Middle East Press On: Letting Gaza Starve, Palestine, Resistance, Revolution: New Age Islam's Selection, 28 July 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
28 July 2025
Stop Letting Gaza Starve: The World Must Act Now
France’s Recognition Of Palestine Risks Helping Israel—Indonesia Should Rethink Its Applause
22 Months Of Complicity: Why The Media Suddenly Changed Its Mind On Gaza
Ziad Al-Rahbani (1956-2025): The Unyielding Voice Of Resistance And Revolution
Perhaps Ill-Timed But Inevitable: French Recognition Of A Palestinian State
The Ousting Of Yuli Edelstein: Israeli Politics Reaches A New Low
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Stop Letting Gaza Starve: The World Must Act Now
by Tasnim Nazeer
July 27, 2025
The images emerging from Gaza that we bear witness to every day are heart-wrenching. As July closes, we are witnessing some of the deadliest moments of this ongoing catastrophe. Every twelve minutes, a Palestinian life is murdered by Israeli bombardment. Yet, the true horrors go beyond the bombs and the bloodshed. There is something much more insidious at play: the weapon of starvation.
The United Nations has reported that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel this month alone while attempting to access food. But these are not casualties of bombs, these are people, including children and the elderly, who have perished because they were starved from the simplest, most basic necessity for survival: sustenance. The desperate attempts to reach food have become nothing short of death traps. Gaza is suffocating, not only from airstrikes and military occupation but from hunger.
Behind the visible deaths, we have a silent genocide: the systematic starvation of an entire population. It is a slow, agonising process that has been engineered to perfection by the Israeli government. As Professor Alex de Waal, an expert on humanitarian crises, aptly said, it is “minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed.” Israel’s ongoing siege, blocking vital food, water, and medical supplies, has turned Gaza into an open-air prison where death comes not just from bombs but from the very air they breathe.
The true tragedy lies in the human cost of this cruelty. I remember a year ago, I interviewed a young Palestinian teacher who was attempting to educate children amid the chaos, amidst the ongoing genocide. She spoke of her dreams for a better future for the children she taught, children who were already scarred by the violence of occupation and airstrikes. Despite everything, she held on to the belief that education was their only hope for tomorrow. I kept in touch with her regularly, hoping, praying that her voice, her optimism, and the very survival of those children would endure.
But today, that teacher is starving. I have watched as the very people I’ve spoken to and fought for from a distance have suffered unimaginable horrors. Despite all the calls for aid, despite all my efforts to reach out, I feel powerless. I feel as though I am standing on the sidelines, watching a slow-motion tragedy unfold, and I cannot stop it. The thought that children who once dreamed of a future now struggle to stay alive is breaking my heart. I want to do more. I must do more. Yet, like the rest of us, I am shackled by the unyielding system of inaction, both from global powers and international bodies. This doesn’t stop us from sending aid and speaking out as much as we can and continuing to push for an end to this horror.
We are witnessing the deliberate destruction of Gaza. Israel claims that Hamas is responsible for the chaos, for the hunger. But they cannot hide behind that argument when it is Israel who is starving the children. It is Israel that has weaponised food and water, depriving an entire population of their most basic needs and we can all see it clearly. And yet, the UK and the US, Israel’s primary allies continue to support this genocide, offering diplomatic cover and weaponry while the death toll rises. They do not just fail to act, they enable the genocide.
I understand that condemnation is growing. I understand that voices across the globe are calling for justice, but condemnation alone is not enough. Words have done little to change the course of events. What matters is action. Sanctions, arms embargoes, halting trade deals, all of it must happen now, or the history books will forever mark this moment as one of the most shameful failures of international governance.
I have been part of many conversations in which people said, “We cannot turn a blind eye. We cannot let this happen.” Yet the failure to act has proven just how hollow those words were. Time and again, nations such as the UK and the US have turned a blind eye while allowing Israel to continue its policies of apartheid, segregation, and genocide. And in doing so, they are complicit in this mass killing, in the destruction of Gaza’s people, in the breaking of its children.
