The Biden administration has again condemned Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount, while Saudi Arabia called the visit a “provocation to all Muslims around the world.”
Back in January, Senator Ted Cruz ripped Biden’s condemnation of an earlier Ben-Gvir visit to the Temple Mount, stating an undeniable and simple truth:
T. Belman. This law, approved by an 11 person panel of the SC, “does not negate Israel’s character as a democratic state.” It was also held to be declarative only, i.e., it didn’t create rights or law. But there is not agreement on this.
Wikipedia. “Jewish and democratic state” is the Israeli legal definition of the nature and character of the State of Israel. . But what does it mean in practice. Which of the two, trumps the other?
Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, informally known as the Nation-State Bill or the Nationality Bill,[1] is an Israeli Basic Law which specifies the nature of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The law was passed by the Knesset—with 62 in favour, 55 against, and two abstentions—on 19 July 2018 (7 Av 5778),[2][3] and is largely symbolic and declarative in nature.[4][5][6][7][8][9] However, it was met with sharp criticism internationally, including from several prominent Jewish American organizations,[10][11][12][13][14][15] and has been branded as racist and undemocratic by some critics.[16][17]
T. Belman. NYT reports that Biden Administration checking whether Israel’s opposition parties would work with govt. to achieve normalization deal.
The reason for this is that Biden is demanding that Israel support of the Two-State Solution if it wants normalization to occur. The current Israel government is unwilling to do it and thus the need for a Unity Government.
He is also demanding that the Saudis financially support the PA which they are currently not doing.
In my opinion, he will not succeed in his machinations.
29 July 2023,
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US President Joe Biden hinted on Friday at possible progress in a potential normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a day after senior White House officials travelled to Jeddah for talks on an agreement that would reportedly include a massive boost in security ties between Riyadh and Washington, and significant Israeli concessions to the Palestinians aimed at keeping prospects for a two-state solution alive.>
Read more…
By Melanie Phillips 28.7.23
(JNS) The night before Monday’s Knesset vote on the first of the government’s proposed judicial reforms, a video filmed on the escalators in Jerusalem’s central train station went viral on social media.
It showed a great tide of people holding Israeli flags going down one escalator on their way back from protesting against the reforms in Jerusalem, and a great tide of people holding Israeli flags going up the other escalator on their way back from demonstrating in support of the reforms in Tel Aviv.
By DAVID M. WEINBERG, JPOST 28.7.23
On the day after Tisha Be’Av, it would be nice to write about national unity, shared destiny, moderation, and restraint. But I cannot ignore the kasach – the unbridled confrontation, the inflammatory demagoguery, the violent warmongering – that has become standard and acceptable behavior for some of Israel’s once and supposed leaders.
There are very specific people responsible for this degradation, with Ehud Barak taking first place in the ugly contest for the most hateful, most extreme, most seditious rabble-rouser of all.
By Sara Miller, NoCamels, July 27, 2023
Erel Margalit leads a march across Brooklyn Bridge against the Israeli government’s planned court reform (Nir Arieli)
On Tuesday, July 25, 2023, a day after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) passed legislation reducing the influence of the judiciary over the decisions of the political echelon, the major newspapers in Israel all sported the same cover: a page of solid black broken only by a small slogan in white at the bottom that read “A black day for Israeli democracy.”
Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) were once the preserve of conspiracy theorists: tinfoil hat-wearers who have, in recent decades, found their natural home in the dark corners of the internet. Despite our natural curiosity, scepticism has been our default response on this issue.
The doubts have persisted despite such esteemed figures as Lord Hill-Norton, once a Chief of the General Staff, and Vice-Admiral Roscoe H Hillenkoetter, the first director of the CIA, supporting theories of their existence.
T. Belman. With the removal of the extreme reasonableness standard, the government can do what it wants. If there is a law standing in its way, they can amend the law. The HC then would have no basis to overrule it. This is not a good thing. So the choice is, do you want an unfettered government or do you want oversight by the Supreme Court, even a left wing one? The latter option is more palatable if you stack the selection committee to ensure that a majority of judges are conservative. But this can change with a change in government.
At least the government can be held accountable by the people whereas the Court cannot.
Israel’s Recent “Unreasonableness Amendment” and its Implications. Law Profs Forum
By: Prof. Amichai Cohen, ISRAEL DEMOCRACY INSTITUTE 22.6.23
The coalition is currently seeking to advance a legislative amendment that will prevent the Supreme Court from annulling (or striking down) decisions of the government, individual ministers, and other elected officials (such as mayors) it finds to be “extremely unreasonable.”
What is the standard of extreme unreasonableness?
In Israel, there is no law defining judicial review powers over decisions made by the executive branch. Thus, the grounds for judicial intervention in administrative affairs are “common law” standards declared in decisions of the courts. These grounds entail the examination of three aspects of decision-making by the executive branch:
By Ben Shapiro, DW | Jul 27, 2023
This week, according to sources ranging from the Biden White House to Moody’s to The New York Times’s Thomas Friedman, Israel entered into a period of severe existential danger. What prompted this crisis? Not a potential Iranian nuclear attack, not the presence of violent terrorist groups embedded in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. According to our foreign policy elite, the breaking point is the Israeli government’s passage of a mild version of judicial reform. That reform curbs the overweening power of the Israeli Supreme Court, which declared in the 1990s that it had the unilateral ability to strike down executive actions by simply declaring them “unreasonable.” Now, the Israeli Supreme Court will still be able to strike down executive actions — but they’ll have to ground their rationale in actual law rather than simple political disagreement.
