolutionary Fatah movement that controls the Palestinian Authority (which was partially Islamified by Arafat before his death); the revolutionary Arabo-Marxism of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has found resonance in the West; or the Muslim Brotherhood-style and Iranian-funded Islam of Hamas. All are uniquely out of sync with the demands of the 21st century.
Whether hijacked by international movements or by a specific facet of their own tradition, Palestinians are at a low ebb. Enemies and friends alike should encourage them to break free of both since neither intifada nor razzia should have a place in the civilized world.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-831687
-----
Creating A Compassionate Society For Israel’s Newly Disabled After The War
By Yuval Cherlow
December 3, 2024
The ongoing war has left us with many difficult and lasting scars. But perhaps the most noticeable will be a very steep increase in the number of people with war injuries that will remain with them for life. Almost all of these wounded individuals are young people, primarily soldiers, who prior to the war were vibrant and healthy, preparing for long lives of fitness and activity.
These same people will now be dependent on others, as well as extensive, if not life-long, courses of therapy and medical interventions. And while we traditionally associate disability with physical limitations, no less challenging will be the thousands of people facing emotional and mental challenges that will have an equally heavy impact on their lives going forward.
While this situation is undeniably daunting, it demands of our society to reevaluate how we look at people with disabilities. Certainly it will require that we lobby the relevant authorities, most often the National Insurance Institute (Bituach Leumi) and Defense Ministry, to ensure that our wounded veterans are getting the practical and financial support they need and deserve.
We, of course, know that these national agencies will be overwhelmed with many priorities – and at the moment, remain rightly focused on the war itself and ensuring the return of our hostages. But the current and future crisis mandates that our national leadership be focused on multiple challenges, and the needs of the “newly disabled” must certainly be a national priority.
But this situation also creates an opportunity for a shift in attitude toward awareness. There is a natural tendency to view disability as something reserved for an unfortunate fringe of society. That is a short-sighted and often erroneous perspective.
Shift in perspective
While levels of disability range, we all know someone living with some degree of physical or mental challenge that requires a level of adaptation from the society around us. For some, it is the most noticeable disabilities requiring aids for mobility or respiratory assistance. But no less challenging are issues like eating disorders, severe mental distress from depression and anxiety, vision and hearing impairment, alongside a long and difficult list of other daily obstacles.
The war should therefore be channelled as a way to shift that understanding. On a basic level, our approach to individuals with disabilities can become more accommodating, accepting, and compassionate. We need not look at the disabled as “the other” but begin to appreciate that everyone is dealing with some sort of challenge. In doing so, our perspective can become one of greater sensitivity and patience.
Maimonides taught that one of the most important aspects of helping others is in our attitude toward giving. He wrote that anyone who gives charity or support with a downturned or dejected face loses the merit of the act. Rather, we should give with a pleasant face, joyfully, while identifying with the pain of the other.
Similarly, our relationship with the disabled community should not be about charity or even pity but a fulfilment of a basic sense of human dignity and social camaraderie.
Secondly, we must accept this moment as a call to action to change the very infrastructure designed to respond to the needs of the disabled. The needs are many but this will include making public spaces far more accessible and amenable to the diverse needs of this community, as well as investing heavily in upgrading our mental health systems.
The war has changed our society in many ways, but as a nation that should be guided by Jewish ideals of humanism, morality, and dignity, we need to do everything in our power to provide for a better future for all our people by creating a more just and compassionate nation. Certainly the disabled community is a critical place to start.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-831684
-----
Strategic Pause: Israel’s Lebanon Ceasefire And Preparations For Regional Threats
By Ilan Pomeranc
December 3, 2024
Numerous reasons and much speculation have been given as to why Israel opted now for a ceasefire in Lebanon – when, among many other achievements, Israeli forces had been operating on the banks of the Litani River, and offensive momentum was increasing even further. Although a number of considerations were taken into account when deciding on the ceasefire, it seems that there were two main vectors which ultimately led to the Israeli government’s decision.
The first vector being the Iranian front. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated as such in his public announcement on the ceasefire on the eve of it going into effect. He also clarified two other priorities which led to the ceasefire decision – resting and refreshing Israel’s military forces and disconnecting the Lebanese front from the Gaza one, in the seven-front war Israel has been fighting.
