Since Monday, hundreds of protesters in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis have taken to the streets to rally against Hamas, which has ruled the war-torn Palestinian enclave for nearly two decades, and to call for an end to the war with Israel, as captured in footage shared by local news outlets and widely circulated on social media.

According to local reports, protests spread across multiple neighborhoods in Khan Younis, with many demonstrators demanding that Hamas give up control of Gaza.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.algemeiner.com/2025/05/21/hamas-out-new-round-palestinian-protests-erupt-gaza-against-ruling-terror-group/

The post ‘All Hamas, Out!’ New Round of Palestinian Protests Erupt in Gaza Against Ruling Terror Group first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

To hear the mainstream tell it, Trump’s in a lot of trouble.  They better hope he is, because it won’t go well for them if he’s not.  The court cases are cobbled together using a combination of laws to try to prove their point.  Constitutional scholars say no prosecution like this has ever been brought to court, and good luck this time.  But they are keeping him off the campaign trail.

It kind of strikes us as intentional, that they brought these court cases while campaigning is going on.  They better hope they get him, otherwise he might not be so benevolent the next time around.

The pretender shows up, too often, to let us all know he’s not doing so well.  No one has ever tried acting as president at his age.  There comes a time…  If you ask me they’re trying intentionally to mess things up so badly they can’t be fixed.  Every time you consult the news we’ve got some new problem that just might finish us off.  I can’t help but wonder if that’s not the goal.  Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems Obama advisors are telling him what to say and how to say it.  He’s got to have them in agony as they watch him try to do what he’s told.  We don’t even want to know what’s going on behind the scenes.

We’ve just sent the new WATCH magazine to the printer, and we hope you’ll like it.  We feature the eclipse on the cover.  Talk about making you feel small!  It was an incredible event that scientists have all figured out.  Still, being able to see the activity of the sun outside the blockage of the moon sort of puts you in your place.  We feel sorry for those who think this universe behaves as it does out of pure chance.  Preposterous!

There was a recent article showing Palestinians at the beach.  Apparently it’s hot, and they thought they’d go and cool off.  But they’re wearing their street clothes!  Can you imagine going to the beach in a purple suit, or wrapped in layers of cloth?  Must be a cultural thing.  You wouldn’t understand.

The scandal is that hostages are still being held.  Negotiations have not yielded the desired results, so the war goes on.  The  American administration keeps holding press conferences as if they hold the keys to Israel’s next move.  They don’t.  But they act like they know what they’re talking about, and they’re usually embarrassed and angry.  Maybe they’re about to change sides.

Other than that, most everything is how we left it.  The war in Ukraine is still going on, at great expense as well as the war in Gaza, and we’re still being invaded with the blessing of the current administration.  You wonder if it can be fixed, short of the second coming.  My take is that they’re trying to foul up as much as possible, more than can be fixed in four years.  We can only hope the evil-doers don’t succeed.  We love our country and always have.  The more we see of the world and the insanity that goes on, we can only thank the Creator that He put us here, out of harm’s way.  It may not always be this way.  

Mark

P. S.  We had a great Passover service, with a nearly full auditorium.  The rest of the Holy Day festivities will occur in the few days ahead.  Thanks to all who observe these ceremonies with us.  Don’t you wish everybody did?

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – April 26, 2024 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

It was the only thing that hadn’t gone wrong.  At least there was no war in the Middle East.  But, suddenly, there is.  Maybe this wasn’t thought all the way through.  Did the terrorists not know the wrath their inhumane actions would unleash?  Now they can watch Gaza get blown up.  Large segments already have been.

Americans who haven’t lived in the society of those who sneaked into Israel have no idea about the mindset of these people.  It’s a society where hatred is king.  The more hatred they can drum up, the more successful they’ll be in their society.  If you want to know what they did, you’ve come to the wrong place.  Do people not know the  savagery that defines them?  By their way of thinking, there’s nothing they can do to equal the injustices visited upon them.  The fact of Israel’s existence is the supposed reason for their rage, generation after generation.  Or they might just be crazy.   

In order to understand the depths to which some individuals will go, you have to realize they’re schooled in it.  And it’s their religion.  It’s non-stop on their TV channels, a fact of life, and even in the cartoons.  Allah has spoken, and will not stand by and be insulted.  It’s been going on forever.  But a fuse has been lit with this sneak invasion.  

