Israel

Biden wants Israel and Saudi Arabia to Normalize, but are Riyadh’s Demands for Nuclearization a Deal Breaker?

Dr Adnan Abu Amer AdnanAbuAmer2 ( Middle East Monitor ) – Despite US efforts to get Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalise their relations, the process keeps faltering. Israeli officials speak of a long and important list of demands made by the Kingdom to the Americans. Although a normalisation agreement with Saudi Arabia and […]

Haredim

Israel’s Protests are about the Rise of the Israeli Ayatollahs, not Democracy

Ramzy Baroud

Dr Ramzy Baroud RamzyBaroud ( Middle East Monitor ) – At first glance, the statement may seem baffling. If Israel is a ‘Jewish State’ that serves as a ‘homeland’ for all Jewish people, everywhere, does it not follow that the ‘struggle’, at least from an Israeli viewpoint, is essentially a religious one? If only […]

Featured

Will the Triumph of the Messianic Israeli Far Right Destabilize the Country?

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The Israeli government voted this week to limit their Supreme Court’s ability to overturn unconstitutional laws after several months of debate. This elicited storm of global criticism, including from the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which said it is “gravely concerned” that this will further fracture Israel and American […]

Haredim

With Israel in Turmoil, its “Lost Boys” are Stoking Extreme Nationalism

The Conversation

By Anna Lippman, York University, Canada | – We saw it in the United States on Jan. 6, 2021. We witnessed it during Canada’s so-called Freedom Convoy. The evidence is clear —fascism is on the rise in North America. But ethno-nationalist fascism is growing even faster in the remote areas of occupied Palestine amid widespread […]

Authoritarianism

Chaos as Israel departs the Ranks of Democracies, Adopting the Hungarian Model of Elective Dictatorship

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Monday, the Israeli parliament or Knesset passed the article removing the power of administrative review from Israeli courts on grounds of “reasonability.” The measure passed 64-0 in the 120-seat body, with the far right wing coalition of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unanimously […]

Featured

The “Destruction of the Third Temple”? Israel’s Apocalyptic Civil War Weakens State, Military

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Friday, all hell broke loose in Israel, even more so than the recent norm. The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that an earthquake struck the Israeli Air Force when 1,142 reservists published an open letter saying that they will be forced, with great regret, to resign their commissions if […]

Far Right

Israel Moves toward “Dictatorship” and Polarization, as one Likud Activist lauds the Targeting of Ashkenazi Jews in the Holocaust

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On the eve of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s controversial visit to the United States, which several members of Congress say they will boycott, Israeli society is coming apart at the seams. The presidency in Israel is a purely symbolic post. Power resides with the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu and his […]

Gay rights

Israeli Protesters fear for the Future of their Country’s precarious LGBTQ Rights Revolution

The Conversation

By Orit Avishai, Fordham University | – Demonstrations against the Israeli government’s efforts to radically overhaul the country’s judicial system have become a weekly occurrence. Often rainbow pride banners pop with color amid the sea of blue and white national flags. LGBTQ allies are hardly the only groups protesting the new government: Secular Jews, liberals […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis: Severe Heat Wave in Israel Leads to 220 Wildfires on Friday, in Omen of Torrid Future

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The land over which Israelis and Palestinians are locked in conflict is itself unstable, subject to the vagaries of human-caused climate change. On Friday, Abdel Rahman Salah at Egypt’s Veto newspaper reports, sweltering temperatures and high winds lashed the land, causing wildfires to burst out throughout the country. Climate change, […]