Focusing efforts on Iran and its atomic-imperial ambitions, is what will remove the overarching existential threat to Israel. Given the proxy nature and relationship of Hezbollah to Iran, taking the fight against Iran to the next level will directly impact Hezbollah and the Lebanese front in any case.
Israel neutralizing Iran’s nuclear program and destroying key military-industrial and security apparatus targets of the regime will destabilize the Islamic Republic, and severely disrupt its ability and appetite to materially support its proxies.
In terms of the Lebanese front itself, Israel has already hollowed out much of Hezbollah and destroyed a large part of the infrastructure used to produce and transport weapons and equipment from the group’s rear lines in Syria to Lebanon.
Neutralizing Iran
With a wide-scale direct campaign against Iran – Jerusalem’s counter-strikes in the spring and October of 2024 were just a glimpse of what it can execute against Iran – Israel would further starve Hezbollah, which is already a mere shadow of its former self, of the fundamental resources it would need to reconstitute.
Hezbollah, as a strategic expeditionary force of a neo-Persian empire in the making, would wither and continue to weaken. The organization would return to being a lightly armed terror group, and no longer be the unchallenged masters of Lebanon.
Another scenario that could develop with the expansion of direct Israeli action against Iran proper, would be an order from Tehran for what remains of Hezbollah to act against Israel in response – meaning an end to the ceasefire on Israel’s northern front. Which in turn would allow Israel to take advantage of the enemy’s re-initiation of hostilities, to return to military engagement, and sideline hypocritical international criticism of Israel’s actions.
In such a turn of events, Israel would have cause and renewed opportunity to act with overwhelming and fatal force in Lebanon. Including moving forces deeper into the country – and, it would be advisable, surrounding key points in the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern Shi’ite districts. This would all be part of a wide scale targeted land, air, and sea blockade of what remains of Hezbollah and Iran’s assets in the country.
It is important to note that, from what has been reported, the ceasefire does not include Syria and strikes by Israel there continue, further eliminating Hezbollah, Iranian, and other Shi’ite militia targets in the country, along with Syrian regime assets utilized by those forces. In recent days, Syrian rebel groups have capitalized on Israel’s highly effective campaign in the country and, after years, are once again making major territorial gains against President Bashar Assad and the foreign forces that aid him.
So, a primary focus directly on Iran and continued action in Syria therefore present a continuity of opportunities for the Lebanese front. The end game in Lebanon is for the Hezbollah state within a state, an imperial vassal of Iran, to cease to exist; for the other ethno-theological groups in Lebanon not to be dominated by the Shi’ite terror army; and for the State of Israel not to be under threat from a massive and strategic Iranian controlled forward-operating base on its northern border.
Whether the circumstances have ripened internally in Lebanon for the sidelining of Hezbollah with Israel’s offensive to this point, or if more Israeli military action will be required is not clear as of yet.
What is certain is that further dismantling Hezbollah, relegating them to Kalashnikovs, a random small drone, or an RPG here and there – instead of heavy ballistic missiles and strategic underground facilities, among other sophisticated capabilities – will facilitate that end game.
The second vector underlying the ceasefire, more theoretical, and of secondary importance, is a diplomatic/geo-political one: namely, a potential ambush by the Biden administration at the United Nations.
Echoing his former boss Barack Obama in the final days of his presidency, Biden could have abstained from a par-for-the-course anti-Israel UN Security Council vote. His administration could have even concocted such a resolution behind the scenes, and had a different UNSC member propose it.
This would have been an attempt at a parting shot at Israel, to endear Joe Biden to the liberal progressive base of the US Democratic Party and like-minded elements in American media and academia. Among other things, this would prevent his presidential legacy from being derided and degraded.
The move would also have placated members of his own administration, other US government officials, and many old hands from the Obama administration, who have a particular ideological, as well as deeper “dislike” for the State of Israel.
A successful UN Security Council resolution against Israel would also have added weight to the grotesque display of hypocrisy and antisemitism put on by the so called International Criminal Court at The Hague. Such a UN resolution coupled with the ICC ruling would have heightened the risk that more Israeli leaders, military officials, and simple soldiers, would be libeled and falsely accused by international bodies controlled by actors hostile to Israel’s very existence.
AS THE Biden administration comes to a close, it has, instead of a parting shot, been provided the face-saving accomplishment of a brokered, albeit very tenuous, Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire. This comes after numerous US sponsored /brokered attempts at ceasefires and the “cooling of tensions” on multiple fronts fell apart time after time for over a year since the war began.
