‘Our state is not your church.’ Arlington, Texas, lawmaker faces backlash over Ramadan vote




Elizabeth Campbell
Thu, March 23, 2023

State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, an Arlington Republican, is facing criticism on social media after he posted that he voted against a resolution to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Tinderholt said in a statement posted on his Twitter account that as a combat veteran, he served alongside many translators who were “Muslims and good people.”

“I can also attest that Ramadan was routinely the most violent period during every deployment.”

“Texas and America were founded on Christian principles and my faith as a Christian prevents me from celebrating Ramadan. I want to commend Dan Patrick for choosing not to join the House in this celebration.”

Ramadan, which began Wednesday night, is a time of fasting, prayer and reflection for Muslims throughout the world. It is one of the most significant holy months in the Muslim calendar when it is believed that the prophet Muhammad received the Quran from God.

Tinderholt voted in support of resolutions commemorating Ramadan in 2021 and 2019.

Tinderholt did not respond to requests for comments from the Star-telegram on his vote against the resolution to celebrate Ramadan. But during an interview Friday on the Mark Davis Show on 660-AM The Answer, Tinderholt said he is “finally taking a stand against the left and Democrat chairs who are forcing celebrations of LGBTQ days and religious holidays.

“To celebrate and compel us to do so, it’s just a little bit over the top, and someone has to take a stand, and look, it’s not a comfortable stand. I’ve got over a half a million people attacking me on Twittter right now, but I’m OK with it. We’re doing the right thing. When we’re doing the right thing and the left is mad, it’s OK.”

Davis asked Tinderholt about the sentence in his statement that said that Ramadan was routinely the most violent period during his deployment.

Tinderholt said most Muslims are peaceful. “They are a very gentle religion. They are a very kind culture, but the fundamentalists in the Muslim world use the religion during Ramadan to ramp up and do attacks against Americans and infidels and kill innocent people. Now, let me be clear. As Muslims, that is not the average person it’s a small fraction that do this so quit telling me that I have to celebrate this time.”

Tinderholt also said that the left and the Democrats are trying to force someone to celebrate something when they’ve had a bad experience during that specific holiday every year.

“They’re always trying to force us to celebrate their side, their thing ...” he said. “Every person is an individual, and my personal story is that Ramadan, when I was in combat, was never a very peaceful time.”

Some who criticized Tinderholt on Twitter asked if crime also occurs during the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter. Others asked about the separation of church and state..

One person wrote, “That’s a shame that you cannot embrace enlightenment as the founders did and celebrate some of the principles of our country, tolerance and religious freedom. Too bad. Our state is not your church.”

“As a Texan, I’m embarrassed you hold power in my state,” another wrote.

The Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations also condemned Tinderholt’s opposition to the resolution.

William White, director of the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a news release that Tinderholt’s claim that Ramadan is the most violent time of the year is false and insulting to the Muslim community.

“Every elected official has the right to express their sincerely-held religious beliefs, and we welcome that — but insulting and insinuating false information about another faith should be condemned,” he said.

Rep. Salman Bhojani, a Democrat from Euless, wrote a similar resolution celebrating Ramadan. It states the month is a time for spiritual reflection, charitable giving and open houses at mosques to welcome people of other faiths.

Bhojani was elected in November as one of the first Muslims and south Asians to serve in the Texas House.

“I was sad and disappointed to see Representative Tinderholt’s statement today,” Bhojani said in an emailed statement. “Ramadan is a time of spiritual reflection, self-discipline, and acts of kindness and generosity for Muslims across the world. Any description of this holy month other than this is a mischaracterization of a religion of love that millions of people share.

“The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught, ‘None of you has faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.’”

Bhojani is also championing freedom of religion legislation that would expand the list of optional state holidays and prevent state exams from falling on religious holy days. During a news conference last month, Bhojani said his first priority is to safeguard protections “not just for my faith, but for every faith in Texas.”

Texan smeared two faiths — including his own — with pathetic vote against Ramadan honor | Opinion

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editorial Board
Fri, March 24, 2023 

Arlington Republican Rep. Tony Tinderholt ran for speaker, the top spot in the House, this year. He got smoked, 145-3.

But the race to the bottom? He may already have that one locked up.

Tinderholt was among a handful of Republican representatives to vote Wednesday against a resolution honoring the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the first fast-breaking dinner scheduled for the Capitol in association with the holiday. He was the only one to go out of his way to put on the record why he did it — and in the unmistakable language of religious bigotry.

“Today, I voted against a resolution made in celebration of Ramadan on the House floor. As a combat veteran, I served beside many local translators who were Muslims and good people,” Tinderholt said in a statement he had included in the House Journal and later repeated on Twitter. “I can also attest that Ramadan was routinely the most violent period during every deployment. Texas and America were founded on Christian principles and my faith as a Christian prevents me from celebrating Ramadan.”

It’s quite a trifecta: blaming an entire religion for wartime violence, shutting out any constituents who don’t share Tinderholt’s faith and diminishing Christianity’s ability to co-exist with other religions.

All that over one of hundreds of resolutions the House will vote on with little or no controversy. They don’t amount to endorsing a religion, or a winning sports team, or whatever the subject is.

Done right, they celebrate something great about our state, small or large. They bring otherwise sparring legislators together to shine the spotlight on their constituents. Among the other resolutions considered Wednesday were honors for Realtors, residents of Buda, Pearsall and Val Verde County.

