Current Events > Israel/Palestina War XX - Bye bye Def Minister Gallant, Hello Def Minister Katz

(+) Yeah! (+)

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara faced renewed calls for her dismissal on Sunday as members of the government attacked her for perceived leniency toward anti-government protesters, after flares were fired the previous evening in the vicinity of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus private residence in Caesarea.
The calls for her ousting also came on the heels of her opposition to a government proposal to regulate retirement packages for government legal advisers and compel those who have served more than seven years to retire before the end of 2024. A legal opinion published by the Attorney Generals Office on Sunday warned that such a move could be intended to remove officials who act as gatekeepers due to foreign considerations.

In an incendiary post on X, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who has clashed with Baharav-Miara in the past, called for her to be fired while invoking principles of Jewish law associated with attempted murder to justify his position.
Her perceived failure to act against the lawlessness of anti-government protesters was bringing Israel closer by leaps and bounds to disaster the assassination of the prime minister, Karhi added.
Karhi reiterated. If someone comes to kill you including through weakness and agreement through silence rise up and fire them, he said, paraphrasing a line from the Talmud about self-defense which states: If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill them first.
Karhis words were met with outrage from opposition lawmakers who accused the communications minister of openly inciting murder against the attorney general, and called for him to be fired.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel accused Karhi of crossing a dangerous red line and warned that his statement was serious incitement against the gatekeepers of Israeli democracy.
The watchdog called on Netanyahu to condemn Karhis violent and dangerous rhetoric.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Haredi Kikar HaShabbat news outlet, Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem claimed that the anti-government protesters had illegally acquired the flares thrown at Netanyahus home under the auspices of Miara. The next step will be a light missile, or maybe a mortar, the firebrand lawmaker posited.

Information released by the Rishon Lezion Magistrates Court on Sunday demonstrated that the apparent motivation behind the leak of a highly classified military intelligence document to Germanys Bild newspaper in September was to alleviate public pressure and criticism against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the murder of six high-profile hostages by Hamas in late August.
Once it was published in Bild, he contacted several Israeli journalists to tell them about the report in order to get them to write follow-up pieces. Some of those journalists questioned the authenticity of the document, however, and so Feldstein then asked the reserve NCO to provide him with the physical copy.
The officer then met with Feldstein and at that meeting gave him a physical copy of the original document, along with two other highly classified documents.

Here is the full version of that interview. Nearly an hour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PEHNXR8Uvk

Just got around to watching this. pretty much echoes the testimony of other US and UK surgeons who came back with the same experiences.

what shocked me was how ignorant the panel were. at one point the doctor talked about not sleeping near the hospital entrance because he knew he would be "picked off", and the woman leading the panel replied "you mean identified?" and he's like "no, I mean shot". Like what part of "picked off" did she not understand?

At another point she claimed to be "taken aback" by his testimony, as if they were genuinely shocked and surprised at the things he was saying and had to take a moment to themselves, even though he's not the first western doctor to be saying this stuff and so much of what he said has already been documented and written about. I expected the panel to already have some prior knowledge of what was going on but it seemed as if they were totally clueless and weren't at all prepared for what he was about to tell them.

It's a lot more than that.
The Haredim either are or are bout to go a-rioting again because the IDF announced the intention to draft 6k of them. And yes, they DO have a history of rioting. They particularly like to throw rocks at law enforcement, but somehow don't get shot for it, unlike Palestinian children (Hell, even Israeli Arab children don't get shot for it that often, do they?)

The level of unrest is a fraction of what it would be since Bibi conveniently passed a wartime law (due to the invasion of Lebanon) which limits public gatherings to 2k people. (The Haredim are NOT going to obey this.)
Though in the past couple days the world has witnessed a major-ass escalation in that a trio of rioters shot flares at Bibi's state-funded (though it's not supposed to be) Caesarea home (yeah, among other things, he has the state repairing his bigass outdoor pool) Israelis are also unhappy that their country is still getting bombarded by Hezbollah rockets damn near every day. This was has absolutely devastated sensitive habitat, BTW, particularly in northern Israel (probably southern Lebanon as well) IIRC something like 70% of Israel's northern forests have burned down.