For years now racism has been the worst thing going.  It’s just about the worst accusation (in woke society) there is.  But liberals have traditionally argued the Palestinian cause.  The Palestinians are drenched in racism.   “Intellectuals” are  saying this war is all Israel’s fault.  Hatred is taught unabashedly in the schools, at home and in the mosques.  From the time children are old enough to talk they parrot back the talking points.  The more they thirst for revenge, the further they will go.  Western minds have a hard time grasping such depth of hatred.  

Everything else will now take a back seat.  This war might well spread.  It already has as missiles are being fired from southern Lebanon, opening another front.  Let’s hope Jordan and Egypt stay out of it, or this could be the one that gets out of control.

We can’t help wondering if Iran is in the mix.  The missiles, the speedboats, the training.  The media are already linking money released to Iran with this terrorist action.  The pretender’s team is saying that money was designated for humanitarian purposes and has not been touched.  Since when do we pay ransom?  There will be Americans getting kidnapped all the time!  

Terrorists don’t wear uniforms.  They can blend back into the civilian population, and they do.  The next thing we’ll hear is how Israel is killing innocent civilians.  Israel delayed it’s ground offensive and told the residents to evacuate.  The Arabs have been beating their breasts for forty years and longer about how heartless and brutal Israel is.  There’s no atrocity they can commit to even the score.  It is borne of a hatred we can scarcely understand.

Beheadings, bodies blown to bits, torture…  No one can imagine the pain of families with lost loved ones, especially when they know they endured suffering at the hands of these animals.  There are reportedly photographs that will break the heart of anyone who sees them.  We’re supposed to look, and experience the heartbroken rage against those responsible.  No thanks.  

Iran is denying they had anything to do with the sneak attack that killed a thousand civilians and took hostages back into Gaza.  It may have been a big mistake to carry off American hostages who were attending a music festival near the border.  There’s video circulating.  Maybe you’ve seen the guy who played dead in the bushes and avoided the fate of those rounded up or shot.  He says the terrorists were laughing, celebrating.  

The terrorists are calling for worldwide jihad.  Syria, Jordan and Egypt are making statements that are less than reassuring.  Israel already bombed airport facilities in Syria to prevent arms being forwarded to Gaza.  

Believe it or not, one publication predicted that the weakness of the incoming administration would result in another Middle Eastern war.  It was the Spectator in Australia.  If you want to see what they said we’ll link it here.  I don’t think this is the big one, but who knows where this will go? 

Mark

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – October 13, 2023 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The death of Tamer al-Kilani, a senior member of the Lions’ Den armed group in Nablus in a pre-dawn explosion in the Old City of Nablus, has triggered calls for retaliation not only against Israel – but also for targeting Palestinians suspected of “collaboration” with Israel.

The slain gunman’s friends are convinced that he was assassinated by Israel with the help of Palestinian “collaborators.”

That’s why al-Kilani is being mourned in Nablus as a “martyr of treason” – a reference to the alleged involvement of Palestinians in his killing.

Residents of Nablus said al-Kilani was aware that he was wanted by Israel for his involvement in a series of attacks on Israelis, and that’s why he took precautionary security measures to avoid being captured by the IDF.

The explosion that killed him came as a surprise to the Lions’ Den gunmen, who are now trying to track down the suspected “collaborators” who allegedly assisted the Israeli security forces, the residents added.

Read more HERE

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-720372

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The post Will Palestinians target ‘collaborators’ after killing of Lions’ Den gunman? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Israel’s delegation to Washington DC will not change the United States position on rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the White House press secretary said in a briefing Friday.

On Monday, a high-level Israeli delegation will travel to Washington to voice objection to the US return to the Iran nuclear deal, but not to hold talks on the details. It will be headed by Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat.

Asked whether the visit will impact the administration’s position on rejoining the deal, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said: “No.”

Psaki expanded on the indirect negotiations with Iran, saying that while the White House “knew they would be challenging, we’re encouraged that there are still conversations between all parties and that they’re still happening.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House, March 5, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

“As it relates to Israel, we have kept them abreast, as a key partner of these discussions, of our intentions and we will continue to do that on any future visits,” Psaki added.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized in a meeting with the delegation last week that Israel is not a party in the nuclear agreement with Iran, and not committed to it, clarifying that “Israel is committed to its own security interests only and will act accordingly,” an Israeli official said Friday.

