HAMAS almost never denies responsibility for these attacks

https://www.google.com/search?q=hama...hrome&ie=UTF-8

So what you mean is even if you see proof a soldier was killed you will still brush it off. Life's too short to debate with people like you.

^ It's important to have independent sources of information where the event is being used to justify a major policy shift, particularly when the information is coming from the Israeli government via compromised media.
In terms of whether a dead Israeli soldier is cause for escalation of war I say no, the Israelis illegally occupy territory, their soldiers are fair game. If this is unacceptable to Israeli citizens they should take the matter up with the Netanyahu government which seems intent on blowing up large sections of South West Asia. On the other hand Palestinian medics and farmers can never be considered legitimate targets.

Fwiw, I don't really agree with letting Netanyahu and his government 'off the hook' because the the Nation State bill won't have real life impications.

First, the only reason it might not have any is because of the SC and this government (led by Justice secretary Ayelet Shaked) is working endlessly to change the nature of the Supreme Court. We can't really rely on it forever as the only defense mechanism against fascist laws crafted by the idiots in the Knesset.

The 2nd reason is that this is actually what this government believes in. This shouldn't be belittled. They have crapped all over the 'Israeli Declaration of Independence' from 48 ("it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."). Israel doesn't have a constitution and these morons are basically writing one.

So yeah, as long as the SC stands as it is, this law probably won't have much effect irl (which just means it will continue to be very ****ty), but this law is an atrocity and it's extremely saddenning that even non-RWNJ in Israel's are just shrugging it off in apathy.

--

In other summer news, Israel shot down a Syrian plane over Israeli airspace. Fun on multiple fronts.

Stirring obit of Uri Avnery.

Oh the rustling you've caused!

So something like a third to a half a percent of the population of Gaza has been shot with live rifle rounds at the border. Jesus.

https://apnews.com/6035b1d3293c4a298...L6xAJSvaKtsjVc

.

He's now 100% trump with better vocabulary. At one point he just started naming random people saying they should be investigated instead.
Also he is complaining that the investigation won't be finished by the election and it will hurt his chances, so the investigation should be put on hold until the April elections.

That might have made some sense (not really) if he wasn't the one who decided to have the elections 7 months earlier.

This is ****ing disgraceful and should be condemned as such by Western democracies that consider Israel an ally.

he's becoming increasingly desperate

while facing pending charges, he is also facing a serious political challenge from the formerly uncoordinated left

he's probably done

Sadly I would bet against it.

Even more disgusting than the deal mentioned above is how smoothly it went over with the "moderate" right (which, as always, proves to be non existent).

There's also no real coordinated left. It's a party of three former '5 star generals', one of which was already secretary of defense before Netanyahu fired him for not being right wing enough. Obviously I hope they pull off an upset, but I'm also wary of "centrists".

Worth mentioning that while their party will probably win more seats than Netanyahu's, that's not how the Israeli system work. Netanyahu would still be a huge favorite to form a coalition unless the entire right-wing block takes a major hit, which is unlikely.

Is Israel the same as the UK in that there is a constitutional convention that the largest party gets the first shot at forming a government?

No, that's the point.

After the election, each party meets with the president and tell him who they recommend for the role of Prime Minister.

Assuming the right wing block receives more seats in the Knesset, they will recommend Netanyahu and he will get the first shot.

This has happened in 2009 when Kadima (central-left) won 29 seats to Netanyahu's 28, but he still got the first shot at forming the government because he had a lot more support of other parties.

Israel has proportional representation, so it's more complicated. When people complain about the two-party effect of first-past-the-post in the UK, it's always worth remembering Israel, where PR empowers fringe parties. Ireland has PR, but Irish politics to date haven't been that polarised. In a hypothetical united Ireland in the future, Northern unionists could hold the balance of power, which might rock people back a bit.

He's a proto-fascist war criminal and I'll be glad to see the back of him (The thought of Netanyahu in jail gets me kinda hard). but i) He could survive this ii) He's the symptom not that cause.

GET 'EM

Isn't there a good chance that if Netanyahoo hits the bricks the next dude could be even further to the right? That would be not great.

You'll be disappointed of the left too. There is no prolific politician to the left of Netanyahu with any concrete plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tzipi Livni might have been the last one and she was forced into retirement.

(I don't even mean a good plan. Just any plan)

The 4000 case (which he'll be indicted on) is basically helping out the owner of the major telecommunication company in Israel in return for positive coverage in his media outlet.
I hope i'm wrong, but I'm afraid it won't be enough to send him away.

Have the demographics changed so much in Israel that the fairly progressive, younger crowd is losing a lot of ground to the ultra conservatives?

Seems like there should be enough young Israelis pissed off about Bibi, etc. to want to change this ****.

The yougner crowd is ultra 'conservative'.

The left and right in Israel aren't correlated that strongly with the rest of the world.
Bibi's right-wing economics isn't popular (his last treasury of state actually ran on an extremely left-wing platform and the last time he tried to act on his own economic belief he got crushed in the elections). The same goes for liberal rights (at least Jewish ones).

To put it bluntly and in a very simplified fashion, young people in Israel don't like arabs.

All the current coalition parties (aka - right wing) have already stated today that they will back Netnyahu again even with the news of indictment. GL Israel.

Air strike sirens in Tel Aviv. Early reports of two missiles shot down by iron dome.

Bibi just won the elections