person:avigdor lieberman

  • Quand l’extrême-droite défend la laïcité en Israël | Un si Proche Orient
    http://filiu.blog.lemonde.fr/2019/05/26/quand-lextreme-droite-defend-la-laicite-en-israel


    Avigdor Lieberman, le chef d’Israel Beytenou

    L’ultra-nationaliste Lieberman s’oppose fermement aux partis religieux, ce qui complique la constitution par Nétanyahou d’un nouveau gouvernement.

    Malgré sa victoire aux élections du 9 avril, Benjamin Nétanyahou n’est toujours pas parvenu à constituer un nouveau gouvernement. Le marchandage entre les différentes composantes de sa coalition, qu’il souhaite ancrer très à droite, se complique en effet de la posture offensive d’Avigdor Lieberman sur la laïcité. Cette personnalité ultra-nationaliste, ministre de la Défense jusqu’en novembre dernier, s’oppose de plus en plus ouvertement aux partis religieux, que leur poids à la Knesset rendait jusqu’alors intouchables. Une partie de l’extrême-droite se retrouve ainsi en Israël à lutter contre l’emprise des rabbins fondamentalistes, un combat que le centre et la gauche avaient largement délaissé ces dernières années.

    L’immigration de centaines de milliers de Juifs originaires de l’ex-URSS, dans les années 1990, a profondément transformé la société israélienne. La composante russophone est aujourd’hui estimée à au moins un million de personnes, pour près de sept millions de citoyens juifs d’Israël. Les immigrants venus de l’espace soviétique ont bénéficié de la « loi du retour » qui permet l’installation en Israël des Juifs, ainsi que des descendants ou conjoints d’un Juif à la première et à la deuxième génération. Un tiers environ de ces russophones ne sont cependant pas considérés comme juifs selon les critères du grand-rabbinat, contrôlé en Israël par les ultra-orthodoxes. Cette population russophone se distingue d’ailleurs par sa pratique religieuse relativement faible, voire par un athéisme ouvertement revendiqué.
    […]
    Lieberman se situe donc résolument à l’extrême-droite, même si son jusqu’au-boutisme à l’encontre des Palestiniens a été débordé par le développement d’autres formations organiquement liées aux colons et à leur frange la plus radicale. En outre, l’intégration progressive des russophones, dont une proportion toujours croissante est née en Israël, a réduit le vote captif en faveur d’Israel Beytenou, tombé à 5 députés lors des législatives du mois dernier. L’habile politicien qu’est Lieberman s’est dès lors métamorphosé en défenseur intransigeant de la laïcité, une posture qui lui vaut un certain écho au-delà de sa base traditionnelle, tant les diktats des partis ultra-orthodoxes, eux-mêmes maîtres du grand-rabbinat, sont mal ressentis par les Israéliens les moins religieux. Lieberman a ainsi déposé devant la Cour suprême un recours contre les tests ADN parfois pratiqués à la demande des tribunaux rabbiniques, seuls compétents en matière de mariage, pour confirmer l’identité juive des conjoints. Il a également prôné l’institution d’un mariage civil, pariant sur la popularité d’une telle revendication.

    Lieberman, à qui Nétanyahou a promis le ministère de la Défense, exige désormais l’application effective de la conscription militaire aux ultra-orthodoxes. Ceux-ci sont de fait exemptés, au nom de leurs études rabbiniques, de l’obligation de servir dans l’armée, durant 32 mois pour les hommes et 24 mois pour les femmes. La Cour suprême a invalidé ce dispositif d’exemption et sommé la Knesset d’adopter un régime de conscription qui ne soit plus discriminatoire, un ultimatum que Nétanyahou entend bien repousser, sous peine de s’aliéner le soutien des deux partis ultra-orthodoxes, forts chacun de 8 sièges à la Knesset. Lieberman joue dès lors sur une corde très sensible dans l’opinion, mais aussi sur les équilibres les plus délicats de la future coalition gouvernementale. Il compte bien capitaliser sur le rejet du deux poids-deux mesures dont abusent les étudiants des séminaires talmudiques, exemptés des obligations militaires, tout en bénéficiant souvent d’aides gouvernementales.

  • If Palestinians have 22 states, Israeli Jews have 200

    The notion that the Palestinians have 22 states to go to is a blend of malice and ignorance: The Palestinians are the stepchildren of the Arab world, no country wants them and no Arab country hasn’t betrayed them
    Gideon Levy
    Mar 16, 2019 1

    https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-if-palestinians-have-22-states-israeli-jews-have-200-1.7023647

    Here we go again: The Palestinians have 22 states and, poor us, we have only one. Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t the first to use this warped argument; it has been a cornerstone of Zionist propaganda that we’ve imbibed with our mothers’ milk. But he returned to it last week. “The Arab citizens have 22 states. They don’t need another one,” he said on Likud TV.

    If the Arab citizens of Israel have 22 countries, the state’s Jewish citizens have almost 200. If the prime minister meant that Arab citizens could move to Arab countries, it’s obvious that Jews are invited to return to their country of origin: Palestinians to Saudi Arabia and Jews to Germany.

    Netanyahu belongs in the United States much more than Ayman Odeh belongs in Yemen. Naftali Bennett will also find his feet in San Francisco much more easily than Ahmad Tibi in Mogadishu. Avigdor Lieberman belongs in Russia much more than Jamal Zahalka belongs in Libya. Aida Touma-Sliman is no more connected to Iraq than Ayelet Shaked, whose father was born there. David Bitan belongs to Morocco, his birthplace, much more than Mohammad Barakeh does.

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    The notion that the Palestinians have 22 states to go to is a blend of malice and ignorance. Underlying it are the right wing’s claims that there is no Palestinian people, that the Palestinians aren’t attached to their land and that all Arabs are alike. There are no greater lies than these. The simple truth is that the Jews have a state and the Palestinians don’t.

    The Palestinians are the stepchildren of the Arab world. No country wants them and no Arab country hasn’t betrayed them. Try being a Palestinian in Egypt or Lebanon. An Israeli settler from Itamar is more welcome in Morocco than a Palestinian from Nablus.

    There are Arab states where Israeli Arabs, the Palestinians of 1948, are considered bigger traitors than their own Jews. A common language, religion and a few cultural commonalities don’t constitute a common national identity. When a Palestinian meets a Berber they switch to English, and even then they have very little in common.
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    The suggestion that Israel’s Arab citizens move to those 22 states is despicable and mean, well beyond its reference to a common language. It portrays them as temporary guests here, casting doubt on the depth of their attachment to their land, “inviting” them to get out. The amazing thing is that the ones making such proposals are immigrants and sons of immigrants whose roots in this country still need to withstand the test of time.

    Palestinians are attached to this country no less than Jews are, possibly more so. It’s doubtful whether the hysterical clamoring for foreign passports would seize the Arab community as it did the Jewish one; everybody was suddenly of Portuguese descent. We can assume that there are more people in Tel Aviv dreaming of foreign lands than there are in Jenin. Los Angeles certainly has more Israelis than Palestinians.

    Hundreds of years of living here have consolidated a Palestinian love of the land, with traditions and a heritage – no settler can match this. Palestinians have za’atar (hyssop) and we have schnitzel. In any case, you don’t have to downplay the intensity of the Jewish connection to this country to recognize the depth of the Palestinian attachment to it.

    They have nowhere to go to and they don’t want to leave, which is more than can be said for some of the Jews living here. If, despite all their woes, defeats and humiliations they haven’t left, they never will. Too bad you can’t say the same thing about the country’s Jews. The Palestinians won’t leave unless they’re forcibly removed. Is this what the prime minister was alluding to?

    When American journalist Helen Thomas suggested that Jews return to Poland she was forced to resign. When Israel’s prime minister proposes the same thing for Arabs, he’s reflecting the opinion of the majority.

    From its inception, the Zionist movement dreamed of expelling the Palestinians from this country. At times it fought to achieve this. The people who survived the ethnic cleansing of 1948, the expulsions of 1967, the occupation and the devil’s work in general have remained here and won’t go anywhere. Not to the 22 states and not to any one of them. Only a Nakba II will get them out of here.

