Report: Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah decided not to get involved in Israeli crisis
Reuters report: Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah discussed fallout from judicial reform, decided not to get involved so as not to help Netanyahu.
Hassan Nasrallah meets Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian
Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah decided not to get involved in the crisis that is brewing in Israel in wake of the government’s proposed judicial reform, so as not to help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, the crisis sweeping Israel has become a focal point for its enemies across the Middle East who have convened top-level meetings to weigh the turmoil and how they might capitalize on it.
The subject was discussed at a three-hour meeting last week involving a senior commander from Iran's Quds Force, the arm of its Revolutionary Guards that funnels military support to Tehran's allies, two Iranian security officials and officials from Hamas, an Iranian diplomat told Reuters.
After concluding that the crisis had already weakened Israel, they agreed they should refrain from any "direct interference", believing this could give Netanyahu the chance to shift blame to foreign adversaries.
A Hamas source declined to comment, saying there are ongoing discussions between Hamas, Iran and the Quds Force "over the whole situation and to discuss ways to upgrade the work of resistance".
Iran's foreign ministry and the Guards' public relations office could not be immediately reached for comment.
The report comes a day after the Knesset passed the second and third readings of the law that would reduce the use of the reasonableness standard.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah took pleasure in the protests which started in Israel following the approval of the law.
"Today in particular is the darkest day in the history of the entity (Israel)," Nasrallah said. "As some of its people say: This day puts Israel on a path to collapse and disappearance, God willing."
Hezbollah has been provoking Israel lately. The latest incident occurred on Tuesday, when Hezbollah terrorists, wearing full uniform and armed, toured the Israeli border in the Upper Galilee.
Last week, Hezbollah terrorists demonstrated at the Israel-Lebanon border, when several of them attempted to damage the fence.
IDF soldiers used non-lethal means to force the terrorists away from the fence.
In addition, Hezbollah terrorists caused a fire on the Lebanese side of the border across from the Israeli town of Metula. The fire caused several mines to explode on the Lebanese side of the border.
Before that, Hezbollah terrorists illegally erected tents on sovereign Israeli territory. The tents were placed about 30 meters inside Israeli territory, and generators were placed there to allow Hezbollah terrorists to stay in the compound.
At the start of July, Hezbollah evacuated one of the two tents it had set up.
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More commentary on Israel's Judicial Reform. Why do liberals engage in extremes to pass rational legislation?
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Long-overdue judicial reform process finally underway
Should the newly minted law go into effect, the Israeli Supreme Court will still maintain its authority to rule on petitions and even overturn legislation based on established legal principles.
Alex Traiman is CEO and Jerusalem Bureau Chief of Jewish News Syndicate.
Amid the largest and most well-funded protest movement in Israel’s history, the democratically elected governing coalition passed the first reform in a historic process aimed at bringing Israel’s activist Supreme Court in line with the judicial limitations present in most Western democracies.
With 64 votes in favor, Basic Law: The Judiciary will limit the court’s usage of an undefined “reasonableness standard” that has long served as an unrestrained lever to overturn Knesset legislation and executive policy.
Reasonableness has often been utilized by the court to reverse laws and policies that while not in direct contradiction to laws already on the books stood in contradiction to the limited worldview of a court that is dominated by secular, left-wing justices—a minority in Israeli society.
For those who claim that Israel will no longer be governed by the rule of law, nothing could be further from the truth. Should the newly minted law go into effect, the court will still maintain its authority to rule on petitions and even overturn legislation based on established legal principles. The court will lose its authority to overturn legislation on the discretionary basis of what it deems to be acceptable or proper.
Supreme Court justices arrive for a hearing in Jerusalem on the appointment of Shas leader Aryeh Deri as a government minister, Jan. 5, 2023. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
High Court ruling on reform law could trigger constitutional crisis
Following first stage of judicial reform passage, US Jewish groups pick sides
For decades, Israel’s Supreme Court under the leadership of former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak has amassed increasing authority in landmark, self-defined rulings, shifting the delicate balance of power between the three branches of government in its own favor.