“The instructions to the senior security officials that are flying to Washington for talks is to present Israel’s opposition to the agreement in Iran and not to negotiate over it, because we are talking about a return to the previous agreement that is dangerous for Israel and the region,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“If in the future there are serious contacts on Iran’s part over an improved agreement, Israel will state its position on the characteristics and content that such an agreement should have,” the official added.

FILE: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi at a press conference after a security cabinet meeting following the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, on November 12, 2019. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi has canceled his participation in the delegation amid a security flare-up in Jerusalem and in Gaza.

The rest of the delegation postponed the trip by a day after 36 rockets were fired at Israel Friday night from the Gaza Strip and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank escalated over the weekend.

Israel is generally concerned that the US is rushing too quickly to return to the 2015 nuclear accord, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and is ignoring the concerns of Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, notably those in the Gulf.

Israel and the US set up a strategic group, which last convened on April 13, to coordinate their efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear arms. The group is led by Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and his Israeli counterpart Ben-Shabbat.

Early last week, Kan news reported that Israel was lobbying the US to push for improved international oversight of Iran’s nuclear program, having concluded there will not be significant changes to the treaty but nonetheless seeking to slightly improve the terms of the pact, which is being negotiated in Vienna, with Europeans acting as intermediaries between Washington and Tehran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that 60-70 percent of the issues had been resolved in Vienna.

In this handout provided by the EU Delegation in Vienna, representatives of the European Union, Iran and others attend the Iran nuclear talks at the Grand Hotel in the Austrian capital, April 15, 2021. (EU Delegation in Vienna via Getty Images, JTA)

Earlier this month, European powers expressed “grave concern” over Iran’s move to boost uranium enrichment to 60% in response to what Tehran says was an attack by Israel against the key nuclear facility of Natanz.

The step will bring Iran closer to the 90% purity threshold for military use and shorten its potential “breakout time” to build an atomic bomb — a goal the Islamic Republic denies.

A spokesman for the US State Department indicated that Washington was backing down from a key prerequisite for its return to the deal.

The Biden administration had repeatedly said that it would only return to the nuclear deal if Iran first returns to compliance. However, last week US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said at a press conference that Washington would only need to be sure that Iran intended to return to compliance.

Critics of the deal have long denounced the deal’s so-called “sunset clauses,” prohibitions on certain nuclear activities that end after a certain number of years. Though the deal technically prohibits Iran from ever developing a nuclear weapon, detractors of the agreement say these clauses will allow Iran to do so with impunity once the sanctions against the regime end.

In this image made from April 17, 2021, video released by the Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting, IRIB, state-run TV, various centrifuge machines line a hall at the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility, Iran. (IRIB via AP, File)

The agreement is also narrowly focused solely on the nuclear issue, ignoring Iran’s development of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that can reach Israel and parts of Europe, as well as its constant funding and support of terror groups like Hezbollah.

Proponents of the agreement generally argue that while the deal is imperfect, it was the best possible deal that could be struck under the circumstances and at least postpones the development of an Iranian nuclear weapon.

Agencies contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/white-house-says-israeli-delegation-will-not-change-us-position-on-iran-deal/

The post White House says Israeli delegation will not change US position on Iran deal first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

An Israeli flag is seen in the E1 area of the West Bank on January 2, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Slightly fewer than half of Israelis back plans to annex parts of the West Bank, and even fewer people think the government will actually go through with its annexation plans, according to a survey released Sunday.

Asked whether they back annexation in the near future, 44.7 percent of respondents to an Israel Democracy Institute survey said they support or strongly support the move. The poll found 31.8% oppose annexation, and 23.5% didn’t know or didn’t answer.

A slight majority of 51.7% Israeli Jews support annexation, the poll found, while among Israeli Arabs, only 8.8% were in favor. Among Jews, 27.9% opposed annexation, and 20.4% didn’t know or didn’t answer. Among Arabs, 51.9% were opposed, and 39.4% didn’t know or didn’t answer.

As part of their coalition agreement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chief Benny Gantz agreed the government that is due to be sworn Wednesday can begin moving forward with applying Israeli sovereignty to settlements and the Jordan Valley after July 1, a move expected to enjoy backing from a majority of lawmakers in the current Knesset.

Support for annexation among Jews was unsurprisingly divided on political lines, with 71% of self-defined right-wing Jews backing it, along with 31% of centrists and only 8% of left-wingers.

