Meanwhile back in Israel

mickeyrat · December 2023

https://apnews.com/article/biden-israel-hamas-oct-7-44c4229d4c1270d9cfa484b664a22071 Biden takes a tougher stance on Israel's 'indiscriminate bombing' of Gaza

Biden takes a tougher stance on Israel's 'indiscriminate bombing' of Gaza

By COLLEEN LONG and AAMER MADHANI

41 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza, speaking out in unusually strong language as the United Nations neared a vote on demanding a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

“Israel's security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting them,” Biden said to donors during a fundraiser Tuesday.

“They’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” he said.

The president said he thought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understood, but he wasn't so sure about the Israeli war cabinet. Israeli forces were carrying out punishing strikes across Gaza, crushing Palestinians in homes as the military presses ahead with an offensive that officials say could go on for weeks or months.

JOE BIDEN

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Biden offered a harder-than-usual assessment of Israel's decisions since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and the moves by his conservative government. Meanwhile, Biden's top national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is heading to Israel this week to consult directly about timetables for ending major combat.

The president also renewed his warnings that Israel should not make the same mistakes of overreaction that the U.S. did following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

He recounted a familiar anecdote about inscribing on a photo with Netanyahu decades ago, “Bibi, I don't agree with a damn thing you have to say.” This time, the president added to his retelling of the story: “That remains to be the case.”

The 2024 campaign fundraiser was part of a gathering of Jewish donors, many of whom attended a White House Hanukkah reception on Monday evening; Biden's fundraisers are open to some reporters on the condition that no audio or video be shared.

His rhetoric to donors tracks his more candid and private messaging to Netanyahu on their frequent calls, according to two White House officials, where he reasserts U.S. support for Israel before pushing for Israel to do more to help civilians in Gaza.

“Israel has a tough decision to make. Bibi has a tough decision to make. There’s no question about the need to take on Hamas. There’s no question about that. None. Zero,” Biden said. But he added, of Israel’s leader, “I think he has to change his government. His government in Israel is making it very difficult.”

Biden specifically called out Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of a far-right Israeli party and the minister of national security in Netanyahu’s governing coalition, who opposes a two-state solution and has called for Israel to reassert control over all of the West Bank and Gaza. Ben-Gvir sits on Israel’s security cabinet, but is not a member of the country’s three-person war cabinet.

The comments prompted responses from both the Israeli military and also Hamas.

“We know to explain exactly how we operate with precision, based on intelligence, even when we are operating on the ground," said Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari. “We know how to operate against the Hamas strongholds in such a way that best separates the uninvolved civilians from terrorism targets."

Asked about Biden’s comments, a senior Hamas official said in Beirut that “the resistance and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people have made Biden understand that the Israeli military operation is a crazy act.”

“The repercussions (of the war) will be catastrophic on the entity (Israel) and on the results of elections in which Biden might lose his seat in the White House,” Osama Hamdan, member of Hamas’ political bureau said during a news conference.

During the fundraiser, Biden said that when he has warned Netanyahu of a loss of international support over the bombing, the Israeli leader has mentioned that the U.S. had “carpet-bombed Germany" in World War II and dropped the atomic bomb on Japan.

“That's why all these institutions were set up after World War II, to see that it didn't happen again,” he said. “Don't make the same mistakes we made in 9/11. There's no reason we had to be in a war in Afghanistan. There's no reason we had to do so many things that we did.”

The U.N. General Assembly was set to hold a vote Tuesday on a nonbinding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, days after the U.S. vetoed a similar measure at the U.N. Security Council. The U.K abstained from the 13-1 vote, but France and Japan were among those supporting the call for a cease-fire. Only Security Council resolutions are legally binding under the terms of the international body’s charter.

Before Biden's comments at the fundraiser, Netanyahu said in a statement that he appreciated American support and that he'd received “full backing for the ground incursion and blocking the international pressure to stop the war.”

“Yes, there is disagreement about ‘the day after Hamas’ and I hope that we will reach agreement here as well. I would like to clarify my position: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo. Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan.”

Speaking at a forum hosted by The Wall Street Journal before either leader's comments, Sullivan reiterated the Biden administration’s position that it does not want to see Israel reoccupy Gaza or further shrink its already small territory.

The U.S. has repeatedly called for a return of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority and the resumption of peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Sullivan said he would also speak to Netanyahu about his recent comments that Israel Defense Forces would maintain open-ended security control of Gaza after the war ends.