  • Israeli Arab slate, far-left candidate banned from election hours after Kahanist leader allowed to run
    Jonathan Lis and Jack Khoury Mar 07, 2019 7:07 AM
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-far-left-lawmaker-banned-from-israeli-election-for-supporting-terr

    Arab political sources say the move is evidence of racism and the delegitimization of Arab society in Israel, accusing Netanyahu’s Likud party of anti-Arab incitement

    The Central Election Committee disqualified the Arab joint slate Balad-United Arab List and Ofer Cassif, a member of politicial alliance Hadash-Ta’al, from running in the election on Wednesday, opposing the opinion of Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit.

    Michael Ben Ari and Itamar Ben-Gvir from the Kahanist, far-right Otzma Yehudit party had petitioned against both lists. The committee approved Ben Air to run in the election earlier Wednesday.

    The decisions will be referred to the Supreme Court on Sunday for approval. A ban against a party slate may be appealed in the Supreme Court, which holds a special “election appeals” process, while a ban on an individual candidate automatically requires approval by the Supreme Court if it is to take effect.

    Arab political sources described the disqualification of the Balad-United Arab List slate as evidence of racism and the delegitimization of Arab society in Israel and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party of anti-Arab incitement.

    MK David Bitan petitioned on behalf of Likud against Balad-United Arab List, and Yisrael Beitenu chairman Avigdor Lieberman petitioned against Cassif. Petitioners claimed both lists and Cassif supported terror and ruled out Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and Democratic state. Mendelblit said he opposed all the petitions.

    Ben-Gvir presented the committee with findings he claimed should disqualify the Hadash-Ta’al slate. He mentioned a call from Ta’al chairman Ahmed Tibi to annul the Declaration of Independence, and quoted a Facebook post by Ayman Odeh, the head of Hadash.

    In the post, written following a meeting with Fatah member Marwan Barghouti at an Israeli prison, Odeh compared Barghouti to Nelson Mandela. “The meeting was moving, as well as speaking to a leader who shares my political stances.” Ben-Gvir noted Odeh defined Ahed Tamimi as an “excellent girl,” and said she showed “legitimate resistance.” Tamimi, a Palestinian teenage girl, served time in prison for slapping an Israeli soldier in 2018.

    Cassif was accused of equating Israel and the Israel Defense Forces with the Nazi regime, and it was noted that he called to fight “Judeo-Nazism,” expressed support for changing the anthem, and called Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked “Neo-Nazi scum.” He did not attend the session, but was called after committee chairman Justice Hanan Melcer insisted on his presence.

    “I come from an academic background, and my area of expertise is among other things the subject of Fascism, Nazis and nationalism in general,” said Cassif, explaining his comments. “When I speak to a friend or write a post as a private person, I use metaphors. When I used the aforementioned terms – they were metaphors.”

    In an interview last month, Cassif said Israel conducts a “creeping genocide” against the Palestinian people.

    The top candidate on the slate, Mansour Abbas, said he had expected that most of the representatives of the Zionist parties on the election committee would support the move to disqualify the slate, but added: “We are a democratic Arab list that is seeking to represent Arab society with dignity and responsibility.”

    Commenting on Benny Gantz, the leader of Kahol Lavan, which is ahead of Likud in recent polls, Abbas said: “There’s no difference between Benjamin Netanyahu and Benjamin Gantz.”

    Mtanes Shehadeh, who is No. 2 on the Balad-United Arab list slate said the decision to disqualify his slate was expected because he said the Central Election Committee has a right-wing majority and “is also controlled by a fascist, right-wing ideology.”

    His Balad faction, Shehadeh said, “presents a challenge to democracy in Israel” and challenges what he called “the right-wing regime that is controlling the country.”

    Sources from the Balad-United Arab list slate said there is in an urgent need to strip the Central Election Committee of the authority to disqualify candidates and parties from running in elections. The considerations that go into the decision are purely political, the sources said.

    Balad chairman Jamal Zahalka said the decision to disqualify the slate sends a “hostile message to the Arab public” in the country. “We will petition the High Court of Justice against the decision and in any event, we will not change our position, even if we are disqualified.”

    Earlier Wednesday, the Central Elections Committee approved Ben Ari, the chairman of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, to run for the Knesset.

    Meretz, Stav Shaffir (Labor) and the Reform Movement, who filed the petition to the Central Elections Committee to ban Ben Ari from running for Knesset, all said they would file a petition with the High Court of Justice against the committee’s decision.

    Prior to deliberations, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit submitted his opinion to the comittee, stating he was in favor of disqualifying Ben Ari from running for Knesset on the grounds of incitement to racism.

    In November 2017, for instance, at an annual memorial for Rabbi Meir Kahane, Ben Ari gave a speech in which he said of Israeli Arabs, “Let’s give them another 100,000 dunams [of land] and affirmative action, maybe they’ll love us. In the end, yes, they’ll love us when we’re slaughtered.”

    In May 2018, Ben Ari gave another speech in which he said, “The Arabs of Haifa aren’t different in any way from the Arabs of Gaza. How are they different? In that they’re here, enemies from within. They’re waging war against us here, within the state. And this is called – it has a name – it’s called a fifth column. We need to call the dog by its name. They’re our enemies. They want to destroy us. Of course there are loyal Arabs, but you can count them – one percent or less than one percent.”

    #Hadash

    • Outlaw Israel’s Arabs
      They are already regarded as illegitimate citizens. Why not just say so and anchor it in law?
      Gideon Levy | Mar 10, 2019 3:15 AM
      https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-outlaw-israel-s-arabs-1.7003010

      The time has come to put an end to the stammering and going around in circles: Outlaw the Arabs, all of them. Make them all illegal dwellers in their land and have the Border Police hunt them down like animals, as they know how to do. They are already regarded as illegitimate citizens. It’s time to say so and to anchor it in law.

      Discerning the differences among them is artificial: What’s the difference between the United Arab List–Balad ticket and between the Hadash–Ta’al ticket (acronyms for the Arab political parties)? Why is only the first one on this list being disqualified? And what is the difference between the Palestinians who are Israeli citizens and those living under occupation?

      Why does one group have rights while the others don’t? The time has come to rectify the situation: Ta’al should be treated like Balad; citizens of the state should be treated like those under occupation. Anything less is like paying lip service to the guardians of political correctness, to a supposed semblance of fairness, to a deceptive image of democracy. Outlawing all the Arabs is the way to ensure you have a Jewish state. Who’s against that?

      Whoever thinks what I’ve written is wrong or an exaggeration isn’t reading reality. Disqualifying the Arabs is the issue that has the broadest consensus of the current election campaign. “I’ll put it simply,” Yair Lapid, the democrat, said. “We won’t form a blocking majority with the Arabs. Period.”

      Now I, will humbly put it simply, too: This is a revolting display of racism. Period. More than the torture of the residents of Gaza and the West Bank under the guise of security concerns, in this we see a broader Israeli racism in all its glory: Pure, unadulterated and acceptable racism. It’s not Balad, but the Arabs who are being disqualified. It’s not Ofer Kassif but the left that’s being disqualified. It’s a step-by-step slide down the slope and we can no longer shut our eyes to it.

      If this discourse delegitimizing our Arab citizens isn’t driving Israeli democrats mad – then there is no democracy. We don’t need any studies or institutes: A regime that disqualifies voters and elected officials because of their blood and nationality is not a democracy.

      You don’t need to cite the occupation to expose the lie of democracy – now it’s also apparent at home, within. From Benny Gantz to Bezalel Smotrich – all of them are Ben-Zion Gopsteins. The laws against racism and all the rest are only lip service. The Israeli Knesset has 107 lawmakers; thirteen of them, most of them among the best there are, are outside the game, they have less say than the ushers.

      Now we must try to imagine what they’re going through. They hear everyone trying to distance themselves from them, as though they’re a contagious disease, and they’re silent. They hear nobody seeking to get near them as though their bodies stink, and they avoid comment. The Knesset is like a bus that has segregated its Jewish and Arab passengers, an arena of political apartheid, not yet officially so, which declares from the outset that the Arabs are disqualified.

      Why even bother participating in this game that’s already been decided? The response should have been to boycott the elections. If you don’t want us, we don’t want you. The fig leaf is torn and has long been full of holes. But this is exactly what Israel wants: A country only for Jews. Therefore Arab citizens must not play this game and must head in their masses to the polling stations, just like the prime minister said, to poke Israeli racism painfully in the eye.