For those who argue that it’s too late, that we are too far gone, this is exactly why we need to act. The longer we delay, the worse the suffering becomes. Starvation in Gaza doesn’t just destroy lives in the moment; it ruins generations to come. Children who are starving today will suffer lifelong health consequences. Societies, once vibrant and full of hope, are being shattered. Gaza’s soul is being obliterated by this suffocating siege, and we all bear witness to it.
To my Palestinian brothers and sisters, to the teacher I once spoke to who is now fighting for her life, I see you. I hear you. I am fighting for you, even if it feels like the world has forgotten you. The world must wake up. Many world leaders cannot keep pretending that this is not a genocide. This is the deliberate, calculated destruction of an entire population, and we must do everything we can to end it now.
It will take more than words to halt this genocide. It will take bold action. It will take the courage to stand up against Israel’s war crimes and to stop the UK and US from continuing to be complicit. Because as we sit back and let this continue, history will not ask us what we said. It will ask us what we did. And right now, we have done nothing enough.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250727-stop-letting-gaza-starve-the-world-must-act-now/
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France’s Recognition Of Palestine Risks Helping Israel—Indonesia Should Rethink Its Applause
by Dr. Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
July 27, 2025
This week, Indonesia welcomed France’s decision to recognise the State of Palestine as a “positive step” toward peace. On its surface, this diplomatic endorsement may appear aligned with Indonesia’s long-standing support for Palestinian self-determination. But behind France’s gesture lies a deeper, more dangerous calculus—one that does not just ignore the reality on the ground, but actively entrenches it.
What France proposes is not justice. It is not freedom. It is an updated version of the same illusion that has kept Palestinians caged and dispossessed for decades: the so-called two-state solution.
In Jakarta’s official statement, the French move was praised for supporting a “sovereign and independent” Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. But President Emmanuel Macron made clear what kind of state he envisions: a demilitarized Palestine that fully recognizes Israel. No mention of dismantling settlements, no restitution for occupied land, no accountability for war crimes in Gaza. Only submission, in return for a diplomatic label.
This is not a step toward peace—it’s a framework for permanent subjugation.
France’s position not only lacks balance, it weaponizes it. Macron calls for the “demilitarization of Hamas,” the rebuilding of Gaza, and regional stability—but with no demands for Israeli disarmament, no consequences for its mass killing of civilians, no guarantees of actual sovereignty for Palestinians. Instead, Palestinians are asked to disavow resistance, while the occupying power faces no requirement to end its occupation.
Indonesia, by praising this deal without reservation, is endorsing a framework that surrenders Palestinian rights under the language of diplomacy. In doing so, it becomes complicit in a process that allows Israel to continue its long project of expansion and erasure.
Because that is exactly what we are witnessing: not just war, but erasure.
Israel’s leaders have shed any pretense of restraint. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has declared that Gaza should be “completely flattened.” Members of the Knesset and senior military figures have called to “wipe out” the territory. Starvation, siege, and bombing are not incidental—they are deliberate. The goal is not merely to punish, but to depopulate.
And this genocidal ambition is not new. It is part of a larger ideological blueprint long championed by elements of Israel’s far-right: the “Greater Israel” project. This vision seeks to claim not just the full expanse of historic Palestine—from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea—but in some renditions, territory beyond it. It is a dream of exclusive ethnic control over a vast swath of the region. Palestinians, in this model, are not citizens or neighbors—they are obstacles to be removed.
This is the context in which France’s recognition must be understood: not as a bold shift in policy, but as a stabilizing gesture for an apartheid regime facing global criticism. And by embracing it, Indonesia—whether intentionally or not—is lending moral cover to that regime.
It is tempting, in the face of so much suffering, to welcome any sign of progress. But symbolic recognition without structural change only reinforces the status quo. A demilitarized Palestine, hemmed in by Israeli checkpoints, with no right of return and no means of defense, is not a state—it’s an open-air prison with a flag.
What is needed now is not more applause for diplomatic theater, but a refusal to accept false solutions. The two-state framework, as currently constructed, is not a path to justice. It is a political tool that enables colonization while pretending to end it.
Indonesia has long stood as a voice for the oppressed. It must not dilute that legacy by celebrating a plan that leaves Palestinians with a flag and no freedom. Instead of encouraging other nations to follow France’s lead, Indonesia should be demanding accountability: for the destruction of Gaza, for the daily violence in the West Bank, and for the decades of displacement.