In addition there are countless minor issues, mostly linked to classism and institutionalized racism which contribute to a lesser degree. From the record gang violence in Arab sectors of Israel (thanks largely to Ben Gvir ignoring them) to a lack of bomb shelters in the north and for racial minorities (due to institutionalized racism, most everything built in Arab sectors is illegal. This is because a mixture of poverty and institutionalized racism makes getting a permit next to impossible for Arabs and Bendoin. Jewish Israelis living near the northern border also tend to get the shaft compared to those living in or near cities. Iron Dome missiles sometimes land or drop deadly shrapnel in the north and kill inhabitants (usually Bendouin or Druze, but sometimes Jews)
Due to the war time budget cuts, the social safety net is greatly reduced, while the far right coalition nonetheless allocates funding to aliyah (encouraging foreign Jews to move to Israel) yet they've drastically cut the housing and business assistance which is normally given to them.
The religious Zionists and ultra Orthodox are increasingly attempting to force their religion on everyone else (often on a local level) This includes forcing construction crews to observe the sabbath, which leads to dangerous incomplete constructions looming over highways on Saturdays and Sundays, where normally these are the best two days for construction due to decreased traffic.
Oh, while most do not disagree with it, the tariffs on Turkey kinda hurt the Israeli low and middle class as well, since Turkey was where they imported a lot of their food from for cheap.
And that's just the shit that I can think of.

"The country really is galloping towards the edge of an abyss. If the war of attrition against Hamas and Hezbollah continues, Israel will collapse within no more than a year.

Terror attacks are intensifying in the West Bank and inside the country, the reservist army is voting with its feet following recurring mobilizations of combat soldiers, and the economy is crashing. Israel has also become a pariah state, prompting economic boycotts and an embargo on arms shipments.

We are also losing our social resilience, as the growing hatred between different parts of the nation threatens to ignite and bring to its destruction from within."

Just got around to watching this. pretty much echoes the testimony of other US and UK surgeons who came back with the same experiences.

what shocked me was how ignorant the panel were. at one point the doctor talked about not sleeping near the hospital entrance because he knew he would be "picked off", and the woman leading the panel replied "you mean identified?" and he's like "no, I mean shot". Like what part of "picked off" did she not understand?

At another point she claimed to be "taken aback" by his testimony, as if they were genuinely shocked and surprised at the things he was saying and had to take a moment to themselves, even though he's not the first western doctor to be saying this stuff and so much of what he said has already been documented and written about. I expected the panel to already have some prior knowledge of what was going on but it seemed as if they were totally clueless and weren't at all prepared for what he was about to tell them.

Most people in the US get their news from the major cable networks (Fox, CNN, MSNBC, etc) and/or major papers (NYT, WaPo, etc). All of whom are dramatically underreporting what's actually going on

Don't get me wrong, there are some good investigative stories here and there, but those are notable for the infrequent occasions they happen. Much more often the stories are basically IDF press releases.

That video is from the UK, not the US.

WASHINGTON (JTA) One of Sen. Chuck Schumers last actions as the outgoing US Senate majority leader is an attempt to codify a controversial definition of antisemitism in the face of claims from the left and the right that it impinges on free speech.
The Antisemitism Awareness Act, as passed in the House last May, would enshrine antisemitism as a type of discrimination that could trigger corrective action under Title VI, the section of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funds. The definition of antisemitism that the bill uses, drafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, has been adopted by a wide range of countries, local governments, universities, and other entities, but has spurred opposition from the left for classifying some criticism of Israel as antisemitic. In May, some on the right also opposed the definition that the claim that Jews killed Jesus is antisemitic.

Among IHRAs examples of antisemitism that the ACLU said constitutes political as opposed to hate speech are 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, drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, and applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

The Republican sweep has heightened concerns among the bills critics, who say Trump does not need more tools to make good on his threats to weaponize the law to go after his political enemies.
Kevin Rachlin, the Washington director of Nexus, a Jewish group promoting a different antisemitism definition, said he feared that Trump could use the act to delegitimize political opponents, defund them, and attack them using the institutions of government.
The American Civil Liberties Union in a letter sent Thursday to every senator called the IHRA definition overbroad.

Attorney General Baharav-Miara has clashed repeatedly with Ben Gvir over his handling of the police, even declaring a promotion by the far-right minister illegal and ordering the police commissioner to halt the dismissal of the forces top legal adviser.
Netanyahu has warned that Baharav-Miaras support for the removal of Ben Gvir could spark a constitutional crisis.
Addressing reporters shortly before Ben Gvir, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that the governments reported plans to fire Baharav-Mirara would bring the issue of the prime ministers recusal back to the table.
According to Ynet, Netanyahu is no longer ruling out the dismissal of the attorney general in the wake of his success in pushing out former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
If Netanyahu fires Baharav-Mirara, it could violate the premiers conflict of interest arrangement, drafted in 2020. The High Court had ordered Netanyahu to sign off on the arrangement so he could continue to serve as prime minister, while on criminal trial for fraud, bribery, and breach of trust.