State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington

Six other Republicans voted no on the Ramadan resolution, including Rep. Lynn Stucky, the Denton Republican whose district also includes Wise County. Unlike Tinderholt, Stucky didn’t go out of the way to make a historical record of his bigotry … er, opposition.

No, Tinderholt took the extra step to insert into the House Journal his official stance and pitiful explanation. And in so doing, he slandered an entire faith practiced by millions of loyal Americans — and bruised the view of his own faith in the process.

The fifth-term Arlington lawmaker wants you to believe that his vote represents some bold strike for Christianity. But no sensible person confuses a resolution honoring a sacred time for hundreds of thousands of fellow Texans as some betrayal of any other religion.

And, it turns out, Tinderholt’s streak of self-righteous pomposity — if real — is pretty new. He said nothing about resolutions honoring Ramadan that the House passed in 2019 and 2021, according to House Journal entries.

Perhaps his faith has deepened. Or perhaps, having lost the speaker vote so terribly and facing even greater irrelevance as a lawmaker, his only political option is to double-down among bigots who would applaud standing in the way of extending such a basic recognition to a diverse array of Texans and their interests.

Tinderholt tried to explain himself Friday to conservative radio host Mark Davis (a Star-Telegram contributor). With his usual bluster and incoherence, he first said it was the consequence of having Democrats as committee chairs.

The decades-long bipartisan tradition of including the minority party in governance of the House is a sore spot for some Republicans. The resolution’s author, Houston-area Democratic Rep. Suleman Lalani, is no committee chair. He moved for a vote on his resolution — a common step to ensure resolutions are heard in a timely manner. More than 135 of the House’s 150 members assented. (Later Wednesday, Lalani briefly presided over the House, as most members have the honor of doing at some point. That does not make him a “Democrat chair.”)

Tinderholt then told Davis that he was “done with the left trying to force us and compel us” to celebrate topics such as LGBTQ rights. It sounds like his fatigue may actually be driven by frustration over pretending to represent any constituents who aren’t like him. Perhaps the voters in House District 94 should relieve Tinderholt of this burden next time he asks for their votes.

Leaked Emails Show GOP Lawmaker, Anti-Trans Activists Discuss Holy War

1.4k
Christopher Wiggins
Thu, March 23, 2023

Activists in Handmaids Tale outfits

Recently leaked emails reveal an alarming coalition of far right-wing extremists, Christian nationalists, anti-trans lobbyists, and elected officials in cahoots, using language rooted in religion to paint Americans at war with the LGBTQ+ community.

South Dakota GOP state Rep. Fred Deutsch’s emails with anti-trans lobbyists and other legislators about anti-trans policies are so steeped in religious rhetoric that they could be excerpts from The Handsmaid Tale, VICE News reports.

Christian nationalists, one expert told the outlet, believe that they are fighting a holy war.

Deutsch emailed 18 anti-trans activists, doctors, and lawyers in 2019 with the text of a proposed bill prohibiting doctors from providing gender-affirming medical care to transgender children under 16.

“I have no doubt this will be an uphill battle when we get to session,” Deutsch said, according to Mother Jones. “As always, please do not share this with the media. The longer we can fly under the radar, the better.”

A trove of emails between Deutsch and anti-trans activists and organizations included that message, the outlet reports.

The reports about the emails demonstrate how activists helped shape Deutsch’s repressive legislation, passed into law in February, as well as the tactics, alliances, and goals of a movement that has tried to impose its agenda on the nation as a whole.

Some group members urged Deutsch to make the bill even more restrictive through messages exchanged.

The goal was to block access to gender-affirming care through legislation before that community became a proverbial popular political football for Republicans through merely existing.

“Know that many have prayed and are praying for you this day. Do not back down, nor should you be afraid. Know that the Lord is with you. The children of South Dakota belong to him. He is jealous over them. Let his jealousies be spoken forth in the House of Representatives of South Dakota today so that his children would be made safe. Know you are HIS representative today. Do not be afraid. Stand firm in what is right,” Vernadette Broyles, president of the anti-trans Children and Parental Rights Campaign, wrote in 2020.

“Today, we do battle on the S.D. House Floor. Thank you for all your work and your prayers,” Deutsch responded.

According to VICE, some exchanges featured language evoking war and war imagery.

As anti-trans hate became mainstream in 2022, onlookers began to wonder whether this was a sign of the beginning of a genocide. Trans issues have been targeted with unprecedented enthusiasm. A number of hate groups, far-right pundits, and conservative legislators have portrayed trans individuals as a threat to children, spreading false stories about what it means to be trans.

There are already many barriers to transgender issues in the U.S. This year’s legislative session has seen 470 anti-trans bills introduced nationwide, including several already signed into law banning trans healthcare.

This year, South Dakota Gov. Kristina Noem signed a gender-affirming care ban, which resembles the so-called Vulnerable Child Protection Act, introduced by Deutsch in 2019, VICE notes.

Republicans continue to cast themselves as protectors of children from a “woke liberal ideology” that in their minds seeks to make straight children queer.

Huawei makes breakthroughs in design tools for 14nm chips -media

Reuters
Thu, March 23, 2023 

SHENZHEN, China -Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has made breakthroughs in electronic design automation (EDA) tools for chips produced at and above 14-nanometre technology, Caijing reported on Friday, citing a speech by a senior executive.

Huawei will complete testing on the tools this year, rotating chairman Xu Zhijun said in a speech on Feb. 28, the Chinese financial news magazine reported. Huawei has developed 78 tools related to chip hardware and software, the report added.

The company did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

The announcement comes as Huawei and other Chinese technology companies rush to localise their supply chains in the face of mounting U.S. sanctions.