This self-proclaimed judicial revolution determined that any issue—legal, procedural or otherwise—is justiciable. It allows for petitioners to bring cases to the court without standing and enables the court to cancel legislation; force the parliament to pass laws; and hamstring the activities of the prime minister and his or her cabinet. And it was all initially instituted without majority votes in the parliament.
Limited Reform
The reform is just one component of a larger package introduced by the government several months ago. Amid protests and pressure from all sectors of society by those uncomfortable with the right-wing makeup of Israel’s democratically elected coalition, Netanyahu rescinded the larger reform package. He and his coalition partners then engaged the opposition in weeks of negotiations—headed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog—aimed at reaching a broad-based compromise arrangement.
In June, negotiations were halted suddenly by the opposition—ironically, at the moment the government voted to install an opposition lawmaker onto a judicial selection committee that is responsible for appointing new justices to the Supreme Court. The opposition had threatened to break off negotiations if their candidate, Yesh Atid Knesset member Karine Elharrar, was not installed on the committee.
Without the realistic possibility of a negotiated compromise, the coalition, in accordance with its campaign platform, advanced a singular component of its reform: to modify the reasonableness standard. The government selected reasonableness among all other reforms specifically because polls demonstrated that the issue was the most broadly understood by Israel’s public.
Opposition Used to Support Reforms
In fact, prior to the formation of the current government, several opposition leaders, including Yair Lapid, Avigdor Lieberman and Gideon Sa’ar, have all spoken out in favor of judicial reform.
Yet once it was Netanyahu and a right-wing coalition that had both the votes and motivation to advance the overdue reforms, the very same policy that opposition leaders previously extolled was now un-kosher.
And since the initiators of judicial reform—right-wing, traditional and religious parties—were now in the driver’s seat, the opposition gave up on its previous reform-minded principles to protest the reforms with every ounce of their being.
Campaign to Paralyze the Country
While most of the protesters are typical law-abiding Israelis who care deeply for the state and its future, the organizers of the protest movement have demonstrated a willingness to tear the country to shreds while blaming all the damage—direct and collateral—on Netanyahu and his coalition partners.
Under coordination with Lapid, failed former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and an Israeli media industry hungry to push Netanyahu from office, pressure has been leveled on the government to drop the reform package by the Biden administration, American Jewish organizations and leaders, high-tech investors, international credit agencies and other entities.
Simultaneously, the opposition organized an extremely well-funded protest movement complete with the consistent unleashing of new organizations and campaign slogans printed on billboard-size signage, as well as costumes aimed at feeding headlines and photo captions for the domestic and international media. Protesters have repeatedly blocked highways, as well as Ben-Gurion International Airport, much to the chagrin of residents and tourists who have been caught in now-regular traffic jams over and above the ones that existed already.
Pre-Conceived Agenda
While the anti-reform protest appears to be a genuine movement, Barak had spoken of his agenda to overthrow Netanyahu using the tools he is now employing long before judicial reforms ever rose to the top of the policy agenda. Barak, who has documented ties to American accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was one of the shortest-serving prime ministers in Israeli history. He was permitted by the courts to negotiate a failed land giveaway to the Palestinian Authority even after he lost his governing coalition—just one example of how the Supreme Court has historically protected left-wing policies even when such circumstances could have otherwise been deemed “unreasonable.”
Barak’s colleague, Lapid, said from the moment that he was thrown from the temporary prime-minister seat he briefly held that the incoming coalition would face an opposition unlike any other that had ever been seen in Israeli history and that the anti-Netanyahu protests he led during successive election campaigns would be just a taste of what was soon to come.
In the process, Lapid, Barak and others have insidiously claimed that it is Netanyahu who is leading the nation to civil war over reforms that a plurality of Israelis understood as necessary.
Worst Domestic Crisis?
Today, many are claiming that the current domestic policy crisis is the worst Israel has ever faced.
Such claims are made nearly 30 years after a left-wing government railroaded through the Oslo Accords aimed at reducing Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, and granting a P.A. led by arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat a state in the Jewish people’s biblical heartland. Such claims are also made nearly 18 years to the day after the Israel Defense Forces were forced to evacuate 8,500 tax-paying citizens from 21 established Jewish communities in Gush Katif and fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip.
