Palestinian motorist shot dead by Israeli troops in checkpoint scuffle



Scene of a security incident near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank

Sun, January 15, 2023 
By Ali Sawafta

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian motorist in the occupied West Bank on Sunday during what a witness said was a scuffle at a crowded checkpoint, with the Israeli army saying the man had tried to grab a soldier's gun.

Palestinian medics summoned to the scene near Silwad village said they found 45-year-old Ahmed Kahleh with a fatal bullet wound to the neck. Kahleh's son had been pepper-sprayed, they said. Reuters was not immediately able to reach him for comment.

Relatives said both father and son worked in construction and had been driving together to their jobs.

The West Bank, among areas where Palestinians seek statehood, has seen an increase in violence since U.S.-backed peace talks with Israel stalled in 2014.

Tensions have surged following an intensification of raids by Israel in response to a spate of Palestinian street attacks in its cities last year.

A Palestinian motorist, who said he had witnessed Sunday's shooting, described tempers fraying earlier at the checkpoint, with drivers honking horns in impatience as they waited.

"The army fired stun grenades and one of the grenades hit the man's (Kahleh's) car and the man began shouting at the soldiers," said the motorist, Maher Hadid, 37. When soldiers approached the car and used pepper spray, Kahleh got out, scuffled with them and was shot, Hadid said.

A statement from an Israeli army spokesperson said troops had "identified a suspicious vehicle which refused to stop for a routine inspection" and had "used riot dispersal means in order to detain one of the suspects in the vehicle".

In an ensuing "violent confrontation", one of the suspects was shot as he tried to seize one of the soldiers' weapons, said the statement, without specifying whether the suspect shot was the same as the one detained.

A video posted on social media on Sunday, which Reuters could not independently verify, showed a man grappling with two soldiers in an underpass while a third soldier is nearby. In the video, a soldier appears to fire a rifle at a low angle. Another shot is heard, and the man falls out of view.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams; editing by James Mackenzie and Jane Merriman)

Palestinians say Israeli army kills 14-year-old during raid



Mon, January 16, 2023 

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Israeli security forces fatally shot a 14-year-old Palestinian during an early morning raid Monday into a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest incident in weeks of surging violence.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the teenager as Omar Khumour and said he died after being struck in the head by a bullet during an Israeli military raid into Dheisha refugee camp near the city of Bethlehem. Crowds of Palestinians full of rage massed outside the hospital where he died in Bethlehem, chanting against Israel and praising God.

The Israeli army said forces entered the Dheisha camp and were bombarded by Molotov cocktails and rocks. It said soldiers responded to the onslaught with live fire.

The death of Khumour brings the toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank so far this year to 14, including three people under the age of 18, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Violence and unrest have raged for months in the occupied West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — territories the Palestinians want for their hoped-for state. Some half-million Israelis now live in about 130 settlements across the West Bank, which the Palestinians and much of the international community view as an obstacle to peace.

The Israeli military has been conducting near-nightly arrest raids in the territory since last spring. The raids were prompted by a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people, while another 10 Israelis were killed in a second string of attacks later last year.

Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see them as further entrenchment of Israel’s open-ended, 55-year occupation of lands they seek for their future state.

Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, making it the deadliest year since 2004.

Israel says most of the dead were militants. But Palestinian stone-throwers, youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations also have been killed.

Masked Palestinians carry the body of 14-year-old Omar Khumour during his funeral in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Khumour died after being struck in the head by a bullet during an Israeli military raid into Dheisha refugee camp near the city of Bethlehem. The Israeli army said that forces entered the Dheisha camp and were bombarded by Molotov cocktails and rocks. It said soldiers responded to the onslaught with live fire.

 (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Poll Leader in Nigeria Presidential Election Pledges Debt Revamp



Anthony Osae-Brown
Mon, January 16, 2023 at 9:33 AM MST·1 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Peter Obi, the top choice in four opinion polls ahead of next month’s Nigerian elections, has promised to reprofile the nation’s debt if elected.

Obi, a third-party candidate who is running on the Labour Party ticket, said he would extend payments of the country’s debt over a longer period.

“Then we will say no more borrowing for consumption,” he said at Chatham House in London on Monday. “We will borrow transparently for investment.”

