Zionism’s Lost Shine

[seemslikeadream]

Putin And Netanyahu: Converging Interests?

May 11, 2018Mark N. Katz
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by Mark N. Katz

In the wake of President Trump’s announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear accord and the direct clashes between Israeli and Iranian forces in Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and watch a parade. They also talked, of course, but both sides have been remarkably tight-lipped about what was said (or at least, what Putin said) and what, if anything, was agreed to. This could be because, although Russia and Israel appear to disagree strongly, their interests regarding Syria, Iran, and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) are actually more convergent. Moscow, though, does not wish to draw too much attention to this convergence.

Netanyahu has long opposed the Iranian nuclear accord, claiming that Tehran fully intends to acquire nuclear weapons. It is only using the agreement, he argues, as a means both to “lull into complacency” the West and others about Iran’s nuclear program and to motivate America and the West to overlook Iran’s regional ambitions and hostility toward Israel in order to preserve the nuclear accord. And with the Assad regime’s internal opponents largely defeated, Netanyahu is increasingly concerned that Iran and its allies (Hezbollah and other Shi’a militias) will turn their attention toward targeting Israel. Thus, Netanyahu both called for and welcomed Trump’s announcement that the U.S. is withdrawing from the JCPOA. Trump’s move may even have emboldened Netanyahu to strike Iranian targets in Syria.

Under Putin, by contrast, Russia was one of the six countries that negotiated the JCPOA. After Trump’s announcement, Putin (like many European and other leaders) called for the continued observance of the JCPOA. Moscow has also called Iran a partner in the war on terror against jihadists in Syria and elsewhere. The differences between Putin and Netanyahu with regard to Iran, then, appear to be quite stark.

But appearances can be deceiving. Trump’s pullout from the JCPOA when America’s European allies want it to continue is causing a rift within the West that Putin sees as something that Russia can exploit. AlthoughPutin does not share Netanyahu’s vision of Iran as an existential threat, Netanyahu’s urging of Trump to withdraw from the JCPOA and thereby cause a rift between the U.S. and Europe has been both useful and welcome.

Israeli attacks in Syria, of course, could damage Russian interests. But as both Russian and Israeli press accounts have reported, Israel informed Russia about the attacks it would make as per the Russian-Israeli de-confliction agreement. By doing so, Israel avoided doing any harm to Russians present in Syria. But it also showed that, although Israel considers the Iranian presence in Syria threatening, it does not regard the Russian presence there as such. Further, Israel informing Russia about its pending attack on Syria demonstrates that Netanyahu respects Russia and Putin in particular.

Israeli attacks on Iranian targets in Syria may also be useful for Moscow. The battle to decide the fate of the Assad regime, after all, is largely over. Assad and his Russian, Iranian, and other allies have prevailed. The question now arises as to what happens to that alliance. Victorious alliances often fracture after the common goal has been achieved and the erstwhile allies pursue different, competing goals. Although unable and probably unwilling to eliminate each other’s presence in Syria completely, Moscow and Tehran both want to gain the upper hand there and have the other play a subordinate role.

Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria have the advantage of weakening Iran vis-à-vis Russia inside Syria without Moscow having to confront Tehran directly. And Tehran does have ambitions in Syria that Moscow does not share. For Tehran, preserving the Assad regime is not just an end in itself, but a means for Iran to better support Hezbollah in Lebanon in its conflict with Israel. Russia, by contrast, has strong economic and security ties to Israel that it wants to continue and expand. Moscow does not want Iran to disturb this, or create sufficient problems for Israel that the U.S. gets back into the Syrian conflict in Israel’s defense.

Yet Putin does not want Israel to become so aggressive in Syria that Putin is forced to do something to defend its Iranian allies or appear complicit with Israel by doing nothing to stop it. Putin’s threat of delivering S-300 air defense missiles to Assad—originally made after the recent U.S. missile attack on Syria in response to its use of chemical weapons against its opponents—might serve to prevent this. According to Israeli press accounts, Netanyahu specifically asked Putin not to transfer these weapons to Syria. Putin’s response has not been reported. Perhaps he prefers to keep Netanyahu in doubt about how Moscow will respond if Israel presses its attacks on Iranian targets.

Putin, though, may not succeed in this. Although Putin’s and Netanyahu’s interests with regard to Syria may be convergent, they are not identical. Putin wants Iran to remain in Syria as a junior partner in propping up the Assad regime but not acting provocatively otherwise. Netanyahu not only wants Iran out of Syria, but may even join U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton and other hawks in seeking regime change in Tehran. If so, the Putin-Netanyahu tactical alliance will not last.
https://lobelog.com/putin-and-netanyahu ... interests/

[RocketMan]

I keep cracking up about this thread 'cause I keep reading "Zionism's Lost Shrine".

Seriously, though, ZIONISM SUCKS.

[seemslikeadream]

you're not suggesting I change it are you?



inside joke....couldn't help it

I must confess I see it that way also

[seemslikeadream]

As Jared and Ivanka Return to Israel, the Once Golden Couple Has Lost Its Shine

A year after a triumphant visit and lofty promises of reviving the Middle East peace process, the two Trump advisers arrive for the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem under the pall of diminishing influence and legal woes

Allison Kaplan Sommer May 14, 2018 11:28 AM

Analysis

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump attend a reception held at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem ahead of the moving of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, May 13, 2018\ AMIR COHEN/ REUTERS
What a difference a year makes. When Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump came to Israel in May 2017, joining U.S. President Donald Trump on his first overseas trip, the future looked shiny with possibility.

Ivanka and Jared descended from Air Force One as the newly anointed power couple of the Jewish world. Parts of the media had even dubbed the first daughter the “most powerful Jewish woman” in the United States – presumably Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan needed to make way for the newly appointed senior adviser to the president.

And it wasn’t only in the Jewish world that their reputations were still fairly pristine. They were supposed to be the voices of reason in the Trump White House, Ivanka vowing to give her father “honest advice.” When the administration made missteps, they were usually far from the scene.

Kushner seemed to be at the center of every White House palace intrigue story and was charged with performing an impossible number of jobs – presumably a sign of his father-in-law’s belief that he could solve any problem. He enthusiastically launched the Office of American Innovation; became the point man on the opioid crisis; pushed criminal justice reform; and, most importantly, was charged with spearheading the administration’s efforts in advancing a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

“If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can. All my life I‘ve been hearing that’s the toughest deal to make, but I have a feeling Jared is going to do a great job,” Trump said on the eve of his inauguration, declaring that “Ivanka married well.”


U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman greeting Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner at Ben-Gurion International Airport, May 13, 2018.David Azagury / U.S. Embassy Tel
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From the moment he entered office, Kushner began working diligently to parlay his rapport with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman into a comprehensive region-wide peace effort (it was Kushner who carefully planned the first Trump foray into the Middle East, which was widely applauded as a success).

Ivanka was the media star of that first visit: the photos of her deep in prayer at the Western Wall were the most indelible, inspiring headlines of how the first daughter weeping at the ancient stones “touched Jewish hearts.”

Ivanka Trump touching the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, May 22, 2017.\ POOL/ REUTERS
She recently evoked that first visit, posting the photo on Instagram with the message “With great joy, I am returning to Jerusalem. I am honored to join the distinguished delegation representing President Trump, his Administration, and the American people at this momentous ceremony commemorating the opening of our new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel. We look forward to celebrating Israel’s 70th anniversary and the bright future ahead. We will pray for the boundless potential of the future of the U.S.-Israel alliance, and we will pray for peace.”

This week, though, as the charismatic couple returns to Jerusalem, much of the gleam around them is scuffed and faded.

The visit is a rare public outing for Kushner, who has lost his power-player status. His descent began in February when he lost his access to top-secret U.S. government intelligence. His interim security clearance was revoked by his father-in-law’s chief of staff, John Kelly, after Trump handed that authority over to Kelly. The number of mistakes in his security clearance application has become a running joke: Kushner reportedly submitted four addenda detailing over 100 errors and omissions in the forms he filled out.

Those “mistakes” included incomplete reporting of foreign contacts – something that did not escape the team led by Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller, investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. That probe is also reportedly looking into financial relationships between Kushner’s family business and foreign entities, including Israeli companies.

