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4 October 2024

What do ordinary Iranians think of the attacks on Israel?

The missile barrage has ramped up tensions in the nation but many people are weary of being dragged into conflict.  Two years ago Nafise risked arrest to join anti-government protests across her native Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died after being beaten by strict “morality police”.

Now, however, on one matter, she backs the regime. “I believe they had to do something. The response was warranted,” she says of the barrage of more than 180 missiles launched at Israel on Tuesday night, “Israel is a threat to us, after all. I think many — though there are exceptions, of course — are at least sharing this sentiment.”

What do ordinary Iranians think of their leaders’ brinksmanship with Israel? Opinions are divided.

Government supporters are euphoric; critics mock the regime on social media. Some believe the missile attacks were justified considering Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and military operations in Lebanon; others do not care at all. Some supporters of Reza Pahlavi — the eldest son of the late shah and an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic — voiced sympathy for Israel. There was also confusion: Iranian media reported that most of the fired missiles had hit their targets; international sites said the opposite.

For Nafise, a 23-year-old activist from Tehran with curly red hair, the position is nuanced. It does not mean she condones Israel’s policies. “There is continuous destruction and lives are lost in Gaza; there is war and displacement in Lebanon. We can’t shut our eyes and say we are the good, peace-loving people of the Middle East. At the end of the day, I’m against violence, but I think there have to be consequences for making international humanitarian law worthless — meaningless, really. There can’t always be impunity for the most powerful states,” she said.

On Tuesday evening, when Iran launched the ballistic missiles towards its enemy, crowds in Tehran’s Palestine Square were celebrating. They waved Iranian, Palestinian and Lebanese flags, brandished posters of Nasrallah and shouted: “Death to Israel!” Fireworks were lit and people danced into the night. As with much of the imagery broadcast in Iran, however, this is what the regime wants you to see.

“These celebrations are of course state-organised; the government can call these any time they want,” says Shima, 36, an Iranian journalist based in Tehran. While hundreds gathered in Palestine Square, near the bustling Enghelab Street, where students and academics often meet in coffee shops and the pavement is lined with book vendors, the atmosphere elsewhere was of muted concern.

At the nearby University of Tehran, it was quieter. In other parts of the city, people anxiously queued for petrol. Many more were glued to their phones, frantically scanning social media, desperate to understand what the attacks could mean. Iranians of the diaspora, mainly in the United States, tell me they received countless messages from back home echoing the sentiment: “Is this the start of an all-out war on us?”

“Many people were panicking that night,” Shima added. Her father, for the first time, begged her to leave the country, fearing Israel’s response would be “destructive and unpredictable”. Having lived through the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War, he worried that a potential conflict with Israel would be far worse.

Since Iran’s second direct attack on Israel this year — following April’s missile barrage in retaliation for a strike on its Damascus embassy — tensions in Tehran have risen, especially after Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, threatened retaliation, vowing that Iran “will pay.”

Times, 4 Oct.

Missile attack on Israel lays bare deep divisions among Iranians

Iranians have been expressing a mixture of pride, uncertainty and fear since their country launched a large-scale ballistic missile attack on Israel on Tuesday night.  Within minutes of the attack starting, Persian social media feeds were filled with shaky videos showing the flashes of the missiles flying overhead.

Iran’s state television broadcast pictures of groups of people cheering on the streets, waving flags and chanting “Death to Israel”.  But the mood was different online, with not everyone expressing support for the attack.  Some shared tense scenes and heated debates about a possible war between the arch-foes, after decades of keeping their conflict largely in the shadows.

The contrasting reactions laid bare the deep divisions in Iran, where there is widespread discontent at the clerical establishment and frustration over the economic troubles caused by sanctions.  On one side of the debate are those who support the government’s actions with nationalist pride, while on the other are those who fear war, economic collapse and further suppression of domestic reform movements.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Tuesday’s missile strike successfully targeted Israeli military and intelligence bases and that it was retaliation for recent killings of the leaders of its allies Hamas and Hezbollah.  The Israeli military described the attack as “indiscriminate” and said that while it had been largely thwarted by air defences, there had been casualties and millions of Israelis had been sent running to bomb shelters.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Iran will pay for the “big mistake”.  For many supporters of the Iranian government, the attack represented a proud moment of defiance.  “Bravo to [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei! Bravo to the Revolutionary Guards!” shouted a young woman in a clip that went viral.