Nigeria’s total debt stock almost quadrupled under outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari to about 44 trillion naira ($95 billion) as of September. While this represents less than 30% of the nation’s gross domestic product, debt service consumes more than 80% of the country’s income.

Most of the country’s borrowing has been spent on “consumption” rather than on production, according to Obi.

“Nigeria has grown its debt by about 400% but its per capita income has declined,” he said, adding “That means that the money we borrowed was thrown away.”

Peru extends state of emergency in protest-hit cities

Sun, January 15, 2023 

By Marco Aquino

LIMA (Reuters) -Peru has extended a state of emergency for another month in the capital city of Lima and two southern regions where deadly protests against the government have sparked the country's worst violence in 20 years.

Peru first announced a month-long, nationwide state of emergency in mid-December, shortly after demonstrations broke out over the ousting of former leftist President Pedro Castillo, who had attempted to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

More than 40 people have died in violent clashes between protesters and security forces since early December.

The extended emergency measures signed by President Dina Boluarte late on Saturday, which grant police special powers and limit freedoms including the right to assembly, apply to Lima and the southern regions of Puno and Cusco.

In Puno, where nearly half of the victims have died, the restrictions include a 10-day curfew.

In a march in Lima on Saturday, protesters raised red and white national flags alongside banners rimmed in black in a sign of mourning. They also lashed out against Boluarte, Castillo's former vice president, who the day before had apologized for the deaths while calling for investigations.

"She is a hypocrite," said protester Tania Serra, speaking over shouts of the crowd, which at times jostled with police outfitted in anti-riot gear. "She says sorry, sorry, but she doesn't come out to talk, she sends the police, the military to go kill."

As of Jan. 12-13, a poll by Ipsos Peru published in newspaper Peru 21 on Sunday showed 71% of Peruvians disapproved of Boluarte's government up from 68% in December.

Protesters have demanded Boluarte step down, and that Castillo, who was arrested for "rebellion," be released.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Additional reporting by Anthony Marina; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Diane Craft)

GLOBALIZATION
Siemens signs 3 billion eur train deal in India

The logo of German industrial group Siemens is seen in Zug

Mon, January 16, 2023 at 5:40 AM MST·2 min read
By John Revill

ZURICH (Reuters) - Siemens has signed a 3 billion euro ($3.25 billion) contract to supply and service freight trains in India, the German engineering company said on Monday, the biggest locomotive deal in its history.

Siemens will deliver 1,200 electric locomotives and provide servicing for 35 years under the agreement, also its biggest ever in India.

The Siemens-designed, 9,000-horsepower trains with a top speed of 120 km (75 miles)/hr will be assembled in India over the next 11 years, with deliveries starting in 24 months.

"These new locomotives ... can replace between 500,000 to 800,000 trucks over their lifecycle," said Siemens Mobility CEO Michael Peter.

The order was a big step for Siemens in India, Peter told Reuters, saying the company had previously mainly provided components and infrastructure there.

"India is looking for technology, better efficiency, and longer lifespan for its trains," he said in an interview. "In the past India built their own trains, but they want to increase reliability and average speeds."

The deal is the latest bumper contract won by Siemens after it signed a 900 million euro deal for a new metro line in Sydney, Australia in December.

Peter was confident about reaching Siemens's goal of increasing revenue at the mobility business by 6-9% this year, although this contract would mainly appear as orders in 2023. He said profit margins were in line with what he expected for rolling stock, declining to comment further.

He said Siemens was also looking at other train contracts in India, the world's largest rail market with 24 million passengers travelling daily on more than 22,000 trains.

The government in New Delhi wants to increase the rail network' share of freight transport to 40-45% from the current 27%, said Siemens, whose first contact in India - a London to Calcutta telegraph line - dates back to 1867.

($1 = 0.9237 euros)

(Reporting by John Revill; editing by John Stonestreet)

TORY MINISTER

 Penny Mordaunt urges Church of England to allow gay marriages

Gabriella Swerling
Mon, January 16, 2023

Penny Mordaunt - DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images

Penny Mordaunt has urged the Church of England to allow gay marriage ahead of an historic vote by bishops, marking the first intervention by a Cabinet minister on the issue.