“I will have the opportunity to talk to Prime Minister Netanyahu about what exactly he has in mind with that comment, because that can be interpreted in a number of different ways,” Sullivan said. “But the U.S. position on this is clear.”

___ Associated Press writers Will Weissert, Zeke Miller in Washington and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Halifax2TheMax · December 2023

mickeyrat said:

https://apnews.com/article/biden-israel-hamas-oct-7-44c4229d4c1270d9cfa484b664a22071 Biden takes a tougher stance on Israel's 'indiscriminate bombing' of Gaza

Biden takes a tougher stance on Israel's 'indiscriminate bombing' of Gaza
By COLLEEN LONG and AAMER MADHANI
41 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza, speaking out in unusually strong language as the United Nations neared a vote on demanding a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
“Israel's security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting them,” Biden said to donors during a fundraiser Tuesday.
“They’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” he said.
The president said he thought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understood, but he wasn't so sure about the Israeli war cabinet. Israeli forces were carrying out punishing strikes across Gaza, crushing Palestinians in homes as the military presses ahead with an offensive that officials say could go on for weeks or months.
JOE BIDEN
Biden will meet with families of Americans taken hostage by Hamas on Wednesday at the White House
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Biden goes into 2024 with the economy getting stronger, but voters feel horrible about it
Biden offered a harder-than-usual assessment of Israel's decisions since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and the moves by his conservative government. Meanwhile, Biden's top national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is heading to Israel this week to consult directly about timetables for ending major combat.
The president also renewed his warnings that Israel should not make the same mistakes of overreaction that the U.S. did following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
He recounted a familiar anecdote about inscribing on a photo with Netanyahu decades ago, “Bibi, I don't agree with a damn thing you have to say.” This time, the president added to his retelling of the story: “That remains to be the case.”
The 2024 campaign fundraiser was part of a gathering of Jewish donors, many of whom attended a White House Hanukkah reception on Monday evening; Biden's fundraisers are open to some reporters on the condition that no audio or video be shared.
His rhetoric to donors tracks his more candid and private messaging to Netanyahu on their frequent calls, according to two White House officials, where he reasserts U.S. support for Israel before pushing for Israel to do more to help civilians in Gaza.
“Israel has a tough decision to make. Bibi has a tough decision to make. There’s no question about the need to take on Hamas. There’s no question about that. None. Zero,” Biden said. But he added, of Israel’s leader, “I think he has to change his government. His government in Israel is making it very difficult.”
Biden specifically called out Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of a far-right Israeli party and the minister of national security in Netanyahu’s governing coalition, who opposes a two-state solution and has called for Israel to reassert control over all of the West Bank and Gaza. Ben-Gvir sits on Israel’s security cabinet, but is not a member of the country’s three-person war cabinet.
The comments prompted responses from both the Israeli military and also Hamas.
“We know to explain exactly how we operate with precision, based on intelligence, even when we are operating on the ground," said Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari. “We know how to operate against the Hamas strongholds in such a way that best separates the uninvolved civilians from terrorism targets."
Asked about Biden’s comments, a senior Hamas official said in Beirut that “the resistance and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people have made Biden understand that the Israeli military operation is a crazy act.”
“The repercussions (of the war) will be catastrophic on the entity (Israel) and on the results of elections in which Biden might lose his seat in the White House,” Osama Hamdan, member of Hamas’ political bureau said during a news conference.
During the fundraiser, Biden said that when he has warned Netanyahu of a loss of international support over the bombing, the Israeli leader has mentioned that the U.S. had “carpet-bombed Germany" in World War II and dropped the atomic bomb on Japan.
“That's why all these institutions were set up after World War II, to see that it didn't happen again,” he said. “Don't make the same mistakes we made in 9/11. There's no reason we had to be in a war in Afghanistan. There's no reason we had to do so many things that we did.”
The U.N. General Assembly was set to hold a vote Tuesday on a nonbinding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, days after the U.S. vetoed a similar measure at the U.N. Security Council. The U.K abstained from the 13-1 vote, but France and Japan were among those supporting the call for a cease-fire. Only Security Council resolutions are legally binding under the terms of the international body’s charter.
Before Biden's comments at the fundraiser, Netanyahu said in a statement that he appreciated American support and that he'd received “full backing for the ground incursion and blocking the international pressure to stop the war.”
“Yes, there is disagreement about ‘the day after Hamas’ and I hope that we will reach agreement here as well. I would like to clarify my position: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo. Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan.”
Speaking at a forum hosted by The Wall Street Journal before either leader's comments, Sullivan reiterated the Biden administration’s position that it does not want to see Israel reoccupy Gaza or further shrink its already small territory.
The U.S. has repeatedly called for a return of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority and the resumption of peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Sullivan said he would also speak to Netanyahu about his recent comments that Israel Defense Forces would maintain open-ended security control of Gaza after the war ends.
“I will have the opportunity to talk to Prime Minister Netanyahu about what exactly he has in mind with that comment, because that can be interpreted in a number of different ways,” Sullivan said. “But the U.S. position on this is clear.”
___ Associated Press writers Will Weissert, Zeke Miller in Washington and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Too little, too late. He’s lost the far left wing of the party. Unfortunately, it’s enough to make a difference at the polls, even a year out.