Such sentiment frustrated other Iranians online.  “Please distinguish between the people and the Revolutionary Guards; we are under immense pressure,” pleaded a middle-aged man in a video shared on social media.  Some Iranians felt the strike was an unnecessary provocation that would only result in making their lives worse.

“We have no choice but to protect our country, but we are the ones who suffer the consequences,” said a concerned resident of the capital, Tehran.  In the hours after the strikes, rumours surfaced that Israel might respond by targeting Iran’s oil infrastructure, which is an important part of the country’s economy.  Videos quickly surfaced showing petrol stations overwhelmed, with long queues of people as they rushed to fill up their vehicles, fearing future shortages.

BBC News, 3 Oct. 2024

Why Britain keeps communication channel with Iran open

The UK has good reasons for keeping its embassy in Tehran, maintaining diplomatic links and not proscribing the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.  An hour before Iran launched a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, received a phone call from his counterpart in Tehran.

Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, was one of his country’s top nuclear negotiators and spent several years at the University of Kent, where he completed a PhD in political thought.  Fearing that an attack against Israel was imminent, Lammy had been trying to secure the call since the morning.

Shortly into the brief conversation, held over a secure line from his Whitehall office, it became clear that Tehran had already made up its mind. “They had made the decision to retaliate for the deaths of Haniyeh and Nasrallah,” said a senior Foreign Office source privy to the call.

The source was referring to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, who was killed by 2,000lb bunker-busting bombs launched by Israel at his underground hideout in Beirut last week, and Ismail Haniyeh, the leading figure in Hamas, who was killed by a bomb believed to have been planted by Israel in Tehran in July.

What happened in the minutes after the call ended is unclear but the Americans, who use Britain as a diplomatic backchannel to the Iranians, were ready.

The US guided missile destroyers USS Bulkeley and USS Cole, operating in the eastern Mediterranean, were ready to engage. RAF Typhoons were deployed from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and were in the air when Iran fired about 180 medium-range missiles from their silos at 7pm local time. In the event, the RAF aircraft were defenceless against the high-speed ballistic missiles and did not engage them.

Unlike the US, the UK has not proscribed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group. Officials believe it would effectively label the entire Tehran regime a terrorist group because the IRGC is deemed so central to the Iranian state. Diplomatic relations would have to be severed.  Instead, Britain has chosen to keep open a channel of communication and, officials believe, has become an important interlocutor between the US and Iran, a role that has become more vital as the Middle East crisis deepens.

Times, 3 Oct. 2024

Israel-Hamas war: “Leaders don’t understand a peaceful language”

Published: 29 September, 2024 By: Olle Bergvall

https://www.dagensarena.se/innehall/kriget-israel-hamas-ledarna-forstar-inte-ett-fredligt-sprak/

6.9.2024

Professor Cohen-Almagor was granted The Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS) Fellowship from September 2024 to June 2025 to complete his book Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Critical Study of Peace Negotiations, Mediation and, Facilitation between Israel and the PLO (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

7.6.2024

Strategy and Domestic Politics in Israeli Foreign Policy: From the End of the Cold War to the 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War

Thursday 20 June 2024 6.00pm

LSE Hosted by the Middle East Centre

In this lecture, Professor Amnon Aran will explore the interplay between domestic politics and strategy in Israeli foreign policy, from the end of the Cold War to the 2023-24 Israel-Hamas war. Reflecting upon this tumultuous period in Israel’s history, he shall examine key events and foreign policies shaping this era.