Ms Mordaunt, the Leader of the Commons and MP for Portsmouth North, has written to the Bishop of Portsmouth, calling on him to “recognise the pain and trauma” that failure to recognise same-sex marriage causes to “many LGBT+ people who are left feeling that they are treated as second class citizens within our society”.

According to current canon law, no Church of England minister can bless or marry gay couples.

Ms Mordaunt’s interjection is the first time a serving Cabinet minister has called for the issue to be reformed within the Church. She also warned that if bishops failed to approve same-sex marriage, the issue would “fester”.

Next month, bishops will present their long-awaited findings to the General Synod – the Church’s legislative body – on whether the ban on gay marriage could be overturned.

Traditionalists hope bishops will veto any changes to the existing stance that church weddings should be for only opposite-sex couples and that sex among gay couples amounts to a sin.

More liberal members of the Church are calling for it to modernise and welcome gay members.

In a letter to the Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Dr Jonathan Frost, on Sunday, Ms Mordaunt said she was writing “regarding discussions on how the Church will move forward on the issue of same-sex relationships. I hope they will back reform”.

The letter said: “I want all of my constituents and others to be able to have the right to have their relationships solemnised in their local parish in England.

“It is some time now since Parliament legislated for civil partnerships and then same-sex marriage. Since then, both the Episcopal Church in Scotland and the Church of Scotland have agreed to offer same-sex marriage, and the Church in Wales plans to do so soon.

“The issue has been under discussion within the Church of England for a long time. Whilst not a reason in itself, I fear that if it is not resolved at next month’s General Synod the matter will continue to fester and detract from the positive contribution the Church of England makes to our society.”

The Bishop of Portsmouth has not publicly commented in response.

In November, the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev Steven Croft, became the most senior Church of England cleric to back same-sex marriage, breaking ranks with the Church’s current view.

After he spoke out about the “acute pain and distress of LGBTQ+ people in the life of the Church”, a number of other serving bishops also spoke in support of gay marriage.

Responding to Ms Morduant’s letter, Jayne Ozanne, an LGBT+ campaigner and member of General Synod, said it was “something that all Church of England bishops must read”.

Couple confound Romania's tough anti-LGBTQ laws

Herve BOSSY with Anne BEADE in Vienna
Sun, January 15, 2023 

When Evie and Gia decided to get married they turned Romania's hardening discrimination against LGBTQ people on its head.

The country is one of the last in the EU where same sex marriages and civil partnerships are still outlawed, and last year its senate passed a law banning "gay propaganda" that might influence minors.

While Evie is a transgender woman, her identity papers class her as male.

So technically the two women could get legally married.

But official "resistance" to their union began as soon as Evie turned up at their local town hall with her life coach partner to sort out the paperwork.


"They looked at me weirdly... and said that they would have to do some extra checks on my background. They made me feel like a spy," said the 38-year-old IT developer.

Then officials demanded that "I come dressed according to the gender of my identity papers," said Evie, who refused.

- Wedding day stand-off -

On their wedding day, officials first refused to marry them before relenting "after 20 minutes of debate". They only managed to have photos taken after overcoming still more objections from the registrar.

The experience has left the couple, who did not want to reveal their full names for fear of attack, contemplating leaving the country.

"There are a lot of problems in the country's laws that directly affect people like me," said Evie.

The bill to prevent "the promotion of homosexuality and sex changes" is one of several such measures that hangs over Romania's LGBTQ community.

A carbon copy of a controversial Hungarian law, it still needs approval from parliament's lower house, and no vote has yet been scheduled.

Homosexuality was only decriminalised in Romania in 2001, and in recent years the country has increasingly tried to restrict LGBTQ rights, including trying to axe gender studies and to enshrine a ban on gay marriage in the constitution.

- 'Very scary' -

"It's definitely very scary," said Evie, fearing the hostile atmosphere could even encourage violence.

Pictures of Evie and Gia's wedding on Facebook drew "very negative" comments, though the reactions on TikTok, which is used by younger people, were more positive, the couple said.

"The older generation is still not accepting us," Evie said.

While anti-gay legislation in Hungary and Poland has hogged the headlines, Romania ranks among the lowest EU nations in terms of LGBTQ rights, according to advocacy group ILGA-Europe.

