Tag: israel

Israel’s top court rules army must draft ultra-Orthodox Jews

The Israeli High Court ruled on 25 June that male Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) who are eligible for service must be drafted into the military, a decision that threatens the already fragile unity in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition. 

The High Court ruling stipulated that in the absence of a law distinguishing Haredi seminary students from other eligible military draftees, mandatory service applies to the ultra-Orthodox just as it does to all other Israeli citizens. 

According to the court, there is no longer any legal basis for the Israeli government to grant blanket exemptions to Haredim students nor to instruct the military not to draft them.

“This is a historic victory for the rule of law and the principle of equality in the burden of military service,” said the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which has been petitioning for the court to rule in favor of ending Haredi exemption from army service.

“We call on the government and the defense minister to implement the decision without delay, to comply with the High Court’s order, and to work immediately to draft yeshiva students,” the statement added. 

Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jews of military age have been able to avoid compulsory enlistment into the army for decades by enrolling in yeshivas (religious schools) and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption.

The issue has been a source of great tension in Israel lately, particularly following the start of the war – as many in the government believe that the burden of service falls on all Israelis. Others, namely the leaders of far-right religious parties on which the coalition relies, have been pushing for continued exemptions of the Haredim. The government has for months been attempting to reach a consensus on the matter. 

Opposition leaders from both right-wing and left-wing parties praised the Supreme Court ruling. 

Head of the Yisrael Beytenu party, Avigdor Lieberman, congratulated the court for taking “a significant step on the way to historical change,” noting that the army’s losses from the fighting in Gaza will require more personnel. 

“Congratulations on a just decision of the High Court of Justice. Where there is no government there is justice,” said the leader of the Israeli Labor Party, Yair Golan. 

Benny Gantz, National Unity leader and former war cabinet member, blamed Netanyahu for seeking “solutions for maintaining the coalition” rather than dealing with the severe enlistment crisis Israel currently faces as a result of the war. 

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Will Biden Drag Americans Into a War in Lebanon?

It was September 1983, and a young senator named Joe Biden had a message for President Ronald Reagan. “I would not support any authorization for troops in Lebanon of any duration absent much more clearly defined goals and a reasonable prospect of attaining those goals,” Biden said, commenting on a proposed congressional war powers resolution.

U.S. Marines had been deployed to Lebanon as part of peacekeeping mission in the wake of an Israeli invasion aimed at destroying Palestinian militias, and Congress was debating whether to continue the mission. A month after Biden’s warning, a truck bomb killed 241 American and 58 French peacekeepers in their barracks, and Reagan pulled out the Americans.

Today, Biden is considering sending U.S. forces back into the fray—not as bystanders but as direct combatants—with far less permission from Congress.

Since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, a parallel border conflict has been raging in the north. The Lebanese militia Hezbollah and the Israeli army are shelling into each other’s territory, forcing around 100,000 people on each side of the border out of their homes. Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has said that it will continue until an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire is reached in Gaza. Israeli officials are considering a “blitzkrieg” offensive to neuter Hezbollah.

Last year, Biden dissuaded Israel from launching an invasion of Lebanon. He has also dispatched U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, an Israeli army veteran who previously secured an Israeli-Lebanese border agreement, to mediate between the two sides. But while he’s discouraging an Israeli invasion, Biden is also promising to back one up if it happens.

CNN reported on Friday that the Biden administration was offering “assurances” of U.S. military support to Israel if a major war breaks out, “though the US would not deploy American troops to the ground in such a scenario.” Then, on Monday, Politico reported that Biden was contemplating “more direct military support” if Israel comes under “severe duress.”

And that’s a real likelihood. Separately, a U.S. official told CNN last week that Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system “will be overwhelmed” in the event of a full-on missile war, according to U.S. assessments. A week ago, Hezbollah published a video of one of its drones hovering over the Israeli port city of Haifa.

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The U.S. Power Structure is Blindly Dedicated to Israel

Recently there was an important event at Columbia Law School. The school’s law review published a piece on a sweeping legal theory of the Nakba by Harvard law student Rabea Eghbariah — and the board of the law review stepped in in unprecedented fashion to shut down the publication online. After the Intercept reported that the website had been “nuked,” the authoritarian move became an embarrassment; and the piece was restored. Though students obviously feel chilled.

This story reminds us that the U.S. establishment is firmly and blindly pro-Israel. The board that squashed the students included operators of the highest order: professor Gillian Metzger, who also serves in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel; Justice Department senior counsel Lewis Yelin; and Ginger Anders, a former assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General.