Please join at: https://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/events/2024/strategy-domestic-politics-foreign-policy-israel

1.12.2023

New publication: “Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations through the Eyes of Gamal Helal”, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs (published online 1 December 2023). https://hull.academia.edu/RaphaelCohenalmagor/Papers

29.11.2023

Israel Studies on American Campuses

Raphael Cohen-Almagor

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/israel-studies-on-american-campuses/

21.11.2023

Ibish: How the war in Gaza is reshaping Palestinian public opinion (The Daily Beast), Nov. 21, 2023, https://www.thedailybeast.com/israels-assault-on-gaza-is-making-hamas-more-popular
The Arab Barometer poll demonstrates that the population in Gaza had remarkably low opinions and very little trust in Hamas in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 7 attacks, which probably helps explain some of the motivation for this dramatic terrorist attack that was consciously designed to change everything. Sixty-seven percent of Palestinians in Gaza reported having “no trust at all” (44 percent) or “not a lot of trust” (23 percent) in Hamas. The most popular choice in Gaza for Palestinian president was jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, not Hamas’ titular political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. The poll found that Palestinians in Gaza also had unfavorable views of the Palestinian Authority, but that 30 percent preferred the secular nationalists of Fatah as opposed to 27 percent that preferred Hamas.

In a crucial rebuttal to Israeli efforts to paint the Palestinians both in general and especially in Gaza as hopelessly extreme and essentially, at least indirectly, responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks, this population expressed an overwhelming preference, 73 percent, for a peaceful solution to the conflict with Israel. This is in stark contrast to Hamas’ insistence on armed struggle until “victory,“ defined by the elimination of Israel.

Only 20 percent of Palestinians in Gaza, despite (or perhaps because) of living under Hamas rule since 2007, favored such a “military solution” to the conflict. Fifty-four percent supported a two-state solution along the lines envisaged by the 1993 Oslo agreements, with a Palestinian state in what are now the occupied territories living alongside Israel. That’s a remarkable level of support given how implausible such a scenario appears to have become, particularly given the Israeli government’s stated commitment to eventual large-scale annexation in the West Bank and categorical rejection of meaningful Palestinian independence.

17.11.2023

Ha’aretz

New Poll: Palestinians Support Hamas’ Attack. Why?

By Dahlia Scheindlin 

Since October 7, it has been impossible to truly understand Hamas’ motives and intentions. It can be just as hard to understand Palestinian public opinion right now. After the first few weeks of chaos, two Palestinian polls became available last week – and there is no good way to spin the results. A survey of Gaza and West Bank Palestinians by the Arab World Research and Development Group (AWRAD) from the first week of November left many readers aghast: Nearly 60 percent of respondents very much supported the “military operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance led by Hamas on October 7.” Another 16 percent expressed moderate support. That’s three-quarters in total who supported the indefensible. Another three-quarters of Palestinians (76 percent) said Hamas was playing a positive role, while 98 percent said they feel some or great pride as a Palestinian. Just 13 percent of Palestinians opposed Hamas’ attack (21 percent in Gaza). That sounds paltry, but just under 20 percent of Israeli adults consider themselves left-wing – the peace-supporting dissenters from their society.

15.11.2023

Calling terrorism by name

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/calling-terrorism-by-name/

25.10.2023

Oct 25 (Reuters) – Antisemitic incidents in the United States rose by about 400% in slightly over two weeks since war broke out in the Middle East after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, advocacy group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said Wednesday.

18.10.2023

Axios

US Treasury to Launch New Sanctions Against Hamas

The US Treasury Department is preparing to announce new sanctions against several Hamas leaders this week as part of the US response to the militant group’s attack on Israel, US officials said. Hamas relies on global financial networks to fund its operations, which are based out of the Gaza Strip. The sanctions aim to disrupt that flow of money. Hamas has been a designated terrorist organization in the US, the EU and other Western countries for several decades. While Hamas leaders don’t have assets in the US, the sanctions will increase pressure on some of the countries that host them, like Qatar. The Treasury is working closely with the private sector to enforce existing sanctions and execute new ones. This week’s set of sanctions is likely the first batch in several rounds to come, according to a US official.

17.10.2023

Al-Monitor

Europe’s Leaders Express Solidarity in Israel

On a solidarity visit to Israel, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that in tough times, Germany has only one place to stand, and “that is on Israel’s side.” Reiterating his call to regional players not to enter into the fray and in an evident reference to Hezbollah and Iran, Scholz warned, “That would be an unforgivable mistake. We have transferred these messages in all of the channels.” Scholz arrived in Israel just hours after Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu — the first world leader to visit after the deadly attack by Hamas. French President Emmanuel Macron said he will travel to Israel “in the coming days.” Speaking at a joint press conference with his German counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Hamas are the new Nazis. Hamas are ISIS, and in some cases even worse than ISIS.” Scholz said that German responsibility for the Holocaust commits the country to protect Israel and its security, emphasizing that Israel has the right to defend itself and the obligation to protect its citizens. Scholz also said that the humanitarian situation in Gaza “must be eased” and that he has discussed with Netanyahu ways to help suffering civilians in the Strip.