Politicizing the Military
In the case of the Gush Katif evacuations, numerous soldiers opposed the direct orders that they were given to carry out the evacuations on moral grounds. Yet they showed up nearly unanimously under the prevailing view that IDF orders were above politics and sacrosanct.
These days, led by Barak (a former IDF chief of staff), former generals and security officials as well as reservists—albeit, many of them retired—have threatened that they may refuse to serve should judicial reforms be passed. In other words, reservists, including air-force pilots, are threatening not to show up if orders are given to fight against Hezbollah, Hamas or Iran on the basis of political considerations that have nothing to do with orders that may or may not be forthcoming.
Both the highly unpopular and controversial policies of Oslo and Gush Katif tore at the very heart and soul of the Jewish people and its sparse territory. They were passed by the slimmest of majorities and carried out against the protests of masses of the public
And it was during the Oslo process, just days after the assassination of then-prime minister Yitzchak Rabin, that Israel’s Supreme Court, led by Barak, unilaterally instituted a new policy requiring judicial review over legislation.
Ailing Hearts
Even in the run-up to the short-lived negotiations period, Herzog extolled the need for judicial reform. He raced home from a visit to Washington, where he met with U.S. President Joe Biden in the Oval Office and addressed a joint session of Congress, to discuss possibilities for a last-minute compromise in person with Netanyahu, who was recovering from pacemaker surgery in Sheba Medical Center.
It may appear beyond coincidental that at a moment when the heart of the Jewish nation is ailing, its embattled leader, who personally represents so many of the contradictions and conflicts inherent in Israeli society, is suffering from his own ailing heart. And yet, barely 48 hours after surgery, a visibly tired Netanyahu was present in Knesset for the second and third readings of one of the most controversial votes in Israeli history to pass the first component of judicial reform.
Are Reforms Worth the Rift?
Many have wondered why Netanyahu would push forward the reforms when the opposition is so great, even as many Israelis support them. One can properly ask whether the societal rift—regardless of which side one holds responsible—is worth any benefits changing the judiciary may bring.
Yet there is a valid argument that precisely because the opposition has crossed so many redlines, essentially throwing the largest tantrum in Israel’s history, even a limited version of reform must be passed. Should the opposition claim a victory in halting any and all reforms, there is a significant risk that their tactics may become a methodology repeated anytime a policy is opposed
Dueling Protests
The legislation entered into law amid vehement demonstrations both in favor and against judicial reform. While most around the world have seen photographs of anti-reform protests, two mammoth demonstrations in favor of the reforms, including one Sunday evening, also garnered hundreds of thousands of attendees.
In a surreal situation on Sunday, a sea of anti-reform protestors can be seen heading down the massive escalators at Jerusalem’s Navon train station heading home from a protest against the reforms, while an equally sized sea of supporters was heading up the adjacent escalators to a demonstration of their own.
So while hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrably oppose the passage of even the slimmest of reforms, an equal to larger number of Israelis who elected the current coalition following repeated attempts to oust Netanyahu and his coalition partners support their government’s efforts to institute such reforms.
Constitutional Crisis
And if Israel has not been through enough already, Monday’s vote may not prove to be the climax of the crisis. The Movement for Quality Government (MQG) has already announced that it is petitioning the Supreme Court over the legality of the new legislation.
MQG is far from an objective observer. The NGO has been an active opponent of Netanyahu for years and was an early leader of the anti-reform protest movement. Worse, the organization has admittedly received funding from the U.S. State Department, ostensibly for educational programs.
There is a strong likelihood that the court will find a means to invalidate the legislation aimed at curbing the very court that will be ruling on the legislation, representing a severe conflict of interest and creating a bitter constitutional crisis in a state without a constitution.
Even if the court somehow permits the reform, opposition hopefuls such as former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz have vowed to undo the reform should the right wing suddenly find itself out of power.
Compting Visions for the Jewish State
Yet what underlies the current crisis is not whether Israel has a constitution or whether the Supreme Court should be able to exercise a standard of reasonableness when judging policy or legislation. At the core of the matter is the face of the Jewish state in the years ahead.
