30 dec 2019
By: The Palestine Chronicle Staff
Following his triumph in the Likud party’s primary elections, on December 26, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu introduced a political plan aimed at securing US recognition of Israel’s annexation of West Bank settlements and rolling back Iran’s influence in the region.
Netanyahu’s plan, which is likely to play a major role in his desperate attempt to cling to power after yet another general election, slated for March, also proposes the normalization of ties between Tel Aviv and Arab countries, without ending Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Israeli newspaper Times of Israel reported on Netanyahu’s six-point plan, which was revealed during the Israeli leader’s victory speech on Friday.
“First, we will finalize our borders; second, we will push the US to recognize our sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea; third, we will push for US recognition of our extension of sovereignty over all the communities in Judea and Samaria, all of them without exception,” Netanyahu said.
“Fourth, we will push for a historic defense alliance with the US that will preserve Israeli freedom of action; fifth, stop Iran and its allies decisively; and sixth, push for normalization and agreements that will lead to peace accords with Arab countries”.
“Israeli officials have been preparing for this moment for more than half a century, since the West Bank and Gaza were seized back in 1967,” Palestine Chronicle contributor Jonathan Cook wrote last June.
“Annexation is not a right-wing project that has hijacked the benign intentions of Israel’s founding generation. Annexation was on the cards from the occupation’s very beginnings in 1967, when the so-called center-left – now presented as a peace-loving alternative to Netanyahu – ran the government,” Cook added.
“Ultimately, Israel wants the Palestinians gone entirely, squeezed out into neighboring Arab states, such as Egypt and Jordan. That next chapter is likely to begin in earnest if Trump ever gets the chance to unveil his deal of the century’.”
In his speech on Friday, Netanyahu promised his Likud supporters that he will “fight for them” as “they fought for me,” reported The Times of Israel.
Following his triumph in the Likud party’s primary elections, on December 26, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu introduced a political plan aimed at securing US recognition of Israel’s annexation of West Bank settlements and rolling back Iran’s influence in the region.
Netanyahu’s plan, which is likely to play a major role in his desperate attempt to cling to power after yet another general election, slated for March, also proposes the normalization of ties between Tel Aviv and Arab countries, without ending Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Israeli newspaper Times of Israel reported on Netanyahu’s six-point plan, which was revealed during the Israeli leader’s victory speech on Friday.
“First, we will finalize our borders; second, we will push the US to recognize our sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea; third, we will push for US recognition of our extension of sovereignty over all the communities in Judea and Samaria, all of them without exception,” Netanyahu said.
“Fourth, we will push for a historic defense alliance with the US that will preserve Israeli freedom of action; fifth, stop Iran and its allies decisively; and sixth, push for normalization and agreements that will lead to peace accords with Arab countries”.
“Israeli officials have been preparing for this moment for more than half a century, since the West Bank and Gaza were seized back in 1967,” Palestine Chronicle contributor Jonathan Cook wrote last June.
“Annexation is not a right-wing project that has hijacked the benign intentions of Israel’s founding generation. Annexation was on the cards from the occupation’s very beginnings in 1967, when the so-called center-left – now presented as a peace-loving alternative to Netanyahu – ran the government,” Cook added.
“Ultimately, Israel wants the Palestinians gone entirely, squeezed out into neighboring Arab states, such as Egypt and Jordan. That next chapter is likely to begin in earnest if Trump ever gets the chance to unveil his deal of the century’.”
In his speech on Friday, Netanyahu promised his Likud supporters that he will “fight for them” as “they fought for me,” reported The Times of Israel.
23 dec 2019
In an official statement, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said: “We firmly oppose this and any other action that seeks to target Israel unfairly.” the Anadolu Agency reported.
He also claimed that Washington does not believe that Palestine qualifies as a “sovereign state”, hence it should not be able to “obtain full membership, or participate as a state in international organizations, entities, or conferences, including the ICC.”
In a statement, on Friday, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda said “In brief, I am satisfied that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip,”
In response to the statements made by Pompeo, the leadership of the Gaza strip, Hamas – elected into power in 2007, condemned US complicity in Israeli war crimes.
“The attitude of the Washington administration encourages Israel to commit crimes against our people,” Hamas spokesman, Hazem Qasim, said in a statement, on Saturday.
“The US is encouraging Israel to commit crimes by opposing the ICC probe into war crimes in Palestine,” – Hazem Qasim
He also claimed that Washington does not believe that Palestine qualifies as a “sovereign state”, hence it should not be able to “obtain full membership, or participate as a state in international organizations, entities, or conferences, including the ICC.”
In a statement, on Friday, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda said “In brief, I am satisfied that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip,”
In response to the statements made by Pompeo, the leadership of the Gaza strip, Hamas – elected into power in 2007, condemned US complicity in Israeli war crimes.