Jul 28, 2023,
Last November, the voters of Israel democratically elected — by a significant majority — a moderately conservative, center-right government that likewise is sympathetic to traditional family values. Just as the Left in America blazes forth with its worst venom against Blacks like Justice Clarence Thomas who are conservative, so they explode with extra hate against Jews who refuse to toe their Leftist line.
The American Left believes it owns Blacks and Jews. Other people are “up for grabs,” but Blacks and Jews will not be permitted to leave the plantation. The ADL is run by an Obama staffer. The American Jewish Committee now is run by a lifelong Democrat politician. And G-d forbid that Israel be overtly conservative and pro-religion, educating American Jewry that “progressive” Leftism is their foe.
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Another archaeological discovery from the City of David in Jerusalem. It is remarkable how much history has been uncovered!
“A unique bead made from pure gold and dated to at least 1,600 years ago was uncovered at the sifting project at the Archaeological Experience in the Emek Tzurim National Park. The bead was found in dirt removed from a grandiose Roman structure discovered in the Pilgrimage Road Excavation. It was created using a unique technique that required delicate workmanship to affix tens of tiny balls together in the shape of a ring in order to create one small bead.
Introduction
Iraqi and Chinese officials sign the 2019 Agreement (source: Kurdistan24.net, September 24, 2019)
In September 2019, Iraq signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China to develop economic and trade ties between the two countries. The “Oil for Reconstruction” memorandum proposed several massive projects included building the Grand Port of Al Faw in Basra, creating a shorter transportation corridor between the Middle East and Europe, and bypassing the Suez Canal through the expansion of a national rail network.
Arab donors to UNRWA have cut their donations by 90% — from $200 million in 2018 to a mere $20 million in 2022, and show no signs of reversing course. Meanwhile, the Bidenites have been put on notice by a letter from fifty Congressmen, demanding that the State Department must force the PA to end its “Pay-For-Slay” program, likely through cutting its aid to UNRWA. So far, the Biden administration has provided UNRWA with $618 million. It is obvious that sums given to UNRWA allow the agency to spend more on health and education for the Palestinians, thereby relieving the PA of much of those costs. This violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the Taylor Force Act of 2018, which prohibits Washington from giving aid to the PA as long as it continues its “Pay-For-Slay” program.
Read more…
By Stefano Kotsonis and Meghna Chakrabarti 15.7.22
T. Belman. The Democracy Institute is a left leaning NGO. Just look at the title and sub-title to see the bias.
The article itself is worth reading.
By: Prof. Yuval Shany, DEMOCRACY INSTITUTE. 6.7.23
Administrative law is meant to protect the country’s residents against arbitrary government actions and to require the executive branch to function as the public’s trustee. In Israel, the principles of administrative law have been laid down in rulings of the Supreme Court, just as the rules of English administrative law, which inspired them, were relied on by English courts of law. They include rules that require every action by the government to be legal and within the bounds of the authority granted it by law; that the decision to take an action be made in a valid procedure in which the decision-makers satisfied the procedural obligations set down by the law, did not act with a conflict of interest, and relied on an appropriate factual basis; and that the decision itself be based on reasonable and proportionate exercise of government discretion.
T. Belman. This protest by Mazuz, illustrates how important the Judicial Overhaul is. The Court views itself as Israel’s savior and democracy’s savior. No Knesset gave it this right or role. He said:
“It is definitely anti-democracy because the court has a defined job in the framework of the separation of powers, and that is to review the legality of government actions.”
He doesn’t say to review the “reasonableness” of government decisions. Furthermore, the High Court in all democracies with a constitution clearly has the role of determining whether the law is ultra vires the constitution. But that is not what we have in Israel, where the Court has substituted itself for the constitution. In doing so it imposes its values on the Knesset. No Knesset gave it the right to do so and it is clearly undemocratic.
He argues that the government is “corrupt” and explains:
“It is a corrupt law because the public should understand, in fact every citizen, that every person and state body is obligated to behave reasonably.”
That’s an over-statement. Everybody must abide by the law.
A protester stands in front of a police water cannon being used to disperse demonstrators blocking the Begin highway in Jerusalem during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, on July 24, 2023, as the Knesset passed the ‘reasonableness’ law. (AP/Ariel Schalit)
The High Court of Justice should strike down the “anti-democratic” and “corrupt” “reasonableness” law the hardline coalition passed on Monday, former attorney general and retired Supreme Court justice Menachem Mazuz said Thursday.
In an interview with Channel 12 news, Mazuz said the law was “clearly anti-democratic and also corrupt” as it undermines the court’s role as a check and balance on the Knesset and government.
BY
This kind of article is artfully constructed. It is designed to make people ashamed to be concerned about jihad, Sharia, and Islamization in Britain, and to stigmatize all such concerns as a form of bigotry. The actual aggressive, violent, expansionist and supremacist teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah are not mentioned, or their existence even acknowledged. Peter Oborne tries to give the impression that the only reason why anyone would be concerned about Islam is because he or she is a far-right racist bigot.
Don’t consider anything you know about the industrial-strength sexual abuse and exploitation of non-Muslim girls. That would be “Islamophobic.” And of course Clare Ward KC doesn’t even have to tell the jury that they must not even think about the motivations and justifications for these acts. Everyone in Britain today knows that such matters must not be discussed.
“Men accused of using girls for sexual demands as defence warns not to bring prejudice about Rochdale, jury hears,” by Amy Walker, Manchester Evening News, July 26, 2023:
On Tuesday night Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. joined Sean Hannity on FOX News for a town hall event.
During the hour-long show, Kennedy continued to gain the approval of the FOX News audience. The crowd repeatedly broke out in applause in support of his positions and ideas for America’s future.
At one point the topic of COVID policy and treatment alternatives came up.