Opinion | ‘A new turning point in the history of the State of Israel. Most people don’t understand that’

by Giora Eiland

Fathom, 17 October 2023

Opinion | ‘A new turning point in the history of the State of Israel. Most people don’t understand that’

16.10.2023

Hamas-Israel War: Views From Wilson Center Experts, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/hamas-israel-war-views-wilson-center-experts?collection=116661

Israel reported that Hamas captured 199 hostages, including eight Germans, five US nationals, and two Mexican nationals.

The Washington Post reported that the death tolls in the Israel-Gaza conflict have increased. Hamas has killed at least 1,400 people in Israel. Israeli strikes have killed at least 2,778 people in Gaza.

13.10.2023

The IDF asked Gazans to move away from the north of the Gaza Strip as its forces are preparing for a grand ground operation. Hamas ordered the Gazans not to do so.

12.10.2023

Two-State Solution or One-State Agreement: What are the Options in Palestine’s Path to Statehood? https://sputnikglobe.com/20231012/two-state-solution-or-one-state-agreement-what-are-the-options-in-palestines-path-to-statehood-1114148856.html

11.10.2023

Jerusalem Post

Egypt Warned Israel Three Days Before Hamas Massacre

The United States House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R) told reporters that Egypt had warned Israel three days before Hamas’s assault on southern Israel that “an event like this could happen”. “There seems to have been a failure of intelligence. We’re not quite sure how we missed it. We’re not quite sure how Israel missed it,” said McCaul after a classified briefing about the war. “We know that Egypt had warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen. We know this event was planned perhaps as long as a year ago,” added McCaul. An Egyptian intelligence official had said that Egypt had warned Israel repeatedly about “something big,” but that this warning was downplayed as Israeli officials were focusing on the West Bank.

10.10.2023

The Voice of America in Washington DC.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=792715539318203&extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharing&mibextid=I6gGtw

9 October 2023

Washington Post

In the wake of what has been cast by some as Israel’s 9/11, a lot lies in ruins. The death toll is soaring after an astonishing assault initiated Saturday morning by Hamas, the leading Palestinian Islamist militant group, that involved multiple raids into Israeli villages and thousands of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. More than 700 Israelis have been killed, while Hamas has captured an uncertain number of Israelis and brought them as hostages into embattled, blockaded Gaza. At least 413 Palestinians have also been killed as Israel formally declared war on Hamas on Sunday, vowing a long campaign as clashes and strikes spread to Israel’s border with Lebanon.

The attack, likened to the surprise Arab invasion that triggered the Yom Kippur War a half century ago, marked the bloodiest single day in modern Israel’s tumultuous history. It upends the hardened assumptions around the scope of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and pour furthers dirt on the grave of the two-state solution, the political vision for separate Israeli and Palestinian states existing side-by-side.

8 October 2023

Washington Post

How a night of dancing and revelry in Israel turned into a massacre

By Loveday Morris, Imogen Piper, Joyce Sohyun Lee  and  Susannah George

The Tribe of Nova trance music festival, near Kibbutz Reim, was one of the first targets for Hamas militants as they launched their unprecedented attack on Israel in the early hours of Saturday morning, overrunning the concert area, shooting into the crowd and grabbing as many hostages as they could. Festivalgoers described how the gunmen blocked roads, ambushed escaping cars and scoured the area looking for people to kidnap.

At least 260 bodies were recovered from the concert site Sunday, according to ZAKA, a volunteer emergency response group in Israel. Across the country, at least 700 people have been killed. Dozens are still missing, according to the Israel Defense Forces; Israeli media has put the figure at more than 100. Hamas says hostages are being held in tunnels and other secure locations in Gaza.

7.10.2023

On Shabbat, 7 October, Hamas launched a coordinated attack on Israel. 50 years after the Yom Kippur War, Israel was surprised yet again. Its normally reputable security orgnisations failed to see what is coming. Hundreds of armed terrorists penetrated Israel on foot, by air and by sea and murdered people who stood on their way. Hamas took more than 100 Israelis with them to Gaza as hostages.