Romania's powerful Orthodox Church is often accused of fostering homophobic attitudes, but it was the party of the mostly Protestant ethnic Hungarian minority that proposed the latest law against "gay propaganda".

Party lawmaker Zoltan Zakarias denies it is "an attack on freedom", saying it aimed to "protect children from content promoting or popularising homosexuality".

"Sex education is up to the parents... and when someone reaches the age to decide, they do what they want," he told AFP.

- Deep divide -

But talking about gay propaganda was "absurd", said Gia. "Showing people exist doesn't mean you are promoting their way of life."

Florin Buhuceanu, head of LGBTQ group Accept, said that it is "sad to see that in the 21st century some people in the political class think we are still a threat."

Hadley Renkin, an anthropologist at the Vienna-based CEU university, said the laws were "part of a much deeper, broader trend" with political leaders, such as Hungary's Viktor Orban railing against an "overly liberal, too tolerant West".

"It is very important to recognise that these kind of laws are part of a larger dynamic between East and West," he told AFP.

For Evie and Gia the fight goes on. Evie has applied to a local court to have her gender changed on her identity document and expects a ruling soon.

She is hopeful of a positive decision based on a European Court of Human Rights judgement that sided with several Romanian transgendered people on the issue.

MICROBREAKS THE NEW SMOKE BREAK
Sitting all day is terrible for your health – now, a new study finds a relatively easy way to counteract it

Keith Diaz, Associate Professor of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University

THE CONVERSATION
Thu, January 12, 2023

Researchers have long known that sitting at your desk hour after hour is an unhealthy habit. Morsa Images/Digital Vision via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

To reduce the harmful health effects of sitting, take a five-minute light walk every half-hour. That’s the key finding of a new study that my colleagues and I published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

We asked 11 healthy middle-aged and older adults to sit in our lab for eight hours – representing a standard workday – over the course of five separate days. On one of those days, participants sat for the entire eight hours with only short breaks to use the bathroom. On the other days, we tested a number of different strategies to break up a person’s sitting with light walking. For example, on one day, participants walked for one minute every half-hour. On another day, they walked for five minutes every hour.

Our goal was to find the least amount of walking one could do to offset the harmful health effects of sitting. In particular, we measured changes in blood sugar levels and blood pressure, two important risk factors for heart disease.

We found that a five-minute light walk every half-hour was the only strategy that reduced blood sugar levels substantially compared with sitting all day. In particular, five-minute walks every half-hour reduced the blood sugar spike after eating by almost 60%.

That strategy also reduced blood pressure by four to five points compared with sitting all day. But shorter and less frequent walks improved blood pressure too. Even just a one-minute light walk every hour reduced blood pressure by five points.

In addition to physical health benefits, there were also mental health benefits to the walking breaks. During the study, we asked participants to rate their mental state by using a questionnaire. We found that compared with sitting all day, a five-minute light walk every half-hour reduced feelings of fatigue, put participants in a better mood and helped them feel more energized. We also found that even walks just once every hour were enough to boost mood and reduce feelings of fatigue.

Why it matters

People who sit for hours on end develop chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, dementia and several types of cancer at much higher rates than people who move throughout their day. A sedentary lifestyle also puts people at a much greater risk of early death. But just exercising daily may not reverse the harmful health effects of sitting.

Because of technological advances, the amount of time adults in industrialized countries like the U.S. spend sitting has been steadily increasing for decades. Many adults now spend the majority of their day sitting. This problem has only gotten worse since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the migration to more remote work, people are less inclined to venture out of the house these days. So it’s clear that strategies are needed to combat a growing 21st century public health problem.

Current guidelines recommend that adults should “sit less, move more.” But these recommendations don’t provide any specific advice or strategies for how often and how long to move.

Our work provides a simple and affordable strategy: Take a five-minute light walk every half-hour. If you have a job or lifestyle where you have to sit for prolonged periods, this one behavior change could reduce your health risks from sitting.

Our study also offers clear guidance to employers on how to promote a healthier workplace. While it may seem counterintuitive, taking regular walking breaks can actually help workers be more productive than working without stopping.
What still isn’t known

Our study primarily focused on taking regular walking breaks at a light intensity. Some of the walking strategies – for example, one-minute light walks every hour – did not lower blood sugar levels. We don’t know if more rigorous walking would have provided health benefits at these doses.