We used to call people like this the ruling class. These high appointees understand what American values are, and today American values are standing by Israel even as it massacres thousands of children. These values surely have to do with the importance of Zionist donors to Joe Biden and universities, but they go beyond that to the makeup of the U.S. establishment. Pro-Israel voices — including Jewish Zionists — are a significant element of corporate culture. They are a generational force. Young progressives and young Jews are rejecting Israel. But they aren’t in the power structure.

One of the most telling stories about the establishment came and went last November. Two dozen leading law firms sent a letter to the leading law schools, including Harvard and Columbia, saying that they would not hire students from law schools that failed to crack down on antisemitism. And one of those firms, Davis Polk, rescinded job offers to three students who had taken part in pro-Palestinian protests. The letter said:

“We look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses.”

A partner at Sullivan & Cromwell told the New York Times that Jewish students feel “actually scared,” “threatened,” and “betrayed.” 

The letter was a shot across the bow of prestige schools well before Congress brought down the boom on the Harvard and Penn presidents in December. After all, the function of these schools — the reason young people clamor to get into them — is to gain employment in prestigious jobs upon graduation.

Just a week after the letter — shockingly — Columbia suspended the Palestinian solidarity groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

The law firms’ letter was “spearheaded,” the firm Paul, Weiss bragged at the time, by two Jewish chairs at two white-shoe firms (Joe Shenker, former chair of Sullivan and Cromwell, and Brad Karp, current chair at Paul, Weiss).

The letter was published at a time when many corporate leaders were issuing condemnations of the Hamas attack on Israel. Paul, Weiss chair Brad Karp explained to the Times that he was disappointed that more leaders weren’t doing so — and that being for Israel was no different than other great progressive causes, civil rights and women’s rights included.

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Israel bombed southern Lebanon with banned white phosphorus munitions: Report

Israeli forces in recent months have targeted forests and populated areas in southern Lebanon with internationally banned white phosphorus bombs and munitions, local media reports say.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that the most recent attacks occurred near the town of Kfar Kila.

Israeli forces are also carrying out “a search operation” near Kfar Kila from their base in Metula, a town on the northern side of the 1948 Israeli-occupied territories.

The report further says the attacks endangered civilians’ lives and caused massive fires in the region.

Israel continues to use white phosphorus munitions in south Lebanon, causing lasting damage and driving villagers away.

A series of reports have said that white phosphorus attacks are “putting civilians at grave risk” and “contributing to displacement”.

A recent investigation by Qatar-based al-Jazeera found that Israel had dropped 117 phosphoric bombs on southern Lebanon, striking at least 32 towns and villages between October and March.

The impacted area spanned nearly the entirety of Lebanon’s 100km southern border with the occupied territories. Israel’s repeated use of white phosphorous has drawn the ire of international humanitarian organizations.

On March 19, Oxfam called on the administration of US President Joe Biden to “immediately suspend arms transfers to Israel.”

Israel reportedly used US-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon, according to a Washington Post investigation in December.

Photos and videos verified by international rights groups and reviewed by The Post show the characteristic ribbons of white phosphorus smoke falling over Dheira, a southern Lebanese village, on October 16.

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Top US Law Schools Present Undeniable Evidence Of Israel’s Gaza Genocide

On May 15, the University Network for Human Rights (UNHR), a U.S.-based advocacy group training undergraduates in human rights law at colleges and universities worldwide to counter abusive state, corporate, or private conduct, published a 105-page analysis of international law and its application to Israel’s military actions since October 7, 2023. Drawing on extensive evidence and historical legal precedents, the findings leave no doubt that Israel has committed horrific breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention in Gaza.

A collaborative effort by some of the West’s most prestigious law schools, the report has now been submitted to the United Nations. The institution has yet to comment on the UNHR investigation’s irrefutable, bombshell contents. The mainstream media has also remained silent. Given the complicity of Western journalists in whitewashing and justifying unconscionable crimes in Gaza, this is not surprising. However, the silence has been so pervasive that the report may have even gone unnoticed by committed Palestine solidarity activists.

This silence is itself an injustice, as the UNHR has produced a singular, indispensable resource for factually, legally, and morally refuting the arguments and assertions of Zionists and their allies, old and new. The report details, in devastating forensic detail, the variety of deplorable, murderous ways in which the Israeli state and its operatives at every level are culpable for committing genocide in Gaza, from public expressions of “blatant and unequivocal dehumanization and cruelty” to military actions explicitly designed to maximize Palestinian slaughter.