According to a transcript of Xu's remarks published by Caijing, Huawei cooperated with domestic EDA companies to create the software, "basically realising the localisation of EDA tools above 14nm."

Chip design companies use EDA software to produce the blueprints for chips before they are mass manufactured at fabs.

Huawei will also let partners and customers use the software, Xu added.

Chips produced at the 14nm level were first introduced in smartphones in the mid-2010s and are two to three generations behind leading-edge technology.

Huawei, a major supplier of equipment used in 5G telecommunications networks, has been the target of successive rounds of U.S. export controls since 2019, restricting its supply of chips and chip-design tools from U.S. companies.

The EDA software market is dominated by three overseas firms - Cadence Design Systems Inc and Synopsys Inc, which are headquartered in the United States, and Mentor Graphics, which is owned by Germany's Siemens AG.

China is home to a handful of domestic EDA software makers, but experts do not consider them globally competitive.

All three overseas EDA companies fell subject to Washington's sanctions against Huawei in 2020.

When the restrictions went into effect, the company's chip design division lost access to software and updates that would enable it to design low-node processors for its smartphones, as well as access to advanced manufacturing tools at chip production fabs.

The company's smartphone division saw sales tank as a result.

(Reporting by David Kirton in Shenzhen, Josh Horwitz and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Jamie Freed)

Watchdog: Israel promotes bids for 1,000 ILLEGAL settlement homes


A general view of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Efrat, Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. An Israeli watchdog group says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has authorized construction bids for over a thousand new homes in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. 

(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, File) 


ISABEL DEBRE
Fri, March 24, 2023 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government authorized construction bids for over a thousand new homes in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, a watchdog group reported Friday, despite an Israeli pledge to halt settlement construction as part of efforts to curb a deadly wave of violence in the territory.

The Israel Land Authority published the tenders earlier this week for the construction of 940 homes in the West Bank settlements of Efrat and Beitar Ilit, as well as 89 homes in the Gilo settlement, which lies over the 1967 line on the southern edge of the contested capital of Jerusalem. The large settlement of Efrat sits deep in the West Bank, near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.

Palestinians seek these lands, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, for a future independent state alongside Israel — a longstanding international goal. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry assailed the move as a betrayal of Netanyahu's vow to freeze settlement construction, showing “official disregard for American and international reactions.”

The anti-settlement Israeli group Peace Now publicized the construction bids on Friday.

“This is yet another harmful and unnecessary construction initiative,” the group said, accusing the Israeli government of “trampling on the possibility of a future political agreement, and on our relations with the U.S. and friendly countries.”

There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu's office.

The new affront to the Palestinians came just a week after Israeli and Palestinian officials met in Egypt’s southern resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in an effort to calm rising tensions ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. After the meeting, Israel repeated a pledge made at a similar February summit in Aqaba, Jordan to temporarily freeze the approval of new settlement units in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry criticized the tender approvals as “a blatant departure and deliberate sabotage of the understandings that were reached between the Palestinian and Israeli sides under American auspices.”

Last month, the Israeli government granted approval for over 7,000 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including in four unauthorized outposts — despite a U.N. Security Council statement sharply criticizing Israeli settlement expansion and rising opposition from Israel’s allies, including the United States.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists, described the publication of tenders this week as procedural, saying, “All of the agreements settled during the recent joint summits in Jordan and Egypt are being respected fully.”

Israel's government, the most right-wing and religiously conservative in its history, has said it aims to entrench Israeli military rule in the West Bank, boost settlement construction and erase the differences for Israelis between life in the settlements and within the country's internationally recognized borders. Netanyahu's coalition includes ultranationalist settler leaders who live in the West Bank.

The international community, along with the Palestinians, considers settlement construction illegal or illegitimate. Over 700,000 Israelis now live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The settlement construction bids come against a background of heightened tensions with the Palestinians and a national crisis in Israel over a government plan to overhaul the judicial system, which critics fear will move Israel toward autocracy.

Since the start of 2023, at least 86 Palestinians, both militants and civilians, have been killed in Israeli raids throughout the West Bank — making it the most deadly start to the year in over two decades. At least 13 civilians and one police officer were killed during the same period in Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

How far-right American Jews are enabling Netanyahu’s court takeover

Chris McGreal in New York

THE GUARDIAN
Fri, March 24, 2023 

Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

A prominent member of the Israeli parliament has a warning for America’s Jewish community: one of the greatest threats to Israeli democracy comes from within its own ranks.

Related: Concern over violence as Palestinians prepare for Ramadan in Jerusalem

On a visit to New York to rally opposition against the “judicial coup” by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, rabbi Gilad Kariv cautioned that “rightwing forces in the Jewish community in America and ultra-right players” were driving and financing the push toward a political takeover of Israel’s supreme court and nationalist policies to tighten control over the occupied Palestinian territories.

“There are major Jewish players here in America that are coming from the American far right who are deeply involved in pushing this reform. If liberal and progressive and democratic Jewish forces around the world will not stand together with us, other players will influence events in a much more serious way. That’s a real battle for the future of the Jewish state,” he told the Guardian.

Kariv, a Labour party member of the Knesset who sits on its constitution, law and justice committee, pointed to the libertarian Kohelet Policy Forum as the architect of the judicial reforms that have prompted unprecedented mass protests by Israelis who say they are a threat to democracy.