What’s next

We are currently testing over 25 different strategies for offsetting the health harms of prolonged sitting. Many adults have jobs, such as driving trucks or taxis, where they simply cannot walk every half-hour. Finding alternative strategies that yield comparable results can provide the public with several different options and ultimately allow people to pick the strategy that works best for them and their lifestyle.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Keith Diaz, Columbia University. The Conversation is trustworthy news from experts, from an independent nonprofit. Try our free newsletters.

Read more:

Walking workouts are great for heart, bone, and muscle health – and almost everyone can do it

Taking fitness outside: 9 tips for becoming more active through the Canadian winter

Keith Diaz receives funding from the National Institutes of Health.

UK
Hospitality chief demands energy regulator names and shames suppliers

Sun, 15 January 2023 


The energy watchdog must step in to penalise price-gouging behaviour by energy suppliers, according to the head of the lobbying group representing thousands of pubs, restaurants, hotels and gyms across Britain.

In a letter to the chief executive of Ofgem from Kate Nicholls, the boss of UK Hospitality, which has been seen by Sky News, she urges the regulator to "name and shame" energy companies that have acted "in bad faith" towards business customers.

Her letter comes ahead of a drastic cut in support for energy bills for British businesses, with the government having announced plans for a revised scheme several days ago.


Ms Nicholls was among the business leaders who met Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, for talks about the government's business energy support package in recent weeks.

Her intervention underlines the scale of the concern among private sector bosses about the potential spike in prices, although falling wholesale costs are expected to mitigate the pain, particularly for households, during the coming months.

In her letter to Jonathan Brearley, she said the "dramatic decrease in support for hospitality businesses will be catastrophic for the sector and inevitably businesses will fail".

She blamed this partly on "the behaviour of energy suppliers in the summer and autumn of 2022".

"Businesses were encouraged to move to fixed price deals but could only access very high contracted rates," she wrote.

"As well as extortionate rates, well above wholesale prices, suppliers hiked standing charges, demanded eye-watering deposits from hospitality businesses in particular, and some even cancelled existing contracts."

Read more:
Restaurants cut menu items as inflation pressures mount

Ms Nicholls urged Ofgem to seek new legislative powers to allow businesses to cancel or renegotiate energy contracts, as well as to seek appropriate compensation.

She said that energy suppliers that have customers on fixed contracts "at more than double the government's floor price should be compelled to offer a renegotiation of contracts".

The hospitality industry chief also urged Mr Brearley to ban the blanket withdrawal of supply quotes to entire sectors.

Speaking separately, Ms Nicholls said the conduct of some energy companies had been "nothing short of disgraceful".

"It's clear some rogue companies saw the significant intervention by the government to support business as nothing more than a cash cow," she added.

PRIVATIZING HEALTHCARE
UK Private brokers earn millions finding care homes for NHS patients

Shanti Das
Sun, 15 January 2023 

Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images

Private brokers are making millions of pounds a year finding care home beds for NHS patients who are fit to leave hospital.

Agencies are being hired to provide “discharge services”, finding suitable places for elderly patients amid pressures on the health system, Observer analysis shows.

Carehome Selection Ltd, the UK’s biggest social care brokerage, has expanded in the past five years and now claims partnerships with 150 NHS organisations and local authorities, with revenues of £20m, up about 75% compared with 2018.

In 2021, the most senior director of its parent company was paid £609,000, up from £138,000 in 2020, according to its latest accounts.

The agency is one of the biggest beneficiaries in a group of firms providing brokerage services, predominantly helping councils seeking places for patients stuck in hospitals.

A chronic lack of social care capacity means up to one in three hospital beds in England are occupied by patients who are ready to leave, with the backlog contributing to record ambulance and treatment delays.

Care home brokerages help identify suitable care home places so that medically fit patients can be discharged, freeing up capacity in overstretched wards. But such arrangements are usually made by the NHS and councils dealing directly with each other and local social care providers.