Overall, 31.8% of Israelis think the government will actually push ahead with annexation in the coming year. The survey found that many who don’t support the move still think the government will actually carry out the controversial measure, while some supporters were pessimistic it would happen.

Among Jews, 33% thought the government would in fact annex, and 25% of Arabs believed the same. The survey found that 42% of right-wingers think it will happen over the coming year, as do 27% of left-wing Jews and 18% of centrists.

The survey also asked what political status, if any, should be extended to Palestinians in areas slated for annexation.

A plurality of Israelis (32.1%) said the Palestinians’ political status should remain unchanged, while 24.6 % supported giving them full citizenship and 20.5% back permanent residency without the right to vote.

Among only Jews, 37% said the Palestinians’ status should remain unchanged, 24% backed giving them permanent residency and 20% said they support granting them full citizenship.

Among Arabs, 47% supported full citizenship, while 4.5% were okay with permanent residency and 9% think their status should remain unchanged.

The poll was made up of the responses of 769 Israelis and had a margin of error of 3.7%.

According to the Peace Now settlement watchdog, there are 107,070 Palestinians living in the areas of the West Bank that the Trump plan envisions will be part of Israel.

When announcing plans last year to unilaterally annex the Jordan Valley, Netanyahu claimed no Palestinians living there would be absorbed by Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman (2nd-L) at the northern West Bank settlement of Ariel on February 24, 2020. (David Azagury/US Embassy Jerusalem)

In exchange for backing Israeli annexation, the US says Israel must freeze building in parts of the West Bank under its control that won’t be included in its envisioned borders and agree to negotiate with the Palestinians on the basis of the Trump plan, including backing for a Palestinian state.

David Friedman, the US ambassador in Jerusalem, said in an interview last week that Israel has met those conditions and therefore could apply sovereignty in parts of the West Bank as soon as the coming weeks.

Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz (C) speaks to reporters during a visit to the Jordan Valley on January 21, 2020. (Elad Malka/Blue and White)

Annexation is also expected to feature prominently in talks during US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Israel on Wednesday.

While Netanyahu has voiced his unqualified support for advancing annexation, Gantz has welcomed the Trump plan but said in January that Israel should only apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley in coordination with the international community, apparently fearing the move could damage Jerusalem’s diplomatic ties with Jordan and other countries.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/fewer-than-half-of-israelis-back-annexation-even-fewer-think-it-will-happen/

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A sly dig at the international community, this is just one among a torrent of social media posts that has emerged from the blockaded Gaza Strip in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The sight of a world locking itself down seems to have unleashed a wellspring of emotions in Gaza, from sardonic political commentary to schadenfreude, emerging from Palestinian denizens of the tiny coastal enclave that has for years lived with enforced isolation and confinement.

“Have you got bored with your quarantine, the closure of your crossings, your airports and your trade? We in Gaza have been living this for 14 years,” one social media user posted this week.

“Oh world, welcome into our permanent reality,” he added.

Gaza, measuring 375 square kilometers (145 square miles) is home to around two million Palestinians, more than half of them refugees.

Along 90% of its land and sea boundaries its access to the outside world is controlled by Israel, and by Egypt on its narrow southern border.

An Israeli-led blockade has put restrictions on the movement of people and goods for years, amid security concerns following the 2007 takeover of Gaza by the Islamist militant group Hamas, and three subsequent wars which killed thousands of Palestinians and around 100 Israelis.

The irony is not lost on Gazans that the restrictions they chafe against may also have contributed to slowing the entry of coronavirus, with no cases reported thus far in Gaza.

But prolonged closure and isolation have contributed to the crippling of Gaza’s economy, with unemployment at 52 percent and poverty levels of over 50 percent.

Standing in his empty metal factory in northern Gaza City, businessman Youssef Sharaf recalled the years when he used to be able to export electric heaters to Israel and the West Bank.

“I had 70 people working here, today I only have one,” Sharaf told Reuters. Although the underlying causes of his closure were man-made, he empathized with those facing shutdown because of disease.

“It is tough,” he said. “May God be with them.”

But in Gaza’s small but resilient high-tech sector, the obstacles that stop travel abroad also forced the early adoption of teleconferencing and other practices that the world is now catching up with.

At Gaza Sky Geeks, an incubator for young entrepreneurs, computer programmers, and web developers work remotely with international firms.