“The Kohelet Forum, which is the main ultra-conservative thinktank that designed this judiciary reform, is fully supported by the leading Jewish donors of the American ultra-conservative camp,” said Kariv.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed two years ago that the organisation is partly funded by two Jewish American billionaires, Arthur Dantchik and Jeffrey Yass, who made their fortunes as founders of a global financial firm, Susquehanna International Group, including by investing in the invention of TikTok. Both have funded rightwing causes and politicians in the US.

Kariv at his office in the Knesset in Jerusalem on 24 November 2021. 

Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

The Kohelet Policy Forum was founded in 2012 by an American Israeli, Moshe Koppel, who has described it as “the brains of the Israeli right wing”. It was unknown to most Israelis until the recent protests shone a spotlight on its work attempting to shift almost all aspects of governance to the right, including undermining free education and cutting welfare.

The Haaretz investigation said American donors have given tens of millions of dollars to Kohelet through US-based organisations that shield their identities. Yass and Dantchik have also been influential through their ties to leading Republicans in shifting US policy on Israel including in providing the Trump administration with legal justifications for recognition of settlements in the occupied territories.

The moves to weaken the Israeli supreme court are also influenced by another US organisation, the Tikvah Fund led by Elliott Abrams, a neoconservative former senior official under several Republican presidents who played an important role in the US’s bloody involvement in Central America in the 1980s and one of the intellectual architects of the invasion of Iraq 20 years ago.

The proposed reforms to give politicians the power to appoint supreme court judges and constrain the court’s powers to rule against the government have already drawn criticism from some Jewish American religious leaders and community groups, and some longstanding supporters of the Israeli right. They include Miriam Adelson, the billionaire widow of one of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson who founded the Israeli rightwing newspaper Israel Hayom and funded settlements.

The Kohelet Forum … the main ultra-conservative thinktank that designed this judiciary reform, is fully supported by the leading Jewish donors of the American ultra-conservative camp

Rabbi Gilad Kariv

Leading Jewish organisations also refused to meet the Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, during his visit to the US earlier this month after he called for Israel to “wipe out” a Palestinian town. Earlier this week, Smotrich prompted further criticism when he claimed “there is no such thing as a Palestinian nation”.

But Kariv said many in America’s Jewish community have remained silent because they have long defended Israel – no matter who is in power – by saying they back the country not the government. He said that the involvement of wealthy American rightwingers means it is now “the right, the duty, of American Jews” to speak out over events in Israel.

“As one of the Israeli legislators that deals on a daily basis in the last two months with this judiciary takeover, for us it is clear that right now there are only two effective tools that will help us to either block this reform or to force the government and its coalition to sit around the table and reach an agreement or compromise,” he said.

Kariv said one such tool is the unprecedented level of civil protest in Israel. The other is “the voice of Jewish communities around the world, the voice of Jewish politicians in western countries”.

Kariv is a rabbi in the Reform movement, the largest Jewish denomination in the US but a relatively small one in Israel. The president of the Union for Reform Judaism in the US, rabbi Rick Jacobs, invited him to New York to rally support within the Reform movement for protests against Netanyahu’s government.

“One of the things that’s a bit surprising is how many Israelis who previously would have said: ‘You’re in the diaspora. You can say and think whatever you want but you don’t have a right to intervene.’ Many of those very same people are crying out saying, ‘We need to hear you. We need to know that you stand with us,’” said Jacobs.

“This is a moment where it’s not that we disagree with a policy or a bill in the Knesset, or an individual in the government. This is a moment where the very integrity of the foundation of the Jewish democratic state is being threatened.”

Benjamin Netanyahu is back and he's 'breaking' Israel

James Rothwell

THE TELEGRAPH.UK
Thu, March 23, 2023 

Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise return to the premiership in elections last November

It's just after lunchtime in Tel Aviv and an unlikely band of rebels has taken over the streets: one thousand furious, flag-waving grandmothers.

"My beloved Israel is falling apart - it's even stronger than falling apart, it's ruined," 77-year-old Mikki, a grandmother-of-six, tells The Telegraph as she pauses for a rest on a park bench.

"The country is turning into a fascist and anti-democratic place," warns another grandma, Esther Shalev, who then mutters darkly: "I hate him. He's destroying the country."

Both women were alluding to Benjamin Netanyahu, the smooth-talking juggernaut of Israeli politics who managed a surprise comeback to the premiership in elections last November.

But victory for the man known as "King Bibi" has carried a severe price: to secure a majority and regain the throne, he has ended up forming the most right-wing coalition in the country's history.

That risky move has plunged him into a bitter, divisive battle with thousands of Israelis, notably over his government's ongoing plans to overhaul the legal system.

It has also exposed a much deeper rift at the heart of Israeli society between the secular, liberal middle class and poorer religious conservatives, prompting Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, to warn that the nation is on the brink of "civil war."

Police detain a demonstrator during the "Day of Shutdown" protest on Thursday in Tel Aviv - RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS

To make matters even more tense, the furore comes as the country faces a major security crisis with the Palestinians that could spiral into open warfare.

Amid the turmoil, on Thursday Mr Netanyahu travels to Britain for his first meeting with Rishi Sunak since being re-elected, with the focus said to be on forming a joint strategy against Iran.

At the same time, back in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, thousands of Israelis took to the streets en masse to escalate a months-long protest against the government's overhaul of the court system, burning tyres, blocking roadways and clashing with police.
'This is not the country I inherited'

Within weeks of being sworn in, Mr Netanyahu's bid to impose his flagship policy - a major overhaul of the country's legal system - saw him besieged by tens of thousands of demonstrators urging him to abandon what they claim is an existential threat to Israeli democracy.

