Ruthie Blum: The bigger picture behind the narrow Gantz-NGO controversy
It's hard to believe that Israel's defense minister would lie about such an event, the veracity of which would be easy to check. Nor would it make sense for him to have targeted specific groups without evidence. Moreover, the watchdog group NGO Monitor said that Gantz's announcement confirms what its research has shown for years.
Whether the defense minister is right or wrong about the NGOs he singled out, however, the brouhaha brings to light two larger points that the Israeli government keeps trying to deny or sweep under the carpet. One is that false assertion that the "diversity" of political parties that make up the coalition is an advantage, not a hindrance.
The second is the ridiculous claim that the government – now led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett but squeezed hard by parties to his left – has the Biden administration in the bag. Oh, and that this "change government" will "bridge" the partisan Democrat-Republican divide on Israel that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supposedly created and cultivated.
Well, the PFLP-NGO scandal is only the latest among many internecine spats that have been rocking the shaky coalition. This doesn't mean that it's going to fall, mind you, as every one of its members still has more to lose than gain by quitting and toppling it.
But the explosion illustrates, yet again, that the only way for it to function is through the capitulation – not "compromise," as its champions like to euphemize – of one side to the other. And the right hasn't been winning the tug of war.
The genie that Gantz let out of the bottle belies the similar pipe dream of improved relations with the Democrats across the ocean. As anyone paying attention is aware, the battle in the United States, like that in Israel, is ideological.
Ironically, the left knows this full well. It's about time for Bennett and his buddies to acknowledge that the split within both countries and between the two cannot be mended with masking tape.
Gantz, who's being pummeled by the Palestinians and their apologists at home and around the world, is being forced to learn that lesson. As someone who himself campaigned on a ticket of "restoring" relations with the Democrats, he ought to be eating his hat – and a hunk of humble pie – while sticking to his guns against those groups whose work and cashflow should be stopped.
Richard Kemp: Jerusalem Consulate: A Nail in the Coffin of Peace
This may seem like just another diplomatic facility to issue visas, promote trade and take care of US citizens, with no greater consequence than the US consulate in Edinburgh, UK. But it is far more than a mere office for paper-shuffling diplomats. It amounts to a de facto US embassy to the Palestinians on Israeli territory. Its true purpose is to undermine Israeli sovereignty in its own capital city and will jeopardise future prospects for peace between Israel and Palestinian Arabs.i24NEWS:'This is the beginning of undoing the recognition of Jerusalem' says Prof. Kontorovich
As well as betraying Israel, Biden's irresponsible diplomatic signalling — which also appeases his hard-left supporters — is a betrayal of the Palestinian people. They have suffered too long and too hard under the hostility of their leadership, which has consistently refused to entertain all proposals for peace with Israel that could lead to the establishment of their own state.
Successive Palestinian leaders have been encouraged in their intransigence by the US and Europe who have for decades extracted concession after concession from Israel while Palestinians make none.
The intended consulate in Israel's capital will... encourage greater support for Hamas, the terrorist group that rules Gaza....
That this is not mere bureaucratic reshuffling can also be understood from the Biden administration's determination to do it in the face of Israeli government opposition and despite it potentially breaching Israel's Basic Law, US law and the 1963 Vienna Convention, which does not allow a consulate to be opened without host nation consent.
In addition, opening a consulate in the same city as an existing embassy — an unprecedented move — reinforces its immense political significance. Especially as there is no practical purpose for the new facility, with the embassy already incorporating a department devoted exclusively to Palestinian affairs.
Following his validation in Afghanistan of this damning indictment, Biden now has a chance at last to get something right by abandoning his plan to undermine a close ally, reduce the prospects of peace and sentence the Palestinian people to more decades of suffering.
Interview with Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, Director of the International Law Department, Kohelet Policy program.
Kontorovich analyzes the latest on Israel-US relations
Amb. Alan Baker: Are the Palestinians Changing their Legal Tactics in the International Courts?
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ desire to petition the International Court of Justice on the “issue of the legality of the occupation of the land of the Palestinian state and the relevant obligations for the United Nations and States around the world in this regard” opens a “Pandora’s box” of questions.
A legal situation of “occupation” is, in and of itself, not inherently illegal. On the contrary, it is a legally acknowledged situation in international law and practice.
To raise the question before the international court as to whether there exists a “Palestinian state” would appear to be presumptuous and even pre-empt and prejudge the outcome of the negotiation process. There exists no internationally accepted and binding document attesting to the existence of any Palestinian state.
It is unclear if those advising the Palestinian leadership fully understand the distinction between the status and functions of the two different international judicial bodies, the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
The Palestinian leadership alleging before the UN and ICJ that Israel is violating the Oslo Accords would be ironic, in light of the long list of fundamental breaches of those accords by the Palestinians.
It remains improbable that the Palestinian leadership could establish any viable cause of action in the ICJ against Israel, based on the Oslo Accords.