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"(It is permissible for Israeli soldiers) to satisfy the evil
inclination by sleeping with beautiful gentile women against their will, out of
consideration for the soldiers' hardships and for the sake of general
success."
This law is a gross violation of Israel's freedom of
expression that specifically targets only peace and human rights
organizations. It intends to divert the Israeli public discourse away
from the occupation and silence opposition to the government's policies.
--MK Issawi Freij (Meretz) and right-wing Yedioth commentator Ben-Dror Yemini both write that it is unreasonable that a film critic who wrote a Facebook post ridiculing superstitious Mizrachi Jews be suspended from the IDF's Army Radio and a rabbi who expressed support for soldiers' raping female goyim during war and expressed opposition to women serving in the army and testifying in court be appointed IDF chief military rabbi.* (Maariv and Yedioth)
You Must Be Kidding:
Israeli forces reportedly handed out parking tickets to Palestinian journalists in an attempt to keep them from entering an area where activists and villagers acted to stop Israeli bulldozers from leveling privately-owned Palestinian agricultural land owned.**
The fourth in a series of security validators for APN is Gen. Colin Powell, American statesman and retired four-star general in the United States Army, 65th United States Secretary of State, former National Security Advisor (1987–1989), former Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989) and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993).
On Monday, July 11 2016, the Brookings Institute published the results of the most recent surveys
on American attitudes toward the Middle East, conducted by Shibley Telhami, Nonresident Senior Fellow. The
newest poll was conducted within two weeks of the shootings in Orlando, focusing on American attitudes toward
Muslims and Islam. These results were compared to those of similar polls carried out in November 2015 and May
2016 to see whether there has been a shift in public opinion since two important landmarks: The most vital
months of the presidential election campaigns, and the Orlando massacre.
Telhami noted that the results of the most recent polls were unexpected: despite the extremely inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric of the presidential campaigns, as well as the fact that the Orlando shootings were carried out by a radicalized Muslim, more people tended to be favorable toward both the Muslim religion and the Muslim people in the May and June 2016 polls. In November 2015, 53% of those questioned responded that they held a favorable attitude toward the Muslim people. That percentage increased to 58% in May 2016 (pre-Orlando) and then to 62% in June 2016 (post-Orlando). This trend also repeated itself with regards to attitudes toward the Muslim religion: 37% were favorable toward the Muslim religion in November 2015, 42% in May 2016 and 44% in June 2016. It was also encouraging to see that the proportion of Americans who identify with the position that Islamic and Western religious and social traditions are incompatible with each other has decreased from 39% in November 2015 to 34% in June 2016.
--Haaretz commentator Bradley Burston writes that “Never has America seemed more like Israel.”*
Breaking News:
At dawn: Border Police shot dead a young Palestinian in a car and critically wounded his friend
Hebrew press gave conflicting reports about a killing at dawn. Most of the papers claimed that the three young Palestinians driving at dawn in their E. Jerusalem village intended or allegedly intended to make a ramming attack on a Border Police force, which was in Al-Ram village raiding a blacksmith workshop that was allegedly used to make Karl Gustav makeshift guns. The forces killed Anwar Asalayma, 24, critically wounded his friend Fares Khader al-Rishq, 20, and arrested a third friend. Locals told Ma’an that Israeli forces opened fire at three Palestinians youths around dawn, as the three were seemingly unaware that Israeli forces were deployed in the town and conducting raids and had closed the main street. (Also Maariv and Haaretz)
Last night, Netanyahu’s right wing government
pushed a law through the Knesset to silence dissent. Although it was touted to the public as a matter of
transparency, the reality is that this law is aimed at Peace Now and other progressive groups.
Never mind that all non-profit organizations receiving funding from foreign governments must already disclose all such funding. Never mind that NGOs on the left, which are already transparent about their donors, are publicly branded, in effect, as agents of foreign governments. Never mind that right-wing groups – whose agendas align comfortably with that of the current Israeli government and who receive millions of dollars in donations from foreign individuals and entities – are able to keep their donors secret.
Israel’s Peace Now Movement to Challenge New NGO Law before Israel’s Supreme Court
Washington, DC -- Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its Israeli sister organization, Peace Now (Shalom Achshav) in strongly condemning the new NGO Law, adopted last night by the Knesset, as a blatant violation of freedom of expression. APN supports Peace Now’s intention to challenge the new law before Israel’s Supreme Court.
As Peace Now points out, this law is tailored specifically to target only peace and human rights organizations. It intends to divert the Israeli public discourse away from the occupation, and to silence opposition to the government's policies.
"(It is permitted to "breach" the walls of modesty and) "satisfy the evil inclination by lying with attractive Gentile women against their will, out of consideration for the difficulties faced by the soldiers and for overall success."
-- Rabbi Col. Eyal Karim, who was announced on Monday as the IDF's intended new chief rabbi, has expressed support in the past for rape of Palestinian women.*
You Must Be Kidding #2:
Some of the wet (organic) waste sorted out by hundreds of thousands of Israeli households in the belief it would be recycled into compost was instead being dumped in the West Bank, north of Jericho, Haaretz+ reported.**
You Must Be Kidding #3:
“During the afternoon shift we launched an activity in Isawiyah to create friction with the residents.”
--Statement from a police report about how Border Police initiate “friction” with residents of East Jerusalem to provoke a violent response from them.***
News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:
On July 6, 2016 the High Planning Committee of the Civil Administration convened in order to discuss and approve
construction plans in the settlements. The committee discussed the approval of 531 housing units in Ma'ale Adumim
and the plan to retroactively legalize the illegal outpost of Horesh Yaron, which is located west of Ramallah.
Since the beginning of 2016 construction plans for 1,823 housing units in the settlements were promoted. out of the
1,823, 314 are retroactive plans for housing units which were built illegally. It is important to note that the
Quartet Report's criticism on Israel's settlement policy focused specifically on retroactive legalization of
illegal outposts and illegal construction.
Additionally, yesterday, July 10 2016, the government approved a transfer approximately 50 Million Shekels to
Kiryat Arba and Hebron.
Peace Now: The promotion of plans in Ma'ale Adumim and the retroactive legalization of an
illegal outpost are a slap in the face of the Quartet. Netanyahu is signaling to Israel's most important allies
that he is not interested in peace and two states but rather in the continuation of the occupation.
Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.
This week, Alpher discusses what’s behind the flurry of diplomatic and strategic activity, including Israel’s rapprochement with Turkey, Netanyahu's meeting in East Africa with seven regional leaders, and the Egyptian foreign minister visiting Israel for the first time in nine years; the strategic backdrop in East Africa; Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry's presumed discussion with Netanyahu about Israeli-Turkish relations; Shukry and Netanyahu's statements Sunday concerning the need to renew some sort of Israeli-Palestinian peace or at least confidence-building process; whether the right-wing Netanyahu government with its strong pro-settler element really has anything to talk about with the Arabs concerning the Palestinian issue; and what’s next regarding establishing Israeli spheres of strategic influence in the region and beyond, and what might this signify for the Palestinian issue.