A statement by the French Foreign Ministry after the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect, provides another window into these diplomatic games.
According to the statement, the French would not act on the arrest warrants issued by the ICC for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former defense minister Gallant, as they have immunity given Israel is not a party to the ICC. This comes after Israel allowed France to have a role in brokering the ceasefire and observing its implementation and sustainment.
Israel has only engaged in this diplomatic intrigue and strategically leveraging it because roughly 75% of Hezbollah’s strength and capabilities have already been destroyed. Jerusalem would not have acted on potential diplomatic machinations if the threat level from Lebanon would have still been high. Instead, like throughout the previous 13 months, the Jewish state would have focused on fighting and destroying the enemy regardless of the diplomatic fallout. Rafah and the continued targeting of Beirut before the ceasefire are cases in point.
Given the fragility of the actual ceasefire and the interconnectedness of Hezbollah’s fate with the Iranian front and developments in Syria, the end game for the Lebanese front is still coalescing. But one thing is certain: Even a Hezbollah with only 20% or 25% of its original power cannot be left to fester, and eventually attempt to regenerate itself. So, the war continues.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-831671
-----
Addressing The Crisis Facing Israel’s Children Is Key To Building A Better Future
By Shula Recanati
December 3, 2024
In recent years, children in Israel have faced some of the toughest challenges in decades. From the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted their lives and isolated them, to the ongoing war bringing loss, displacement, fear, and uncertainty.
This war has left orphans, uprooted families, and 101 hostages still awaiting their return. The impact on the children has been immense.
Adding to these hardships is an economic crisis, hitting the social and geographic periphery the hardest. Children have suffered both physically and mentally, and their studies have been interrupted or entirely stopped. Many have lost friends and fallen significantly behind in their education. These events will have long-term consequences, influencing not only the future of these children but also the face of our society for years to come.
The critical task ahead for Israel is to rebuild – a stronger economy, a healthier society, and a commitment to preparing the next generation to face these challenges. If we don’t invest in education and mental health support, especially for vulnerable children in the periphery, this mission is doomed to fail.
Education Ministry data shows that educational gaps are widening. In underprivileged areas, fewer students are earning high school diplomas, and many have dropped out entirely. In Israel’s already disadvantaged periphery – many parts of which have been directly affected by the war – the challenge is even greater.
Building confidence and creating change
At one of the Educating for Excellence (Chinuch L’Psagot) centers in Netanya, we witnessed how a meaningful connection between the business world and education can create real change.
A group of students from socioeconomically challenging backgrounds meets weekly with volunteer mentors from a leading hi-tech company. These meetings not only boost the students’ self-confidence but also expose them to opportunities they never knew existed. When one of the students said, “I didn’t know someone like me could achieve this,” we understood this is exactly what’s missing – someone to show them that it’s possible.
To address this crisis, we need a multi-layered approach with particular attention given to the needs of the social-geographic periphery. In these areas, children already begin at a disadvantage even in normal circumstances, let alone during a crisis.
First and foremost, emotional support for children and their families must be prioritized. Building self-confidence is the foundation for learning and academic success.
Additionally, we need to foster supportive and nurturing environments, encouraging teachers to create positive, inclusive classrooms. Providing reinforcement, promoting open and safe communication, and creating space to cope and overcome challenges will help both parents and students navigate these difficult times.
Another key to success is community involvement in the education system and the expansion of resources. Engaging various stakeholders to provide support will help broaden the resources available to parents and students.
Finally, we must instill independence in our children, encouraging critical thinking and resilience. These skills are essential not only for dealing with current pressures but also for overcoming future challenges.
As we reflect on International Children’s Day, it is more urgent than ever to focus on our collective future. The United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of the Child reminds us of our responsibility to protect and empower all children, especially those in Israel’s periphery. If we don’t act now, these children won’t have the tools to build the future – for themselves and for all of us.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-831670
----
The A-G Is Bad For Business And Israel's National Unity
By David Kirshenbaum
December 3, 2024
A recent two-page paid insert at the front of four Israeli dailies illustrates the continued relevance of the numerous Biblical warnings against cult worship and the danger of the Tower of Babel phenomenon, where “the whole world had one language and a common speech.”
Paid for by the Israel Business Forum, a group consisting of about 200 heads of the largest companies in Israel, the readers of the four newspapers were greeted by a front cover half-page color photo of Israel’s Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, and the cry, “continue to safeguard the rule of law on behalf of all of us.”
