Israel is determined to pressure Unilever to change the Ben & Jerry’s decision not to sell ice cream in occupied territory; and six left-of-center Jewish parliamentarians originally signed on to a letter deploring the decision. They backed out later, but their instinct shows how broadly committed Jewish Israelis are to “Judea and Samaria” as part of Israel.
Meretz represents the far left of Israeli politics and even its leader says even he buys settlement products. This more than anything shows the overwhelming Israeli political consensus behind the settlements.
Yair Lapid, hero of liberal Zionists in the U.S., explains why his government sought a law barring Palestinian families unification in Israel. “There’s no need to hide from the purpose of the law. It’s one of the tools meant to secure a Jewish majority in Israel. Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people.” And leftwing Zionist party Meretz went along with the racist bill. Though Palestinian members of Knesset overwhelmingly opposed it.
As of yesterday, Benjamin Netanyahu is officially a loser. He lost four elections in a row, and failed to form a government – the one time he managed it, a year ago, he did so on Benny Gantz’s mandate. That, however, does not mean Yair Lapid, who received the mandate to try to form a government yesterday from Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, will do any better.
The news from Israel’s four elections is that there is little ideological debate in Israel. Israeli Jewish voters are overwhelmingly rightwing. They are deeply divided over Netanyahu, but nearly 80 of the 120 members in the new parliament are rightwingers, dedicated to keeping the entire “land of Israel,” and Palestinians be damned.
Rightwinger Naftali Bennett is the kingmaker in Israeli election next week, and signals, correctly, that the Israeli right should not be fearful of Yair Lapid. For Lapid’s party states in Hebrew that it is for the settlement project, though it scrubs that section from the English version intended for US liberal Zionists!
ICC ruling that it has jurisdiction to investigate Israeli war crimes has put the country’s leadership on the defensive. Netanyahu calls it “pure antisemitism” and Israel’s US advocates, AIPAC, AJC, and Dennis Ross rush in to say that the ICC has no jurisdiction.
Liberal Zionists say there are 2 regimes in Israel and West Bank, and apartheid in the West Bank doesn’t undermine democracy in Israel. It’s a fiction, Nathan Thrall shows in London Review of Books. Israel’s discriminations against Palestinians demonstrate there has been an apartheid policy in Israeli government since 1948.
As Israel prepares for its fourth Knesset election in four years, Dr. Reem Khamis-Dakwar discusses how Zionist parties on the so-called “left” and right are attempting to attract Palestinian voters, who she says says have the status of pets within Israel’s political system, “domesticated in the service of Zionist parties in the Knesset.”
Netanyahu will move ahead to annex territories in Palestine near the Green Line containing Jewish settlements, says Yair Golan of Meretz. “He will explain to the rest of the world, Alright, we did what was reasonable, what was accepted by the Palestinians in former negotations, and what was heavily accepted by President Trump according to his future plan.”