“Because of the years-long blockade on us, Gaza people better understand the current situation in world countries,” said Angham Abu Abed, 24, a computer engineer who works with a software company in Britain.

“We hope the blockade on us will end, and we hope the virus will disappear from the world.”

The post Blockaded Gaza looks wryly on as world isolates itself first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

It’s now official: Fifteen days after elections, one day after the 23rd Knesset will be sworn in, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will appear for a court hearing at the start of the corruption trial against him. This will happen on March 17 in the Jerusalem District Court. Even if he loses the March 2 elections to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, Netanyahu will still be serving as prime minister on the first day of his trial — no new government will be composed in the laps of these two weeks. And so, the date will become historical. It will be the first time in the history of the State of Israel that a serving prime minister will be put on trial for indictments filed against him on bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.

The event is expected to be especially bizarre because the Jerusalem District Court is situated in East Jerusalem, an area densely populated by Palestinians. Even the name of the street on which the court is situated has symbolic meaning: Salah al-Din, the Muslim leader who defeated the Crusaders in the 1187 battle of Hattin (the Battle of the Horns of Hattin). The prime minister of Israel — one of the most guarded and secured persons in the world — will be forced to appear in a courthouse planted in the very heart of Palestinian East Jerusalem. A reinforced division of guards will be needed to secure him, even before we’ve counted the local and Israeli media that will impose a siege on the event. In light of these factors, chances are high that the court’s administration will decide to move the site of the trial to another, less explosive site where the historic event can be conducted under more reasonable conditions.

The decision regarding the opening date of the trial was made Feb. 18 by the presidency of the Jerusalem District Court and the news took over Israel’s media agenda all at once. Netanyahu was not caught unprepared. Immediately after the broadcasting of the decision, the prime minister invited his rival Benny Gantz to a public debate. This was an attempt on Netanyahu’s part to recapture the agenda and turn public interest away from his trial, but Gantz did not fall into the trap. “You got spooked … so you’re pushing this spin?’’ he tweeted. “Netanyahu awaits a confrontation with the prosecutor in his trial. He’s not relevant anymore. He can’t lead the country. We won’t let him cover up this fact through a fake invitation to a debate,” a senior Blue and White member told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

Israeli law allows a prime minister to continue to serve as such even if they are served with an indictment. A prime minister is forced to resign only after the conclusive court ruling. Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine a situation in which a prime minister shows up each morning at the district court surrounded by dozens of security guards, spends time there until the afternoon hours while simultaneously managing the most complex state on the planet Earth in a role that is viewed as sensitive, explosive and difficult. Netanyahu, on the other hand, claims he will do so easily: “I work 16-17 hours out of every 24-hour day,” Netanyahu said this week in an interview with Army Radio Feb. 18. “So I’ll work 15 hours instead.”

The prime minister acts as if the opening date of the trial has nothing to do with him. He continues his campaign full speed ahead and manages to maintain 30 or more Likud seats in the polls. Blue and White, on the other hand, has not managed to open a serious disparity between them and the Likud, and this political standoff is a real Gordian knot. Meanwhile, the public has lost faith in breaking through this dead end. The fact is that Netanyahu continues to dictate the public agenda and causes significant swathes of the Israeli public to forget their prime minister’s deep criminal entanglements, despite the fact that three indictments are filed against him. This is viewed as typical Netanyahu hocus-pocus. But sometime, sooner or later, the magic dust will settle and Netanyahu will understand the game is over, that he is cornered with real potential for jail time in Maasiyahu Prison where former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spent over a year.

Netanyahu’s escape strategies from the law are narrowing. His options are closing in on him. The immunity option has been off the table since he withdrew it from the current Knesset. Netanyahu’s lawyers claim he can ask for immunity again, but the likelihood of such a scenario is close to zero. The only thing left for Netanyahu is to try to win the elections. There are three possibilities here: either he will win or lose, or the election tie will remain and no bloc will win a Knesset majority.

The worst option from Netanyahu’s view would be losing to Gantz, who would form a government without him. Under such circumstances, Netanyahu would try for a plea bargain to avoid a trial. The chances are not high that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit would agree to let Netanyahu off the hook of doing real jail time. Once Netanyahu is no longer a serving prime minister, he won’t have the whole country in his grasp. Public opinion holds that Mandelblit will insist that Netanyahu spend time behind bars — even for a symbolic period.