      For avowed racists, it’s all very clear. They say what they think: The Jews are a supreme race, the recipients of a divine promise, they have rights to this land, the Arabs are, at best, fleeting guests.

      The problem is with the racists in masquerade like Gantz and Lapid. I have a question for them: Why are Hadash and Ta’al not eligible to be part of a bloc? Why can’t you rely on their votes and why shouldn’t their representatives belong to the government? Would Ayman Odeh be any worse a culture minister than Miri Regev? Would Ahmad Tibi be any less skillful a health minister than Yaakov Litzman? The truth is this: The center-left is as racist as the right.

      Let’s hope no Gantz-Lapid government can be formed, just because of the Arab votes that it fails to have. That would be the sweetest revenge for racism.

    • La Cour suprême israélienne invalide la candidature d’un leader d’extrême droite
      La justice a interdit la candidature du chef d’Otzma Yehudit. Elle a approuvé la liste arabe, les présences d’un candidat juif d’extrême gauche et de Ben Gvir d’Otzma Yehudit
      Par Times of Israel Staff 18 mars 2019,
      https://fr.timesofisrael.com/la-cour-supreme-israelienne-invalide-la-candidature-dun-leader-dex

      (...) Les juges ont en revanche fait savoir que Itamar Ben Gvir, qui appartient également à la formation d’extrême-droite, est autorisé à se présenter.

      Ils ont aussi donné le feu vert à une participation au scrutin du 9 avril à Ofer Kassif ainsi qu’aux factions de Balad-Raam. Kassif est le seul candidat juif à figurer que la liste Hadash-Taal et il avait été disqualifié par la commission centrale électorale en raison de déclarations controversées faites dans le passé, notamment une dans laquelle il avait qualifié la ministre de la Justice Ayelet Shaked de « racaille néo-nazie ». (...)

      #Ofer_Kassif

  • In Israel, there’s no left. There’s only a right in different forms - Opinion
    Gideon Levy – Jan 03, 2019 4:17 AM
    https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/in-israel-there-s-no-left-there-s-only-a-right-in-different-forms-1.6805651

    Two days ago, there was another rift in the Israeli right: The Zionist Union faction split apart. The two main right-wingers, Tzipi Livni and Avi Gabbay, Likud traitors both, dissolved their partnership.

    The sad and unbelievable joke: Israel fancies this a rift on the left; as if there are seriously two camps in Israel, left and right, locked in fierce battle over the face of the nation. There is no left, not even half a left. There is only a right, in different forms.

    What is going on in our political system ahead of the upcoming election can be described like this: Right A versus Right B, a split in Right C, a possible merger in Right D, and a new glimmer of hope in Right E.

    Meretz and the Joint List, the only Israeli left there is, one small and fading and the other ostracized and excluded, and both without any influence, look on from the other side of the fence. And still people say that Israel is “polarized,” that we’re this close to civil war breaking out. It’s hard to think of anything more ridiculous.

    Most leaders of Israeli political parties are former Likudniks: Livni, Gabbay, Avigdor Lieberman, Ayelet Shaked, Naftali Bennett, Moshe Ya’alon and Moshe Kahlon. Orly Levy-Abekasis also grew up in a Likud household. Right, center, supposed left – they all came out of the Likud. And that’s no surprise – the right was their home and it remains their home.

    This is the Likud’s real victory since the 1977 upheaval – its amazing takeover of the entire map, the way it continues to spread its tentacles in every direction. (...)

  • Egyptian soccer star Salah may quit team if Israeli player joins - Israel News - Jerusalem Post
    https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Mohamed-Salah-may-quit-Liverpool-should-Israeli-player-join-575402
    https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/t_Article2016_ControlFaceDetect/417434

    Egyptian super-star Mohamed Salah has allegedly threatened to leave Premier League football club Liverpool if Arab-Israeli soccer player Moanes Dabour joins the team, Israeli media reported.

    According the report, Salah said that he will leave Liverpool should Dabour be signed.

    However, people close to the Egyptian athlete said he needs to be left alone to focus on playing soccer and that he is a professional, and it is not his concern with whom Liverpool is discussing a possible contract.

    In the past Salah, refused to shake hands with Israeli players with the pretext of tying his shoes during a game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and FC Basel, his team at the time.

    Former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman tweeted in April, in jest, that he would recruit Salah to the Israeli army after seeing how he led Liverpool to a 5-2 victory over Roma.

    Dans Rai al-yom par exemple (https://www.raialyoum.com/index.php/%d9%85%d9%82%d8%b1%d8%a8%d9%88%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%86%d8%a), on rappelle que le joueur en question est un Palestinien de 48 (et par ailleurs bien musulman !!!)

    En tout état de cause, LA nouvelle de l’année pour une bonne partie de l’opinion arabe #foot

  • Pushing for an Israeli victory is the only way to end the conflict with the Palestinians

    Il faut lire ce point de vue d’un néoconservateur américain car il reflète une partie de la pensée de la droite pro-israélienne

    Lieberman and Bennett failed to impose a new paradigm on how to deal with Hamas, but more and more people in Israel are recognizing that compromises and concessions have only led to more violence

    Daniel Pipes SendSend me email alerts
    Dec 02, 2018 4:04 PM
    https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-an-israeli-victory-is-the-only-way-to-end-the-conflict-with-the-pa

    From a practical political point of view, Avigdor Lieberman, Naftali Bennett, and their idea to take a tougher stand toward Hamas just went down to defeat, if not humiliation. 
    That’s because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again showed his political skills; the first is now ex-defense minister, the second failed to become defense minister.
    >> ‘Get used to the rockets’: What Netanyahu should tell Israelis living near Gaza | Opinion
    From a longer-term point of view, however, the duo raised an issue that for decades had not been part of the Israeli political discourse but, due to their efforts, promises to be an important factor in the future: that would be the concept of victory, of an Israeli victory over Hamas and, by extension, over the Palestinian Authority and Palestinians in general.
    Victory – defined as imposing one’s will on the enemy so he gives up his war goals - has been the war goal of philosophers, strategists, and generals through human history. Aristotle wrote that “Victory is the end of generalship.” Karl von Clausewitz, the Prussian theorist, concurred: “The aim of war should be the defeat of the enemy.” Gen. James Mattis, the U.S. secretary of defense, finds that “No war is over until the enemy says it’s over.” 
    Palestinians routinely speak of achieving victory over Israel, even when this is fantastical: to cite one example, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas called his Hamas counterpart, Ismail Haniyeh, after eight days of violence with Israel that left Gaza badly battered in November 2012 to “congratulate him on the victory and extend condolences to the families of martyrs.”

    Contrarily, in Israel, the notion of victory has been sidelined since at least the Oslo Accords of 1993, after which its leaders instead focused on such concepts as compromise, conciliation, confidence-building, flexibility, goodwill, mediation, and restraint. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert immemorially articulated this attitude in 2007 when he stated that "Peace is achieved through concessions.”
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    >> Israel is incomparably stronger than Hamas – but it will never win: Interview with Hamas leader in Gaza
    his perverse understanding of how wars end led Israel to make extraordinary blunders in the 15 years after Oslo, for which it was punished by unremitting campaigns of delegitimization and violence, symbolized, respectively, by the Durban conference of 2001 and the Passover Massacre of 2002. 
    Such nonsense ended during Netanyahu’s near-decade-long term as prime minister, but it has not yet been replaced by a sturdy vision of victory. Rather, Netanyahu has put out brush fires as they arose in Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, Syria, and Lebanon. While agreeing with the concept of an Israeli victory when personally briefed, he has not spoken publicly about it.
    Meanwhile, other leading figures in Israel have adopted this outlook. Former deputy chief of staff Uzi Dayan called on the army “to return the path of victory.” Former education and interior minister Gideon Sa’ar has stated that “The ‘victory paradigm,’ like Jabotinsky’s ‘Iron Wall’ concept, assumes that an agreement may be possible in the future, but only after a clear and decisive Israeli victory ... The transition to the ‘victory paradigm’ is contingent upon abandoning the Oslo concept.”
    In this context, the statements by Lieberman and Bennett point to a change in thinking. Lieberman quit his position as defense minister out of frustration that a barrage by Hamas of 460 rockets and missiles against Israel was met with a ceasefire; he called instead for “a state of despair” to be imposed on the enemies of Israel. Complaining that “Israel stopped winning,” Bennett demanded that the IDF “start winning again,” and added that “When Israel wants to win, we can win.” On rescinding his demand for the defense portfolio, Bennett emphasized that he stands by Netanyahu “in the monumental task of ensuring that Israel is victorious again.”
    >> Netanyahu’s vision for the Middle East has come true | Analysis
    Opponents of this paradigm then amusingly testified to the power of this idea of victory. Ma’ariv columnist Revital Amiran wrote that the victory the Israeli public most wants lies in such arenas as larger allocations for the elderly and unbearable traffic jams. Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg, replied to Bennett that for her, a victorious Israel means winning Emmy and Oscar nominations, guaranteeing equal health services, and spending more on education.
    That victory and defeat have newly become a topic for debate in Israel constitutes a major development. Thus does the push for an Israeli victory move forward.
    Daniel Pipes is president of the Middle East Forum think tank, which promotes Israel Victory, a project to steer U.S. policy toward backing an Israeli victory to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians. Follow him on Twitter @DanielPipes

