The generic "Look at what Israel's doing now" thread

[erimir]

Since we seem to have a proliferation of such threads, I thought it might be good to have a single place where you can post anytime you see a story about some new stupid/horrible/bullshit thing Israel's doing now. You might even be able to put a story about something good they're doing!

I'll start with this video I posted in another Israel thread:

Israel's New Racism: The Persecution of African...

and this story, which I'm sure is totally unrelated to that, or the colonization of the West Bank:

Nixing [attending] Mandela funeral as too costly, Bibi shows world what he's truly made of

In his eleventh-hour decision against attending the funeral of Nelson Mandela, Benjamin Netanyahu proved that he is not the smug, petty, vindictive, waffling, in-your-face insulting man he seems. He's something worse.
[...]
The problem is the reason Netanyahu chose to give: Money. The trip would cost too much. The problem, then, is the message Netanyahu has chosen to send:

My Israel, which so craves and demands legitimacy and recognition as a full partner in the community of nations, does not consider a man like Nelson Mandela, or a nation like South Africa, or the sentiment of an entire world, worth the price of a plane flight.

[Adam]

[Watser?]

Oh good, because the Prawer plan is something I want to tell everyone on the planet about on a daily basis...

Having never asked, Israel’s gov’t ‘surprised’ Bedouin reject Prawer | +972 Magazine

http://972mag.com/see-the-prawer-pla...-secret/83333/

Shared values: Likud member says Prawer Plan akin to what 'Americans did to the Indians'

That last line is true, but the US did it in the 19th century or before, when these things were still sorta acceptable.

[Watser?]

Also: After attending Mandela's memorial, Knesset member's blood rejected in gov't drive because she is African

[Sauron]

This is pretty amazing. Son of a famous Israeli general says that zionism is the root cause of the Palestine problem, and goes into great detail about some of the inner planning decisions around the creation of the state of Israel, the 1967 War, and the settlements policy.

An honest Israeli Jew tells the Real Truth about Israel - YouTube

[Watser?]

The Prawer plan seems to be dead in the water:

Israel is scrapping a controversial draft law to relocate thousands of Bedouin residents of the Negev desert, an official said Thursday.

Benny Begin, tasked with implementing the so-called Prawer Plan, said he had recommended to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "end the debate on the law" in parliament.

"The prime minister accepted this proposal," he said at a Tel Aviv press conference, days after it emerged the governing coalition was divided on the proposed legislation.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=656782

[Watser?]

Hmmm, not as dead as they thought: Back from the dead: Israeli general says 'Prawer Plan' still on the table

[AynMisesLibertarian]

because africans are so well treated in muslim countries LOL the islamic countries are the worst racist of all

look, Israel is the only one civilized state in the area, I know you leftstards are for palestine because you hate progress and wealth and the muslim are "the enemy of our enemies(the US and the capitalist western world)"

[Watser?]

So you're saying the worst stories about libertarians are true, that it is a hobby for rich, white guys, that the freedoms they claim to demand actually only apply to them, never to anyone who is not a rich, white male? Thought so. Love Pinochet, love Thatcher = love South African Apartheid = love Israeli Apartheid. It's not really all that complicated.

[irukandji]

New UK drones “field tested� on captive Palestinians | The Electronic Intifada

quote: The “new Watchkeeper drone being developed for the UK military is based on a model that Israel has ‘field tested’ in attacks on Gaza which left many Palestinians dead, including children,” War on Want warns in a statement accompanying the report.

Going Underground: Secret Israeli drone deal & austerity's anthem - YouTube

[Watser?]

Just two headlines in a row that together struck me as funny:

Top minister: US spying on Israel unacceptable Israel Hayom 12:29
Netanyahu: We are always working for Pollard's release Israel Hayom 12:29

[Watser?]

Israeli ministers committee votes to annex Jordan Valley | Mondoweiss

Cutting what's left of the West Bank off from Jordan and the rest of the world, making it a ghetto/prison camp like Gaza.

[Watser?]

The bill is actually meant as a statement of intent from coalition members to the right of Netanyahu, and as a means of scoring points with their own electorate and rock the boat a bit, but not too hard. For balance, the provoacteurs and Netanyahu rely both on their own coalition partners – Livni’s Hatnua and Lapid’s Yesh Atid – and on opposition parties like Meretz to stop the boat from capsizing. Presenting themselves as patriotic victims of back-stabbing lefties is surely more profitable than provoking the prime minister to intervene. This is the role from which Meretz is finally bowing out.

The bill won’t pass anyway, with Meretz or without them. Nevertheless, it’s refreshing to see someone calling the bluff and putting Netanyahu into yet another corner.

Meretz: We won’t oppose annexation of Jordan Valley | +972 Magazine

[Watser?]

Look at what Israel is doing now!

Israel will pay for all approved abortions for women aged 20 to 33, thanks to a recommendation accepted by its health ministry. Starting this year, Israel will spend 16 million shekels ($4.6 million) to cover abortions for approximately 6,300 women.

And yet:

You would expect conservative groups to go ballistic when it comes to taxpayer funding of abortions, but when Israel announced just that last month, the news was greeted with a subdued response among pro-life and pro-Israel groups in the U.S.

U.S. Pro-Life Groups Bite Their Tongues as Israel Expands Abortion Coverage - The Daily Beast

[Sock Puppet]

Well, sure. They may be baby murderers, but we can't have an Apocalypse without them.

[Watser?]

A group of Jewish settlers in the West Bank managed to get Israeli state funding for an archeological dig in their city of Hebron cohabited by Jews and Palestinians, the Ha'aretz daily reported on Thursday.

According to the daily, the settlers approached different Israeli archaeologists in the past several months in order to get the project underway.