On the inside page, Baharav-Miara was hailed for “working with uncompromising professionalism and integrity to maintain the rule of law… and protecting the fundamental values of the state.”
The ad “strongly condemns any attempt to undermine the position” of Baharav-Miara, warning that doing so would result in “fatal harm to Israel’s democratic status and enormous political, economic, and social damage.”
Lest anyone think this was merely the unanimous opinion of every chief executive of Israel’s largest companies, the company heads noted they employ most workers in the nongovernmental sector, and those employees “represent a broad spectrum of political opinions.”
Continuing hero worship
The message conveyed is that even people with different politics all agree on the virtues of Baharav- Miara and the need to insulate her from criticism.
It is, to understate the matter, extremely presumptuous for the forum heads to include their employees as fellow partners in the hero worship of Baharav-Miara. After all, it is clear that just as is the case in the country’s body politic, at least half of the employees of the Forum’s companies reject the notion that Baharav-Miara is a knight of democracy and that the safety of our democracy rests on her shoulders.
Indeed, a large percentage see Baharav-Miara as an anti-democratic actor fighting for the implementation of her worldview as a substitute for the policies of a government elected by the people in free and democratic elections.
They see her as a chief architect of a legal system that champions the civil rights of only one particular half of the population and, indeed, is willing to trample the civil rights of those in the unfavored half.
Several critical factors further undercut in the minds of many the presentation of Baharev-Miara and the country’s legal institutions as the gatekeepers of the rule of law.
These include the recent arrests and interrogations of IDF reservists at Sde Teiman tasked with guarding Nukhba terrorists involved in the October 7 massacres; the leak of doctored footage and the initial horrendous and baseless charges brought against them; and the selective prosecution and ongoing brutal indictment of Eli Feldstein and other IDF reservists accused of leaking disfavored information.
The indictment accuses Feldstein of passing on classified information “in order to influence public opinion in Israel regarding the hostage negotiations and, in particular, the contributions of the anti-government demonstrations in [the] strengthening of Hamas.”
It asserts that this information was leaked around the time when six Israeli hostages were murdered on August 31, 2024, and after demonstrations against Netanyahu “out of a desire to change public discourse and to direct an accusatory finger towards Yahya Sinwar.”
Tens of thousands of employees at companies that comprise the Business Forum wonder which “fundamental values of the state” are being protected while Feldstein and other IDF reservists are being treated like terrorists for trying to “influence public opinion” and “change public discourse.”
The power that business executives think the chief government lawyer should have relative to the Israeli prime minister, the cabinet, and other ministers is extremely suspect and ironic given the number one complaint business executives have about their internal and external legal counsel.
CEOs want their lawyers to help them advance and implement their business plans and objectives, not stymie them.
As an attorney for many years at one of the Israel Business Forum’s companies, I know that the last thing a CEO wants to be told by a lawyer is that something can’t be done.
A recurring mantra is, “Don’t tell me no and don’t tell me I can’t; tell me how I can.”
That is the job of a company lawyer and should be the job of a government lawyer. Too often, Baharav-Miara’s default approach and mindset is to act, not as an advocate, but as an adversary.
A recent case in point was a petition to the High Court of Justice brought by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel seeking to annul the government’s appointment of Odelia Minnes as acting head of the Second Authority for Television and Radio.
The petition argued that Minnes was unqualified and that there were also procedural flaws in the appointment. Baharav-Miara refused to defend the government’s position. The High Court rejected both arguments against the appointment, the first unanimously, and upheld the appointment.
What clearly illustrates Baharav-Miara’s adversarial approach is that she found the government’s position so lacking in merit that not only would she not defend the government, she wouldn’t even allow it to obtain alternative legal representation.
The court noted it was at a loss finding any legal basis for this refusal.
It is apparent that the chief executives of the Israel Business Forum have no principled position on the role of lawyers in government. The Forum didn’t suddenly develop a love for lawyers or regulation. Rather, they care deeply about maintaining the policy-making powers and authority of an attorney-general who thinks the same way they all do, even if it runs counter to the policies of the elected government.
The US elections last month represented, in part, a response to long-festering pent-up resentment against big-brother-type control and one-sided thinking in the media, the universities, and industry. By the same token, millions of Israeli customers and consumers at Israel’s banks and investment funds, its shops, airlines, and hotels resent the politicization in lockstep fashion of the places where they do business and make their purchases.