  • Israël : l’Etat abandonne son projet de loi sur la loyauté dans la culture
    Par RFI Publié le 27-11-2018
    De notre correspondant à Jérusalem, Guilhem Delteil
    http://www.rfi.fr/moyen-orient/20181127-israel-etat-abandonne-son-projet-loi-loyaute-culture

    Le gouvernement israélien a certes survécu à la crise politique causée par le départ d’Avigdor Lieberman du ministère de la Défense il y a près de deux semaines, mais l’exécutif de Benyamin Netanyahu se retrouve confronté à la difficulté de gouverner avec une majorité réduite à une seule voix. Son projet de loi sur la loyauté dans la culture, pourtant l’un de ses textes phares de cette dernière année de législature, a dû être retiré de l’ordre du jour du Parlement, lundi 26 novembre, il n’avait pas assez de voix pour être adopté.

  • How Hamas sold out Gaza for cash from Qatar and collaboration with Israel

    Israel’s botched military incursion saved Hamas from the nightmare of being branded as ’sell-outs’. Now feted as resistance heroes, it won’t be long before Hamas’ betrayal of the Palestinian national movement is exposed again

    Muhammad Shehada
    Nov 22, 2018 7:04 PM

    https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-how-hamas-sold-out-gaza-for-cash-from-qatar-and-collaboration-with

    Earlier this month, Hamas was confronted by one of its worst nightmares. The Palestinian mainstream began to brand Hamas with the same slurs that Hamas itself uses to delegitimize the Palestinian Authority. 
    "They sold us out!” Gazans began to whisper, after Hamas reached a limited set of understandings with Israel in early November. Its conditions required Hamas to distance Gazan protesters hundreds of meters away from the separation fence with Israel and actively prevent the weekly tire-burning and incendiary kite-flying associated with what have become weekly protests.
    In return for this calm, Israel allowed a restoration of the status quo ante – an inherently unstable and destabilizing situation that had led to the outbreak of popular rage in the first place. 

    Other “benefits” of the agreement included a meaningless expansion of the fishing zone for few months, restoring the heavily-restricted entry of relief aid and commercial merchandise to Gaza, instead of the full-on closure of previous months, and a tentative six-month supply of Qatari fuel and money to pay Hamas’ government employees. Basically, a return to square one. 
    skip - Qatari ambassador has stones thrown at him in Gaza
    Qatari ambassador has stones thrown at him in Gaza - דלג

    The disaffected whispers quickly became a popular current, which took overt form when the Qatari ambassador visited Gaza. He was met with angry cries of “collaborator,” as young Gazans threw stones at his vehicle after the ambassador was seen instructing a senior Hamas leader with the words: “We want calm today...we want calm.”
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    Hamas leaders didn’t dare show their faces to the people for several days following, and the movement’s popular base had a very hard time arguing that the agreement with Israel - which offered no fundamental improvement of condition – and sweetened by Qatari cash wasn’t a complete sell-out by Hamas. 
    Inside Hamas, there was evident anxiety about public outrage, not least in the form of social media activism, using Arabic hashtags equivalents to #sell-outs. One typical message reads: “[Suddenly] burning tires have became ‘unhealthy’ and [approaching] the electronic fence is suicide! #sell-outs.”

    Social media is clearly less easy to police than street protests. Even so, there was a small protest by young Gazans in Khan Younis where this “sell-out” hashtag became a shouted slogan; the demonstrators accused Hamas of betrayal.
    But relief for Hamas was at hand – and it was Israel who handed the movement an easy victory on a gold plate last week. That was the botched operation by Israel thwarted by Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam brigade, which cost the life of a lieutenant colonel from an IDF elite unit.
    The ensuing retaliation for Israel’s incursion, led by the Islamic Jihad (prodded into action by Iran), who launched 400 improvised rockets into Israel, was intended to draw a bold red line of deterrence, signaling that the Israeli army cannot do as it pleases in Gaza. 
    For days after this last escalation, Hamas leaders rejoiced: that exhibition of muscle power proved their moral superiority over the “collaborationist” Palestinian Authority. Boasting about its heroic engagement in the last escalation, Hamas easily managed to silence its critics by showing that the “armed resistance” is still working actively to keep Gaza safe and victorious. Those are of course mostly nominal “victories.”

    But their campaign was effective in terms of changing the political atmosphere. Now that the apparatus of the Muqawama had “restored our dignity,” further criticism of Hamas’ political and administrative conduct in Gaza was delegitimized again. Criticism of Hamas became equivalent to undermining the overall Palestinian national struggle for liberation.

    Unsurprisingly that silenced the popular outrage about Hamas’ initial agreement of trading Gaza’s sacrifices over the last seven months for a meager supply of aid and money. The few who continued to accuse Hamas of selling out were promptly showered by footage of the resistance’s attacks on Israel, or reports about Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s resignation, for which Hamas claimed credit, coming as it did a day after a Hamas leader demanded he resigned. 
    Mission accomplished, a piece of cake. Now it was time for Hamas to return to business, strengthened by a renewed shield of resistance-immunity that branded criticism as betrayal.
    Although Hamas leaders have admitted the reality: no more fundamental cease-fire is being negotiated, and so no fundamental improvements for Gaza can be expected - it continues to sell Gazans the delusion that their decade of endurance is finally bearing fruit and soon, more prosperity, employment and hope will trickle down to the masses.
    What has actually trickled down so far are temporary and symbolic painkillers, not an actual end to Gaza’s pain.

    Hamas agreed to give a small share of the Qatari spoils to 50,000 poor Gazan families; $100 for each household. They agreed to creating temporary employment programs for 5,000 young university graduates with the aspirational title of Tomoh ("Ambition"). They promised to keep up the fight until Gaza is no longer unlivable, and Hamas leaders pledged with their honor to continue the Gaza Great Return March until the protests’ main goal - lifting the blockade - was achieved.
    But does that really mean anything when the protests are kept at hundreds of meters’ distance from the fence, essentially providing the “Gazan silence” Netanyahu wants? When no pressure is applied anymore on the Israeli government to create a sense of urgency for action to end the disastrous situation in Gaza? And when Hamas continues to avoid any compromises about administering the Gaza Strip to the PA in order to conclude a decade of Palestinian division, and consecutive failures?
    That Hamas is desperately avoiding war is indeed both notable and worthy, as well as its keenness to prevent further causalities amongst protesters, having already suffered 200 deaths and more than 20,000 wounded by the IDF. That genuine motivation though is mixed with more cynical ones – the protests are now politically more inconvenient for Hamas, and the casualty rate is becoming too expensive to sustain.
    Yet one must think, at what price is Hamas doing this? And for what purpose? If the price of Gaza’s sacrifices is solely to maintain Hamas’ rule, and the motive of working to alleviate pressure on Gaza is to consolidate its authority, then every Gazan has been sold out, and in broad daylight.

