Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

[Thylacine 2000]

While still technically at war, Israel and Lebanon just signed their first actual agreement on their maritime borders, mutual offshore drilling rights and revenue-sharing. Lebanon desperately needs the energy and money, and Israel wanted them to see they could gain more through negotiations than missiles.

Israel, Lebanon finalise maritime demarcation deal without mutual recognition

Israel's Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, calls the deal a "tremendous achievement."

www.cnbc.com

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/27/lebanon-israel-hezbollah-maritime-deal/

The agreement leads to the odd situation of Hezbollah, which through its allies controls the largest bloc in the Lebanese parliament, becoming de facto economic partners with Israel.

 

[Thylacine 2000]

As final votes tallied, Netanyahu reportedly rushing to form government quickly

Former prime minister said planning swift negotiations with partners to quickly oust Lapid, who has reportedly yet to speak with partners amid widespread anger over poor showing

www.timesofisrael.com

The Israeli elections (their 5th in 4 years) look like a solid victory for far-right parties, suggesting Netanyahu will be able to build a more lasting majority government. He will be much better positioned to weaken the laws that would have seen him tried for corruption and bribery.

Current PM Lapid's allies are furious at him for campaigning as a binary choice between himself and Netanyahu, instead of carrying along a coalition of moderate / left political parties against right / far-right parties. The strategy backfired disastrously: Lapid's own party grew bigger than ever before, but will have less power overall because some of its allies are now politically gone altogether.

Parties opposed to Netanyahu took over 2.1 million votes, compared to 2.07 million for parties allied with him, with some 500,000 still to be counted. The latter bloc will secure far more seats because Balad and Meretz failed to clear the threshold [meaning they are less than 3.25% of all votes cast], erasing over 260,000 votes combined

I personally am not concerned over yet another Netanyahu term. He is a known factor, for better and for worse. But he is 73, and the extremists he is elevating now are much younger and more ambitious.

 

[Anonymous X]

Remarkable that Labour, once the default governing party, got the bare minimum votes to re-enter the Knesset. The traditional Israeli secular left seems in terminal decline, which doesn’t bode well for the future of the state of Israel, IMO.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Remarkable that Labour, once the default governing party, got the bare minimum votes to re-enter the Knesset. The traditional Israeli secular left seems in terminal decline, which doesn’t bode well for the future of the state of Israel, IMO.

Isn't that a rising problem in many countries? The far right seem to be coming out of the woodwork in many places?

 

[Thylacine 2000]

Isn't that a rising problem in many countries? The far right seem to be coming out of the woodwork in many places?

Yes. And it won't get any better as the food- and energy-related effects of the Ukraine war become more obvious and the more heavy duty aspects of climate change move in for keeps.

 

[Thylacine 2000]

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-724199

Saudi Arabia is looking to normalize ties with Israel, although it will be a while before this ever properly manifests, Israeli news outlet i24NEWS reported Tuesday.

The article cited Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Abdel al-Jubeir, who recently spoke to senior American Jewish leaders. There, he guaranteed that Israeli-Saudi normalization will happen eventually, but stressed that it will take time.

In addition, in a meeting with US officials visiting Riyadh courtesy of the Washington Institute, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman listed three main demands that must be met for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords and normalize ties with Israel, according to i24NEWS.

According to the report, these demands did not include anything about the Palestinian conflict or requests for Israel. Rather, they hinged entirely on the US, specifically affirming a US-Saudi alliance, proper weapons supplies to the kingdom as if it were a NATO country and allowing Riyadh to have a restricted civil nuclear program

uuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[NovaSaber]

Benjamin Netanyahu's new Israeli government will make West Bank expansion a priority

The incoming Israeli ruling coalition agreements will make it the country's most religious and right-wing government in history, potentially putting it at odds with large parts of the Israeli public.

www.npr.org

Benjamin Netanyahu's incoming hard-line Israeli government put West Bank settlement expansion at the top of its priority list on Wednesday, vowing to legalize dozens of illegally built outposts and annex the occupied territory as part of its coalition deal with ultranationalist allies.

The coalition agreements, released a day before the government is to be sworn into office, also included language endorsing discrimination against LGBTQ people on religious grounds, contentious judicial reforms, as well as generous stipends for ultra-Orthodox men who prefer to study instead of work.

 

[Ironbite4]

Holy crap.

Ironbite-COMMUNISIM!

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Zionist group uses US anti-terrorism laws to sue Palestinian activists

One of the world’s oldest Zionist organisations with close ties to the Israeli government, the Jewish National Fund (JNF), is using American anti-terrorism laws to sue a major Palestinian rights group in the US over its support for the international boycott movement.

The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a coalition of groups seeking to end the decades-long occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, said the lawsuit is a part of a broader, Israeli-led strategy to harass organisations critical of the oppression of the Palestinians...

(Full story: - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-terrorism-laws-palestinian-activists-jnf-bds )

 

[Thylacine 2000]

I read the linked lawsuit documents and they are very weak. Accusing BDS of being literally led / controlled by terrorist groups requires detailed proof, and they have none. This was a dumb step and should wind up an owngoal when the case gets dismissed.