Kushner’s name has repeatedly come up as the Mueller investigation continues to unfold: ABC News reported in March that Qatari officials have evidence of “illicit influence” by the United Arab Emirates on Kushner.

Why are these two part of the US delegation to Jerusalem next week? Jared and Ivanka still don’t even have full security clearances. pic.twitter.com/WpQESueVm2

— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) May 12, 2018
While the couple managed to distance their nemesis, Steve Bannon, from the president’s sphere – in a power struggle detailed in Michael Wolff’s White House exposé “Fire and Fury” – their influence doesn’t appear to have increased as a result. There has also been a steady procession of exits of “Javanka” allies: Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy Dina Powell, chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and White House Communications Director Hope Hicks.

Time after time, the more moderate policies that Kushner and Ivanka have backed have been brushed aside by Trump, in an effort to placate his supporter base. Furthermore , the staff members they were comfortable with have been supplanted by more “base-friendly” figures like the president’s new national security adviser, John Bolton, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Unlike their predecessors H.R. McMaster and Rex Tillerson, Bolton and Pompeo are strong figures with the president’s ear, diluting any remaining influence Kushner had when it came to foreign policy.

There is considerable irony in the fact that the event Kushner is here to celebrate – the moving of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – is the primary reason his signature mission has stalled, after furious Palestinian leaders distanced themselves from all matters Trump when the announcement was made last December that the White House was officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the embassy in accordance with that policy.

On the eve of the couple’s departure for Israel, Vanity Fair quoted a source “close to the couple” that Ivanka was being dispatched to stand alongside Kushner to make sure the Trump family was front and center, to send a clear message: “This is the president’s accomplishment, not a Jared accomplishment. This wasn’t a Jared initiative that Jared is basking in.”

The article, which described Kushner as having “quietly disappeared from the spotlight,” wasn’t the only indignity he has had to endure recently: Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani made headlines when he said in a Fox News interview that, in contrast to Ivanka, Kushner was “disposable.” Therefore, while it would be fine for Mueller to question him, if he were to call in “a fine woman like” the first daughter, it would cross a line.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump arriving for the New York City Ballet's Fall Fashion Gala at Lincoln Center, September 2014.אי־פי
Not that life has been particularly easy for Ivanka, either. The Giuliani remarks were made as the Trump family was weathering deeply embarrassing allegations regarding the president’s past sexual infidelities and reported payoffs to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal.

The central role that Trump attorney-fixer Michael Cohen is playing in the investigation into these payments and others, and the fact that prosecutors have seized extensive documents from his office, must make Ivanka deeply uncomfortable.

Cohen worked closely with her and sibling Donald Trump Jr. in the family business of obtaining real estate and other brand licensing deals in Eastern Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. In many cases, these deals were made with allegedly dubious partners in a pattern of practices a recent New Yorker article described as having “a high likelihood of rampant criminality.”

Legal woes aside, it hasn’t been all bad news for Ivanka. There has been recognition of her efforts on behalf of U.S. investment in female entrepreneurs in the Third World through the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (known as the “Ivanka Fund”). The Atlantic noted that the initiative has garnered high-level international cooperation on behalf of the world’s poorest people, dubbing it “one of the stranger policy achievements of President Donald Trump’s first year and change in office. The president is, after all, known for his skepticism of foreign aid and his distaste for soft power and sotto-voce diplomacy.”

And if her Instagram feed is any measure, her family appears – against all odds – to be settled in Washington and its Jewish community, despite constant rumors of their imminent return to Manhattan.

There have even been reports the couple has been house-hunting in D.C. It seems as if they are looking to replace their rented digs with their own property in the U.S. capital – once they have returned from the big housewarming party in Israel.
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premiu ... -1.6078158

In total there are 103 users online :: 3 registered, 2 hidden and 98 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)

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Spying on Linda Sarsour: Israeli Firm Compiled BDS Dossier for Adelson-funded U.S. Group Battling Her Campus Appearances

Israel Cyber Shield (ICS) collected intelligence on the Palestinian-American activist and her family on behalf of a pro-Israel organization called Act.IL

Uri Blau May 24, 2018 5:46 PM

Linda Sarsour, co-chair for the Women's March, listens during the Women's March One-Year Anniversary: Power To The Polls event in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. On the anniversary of the Women's March, the Power to the Polls rally aims at a tighter objective, to launch a national voter registration and mobilization tour with a goal to elect more women and progressive candidates to public office. Photographer: Michelle Gustafson/Bloomberg
Linda Sarsour, co-chair for the Women's March, listens during the Women's March One-Year Anniversary: Power To The Polls event in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. On the anniversary Bloomberg
A Haaretz investigation can reveal that a secretive Israeli firm collected intelligence on American citizen Linda Sarsour and her family, acting on behalf of an American-Israeli organization established to combat the BDS movement.

Israel Cyber Shield (ICS) delivered the dossier to the pro-Israel Act.IL group, which used it as the basis of a campaign to discourage U.S. colleges from allowing the pro-BDS activist to speak on campus. Act.IL’s CEO, Yarden Ben Yosef, confirmed to Haaretz that his group receives materials from ICS.

>> Sexy women, 'missions' and bad satire: Israeli government app recruits online soldiers in anti-BDS fight <<

ICS is headed by Eran Vasker, a former officer in the Israel Police’s international crime division. His name has previously been associated with the Strategic Affairs Ministry.

The ministry is responsible for Israeli efforts to fight activists in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. It is headed by Gilad Erdan and its director general is Sima Vaknin-Gil, formerly the chief military censor.

FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators wear shirts reading "Boycott Israel" during a protest
FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators wear shirts reading "Boycott Israel" during a protest Kamil Zihnioglu / AP
Generally speaking, Israel conducts its anti-BDS battle in relative secrecy, including through private entities. This is meant to stop its activities being formally associated with the government, which could expose it to criticism and public supervision. To this end, and as previously reported by Haaretz, a public-benefit corporation called Kella Shlomo was set up in late 2016.

Kella Shlomo’s shareholders and directors include the ministry’s former director general, Yossi Kuperwasser; former UN ambassador Dore Gold, who is also a former adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and former UN ambassador Ron Prosor.

To really understand Israel and the Middle East - subscribe to Haaretz

A document describing its work with the Strategic Affairs Ministry reveals its only activity is fighting the delegitimization of Israel. It has been allocated 128 million shekels ($36 million) from the ministry’s coffers over three years. An equivalent amount, or more, is expected to be raised from donors, though the corporation is expected to continue operating according to the ministry’s orders.

The initial documents filed by Kella Shlomo name Vasker as a consultant and one of the corporation’s three signatories.

Vasker is a lawyer and accountant who, as noted, used to work for the Israel Police. Based on his LinkedIn profile, he has also in recent years advised on intelligence and computer systems to various organizations, including law enforcement authorities.

ICS monitors and collects information on specific targets, including organizations and individuals. Its employees, including alumni of Unit 8200 (an elite army intelligence division), are experts on tracking down information that is online but not easy for the average web user to access.

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An ICS employee – who is registered with LinkedIn as a project manager (but without mentioning ICS’ name) and previously served as an analyst in the Israel Defense Forces – published a job ad several months ago, seeking English-speaking analysts for the corporation. This showed that the firm is collecting information from the internet and maintaining various online avatars. The ad stated, “Both the positions are highly challenging and are for individuals who understand the field. They are very rewarding and give those involved a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that they are contributing to the future of the State of Israel.”

The job ad posted by ICS on LinkedIn, looking for an analyst.
The job ad posted by ICS on LinkedIn, looking for an analyst. Screengrab from LinkedIn
A few months ago, ICS gave Act.IL a file with information about Sarsour, who is one of the most prominent Palestinian-American activists in the United States, known for her support of BDS and opposition to Israel. The data was the basis for Act.IL’s anti-Sarsour efforts.

Act.IL’s goal is to create a community of volunteers who work online on Israel’s behalf. Its partners include the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya (IDC), the Israeli American Council (IAC) and the Maccabee Task Force – the last two being U.S. nonprofits backed by billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

Act.IL CEO Ben Yosef told Haaretz that the venture is supported by various funds, but that the IAC is its main funder.