    Only if Hamas resumes the process of Palestinian reconciliation and a democratic process in Gaza would those actions be meaningful. Otherwise, demanding that the world accepts Hamas’ rule over Gaza as a fait accompli – while what a Hamas-controlled Gaza cannot achieve, most critically lifting the blockade, is a blunt betrayal of Palestinian martyrdom.
    It means compromising Palestinian statehood in return for creating an autonomous non-sovereign enclave in which Hamas could freely exercise its autocratic rule indefinitely over an immiserated and starving population.
    Which, according to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, is what Hamas has always wanted since rising to power in 2009: an interim Palestinian state in Gaza under permanent Hamas rule, not solving the wider conflict but rather obliterating in practice the prospect of a two state solution.
    It remains to be seen if the calls of “sell-outs” will return to Gaza’s social networks and streets, not least if Hamas’ obduracy and appetite for power end up selling out any prospect of a formally recognized State of Palestine.
    Muhammad Shehada is a writer and civil society activist from the Gaza Strip and a student of Development Studies at Lund University, Sweden. He was the PR officer for the Gaza office of the Euro-Med Monitor for Human Rights. Twitter: @muhammadshehad2

    Muhammad Shehada

  • Israel’s defense chief resigns, slams Netanyahu for ’surrendering to Hamas terror’
    Haaretz.com - Chaim Levinson Nov 14, 2018 12:47 PM
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-s-political-arena-holds-breath-as-defense-chief-calls-surpr

    Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced his resignation on Wednesday and called for elections to be held as soon as possible, saying he hopes a date will be set by Sunday. Lieberman said of all the members of his party, Yisrael Beiteinu, will quit the coalition.

    However, a senior source in Likud, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, said that elections are not neccessarily the next step and added that Netanyahu will initially take on Lieberman’s portfolio. Lieberman, who heads Yisrael Beiteinu, will retake his Knesset seat following his resignation, as provided for by law.

    “I didn’t look for reasons to quit,” Lieberman said. “I tried to remain a loyal government member, in the cabinet, keep differences internal even at an electoral cost.” The two turning points, he said, were the millions of dollars in cash delivered from Qatar to Gaza, and the cease-fire Israel reached with Hamas on Tuesday.

    “There is no other definition, no other significance, but a capitulation to terror,” he said, adding: “What we are doing now as a country is buying short-term quiet at the cost of our long-term security.”

    “It is no secret there were differences between the prime minister and I,” he said. “I did not agree to allow entry of Qatari money [into Gaza], and I had to allow it only after the prime minister announced it.” Lieberman said similar differences revolved around the evacuation of the West Bank Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar.

    Yisrael Beiteinu’s departure means Netanyahu still holds a Knesset majority of 61 seats to maintain the coalition. Another key coalition partner in Netanyahu’s government, Habayit Hayehudi (headed by Education Minister Naftali Bennett) said that unless the defense portfolio goes to Bennett, the party will also quit the coalition.

    Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said Lieberman’s resignation is a recognition of Israel’s defeat in this week’s military confrontation with the Islamic group.

    Following the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Lieberman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett published statements against the truce reached with Hamas. Sources said that as soon as the latest round of fighting erupted, Lieberman demanded a “harsh, decisive” move against Hamas. Sources near Bennett say that his opposition to the cease-fire was clear as could be.

    Other sources, however, say that ultimately, the ministers unanimously supported the defense establishment’s position that action should be taken to restore the calm.

    According to associates of Lieberman, the Prime Minister’s Office’s claim on Tuesday that he had supported the cease-fire agreement that was reached to end hostilities in Gaza infuriated him.

    Senior Hamas official Husan Badran said Tuesday, the third day of hostilities, that “if Netanyahu is interested in ending this round, he must fire [Defense Minister] Lieberman, who in his foolish conduct caused the escalation.”

    In recent weeks, Lieberman and Bennett have publicly argued between them about Gaza and Israel’s actions there. Last month, Bennett charged Lieberman of a weak, left-wing defense policy, while Lieberman retorted that in cabinet meetings, Bennett says the opposite of what he says in public.

    Lieberman and the cabinet were divided about the sale of gasoline and natural gas to Gaza, and in defense forums, it was decided that the defense minister may not make decisions on the subject without the cabinet’s agreement. The ministers were surprised last month by Lieberman’s decision to cut off the fuel supply to Gaza, a decision he made on his own, in contradiction to the position of the defense establishment. Netanyahu and the cabinet members heard of the decision for the first time through the media.

  • Palestinians demand Israel to return withheld bodies of killed Palestinians
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=781751

    A picture of one of the Israeli ’cemeteries of numbers’ (File)

    HEBRON (Ma’an) — Dozens of Palestinians protested in Hebron City in the southern West Bank, on Saturday, demanding the Israeli authorities to release the bodies of dozens of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army forces.

    Israel has been withholding the bodies of 33 slain Palestinians since 2016.

    The Israeli authorities had returned the body of a slain Palestinian youth, Muhammad Elayyan, to his family on Friday at the Ofer detention center after the Israeli Minister of Defense, Avigdor Lieberman had agreed on returning Elayyan’s body a day before.

    Israel has long had “cemeteries for the enemy dead,” also referred to as “cemeteries of numbers,” where Palestinians who died during attacks on Israelis are held in nameless graves marked by numbers. (...)

  • Israeli forces shoot, kill Palestinian for alleged attack
    Sept. 19, 2018 11:20 A.M. (Updated: Sept. 19, 2018 1:06 P.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=781123

    JERUSALEM (Ma’an) - Un Palestinien de 26 ans a été tué par balle par les forces israéliennes dans le quartier d’al-Musrara, à Jérusalem-Est occupée, pour avoir tenté de commettre une attaque à l’arme blanche.

    Des témoins ont déclaré à Ma’an que les forces israéliennes avaient tué par balle un Palestinien identifié comme étant Muhammad Youssef Shaaban Elayyan, un résident du camp de réfugiés de Qalandiya, qui aurait tenté de mener une attaque à l’arme blanche.

    Un journaliste de Ma’an a déclaré que les autorités israéliennes avaient bouclé la rue dans le quartier d’al-Musrara autour de la scène pendant plusieurs heures, empêchant les résidents locaux d’y accéder.

    Les autorités israéliennes ont ensuite transféré le corps d’Elayyan dans un lieu inconnu après avoir tenu son corps sur les lieux pendant environ trois heures.

    Des sources ont confirmé que les forces israéliennes avaient tiré à plusieurs reprises à balles réelles sur Elayyan, brisant la vitre d’un magasin local et endommagé plusieurs véhicules dans le quartier, bien que le magasin et les véhicules se trouvaient à quelques mètres d’Elayyan.

    #Palestine_assassinée

    • Slain Palestinian laid to rest in Qalandiya
      Nov. 10, 2018 2:02 P.M.
      http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=781749

      RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Palestinians of the Qalandiya refugee camp, north of Jerusalem City, marched in the funeral of Muhammad Elayyan, 26, on Friday evening after his body was held by the Israeli authorities for some 53 days.

      The funeral procession set off from in front of the Palestine Medical Center in Ramallah City in the central occupied West Bank.

      The family, friends and loved ones of Elayyan said their farewells at his family home before they carried him on shoulders to the local mosque for prayers and burials afterwards.

      Mourners repeated slogans condemning Israeli crimes against Palestinians, and waved Palestinian flags.

      Elayyan was shot and killed by Israeli forces in September, in the al-Musrara neighborhood near Damascus Gate for allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing attack.

      The Israeli authorities had returned Elayyan’s body to his family earlier Friday at the Ofer detention center after the Israeli Minister of Defense, Avigdor Lieberman had agreed on returning Elayyan’s body, on Thursday.

      The bodies of 33 killed Palestinians, from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, are still held by the Israeli authorities since 2016.

  • Les premières images de la barrière maritime israélienne bloquant Gaza
    Agence Media Palestine | Traduction : J. Ch. pour l’Agence Média Palestine | Source : Middle East Monitor | 6 août 2018
    http://www.agencemediapalestine.fr/blog/2018/08/09/une-barriere-sous-marine-israelienne-destinee-a-aggraver-le-blo

    Le ministère de la Défense d’Israël a diffusé hier les premières images de sa barrière maritime destinée à aggraver le blocus de la Bande de Gaza assiégée. La barrière se situe sur la plage de Zikim, approximativement à trois kilomètres de la frontière nord de Gaza. Le projet devrait être achevé pour la fin de 2018 et coûter environ 25 millions de shekels (6.7 millions $).