10.8.2023

Iran’s Ballistic Capabilities

 Iran said it has the technology to build a supersonic cruise missile, Iranian state media reported, an announcement likely to heighten Western concerns about Tehran’s missile capabilities. The announcement comes days after reports on the arrival of over 3,000 US sailors and Marines aboard two US warships in the Red Sea to deter Iran from seizing and harassing merchant ships traveling through the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz. Despite US and European opposition, Iran has said it will further develop its “defensive” missile program. However, Western military analysts say Iran sometimes exaggerates its missile capabilities. Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, says its weapons are capable of reaching the bases of arch-foes Israel and the United States in the region. Concerns about Iran’s ballistic missiles contributed to then-President Donald Trump’s decision in 2018 to ditch Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six major powers and reimpose sanctions on Tehran. Indirect talks between Tehran and President Joe Biden’s administration to salvage the nuclear deal have stalled since last September. In the latest in a series of attacks on ships in the Gulf since 2019, the US Navy said last month it had intervened to prevent Iran from seizing two commercial tankers in the Gulf of Oman. 

Source: Haaretz

17.7.2023

Iraqi Premier in Syria for First Visit in Over a Decade

Iraq’s prime minister held talks Sunday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus during the first trip of its kind to the war-torn country since the 12-year conflict began. The two leaders told reporters that they discussed fighting drugs, the return of Syrian refugees, and the imperative of lifting Western sanctions imposed in Syria. They also talked about Israel’s strikes on the war-torn country and water shortages in the Euphrates River that cuts through both countries because of projects in Turkey. Iraq and Syria have had close relations for years even after many Arab countries withdrew their ambassadors from Damascus and Syria’s membership in the 22-member Arab League was suspended because of the crackdown on protesters in 2011. Assad received Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who was heading a high-ranking delegation, at the presidential palace in Damascus. They discussed mutual relations and cooperation between the two neighboring countries among other issues, according to the office of Syria’s president.

Source: Associated Press

58% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Suffer from Symptoms of Depression

A whopping 58% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip suffer from symptoms of depression, and 7% show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, a survey by the World Bank found. Depression was more common among Gazans, with 71% exhibiting symptoms, compared to 50% of West Bank residents. But West Bank residents were more likely to show signs of PTSD. The survey attributed these mental health problems in part to economic distress and lack of employment prospects. The World Bank billed the survey as a pioneering effort to determine the cumulative effects on the mental health of exposure to conflict and poor living conditions, including movement restrictions. But the impact of trauma is exacerbated by economic distress, high unemployment, and the lack of job prospects, the researchers said. At the end of 2022, the Palestinian unemployment rate stood at 24% – 45% in Gaza and 13% in the West Bank. But among young Palestinians, the rate soared to 70%.

Source: Haaretz

25.5.2023

Israel aims to become an artificial intelligence "superpower," the Defense Ministry director-general said, predicting advances in autonomous warfare and streamlined combat decision-making. Steps to harness rapid AI evolutions include the formation of a dedicated organization for military robotics in the ministry and a record-high budget for related research and development this year, retired army general Eyal Zamir said. He named GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) and AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) as deep-learning realms being addressed by civilian AI industries, which could eventually have military applications. These, Zamir said, potentially include "the ability of platforms to strike in swarms, or of combat systems to operate independently, of data fusion and of assistance in fast decision-making, on a scale greater than we have ever seen."

Source: Reuters

24.5.2023

Just published: “Academic freedom and the anti-Israeli BDS movement”, The Loop, ECPR (May 2023), https://theloop.ecpr.eu/academic-freedom-and-the-anti-israeli-bds-movement/

Raphael Cohen-Almagor looks at the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign to boycott Israeli academics and ban Israel tout court. He argues that there is no justification for any academic organisation to do this. Any such decision would be unjust, unfair, and counterproductive

24.3.2023

TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday night that he will become personally involved in efforts to put major sections of a controversial judicial overhaul to a vote in the Knesset next week, following yet another day of anti-government protests across the country.