>> This powerful Adelson-funded Israel lobby could soon rival AIPAC’s influence in Washington <<

It runs an app (also called Act.IL), which is an independent tool to enable pro-Israel activists worldwide to “support Israel’s image and fight against the demonization” of the Jewish state via social media.

In the United States, Act.IL runs “communication rooms” where volunteers sit with the organization’s people, brainstorming how to engage local communities in pro-Israel activity – for instance, by signing petitions, sharing items on social media, distributing letters and commenting on articles.

Sarsour is a well-known figure in the United States, and not only because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She is co-chair of the Women’s March movement and spoke at its main Washington rally after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. She has been harshly critical of Israel and was quoted as saying that a person can’t be feminist and Zionist at the same time.

Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, right, hugging a demonstrator during an iftar outside of Trump Tower, New York, June 1, 2017.
Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, right, hugging a demonstrator during an iftar outside of Trump Tower, New York, June 1, 2017.Bloomberg
A student who volunteered with Act.IL told Haaretz that the material it received on Sarsour included a password-protected file containing information on her parents, and another file with more than 10 pages all marked “Confidential.” Aside from information taken from her social media accounts and press interviews, the file also included legal information related to a court case she was involved in.

It is clear the material on Sarsour was systematically organized. The dossier concluded with an executive summary that highlighted her apparent weak points.

Act.IL used the information to prepare a letter that was distributed via its app to the heads of universities where Sarsour had appeared, as part of a broader campaign – in which IAC was also a partner – to try to prevent U.S. colleges extending invitations to the pro-BDS activist.

Allegations in the Sarsour file included a story that she applauded violence toward Israeli soldiers, and another saying she wrongly claimed Israeli soldiers had murdered a knife-wielding Palestinian teenage girl, when actually she had been wounded. Another document claimed that Sarsour was photographed next to a man who had raised funds for Hamas. She was also quoted as having tweeted, “Nothing is creepier than Zionism.” Other tweets in the file showed Sarsour’s alleged support for Sharia law and an attack on a woman who had undergone female circumcision.

Haaretz reached out to various people involved in Israel’s anti-BDS efforts, but it was clear none wanted to discuss ICS.

The Act.il website offering details about the pro-Israel app
The Act.il website offering details about the pro-Israel app.Screengrab
In a telephone conversation, Vasker confirmed he had helped Kuperwasser in the fight against BDS, saying he had proposed a technological idea. However, he added that he is not now active in the Kella Shlomo corporation.

In another conversation, he confirmed that ICS is a project he manages, but refused to disclose its clients.

Later, Vasker wrote Haaretz that he could not disclose ICS’ clients or investors, but said it wasn’t an Israeli ministry.

“ICS is a project I run,” he wrote. “It doesn’t work for the Israeli government and has not received any budget from it. ICS operates lawfully, engaging in research and information on anti-Israeli activity, the delegitimization movement and its activists – as reflected in their visible activity on social media. We do not engage in building files on activists or their families. It seems you must have confused us with other organizations.”

Initially, Ben Yosef refused to answer questions about the relationship between Act.IL and ICS. Later, though, he confirmed to Haaretz that Act.IL does receive material from Vasker’s ICS, but insisted his group does not pay for it.

“There has never been a transfer of funds between us and that organization,” he said. “Our cooperation with [ICS] is similar to that which we have with other groups, and includes sharing data.”

Vaknin-Gil said she cannot comment on the activity of ICS, which she defined as a nonprofit organization even though it isn’t registered as one. She added that her office does not work with ICS.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.pr ... -1.6115514

Israeli Gov’t directly involved in Cyberbullying, Stalking of our US Students: MESA
JUDITH E. TUCKER
05/23/2018

Tucson, Az. (Middle East Studies Association of North America [MESA]) –

May 23, 2018

Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan
gerdan@knesset.gov.il
sar@mops.gov.il

Dear Minister Erdan:

We write on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) to express our dismay that the Israeli government has been involved in facilitating and directing abusive actions, including cyberbullying, against students at universities in the United States who have been active in campaigns for divestment from companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This constitutes unwarranted interference by a foreign power in these students’ free speech rights and threatens academic freedom at institutions of higher education in the United States.

MESA was founded in 1966 to promote scholarship and teaching on the Middle East and North Africa. The preeminent organization in the field, MESA publishes the International Journal of Middle East Studies and has nearly 2,500 members worldwide. MESA is committed to ensuring academic freedom of expression, both within the region and in connection with the study of the region in North America and elsewhere.

The most recent incident of which we are aware took place at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. during April 2018. On 16 April 2018, a Student Senate vote on a resolution urging the university to divest from a number of companies (including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, Caterpillar, CEMEX, General Electric, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Motorola Solutions) was cancelled after students witnessed two unidentified individuals placing threatening posters around the university. The vote was rescheduled for 24 April 2018 and on that date the divestment resolution was approved by a vote of 18-6, with 6 abstentions.

Two men wearing bird costumes and masks, apparently evoking the Canary Mission website which features some two thousand derogatory and generally inaccurate and misleading profiles of students and faculty who have advocated for Palestinian rights, along with someone who appeared to be coordinating their activities, stood outside the room in which the Senate Senators were meeting to vote on the resolution. The clear intent was to intimidate the Senators as well as student supporters of the resolution. These individuals were later seen putting up posters around campus that read, “SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine], you saw two of us, we saw all of you.”

After the vote, administrators of the Act.il app, which media reports indicate your ministry was integrally involved in developing and promoting in order to combat the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, began directing its users to “like” and share a Facebook page set up to threaten and bully the GWU Student Senators who voted in support of the resolution. The Facebook page was taken down soon after the Senate vote, but Act.il did not remove its listing of the cyberbullying campaign as a “mission” to be conducted by anti-BDS activists until it expired.

We note in this connection that you personally promoted the launch of Act.il at the February 2017 Celebrate Israel Parade and that your ministry placed paid articles advertising the app in the Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel (see The Forward).

Your status as an official of the Israeli government makes your involvement, and that of the ministry you head, in campaigns to try to intimidate American college and university students and to inhibit or suppress their freedom of expression especially egregious. These students have a right to be free of harassment, intimidation and cyberbullying by people who are in effect agents of the Israeli government. We therefore call on you and your ministry to cease promoting or supporting such campaigns of harassment, whether online or in person, and to refrain from interference of any kind when students and faculty in the United States exercise their constitutionally protected right of free speech and their academic freedom rights.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Judith E. Tucker
MESA President
Professor, Georgetown University

Amy W. Newhall
MESA Executive Director

MESA Committee on Academic Freedom


—-

Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

Mondoweiss: “‘Canary Mission’ at George Washington University”
https://www.juancole.com/2018/05/direct ... lying.html

[seemslikeadream]

1. THIS CLOSE
3 hours ago
Netanyahu Twice Told Mossad Chiefs to Prepare Attack on Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked intelligence agency Mossad and the military to “prepare for an attack on Iran” in 2010 and 2011, but was stopped after Mossad leaders questioned the legality of his orders, Haaretz reports. In 2011, Netanyahu asked Tamir Pardo, Mossad chief from 2011 to 2016, and Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz to launch an attack against Iran within 15 days of his order, according to investigative television show Uvda. Pardo said he “absolutely” felt that the attack on Iran would be “tantamount” to a war declaration, and said he understood that Netanyahu was “not playing games” with the order. Pardo and Gantz resisted the order, and raised questions about its legality, he added. The prime minister also gave the order to their predecessors, Meir Dagan and Gabi Ashkenaz. They resisted the request as well. Dagan reportedly told Netanyahu that he “could be making an illegal decision to go to war. Only the cabinet has that power.” In both instances, Netanyahu backed off the decision after receiving pushback.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/netanyahu ... ck-on-iran

Ex-Mossad Chief Says He Questioned Legality of Netanyahu's Order to Prepare Iran Strike

Tamir Pardo divulged info during TV interview, saying he consulted with previous Mossad chiefs, legal advisers about 'who is authorized to give the order to go to war'

Haaretz May 31, 2018 12:48 PM


Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, left, with Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuAmos Ben Gershom/GPO
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Mossad and the military to prepare for an attack on Iran in 2011, a former spy chief has revealed. Tamir Pardo, the Mossad’s chief at the time, also disclosed on the Israeli investigative television show Uvda that after receiving the order he checked with top officials to see whether it was legal.