“The attitude of the Washington administration encourages Israel to commit crimes against our people,” Hamas spokesman, Hazem Qasim, said in a statement, on Saturday.
“The US is encouraging Israel to commit crimes by opposing the ICC probe into war crimes in Palestine,” – Hazem Qasim
22 dec 2019
Israeli sources say the list, delayed on multiple occasions due to U.S. pressure, is set to be made public at the end of January by the UN Commission on Human Rights; the Americans warn the body would face consequences if any U.S. companies are harmed as a result
The UN entity on human rights is expected to publish at the end of January the much-delayed “blacklist” of Israeli business operating in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, sources in Jerusalem said Sunday.
In 2016, the UN Human Rights Council approved a resolution to collect a "blacklist" of Israeli and international companies operating in the settlements, which would then be made public. In addition, the European Union is targeting companies that operate in the West Bank, with a recent ruling from its courts requiring all member states to label products made in the settlements.
The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is believed to have been encouraged to publish the list by the ICC prosecutor’s decision to open a probe into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian territories.
The list was set to be published at the 40th UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva in March but Bachelet decided to postpone the announcement due to heavy pressure apparently put on her by the United States and Israel.
"I am committed to fulfilling the council's mandate,” the former Chilean president said in a letter to the commission back in March. “Due to the factual complexity, further examination is required to fully comply with the council's request. I’ve appealed to member states, business entities, representatives of Israeli civil society and other officials,” she said.
The sources said the U.S. government, including congressmen from both Republican and Democratic parties, have been working behind the scenes to try and postpone the publication of the list once again, applying pressure on the commissioner and UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
The Americans have apparently implied that the Trump administration will take strong action against the UN Commission on Human Rights if the so-called blacklist harms the U.S. companies which are set to make the list.
David Friedman, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, has also been holding talks on the issue with officials in the country.
A number of prominent Israeli and international companies - among them Coca Cola and Teva - have been threatened with inclusion on a United Nations blacklist over their operations in Israeli settlements.
The UN entity on human rights is expected to publish at the end of January the much-delayed “blacklist” of Israeli business operating in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, sources in Jerusalem said Sunday.
In 2016, the UN Human Rights Council approved a resolution to collect a "blacklist" of Israeli and international companies operating in the settlements, which would then be made public. In addition, the European Union is targeting companies that operate in the West Bank, with a recent ruling from its courts requiring all member states to label products made in the settlements.
The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is believed to have been encouraged to publish the list by the ICC prosecutor’s decision to open a probe into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian territories.
The list was set to be published at the 40th UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva in March but Bachelet decided to postpone the announcement due to heavy pressure apparently put on her by the United States and Israel.
"I am committed to fulfilling the council's mandate,” the former Chilean president said in a letter to the commission back in March. “Due to the factual complexity, further examination is required to fully comply with the council's request. I’ve appealed to member states, business entities, representatives of Israeli civil society and other officials,” she said.
The sources said the U.S. government, including congressmen from both Republican and Democratic parties, have been working behind the scenes to try and postpone the publication of the list once again, applying pressure on the commissioner and UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
The Americans have apparently implied that the Trump administration will take strong action against the UN Commission on Human Rights if the so-called blacklist harms the U.S. companies which are set to make the list.
David Friedman, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, has also been holding talks on the issue with officials in the country.
A number of prominent Israeli and international companies - among them Coca Cola and Teva - have been threatened with inclusion on a United Nations blacklist over their operations in Israeli settlements.
The Hamas Movement has described the US opposition to the International Criminal Court’s decision to investigate Israeli war crimes as “insistence on providing cover for the atrocities and violations that had been committed against the Palestinian people.”
In press remarks on Saturday, Hazem Qasem accused the US administration of encouraging the Israeli occupation state to commit more crimes against the Palestinian people, calling the administration of Donald Trump “ Israel’s accomplice”
On Friday, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor announced her intention to open an investigation into war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In press remarks on Saturday, Hazem Qasem accused the US administration of encouraging the Israeli occupation state to commit more crimes against the Palestinian people, calling the administration of Donald Trump “ Israel’s accomplice”
On Friday, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor announced her intention to open an investigation into war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
21 dec 2019
You have to hand it to Donald Trump, he knows which side his bread is buttered.
Spewing out disgusting remarks that some of the commentariat deemed only “controversial” at worst, Trump attended the Israeli-American Council’s (AIC) national summit earlier this month.
A major pro-Israel lobby group, the IAC is bankrolled by anti-Palestinian casino billionaire, Sheldon Adelson.
By complete and utter coincidence, Adelson is also Trump’s top election donor.