Should Netanyahu win the elections, he will try to milk his unbelievable achievement for everything it’s worth: He’ll try to assemble a tough right-wing, ultra-Orthodox coalition that would legislate “the French law” on sovereign immunity allowing him to defer his trial to the day after his tenure is over. Or perhaps he’ll create a situation allowing him to ask the Knesset for immunity again, despite the fact there is a law forbidding it. If he fails, Netanyahu will insist on serving as prime minister simultaneously with his court case. He’ll ask the court to exempt him from being present in the actual court discussions, and he’ll exert heavy pressure on the legal system, appoint a justice minister who will follow his dictums and replace the attorney general with someone who will do his bidding. In short, he will do everything to speed up the self-destruction of the entire system. Israel’s liberal center-left sector views this scenario as a catastrophe.

But what will happen if the more logical scenario takes place: another electoral stalemate? Unclear. If Blue and White will have an advantage of three or four seats, it could demand that Netanyahu forfeit his insistence on serving first in a unity government rotation deal. This demand of Netanyahu is what grounded the entire political system after the September 2019 elections. Should Netanyahu refuse, Gantz and his people will try to undermine the right-wing, ultra-Orthodox bloc and pull out three or four Knesset members or one ultra-Orthodox party in order to create a 61 Knesset-seat majority and establish a government.

If the standoff is more significant, Israel may find itself having to hold its fourth election campaign in a row. Then its nightmare scenario will truly come to life under a serving prime minister who has not earned the trust of the public nor that of the Knesset since 2019 but continues to lead the most complex state in the world.

Good luck to everyone with that!

Source: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/02/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-indictment-trial-knesset-elections.html

The post Facing trial, Netanyahu left with three options first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will soon have normal ties and formal peace agreements with a number of Arab countries.

“I intend in the coming years to conclude normalization and peace agreements with a number of Arab countries,” he said Sunday night, recalling, in particular, his trip to Oman, a country with which Israel has no formal diplomatic relations.

Netanyahu met Oman’s Sultan Qaboos in Muscat in October 2018. The controversial visit was kept secret until after the Israeli premier had returned to the occupied territories.

The Israeli premier made the new remarks at a Likud event in Tel Aviv in which he touted what he characterized as his past diplomatic achievements and pledged more successes.

Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab states that have diplomatic ties with Israel. However, reports have indicated that several of them, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, have had secret relations with Tel Aviv.

Israel and the Persian Gulf Arab states have dramatically increased their contacts since June 2018, when Bahrain hosted a US-led conference where the “economic” part of President Donald Trump’s “peace” plan for the Middle East was unveiled.

The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, visited the UAE capital city of Abu Dhabi in June last year for a UN environmental conference, where he discussed cooperation against Iran, as well as economic and transport collaboration.

On October 26 last year, the Israeli culture and sports minister, Miri Regev, traveled to the UAE to accompany Israel’s judo team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 2018. Her visit marked the first of its kind by an Israeli minister to a Persian Gulf littoral state.

Israel will also take part in the Expo 2020 world fair in Dubai next year.

Israel hopes to further reach out to Arab nations via Dubai expo, officials say. The Expo 2020 Dubai could be grounds for the further normalization of Israel

The recent moves have angered Palestinians, who see normalization as an attempt to liquidate their cause.

Netanyahu also noted that simultaneously with reaching peace deals with Arab countries, he would annex West Bank settlements with US support.

Israel occupied the West Bank during the 1967 Six-Day War with several regional Arab countries, in a move never recognized by the international community.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

Source: https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/12/30/614915/Arab-states-normalize-ties-Israel

The post Netanyahu says Arab states to normalize ties with Israel soon first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Palestinians burning tires near Rafah along the Gaza border fence, July 2019. AFP

• Three Israeli soldiers wounded, attacker killed after Gaza border breach, army says

• Iran, Hamas to open Gaza front if war breaks out in Israeli north, defense officials believe

• Palestinian dies of a gunshot wound sustained by live Israeli fire in Gaza border clashes

For the last month, the agenda in Israel has been entirely political. In advance of the repeat election, and under a real threat of not passing the electoral vote threshold, the negotiations to bring together the various parties have received most of the media attention before the final party slates of Knesset candidates were filed officially by Thursday night.

Security matters have received only a limited amount of attention, at least when we’re talking about newspaper headlines. This summer (and here the diagnosis requires putting the words “for now” before it as a preface) has been exceptionally quiet in military terms. It is doubtful whether even the incident along the border with the Gaza Strip early Thursday morning, in which an IDF officer and two soldiers were wounded by fire from a Hamas militant who crossed the fence into Israel, will change this picture fundamentally.