According to the show, Netanyahu told Pardo and then chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz to prepare the military to be able to launch an attack on Iran within 15 days of being given the order to do so.

The interview with journalist Ilana Dayan is to be broadcast on Thursday.

Dayan wanted to know whether Pardo, who had assumed the post that year, really believed the attack would take place. “It’s not the sort of thing that you do just for practice,” the former Mossad chief replied, adding that there could be two reasons to order preparation for an attack — either to actually attack, or to send a signal to someone. “It’s possible the United States would find out about the order one way or another and would be impelled to take action.

“So, if the prime minister tells you to start the countdown, you understand he’s not playing games,” Pardo said.

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Following Netanyahu’s order, the former Mossad chief began to look into whether the prime minister actually had the power to give such an order, which would likely lead to a war with Iran. Israeli law required the cabinet — or at least the security cabinet — to approve a decision to go to war.

“As far as you’re concerned, an attack in Iran is tantamount to deciding to go to war?” Dayan asked him, to which Pardo answered: “Absolutely.” The Mossad chief says he then consulted with former heads of Mossad, legal advisers and everyone else he could think of “to understand who is authorized to give the order to go to war.”

Netanyahu became aware of his inquiries at some stage, Pardo said.

He elaborated on why he felt it necessary to take these steps: If he gets an order from the prime minister, he’s supposed to carry it out; he has to be sure – especially if things go south – that it was legal.

Ultimately, facing resistance from both the head of Mossad and the army chief of staff, Netanyahu pulled back, but Pardo revealed that before that, he’d even considered the possibility of handing in his resignation. “When the political echelon gives an order, you have two options. You can carry it out or quit,” he told Dayan. “I’m glad I didn’t have to reach the point of making that decision, not that I didn’t think about it,” said Pardo who served as head of the Israeli intelligence agency from 2011 to 2016.

The attack never took place, in large part due to the resistance of Pardo and Gantz. Their predecessors, Meir Dagan and Gabi Ashkenazi, had also opposed a similar order to prepare for an attack on Iran, given in 2010 by Netanyahu and the defense minister at the time, Ehud Barak.

In 2012 Uvda revealed that in 2010 Netanyahu had ordered the defense establishment to move to “P-plus” alert status, which means, bracing for possible attack – but Dagan and Ashkenazi suspected that Netanyahu was trying to circumvent the decision-making system and opposed that too. According to Uvda, Dagan told Netanyahu and Barak: “You could be making an illegal decision to go to war. Only the cabinet has that power.”
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/ex- ... -1.6135972

[seemslikeadream]

Boycott: Israel Apartheid toward Palestinians Causes 15 Musicians to Cancel on Meteor Festival

Maan News Agency 09/08/2018
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A wave of cancellations followed Lana Del Rey’s announcement about cancelling her performance at the Meteor Music Festival in northern Israel this weekend.

Following efforts by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) and worldwide criticism, more than 15 music artists have cancelled their performances at the Meteor Festival in Israel, according to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

The first cancellation, which was supposed to be the biggest act in the festival, was American singer and songwriter, Lana Del Rey, who tweeted “it’s important to me to perform in both Palestine and Israel and treat all my fans equally.”

The American musician Henry Laufer, also known as Shlohmo, announced his cancellation only several hours after Del Rey.

Shlohmo posted on his Twitter “sorry for short notice but I will NOT be playing in Israel next week. Supporting the oppressed thru my absence is more important to me especially after the government’s recent human rights atrocities.”

An American indie pop band Of Montreal cancelled their performance through a post on their Facebook page, “we have decided to cancel our appearance at the Meteor festival. After exhausting all of the different possible ways of justifying playing an Israeli party festival, while the political and military leaders of the country continue their murderous and brutal policies against the Palestinian people, we came to the realization that there is no actual appropriate move other than to cancel the show.”

The most recent cancellation was announced by British singer and actress, Little Simz, who wrote “Palestinian and Israeli relations are far more complicated than I knew. I will not be appearing at Meteor Festival.”

Among the other famous names, which will not be part of the festival’s lineup are British DJ Shanti Celeste, British DJ and producer Leon Vynehall, as well as Swedish DJ Seinfeld and Australian DJ Mall Grab. Also, Turkish singer Selda, DJ Volvox, DJ Python, Black Motion and bands such as Khalas and Zenobia have pulled out of the event.

BDS as well as its supporters, including Roger Waters, had called upon many of the artists, including Lana Del Rey, to cancel their performance at the festival as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Roger Waters spoke about the matter during an interview with The Real News Network, stressing “if you remain neutral where injustice is occurring, you are siding with the oppressor.”

Waters added “remaining neutral is to side with the occupation and with the apartheid state. It just is. The right thing to do is to cancel.”

Despite all these cancellations, more than 130 performances will take place at Meteor Festival.

Performing in Israel still remains highly politicized, with many criticizing that Israel’s military action towards the Palestinians is more than enough to justify a cultural boycott.

https://www.juancole.com/2018/09/aparth ... cians.html

Leaked Censored Documentary Reveals Israel Targeted Black Lives Matter Movement for Pro-Palestinian Stance


Footage leaked from a censored documentary on Israeli influence in the United States shows Israeli officers gloating about targeting Black Lives Matter and convincing Martin Luther King's friend to write pro-Israeli propaganda.

RELATED:
US Reopens 1955 Case on Black Teen Emmett Till's Murder

Judith Varnai Shorer boasted of a dinner she held with “very important” Black community leaders whom according to her, can be part of Israel’s “activities.”

In the past, Black Lives Matter (BLM) supported the International Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement, a call on Israel to end its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands in 2016. According to the documentary, their adoption of the movement's platform exposed them to the Israeli government's anti-BDS efforts.

Al Jazeera’s censored documentary ‘The Lobby-USA’ released by the Grayzone Project exposed some of these tactics. Due to political pressure, the release of the documentary had been stalled for almost a year. This led to the release of segments of footage by the Grayzone Project and Electronic Intifada.

The footage revealed that right-wing think tanks based in the U.S. arranged staged protests at a pro-Palestinian student conference. It also shows that a U.S. billionaire is behind an anonymous website which targets U.S. students supporting Palestinian rights and attempts to portray them as terrorists.

The latest released segment documents part of the Israel American Council (IAC) conference. An undercover journalist from Al Jazeera attends the IAC conference which is more right wing than the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee. At the conference, Israeli diplomats like Shorer spoke about their concerns with Black Lives Matter.

Andy David, the Israeli consul general in San Francisco, California, told the group present at the conference that he got Martin Luther King’s former lawyer Clarence B. Thomas to become an Israeli ally. He celebrated that, “because of that relationship, [Thomas] published three articles in the Huffington Post explaining why the [BLM’s] agenda was hijacked.”

“Martin Luther King will turn in his grave if he saw the anti-Israel tendencies or policies that are starting to emerge within Black Lives Matter,” David later claimed.

In 2014, Thomas said that King could have been a supporter of Israel as he collected an award at the Israeli consulate in New York.

The cancellation of one of BLM’s fundraiser in a New York nightclub Feinstein’s/54 Below was also a result of the efforts of the Israel Project lobby group’s development director Eric Gallagher as shown in the footage. The venue canceled the fundraiser because of BLM’s opposition to Israel as told by Gallagher to the undercover journalist present at the conference.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0021.html

[seemslikeadream]

Israel's Netanyahu should be indicted for corruption, police say

Authorities said they have sufficient evidence to show the Israeli premier accepted bribes and committed fraud. But he has rejected the allegations as a plot brought on by political enemies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Israeli police on Sunday recommended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted in a corruption case involving the country's telecommunications giant Bezeq.

Police said they have enough evidence to show Netanyahu and his wife Sara accepted bribes and committed fraud and breach of trust.

What we know so far:

Netanyahu is accused of pushing regulatory benefits worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Bezeq in exchange for positive coverage from subsidiary news site Walla.
Two senior advisers have turned state witnesses and have allegedly provided authorities with incriminating evidence.
Journalists who previously worked for Walla have confirmed that they were pressured into solely covering Netanyahu in a positive light.
Netanyahu has rejected the allegations, saying: "These recommendations were determined and leaked even before the investigations began." He has described the probes as a political witch hunt.
Sara Netanyahu
Sara Netanyahu, the premier's wife, is already facing trial on suspicion of misusing state funds

'No moral mandate'

The police's recommendation has triggered calls for Netanyahu to resign immediately.