Protesters have blocked roads and train stations, threatened to stop Mr Netanyahu from flying out of Ben Gurion airport and have even launched kayak expeditions to his private villa to voice their discontent.

During one bizarre episode, Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister's wife, was trapped inside a hair salon by protesters in Tel Aviv as they chanted: “The country is burning and Sara is getting a haircut." She was later rescued from the salon by Israeli security forces.

The reforms, critics claim, will "destroy" Israeli democracy by weakening the supreme court and boosting the government's influence over the appointment of judges.

Israelis protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to overhaul the Israel's judicial system in Tel Aviv in March - Ohad Zwigenberg/AP

Mr Netanyahu denies this, insisting the overhaul will strip the courts of what he claims is a longstanding left-wing bias. Other supporters of the reform claim that their impact on the rule of law has been exaggerated and that they simply bring the system into line with other Western democracies.

At the same time, Mr Netanyahu continues to stand trial on corruption and fraud charges which he strongly denies, in what is proving to be an extremely lengthy and complex legal process. Some of his most ardent critics have claimed that the legal reform package is a covert attempt to scrap his trial altogether.

On Thursday, Israel's parliament passed the first of several laws that make up its contentious judicial overhaul.

The legislation would make it harder for an Israeli leader to be deemed unfit to rule.

Critics say the law is tailor-made for Mr Netanyahu, encourages corruption and deepens a gaping chasm between Israelis over the judicial overhaul.

It stipulates that a prime minister can only be classified as unfit to rule for health or mental reasons and that only he or his government can make that decision.

It comes after the country’s attorney general has faced growing calls by Netanyahu opponents to declare him unfit to rule over his legal problems. The attorney general has already barred the prime minister from involvement in the legal overhaul, saying he is at risk of a conflict of interest because of his corruption trial.

A former special forces commando who was born one year after the founding of Israel, Mr Netanyahu's own history is intertwined with the country. Many Israelis simply cannot imagine a political landscape without him, and even his strongest critics concede that in previous decades he was an extraordinary advocate for Israel.

But in more recent years, a string of scandals involving Mr Netanyahu and his colourful family have scrubbed off much of that sheen. At the centre of his corruption trial is the claim that during his previous terms he accepted bribes, mainly cigars, jewellery and champagne cases, from various businessmen.

He is also accused of granting regulatory favours to a telecoms company in exchange for positive media coverage. Mr Netanyahu, 73, has dismissed all the accusations as a "witch-hunt."

His wife Sara, 64, has been convicted for misusing state funds to have meals delivered to the family home, despite the Netanyahus having a personal chef. And in 2020, a former housemaid filed a lawsuit against the Netanyahus, alleging that Sara mistreated staff by screaming at them and forbidding them to eat or drink on the job. Ms Netanyahu has denied mistreating staff.

A protester holds a placard that says "Jewish and racist, right" during an anti Judicial reform night protest in Tel Aviv - Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Another major source of unrest in Israel is the presence of extremists such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in Mr Netanyahu's government - the culmination of a long-term drift towards the far-Right in Israeli politics.

Despite having convictions for anti-Arab racism and supporting Jewish terrorism, Mr Ben-Gvir is currently serving as Israel's security minister. Meanwhile, Mr Smotrich, a self-styled "fascist homophobe" who has claimed that "there is no such thing as a Palestinian people" is the coalition's finance minister.

Both men enjoy huge support among Israel's religious and settler communities, which handed them strong results in November's elections and plenty of leverage in the coalition talks that followed.

Without them, Mr Netanyahu would not have managed to return to power. But some Israelis feel that by allowing extremists into government he has simply gone too far.
'Every person has to choose whether they are standing with the regime or against the regime'

Dressed in jeans and a baggy leather jacket, Naveh Shabtay hardly stands out among the dozens of teenagers heading into a Tel Aviv military base to begin national service.

But unlike the others, Naveh has packed his bags for jail life: once through the door, he will announce he is a conscientious objector and be marched off to a military prison cell.

Asked why he is refusing, Naveh cites the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza - but also cites Mr Netanyahu's pact with extremists as a key factor in his decision.

"We can see a fascist government is rising today, with our national defence minister being part of a party that is called Jewish Power," Naveh said, referring to Mr Ben Gvir's "Otzma Yehudit" party. "If it sounds similar to White Power it's because it's basically the same."

"We're in a situation where every person in this country has to choose whether they are standing with the regime or against the regime, it's no longer a decision that is made with far-leftists," he adds.

Naveh Shabtay, 19, a refusenik or an Israeli military draft evader for political reasons, is seen moments before entering the recruiting military base in Tel Aviv - Quique Kierszenbaum

"Refuseniks" are a longstanding tradition in Israel's vibrant left-wing movement, and one that has typically been more of an annoyance than a threat to the Israel Defence Forces [IDF].

But according to Mesarvot, a grassroots organisation that supports conscientious objectors, this year the movement is expanding across the political spectrum amid unease over the new government.

"Since this new government we saw a very steep rise in people approaching us, both conscripts and reservists asking for our help either in refusing to serve publicly or for finding another way out," Nimrod Flashenberg, the group's spokesman, said.

"We've seen an even more significant increase since the legal overhaul."

Even more worryingly for Mr Netanyahu, hundreds of IDF reservists, including elite troops, have threatened to stop turning up for duty from this Sunday unless the legal reform package is scrapped.

This includes Israeli Air Force pilots, who unlike the infantry must train on an almost weekly basis and are heavily relied upon by the armed forces.