This is not a time for symbolic victories. It is a time for moral clarity.
France’s vision, and Indonesia’s uncritical support of it, may win applause in diplomatic circles. But on the ground, in Gaza and the West Bank, it enables a project whose end goal is not peace, but erasure. If Indonesia truly believes in justice for Palestine, it must reject this illusion—and instead, insist on the one thing Palestinians have never been offered: freedom on their own terms.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250727-frances-recognition-of-palestine-risks-helping-israel-indonesia-should-rethink-its-applause/
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22 Months of Complicity: Why The Media Suddenly Changed Its Mind On Gaza
By Robert Inlakesh
July 27, 2025
After 22 months of complicity and silence, major Western news outlets appear to have had an epiphany about the live-streamed genocide in the Gaza Strip. Yet, given that this change has coincided with a similar rhetoric shift from Western leaderships, it has not been received the way they had hoped and shouldn’t be.
You may have noticed a near 180-degree pivot in the way that Western media outlets have been reporting on Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. Just months ago, the BBC, Sky News, CNN, the AP, and even popular commentators like Piers Morgan were all framing the genocide as Israel’s defensive war against Hamas.
Now, that same media machine is challenging Israeli officials, standing up to Zionist propaganda and, in many cases, calling out Tel Aviv’s policies for what they are, in line with what human rights groups and the UN reports.
On Thursday, the BBC, AP, AFP, and Reuters even released a joint statement expressing their concern for their journalist colleagues in the Gaza Strip, stating that “they (Gazan journalists) are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.”
While some have heaped praise upon these media outlets and personalities for suddenly standing up, many have seen through it. So in light of this, it is important to explain why this is, in fact, all performative, and frankly, downright insulting.
To begin with, the sudden shift appears to be justified across the Western mainstream media spectrum on the basis of Israel’s 3-month-long total blockade of Gaza and recent statements of senior officials, particularly Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
In order to assess whether this acted as the straw that broke the camel’s back and suddenly caused an awakening, we have to look at how true it is that the situation on the ground in Gaza changed so dramatically.
On the point about the statements coming from prominent members of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, it is blatantly false that there has been any kind of major rhetoric shift in recent months. In fact, one only needs to go back to South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in late December of 2023, to get a full list of genocidal statements.
When the ICJ genocide case hearings took place in January, 2024, one of the most convincing arguments presented by South Africa’s legal team was the fact that everyone from the Israeli Prime Minister, President and Defense Minister, to media personalities, had made genocidal remarks, which were then interpreted by soldiers on the ground as orders to commit a genocide.
On October 9, 2023, then Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant asserted that his military was fighting “human animals” and that “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.”
This leads us to the next major reason cited for the alleged collective epiphany across the corporate media spectrum, which is the Israeli policy of starvation. Yes, Israel did impose a complete siege on Gaza for over 80 days, yet during that period, which came after Israel decided to arbitrarily scrap its ceasefire agreement, the media shift did not yet occur.
The number of people starving to death in the Gaza Strip has undoubtedly reached levels not seen before. Although it should be noted that this is not actually the period in time when the largest number of overall daily deaths have occurred.
Nor is it true that the starvation policy is something new. Now, to counter this, some may push back by claiming that this time it is clearly as a result of a much more deliberate approach.
Yet this would ignore the fact that in April of 2024, Israel’s top rights group B’Tselem released a report entitled “Manufacturing Famine” in which they accuse Israel of deliberately implementing policies aimed at inflicting famine; which did actually begin to unfold before the Israelis were ultimately forced to allow some aid to enter Gaza.
So then we come to these statements appealing to Israel to allow aid into Gaza and expressions of concern for journalists.
Let’s address the statements of concern, such as the BBC, AP, AFP, and Reuters statements. Again, let’s reflect on the idea that Gaza’s journalists are “now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.”
This would have been true had it been published 22 months ago. Only “now” are they suffering the circumstances of those they cover? No. They have been suffering exactly as the rest of the population has since the beginning of the genocide.
These journalists do not need statements of concern; they deserve an apology from the BBC, Reuters, AP, and AFP for the atrocious reports they have all put out throughout the genocide that have worked in many cases to whitewash and justify Israel’s actions.
