Palestinian-Israelis

By Guy Ziv, American University School of International Service | – Israel’s political magician has done it again. Having been turned out of office in 2021 as the first sitting Israeli prime minister to be indicted – and with his corruption trial still underway – Benjamin Netanyahu has made another stunning comeback. After four inconclusive […]

Displaced and Refugees

The Rise of Israeli Fascism as the Swing Vote in Parliament, and the Project of Ethnic Cleansing

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Despite Israeli propaganda about being a democracy that shares values with the liberal West, the country has for some time gone down a much darker path. Exit polling done by the major Israeli television channels in Tuesday’s election suggests that Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party, in a joint slate with […]

Apartheid

Israel’s Apartheid Law Causes Bennett Government to Fall, on Eve of Biden’s Visit

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will dissolve parliament and go to new elections. His government has lacked a majority in parliament for some time and recently lost an embarrassing vote on applying Israeli law to squatter-settlers in the Palestinian West Bank. Theirs will be […]

Featured

Israel’s Crisis in Parliament is a Crisis for its Apartheid in the Palestinian West Bank

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Monday evening, the government of Naftali Bennett in Israel failed to pass a crucial law in parliament, according to the Israeli newspaper Arab 48. The failure, which strikes at the foundations of Bennett’s far right vision of an expanding Greater Israel that forever forestalls any Palestinian state, exposed the […]

Haredim

Constantly on the verge of Collapse: How Palestinians became the Linchpin of Israeli Politics

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor) – Israel’s coalition government of right-wing Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, is on the verge of collapse, which is unsurprising. Israeli politics, after all, is among the most fractious in the world, and this particular coalition was born out of the obsessive desire to dethrone Israel’s former leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. While Netanyahu […]

Haredim

How Long can Israel’s Minority Government survive Wave of Racial, Petty Partisan Rivalries?

Middle East Monitor

Motasem A Dalloul | – Before forming the current dilapidated government coalition last year, the Israeli occupation state went through four elections in two years. Even after the fourth elections, neither of the Israeli parties has succeeded in winning enough seats in parliament to form a stable one-party government or a strong coalition government. There […]

Christianity

E. Orthodox Christians in Jerusalem accuse Israel of Violating Freedom of Worship over Easter Holy Fire Ceremony

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Palestine’s foreign ministry on Saturday called on the Biden administration to pressure Israel to cease its encroachments on the religious liberties of Palestinian Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem. The issue shifted this weekend to Israeli restrictions on Christian crowds flocking to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for Eastern Orthodox […]

Featured

Will Israel’s Muslim Fundamentalists help Pass Marijuana Bill?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jack Khoury and Noa Shpigel report at Haaretz that the Israeli government is advancing a marijuana bill that may gain the support of the United Arab List, a Muslim fundamentalist party that forms part of the 8-party coalition underpinning the government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Although Mansour Abbas, the […]

Featured

Israeli Supreme Court affirms Apartheid law limiting Sovereignty to Jewish Israelis, excluding 20% of Population

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports in an article edited by Mahmud Mujadalah that the Israeli Supreme Court on Thursday refused to strike down the basic law passed by the parliament or Knesset in 2018 declaring Israel a Jewish nation such that sovereignty is solely invested in the Jewish population. […]