As defined in the Genocide Convention of 1948 and interpreted by international courts and tribunals, the crime of genocide requires that a perpetrator kill, seriously harm, or inflict conditions of life calculated to destroy a group, in whole or in part, with the intent to destroy that group. Thomas Becker, UNHR’s legal director, tells MintPress News: “What’s happening now is both unprecedented and, in many ways, a textbook case of genocide.”

Five days after the publication of the UNHR’s landmark investigation, International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan announced his intent to indict Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for numerous crimes against humanity and atrocities committed since October 7, 2023. While it remains uncertain whether they will ever face justice, the Network’s report should inspire governments and citizens worldwide to work relentlessly towards achieving that righteous goal.

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Is Joe Biden Issuing Legal Orders to the US Military?

Is it legal for a U.S. president to order American troops to take action that enables a genocide? I should think not. The president takes essentially the same oath of office as military members do. Its essential thrust is supporting and defending the U.S. Constitution. As the civilian commander-in-chief, the President issues orders to the military that are of course authoritative, that must be obeyed, except when those orders are illegal. So, for example, U.S. presidents shouldn’t be able to order torture, nor should they be able to issue orders that contribute to genocide, and, if they do, service members are within their rights to refuse to obey such orders. Indeed, if they put “integrity first” (the leading Air Force core value) as well as the U.S. Constitution, one might argue that should feel compelled by conscience to disobey.

It’s not an easy issue for sure, because the Biden administration claims that Israel is not prosecuting a genocide in Gaza. In fact, the Biden administration sees Israel as a vital ally to America, fully deserving of near-total U.S. support, therefore any service member who objects to orders on legal or moral grounds runs up against the full authority and weight of the chain of command.

Honestly, I’m glad I was never put in this position when I was in the U.S. military. Yet I still think about it. How would I feel as an Air Force officer loading or flying 2000-pound bombs to Israel to be dropped on Palestinians in Gaza? How would I feel as a Navy officer covering the flanks of Israel so that the IDF can concentrate its forces in murderous assaults on Gaza? How would these and similar actions be in the cause of defending America and supporting the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic?

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Biden Team Ignores Israel’s History of Deceit and Deception

Question: How do you know when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lying?

Answer: He moves his lips.

Israel’s history over the past 76 years is replete with examples of deceit.  This was true from the start, when the Israelis denied their role in expelling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes during Israel’s War of Independence.  The Arab world refers to the expulsion as the “nakba” (the catastrophe), which is largely denied in Israel.  The Israeli legacy of denying the “nakba” is no different from those who deny the Holocaust.

The mainstream media bends over backwards to defend Israel’s case, and over the years it has said very little about the history of Israel’s deceit and deception.  As recently as last week, for example, the Washington Post carried a bizarre headline that read “Israel is on its honor to comply with U.S. intelligence limits.” The accompanying story was a significant one, detailing the importance of the U.S. intelligence provided to Israel to conduct the rescue of four Israeli hostages, an operation that took the lives of nearly three hundred Palestinians, mostly women and children.  By any definition of the requirement for proportionality in wartime, this was indeed a war crime.

The Post article went on to cite National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, an apologist for Israel since the start of the war on October 7th, who explained that the United States has “provided an intense range of assets and capabilities and expertise to Israel,” and that the provision of intelligence  is “not tied or conditioned on anything else.  It is not limited.  We are not holding anything back.  We are providing every asset, every tool, every capability.”  These remarks are dispositive of our complicity in Israel’s brutal and unconscionable assault against Palestinian civilians.

At the same time, U.S. officials disingenuously claim that Israeli is prohibited from using U.S. intelligence for targeting in Gaza in any military operations, including airstrikes.”  They argue that there are “long-standing formal arrangements that are scrutinized by lawyers in the U.S. intelligence community, as well as directives from the White House following the October 7th attacks.”  This is particularly disingenuous because of the long record of deceit and deception from both the U.S. intelligence community regarding U.S. wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and the Israeli lies over the years regarding their wars in 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982.  I’ve written extensively about U.S. and Israeli lies in my articles for CounterPunch and my various books and articles.  And I will return to this deceit in future articles.