Trump used his speech at the summit to back Israeli crimes and racism to the hilt, as per usual, for all American presidents from either party.
But those were not his “controversial” comments.
Those comments, in fact, were open and disgusting anti-Semitism. But the crowd of Israel lobbyists did not respond to Trump’s anti-Jewish racism with condemnation – instead they clapped and applauded.
Speaking to the largely Jewish audience, Trump announced “a lot of you are in the real estate business” and that “you’re brutal killers, not nice people at all, but you have to vote for me. You have no choice. You’re not going to vote for Pocahontas, I can tell you that. You’re not going to vote for the wealth tax!”
Trump managed to combine some of the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes into a handful of sentences: that Jews love money and are all wealth hoarding, greedy landlords. He also managed to throw in a racial slur against Native Americans for good measure, in the course of deploying his usual attack on Elizabeth Warren and her wealth tax proposal.
But Trump’s open anti-Semitism was excused, justified and minimised by Israel’s supporters in the US.
The condoning of anti-Semitism by Israel’s propagandists, is a reminder that Zionism has a long history of collusion with anti-Semitism – one which goes right back to Zionism’s founder, Theodor Herzl.
This truth was raised when the infamous Balfour Declaration of support for the aims of the Zionist movement was being debated by the British cabinet at the time – by the only Jewish cabinet member, Edwin Montagu.
Montagu wrote in 1917 to his colleagues that: “Zionism has always seemed to me to be a mischievous political creed.”
He wrote: “I assert that there is not a Jewish nation. The members of my family, for instance, who have been in this country for generations, have no sort or kind of community of view or of desire with any Jewish family in any other country, beyond the fact that they profess to a greater or less degree the same religion.”
He had a warning for the rest of the British government: “When the Jews are told that Palestine is their national home, every country will immediately desire to get rid of its Jewish citizens … you will find a (Jewish) population in Palestine driving out its present inhabitants.”
It is a tragedy that Montagu’s warnings were not heeded, and that the Balfour Declaration did indeed begin the process of submitting Palestine to the Zionist settlers, driving out the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants by force.
Trump’s recent actions to help the Israel lobby and attack the movement for justice in Palestine, as well as being wrong in themselves, are also anti-Semitic by implication.
His recent executive order attacking the Palestine solidarity movement on US campuses, was a case in point.
It was trailed in the media as, in effect, redefining Jewishness or Judaism as a nationality – a worryingly anti-Semitic move with frightening historical parallels. The actual text of the order is not quite that.
But there is no doubt that, in embracing and entrenching Israel’s favoured, bogus, “working definition” of anti-Semitism, the order makes it harder for any genuine anti-racist efforts against anti-Semitism.
Director of the civil rights group Palestine Legal, Dima Khalidi, called the executive order “a bald-faced attempt to silence the movement for Palestinian rights on college campuses.”
She continued that “rather than providing any new protections to Jewish students against the rampant and deadly anti-Semitism of a resurgent white nationalism,” the order “aims to define the contours of what we can say about Palestine and Israel.”
“We won’t abide, and it will be challenged,” Khalidi declared.
It is yet another reminder that anti-Palestinianism and anti-Semitism are closely related. A markedly large number of supporters of Zionism want Jews to leave Europe, so that they will no longer have to live in close proximity to them.
This is part of the reason why Joseph Massad, associate professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University, has called the Palestinian people and anti-Zionist Jews “the last of the Semites, the heirs of the pre-WWII Jewish and Palestinian struggles against anti-Semitism and its Zionist colonial manifestation.”
Spewing out disgusting remarks that some of the commentariat deemed only “controversial” at worst, Trump attended the Israeli-American Council’s (AIC) national summit earlier this month.
A major pro-Israel lobby group, the IAC is bankrolled by anti-Palestinian casino billionaire, Sheldon Adelson.
By complete and utter coincidence, Adelson is also Trump’s top election donor.
Trump used his speech at the summit to back Israeli crimes and racism to the hilt, as per usual, for all American presidents from either party.
But those were not his “controversial” comments.
Those comments, in fact, were open and disgusting anti-Semitism. But the crowd of Israel lobbyists did not respond to Trump’s anti-Jewish racism with condemnation – instead they clapped and applauded.
Speaking to the largely Jewish audience, Trump announced “a lot of you are in the real estate business” and that “you’re brutal killers, not nice people at all, but you have to vote for me. You have no choice. You’re not going to vote for Pocahontas, I can tell you that. You’re not going to vote for the wealth tax!”
Trump managed to combine some of the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes into a handful of sentences: that Jews love money and are all wealth hoarding, greedy landlords. He also managed to throw in a racial slur against Native Americans for good measure, in the course of deploying his usual attack on Elizabeth Warren and her wealth tax proposal.