    Quand elle sera achevée, la structure s’étendra sur 200 mètres dans la mer Méditerranée, coupant encore plus la Bande de Gaza d’Israël. La barrière sera constituée de trois couches, une base sous-marine, une plate-forme de 50 mètres de large en pierres blindées au niveau de la mer et une barrière de 6 mètres de haut en barbelés. Une clôture supplémentaire entourera ensuite la barrière elle-même en tant que « mesure de sécurité additionnelle ».

    La barrière a reçu les félicitations du ministre de la Défense Avigdor Liebermann. « La construction de cette barrière autour de la Bande de Gaza, à la fois sur terre et en mer, progresse à une allure impressionnante », a dit l’homme d’extrême droite. « Chaque jour qui passe voit nos capacités antiterroristes autour de la Bande de Gaza se renforcer. » D’après Ma’an, Liebermann a ajouté que « Le Hamas perd un peu plus tous les jours de sa capacité à attaquer Israël ». (...)

  • Israël très content d’avoir Assad comme voisin
    http://www.dedefensa.org/article/israel-tres-content-davoir-assad-comme-voisin

    Israël très content d’avoir Assad comme voisin

    Le ministre de la défense israélien Avigdor Lieberman a acté on dirait “officiellement” l’accord officieux établi par les Russes entre leurs partenaires syriens et iraniens d’une part, et Israël d’autre part, d’une sorte de modus vivendi après les dernières victoires en date de l’armée syrienne. Il semble que cet accord “officiel-officieux” ait été confirmé lors de la rencontre Poutine-Trump d’Helsinki.

    L’accord devrait impliquer, – c’était le revendication sine qua non des Israéliens, – le non-engagement et le non-stationnement de forces iraniennes et du Hezbollah sur un territoire donné en Syrie (les précisions géographiques ne sont pas divulguées officiellement et l’on en reste aux supputations). On notera que les déclarations du ministre israélien vont plus loin (...)

  • Israël bloque la fourniture de carburant à Gaza au risque de provoquer des affrontements
    AFP / 02 août 2018 13h43
    https://www.romandie.com/news/ZOOM-Isra-l-bloque-la-fourniture-de-carburant-Gaza-au-risque-de-provoquer-des-affrontements/942028.rom

    Israël a de nouveau bloqué jeudi l’approvisionnement en carburant de la bande de Gaza en réponse aux cerfs-volants incendiaires lancés depuis ce territoire palestinien soumis depuis plus de dix ans à un sévère blocus, au risque de déclencher de nouveaux affrontements.

    Cette mesure annoncée par le ministre israélien de la Défense Avigdor Lieberman va toucher une région coincée entre la Méditerranée, Israël et l’Egypte qui souffre déjà de très graves coupures d’électricité, notamment pour les hôpitaux, ce qui met en danger la vie de malades, selon l’ONU.
    (...)
    - « Vies en danger » -
    L’ONU s’est alarmée des pénuries causées par l’arrêt des fournitures de carburant qui permettent de faire fonctionner des générateurs pour palier les coupures d’électricité.

    Les générateurs sont également utilisés faute de courant pour la distribution et d’assainissement de l’eau.

    « Avec des coupures d’électricité qui durent près de 20 heures par jour, si les livraisons de fioul ne reprennent pas immédiatement, la vie des gens sera en danger », a déclaré récemment le coordinateur de l’ONU pour les affaires humanitaires dans les territoires palestiniens, Jamie McGoldrick, lorsque la fourniture de carburant avait été interrompue le mois dernier. « Les risques sont très grands, notamment pour les patients souffrant de problèmes cardiaques, sous dialyse ou les nouveaux-nés », avait-il prévenu.

    M. Lieberman a justifié cette sanction par « la poursuite du terrorisme à l’aide de ballons incendiaires et des affrontements à la frontière » entre Israël et Gaza. Ces restrictions seront maintenues en place tant que les violences n’auront pas « cessé totalement », a-t-il prévenu.

    #GAZA

  • Israel warns Iran of military response if it closed key Red Sea strait | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-redsea/israel-warns-iran-against-closing-key-red-sea-waterway-idUSKBN1KM5VM

    Israel would deploy its military if Iran were to try to block the #Bab_al-Mandeb strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.
    […]
    Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a separate speech at the event that Israel had “recently heard of threats to harm Israeli ships in the Red Sea.” He gave no further details.

    Ships bound for Israel, mainly from Asia, pass through the waterway to Eilat, or continue through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea. Ships bound for Jordan’s Aqaba port and for some Saudi destinations must also pass through the strait.

    #Bab_el-Mandeb

  • Palestine. Le « cher Bibi » emprisonne Salah Hamouri pour trois mois de plus
    L’Humanité – Jeudi, 28 Juin, 2018
    Pierre Barbancey
    https://www.humanite.fr/palestine-le-cher-bibi-emprisonne-salah-hamouri-pour-trois-mois-de-plus-657

    La nouvelle est tombée. Sèche comme le claquement d’une porte de prison : la détention administrative de l’avocat franco-palestinien Salah Hamouri, qui devait se terminer ce 30 juin, a été renouvelée pour trois mois sur ordre du ministre de la Défense israélien, Avigdor Lieberman.
    (...)
    Interrogé par l’Humanité hier, le ministère français des Affaires étrangères n’a pas souhaité réagir immédiatement « compte tenu de la complexité de la situation de M. Hamouri que nous suivons avec attention », en attente d’« un retour détaillé » des diplomates sur place.

    #Salah_Hamouri

    • Salah Hamouri : la France botte en touche une nouvelle fois
      Vendredi, 29 Juin, 2018 - Pierre Barbancey
      https://www.humanite.fr/salah-hamouri-la-france-botte-en-touche-une-nouvelle-fois-657547

      Jeudi, nous avons reçu un communiqué du ministère des Affaires étrangères. « Nous ne pouvons que regretter cette décision, sur laquelle doit se prononcer la justice israélienne dans les prochains jours », peut-on lire, soulignant que « nous n’avons cessé, depuis l’arrestation de M. Hamouri, de transmettre des demandes précises aux autorités israéliennes, pour qu’il soit mis fin au régime de sa détention administrative. ». On ne ne sait pas quelles sont ces demandes. Demande de dossier ? Demande de libération ? Ce mot n’apparait qu’en fin de communiqué en ces termes : « Dans l’attente de sa libération, que nous espérons rapide, M. Salah Hamouri continuera de bénéficier de la protection consulaire prévue par la Convention de Vienne, au titre de laquelle il a pu recevoir, depuis le début de sa détention, des visites régulières des autorités consulaires françaises ». Voilà ! Le ministère « espère » la libération de Salah Hamouri en évoquant les interventions du président, dont la dernière en date du 5 juin, lorsqu’il a reçu en grandes pompes Netanyahu. Emmanuel Macron a « renouvelé notre demande qu’il soit mis fin à la détention administrative de M. Salah Hamouri. Ces demandes faites par le président de la République et le ministre sont relayées avec constance auprès des autorités israéliennes en vue de leur mise en œuvre. »

      Mais de libération il n’en est toujours pas question.

    • Israël - Situation de Salah Hammouri
      https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/dossiers-pays/israel-territoires-palestiniens/article/israel-situation-de-salah-hammouri
      28 juin 2018

      Le ministère de la Défense israélien a notifié à Salah Hammouri la prolongation de sa détention administrative pour une durée de trois mois. Nous ne pouvons que regretter cette décision sur laquelle la justice israélienne doit se prononcer dans les prochains jours.

      Comme Jean-Yves Le Drian l’a dit à l’Assemblée nationale le 22 février, « nous n’avons cessé, depuis l’arrestation de Salah Hammouri, de transmettre des demandes précises aux autorités israéliennes, pour qu’il soit mis fin au régime de sa détention administrative ». Lors de ses entretiens avec le Premier ministre israélien, le président de la République a lui-même évoqué la situation de Salah Hammouri et a demandé qu’il soit mis fin à sa détention administrative.