The political shake-up has not reduced the military missions or worries of the security establishment, where most of the work is conducted behind the scenes and is concentrated at the professional level. Benjamin Netanyahu’s attention, in his double role as prime minister and defense minister, is limited both in time and depth.

>> Read more: Israel’s do-over election: A guide to all the parties and who holds the keys to the next government ■ In next Gaza war, Israeli army eyes crippling Hamas, but not toppling it ■ Israeli military not prepared for threats to civilians during war ■ Israel wants calm on Gaza border, but ‘preparing for military operation,’ Netanyahu says 

Netanyahu is very knowledgeable and experienced in these issues, but he is very busy and worried about his political and legal survival. Most of the security issues, certainly those in which a long-term decision is required, are in deep freeze. The IDF has learned this the hard way, with the understanding in the General Staff that the budgetary and multiyear plan discussions will take place only in preparation for next year – after a new government coalition is finally formed.

As opposed to most election campaigns in the past decades, the security disputes and fears have not taken central stage in the present campaign, which is really still in its earliest stages. The relative quiet that has lasted for a few weeks, until Thursday, in the Gaza Strip, has blunted the force of the criticism of Netanyahu’s policies there.

In the previous election campaign, in April, which ended in political paralysis, the main threat to Netanyahu’s status in the area of security came from the Gaza Strip. A few rounds of escalation in Gaza, alongside a number of harsh terrorist attacks in the West Bank, aroused – for a few minutes – the fear of a general uprising. But it didn’t happen, mostly because Netanyahu bit his tongue, restrained himself and limited the strength of the IDF’s response.

His approach to the Gaza Strip brought him heavy criticism from Yisrael Beiteinu, Hayamin Hehadash, Kahol Lavan and even at times from Labor, which blamed him for military impotence against Hamas. But the alternative – a war that it is possible to know how it starts but not how it ends – looked even more problematic to Netanyahu. He showed similar restraint in the latest round of fighting at the beginning of May, in which four Israelis were killed.

Politicians who spoke with Netanyahu only a few weeks ago had the impression that a military campaign in Gaza, in spite of his clear lack of desire, looked to him to be an almost unavoidable scenario that could take place even before the September 17 election.

Last week, at the annual memorial ceremony for the fallen of Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, the largest military operation of his 13 years in power, Netanyahu said that his government is working to achieve calm in the Gaza Strip, but at the same time “we are preparing for a widescale operation that will strike a blow against Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, a military strike that they have never suffered before. I can’t give details but this is not just talk. We want calm; we are preparing for a [military] campaign.”

This week the IDF made sure to publicize, with Netanyahu’s encouragement, details of a broad divisional military exercise held along the border with the Gaza Strip in which they trained for a large conflict in Gaza. Netanyahu knows the commander of the Gaza Division very well; he is Brig. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, the prime minister’s former military aide.

Still, we must read between the lines. The IDF briefing for journalists does not speak about conquering the Gaza Strip but about “a large-scale ground maneuver” that will “cause heavy damage” to Hamas’ military arm – far from the ideas voiced by former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, for example, who fell out with Netanyahu and resigned in November 2018.

For now, Netanyahu, too, has moderated his tone, including behind closed doors. First, because it seems he thinks – fervently – that a military imbroglio in Gaza would put him in real danger of losing the election. And second, because the other parties involved – Hamas and the mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations – are singing a new song, a more optimistic one.

A certain amount of hope exists that the process of transferring money from Qatar to the Gaza Strip will be conducted this month in a more organized manner. In light of the expectations of launching infrastructure projects that have been talked about for many months, calming messages from Hamas and the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday coming in 10 days, it is possible that a miracle will happen once again and Gaza will remain calm until the Israeli election, and even later.

On Thursday the IDF rushed to explain that the Hamas operative who opened fire on Golani infantry soldiers along the border with the Gaza Strip, and who was shot and killed after the initial, hesitant response by the forces in the field, acted on his own initiative. For now, it looks like another way to say that this time too, the Israeli response will be restrained, with the goal of not being dragged into another escalation.

The post Analysis Netanyahu Vows Unprecedented Response if Gaza Flares Up – but It’s the Last Thing He Wants first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.