Daisy Cooper MP, health spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, said the reliance on agencies was “a scandalous situation”. “The government’s failure to plan has left local authorities with no choice but to turn to private brokers for even the most basic of functions,” she said.

Carehome Selection says its services save money and speed up discharges. “Our service model includes evening and weekend working, so no time is lost,” its website says. The company says it has “close relationships” with care providers, which pay a fee when a service user is referred. Patients and their families do not pay.

Last week, the firm signed a three-month, £223,000 contract with Leeds city council to provide “brokerage services to find step down beds so people can leave hospital into care homes”. In July, it began a £243,000 contract with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council to provide a “brokerage service for self funders” until March 2023.

In County Durham, the company is being paid to assess patients and help match them with suitable care home places. That contract, signed in April, is worth up to £1.95m over five years.

Carehome Selection was founded by a GP in 1995 and started working with the NHS 20 years ago. It has scaled up operations since receiving a £10m cash injection from investment firm BGF in 2018 and subsequently saw its revenue grow by 75% to more than £20m, delivering a “strong return” for investors.

In 2021, the company was acquired by private equity-backed Acacium, which also runs agencies supplying staff to the NHS and says it is “the UK’s largest healthcare solutions partner”. During the pandemic, Acacium – part of the Onex Corporation, owned by Canadian billionaire Gerald Schwartz – was criticised for charging up to £170 an hour for nurses, four times the approved framework rate.

The firm said at the time that “far from inflating fees” during the pandemic, it had “increased the availability of discounted rates, waived cancellation fees and capped travel costs to customers”.

Another NHS supplier offering discharge services said on its website that it helps “return patients to their homes safely, avoiding unnecessary delays”. Its service is for “hospitals who are experiencing a large number of delayed transfers” and councils facing delays “due to capacity issues”.

NHS trusts and local authorities are also paying agencies to assess patients’ care needs, analysis shows, including those waiting to be discharged from hospital or entitled to funding due to complex long-term health problems.

In one case, Leeds city council is outsourcing patient assessments to help it “clear the backlog of referrals to hospital social work teams”. The contract will see a consultancy firm assess 100 patients and is worth £40,000.

A spokesperson for the council said it was experiencing a significant shortage of social workers, which had affected hospital discharge teams. “In order to continue to support timely discharges, the council has secured agency staff on a temporary basis and is also trialling a brokerage service which supports the admission of people into residential care,” he said.

The council said its initiatives were being funded using an allocation from a £500m government fund announced in September to support hospital discharges. Local health and care organisations were told they could use the funding “flexibly” to tackle “the areas facing the greatest challenges”.

Related: Hospitals in England discharging patients into ‘care hotels’

Rory Deighton, director of the acute network at the NHS Confederation, said using private providers to help coordinate hospital discharges may not be appropriate in every case but could offer value for money and reduce backlogs.

A spokesperson for Carehome Selection said it “commits to and is paid based upon performance-based outcomes centred on accelerating speed of hospital discharge”. They added that clients using the service had reduced the average time to discharge medically fit patients from 10 to three days.

The Department of Health and Social Care said: “The purpose of the £500m discharge fund is to reduce the number of bed days lost to delayed discharge. It is for NHS trusts and local authorities to decide whether to access support from the private sector in improving flow through the health and social care system.”

Netanyahu is Israel’s own worst enemy. Why won’t western allies confront him?


Simon Tisdall

THE GUARDIAN
Sun, 15 January 2023 

Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

Samir Aslan did what any father would do. When Israeli soldiers broke into his home at Qalandiya refugee camp last week to arrest his son, he rushed to protect him. The 41-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed. His death received scant notice, so frequent are such incidents. A reported 224 Palestinians were killed last year in the occupied West Bank, which suffered almost daily army raids. 2023 is shaping up to be even worse.

The main reason is a new ultranationalist, hard-right religious coalition government in Jerusalem that includes racist, anti-Arab ministers determined to annex all the Palestinian territories. Yet the response to this alarming, destabilising development from Israel’s western allies has been strangely muted. A few have issued veiled warnings. None has imposed the sort of sanctions or boycotts levelled in the past on political extremists in other countries.