"The prime minister has no moral mandate to keep his seat and must resign today," said Tamar Zandberg, who leads the leftwing Meretz party. "Israel must go to elections."

This is the third corruption probe in which police have recommended charges against the prime minister. His wife already faces trial in a separate case for allegedly misusing state funds.
https://amp.dw.com/en/israels-netanyahu ... ssion=true

Police: Charge Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu With Bribery in Telecom Case
Police conclude investigation into third graft case involving the prime minister, recommend also indicting media mogul, wife

Revital Hovel
10:40
The police and Israel Securities Authority on Sunday recommended indicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau and his wife, Sara, as well as media mogul Shaul Elovitch and his wife, Iris, for bribery and other corruption charges in the investigation dubbed Case 4000.
This is the third case in which the police have recommended charging the prime minister with bribery. The statement recommending charges against Netanyahu in the case were published on the last day in office for Commissioner Roni Alsheich, who is stepping down after a three-year term.
>> Read the Haaretz investigation that started it all: The Israeli news site in Netanyahu's pocket" ■ Opposition calls on Netanyahu to resign
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In a statement, police said that Netanyahu is suspected of taking bribes and of conduct involving a conflict of interest when he made decisions that benefited Elovitch, who controlled Israel's largest telecommunications firm, Bezeq, and the Walla News website, one of two leading news sites in the country.
Case 4000 involves suspicions that Netanyahu, in his role as communications minister from 2014 to 2017 (while he was also prime minister), intervened with regulators to help Bezeq with a deal worth to Elovitch some 1 billion shekels (. In exchange, Elovitch, a long-time friend of Netanyahu’s, allegedly ordered Walla to provide favorable coverage of the prime minister and his wife, Sara.
Related Articles
Israeli Opposition Calls on Netanyahu to Resign After Police Bribery Recommendations
Attorney General Taps Second Team to Examine Netanyahu Graft Cases
The alleged quid pro quo between the Netanyahus and Elovitches was first revealed by Haaretz's Gidi Weitz in November 2015, in an expose titled "The Israeli News Site in Netanyahu's Pocket."

Police said they found evidence that "Netanyahu and those close to him blatantly intervened, sometimes on a daily basis, in content published on the Walla news website, and sought to influence the appointment of senior employees (editors and reporters), while using their ties to Shaul and Iris Elovitch."
Police recommendations in Case 4000
The police are recommending that the prime minister be charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust as well as aggravated fraudulent receiving of an item. The recommended charges against Sara Netanyahu are bribery, fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice.
The police announcement also links a new figure to the case – Zeev Rubinstein, a businessman with close ties to the Netanyahu and Elovitch families, who is a vice president of the Israel Bonds Organization. He is suspected of serving as an intermediary in the alleged bribery.

In response, Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a statement saying that the recommendations to indict him and his wife "don't surprise anyone, nor does the transparent timing of the announcement."
"These recommendations were decided on and leaked even before the investigations began. The police recommendations have no legal standing. Only recently, authorized officials totally rejected police recommendations regarding a number of public figures. I am certain that the authorized officials, after considering the matters, will reach the same conclusion in this case as well -- that there was nothing because there is nothing."

The police had already recommended charging Prime Minister Netanyahu with bribery and breach of trust in two other cases: Case 1000, in which he is suspected of receiving champagne, cigars and other gifts from billionaire friends, and Case 2000, in which Netanyahu is suspected of negotiating favorable press coverage with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher, Arnon Mozes.

Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has said that he will reach a decision on whether to charge Netanyahu in all three cases together.
The investigation in Case 4000 against Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister's son, who was also a suspect in the affair, was closed. The findings in Case 4000 have been transferred to the State Prosecutor's Office.
In response to Sunday's police recommendation, Shaul Elovitch's lawyer, Jacques Chen said: "For an extended period, the police, through their leaks, have been preparing us for this recommendation." The recommendations are a rehash that present nothing new, said Chen, who expressed the hope that those handling the case will look at it from a "legal and professional" perspective divorced from "the huge pressure being exerted on them and that has accompanied this investigation from the beginning and has tainted it. Mr. Elovitch insists that he has not committed any offense."
Iris Elovitch's lawyer, Michal Rosen-Ozer, said the police recommendation are "part of the bias in the investigation and arrest of Mrs. Elovitch from the beginning." She added: "We hope that the members of the prosecution are able to free themselves of this bias and consider the evidence. We have no doubt that such an evaluation would show that Mrs. Elovitch has not committed any offense."
https://www.haaretz.com/amp/israel-news ... ssion=true

[seemslikeadream]

Netanyahu’s Negotiating With Neo-Fascists for a ‘Consensus View’ of the Holocaust

To the consternation of Diaspora Jews who feel increasingly threatened, Israel’s prime minister is making nice with Europe’s far-right leaders and compromising history.

12.12.18 6:46 AM ET


JERUSALEM—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen an improbable way of celebrating the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding: He’s palling around with neo-fascists and coddling Holocaust revisionists.

The year 2018 has seen Netanyahu embracing a parade of such leaders and, in a no less perplexing twist, we've had the Jewish state blatantly dismissing the needs of Diaspora Jews as they face mounting antisemitism and insecurity in Western countries roiled by social unrest.

Consider the past week.

On Thursday, Netanyahu acknowledged that he is negotiating with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for an acceptable “consensus narrative” in which the Hungarian state’s part in the Nazi crimes that wiped out half a million Hungarian Jews during World War II will be minimized, if not erased, in a new revisionist Holocaust museum to be opened in Budapest.

On Tuesday Netanyahu was welcoming Matteo Salvini, Italy’s new, nationalist interior minister to Jerusalem.

Salvini, you guessed it, is a close European ally of Orbán. He acceded to his post last summer and has become Western Europe’s de facto leader of the populist anti-immigration movement since.

Italian Jews are not thrilled by the visit. A statement written by philosopher and painter Stefano Levi Della Torre and circulated among Italian Jewish communities says it is “alarming that Netanyahu is about to provide Salvini with a pro-Israel license [that would] exonerate him from the suspicions of anti-Semitism while he carries on with his xenophobic, racist campaign and with his alliances with anti-Semitic forces in Italy and Europe.”

A few hours ahead of his arrival, an irritated Salvini told Israel’s Foreign Press Association that “the growing anti-Semitism goes together with Islamic extremism, to which no one is paying attention.” Thus letting old-fashioned European fascist anti-Semitism off the hook. Salvini added, “I don’t have to justify myself every time I go to Israel.”

Protests were planned for Salvini’s visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, and Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, who opposes Netanyahu’s cozy rapport with neo-fascists, announced he would not be receiving Salvini.

If you scratch beneath the surface of Netanyahu’s new friendships, the picture becomes clear: Like Britain’s UKIP and possibly like U.S. President Donald Trump, Netanyahu hopes to destabilize what has come to be known as “the international order.”

One way he is trying to do this is by encouraging European nations to break EU ranks and move their embassies to Jerusalem, as Trump has. Last month, Netanyahu welcomed Czech President Milos Zeman to Israel and accompanied him as Zeman opened a “Czech House” in the Israeli capital.

Jerusalem is burbling with rumors that Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who visited Israel in October and hopes to defeat Israel’s boycott of his Freedom Party ministers who represent a onetime neo-Nazi movement, may move his embassy to Jerusalem.

In September, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was embraced by Netanyahu, even though he is a self-professed fan of Adolf Hitler who said he’d “be happy” to emulate Hitler by exterminating 3 million drug users and vendors.

Netanyahu recently announced his plans to attend the inauguration of Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, another figure on the nationalist far right who is dangling the possibility of moving his embassy to Jerusalem as an enticement for Netanyahu.

President Rivlin, who has become more vocal on the subject, told CNN last week that “you can't say we admire the State of Israel and want ties with it, but we're neo-fascists.”