Even some of Israel's most prestigious veterans have joined the protest movement, including special forces troops who took part in the legendary Entebbe operation that was led by Yoni, Mr Netanyahu's late brother.

It is unclear how severely the refusals by reservists and raw recruits will affect Israel's combat capabilities, as it appears most will only stop reporting for duty once the reforms have been passed.

But it still comes at a point where Israel is facing potentially its most severe security crisis in decades. And some Israelis are so concerned that - with the government's approval - they are taking security into their own hands.
'This is a very dangerous direction'

Tali, an Israeli catering assistant, is buying her first gun. Shortly after lunchtime, the 31-year-old slips into a discrete shop in West Jerusalem where dozens of firearms are laid out under a glass counter.

It's the last step in a six-month application process for Tali, and one that she did not embark on lightly. Her husband already owns a firearm, she says, and she can hardly bear to even touch it.

Guns for sale are seen at a Jerusalem shooting ranges 

- Quique Kierszenbaum

"It was a difficult decision," says Tali, a resident of Jerusalem's flashpoint Old City. "There are two reasons I'm buying it: The first is for when I am driving, because I work for a catering company in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], where I feel exposed. And the second reason is for my home. At the end of the day, I want to defend my children if someone enters."

As Israel conducts nearly-daily raids on Palestinian militants in the West Bank, which have led to a spate of deadly revenge attacks on Israelis civilians, Mr Netanyahu has encouraged citizens like Tali to arm themselves in case they need to return fire against militants.

Israel is also heading into a flashpoint period in which Easter, Ramadan and Passover coincide. It means an increased risk of clashes between Palestinians and Israelis in Jerusalem, as was the case in May 2021 when violent scuffles at the al-Aqsa mosque compound escalated into a full-scale conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Just three months into 2023, dozens of Palestinians and Israelis have been killed in a fresh escalation of the conflict, and it is feared that a major new confrontation, such as a Palestinian "intifada," could be on the way.

The government plans to ease restrictions on who can obtain a weapon

 - Quique Kierszenbaum

Mr Netanyahu says he hopes to reduce the risk to Israelis with his gun permit reforms, which may prove to be a highly popular policy for a government which has at times been overwhelmed by criticism.

But Palestinians and some Israeli critics of Mr Netanyahu fear that allowing more citizens to carry guns will encourage them to take the law into their own hands.

Ahmad Tibi, a prominent Palestinian politician with Israeli citizenship, told The Telegraph: "This is a very dangerous direction, it will cause more and more killings, encouraging citizens to take the law into their own hands and shoot Arabs, any Arabs."

As Mr Netanyahu heads for Britain on Thursday, he may perhaps feel somewhat relieved to leave behind the mass demonstrations, army rebels and mounting security headaches.

But despite a loose commitment from Israeli and Palestinian leaders to avoid escalation over Ramadan and Passover, and rumours that a compromise on the legal reforms are in the wings, all three crises will still be waiting for him when he gets back.

Israel's "grandmothers for democracy" protest on Wednesday - Oded Balilty/AP

Wednesday's highly unusual "Grandmothers for democracy" march also reflects how Mr Netanyahu's reforms have met far wider opposition than he expected - and that the bombastic Israeli leader may have bitten off more than he can chew.

"This is not the country I inherited," says grandmother Ms Shalev, who has followed Mr Netanyahu's career since his early days as an Israeli special forces commando.

"Now one of my grandchildren is saying he doesn't want to live in Israel. That breaks my heart."

Israel passes law protecting prime minister from removal


03/23/2023

DW

March 23, 2023

Israeli lawmakers have passed legislation that drastically narrows the circumstances required to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or a successor from office.

Israel's parliament, the Knesset, on Thursday passed legislation that would significantly limit the conditions under which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be deemed unfit to govern.

The law — the first of several set to overhaul the judiciary — is believed to be intended to stop the Supreme Court or the Attorney General's Office from influencing possible impeachment.
What the law entails

The legislation stipulates that a three-quarters majority in parliament or the Cabinet would be needed to remove a prime minister from office — and only for psychological or other health reasons.

It was approved by the 120-seat Knesset in a 61-to-47 vote, with the remaining lawmakers either absent or abstaining from the vote, and is part of a series of legislative measures that opponents say will imperil judicial independence in Israel.

The non-partisan Israel Democracy Institute said the previously existing situation could have led to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who was appointed by the previous government, asserting that the prime minister was unfit to govern.

That could have happened if she decided that Netanyahu was trying to halt three court cases against him for corruption.

The terms of the new law — which could still face a legal challenge — preclude this, instead providing the government with guidance about what to do in the event of a non-functioning prime minister.

Baharav-Miara last month said that Netanyahu must stand back from his coalition's push for a judicial overhaul because of a potential conflict of interest arising from his trials.

Scholz concerned over Israel's judicial reform plans  01:41

The prime minister's opponents claim that he is seeking to use the wider judicial reforms to halt the cases that he faces.

Netanyahu has denied all the charges against him, claiming that they are a politicized bid to oust him from office.

What are the wider changes being proposed?

The government's plan to overhaul the judicial system has plunged Israel into one of the worst domestic crises in its near 75-year history.

It would give the government more power in selecting Supreme Court judges, and Netanyahu wants it ratified by April 2.

Opponents of the legal changes say the government — Israel's most right-wing ever — is seeking to erode the separation of powers in Israel, putting the country on a path toward autocracy.