But Trump’s open anti-Semitism was excused, justified and minimised by Israel’s supporters in the US.
The condoning of anti-Semitism by Israel’s propagandists, is a reminder that Zionism has a long history of collusion with anti-Semitism – one which goes right back to Zionism’s founder, Theodor Herzl.
This truth was raised when the infamous Balfour Declaration of support for the aims of the Zionist movement was being debated by the British cabinet at the time – by the only Jewish cabinet member, Edwin Montagu.
Montagu wrote in 1917 to his colleagues that: “Zionism has always seemed to me to be a mischievous political creed.”
He wrote: “I assert that there is not a Jewish nation. The members of my family, for instance, who have been in this country for generations, have no sort or kind of community of view or of desire with any Jewish family in any other country, beyond the fact that they profess to a greater or less degree the same religion.”
He had a warning for the rest of the British government: “When the Jews are told that Palestine is their national home, every country will immediately desire to get rid of its Jewish citizens … you will find a (Jewish) population in Palestine driving out its present inhabitants.”
It is a tragedy that Montagu’s warnings were not heeded, and that the Balfour Declaration did indeed begin the process of submitting Palestine to the Zionist settlers, driving out the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants by force.
Trump’s recent actions to help the Israel lobby and attack the movement for justice in Palestine, as well as being wrong in themselves, are also anti-Semitic by implication.
His recent executive order attacking the Palestine solidarity movement on US campuses, was a case in point.
It was trailed in the media as, in effect, redefining Jewishness or Judaism as a nationality – a worryingly anti-Semitic move with frightening historical parallels. The actual text of the order is not quite that.
But there is no doubt that, in embracing and entrenching Israel’s favoured, bogus, “working definition” of anti-Semitism, the order makes it harder for any genuine anti-racist efforts against anti-Semitism.
Director of the civil rights group Palestine Legal, Dima Khalidi, called the executive order “a bald-faced attempt to silence the movement for Palestinian rights on college campuses.”
She continued that “rather than providing any new protections to Jewish students against the rampant and deadly anti-Semitism of a resurgent white nationalism,” the order “aims to define the contours of what we can say about Palestine and Israel.”
“We won’t abide, and it will be challenged,” Khalidi declared.
It is yet another reminder that anti-Palestinianism and anti-Semitism are closely related. A markedly large number of supporters of Zionism want Jews to leave Europe, so that they will no longer have to live in close proximity to them.
This is part of the reason why Joseph Massad, associate professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University, has called the Palestinian people and anti-Zionist Jews “the last of the Semites, the heirs of the pre-WWII Jewish and Palestinian struggles against anti-Semitism and its Zionist colonial manifestation.”
20 dec 2019
The United States Congress has rejected a request, from the White House, for $175mn in funds that would go towards pushing the Trump administration’s failed Middle East “peace plan”.
In a bipartisan decision, on Monday, lawmakers rejected having funds be set aside, in the government’s 2020 budget, for the so-called Trump “Deal of the Century.”
A congressional source who was involved in negotiations over the decision told Haaretz that the rejection was not motivated by politics, but rather by budgetary considerations.
“One argument against it was, ‘No one thinks this peace plan is coming out any time soon, so why devote money to it?’” the newspaper’s source said.
The Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century” was seen as a wasted effort from its inception.
The deal calls for $50bn in regional investments over 10 years, with $28bn going to the Palestinian territories – the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip – as well as $7.5bn to Jordan, $9bn to Egypt and $6n for Lebanon.
However, the Palestinian side has strongly rejected the Trump administration’s proposed deal with the Israeli regime, PNN reports.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh stressed, earlier this year, that any initiative short of a sovereign Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 boundaries, with the entire East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital, would be doomed from start.
In a bipartisan decision, on Monday, lawmakers rejected having funds be set aside, in the government’s 2020 budget, for the so-called Trump “Deal of the Century.”
A congressional source who was involved in negotiations over the decision told Haaretz that the rejection was not motivated by politics, but rather by budgetary considerations.
“One argument against it was, ‘No one thinks this peace plan is coming out any time soon, so why devote money to it?’” the newspaper’s source said.
The Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century” was seen as a wasted effort from its inception.
The deal calls for $50bn in regional investments over 10 years, with $28bn going to the Palestinian territories – the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip – as well as $7.5bn to Jordan, $9bn to Egypt and $6n for Lebanon.
However, the Palestinian side has strongly rejected the Trump administration’s proposed deal with the Israeli regime, PNN reports.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh stressed, earlier this year, that any initiative short of a sovereign Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 boundaries, with the entire East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital, would be doomed from start.
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