Israel: Opinion - Bernie Sanders: The Approach the Israel-Palestine Conflict Needs - by Bernie Sanders

Let’s be clear. No one is arguing that Israel, or any government, does not have the right to self-defense or to protect its people. So why are these words repeated year after year, war after war? And why is the question almost never asked: “What are the rights of the Palestinian people?”

And why do we seem to take notice of the violence in Israel and Palestine only when rockets are falling on Israel?

In this moment of crisis, the United States should be urging an immediate cease-fire. We should also understand that, while Hamas firing rockets into Israeli communities is absolutely unacceptable, today’s conflict did not begin with those rockets.

Further, we have seen Benjamin Netanyahu’s government work to marginalize and demonize Palestinian citizens of Israel, pursue settlement policies designed to foreclose the possibility of a two-state solution and pass laws that entrench systemic inequality between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Over more than a decade of his right-wing rule in Israel, Mr. Netanyahu has cultivated an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of racist nationalism. In his frantic effort to stay in power and avoid prosecution for corruption, Mr. Netanyahu has legitimized these forces, including Itamar Ben Gvir and his extremist Jewish Power party, by bringing them into the government. It is shocking and saddening that racist mobs that attack Palestinians on the streets of Jerusalem now have representation in its Knesset.

Read more at: Opinion | Bernie Sanders: The Approach the Israel-Palestine Conflict Needs - The New York Times

Middle East; Israel's 'Bibi generation' starts to turn on Netanyahu over economy and COVID-19

When infections fell, he went on television on May 26 to boast of his success. “Have a beer. Enjoy yourselves,” he said. Many Israelis did just that.

But infections later surged, and opinions polls showed confidence in Netanyahu was falling. He now faces nationwide protests over the state of the economy, hit by the coronavirus.

Read more at: 
Israel's 'Bibi generation' starts to turn on Netanyahu over economy and COVID-19 - Reuters

Israel:Netanyahu tells Israeli president he can't form a government after election deadlock

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he could not form a new government, after President Reuven Rivlin tasked with him doing so in the wake of a deadlocked election.

The opportunity to form a stable government will now likely fall to his rival Benny Gantz, who leads the main opposition Blue and White party.

Read more at:Netanyahu tells Israeli president he can't form a government after election deadlock