The coalition’s objectionable plans raise a broader, uncomfortable question for the US and Europe reaching beyond the too-familiar abuses and impunity of military occupation. In short, can Israel still be considered a reliable, law-abiding ally that shares a set of common values and standards with the western democracies? Maybe this is why governments are keeping stumm.

In critical respects, Israel under prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s self-perpetuating leadership is a liability. It obstructs a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict and scorns the UN and international law. It refuses to back sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. It rubbishes the 2015 Iran nuclear deal while threatening war. It sells spyware and arms to authoritarian regimes that abuse human rights.

Worse still, perhaps, Netanyahu’s band of bigots is actively undermining Israel’s democratic institutions and civil rights, such as peaceful protest and LGBTQ rights. Many Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, passionately oppose the government. Senior politicians warn of “civil war”. Diplomats and generals are mutinying. But reckless, opportunistic Netanyahu doesn’t care.

Conventional imperatives for treating Israel differently from other countries read like this: Israel is the Middle East’s only genuine democracy – it must be supported. It is surrounded by hostile regimes seeking its destruction – it must be defended. Remembering the Holocaust, Europe and America owe the Jewish people an eternal debt – it must be honoured.

This ingrained thinking informs but does not excuse reluctance to confront the far-right zealots. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionist party, who advocates annexation of the entire occupied West Bank, is now in charge of settlement construction. One of his first acts was to seize $40m in Palestinian Authority funds.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, co-leader of the Jewish Power party who was previously convicted for inciting racism, is the new national security minister. He began by ordering a police crackdown on Israeli anti-government protests, banning Palestinian flags, and paying a deliberately provocative visit to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.

Netanyahu’s coalition is moving quickly to tame the judiciary – the very same justice system that is prosecuting him for alleged corruption. Meanwhile, criticism grows risky. Zvika Fogel of Jewish Power last week accused opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz of “treason against the homeland”. Little wonder President Isaac Herzog felt the need to call for calm.

US president Joe Biden, a stalwart Israel ally, views upholding democratic values as the defining global struggle of the age. Netanyahu’s close association with democracy-destroying Donald Trump, enthusiastic endorsement of Brazil’s “wonderful” coup plotter, Jair Bolsonaro, and matey dealings with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán must have Biden puzzling whose side the six-term prime minister is really on. Progressive American Jewish leaders have similar concerns.

A shamefully supine approach is also being pursued by EU countries – and Britain.

Biden is sending secretary of state Antony Blinken to Jerusalem to investigate what’s going on, while Netanyahu is due in Washington next month. That will be interesting. Yet so far, the US has eschewed overt criticism. A shamefully supine approach is also being pursued by EU countries – and Britain. Visiting Israel last week, a Foreign Office minister, Lord Ahmad, blithely declared bilateral ties had attained “new heights”.

The idea that Israel is besieged by hostile regimes was true once, but no longer. It has proved many times it can look after itself. The so-called Abraham Accords with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco reinforced an established trend towards coexistence, if not friendship, with the Arab world. Netanyahu hopes the Saudis will sign up next. Hateful anti-Israel ogres of yore – in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Libya – have all been vanquished, one way or another.

The big exception is Iran, which remains fiercely antagonistic. Sooner or later, Netanyahu will again threaten to attack Tehran’s nuclear facilities. War with Iran would inevitably draw in Europe and the US. Much though they abhor the regime, that remains contrary to their interests. They have successfully restrained Netanyahu – until now.

Likewise, an intifada-like explosion in the West Bank triggered by ministers’ attempts to regularise illegal settlements or collapse the Palestinian Authority, would be viewed as an avoidable disaster by the west. Yet there are signs an explosion is coming, evidenced by the recent violence and the rise of local Palestinian armed groups linked to Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Related: Abbas allies fear new Israeli government intends to destroy Palestinian Authority

By endangering western public support for the state of Israel, undermining its democracy and confounding its alliances, Netanyahu and his hate-mongering cronies show themselves to be their country’s own worst enemies. While they divide and rule, the gulf with the west widens – and Israel weakens.

How ironic, after all the “blood and tears” shed since 1948 – to quote a former, courageous peace-making prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, speaking in 1993 – if the final, fatal blow were to be struck from within. Rabin, remember, was subsequently murdered. His killer? A fanatical rightwing Jewish ultranationalist.