“In order to prevent a rift in the nation,” Netanyahu said in a televised address, he will shepherd the bills through Israel’s parliament over the objections of the attorney general, who has warned that such a move would constitute a conflict of interest due to Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trials.

Netanyahu claimed that the legislative blitz — including a law passed early Thursday that would make it more difficult to remove sitting prime ministers from office — was for the good of the nation. But in a statement, Israel’s protests leaders said the speech showcased a “dictator-in-the-making, who instead of stopping the legal coup, decided to continue with the hostile political takeover of the Supreme Court.”

In the face of unprecedented backlash, Netanyahu’s coalition has steadfastly pressed forward with the legislation, which would give the government more power to override Supreme Court decisions and select judges.

Mass demonstrations have raged across the country for nearly three months, with protesters condemning the judicial overhaul as a power grab that would dismantle Israel’s system of checks and balances. On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets again, including large numbers of active-duty military reservists, blocking city intersections and rallying outside the homes of the right-wing ministers involved in advancing the bills.

Nearly 100 people were arrested nationwide during clashes with police, who have used officers on horseback, water cannons and other unusually aggressive tactics under the direction of far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Several of Netanyahu’s own allies, including a previous head of the Mossad, said the proposals threatened to tear the country apart. And members of the country’s revered military have taken the unusual step of joining the protests. Hundreds of reservists recently pledged to boycott training missions until the legislation was pulled.

“We’re about to cross a red line,” said Tomer Naveh, 52, a reservist of more than 30 years, at a demonstration Thursday near the Tel Aviv headquarters of Israel’s military. “This is a genuine threat of Israel becoming a dictatorship.”

Internationally, too, criticism has been mounting. In a phone call this week, President Biden stressed to Netanyahu the importance of “genuine checks and balances” in democratic societies.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has hosted negotiations between the government and the opposition, and has warned repeatedly that the national crisis could snowball into a “civil war.” But the deadlock has only spurred the government to fast-track its remaking of the courts. – Shira Rubin and Steve Hendrix

Read more: Netanyahu vows to push through judicial overhaul amid nationwide protests

Washington Post

Knesset Approves Law to Prevent Netanyahu Ouster

The Knesset ratified a law that restricts the conditions under which an Israeli prime minister can be removed, legislation that opponents of incumbent Netanyahu say is designed to shield him from facing legal heat from his ongoing corruption trial. The bill, which became law after clearing second and third hearings with 61 lawmakers voting in favor to 47 against, stipulates that a sitting prime minister can only be declared unfit and forced to step down if they or three-quarters of cabinet ministers declare so on physical or psychological grounds. The legislation was rushed through the Knesset due to Netanyahu’s allies’ fears that the Supreme Court would force the conservative leader to take a leave of absence as his government’s push to overhaul the judicial system may place him in a conflict of interest pertaining to his legal woes.

Ynet

23.3.2023

Galant to Netanyahu: Stop the Legislation

By Nahum Barnea

• Defense Minister Yoav Galant advised Prime Minister Netanyahu to suspend legislating the bill that would overturn the composition of the Judges Selection Committee before it is put to the vote on its second and third readings. In recent weeks the two men have held several conversations that were described as “difficult.” Netanyahu had adamantly refused; the bill will be put to the vote and ratified. Galant shared with him worrisome data about the legislation’s impact on the willingness of officers and soldiers to volunteer for reserve duty. Its slim chances notwithstanding, his advice to suspend the legislative process is still on the agenda. 
• Galant does not intend either to vote against or to abstain once the bill is put to a final vote next week. He is going to disappoint the people in the protest movement who have been banking on him to vote against. In the course of his meetings with Netanyahu and other Likud cabinet ministers, Galant has reiterated his support for Levin and Rothman’s legislation. He told them that he views with gravity the encouragement that retired high-ranking officers have given to the protests, including former IDF chiefs of staff and other generals. He is convinced that the protestors are grossly exaggerating the repercussions that changing the Judges Selection Committee’s composition will have for Israel’s democratic regime. 
• That said, given the sensitive security situation, he is also convinced that the votes to ratify the bills should all be postponed until the Knesset’s summer session. In the course of the recess, the coalition needs to try to reach agreements either with the Supreme Court president, the parliamentary opposition, or representatives of the protest movement. Even if no agreements are reached, the government will have time to persuade the public that it did everything in its power to sway the opponents. Unilateral legislation will be very taxing for the IDF, relations with the United States, and deterring Israel’s enemies. Those are dangerous processes. In political terms, Galant’s initiative is designed to distinguish him from Netanyahu and from the other cabinet ministers but to do so without riling up the Likud voters against him. 
• Galant is positioning himself by assuming the role that defense ministers have traditionally taken as the representative of the IDF and the security establishment in the cabinet and as someone who is more attentive than others to the messages from Washington and other capitals. He wants to play the role of the responsible adult to the extent that there is any room in the government in its current composition for adult behavior and responsibility. He hasn’t presented Netanyahu with an ultimatum, and he hasn’t threatened to resign, but he has allowed himself to speak in the name of a set of political and national priorities that are different from those being advocated by his colleagues in the cabinet and the coalition. The country, the IDF, and the other security organizations take precedence with him over the judicial revolution.
• Yedioth Ahronoth