23scidoo · December 2023

I know, i know, it's just a ''handful of isolated cases''..
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/israelhamasconflict/video-3081049/Video-Israeli-armys-disrespectful-behaviour-Gaza-viral-clips.html

Halifax2TheMax · December 2023

Or that the West Bank also attacked Israel.

Halifax2TheMax · December 2023

Seems Israel is waging a war on Christianity, the disabled and infirm now as well. But hey, what's two more?

IDF kills two women taking shelter at Gaza church, Catholic authorities say

By Miriam Berger

and

Kim Bellware

JERUSALEM — Israeli forces killed two women who were taking shelter at a church in the Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon, Catholic authorities said.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, an ecclesiastical office for the Latin Catholics in the region, in a statement identified the victims — a mother and daughter — by their first names only and said they were “shot in cold blood.”

A sniper from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shot the women at the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families in Gaza have taken refuge during the war, according to the patriarchate’s statement.

“Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister’s Convent,” the patriarchate said, referring to a building in the parish complex. “One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others inside the church compound. No warning was given, no notification was provided. They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there are no belligerents.”

The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and The Washington Post could not immediately verify the details of the patriarchate’s report.

Cellular and internet networks have been largely down across Gaza since Thursday evening, the latest in a series of near-total blackouts to hit the Palestinian territory. Gazans with eSIM cards, or with the Oredoo carrier in the north, have retained limited access.

The outages have made it difficult for those inside the church to be reached.

An aid worker in Gaza, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his privacy as he was not authorized to speak by the organization, said one of his colleagues was hit by shrapnel in her legs during the attack.

A doctor in the church operated quickly on her to remove shrapnel from one leg, the aid worker said, but was unable to dislodge shrapnel from the second leg, which may have sustained a fracture.

The aid worker said he was initially able to get updates from another colleague, who has as an eSIM. But then the colleague’s phone died.

“I am wondering if the accusations will be ‘these were Catholic branch of Hamas!,’” he told The Post by WhatsApp message. “Not only the families, there are 50 kids with physical and mental disabilities that sisters are nursing.”

British lawmaker Layla Moran said her relatives are among the hundreds of civilians trapped in the church. Moran told the BBC that her family members are “days away from dying” without access to water or food.

“I’m now no longer sure they are going to survive until Christmas,” Moran told the BBC.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said that in addition to the midday sniper attack, a rocket from an IDF tank hit the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Teresa, a mission that is home to more than 54 people with disabilities.

The strike destroyed fuel reserves and the generator supplying the building’s sole source of electricity. The explosion and fire resulting from the strikes also damaged the home at the mission, rendering it “uninhabitable,” and displacing the disabled residents, including those who need respirators to survive, the patriarchate said.

Saturday’s strike echoes an attack in October after an attack on the historic Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, Gaza’s oldest active church. About two weeks into the war, hundreds of Palestinian civilians were sheltering in the church when Israeli forces launched a strike that killed 18 people and wounded 20 others.

The IDF said at the time that a strike targeting a Hamas control center “damaged the wall of a church in the area” and that the church was not a target.

Israel has faced growing criticism, including from President Biden, that its “indiscriminate bombing” is eroding support for its war in Gaza as the human toll climbs.