At least 217 Palestinian journalists have been murdered by Israel since October 7, 2023, making this war in Gaza the deadliest for journalists in human history. That is more journalists who have been killed covering the genocide than died in WW2 and the Vietnam War combined.
If we pair the shift in coverage from these media outlets with the change in rhetoric from their respective governments, or at least major political parties they align with, it begins to make sense what is truly happening here.
Hilary Clinton was one of the proponents of the “Systematic Hamas mass rape campaign” hoax, which worked to justify the continued slaughter of civilians in the name of going after Hamas, despite there being no evidence to support this claim. Now she calls for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer also delivered remarks calling for an end to the suffering in Gaza and urging Israel to allow the free flow of aid into the besieged coastal territory. At the same time, however, he continues to sell weapons components to the Israeli military and punishes activists domestically for standing in the way of the weapons industry’s role in the genocide.
It suffices to say that this is not authentic; it’s all performative. Why? It comes down to a few different reasons. The first is that the scale of the starvation inflicted in Gaza was becoming a bad look for Israel’s allies. Unlike the case with bombing, there is literally no excuse that works to justify stopping food from reaching a civilian population.
Then there is the aspect of this that the Western governments and media are putting on a show, as they sense that the genocide is in its final stages. The governments make empty statements, without real action to follow it up, while the Western media gets to try and salvage their tarnished image.
The whole world has watched every outlet, once held up as the gold standard of journalism, lie so blatantly and work as stenographers for the Israeli foreign ministry. So, now, in order to enter relevancy on the topic, they have to put up a front that they are holding the Israelis to account.
This also opens the door for them to begin shaping the confines of what the acceptable discourse on the issue should be, after it has clearly gotten out of their control. From Right to Left, to the politically non-affiliated, all major social media influencers and independent reporters are now comparing Israel to the Nazis and they call what is happening in Gaza a genocide.
These comparisons, just a year ago, were viewed as socially unacceptable; now it is normal for people to liken Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
The mask has fallen off Western leadership and their corporate media machinery. They aren’t allowed to suddenly pretend as if they weren’t complicit in the Gaza genocide.
At the very least, they need to all apologise, not to their own public that they have failed and lied to, but to the Palestinians who have so far managed to survive this holocaust.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/22-months-of-complicity-why-the-media-suddenly-changed-its-mind-on-gaza/
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Ziad al-Rahbani (1956-2025): The Unyielding Voice of Resistance and Revolution
By Louis Brehony
July 27, 2025
It is with shock at the earliness of his departure that Lebanon bids farewell to Ziad al-Rahbani, a pillar of radical musicianship, at the age of 69. A committed communist who aligned himself with the Palestinian cause, Ziad left his indelible musical fingerprints on a wide region. An essential influence to generations of listeners, musicians and activists, Ziad ruffled the feathers of the wealthy, embarrassed conservatives and irritated liberals. Son of Lebanese icons Fairuz and Assi Rahbani, his musical tenacity and critique of a system in crisis demanded that others sing for its downfall.
Born into relative privilege among Maronite Christians and well-known musicians, Ziad understandably trod a creative path from an early age. His composer father Assi and uncle Mansour were the famous Rahbani brothers, writing epochal works for his mother Fairuz, to this day Lebanon’s most renowned vocalist. Ziad grew up sitting in on rehearsals and met huge figures in Arab music, including Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Palestinian Sabri Sherif, who produced Fairuz’s albums dedicated to Palestine. Ziad eventually inherited the Rahbani mantle and, from the 1980s, became Fairuz’s main songwriter.
As a teenager, Ziad joined Rahbani brothers’ productions and quietly applied his skills as a composer and keyboardist. Though his approach towards his parents’ legacy was not the scorched earth policy some describe, Ziad began to forge his own path. Attracted to leftist politics at a time when the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) allied itself to Palestinian resistance, Ziad’s empathy with the poor and downtrodden quickly expressed itself through music. He found his raison d’être in musical theatre, and works like Film Amriki Tawil (Long American Film, 1980) and Shi Fashil (Failure, 1983) broke social taboos, sharply attacking class discrimination and spotlighting characters from the working class.