Jordan’s Parliament Displays Map with Palestine-Jordan Flag

Jordan’s parliament recommended expelling Israel’s ambassador while displaying a map at the center of its chamber featuring Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip — all under the colors of the Jordanian and Palestinian flags. The vote and the map came in response to a speech by Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich over the weekend in which he claimed the Palestinian people are an “invention” while standing by a map of “Greater Israel” that included the territory of the Hashemite Kingdom, in accordance with the hardline aspirations of some fringe extremists. The expulsion of Israeli Ambassador Eitan Surkis would require approval from the Jordanian government, which is an unlikely scenario. Surkis was summoned by Amman’s foreign ministry on Monday night in protest of Smotrich’s speech. Symbolic votes to expel Israel’s envoy are common during times of heightened tensions between Jerusalem and Amman. In May 2021, Jordanian lawmakers unanimously called for the government to expel Israel’s envoy amid Operation Guardian of the Walls, an 11-day war between Israel and terror groups in the Gaza Strip. 

Times of Israel

28.2.2023

3.2.2023

Occupation

Israel’s West Bank settler population now makes up more than half a million people, a pro-settler group said, crossing a major threshold. Settler leaders predicted even faster population growth under Israel’s new ultranationalist government. The report, by WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com and based on official figures, showed the settler population grew to 502,991, rising more than 2.5% in 12 months and nearly 16% over the last five years. “We’ve reached a huge hallmark,” said Baruch Gordon, the director of the group and a resident of the Beit El settlement. “We’re here to stay.” The milestone comes as Israel’s new government, made up of ultranationalist parties who oppose Palestinian statehood, has placed expanding settlements at the top of its priority list. Already the government has pledged to legalize wildcat outposts that have long enjoyed tacit government support and to ramp up approval and construction of settler homes around the West Bank.

 Source: Associated Press

Israel-Sudan

Sudan’s Foreign Ministry announced it will move forward to normalize full diplomatic ties with Israel following a visit by the Israeli foreign minister to the Sudanese capital. During his one-day visit to Khartoum, Eli Cohen met with various Sudanese political figures, including Sudan’s ruling general, Abdel-Fattah Burhan, according to Sudan’s state media outlet, SUNA. This was the first public visit by an Israeli cabinet member ever. In a statement published after Cohen’s departure, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said: “It was agreed to move forward toward the normalization of relations between the two countries.’’ Upon returning to Israel, Cohen said the two countries would seek to sign a full-fledged peace accord by the year’s end, noting that this would be in the form of “peace for peace.” “The agreement will help the economy, as well as bolster security and tourism in both countries,” Cohen said. “I hope that this year will bring good news; the Sudanese want it, and as soon as they complete their internal process, the accord will be signed. It will be quick,” Cohen added.

Source: Israel HaYom

2.2.2023

Legal Advisor Letter to Yariv Levin Feb 2023

US Law Professors’ Statement About the Proposed Law Reforms in Israel

Initial Posting Date: January 29, 2023

List of Signatories Updated: January 30, 2023

We, law professors in the United States who care deeply about Israel, strongly oppose the effort by the current Israeli government to radically overhaul the country’s legal system. This effort includes proposed reforms that would grant the ruling coalition absolute power to appoint Justices and judges, make it almost impossible for the Supreme Court to invalidate legislation, severely limit judicial review of executive-branch decisions, and curtail the independence of the Attorney General and legal advisers assigned to different government agencies.