Israeli forces kill two women at Holy Family Parish in Gaza, Catholic authorities say - The Washington Post

mickeyrat · December 2023

partner for peace you say? really. how do you square this then?

https://twitter.com/ryangrim/status/1736411607691886938?t=VQgRakSyrCVCIDL2FcN7LA&s=19

in case this tweet disappears...

mickeyrat · December 2023

https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/1736586895029653523?t=LhGYJJxKTsT1HefsLddlCA&s=19

https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/1736586897277747519?t=Gx619HU0Y27W7RqX63jpRg&s=19

mickeyrat · December 2023

https://twitter.com/EladNehorai/status/1739399203951087920?t=dx1nRYBuVqlYrPnfew43IA&s=19

mickeyrat · December 2023

https://twitter.com/Mivasair/status/1739359511763095994?t=BzzzlCM3dN-O-qFhfUcUeA&s=19

mickeyrat · December 2023

https://twitter.com/AlexCrawfordSky/status/1740644961928814975?t=9rwYBzAh9N0kCB1cN_kiKw&s=19

Halifax2TheMax · December 2023

Guess it won’t be over until the blood lust is quenched and with the ultra orthodox, who are exempt from serving in the Israeli military, signing up and serving for the first time, it’ll be a while. But don’t worry, US taxpayers will bail Israel out.

How the costs of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza are mounting

JERUSALEM — It might seem obscene to assess the mounting financial cost of Israel’s war in Gazawhile the bombs are still falling on the besieged enclave, when hundreds of Palestinians, on average, are dying each day — alongside smaller, but historic, numbers of Israeli soldiers.

And yet, the economics behind the weeks-long assault have powerful implications for Israel, the Palestinians and the Middle East.

The cost to Gaza, while clearly devastating, has not yet begun to be calculated. About half of the buildings and two-thirds of the homes in the Strip have been damaged or destroyed, 1.8 million people have been displaced and more than 21,000 people are dead, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The Israeli economy has been damaged, too — and it is Israel more than Hamas that will decide when the shooting stops. Some economists compare the shock to the Israeli economy to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Others say it might be worse.

Since Oct. 7, when Hamas and allied fighters streamed out of Gaza to kill about 1,200 people in Israel and take 240 more hostage, government spending and borrowing have soared, tax revenue has plummeted and credit ratings could take a hit.

And gross domestic product will fall — from forecasts of 3 percent growth in 2023 to 1 percent in 2024, according to the Bank of Israel. Some economists predict contraction.

The impact on Israel’s high-tech sector — the engine of the economy — is sobering.

Many Israel Defense Forces reservists work in the tech sector. Every day they fight in Gaza, their employers struggle to continue investing in research and development and maintain market share.

Policymakers and opinion leaders are now asking: How will the cost of the war influence its duration? When will the government decide to declare victory, stop the fiscal hemorrhaging and resume efforts to grow the economy?

What has been the cost of war?

During the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. leaders familiarized Americans with the concept of blood and treasure.

Israel is spending treasure deploying more than 220,000 reservists into battle on average over the past three months and subsidizing their salaries.

Many of these reservists are high-tech workers in cyber, agriculture, finance, navigation, artificial intelligence, pharmaceuticals and climate solutions. Israel’s tech sector relies on foreign investment. But that was diminishing even before the war, in part out of concern for the instability that investors believed the right-wing prewar government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought to Israel — notwithstanding Intel’s recent announcement that it was going ahead with a $25 billion chip factory in southern Israel, the largest investment ever by a company in Israel.

Israel needs to pay for the reservists, the bombs and the bullets, but it is also supporting 200,000 evacuees who have been displaced from Israeli villages along the Gaza border and the northern border with Lebanon, which Hezbollah is bombarding daily.

Many of these evacuees are being housed and fed in hotels in the north and south — at government expense.

Many are traumatized.

Many are not working.

What else?

Tourism has flatlined. The Tel Aviv beaches and the Old City in Jerusalem are bereft of foreigners. Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank this year were canceled.

Construction, which ordinarily relies on Palestinian labor from the West Bank, has ground to a near-halt. Since Israel launched its assault to eradicate Hamas, it has suspended the work permits of more than 100,000 Palestinians.

Exports are down across the board. Production from Israel’s gas fieldsin the Mediterranean Sea was shut down early in the war but is now partially operating.

What has the war cost Israel so far?

Economists interviewed by The Washington Post estimate the war has cost the government about $18 billion — or $220 million a day.