Disgusted by the massacre at Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp in 1976, Ziad moved from the material comfort of West Beirut and chose to reside in majority Muslim areas. Throughout Zionist invasions and a war that would endure over 15 hard years, he refused to leave the country and seek refuge elsewhere. Attesting to the radical atmosphere to which Ziad entered, Ziad composed the film soundtrack to Returning to Haifa (1982), based on the Ghassan Kanafani novel, produced by radical playwright Kassim Hawal and involving support from socialist East Germany.
In 1985, with conservatism and sectarianism rising from the destruction of invasions and war, Ziad released the album Ana Mish Kafir (I am not an infidel). The title track attacked those in Lebanon’s Christian and Muslim communities who washed their hands of the problems faced by the poor and oppressed:
Included in the same album, Ziad’s song “al-Muqawama al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya” (the Lebanese National Resistance) contained revolutionary optimism and prophesied later victories. It was later sung by Fairuz at the 2000 Beiteddine Festival, marking the expulsion of Israeli forces at the hands of the resistance:
Many of the political songs Ziad wrote for theatre and albums over this earlier period have found striking relevance to the lives of new generations since. In “Shu Hal Ayyam” (Such times we’ve reached), Ziad’s lyrics were a direct critique of capitalism:
Gazan oud player Reem Anbar has played the song and says, “This still resonates with us today, while we see injustice and inequality all around us. Ziad really gave voice to our experiences in Palestine and Gaza in particular.”
Coming amidst the Gaza Genocide, the passing of Ziad on July 26 saw a collective outpouring of musicians and political activists. Egyptian musician Hazem Shaheen performed with Ziad in his later years, including on LCP stages. Saddened by the loss of “a friend and human of the highest order,” Hazem said that he felt Ziad’s political commitments translated into the way he treated others: “On the personal level, he was uniquely selfless, interested in supporting and encouraging younger artists rather than being motivated by his own career.”
Lebanese lyricist Fadi Zaraket sees Ziad’s passing as having importance akin to the loss of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah: “a huge loss for revolutionary music, culture, media and resistance.” Ziad had appeared in public as a political commentator in recent years, denouncing Western intervention in Syria and critiquing bourgeois corruption in Lebanon. According to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP):
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/ziad-al-rahbani-1956-2025-the-unyielding-voice-of-resistance-and-revolution/
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Perhaps Ill-Timed But Inevitable: French Recognition Of A Palestinian State
By Sebastien Levi
JULY 28, 2025
Last Wednesday, the Knesset voted by a fairly wide majority – 71 to 13 – in favour of a non-binding resolution to annex the West Bank. The opposition made the courageous choice to abstain on this issue, which, while symbolic at this stage, is nonetheless essential for the future of both Israel and the Palestinians.
In a sequence that encapsulates the current regional stakes and explains President Emmanuel Macron’s decision, France – in the immediate aftermath of the Knesset vote – announced official recognition of the “State of Palestine.” This provoked a diplomatic shock wave and drew sharp criticism from both Israel and the United States.
Some of these criticisms are understandable, particularly regarding the timing of the decision – while the war is not over, hostages are still held by Hamas, and this recognition could be perceived as a “reward” for October 7. However, they fail to consider the recent actions and statements from the Israeli government.
French recognition was inevitable consequence of Israeli actions
Since April, when Macron indicated his intention to recognize Palestine under certain conditions – such as the release of hostages or the disarmament of Hamas – the war has intensified without a clearly defined war objective. The Gazan population has been repeatedly displaced, with the Israeli government’s stated goal of concentrating them into less than 25% of the Gaza Strip, and humanitarian aid is poorly and insufficiently distributed through an ad hoc organization that has proven entirely ineffective.
Beyond these on-the-ground realities, some Israeli ministers have openly spoken of expelling Gazans from Gaza, turning it into Jewish land, or “completely destroying” it. A conference at the Knesset, organized by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, aimed to discuss occupying Gaza and expelling its population.
Simultaneously, violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank has increased with near-total impunity, as has the destruction of homes – culminating in this week’s Knesset vote that reveals the true intentions of the current Israeli government regarding Palestinians.