Netanyahu's administration says the changes are needed to restore a balance between the executive and judicial branches, claiming that liberal judges have become too interventionist in the running of the country.

The prime minister this week announced a softening of his overhaul plan — limiting to two the number of judges his administration can choose without support from at least one opposition member and one judge.

However, the opposition has said it still intends to challenge the legislation in the Supreme Court.

Protesters launched further demonstrations on Thursday, blocking roads and setting tires ablaze.

Tens of thousands of people have turned out for weekly protests against the reforms each Saturday night for more than two months.

rc/es (AP, Reuters)

UK
Junior doctors strike: When and why are they walking out?

Beril Naz Hassan
Fri, 24 March 2023 

Junior doctors are protesting over pay and working conditions (PA)

Junior doctors in England are to escalate their strike action with a four-day walkout in April, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced.

The BMA confirmed on Thursday that junior doctor members would walk out for 96 hours from 7am on April 11 in a bitter dispute over pay.

The April strike is the most significant industrial action called by any health union so far. It is a blow to Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s hope of ending industrial action in the NHS by the spring.


It comes only days after the BMA agreed to “intensive talks” on pay with Mr Barclay, raising hopes that further strikes could be avoided.

Junior doctors previously walked out for three consecutive days from March 13, causing more than 175,000 operations and procedures to be cancelled.

Unions representing nurses and paramedics have suspended strikes while members vote on a pay offer made by the Government last week.

But why are junior doctors in the NHS striking and when will the strike action take place? Here’s everything we know.

When are junior doctors going on strike?

Members of the BMA will start their 96-hour strike just after the Easter bank holiday weekend. It will run from 06.59 on Tuesday, April 11 to 06.59 on Saturday, April 15 and affect every NHS hospital in England.

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NHS Nurses and Ambulance Strike | Monday 6th February 2023

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Why are junior doctors striking?

The BMA’s more than 36,000 members said they had taken the decision to strike because they feel “overworked and undervalued”.

They want a new pay increase of 35 per cent to make up for inflation in the past 15 years, which has cut their earnings by 26 per cent.

The Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) union is striking over junior doctors being “taken for granted”.

HCSA president, Dr Naru Narayanan, said: “Junior doctors have held together patient care amid a spiralling staffing crisis.

“In return for this huge emotional, mental, and physical toll, they’ve been subjected to a decade of real-terms pay cuts totalling over 26 per cent. Enough is enough.

“Our NHS is in an intolerable situation and junior doctors will not be taken for granted any more. They are taking decisive action for their patients and for their own wellbeing.

“Falling pay, increasing workloads, and dangerous levels of understaffing have driven carers across the NHS to strike. The blame for this lies solely with a complacent government, seemingly content to let patient care suffer.”

Dr Narayanan said “the ball is firmly in the Government’s court” and that “it must act now to negotiate a proper pay increase as part of a wider funding package for the NHS”.



A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We hugely value the work of junior doctors and we have been clear that supporting and retaining the NHS workforce is one of our main priorities.

“As part of a multi-year deal we agreed with the BMA, junior doctors’ pay has increased by a cumulative 8.2 per cent since 2019/20. We also introduced a higher pay band for the most experienced staff and increased rates for night shifts.

“The Health and Social Care Secretary has met with the BMA and other medical unions to discuss pay, conditions, and workload. He’s been clear he wants to continue discussing how we can make the NHS a better place to work for all.”

Forget geoengineering. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. Right now

Rebecca Solnit
Fri, 24 March 2023 

Photograph: Daniel Cole/AP

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, one of which dropped yesterday, are formidably researched and profoundly important, but they mostly reinforce what we already know: human-produced greenhouse gases are rapidly and disastrously changing the planet, and unless we rapidly taper off burning fossil fuels, a dire future awaits.

The message is far from hopeless – “Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits,” said the IPCC chair, Hoesung Lee, in the press release. “This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all.”

Related: Fossil fuels kill more people than Covid. Why are we so blind to the harms of oil and gas? | Rebecca Solnit

But “act now” means taking dramatic measures to change how we do most things, especially produce energy. The people who should be treating this like the colossal emergency it is keep finding ways to delay and dilute a meaningful response. Fossil fuel is hugely profitable to some of the most powerful individuals and institutions on Earth, and they influence and even control a lot of other people.

To say that is grim, but there’s also a kind of comedy in the ways they keep trying to come up with rationales to not do the one key thing that climate organizers, policy experts, activists and scientists have long told them they must do: stop funding fossil fuels, stop their extraction, stop their burning and speed the transition away from their use.

As perhaps the most powerful person to swim against their tide, the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said yesterday, we must move toward “net-zero electricity generation by 2035 for all developed economies and 2040 for the rest of the world” and establish “a global phase-down of existing oil and gas production compatible with the 2050 global net-zero target”. All the other actions that help the climate – including protecting forests and wild lands, rethinking farming, food, transportation and urban design – matter, but there is no substitute or workaround for exiting the age of fossil fuel.

The IPCC tells us that “[e]very increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards. Deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would lead to a discernible slowdown in global warming within about two decades, and also to discernible changes in atmospheric composition within a few years.” Later in the report, the scientists declare, “Projected CO2 emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure without additional abatement would exceed the remaining carbon budget for 1.5C.” That translates to: what we’re already extracting and using is already too much to keep to the temperature threshold set in Paris.

As climate communicator Ketan Joshi put it on Twitter, “People who make decisions about the pace of climate action and fossil fuel reliance are not behaving like they’re pulling the lever on the next few thousand years of Earth.”