Zvi Eckstein, a former deputy governor of the Bank of Israel and an economist at Reichman University, recently ran the numbers with colleagues and reported that the impact on the government budget — including decreased tax revenue — for the fourth quarter of 2023 was $19 billion and would probably be $20 billion in the first quarter of 2024.

That assumes the war does not expand to Lebanon.

What happens if a wider war breaks out with Hezbollah?

Costs will skyrocket.

What’s the total cost going to be?

A war that lasts five to 10 more months could cost Israel as much as $50 billion, according to the financial newspaper Calcalist. That would equal 10 percent of the country’s GDP.

The war could end sooner — or not. The Biden administration expects Israel to pivot in the new year from high-intensity bombardment and fierce street combat to more targeted assaults. But Netanyahu warned last week that the war “isn’t close to finished.”

“The war will last for many more months,” he said on Saturday.

How are the these costs measured?

Ono Academic College professor Yaron Zelekha, a former economist at the Israeli Ministry of Finance, says it’s important to understand the war’s ripple effects.

There’s the cost of waging the war, the steep decline in economic activity and a resulting drop in revenue. Deficit spending produces borrowing costs, which will weigh on budgeting long after the shooting stops.

What do ordinary Israelis think?

Forty-five percent of Israelis acknowledge worrying that the war will bring them economic hardship, polling by the charity group Latetshows.

The Hamas attacks were a catastrophe, eroding the trust of citizens, businesses, and investors in the government and in the military, economists told The Post. That trust will take time to win back.

How does this Gaza war compare with past conflicts?

Economists speak of the modern Israeli economy as remarkably resilient. The country has fought regional wars on its territory in 1967 and 1973, wars in Lebanon and along its northern border in 1982 and 2006, a 50-day battle in Gaza in 2014 and two intifadas in the occupied West Bank, which saw sustained fighting between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.

“In the second intifada, a significant part of the damage was caused by misguided economic management,” said Zelekha. “There was significant government overspending and a simultaneous tax increase.

“The main difference between then and today is that back then, the government debt reached 100 percent of GDP, not 60 percent as it is today. Our current situation is much better.”

What’s the cost to workers?

Reserve duty, displacement and knock-on effects of the war have idled as many as 20 percent of Israeli workers.

“Israel’s economy experienced a shock wave comparable to the peak of the covid-19 pandemic,” said Michal Dan-Harel, the managing director of Manpower Israel, the country’s largest employment agency. “Significant portions of the economy came to a shutdown for nearly two weeks. People were in shock. Each day revealed the magnitude of the crisis, and discussions about normalcy, such as work or earning a living, became almost illegitimate.”

The impact of reservist deployments has been especially dramatic, Dan-Harel said, because“the individuals are called up without knowing when they will return to work. … No one anticipated that people would be enlisted for a period of three months or more.”

Is the economy resilient enough to weather the war?

“For the last 25 years, Israel has run up the mountain with weights on its legs,” said Erel Margalit, a high-tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist.

He was talking about the wars and intifadas — and more recent challenges. The Netanyahu government’s attempt before the war to limit the power of the judiciary — which sparked massive, months-long protests — hurt international investment, said Margalit, a former member of the Israeli parliament.

“The war is an additional blow,” he said. He’s pushing for an FDR-style New Deal to establish innovation, education and new businesses in the hard-hit north and south after the war ends.

How important is U.S. aid for the Israeli economy?

Very.

The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion in military support each year. The countries share defense technology to give Israel a strategic edge over its adversaries. The United States also sells Israel hundreds of millions of dollars in bombs, missiles and shells.

The White House is pushing a supplemental funding bill that would include $14 billion in aid to Israel in early 2024. The bill has stalled in Congress as Republicans and Democrats debate funding for the U.S. border.

Itai Ater, an economist at Tel Aviv University and a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, called the U.S. funding “crucial.”

“We are talking about approximately 50 billion shekels [$13.8 billion],” he said. “If the expenditure on the war reaches around 150 to 200 billion shekels, it would constitute a quarter of the war costs. This is a hugely significant sum and also provides the American government the option to exert diplomatic pressure on us, which is a good thing, considering our government.”

Zelekha added: “If we had to fund that ourselves, it would pose an even greater problem. Secondly, the very fact of receiving aid signals to financial markets that we have economic backing, which reassures the markets.”