In July it was Orbán’s turn for a whirl around Jerusalem, and that is when they may have discussed plans for the House of Fates, an institution intended to instill in the public a revisionist interpretation of Holocaust history, a “consensus narrative” in which the murder of more than half a million Hungarian Jews, enabled by the Nazi-allied government of Miklós Horthy, will be reconfigured.

The Israeli foreign ministry holds that any new Holocaust museum should stick to the historical record “as it is depicted in Yad Vashem and in Washington’s Holocaust Museum,” but was overruled by Netanyahu, who is also Israel’s foreign minister, and its representatives were shut out of talks between Orbán and Netanyahu officials last week in Jerusalem.

Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist opposition party Yesh Atid, and the son of a Holocaust survivor, described Netanyahu’s action as “appalling.”

Netanyahu’s agreement “to Hungary's attempt to eliminate its part in the Holocaust is appalling,” he tweeted. “The Hungarians were deeply involved in the destruction of Hungarian Jewry as part of the murder machine. The only response to Orbán’s is that the museum should reflect the truth and nothing else. No negotiations, no consensus, just truth.”

Orbán has appointed Maria Schmidt, an historian and the leader of a movement to rewrite the Holocaust, to lead the House of Fates. Schmidt first made her name whitewashing history as the founder of Budapest’s House of Terror, a pseudo-museum advancing the theory that the suffering of eastern European nations who fell into the Soviet sphere of influence after WWII was worse than the suffering inflicted by the Nazi régime in Germany.

Schmidt, one of Orbán’s closest associates, was most recently associated with an overt act of political antisemitism Orbán has refused to condemn: last week’s cover of Figyelő, the “conservative Christian” business magazine owned by Schmidt, showed the face of Hungarian Jewish community president András Heisler surrounded by banknotes.

An Orbán spokesperson told World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder that any comment would “be contrary to freedom of the press.”

The Netanyahu high-wire act on Holocaust revisionism has reached an apex just as the European Union is grappling with a frightening upswing in European antisemitism.

On Thursday, rejecting several points Netanyahu had advanced, the EU adopted a new working definition of antisemitism.

Some EU states fear that the definition issued by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) that has been adopted by over 20 countries and that Israel pushed for, could stifle criticism of Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The IHRA states that some criticism of Israel can be considered anti-Semitic, including “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor, or by applying double standards to Israel not imposed upon other nations.”

The EU chose to use the IHRA definition merely as a “guidance tool.”

A second EU survey published Monday reported that an astonishing nine out of 10 European Jews believe anti-Semitism has worsened in their countries over the past five years and more than one third are considering emigration.

The report prepared by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) was based on a poll of 16,000 respondents in 12 member states.

Almost 30 percent of the respondents said they had experienced some form of anti-Semitic harassment in the past year, and 2 percent reported having been physically attacked, with a further 2 percent saying their property had been deliberately vandalized in the past year because they were Jewish.

In October, following the deadly attack against the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Netanyahu biographer Anshel Pfeffer said that whereas “Netanyahu wants the right to speak as the representative of all Jews, in America and Europe he's abandoned all pretense of solidarity with them.”

In 2015, upon returning to Israel from a memorial ceremony for French Jews murdered in a terror attack, Netanyahu said, "I went to Paris not just as the prime minister of Israel but as a representative of the entire Jewish people."

In fact, Pfeffer notes, “the elected leader of a country in which less than half the Jews of the world live (and only a quarter of them actually voted for him in the last election) wants the right to address the world as the representative of all Jews. And he won’t even check with them first.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/netanyahu ... -holocaust

[seemslikeadream]

Israel's parliament formally votes to dissolve government

By Michael Schwartz and Ian Lee, CNN
Updated 4:12 PM EST, Wed December 26, 2018

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement at the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) in Jerusalem on December 19, 2018.
(CNN) Israel's parliament, the Knesset, voted Wednesday night to dissolve the government, triggering early elections scheduled for early April, nearly eight months earlier than required by law.

"The bill, which passed by a vote of 102-2 in its third (final) reading, also sets early elections for April 9, 2019," the Knesset's website posted.

Minister Yariv Levin, representing the government, praised the government's past achievements, including the move of the US Embassy, during the debate with Knesset members.

"I wish to mention the Jewish Nation-State Law, one of the most important laws ever enacted by Knesset Yisrael; a foundation for the existence of the State of Israel and its character as the national home of the Jewish people," Levin added, according to the Knesset's website.

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni of the Zionist Union Party criticized the previous government in her speech, according to the Knesset's website.

"This is a time of emergency for the State of Israel. Israel needs a (dramatic change); it is possible and curricula for the future of the State of Israel in order to save it from the government which reigned here over the past few years," Livni told fellow members of the Knesset. "I saw this government mock everything that democracy represents."

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/12/26/midd ... index.html

ETTD

[seemslikeadream]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally of Trump, just united with a political party that experts say is like the KKK
John Haltiwanger 10m

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a bilateral meeting during the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 26, 2018. Carlos Barria/Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formed an alliance with a far-right ultranationalist political party that experts say is Israel's version of the Ku Klux Klan.
This is part of Netanyahu's bid to retain power as he faces mounting political pressure and legal woes.
Netanyahu is a close ally of President Donald Trump, but experts say his new alliance won't impact their relationship.
The party Netanyahu made a deal with, the Jewish Power party, is an offshoot of the Kach party — a faction that was banned in Israel and designated a terrorist organization by the Israeli government, the US State Department, and the FBI.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally of President Donald Trump, is facing criticism after embracing a far-right political party with unabashedly racist and ultranationalist beliefs.

Netanyahu on Wednesday brokered a deal between his Likud party and two far-right parties as part of a broader effort to shore up support before Israel's elections on April 9.

The Israeli prime minister is hoping the new alliance between the far-right, pro-settler Jewish Home party and extremist Jewish Power party will ensure that far-right parties hold enough seats for him to retain power following election day.

To get the parties to agree to the deal, Likud promised to reserve the 28th spot on its parliamentary list for united far-right groups as well as two ministerial posts and two seats in the Security Cabinet, Axios reported.


In short, Netanyahu has opened the door for extremists to gain a presence in Israel's parliament.

Accordingly, Netanyahu is facing a slew of criticism for making any sort of alliance with Jewish Power.

The party is an offshoot of the Kach party, a faction that was banned in Israel and designated a terrorist organization by the Israeli government, the US State Department, and the FBI.

The Kach party was led by the late US-born Rabbi Meir Kahane, an ultranationalist who advocated for barring non-Jews from Israel and called for Arabs and Jews to be segregated.

By forging a partnership with this group, experts say Netanyahu has essentially joined hands with Israel's version of the Ku Klux Klan.


Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told INSIDER "there is no other way of describing Mr. Netanyahu's new partners" then as an "extremely radical and overtly racist hate group."

The Forward, a Jewish American magazine, responded to the move in an article that alleged Netanyahu "just invited Israel's equivalent of the KKK to join the government." Ibish agrees with this assertion.

"They are indeed the Jewish Israeli equivalent of the KKK, unabashed proponents of ethnic power and the subjugation of an already oppressed minority (the Palestinian citizens of Israel)," Ibish added. "Indeed, the history of this movement suggests that they are ethnic cleansers who ultimately seek to expel all or most of the indigenous, non-Jewish communities in Israel and Palestine from the land."

Ibish said the Jewish Power party openly advocates for "massive war crimes and enormous human rights violations" and "not as a last resort during conflict but as a preferred and deliberate policy option."

"Their attitude is borderline genocidal in its broadest sense," Ibish added.


Aaron David Miller, the vice president and Middle East program director at the Wilson Center, tweeted that the alliance Netanyahu has formed "will live in infamy in his politics and and Israel's."

Expanding on this, Miller in an email told INSIDER, "Netanyahu in order to remain in power has not only resurrected the spirit of Israel's Meir Kahane, likely the worst racist ideologue and operator in Israel's history, but conceivably — should he win reelection — brought his followers into a governing coalition."

This move from Netanyahu also has implications for Trump, who's at the center of Israel's upcoming election.

The Likud party has plastered massive images of Netanyahu and Trump on buildings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The Israeli leader has sought to emphasize his close relationship with the US president as he fights for reelection and potentially faces indictment on corruption charges.