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Israeli war chief demands extended mandatory service to overcome troop shortages

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to schedule an urgent meeting to discuss extending compulsory military service to three years, Hebrew news outlet Makan reported on 21 June. 

The request comes in light of a serious enlistment crisis and shortage of soldiers in the Israeli army. 

“The new security reality requires finding means to continue the war effort,” Gallant was quoted as saying. Gallant has requested that Netanyahu approve this in government within the coming days.

The war minister’s request also comes less than two weeks after Israel’s Knesset voted in favor of a controversial draft conscription bill to delay the enlistment of Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) to the army. 63 voted for the bill, and 57 opposed it. 

The conscription of the Haredim has been a source of much tension in Israel lately. Far-right parties, on which Netanyahu’s coalition relies, favor continued exemption for the Haredim, while others, including Gallant, believe the burden of military service is a responsibility for all Israelis. 

Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jews of military age have been able to avoid compulsory enlistment into the army for decades by enrolling in yeshivas (religious schools) and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption.

The government has been unable to reach a consensus on the matter. 

“For many months, the security and military establishment has been working to advance the draft law and reach agreements with the Ministries of Finance and the Judiciary, without success or progress in meeting the immediate and urgent needs of the army,” Gallant said. 

The issue of the Haredim has contributed to severe shortages of soldiers in the army during wartime. 

An Israeli army radio correspondent, Doron Kadosh, reported on Monday that the military is setting up a new division for reservists over the retirement age of 40 in order to meet the “urgent need for more troops.”

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New legal powers for Jewish settlers open door to ‘actual annexation’ of West Bank

The Israeli military has quietly handed over significant legal powers in the occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants working for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the Guardian reported on 21 June, in a move that will help accelerate Israel’s illegal annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israeli military announced the transfer of responsibility for dozens of bylaws at the Civil Administration on its website on 29 May. The Civil Administration governs the West Bank under the military’s direction.

Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, said: “The bottom line is that [for] anyone who thought the question of annexation was foggy, this order should end any doubts. What this order does is transfers vast areas of administrative power from the military commander to Israeli civilians working for the government.”

The transfer will allow Smotrich and his civilian appointees from his religious settler movement to further remove domestic legal obstacles to the theft of Palestinian land for Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

It will also allow Smotrich to further limit Palestinians from building new homes on their own land, which are needed as their population grows.

Israel captured the West Bank and militarily occupied it in 1967. It is home to millions of indigenous Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

Acquiring territory through war and establishing foreign settlements therein is illegal under international law.

The Guardian notes that Israeli politicians have long sought to​ find ways to annex the occupied Palestinian West Bank and make it formally part of Israel.

The transfer of laws, which received little attention in the Israeli press, follows a years-long campaign by pro-settlement politicians to acquire legal powers in the West Bank previously held by the Israeli military as the occupying power.

The laws cover everything from building regulations to the administration of agriculture, forestry, parks, and bathing locations.

Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst for Israel–Palestine at Crisis Group, said, “The big story is that this is no longer ‘creeping annexation’ or ‘de facto annexation,’ it is actual annexation.”

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US-Built Gaza Pier To Be Dismantled Early Amid Ongoing Failures

Following the latest weather and choppy seas setback, the US-built aid pier off Gaza has resumed operations as of the end of this week (Thursday), the Pentagon said, after it broke apart last month. It’s been an on-again off-again situation and the controversial and costly pier project has by and large proven ineffective.

But despite aid reportedly now rolling off the pier once again, Israeli media on Saturday has documented more embarrassing issues, including apparently broken off parts from the pier still washing up to shore far away from its location…

Following significant repairs it underwent at an Israeli port, the pier was transferred back in place amid a series of problems largely due to turbulent seas in the eastern Mediterranean..

The Associated Press has written in a fresh report that “Aid groups have sharply criticized the plan to bring aid by sea into Gaza, saying it’s a distraction to take pressure off Israel to open more land border crossings that are far more productive.”

This week The New York Times essentially declared that the expensive Biden project is an utter failure and that it will be dismantled earlier than expected.

“The $230 million temporary pier that the U.S. military built on short notice to rush humanitarian aid to Gaza has largely failed in its mission, aid organizations say, and will probably end operations weeks earlier than originally expected,” the Times wrote.

“In the month since it was attached to the shoreline, the pier has been in service only about 10 days. The rest of the time, it was being repaired after rough seas broke it apart, detached to avoid further damage or paused because of security concerns,” the report continued.

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