“We need to send a big thank you to President Biden for this assistance,” he said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/31/gaza-war-costs-israel-economy/

mickeyrat · January 2024

https://twitter.com/ShibleyTelhami/status/1741614577136054628?t=EikyKclCzw3tx8KRVdsJGg&s=19

Halifax2TheMax · January 2024

mickeyrat said:

https://twitter.com/ShibleyTelhami/status/1741614577136054628?t=EikyKclCzw3tx8KRVdsJGg&s=19

Ethnic cleansing you don’t say?

mickeyrat · January 2024

https://twitter.com/haaretzcom/status/1741514445644304607?t=R75iZIEmUkxjrSjOsyGmZg&s=19

mickeyrat · January 2024

https://twitter.com/djrothkopf/status/1741825912822182076?t=nRLaZ2cj7Nsl98690w8-KQ&s=19

mickeyrat · January 2024

https://apnews.com/article/israel-supreme-court-judicial-overhaul-78733a94428b8b9f2c311ee6779eba23 Israel's Supreme Court overturns a key component of Netanyahu's polarizing judicial overhaul

Israel's Supreme Court overturns a key component of Netanyahu's polarizing judicial overhaul

By JOSEF FEDERMAN and MELANIE LIDMAN

34 mins ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday struck down a key component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul, a decision that threatens to reopen the fissures in Israeli society that preceded the country’s ongoing war against Hamas.

Those divisions were largely put aside while the country focuses on the war in Gaza, which was triggered by a bloody cross-border attack by Hamas. Monday’s court decision could reignite those tensions, which sparked months of mass protests against the government and had rattled the cohesion of the powerful military.

There was no immediate reaction from Netanyahu.

In Monday’s decision, the court narrowly voted to overturn a law passed in July that prevents judges from striking down government decisions they deem “unreasonable.” Opponents had argued that Netanyahu’s efforts to remove the standard of reasonability opens the door to corruption and improper appointments of unqualified cronies to important positions.

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The law was the first in a planned overhaul of the Israeli justice system. The overhaul was put on hold after Hamas militants carried out their Oct. 7 attack, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 others. Israel immediately declared war, and is pressing forward with an offensive that Palestinian health officials say has killed nearly 22,000 people in Gaza.

In an 8-7 decision, the Supreme Court justices struck down the law because of the “severe and unprecedented harm to the core character of the State of Israel as a democratic country.”

The justices also voted 12-3 that they had the authority to overturn so-called “Basic Laws,” major pieces of legislation that serve as a sort of constitution for Israel.

It was a significant blow to Netanyahu and his hard-line allies, who claimed the national legislature, not the high court, should have the final word over the legality of legislation and other key decisions. The justices said the Knesset, or parliament, does not have “omnipotent” power.

Netanyahu and his allies announced their sweeping overhaul plan shortly after taking office a year ago. It calls for curbing the power of the judges, from limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to review parliamentary decisions to changing the way judges are appointed.

Netanyahu and his allies said the changes aim to strengthen democracy by limiting the authority of unelected judges and turning over more powers to elected officials. But opponents see the overhaul as a power grab by Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, and an assault on a key watchdog.

Before the war, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in weekly protests against the government. Among the demonstrators were military reservists, including fighter pilots and members of other elite units, who said they would stop reporting for duty if the overhaul was passed. The reservists make up the backbone of the military.

While the reservists quickly returned to duty after the Oct. 7 attacks in a show of unity, it remains unclear what will happen if the overhaul efforts are revived. A resumption of the protests could undermine national unity and affect the military’s readiness if soldiers refuse to report for duty.

Under the Israeli system, the prime minister governs through a majority coalition in parliament — in effect giving him control over the executive and legislative branches of government.

As a result, the Supreme Court plays a critical oversight role. Critics say that by seeking to weaken the judiciary, Netanyahu and his allies are trying to erode the country’s checks and balances and consolidate power over the third, independent branch of government.

Netanyahu’s allies include an array of ultranationalist and religious parties with a list of grievances against the court.

His allies have called for increased West Bank settlement construction, annexation of the occupied territory, perpetuating military draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men, and limiting the rights of LGBTQ+ people and Palestinians.

The U.S. had previously urged Netanyahu to put the plans on hold and seek a broad consensus across the political spectrum.

The court issued its decision because its outgoing president, Esther Hayut, is retiring and Monday was her last day on the job.