Under the 3-million-U.S.-dollar funding, the excavations will be conducted by archeologists from the University of Ariel, a West Bank settlement, and will be supported by the Israeli Antiquities Authority.

Also, the excavations site is set to transition into an archeological park and tourist attraction at the heart of the Jewish settlement.

The city of Hebron, one of the biggest Palestinian municipalities, is populated by 250,000 Palestinians and up to 850 Jewish settlers. The city is divided into two sectors and is a center of disputes and controversy.

Israel to fund settlers' archeological project in disputed West Bank city | Shanghai Daily

Disputes and controversy indeed, but what is virtually indisputed is that it is OCCUPIED TERRITORY and not disputed territory. I am frankly amazed that a Chinese newspaper comes up with ziobabble like that.

The 'university of Ariel' is one of the reasons there is a growing academic boycott.

[Watser?]

Israelis Hate Being Called Nazis, So They're Banning the Word "Nazi"

I have no idea how they are going to talk about Iran now

[Watser?]

This is about what Scarlett Johansson did, not Israel, but while she was under the influence of Zionism.

She was ambassador for SodaStream, a company based in the illegal settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, which is like a giant middle finger sticking into the West Bank, and also ambassador to Oxfam. So between Apartheid and human rights of course she resolutely chose Apartheid.
Scarlett Johansson not only abandons Oxfam but throws it under the bus | Mondoweiss

After this giant fuck you I am 100% sure I will never, ever for the rest of my life watch another move with her in it.

[Sauron]

WAAA!! We can't be state-supported religious terrorists anymore! WAAA!

Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest after funds cut in Israel conscription row

(Reuters) - Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel blocked highways and clashed with police on Thursday in protest at a government decision to cut funds to seminary students who avoid military service.

Police arrested about three dozen demonstrators at a number of hot spots, including eight who threw stones at officers, and used water cannon to disperse a crowd blocking the main road to Jerusalem, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The unrest followed a Finance Ministry decision on Wednesday to stop giving stipends to students undertaking religious studies, who for decades have been granted military service exemptions that have stoked resentment in a country whose other Jewish citizens are called to duty at the age of 18.

The issue is at the heart of an emotional national debate.

"If you do not take on the duties, then why are you asking to get the privileges?" said Finance Minister Yair Lapid in a radio interview in an admonition to ultra-Orthodox Jews after halting the funding in line with a Supreme Court ruling.

The court had ordered the government to stop paying stipends to some seminary students, infuriating ultra-Orthodox community leaders who noted that in the absence of a new law, deferrals were still being issued by the Defence Ministry.

The ruling from the Supreme Court, which in 2012 struck down a "service deferral law", demonstrated its dissatisfaction with foot-dragging in parliament over passage of new legislation that would open the way for wider enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men.

[Watser?]

One more God-awful chapter in the ongoing God-awful narrative that is Israeli occupation: Israeli forces attacked two teenage Palestinian cousins and soccer players, Jawhar Nasser Jawhar, 19, and Adam Abd al-Raouf Halabiya, 17, shooting them repeatedly in the feet and legs - ten bullets into Jawhar, two into Adam - before unleashing attack dogs and finally beating them in what critics call another egregious targeting of Palestinian athletes in a place where "soccer is politics."

Shooting Feet: Israel Targets Palestinian Soccer Players | Common Dreams

I'm not even gonna quote the flimsy, ridiculous excuse, because they aren't even trying to make it convincing anymore (and why whould they, the corporate media will think of an excuse for them).

Doctors says it is likely neither youth will ever play competitive sports again; it's unclear if they will be able to walk. The attack is the latest in what critics charge is a years-long, systematic Israeli campaign against Palestinian soccer players in a bitterly divided land where sports, especially to the beleaguered Palestinians, represent escape, joy, pride and community.

[Crumb]

[Watser?]

I keep telling everyone that while the US may be Israel's friend, there is no actual proof that Israel has ever been the US' friend. And that seems to be getting worse and people are actually noticing:

The Jewish state’s decision to abstain in the UN on the question of Russia’s annexation of Crimea did not go unnoticed in Washington:

“We have good and trusting relations with the Americans and the Russians, and our experience has been very positive with both sides. So I don’t understand the idea that Israel has to get mired in this,” Lieberman told Israel’s Channel 9 television when asked about the Ukraine crisis.

When White House and State Department officials read these comments, they nearly went crazy. They were particularly incensed by Lieberman’s mentioning Israel’s relations with the United States and with Russia in the same breath, giving them equal weight. The United States gives Israel $3 billion a year in military aid, in addition to its constant diplomatic support in the UN and other international forums. Russia, on the other hand, supplies arms to Israel’s enemies and votes against it regularly in the UN.

The White House is disappointed, but it surely cannot be surprised. Israel has treated the US with contempt since Obama came to office, humiliating the president whenever it could, sabotaging any conceivable progress toward a two-state solution, while pocketing all the aid it can and trying to stymie Washington’s key diplomatic initiative in the Middle East. I cannot think of an alliance quite this perverse: the US gives Israel vital protection at the UN, vast amounts of intelligence and military assistance, $3 billion a year in aid and in return is opposed in most of its foreign policy initiatives, and its officials routinely slimed and attacked by members of the Israeli government. Name any other “ally” that behaves this way.

The Burgeoning Israel-Russia Alliance « The Dish

[Watser?]

Seems like Sheldon Adelson bought himself some Buzzfeed: Sheldon Adelson's BuzzFeed strategy won't fix Israeli apartheid | The Electronic Intifada

[Watser?]

Imma throw this in here too:

[Sock Puppet]

Did Kerry actually say that? 'Cause if so, I'm glad we have an administration that's nearly courageous enough to kinda sorta voice difficult truths, y'know, as long as it doesn't offend anybody too much, in which case they'll take it all back.