Despite an ongoing investigation into the alleged systematic theft of classified intelligence documents from Israel Defense Forces databases and the transfer of those files to people in the Prime Ministers Office, the government on Sunday gave its backing to a bill establishing a new intelligence oversight body directly under the authority of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The bill seeks to create a so-called Ipcha Mistabra (devils advocate) unit challenging the conclusions of other intelligence bodies reporting directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that will be given the authority to demand intelligence information from any intelligence body or any other state institution in Israel. This would include military intelligence, the Shin Bet, the Mossad. and the National Security Council.
Separately, the ministerial committee also approved a bill prohibiting the waving of the flags of enemy nations, including the Palestinian flag, on the premises of any institution funded or supported by the state. According to the bill, an amendment to the penal code sponsored by Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi (Likud), a gathering of two or more people at which such flags are waved would be considered an unlawful assembly, with participants facing a year in prison and a minimum NIS 10,000 ($2,700) fine. The law would apply to institutions such as universities, where protesters have at times waved Palestinian flags at demonstrations. Vaturi has been critical of anti-government demonstrations in the past, claiming this summer that protesters demanding early elections and the release of hostages held in Gaza are a branch of the Hamas terror group. Vaturi later backtracked, in light of widespread criticism, claiming in a tweet that his comments were taken out of context.
The bills approval comes a week after the committee gave its backing to legislation requiring the government to adopt a national security strategy, extending emergency regulations allowing for the censorship of foreign media, and allowing the police to secretly spy on suspects computers using secret warrants.

Fuck you, Schumer.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/schumer-pushing-to-codify-ihra-antisemitism-definition-amid-free-speech-concerns/

With cease-fire talks faltering in Gaza and no clear offramp for the conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border, the daily exchanges of rocket fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have sparked fires that are tearing through forests and farmland on both sides of the frontline.
The blazes exacerbated by supply shortages and security concerns have consumed thousands of hectares of land in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, becoming one of the most visible signs of the escalating conflict.
There is an increasingly real possibility of a full-scale war one that would have catastrophic consequences for people on both sides of the border. Some fear the fires sparked by a larger conflict would also cause irreversible damage to the land.

The 2023-2024 conflict in the Middle East exemplifies this destruction, with severe and widespread environmental impacts across the region. Hezbollah rocket attacks ignited wildfires that consumed over 2,500 acres in northern Israel, devastating habitats, worsening air pollution, and straining environmental management efforts. In Lebanon, military operations have destroyed 11,000 acres of forest and 2,000 acres of farmland. In Gaza, nearly 39 million tons of debris have polluted the environment, damaged wastewater treatment systems, tainted water supplies, and deepened the food security crisis.
Theres been a lot of damage to ecosystems, natural forests, and shrublands on both sides of the border, both in the north and in the south, he explained. He described how fires have ravaged forested areas in northern Israel due to missile strikes, while in southern Lebanon, military actions have led to significant damage, including the intentional destruction of vegetation used as natural camouflage for Hezbollah hideouts. The natural vegetation and ecosystems have been impacted quite severely due to the war, Price emphasized.

https://apnews.com/article/un-gaza-resolution-veto-hamas-israel-hostages-b5281432fc2acdc1860adb3015392c0b

Only the US said no. And people wonder why Biden is getting all the blame.

https://x.com/AkbarSAhmed/status/1859263173280575767

Epic!!

https://apnews.com/article/un-gaza-resolution-veto-hamas-israel-hostages-b5281432fc2acdc1860adb3015392c0b

Only the US said no. And people wonder why Biden is getting all the blame.

Epic!!

Epically bad, and will ensure a genocide.

beyond disgusting.

I feel like if I said my complete thoughts on this behavior I would probably be modded, so I will just repeat that it is beyond disgusting, especially in combination with today's veto.

https://x.com/AkbarSAhmed/status/1859263173280575767

Epic!!

Took me a minute, and I wanted to come back and say it... this is very October 2001 vibes. That's exactly what this is.

Isn't Deif dead?

International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges

also an arrest warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Deif:
https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-issues-warrant-arrest-mohammed-diab-ibrahim

Remember when Biden said to Netanyahu when they say "October 7th was our 9/11"?
"Don't make the same mistake we did".

We used to think that Biden warned Bibi to not fall into unjustified war and killing, but turned out he meant that they should do an ethnic cleansing.

The question is, if Bibi gets arrested, will the President do the Hauge Invasion Act?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6b41ffd7.jpg

Bibi is now banned from green countries unless they break the Rome statute.

That's really only for American troops

He's not getting extradited lol

yeah, that ain't happening. That "invading the court" stuff is just empty threats.They know the disaster that would happen if they followed through.