Schumer, breaking with Netanyahu, Signals that even Corporate Dems’ Support for Israel is no Longer Unconditional Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Whether driven by moral compass, or political survival; America’s Democratic leaders are finally recognizing the obvious: The continued leadership of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi), is hurting Israel, and fueling global antisemitism. It’s also making the Jewish nation an international pariah. Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s eloquent […] |
Nonviolence in the Holy Land: Fear, Love and Palestine with Sami Awad Nonviolence Radio Nonviolence Radio Team Former Holy Land Trust Executive Director Sami Awad. (Facebook/Sami Awad) Subscribe to “Nonviolence Radio” on Apple Podcasts, Android, Spotify or via RSS. ( Waging Nonviolence) – As a Palestinian, Sami and his family have suffered directly under the long Israeli occupation and more acutely now, from the […] |
Israel’s Army Exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox: A Jewish State divided over the Jewish Religion By Michael Brenner, American University | – Just when you think nothing can surprise you anymore in Israeli politics, someone always comes along with a new twist. This time it was Yitzhak Yosef, one of Israel’s two chief rabbis. In response to debates over whether ultra-Orthodox Jews should be required to serve in the military, […] |
Old posts you may have missed
S. Africa Will Arrest Dual Nationals Fighting in Gaza, Demands Halt to Starvation of Palestinians The film ‘Dune’: Techno-Orientalism, and Intergalactic Islam Trump Showed Us Who He Is the First Time: Term 2 Would Be a Thousand Times Worse In First, Rich Nations Cut CO2 4.5% in ’23 but still Grew, as Coal fell to 1900 Levels Israel Partisans’ use of Disinformation Calls for a ‘Green’ Ramadan revive Islam’s long Tradition of Sustainability and Care for the Planet US Intelligence: Israel’s Netanyahu not Viable, not Moderate and is Provoking Terrorism US Intelligence: Israel’s Netanyahu not Viable, not Moderate and is Provoking TerrorismAnn Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Annual Threat Assessment of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Avril Haines) contains some important information that should be highlighted because it refutes right wing propaganda. Let me just draw attention to some of these points. 1. Here’s an essential one: “We assess that Iranian leaders did not orchestrate nor had foreknowledge of the HAMAS attack against Israel.” After the horrid October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israelis, the majority of them innocent civilians, the usual suspects went wild blaming Iran. The Wall Street Journal, a bizarre hybrid of Rupert Murdoch conspiracy theories and sterling reporting, erred on the side of the former with lurid allegations that Iran trained and put Hamas fighters up to the terrorist attack. The Iran War Lobby swung into action. And yet. The ODNI says all that was a fever dream. 2. It should come as no surprise that the Israeli response, which the International Court of Justice found plausibly genocidal, has given a fillip to al-Qaeda and ISIL, and that the ODNI expects it to provoke terrorism against the US. This conclusion, which seems fairly obvious, contradicts the favored inside-the-Beltway meme that Israel is an asset to US security. Its current government’s dedication to policies that produce starving children is likely to lead to anti-US terrorism. 3. But the assessment also says, “The Nordic Resistance Movement—a transnational neo-Nazi organization—publicly praised the attack, illustrating the conflict’s appeal to a range of threat actors.” This ugly neo-Nazi movement, by the way, celebrated noisily when Trump won in 2016 and saw it as the beginnning of a global far right revolution. The European and North American far right is confused about Arab-Israeli conflicts. On the one hand, some of them see Israel as “white” and so side with it against Arabs. But in this case apparently they were willing to idolize Hamas if only it would kill innocent Jews. 4. Another important observation: “Israel probably will face lingering armed resistance from HAMAS for years to come, and the military will struggle to neutralize HAMAS’s underground infrastructure, which allows insurgents to hide, regain strength, and surprise Israeli forces.” In other words, the stated goal of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, of wiping out Hamas, is impossible. Hamas will pose a danger for “years to come.” Likewise, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s support for the far right Netanyahu government’s total war on Gaza is misplaced, since he said he believes it is waged “so that this never happens again.” Combine points 2, 3, and 4 we can conclude that Netanyahu is virtually assuring that it does happen again. 5. Then there is this:
First, the ODNI is saying that there isn’t an icicle’s chance in hell of there being a two-state solution as long as Netanyahu is prime minister. This conclusion contradicts everything President Biden keeps saying about the future of the Palestinians, and his tired mantra about the imaginary “two-state solution.” Well, you could say, if the problem is Netanyahu, he may not be there very long. But what the assessment doesn’t say is that the entire Knesset just voted against a Palestinian state. So it isn’t just Netanyahu. It is the Israeli mainstream. 6. Speaking of Netanyahu not being there:
Note that US intelligence concurs that the Netanyahu government is extremist, which is the only way to understand the hope for a more moderate successor. Netanyahu gets between 17% and 19% approval in opinion polls, and keen observers of the Israeli political scene believe that his far right Likud Party and its extremist allies (Religious Zionism and Jewish Power) will take a bath in the next parliamentary elections. So US intelligence is not telling us here anything we don’t already know. Making this assessment public, however, is surely intended to give courage to Netanyahu’s political opponents and to signal that the US intelligence community thinks America would be better off with a different leader. |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.