The one-sided political pronouncements and involvement by Israel’s largest companies are a turn-off for many consumers and create a distance among a large percentage of the employees and customers of the Business Forum companies.
This is not only bad for business. It also weakens the cohesion in society and undermines our national resilience.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-831669
-----
Gaza Genocide Reveals The Limits Of Israeli Propaganda
Ramzy Baroud
December 02, 2024
The ongoing genocide in Gaza is unprecedented. Nothing that Israel and its supporters can say or do will avoid its culpability for the attempted extermination of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. This assertion is critical, both for ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine and achieving Palestinian freedom.
In all its past wars and related war crimes, Israel has managed to push the reset button in its relationship with occupied Palestinians. Following each war, the Israeli hasbara (propaganda) machine would start — utilizing the always-willing Western mainstream media — painting Palestinians in a negative light and presenting Israel, a country that is supposedly in a permanent state of self-defense, as the victim or even the lone defender of Western civilization.
This campaign always runs parallel to the whitewashing of Israel in popular entertainment, from Hollywood movies to TV sitcoms and magazine covers with titles such as “Gorgeous photos capture the unseen lives of female soldiers In Israel.”
Generally, Western politicians of various ideologies, along with intellectuals, talking heads on news programs and church leaders, all praise the wonder that is Israel.
At the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, for example, British playwright Tom Stoppard said that, “before we take up a position on what’s happening now, we should consider whether this is a fight over territory or a struggle between civilization and barbarism.” He, of course, leaned toward the latter.
This Israeli tactic always includes the demonization of Palestinians, with the victim becoming the terrorist and those under siege become the besiegers. This last claim, in particular, was expressed by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2000, when she said that “the Israelis feel under siege from the Palestinian rock throwers and the various gangs that have been roaming around.”
So, why will those same Israeli tactics fail this time? It will certainly not be due to Israel’s lack of trying. In fact, it is already bracing for the fight of a lifetime.
One new tactic that Israel is already employing in “friendly” countries like the US is pressuring lawmakers to pass legislation that blocks any conversation about the genocide in Gaza.
The US House of Representatives last month passed H.R. 9495, known as the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. It proposes giving the treasury secretary the authorization to revoke an organization’s tax exempt status and decide when the designation would end. If it passes the Senate and is approved by the president, the most democratic and peaceful expressions of rejecting the Israeli occupation of Palestine and demanding sensible US foreign policy will be equated with a direct violation of the law and, in some cases, terrorism — as defined by the Department of Treasury at the behest of the pro-Israeli lobby.
But even desperate attempts such as this will not quell the anger or distract from the conversation for the following reasons:
One, not only is Israel committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, but this genocide is being investigated and acknowledged by the world’s most prominent legal institutions, namely the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
Two, unlike previous investigations — such as the Goldstone Report into the 2008-09 war on Gaza — the international community has already taken some practical steps to hold Israeli war criminals accountable. These include the International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued last month against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Three, those who routinely come to Israel’s defense, including the US and other Western governments, are now directly clashing with the very international laws they helped articulate after the Second World War, depriving them of any credibility as supposed neutral parties in this conflict.
Four, despite the inherent bias of Western media, Palestinian journalists have, despite being isolated and killed in large numbers, managed to communicate the genocide to the rest of the world, making it impossible for Israel to hide its crimes.
Five, the impact of the Israeli genocide on Gaza has already penetrated public opinion worldwide in an unprecedented manner. Previously, the conversation on Palestine had been confined to specific strata of society, reaching mainly academics, social justice activists and other groups interested in politics and global issues. Today, however, ordinary people have been made aware of the conversation, to the extent that it is widely believed that anger over Gaza contributed to determining the outcome of the latest US presidential election.
In Africa, the growing political and public interest in the Palestinian struggle has re-enlivened the spirit of anticolonial liberation struggles on the continent, bringing many countries back to the front lines of global solidarity.
No amount of Israeli propaganda, unjust laws, unfair categorizations of Palestinians or pictures of scantily-clad members of the Israeli army will ever succeed in reversing these realities.
Now, there can be no reset button. Rather, the global momentum of Palestine’s liberation will accelerate in the coming months and years.
The toll exacted on the Palestinian people for this earth-shattering moment has been painful, but the history of all national liberation struggles, Palestine included, demonstrates that the price of freedom is always high.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2581539
----
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism