Category: News

A look at three examples of ‘truth telling’ which annexation has revealed.

By Robert A. H. Cohen| Patheos | July 1, 2020

Like the Settlements project, annexation will creep forward month by month and year by year until the desired new status quo is achieved.

The July 1st deadline has come and gone, and annexation hasn’t arrived. But don’t celebrate yet. It’s delayed not cancelled. The Trump White House is divided on the details; the international protest is stronger than expected; and Israel has a renewed coronavirus crisis that ought to be getting its government’s full attention.

But with Donald Trump’s polling numbers in the US tumbling and rumors that he may even drop out of the November election if he thinks he can’t win, Prime Minister Netanyahu will be wanting to get the ball rolling on annexation as soon as possible.

And once it’s on the Knesset statute books will it ever come off? Like the Settlements project, annexation will creep forward month by month and year by year until the desired new status quo is achieved. That means enlarged Israeli sovereignty/apartheid (ultimately including the Jordan Valley), total control of security from ‘the river to the sea’ and disconnected, semi-autonomous Palestinian Bantustans. Trump will have been the enabler, but the political legacy will be Netanyahu’s to enjoy and the Palestinians to endure.

Continue reading “Annexation (even when delayed) is the great truth teller on Israel/Palestine”

Human rights attorney Noura Erakat is sharing the 3 things you should know about Israel’s latest annexation plans.

By Noura Erakat | Nowthis News | June 30, 2020

‘Israel is using this moment to further entrench its unrelenting settler colonization of Palestine.’
—Noura Erakat, human rights attorney

This video (5:12) makes clear how Israel is continuing to use annexation to further its ongoing settler colonization of Palestine and doing it with the full support of the US government for this illegal action.

Continue reading “Israel’s latest plans for annexation of Palestinian land”

The pushback on annexation from many countries may be pressuring Netanyahu to consider a less-ambitious move.

By Scott Neuman / Colin Dwyer | NPR |  July 1, 2020

‘It seems unlikely to me that this will happen today,’
—Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, a member of the Blue and White party

For weeks, observers of Israel and the Palestinian territories have had July 1 circled on the calendar. Yet, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s previous suggestions, it appears that the date will pass without a formal announcement concerning Israel’s plans for annexing part of the occupied West Bank.

“It seems unlikely to me that this will happen today,” said Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, a member of the Blue and White party, which partnered with Netanyahu’s Likud in an uneasy coalition government earlier this year.

In comments to Israel’s Army Radio on Wednesday, Ashkenazi cautioned that only the prime minister could clarify the timing with certainty.

Continue reading “Delay appears likely in Israel’s plans to annex parts of West Bank”

How the history of dispensationalism shapes U.S. foreign policy today.

By Jeffrey Rosario | The Washington Post |  June 30, 2020

In a recent sermon, John Hagee, founder and chairman of CUFI, alleged that the coronavirus ‘was not an accident, it was planned.’

This week, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the nation’s largest pro-Israel organization, will host a virtual summit in lieu of what was originally expected to be a major conference in Washington. Featured speakers include a lineup of top U.S. and Israeli officials: Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Republican Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton.

In a recent sermon, John Hagee, founder and chairman of CUFI, alleged that the coronavirus “was not an accident, it was planned.” He claimed that liberal American politicians, the media and China have conspired to extend the pandemic into November to further disrupt the U.S. economy and undermine President Trump’s reelection campaign. CUFI has complained that the conspiracy behind the pandemic has distracted the U.S. government from its role in the Middle East.

Continue reading “The mainstreaming of Christian Zionism could warp foreign policy”

A letter backed by four prominent progressives in Congress was immediately rejected by pro-Israel groups in Washington.

By Ali Harb  |  Middle East Eye  |  June 30, 2020

‘We cannot support an undemocratic system in which Israel would permanently rule over a Palestinian people denied self-determination or equal rights,’
— US House Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Pramila Jayapal and Betty McCollum

Four Democratic congresswomen have put forward a strong-worded letter against Israel’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank, calling for using a “combination of pressure and incentives” to prevent it, including imposing conditions on American military aid to Israel.

The letter, led by House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and co-signed by Rashida Tlaib, Pramila Jayapal and Betty McCollum, was met with immediate rejection by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Monday, setting the stage for a confrontation between progressive Democrats and pro-Israel groups in Washington.

“Unilateral annexation in the West Bank would alienate US lawmakers and citizens. We cannot support an undemocratic system in which Israel would permanently rule over a Palestinian people denied self-determination or equal rights,” the letter, addressed to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, reads.

Continue reading “Ocasio-Cortez spearheads letter vowing to condition US aid to Israel over annexation”

The world’s frantic attempts to stop annexation remain stuck in the liberal Zionist fantasies that kept the occupation running smoothly for decades.

By Yousef Munayyer | +972 Magazine | June 23, 2020

The reality on the ground is that de facto annexation — as the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on Israel’s separation wall noted 16 years ago — is already in place, thanks in great part to the liberal Zionist governments that built and maintained the occupation since 1967.

As the new Israeli government was being sworn in last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed before the Knesset that it was time to “write another glorious chapter in the history of Zionism” by formally annexing more territory in the occupied West Bank.

With just over a week away from July 1 — the date the government has pledged to begin advancing legislation to apply “Jewish sovereignty” over its settlements — liberal Zionist figures and organizations, in Israel and abroad, have been hastily pulling out all the stops to prevent this annexation move.

However, hardly any of these liberal Zionists are acknowledging that it was their own advocacy that helped to produce this “glorious chapter” in the first place.

Continue reading “Liberal Zionism paved the Israeli right’s path to annexation”

Jamaal Bowman’s apparent victory over Eliot Engel punctures the Israel lobby’s carefully cultivated mythology of invincibility.

By Josh Ruebner | Mondoweiss | June 24, 2020

Bowman’s apparent victory is not a setback for the Israel lobby–it is a monumental collapse.

In August 2014, I helped organize and moderated a gut-wrenching panel on Capitol Hill during Israel’s ferocious Operation Protective Edge, its 50-day spree of war crimes unleashed against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The panel featured searing testimony from Tariq Abukhdeir, the Florida teen who had been viciously beaten by Israeli border police while handcuffed the previous month after his cousin Mohammed had been savagely murdered by Israeli extremists, and author Laila El-Haddad, who had received the horrific news that very day that the Israeli military killed eight members of her family.

C-SPAN covered the event live, a move so disconcerting to Israel’s supporters on Capitol Hill that the network was forced to temporarily cut away from the panel to cover a rambling, impromptu paean to Israel delivered by Sen. Barbara Boxer to a largely empty chamber.

Continue reading “Apparent Bowman victory over Engel is a monumental collapse for Israel lobby”

Annexation would increase Israeli control over occupied territories and negate prospects of a viable Palestinian state, legislators warn.

By Ali Harb | Middle East Eye | June 25, 2020

‘Let us be clear, without the [U.S.] administration’s plan, annexation would unlikely be considered by the Israeli leadership.’
—letter signed by all 15 Joint list legislators, led by Knesset Member Aida Touma-Sliman

Palestinian members of the Israeli parliament are calling on US Democrats to “take a firm stand” against Israel’s plan to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank, and use “all the tools” at their disposal to prevent it.

In a letter addressed to Democratic members of the US Congress on Thursday, members of the Joint List, which represents Palestinian citizens of Israel, said annexation would be a violation of “universal values and norms”.

“We would respectfully suggest that this undermines American interests. We caution that any such move will destabilize the region further and will heighten the tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, and between Israel and its neighbors, notably Jordan,” reads the letter, led by Knesset Member Aida Touma-Sliman and signed by all 15 Joint list legislators.

Continue reading “Palestinian-Israeli Joint List urges US Democrats to stop annexation”

Comments about annexation indicate concern for public opinion and less about the lives of Palestinians.

By Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss | June 25, 2020

…annexation ‘will absolutely create challenges and tensions as it relates to the different segments of the Jewish population here in the United States and I think across the diaspora.’
—Jonathan Greenblatt, Anti-Defamation League

American Jews will “pay a special price” for Israeli annexation of occupied lands because we “are held responsible” for Israel’s actions, Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League, warned on Tuesday.

Greenblatt spoke in a forum opposing annexation because it forecloses negotiations for a Palestinian state. He said that annexation “will absolutely create challenges and tensions as it relates to the different segments of the Jewish population here in the United States and I think across the diaspora.” He went on:

Jewish communities around the world in diaspora, in Europe, in South America in South Africa, and here in the United States– I think we will pay a special price as we are often held responsible for Israeli actions and policies.

Continue reading “US Jews will ‘pay a special price’ for annexation as ‘we are held responsible for Israeli policies’ — Greenblatt”