BDS is old enough for a driver's license and has had no financial or behavioral impact on Israel nor gained benefits for Palestinians. Any group that claims to support it in good faith should be obligated to explain its lack of progress and how the next round (especially in light of the Abraham Accords) could possibly be any different.

 

[Tuxedo Prime]

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-724199

uuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Viewed one way, the bolded request to the US suggests that even the House of Saud sees the End of Cheap Petrochemical Fuel (the plastics industry will still be a thing, so we can't really say oil altogether) on the horizon, and wants to ensure that their bubble does not collapse from the internal turmoil that transitioning from oil would surely cause without something in play to replace it.

Viewed through a darker lens, they probably looked at all the concern and multi-nation agreements (which the US then abrogated upon a change of government) regarding Tehran's nuclear program -- and there is no doubt that Riyadh views Tehran as not only The Other Regional Rival but also (owing to the old Sunni-Shi'a split) the Bigger-Scale and More Important Threat to regional hegemony. Oh, and Tel Aviv doesn't like Tehran either? Perfect, then Washington will be easier to convince we're all on the same side! (and on This One Thing, we are!)

The thinking probably went something like: "the Enemy of my Enemy... may also be my enemy, but since our mutual primary patron won't let us fight, let's focus on who we can...."

 

[Pocket]

Hmm. I never considered that our refusal to let certain countries go nuclear, backed with the threat of war, meant that we might be dooming them to a future without sufficient power. If you believe the stories about renewables being insufficient to meet a modern nation's energy needs, anyway.

Of course, by the time that will matter, we'll be in the same boat anyway; all our existing power plants will have reached end-of-life at that point and the stigma against building new ones is never going away (thanks, Greenpeace).

 

[Teufel]

Terrorist attack on a Jerusalem synagogue that killed 7 so far on Shabbat and International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Probably all coincidences.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1619040823596941314

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Wave of ‘Israeli spring’ protests leaves Palestinian citizens out in the cold.

Arab minority has been alienated by united opposition against judicial reforms by Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition...

...this centre-left rebellion against what is seen as a coup by far-right extremists has a demographic fault line: Palestinian-Israelis, who make up one-fifth of the population, have been conspicuously absent from the protests to date, even though the new government is fervently anti-Arab and the community is likely to be hit hardest by the judicial reforms. The West Bank is already roiling after a year of increasing violence...

...Small blocs of anti-occupation protesters have marched at most of the demonstrations, but a refusal to allow Palestinian flags onstage in the Tel Aviv demos, and the fact that only two Palestinian-Israeli speakers have addressed the crowds so far, has left many Palestinian citizens of Israel feeling alienated from the anti-government movement.

Some prominent rightwing politicians and former police and army officials would not give speeches if they had to share a stage with pro-Palestinian voices, and organisers say the protests must remain on-topic to avoid losing their broad support. Last week, a first protest took place in Efrat, an illegal Israeli settlement near Bethlehem..."

(Full story: - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...anyahu-leave-palestinian-citizens-in-the-cold )

 

[Teufel]

Surely that article is parody.

"Yes, it's a major groundswell of peaceful protests against Netanyahu and his allies... but where are the Palestinian flags in Tel Aviv?!"

 

[Thylacine 2000]

Very illuminating that the Guardian calls them "Palestinian-Israelis," a term favored by about 7% of that actual group, while 51% of them call themselves "Israeli Arabs."

Only 7% of Israeli Arabs define themselves as 'Palestinian'

According to the survey, about a quarter of Israeli minorities (23%) define themselves primarily as "Israeli" and another half (51%) define their identity as "Israeli-Arab".

m.jpost.com

The current prospects are absolutely sickening and Israel is at very real risk of throwing away its diplomatic and financial gains of the last decade. All entirely self-inflicted by the ultra-right of Israeli Jews and all entirely unnecessary. The Palestinians and their purported advocates, BDS, the UN, didn't do a thing.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Surely that article is parody.

"Yes, it's a major groundswell of peaceful protests against Netanyahu and his allies... but where are the Palestinian flags in Tel Aviv?!"

Not really. I think it is rather sad that some Israelites were demanding that Palestinian flags be removed from protests, to be honest.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Surely that article is parody.

"Yes, it's a major groundswell of peaceful protests against Netanyahu and his allies... but where are the Palestinian flags in Tel Aviv?!"

Not really. I think it is rather sad that some Israelites were demanding that Palestinian flags be removed from protests, to be honest.

I couldn't find a separate video showing Palestinian and Israeli protestors clashing (I think it was a rather short segment at the end of a BBC news video), but here's one dealing with the proposed official banning of the flag in public:

-

 

[NovaSaber]

The idea of a protest against Netanyahu not allowing Palestinian flags does sound like parody (it's like a protest against Putin not allowing Ukranian flags), except for the part where it's not hard to believe.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

In other news...