For the first time in the history of the nation, right-wing, traditional and religious parties have established a governing majority without the need for left-wing partners. And on the basis of demographics, there is the likelihood that the current coalition may not be an outlier.
‘King Bibi’ or Judicial Oligarchy?
Opponents of the reform fear a “King Bibi” who has defected from the secular elite and the political center to form an ideologically aligned right-wing government that prioritizes traditional Jewish values over more liberal and progressive philosophies. Supporters of the reform fear a Supreme Court that has asserted itself as a self-appointed oligarchy over the elected branches of government.
Israel’s right wing sees the country as ultimately standing alone, both in the region and on the global stage. It views Israel as a nationalist entity with firm sovereign rights in Judea and Samaria—a nation that must maintain strong borders and serves as a protectorate of Jewish traditions.
Israel’s left wing sees the state as an extension of Western Europe on the Eastern Mediterranean that fosters a secular and liberal haven, encourages progressive expressions, and serves as the incubator for a startup economy.
With traditional Jewish values clashing with new progressive norms in Western societies—and polarized governments and their media outlets the new normal in democratic nations—the differing worldviews have been highlighted in the battle between a right-wing government and a left-wing court.
Need for Co-Existence
Yet the truth is that both the composition and the idea of Israel aren’t one reality or the other. They exist as a complex balance of worldviews that must find a way to continue to co-exist. And while fragile, the balance has lasted until now with dynamic results. Yet increasingly, too many of Israel’s leaders see the nation through limited lenses. For the judicial reform crisis to dissolve, at least one side, if not both, will be forced to compromise.
For the moment, a bitter crisis ensues with the historic passage of an overdue reform.
Alex Traiman is CEO and Jerusalem Bureau Chief of Jewish News Syndicate.
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Eye poke: Iran has become a gun to hire. and China is buying.
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Iran’s Ayatollas poke the US in the eye
Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger,
The British “Cambridge Middle East and North Africa Forum” reported that “On January 11, 2023, Iran’s naval commander announced that before the end of 2023, Iran would station warships in the Panama Canal [which facilitates 5% of the global maritime trade].”
According to the December 1823 Monroe Doctrine, any intervention by a foreign power in the political affairs of the American continent could be viewed as a potentially hostile act against the US. However, in November 2013, then Secretary of State John Kerry told the Organization of the American States that “the era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.”
Is Iran’s dramatic and rogue re-entrenchment in Latin America underscoring the relevance/irrelevance of the Monroe Doctrine? Does it vindicate John Kerry’s assessment?
Latin America and the Ayatollahs’ anti-US strategy
*Since the February 1979 eruption of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Ayatollahs have leveraged the US diplomatic option (toward Iran’s Ayatollahs) and the accompanying mega-billion dollar benefit (to Iran’s Ayatollahs) as a major engine, bolstering their anti-US rogue policy, regionally and globally.
*The threat posed to the US by Iran’s Ayatollahs is not limited to the survival of the pro-US Arab regimes in the Middle East and the stability of Central Asia, Europe and North and West Africa. The threat extends to Latin America up to the US-Mexico border. The Ayatollahs poke the US in the eye in a most vulnerable geo-strategic area, which directly impacts the US homeland.
*Iran’s penetration of Latin America – the backyard of the US and its soft belly – has been a top national security priority of the Ayatollahs since assuming power in February 1979. The Ayatollahs’ re-entrenchment in Latin America has been assisted by their Hezbollah proxy, driven by their 1,400-year-old mega imperialistic goal (toppling all “apostate” Sunni regimes and bringing the “infidel” West to submission), which requires overcoming the mega hurdle (“the Great American Satan”), the development of mega military capabilities (conventional, ballistic and nuclear) and the adoption of an apocalyptic state of mind.
*Iran’s penetration of Latin America has been based on the anti-U.S. agenda of most Latin American governments, which has transcended the striking ideological and religious differences between the anti-US, socialist, secular Latin American governments and the fanatic Shiite Ayatollahs. The overriding joint aim has been to erode the strategic stature of the US in its own backyard, and subsequently (as far as the Ayatollahs are concerned) in the US homeland, through a network of sleeper cells.