      Dans l’attente de sa libération, que nous espérons rapide, Salah Hammouri continuera de bénéficier de la protection consulaire prévue par la Convention de Vienne, au titre de laquelle il a pu recevoir, depuis le début de sa détention, des visites régulières des autorités consulaires françaises.

  • Russia says only Syrian army should be on country’s southern border with Israel

    Israel believes Russia may agree to withdrawing Iranian forces and allied Shi’ite militias from Israel-Syria border

    Noa Landau and Reuters May 28, 2018

    https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/russia-says-only-syrian-army-should-be-on-country-s-southern-border-1.61198

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that only Syrian government troops should have a presence on the country’s southern border which is close to Jordan and Israel, the RIA news agency reported.
    Lavrov was cited as making the comments at a joint news conference in Moscow with Jose Condungua Pacheco, his counterpart from Mozambique.
    Meanwhile, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman will leave on Wednesday for a short visit to Russia. He is scheduled to meet with his counterpart, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shvigo, the ministry said in a statement on Monday. Lieberman is expected to discuss with his hosts the recent events in the Middle East, primarily the tension between Israel and Iran over the Iranian military presence in Syria.
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the Knesset Monday, saying that “there is no room for any Iranian military presence in any part of Syria.”
    Lieberman said that “these things, of course, reflect not only our position, I can safely say that they reflect the positions of others in the Middle East and beyond the Middle East.”
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    On Sunday, Haaretz reported that Israeli political and military officials believe Russia is willing to discuss a significant distancing of Iranian forces and allied Shi’ite militias from the Israel-Syria border, according to Israeli officials.
    The change in Russia’s position has become clearer since Israel’s May 10 military clash with Iran in Syria and amid Moscow’s concerns that further Israeli moves would threaten the stability of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
    Russia recently renewed efforts to try to get the United States involved in agreements that would stabilize Syria. The Russians might be willing to remove the Iranians from the Israeli border, though not necessarily remove the forces linked to them from the whole country.
    Last November, Russia and the United States, in coordination with Jordan, forged an agreement to decrease the possibility of friction in southern Syria, after the Assad regime defeated rebel groups in the center of the country. Israel sought to keep the Iranians and Shi’ite militias at least 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Israeli border in the Golan Heights, east of the Damascus-Daraa road (or, according to another version, east of the Damascus-Suwayda road, about 70 kilometers from the border).

    FILE – Iran’s Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, left, in Aleppo, Syria, in photo provided October 20, 2017/AP
    According to Israeli intelligence, in Syria there are now around 2,000 Iranian officers and advisers, members of the Revolutionary Guards, around 9,000 Shi’ite militiamen from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, and around 7,000 Hezbollah fighters. Israel believes that the Americans are now in a good position to reach a more effective arrangement in Syria in coordination with the Russians under the slogan “Without Iran and without ISIS.”
    The United States warned Syria on Friday it would take “firm and appropriate measures” in response to ceasefire violations, saying it was concerned about reports of an impending military operation in a de-escalation zone in the country’s southwest.
    Washington also cautioned Assad against broadening the conflict.
    “As a guarantor of this de-escalation area with Russia and Jordan, the United States will take firm and appropriate measures in response to Assad regime violations,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement late on Friday.
    A war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported on Wednesday that Syrian government forces fresh from their victory this week against an Islamic State pocket in south Damascus were moving into the southern province of Deraa.
    Syrian state-run media have reported that government aircraft have dropped leaflets on rebel-held areas in Deraa urging fighters to disarm.
    The U.S. warning comes weeks after a similar attack on a de-escalation zone in northeastern Syria held by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. U.S. ground and air forces repelled the more than four-hour attack, killing perhaps as many as 300 pro-Assad militia members, many of them Russian mercenaries.
    Backed by Russian warplanes, ground forces from Iran and allied militia, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have helped Assad drive rebels from Syria’s biggest cities, putting him in an unassailable military position.

  • Palestine. L’ONU dénonce la détention de Salah Hamouri
    Pierre Barbancey | Lundi, 28 Mai, 2018 | L’Humanité
    https://www.humanite.fr/palestine-lonu-denonce-la-detention-de-salah-hamouri-655926

    Le groupe de travail du Conseil des droits de l’homme des Nations unies vient de publier un rapport concernant l’avocat franco-palestinien et estime que celui-ci doit être libéré immédiatement.

    Fait rare qui montre la gravité de la situation : le groupe de travail du Conseil des droits de l’homme de l’ONU dédié aux détentions arbitraires vient de publier un rapport sur Salah Hamouri. Depuis le 23 août 2017, l’avocat franco-palestinien est en détention. Simple, au départ (il a été arrêté en toute illégalité à son domicile de Jérusalem-Est, occupée par Israël depuis 1967), transformée ensuite en détention administrative. Aux six mois exigés par le ministre de la Défense, Avigdor Lieberman, se sont ensuite ajoutés quatre-vingt-dix jours. Pourquoi ? Personne ne le sait. Le dossier est secret et même les défenseurs de Salah Hamouri n’en connaissent pas le contenu ! Tous les recours, y compris devant la Haute Cour de justice d’Israël, ont été rejetés. (...)

  • Un bateau partira de Gaza mardi pour « briser le blocus » israélien |AFP.com | 27 Mai 2018
    https://www.afp.com/fr/infos/259/un-bateau-partira-de-gaza-mardi-pour-briser-le-blocus-israelien-doc-15e2xt3

    Un bateau partira mardi de la bande de Gaza afin de « briser le blocus » israélien imposé à l’enclave palestinienne depuis plus de dix ans, a annoncé dimanche le comité d’un mouvement baptisé la « Grande marche du retour ».
    (...)
    « Nous annonçons le départ du premier navire depuis la bande de Gaza vers le monde mardi prochain à 11H00 (08H00 GMT). Le navire transportera un groupe de malades, des étudiants et des diplômés au chômage », a annoncé dimanche le militant des droits de l’Homme et membre du comité d’organisation de la « Grande marche du retour » Salah Abdel Ati.

    Il s’exprimait lors d’une conférence de presse organisée dans un port de pêcheurs à l’ouest de la ville de Gaza. Il n’a toutefois pas précisé la destination finale du navire.

    Il s’agit de la première initiative du genre lancée depuis Gaza, selon les organisateurs.

    Ce départ coïncide avec le huitième anniversaire du « massacre du Mavi Marmara », a ajouté Salah Abdel Ati. (...)

    #Gaza

  • Israël entame la construction d’une barrière maritime au nord de Gaza ats/jop - 27 Mai 2018 - RTS
    http://www.rts.ch/info/monde/9600461-israel-entame-la-construction-d-une-barriere-maritime-au-nord-de-gaza.ht

    Cette nouvelle barrière à quelques kilomètres au nord de la bande de Gaza, en Méditerranée, est une digue fortifiée surmontée de barbelés, a indiqué le ministère dans un communiqué. Selon lui, cette barrière « infranchissable » est la première du genre dans le monde et devrait être achevée fin 2018.

    Elle « empêchera de manière efficace l’infiltration d’Israël par la mer », a déclaré le ministre de la Défense Avigdor Lieberman. Israël poursuit par ailleurs ses travaux pour renforcer sa barrière terrestre avec la bande de Gaza, avec notamment un dispositif souterrain empêchant la construction de tunnels.

    Un regain de tension
    L’annonce de dimanche intervient après des semaines de tensions le long de la frontière entre l’Etat hébreu et l’enclave palestinienne, qui vit sous blocus terrestre, aérien et maritime depuis plus de dix ans.
    Au moins 119 Palestiniens ont été tués par des tirs israéliens lors de manifestations dénonçant ce blocus israélien.

    #Palestine #israël #Gaza #Palestine_assassinée #occupation #apartheid construction de #ghetto , de #camps #faim

  • Cisjordanie : Israël veut construire 3900 logements de colons - Monde
    lematin.ch | 24.05.2018
    https://www.lematin.ch/monde/Israel-veut-construire-3900-logements-de-colons/story/10293829

    Le ministre de la Défense israélien Avigdor Lieberman a annoncé jeudi qu’il allait demander à un comité de donner son approbation finale à la construction de 2500 logements israéliens en Cisjordanie occupée.