There are calls from advocacy groups like J Street, which describes itself as a cohort of "pro-Israel" and "pro-peace" Americans, for US officials to "condemn Netanyahu's efforts to bring these extreme racists into Israel's next government."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from INSIDER.

With that said, Ibish said he doesn't see this move from Netanyahu having any significant impact on Israeli-US relations or Trump's relationship with Netanyahu.

Trump is "the least likely American leader to be offended" by Netanyahu embracing an extremist group, according to Ibish.

"Trump is exceptionally pro-Israel, does not seem particularly interested in a two-state solution, has cut the Palestinians off from all US funding and shuttered their diplomatic mission in Washington, and is unlikely to be offended by anything Mr. Netanyahu could do to the Palestinians," Ibish said.


He added that Trump is also a "proponent of ethnic nationalism and discrimination around the world, a friend to strongmen and not someone who is at all bothered by racism and systematic bigotry," which is another reason he won't take issue with Netanyahu embracing Jewish Power.

Ibish also said the "emergence of a left-wing fringe in the Democratic Party that is critical of Israel and the occupation" also doesn't mean we'll see significant criticism of Netanyahu from Democratic leaders like Sen. Chuck Schumer. This is because uncritical support for the Israeli government in Washington is far too entrenched and is essentially "the political equivalent 'friends letting friends drive drunk,'" Ibish said.
https://www.businessinsider.com/israel- ... wer-2019-2

[seemslikeadream]

Israel Attorney General Expected to Say Whether He Plans to Indict Netanyahu
By Michael Arnold
February 28, 2019, 12:34 AM CST
Attorney general to announce findings in corruption cases
Decision likely to dominate campaign ahead of April 9 election


Private Company
Benjamin Netanyahu braced Thursday for an expected decision on whether the attorney general intends to put him on trial, following a two-year corruption investigation that has polarized the country and could speed the end of the Israeli prime minister’s political career.

Netanyahu landed in Israel before dawn, cutting short an official visit to Moscow. Should Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit decide he plans to charge the prime minister in any of the three cases in which he’s embroiled, Netanyahu would first be entitled to a hearing to present his side of the story in an attempt to change Mandelblit’s mind, a process that could take many months.

No sitting Israeli leader has ever been indicted, and Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing. He’s said he won’t step down unless convicted, and legally he doesn’t have to. But if the nation’s top prosecutor believes the case is strong enough to file charges, that may erode Netanyahu’s political support to the point where he’s either voted out in April 9 elections or concludes he has no choice but to resign.

Mandelblit is set to announce whether he thinks Netanyahu broke the law in accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars of gifts from wealthy benefactors and acting illicitly to win better press coverage through proposed legislation and regulatory benefits. The attorney general’s decision is sure to figure centrally in what is shaping up as a closely fought election campaign.


‘House of Cards’

On Wednesday, Netanyahu again dismissed bribery allegations against him and said “this house of cards will soon collapse.” The prime minister is seeking a fifth term, and if he hangs on he could become his country’s longest-serving leader later this year.

Netanyahu has argued for the past two years that he’s the victim of a political witch hunt by the media, left-wingers and police investigators who’ve already recommended he stand trial for bribery in all three cases. With elections six weeks away, even small shifts in voter sentiment could prove crucial.

Before Mandelblit published his findings, polls showed Netanyahu’s Likud maintaining its strength and able to put together Israel’s next government with current partners. But they’ve also indicated that a decision to charge the prime minister could potentially swing the balance of power in a tight race against the centrist Blue & White bloc headed by former military chief of staff Benny Gantz and ex-Finance Minister Yair Lapid.

A Times of Israel poll released overnight showed a draft indictment would cost Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party four projected parliamentary seats and, more importantly, its ability to form a coalition. Support for Blue & White would surge to 44 of parliament’s 120 seats from 36 in previous polls, the survey showed.

Over a quarter of those planning to vote for Likud said they won’t do so if Mandelblit releases a draft indictment, and its parliamentary representation would fall to 25 seats from 29 projected previously, the poll showed. The online survey of 708 likely voters had a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

Cigars and Champagne

The investigation began in 2016 and expanded from gifts of cigars and champagne to regulatory decisions that reshaped the country’s communications landscape. Testimony from three former close aides was crucial in building the case against the prime minister.


The expected announcement from Mandelblit, who was appointed to the post by Netanyahu, comes a year after police recommended charging the prime minister with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in the first case, in which he took about 1 million shekels ($277,000) worth of items such as cigars and champagne from wealthy friends including Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian businessman James Packer. Netanyahu says these were gifts from friends, and has denied giving any favors in exchange.

In another case, Netanyahu is suspected of supporting regulatory reforms that benefited Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Corp. -- controlled at the time by Netanyahu’s friend, Shaul Elovitch -- in exchange for favorable coverage in a news site under Elovitch’s control.

In the third case, he met with the publisher of a major Israeli newspaper to discuss passing legislation that would weaken another daily in exchange for more favorable coverage. The plan never came to fruition, and the bill never made it to a final vote in parliament.

Netanyahu had moved up the balloting from November, in part to forestall Mandeblit’s decision. He argued that announcing an indictment before the election -- and before his hearing could be completed -- would prejudice voters. Others said voters deserved to have as much information as possible before the election, and argued that it was Netanyahu’s own decision to advance the vote that dictated Mandelblit’s timing.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... indictment

[seemslikeadream]

PM Netanyahu to Be Indicted on Corruption in All Three Cases.

Political Earthquake 40 days before Election. trump just praised him this morning.

Case 1000 - Breach of trust
Case 2000 - Breach of trust
Case 4000 - Bribery

Israel's AG expected to announce intent to indict Netanyahu in corruption probes
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/1 ... ontent=en3

Slow news day:
-Kushner meets with murderer
-POTUS meets with murderer
-Cohen describes criminal activity to Congress
-Border wall prototypes torn down
-5th anniversary of Russian invasion of Ukraine
-Netanyahu goes to Moscow
-India-Pak on war footing

[seemslikeadream]

Netanyahu to stand trial for bribery and breach of trust, pending hearing -
Attorney general’s decision is legal bombshell ahead of April 9 elections, marks first time in Israel’s history that a serving PM has been told he faces criminal charges

Netanyahu to stand trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, pending hearing

AG’s decision is legal bombshell ahead of April 9 elections, marks first time in Israel’s history that serving PM is told he faces criminal charges; premier to speak at 8 p.m.

By Raoul Wootliff and TOI staff28 February 2019, 6:03 pm
home page

Mandelblit releases 57-page document detailing allegations

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on February 5, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

In a decision that drastically shakes up Israeli politics less than six weeks before general elections, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be charged with criminal wrongdoing in three separate cases against him, including bribery in the far-reaching Bezeq corruption probe, pending a hearing.

The decision marks the first time in Israel’s history that a serving prime minister has been told he faces criminal charges, and casts a heavy shadow over Netanyahu’s re-election campaign.

Netanyahu will be charged with fraud and breach of trust in Cases 1000 and 2000, and bribery, fraud and breach of trust in Case 4000, unless he can persuade Mandelblit to reconsider in the course of the hearing process.

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The attorney general detailed the allegations in a 57-page document that was released on Thursday evening.

Mandelblit, in his decision, wrote that according to suspicions the prime minister “damaged the image of the public service and public trust in it” and is suspected of abusing his position and status, and of knowingly “taking a bribe as a public servant in exchange for actions related to your position.”

“You abused your authority while taking into account other considerations that relate to your personal interests and the interests of your family,” Mandelblit charged in the document, addressing the prime minister directly. “You corrupted public servants working under you.”


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and then-cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblit at the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on February 2, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“This is hugely significant — for the prime minister and for all of us,” said Suzie Navot, a professor of constitutional and parliamentary law. “This was an investigation conducted with caution, with restraint — some would say too much restraint, over too long. The evidence was checked and re-checked.” The attorney general knew full well how dramatic would be the political fallout, she said. “And yet the decision was taken to indict, in all three cases.”

Despite reported recommendations from the state attorney and police that the prime minister stand trial for bribery in all of the cases, Mandelblit opted for the lesser charge of fraud and breach of trust in two of the affairs.

Mandelblit said he would not pursue legal action against Netanyahu’s wife Sara and son Yair, who had also been suspects in the cases.