France’s recognition of Palestine had initially been planned jointly with Saudi Arabia for June but was suspended due to the war with Iran. That suspension was likely both operational and political, as the war with Iran – if successful, at least relatively – might have opened a diplomatic path encouraged by Trump, notably expanding the Abraham Accords and addressing the Palestinian issue. Instead, it encouraged the Israeli government to double down on a strictly military approach and reject any diplomatic opening.
This recognition is, in fact, one of the consequences of the Israeli government’s stubborn refusal to consider what comes after the Gaza war – a point that then-US president Joe Biden, a true friend of Israel, had stressed as early as the beginning of 2024. Biden knew all too well that this lack of planning played into the hands of both Israeli and Palestinian extremists, leaving endless war as the only horizon envisioned by the Israeli government and its leader – obsessed with his own political survival amidst a corruption trial, and the dismantling of Israel’s democracy and checks and balances to protect himself.
What Netanyahu and his government miss
For Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, October 7 is not only the calamity it was for Israelis and the security failure he failed to prevent, but also the backdrop that justifies endless war, avoids any post-war political solution in a traumatized country, and significantly weakens Israeli democratic institutions – the original grand plan of this ruling coalition.
For them, in a narrative frozen on October 7, any action by Israel is still legitimate as a response, and any measure seen as “anti-Israel,” such as France’s recognition of Palestine, is branded a “reward for Hamas.”
However, Hamas has never supported the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution. Instead, it seeks the eradication of Israel. Portraying Hamas as a supporter of France’s proposal, and France as an ally of Hamas, is at best dishonest, and at worst a blatant lie.
Macron is now paying the price for his inconsistency, evasiveness, and grandstanding, and he is arguably not the most credible figure on this issue. He could have announced this recognition not via a simple press release, but through a major Israeli media outlet, speaking directly to the Israeli people to show that this recognition was in no way directed against Israel – and to counter the often-fallacious arguments used by the Israeli government.
The Israeli prime minister’s reaction should open the eyes of those who criticize France’s unilateral recognition while still professing support for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu does not merely object to the timing – he rejects the very idea of a Palestinian state, claiming: “The Palestinians do not want a state alongside Israel, but a state in place of Israel.” Last week’s Knesset vote has exposed the real intentions of his government.
In many ways, France’s recognition of Palestine just days after this vote – even though none of the conditions it had set three months earlier have been objectively met – is as much a sign of weakness, an expression of frustration, and an indictment of an Israeli government trapped in a reckless course of action. Horrific images coming out of Gaza have made inaction unbearable.
The Israeli government is now being accused of causing famine in Gaza. While these accusations are incomplete and often overlook Hamas’s responsibility, are they entirely unfounded? How can the Israeli government and its defenders express outrage over such accusations after having (rightly) sidelined UNRWA without putting an alternative mechanism in place – then relying on an inexperienced private company to deliver food in a war-ravaged zone? And above all, how could these accusations not emerge when prominent members of the governing coalition have repeatedly threatened to starve the Gazan population?
There comes a time when the recklessness, extremism, or incompetence of leaders exacts a heavy price – as shown by the examples of Venezuela, Argentina, or the former USSR.
The true defenders of the State of Israel do it no service by denying the obvious and defending, at all costs, government policies that have objectively become indefensible. Defending Israel, its democracy, and its place among nations does not mean defending its current leaders, but rather standing in solidarity with the 80% of Israelis who – though they may not empathize with the Gazan population due to ongoing trauma from October 7 – are demanding an end to the war and the preservation of their democracy. These two goals are fundamentally linked.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-862364
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The Ousting Of Yuli Edelstein: Israeli Politics Reaches A New Low
By Susan Hattis Rolef
JULY 28, 2025
Last Wednesday, the Likud’s lawmakers voted to replace MK Yuli Edelstein with MK Boaz Bismuth as chairperson of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Initially, the balloting of the two Likud MKs was supposed to be secret; however, Likud’s legal adviser overturned the decision, saying that anything other than an open vote was “inconsistent with the law.”
The decision not to have secret balloting in effect discouraged disobedient MKs from voting against the move (i.e., against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wishes), even though four MKs – Edelstein, Eli Dalal, Shalom Danino, and David Bitan – did not support Edelstein’s ouster. Twenty-nine Likud MKs voted in favor.