    « Les 2500 nouveaux logements que nous allons approuver lors (d’une réunion) du comité de planification la semaine prochaine seront construits immédiatement en 2018 », a-t-il expliqué dans un communiqué.

    « Augmenter les constructions en Judée-Samarie »
    Il a ajouté qu’il allait également solliciter le feu vert du comité pour la construction de 1400 autres logements qui sortiraient de terre ultérieurement. Ces 1400 logements en sont encore à un stade préalable de validation, à la différence des 2500 autres. (...)

    #colonisation

  • Israel in major raids on ’Iran’ targets in Syria after rocket fire | AFP.com
    https://www.afp.com/en/news/205/israel-major-raids-iran-targets-syria-after-rocket-fire-doc-14q3b14

    Elle est pas belle la vie ? Ça fait une bonne semaine que l’armée israélienne est en alerte maximale dans le Golan occupé. C’est donc le moment idéal pour lui envoyer une bordée de roquettes dont aucune n’a atteint le territoire israélien…
    Israël est forcément obligé de riposter.

    Israel carried out widespread deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria on Thursday after rocket fire towards its forces which it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies.

    The incident came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from a key 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a move Israel had long advocated.

    It led to immediate calls for restraint from Russia, France and Germany. “The escalation of the last hours shows us that it’s really about war and peace,” warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

    The raids that a monitor said killed 23 fighters were one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the military said.

    We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria,” Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference.

    I hope we’ve finished this episode and everyone understood.

    Israel carried out the raids after it said 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight.

    It blamed the rocket fire on Iran’s Al-Quds force, adding that Israel’s anti-missile system intercepted four while the rest did not land in its territory.

    No Israelis were wounded.

  • Dear occupiers, sorry if we hurt your feelings - Opinion - Israel News | Haaretz.com
    Not one Israeli statesman today intends to apologize for the Nakba – not for the ethnic cleansing, nor for the exiling. But Abbas had no choice but to apologize for his Holocaust remark

    Gideon Levy May 06, 2018

    https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-dear-occupiers-sorry-if-we-hurt-your-feelings-1.6055095

    It’s hard to imagine a more unfounded, bizarre and insane scenario than this: The leader of the Palestinian people is forced to apologize to the Jewish people. The one who was robbed apologizes to the robbers, the victim apologizes to the rapist, the dead to the killer.
    After all, the occupiers are so sensitive – and their feelings, and only theirs, must be taken into account. A nation that hasn’t stopped occupying, destroying and killing, and has never considered apologizing for anything – anything – gets its victims to apologize for one measly sentence by their leader. The rest is known: “apology not accepted.” What did you think would happen? That it would be “accepted”?
    You don’t have to be an admirer of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to understand the depths of the absurd. You don’t have to be an Israel hater to understand the extent of the chutzpah.
    Israel holds a magic card, the lottery of the century: the horror of anti-Semitism. The value of this card is on a dizzying rise, especially now as the Holocaust recedes and anti-Semitism is being replaced in many countries by criticism of Israel. Playing this lucky card covers everything. Its holders not only can do anything they please, they can be insulted and put on the squeeze.
    The world became agitated over Abbas like it never was over any Israeli incitement – the chorus of the European Union, the UN envoy and of course, the ambassador of the settlers, David Friedman, who never denounces Israel for anything, only the Palestinians. Even The New York Times took on an amazingly sharp tone: “Let Abbas’ vile words be his last as Palestinian leader.”
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    It’s hard to imagine that the newspaper the Jewish right has marked as an Israel hater, baselessly of course, would use similar language against an Israeli prime minister; the one responsible, for example, for the massacre of unarmed protesters.

    There’s a double standard in Israel as well: It will never attack the anti-Semitic right in Europe as it attacks Abbas, who is certainly much less anti-Semitic, if at all, than Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache or Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
    Abbas said something that should not have been said. A day later he apologized. He regretted and retracted what he said, condemned the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, and reaffirmed his commitment to the two-state solution. It wouldn’t have taken much more for him to bend his knee to Israel’s hobnail boots and ask forgiveness for continuing to live under them.
    But Israel won’t let any apology stop its nefarious gloating. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman was quick to damn the other side, as usual: “despicable Holocaust denier apology not accepted.”

  • Despite Iran’s threats, Israeli army pushes aggressive line against Tehran in Syria

    IDF believes Iran won’t strike back before Trump’s deadline on nuclear deal, elections in Lebanon

    Amos Harel May 04, 2018
    Haaretz.com
    https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-israeli-army-chief-eisenkot-stay-forceful-in-syria-despite-iran-1.

    Both the government and the military are sticking to an aggressive policy on Iran, arguing that Israel must continue to act in any way possible to stop Iran’s military consolidation in Syria.
    To really understand Israel and the Middle East - subscribe to Haaretz
    Even after the two latest airstrikes attributed to Israel in Syria, on April 9 and April 29, and despite Iran’s threats of revenge, there has been no sign of any change in Israeli policy.
    The person spearheading this activist policy in the north is Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, whose position is backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Reportedly, no cabinet minister has voiced opposition to the IDF’s stance, despite the risks it entails.
    According to the defense establishment’s analysis, Iran continues to send advanced weapons systems to Syria. But these arms are no longer necessarily slated to be passed on to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Instead, they are being used to bolster Iran’s military deployment in Syria, and may even be meant to prepare an Iranian military response against Israel.

    For now, however, Tehran seems to be debating over the nature of its promised retaliation against Israel, and even more, over its timing.
    One theory being advanced is that Tehran may be reluctant to respond prior to Lebanon’s parliamentary elections this coming Sunday and U.S. President Donald Trump’s expected announcement on May 12 as to whether his country is quitting the nuclear agreement with Iran. Israel’s announcement of the theft of Iran’s nuclear archive by Mossad agents is likely to increase Iranian leaders’ embarrassment.

  • Gaza
    Once again: Stop shooting
    – Haaretz Editorial - Israel News | Haaretz.com
    https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/once-again-stop-shooting-1.6032762

    This Friday the “March of Return” demonstrators in the Gaza Strip will once again face off with Israel Defense Forces soldiers. But this Friday must not, for the fifth time in a row, become the last day in the lives of yet more desperate but unarmed young men who aren’t endangering anyone, or the day on which more and more young demonstrators become disabled for the rest of their lives.
    Whether this happens is in the hands of the IDF and its officers. This fifth Friday in the ongoing series of demonstrations must finally bring the cessation of the IDF’s use of potentially lethal fire at unarmed demonstrators. It must end without casualties.
    >> Hamas hijacked the Gaza protests ■ Killing of Gaza protesters undermines Israel’s claims of self-defense >>
    On Wednesday, the 40th victim of this shooting at demonstrators died of his wounds. The victim was press photographer Ahmed Abu Hussein, who was severely wounded in the stomach two weeks ago by a sniper’s bullet.
    Abu Hussein was one of only four casualties, including an 11-year-old boy who lost his leg, whom Israel allowed to be sent to a hospital in Ramallah. And even those four were allowed to be transferred only after a petition to the High Court of Justice. Of the 5,511 people who have so far been wounded in the demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel border fence, some 1,700 were wounded by live bullets.

    According to doctors in Gaza, the wounds during these demonstrations have been especially severe. Thousands of wounded is a frightening statistic considering that the demonstrators whom the army is confronting are unarmed and, as a rule, nonviolent. Given the collapse of Gaza’s health system, the fact that the defense establishment, on orders from Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, isn’t letting more of the casualties receive treatment in Ramallah or Israel adds insult to injury. Abu Hussein ultimately died in an Israeli hospital, after his condition deteriorated.

    The 40 people who have been killed in the demonstrations were all young, and two were children. Their deaths could have been avoided had restrictions been imposed on the IDF’s use of live fire against the protesters.
    The consistent, ongoing decline in the number of casualties from week to week isn’t only due to the decline in the number of demonstrators from week to week. It also attests to relative restraint in the conduct of IDF soldiers. But this isn’t enough. Starting on Friday, the IDF must set itself a clear goal – zero Palestinian casualties as long as they aren’t endangering anyone’s life.