*Iran’s penetration of Latin America has been a hydra-like multi-faceted structure, focusing on the lawless tri-border-areas of Argentina-Paraguay-Brazil and Chile-Peru-Bolivia, as well as Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua and all other anti-US governments. It involves a growing collaboration with all regional terror organizations, the leading drug cartels of Mexico, Columbia, Brazil and Bolivia, global money launderers and every anti-US government in Latin America. Moreover, the Ayatollahs have established terror-training camps in Latin America, as well as sophisticated media facilities and cultural/proselytizing centers. They have exported to the region ballistic technologies, predator unmanned aerial vehicles and tunnel construction equipment.
Latin America and the Ayatollahs’ anti-US tactics
*According to the Cambridge MENAF (ibid), the Brazilian navy reported that two Iranian warships have been granted permission to dock in Brazil. Experts speculate that the vessels could reach the Panama Canal as early as mid-February 2024. The presence of Iranian warships in the Panama Canal threatens not only Western security, but the safety and reliability of one of the world’s key trade routes.
“The gradual permeation of Iranian influence across Latin America over the past 40 years is a significant phenomenon, which has paved the way for this recent strategic move by Teheran. Attention is concentrated toward Iran’s criminal and terrorist network [in Latin America] via Hezbollah operations….”
*Wikileaks cables claim that Secret US diplomatic reports alleged that Iranian engineers have visited Venezuela searching for uranium deposits…. in exchange for assistance in their own nuclear programs. The Chile-based bnAmericas reported that “Iranian experts with knowledge of the most uranium-rich areas in Venezuela are allegedly extracting the mineral under the guise of mining and tractor assembly companies…. Planes are prohibited from flying over the location of the plant…. The Iranian state-owned Impasco, which has a gold mining concession in Venezuela, is linked to Iran’s nuclear program. Its Venezuela mine is located in one of the most uranium-rich areas, which has no-fly restrictions….”
*According to the June 2022 Iran-Venezuela 20-year-agreement (military, oil, economy), Iran received the title over one million hectares of Venezuelan land, which could be employed for the testing of advanced Iranian ballistic systems. Similar agreements were signed by Iran with Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia.
*Venezuela has issued fraudulent passports, national IDs and birth certificates to Iranian officials and terrorists, avoiding international sanctions and blunting counter-terrorism measures. The Iran-Venezuela air traffic has grown significantly, although tourism activity has been marginal….
*Since the early 1980s, Iran’s Ayatollahs have leveraged the networking of Hezbollah terrorists in the very large and successful Lebanese communities in Latin America (and West Africa). Hezbollah’s narcotrafficking, money laundering, crime and terror infrastructure have yielded billions of dollars to both Hezbollah and Iran. The US Department of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates that Hezbollah earns about $2bn annually through illegal drug trafficking and weapon proliferation in the Tri Border Area of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, expanding ties with the most violent drug cartels in Latin America, including Mexico’s Los Zetas, Colombia’s FARC and Brazil’s PCC, impacting drug trafficking, crime and terror in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Iran has intensified its Hezbollah-assisted intelligence missions against US and Israeli targets in Latin America and beyond. Hezbollah has leveraged its stronghold, the Bekaa Valley, in Lebanon, which is one of the largest opium and hashish producing areas in the world.
The bottom line
The track record of the Ayatollahs, including the surge of their rogue presence in Latin America, documents the self-destructive nature of the diplomatic option toward Iran – which has served as a most effective tailwind of the Ayatollahs’ anti US agenda - and the self-defeating assumptions that the Ayatollahs are amenable to good-faith negotiation, peaceful-coexistence with their Sunni Arab neighbors and the abandonment of their 1,400-year-old fanatical imperialistic vision.
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A random comment:
Biden continues to kiss the behind of black voters by building a monument to Emmett Till. As for Trump, my view is if he does not participate in the GOP debate he has lost all credibility because I want to see how he responds to the mud Chris Cristie intends to sling at him and his white shirt.
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