Responding to the decision, Netanyahu’s Likud party continued to insist that “there is nothing” to the cases against the premier. It accused “the media and the left” of pressuring the attorney general into the decision. “No one is surprised by the announcement,” the party said.

It further claimed that “the witch hunt against the prime minister began with an attempt to hit him with four bribery cases. Even before the hearing, three of those have collapsed.”

Netanyahu was set to give a statement to the media on the decision at 8 p.m.

The prime minister is currently seeking reelection in the April 9 elections against an opposition invigorated by the entry into politics of ex-IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz.

Thursday’s announcement of the intention to indict the prime minister — who long argued that the decision should be postponed until after the vote so that it would not affect public opinion — places Netanyahu’s legal situation front and center in the campaign.

The decision to press charges, pending a hearing, in the criminal investigations against Netanyahu could have a game-changing impact on the elections, a Times of Israel poll published earlier Thursday showed. The ruling Likud party could lose both a significant chunk of support, as well as its ability to form a coalition after the vote, the survey, published overnight Wednesday-Thursday, indicated.

Netanyahu can request a hearing to contest the planned indictment, in a process that could take up to a year, during which time he is not legally obliged to step down. Israeli law only requires that a prime minister step down if convicted, but experts have suggested that Netanyahu could have a “problem” if he seeks to stay in office after a formal indictment is filed at the completion of a hearing process. Under law and High Court of Justice precedent, ministers other than the prime minister are required to step down in such a situation. There is no clear legal rule regarding the prime minister.

Thursday’s announcement came after a last-ditch attempt to prevent Mandelblit from announcing the charges. Netanyahu’s Likud party filed a petition with the High Court of Justice Thursday morning, seeking to stop the attorney general from publishing his decision, but the court rejected the plea on Thursday afternoon.

In Case 1000, involving accusations that Netanyahu received gifts and benefits from billionaire benefactors including Israeli-born Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan in exchange for favors, Mandelblit said he intends to charge Netanyahu with fraud and breach of trust — the latter being a somewhat murkily defined offense relating to an official violating the trust the public has placed in him. Milchan is not to be charged.

Mandelblit, in his decision, wrote that according to suspicions “You damaged the image of public service and the public’s trust in it, in that while serving in public positions, and formost as prime minister, you maintained for years an inappropriate relationship with Milchan and Packer.

“This included receiving “benefits connected to your public positions” totaling over NIS 700,000 and acting “in favor of businessman Milchan while in a severe confliuct of interest.

“In your actions you allegedly abused your position and status and significantly and seriously harmed the propriety of the public administration, the integrity of public servants and public trust in public servants.”

In Case 2000, involving accusations Netanyahu agreed with Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes to weaken a rival daily in return for more favorable coverage from Yedioth, Mandelblit will seek to charge the premier with fraud and breach of trust, while Mozes will be charged with bribery. The case is said to have been a contentious one in Mandelblit’s office, with many prosecution officials reportedly arguing that Netanyahu should be charged with bribery, while Mandelblit considered not charging the prime minister at all.

Mandelblit said that according to suspicions Netanyahu and Mozes “recognized that the one had the ability to promote the other’s interest” in the run up to the 2015 elections and discussed such possibilities.

“According to suspicions, in your actions while performing your duties you have committed acts that amount to breach of trust, and have caused substantial harm to the integrity [of the position] and the public’s trust.”

In Case 4000, widely seen as the most serious against the premier, Netanyahu is accused of having advanced regulatory decisions that benefited Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder in the Bezeq telecom giant, in exchange for positive coverage from the Elovitch-owned Walla news site. In that case Mandelblit announced he intends to charge Netanyahu with fraud and breach of trust, and both Netanyahu and Elovitch with bribery.

Mandelblit said that according to suspicions the relationship between Netanyahu and Elovitch was “based on give and take,” and the prime minister’s actions benefiting Elovitch netted the businessman at least NIS 1.8 billion ($500 million) between 2012-2017. In exchange, Elovitch’s Walla news site “published your political messages that you wished to convey to the public.

“You took benefits…while knowing you were taking a bribe as a public servant in exchange for actions related to your position.”


Shaul Elovitch arrives at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court for a remand hearing in Case 4000, February 26, 2018. (Flash90)
Mandelblit’s decision broke with the conclusions of State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan in several instances, by opting to press lesser charges against some of the suspects, or to drop charges all together.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing in all three cases, and has alleged that the investigations against him are a “witch hunt” involving the left, the media and the police relentlessly pressuring a “weak” attorney general.

After being notified of an impending indictment, suspects are usually provided with the full case materials against them. However, according to Justice Ministry sources, Netanyahu’s defense team asked that case files be withheld until after the April 9 elections, reasoning they could be used for political purposes and campaign propaganda.

Alan Dershowitz, a prominent American lawyer, came to Netanyahu’s defense earlier Thursday, publishing an open letter to Mandelblit in which he warned that an indictment against the prime minister ahead of elections would undermine the democratic process. “I’m very worried for freedom of the press and freedom of government in Israel if they start indicting people for trying to get good coverage from the media,” Dershowitz also told Army Radio, referencing Cases 2000 and 4000, which revolve around alleged illicit deals in which the prime minister allegedly offered favors in return for favorable media coverage. “I don’t know of any other country that has criminalized trying to get good coverage and make that a basis of bribery or any other corruption investigation.”

On Sunday, the State Comptroller’s Permits Committee rejected for the second time a request by Netanyahu to fund his legal defense in the three cases via payments from wealthy associates, including his cousin.

Ehud Olmert, the country’s first former premier to serve prison time, stepped down from office in 2008 during the investigation into him, but before the intention to file charges was announced. He served 16 months in prison on corruption offenses and was released in July 2017.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu ... g-hearing/

[seemslikeadream]

Police Recommend Indicting Likud MK and Netanyahu Confidant for Bribery

David Bitan allegedly took hundreds of thousands of shekels in bribes when he was deputy mayor of Rishon Letzion, also suspected of money laundering and breach of trust

Josh Breiner Mar 07, 2019 10:57 AM
David Bitan at the Likud campaign launch in Ramat Gan, March 4, 2019.

The police recommended indicting Likud lawmaker David Bitan for bribery on Thursday morning. The investigation is expected to continue until the April 9 election, after which the case and its evidence will be transferred to the prosecution.

At the center of the investigation are alleged reciprocal connections that Bitan forged in the past with business figures who are linked to covering debt that Bitan amassed while he served as deputy mayor of Rishon Letzion. Bitan is suspected of collecting hundreds of thousands of shekels in bribes from businesspeople through his close associate Moshe Yosef, who has turned state's evidence.

>> Which direction does the strongest man in Israeli politics want to take the country? ■ From loyal soldiers to whistle blowers: These are Netanyahu's confidants who turned state's evidence

Police are also expected to announce that there is evidence that Bitan was involved in other crimes, among them breach of trust, taxes and money laundering. As such, they have brought on another figure to turn state's evidence in an additional affair.

The central crime being investigated involves Bitan receiving bribes from members of Jarushi crime family, through Yosef, in exchange for advancing building projects on their behalf in Rishon Lezion. Yosef refuted this charge, though he testified against Bitan on other matters.

In his testimony, Yosef described how he transferred money to Bitan. He and Bitan would meet in a store and stand close together in a corner. Yosef would take a wad of cash from his pocket – between five and ten thousand shekels (about $1,000 to $3,000) – and transfer it surreptitiously into Bitan's pocket. According to Yosef, he transferred bribes to Bitan this way for nearly five years

Bitan responded to these reports on Tuesday evening: "There's no decision, it's an information leak. From the first day of the investigation, the police said that this would be their recommendation. Then what are you investigating?"

Speaking on Kan Bet television network, Bitan's lawyer, Ephraim Dimri, said on Thursday that the state's witnesses are problematic and insisted that Bitan's version of events be heard.

"[Bitan] gave his version of events to police, and we will our version of events to the court as well, if there is a hearing. And I believe that if there is a hearing, the case will be closed… I won't get into the details of the case, certainly not at this stage, but I can tell you: [Bitan] has a good answer [to the accusations] and substantiating documents for his claims," he said.

"We trust in the Israeli system of law and justice to fairly carry out this process, and are glad that we will be heard out," he added.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.pr ... -1.7000213