Some of us believe that the Israeli Supreme Court has over-reached in important respects and would support a scaling back of its power to review legislation and executive decisions. Others believe that the legal status quo need not be changed. Regardless of the disagreement amongst us, we are all deeply worried that the speed and scale of the reforms will seriously weaken the independence of the judiciary, the separation of powers and the rule of law. These safeguards have contributed to Israel’s flourishing over the last 75 years, helping it weather severe security, political and social challenges. Weakening them would pose a dire risk to freedom of expression, to human and civil rights, and to efforts to reduce corruption, making it harder for Israel to survive such challenges going forward. We hope for Israel’s sake that it chooses a wiser path.

Signatories

[university name added for identification only and not as a sign of institutional support]

Organizers / Initial Signatories

Oren Bar-Gill (Harvard University)

Jesse Fried (Harvard University)

Amos Guiora (University of Utah)

Additional Signatories

David Abraham (University of Miami)

Matthew Adler (Duke University)

Bill Alford (Harvard University)

Anat Alon-Beck (Case Western Reserve University)

Reuven Avi-Yonah (University of Michigan)

Tom Baker (University of Pennsylvania)

Kenneth A. Bamberger (University of California, Berkeley)

Michal Barzuza (University of Virginia)

Lucian Bebchuk (Harvard University)

Yochai Benkler (Harvard University)

Omri Ben-Shahar (University of Chicago)

Lisa Bernstein (University of Chicago)

Gabriella Blum (Harvard University)

Erwin Chemerinsky (University of California, Berkeley)

Harlan Grant Cohen (University of Georgia)

Alan Dershowitz (Harvard University)

Melvin Eisenberg (University of California, Berkeley)

Eleanor Fox (New York University)

Barry Friedman (New York University)

Clayton P. Gillette (NYU School of Law)

Talia Gillis (Columbia University)

Ronald J. Gilson (Stanford University and Columbia University)

Rebecca Goldstein (University of California, Berkeley)

Ellen Goodman (Rutgers University)

Jeffrey Gordon (Columbia University)

Jonathan Gould (University of California, Berkeley)

Bruce Green (Fordham University)

Ariela J. Gross (University of Southern California)

Daniel Hemel (New York University)

David Hoffman (University of Pennsylvania)

Samuel Issacharoff (New York University)

Debbie Kaminer (City University of New York)

Amalia Kessler (Stanford University)

Christopher Kutz (University of California, Berkeley)

Alexandra D. Lahav (Cornell University)

Pnina Lahav (Boston University)

Yair Listokin (Yale University)

Omri Marian (University of California, Irvine)

Andrei Marmor (Cornell University)

Florencia Marotta-Wurgler (New York University)

Peter S. Menell (University of California, Berkeley)

Martha Minow (Harvard University)

Robert Mnookin (Harvard University)

Noga Morag-Levine (Michigan State University)

Dotan Oliar (University of Virginia)

Barak Orbach (University of Arizona)

Nizan Geslevich Packin (City University of New York)

Robert Post (Yale University)

Richard Primus (University of Michigan)

Barak Richman (Duke University)

Edward Rock (New York University)

Guy A. Rub (Ohio State University)

Daniel Rubinfeld (New York University)

Samuel Scheffler (New York University)

Richard Schragger (University of Virginia)

Avital Schurr (University of Louisville)

Alan Schwartz (Yale University)

Dan Simon (University of Southern California)

1. Daniel Sokol (University of Southern California)

Michael Stein (Harvard University)

Nomi Stolzenberg (University of Southern California)

Jennifer Taub (Western New England University)

Joseph William Singer (Harvard University)

Matthew Stephenson (Harvard University)

Lior Strahilevitz (University of Chicago)

David Webber (Boston University)

Laura Weinrib (Harvard University)

Mark G. Yudof (University of California, Berkeley)

Jonathan Zasloff (University of California, Los Angeles)

If you want your name added to the list of signatories, please send an email to:

jesse.fried@gmail.com or bargilloren@gmail.com