The vote is problematic from political, democratic, and ideological perspectives. Netanyahu and his supporters wanted Edelstein removed from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee because he has prevented the passage of a law, paradoxically referred to as a law to enlist haredim for military service – even though it is actually designed to exempt haredi youths from such service.
The issue of military service
The haredi parties have taken preliminary steps to leave the coalition if such a law is not passed, though at the moment they apparently do not intend to bring down the government and set early elections in motion. They are also opposed to various financial and administrative sanctions being applied to 18 to 26-year-old haredim who are shirking military service, which is something Edelstein has insisted on.
Certainly, Likud MKs and Netanyahu are ideologically committed to all Israeli Jews serving in the IDF, with few exceptions. Therefore, the sole motivation for Edelstein’s ouster is clearly political. The objective is to ensure that the current government preserves its Knesset majority, which it attained in the November 2022 elections to the 25th Knesset, even though all current public opinion polls indicate that if elections were held today, the government would lose its majority.
According to the same opinion polls, a clear majority of the general population favors enlistment of the haredim. This is not only because of the principle of equality, but also because the IDF is short of at least 10,000 new recruits. It is seriously overstretched, as reservists are repeatedly being called up for military service.
Edelstein is a serious and experienced politician
Though Edelstein's record of upholding the rule of law is far from perfect, the former Soviet refusenik nevertheless has a reputation for being a serious and experienced politician. In addition, he is much more knowledgeable than Bismuth concerning the responsibilities of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and therefore more suitable to head it. Bismuth is viewed as a lightweight by many, and even as something of a clown, though he is not one of the worst Likud MKs.
Edelstein’s constitutional foible occurred at the end of March 2020. As temporary speaker of the 23rd Knesset, in a rather unstable and confused political situation accompanied by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he refused to abide by a ruling of the High Court of Justice that he immediately hold a vote in the Knesset to elect a new Speaker to replace him.
This was the first time a Likudnik in a high political position refused to abide by a ruling of the High Court of Justice. Today, this appears to be a regular Likud state of mind, which constantly threatens to create a constitutional crisis.
The crisis finally ended with Edelstein’s resignation and the election of MK Benny Gantz (Blue and White) as speaker. When Gantz joined a national unity government with Netanyahu 53 days later, he was replaced by MK Yariv Levin (Likud).
Bismuth was finally elected by the Likud to replace Edelstein as chairperson of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee because the Haredi parties preferred him. They believe he is most likely to deliver the law they want – and not because Netanyahu preferred him to any of the other candidates, and not because the Likud really believes that Bismuth is suitable to head this committee.
(The Knesset House Committee and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee must still approve Bismuth’s appointment.)
Sectarian interests are setting the agenda
The fact that the Haredi parties, and the elderly rabbis who determine their policy goals, are in a position to cause a totally unsuitable candidate to be selected to head the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee shows just how low our political system has stooped. The Haredi demand was not based on an understanding of Israel’s foreign affairs and security concerns and interests, but rather on purely sectarian interests of the haredi community.
In the past, those who chaired the committee – from whichever political party – were respectable figures, with relevant experience. For example, MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud), who was the chairperson from 2003-2006, initiated serious reports and reforms in the committee, in cooperation with MKs from numerous coalition and opposition parties.
This was also the period when MK Michael Eitan (Likud), as chairperson of the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, initiated an effort to prepare a constitution by broad agreement, in which several Arab and haredi MKs were also involved. Today, this committee, headed by Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party), is committed to breaking down our legal and judicial systems, rather than reforming them.
It is not an exaggeration to say that in the final reckoning, if Netanyahu had insisted on decisions being taken more on the basis of national interests and less on the basis of his own political survival interests, much of what I have described would have been avoided.
However, what can be expected of a man who said on a recent podcast that he deserves credit for the entries of Burger King and McDonald’s into the Israeli market – even though they both set up franchises here in 1993, during Yitzhak Rabin’s term as prime minister?
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-862336
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/middle-east-press/gaza-starve-palestine--resistance-revolution/d/136319
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