It was as if they were selling us a dream of a lifeboat eventually reaching our shipwreck when viable lifeboats are all around us

They come up with endlessly creative ways to continue extracting and using fossil fuel. One of their favorites is to make commitments that can be punted off to the future, which is why one recent climate slogan is “delay is the new denial”. Another is to pretend that they are somehow still looking for a good solution and once they find it they will be very happy to use it. A holy grail, a hail Mary pass, a magic bullet, a miracle cure – or just a distracting tennis ball that too many journalists, like golden retrievers, are happy to chase.

That was clear when Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced its nuclear-weapons-related fusion breakthrough last winter, which the Bulletin of the Atomic Physicists noted had “at best, a distant and tangential connection to power production”. But many news stories latched on to it as if we were waiting for some miraculous solution when the solutions already exist and just need to be scaled up. It was as if they were selling us a dream of a lifeboat eventually reaching our shipwreck when viable lifeboats are all around us.

Dr Jonathan Foley, who heads Project Drawdown, joked that “fusion is here now. Look up in the sky.” The sun gives us far more energy than we can ever possibly use, now that solar panels let us convert some of that to electricity.

Among the worst of the excuses for not doing the one thing we must do is carbon capture, which has absolutely not worked at any scale that means anything and shows no sign of so doing on a meaningful scale in the near future. But while it is dangled as a possibility, it creates a justification to keep burning fossil fuel. So does geoengineering, which along with posing many kinds of disruptions is a way to compensate for continued emissions from burning things rather than stop burning them. These centralized hi-tech solutions seem to appeal to technocrats and beneficiaries of large corporations and centralized power, who perhaps don’t like or don’t comprehend the decentralization of power coming from sun and wind.

The decision-makers here often seem like a patient who, when told by a doctor to stop doing something (smoking, say, or maybe mainlining drain cleaner), tries to bargain. All the vitamins and wheatgrass juice on Earth won’t make toxic waste into something nontoxic, and all these excuses and delays and workarounds and nonexistent solutions don’t replace what the IPCC tells us: stop burning fossil fuel.

Move fast. Step it up. Now. Which brings us back to something that climate organizers have told us for a long time and the new report brings home. We know what to do, and we have the solutions we need to do it, so the biggest problems are political. They’re banks, politicians, financiers and the fossil fuel industry itself. We don’t need any magic technology to defeat them, just massive civil society willpower set in motion.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses

FIFA appeals Jean-Bart ruling


Jonathan Crane

DW

March 20, 2023

The former president of the Haitian Football Federation was effectively cleared of sexual abuse allegations by the Court of Arbitration for Sport last month. FIFA now wants the CAS decision annulled.

World football's governing body, FIFA, says it has appealed against a verdict overturning Yves Jean-Bart's lifetime ban from football.

Last month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in favor of Jean-Bart, the former president of the Haitian Football Federation (FHF), after he had taken his case to the Swiss-based organization, which is the world's highest sports court.

FIFA needed to have lodged an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal within 30 days of being notified of the verdict.

"After having carefully analyzed the CAS award, FIFA is concerned that this award contains a number of very serious procedural and substantive flaws, including the CAS Panel's failure to evaluate key pieces of evidence that were offered by FIFA," the governing body wrote in a statement.

Jean-Bart, nicknamed Dadou, had been found guilty of sexually abusing and harassing young female footballers in Haiti by FIFA's ethics committee in November 2020. His behavior was described as "simply inexcusable, a disgrace for any football official," and he was banned from the sport for life. But CAS annulled that decision, citing "insufficient evidence."

FIFA said it was requesting an annulment of the CAS verdict and for the case to be referred back to the court.

It added that it remained "strongly committed to protecting victims of sexual abuse in football and will continue to apply 'zero tolerance' to any such acts perpetrated by persons falling under its jurisdiction."

Calling FIFA's appeal "confounding," Claude Ramoni, a lawyer for Jean-Bart, said: "As the facts have consistently shown, Dr. Jean-Bart adamantly maintains his innocence and we trust that the Swiss Federal Tribunal will dismiss FIFA's appeal and confirm the CAS award issued by three independent, respected, and experienced CAS arbitrators."

Why the Jean-Bart ban was overtuned

Outlining the full reasoning for its verdict last month, CAS said that Jean-Bart had brought 66 witnesses to support his case, including 21 who were heard in person, writing: "These numerous and concordant oral and written testimonies established the nonexistence of sexual abuse allegedly committed on young players by Yves Jean-Bart."

CAS said that just one alleged victim had appeared at the hearing, while other witnesses put forward by FIFA "had only heard about sexual abuse of players, thus contradicting their initial written testimonies. None of the testimonies [...] were sufficiently precise and convincing to establish Yves Jean-Bart's guilt."

CAS also claimed that it had guaranteed the protection of witnesses "at all times," stating: "All witnesses who wished to do so were able to testify from a secure and secret location, without video, by encrypted telephone, with a voice modified by distortion, and in the presence of a trusted person from CAS."

However, global players' union FIFPRO and Human Rights Watch, both of which had helped FIFA gather evidence, contradicted CAS's claim that it had offered those measures to hide the identity of witnesses, alleging many of them were threatened into silence.

"There was no voice distortion at the CAS hearing, and survivors and potential witnesses were asked to testify without meaningful protection for their identities. Understandably, many did not agree," HRW said in a statement last month, in which it called on FIFA to appeal the decision.

Grounds for appeal

Under CAS rules, appeals to the Swiss Federal Tribunal (Switzerland's highest court) are only allowed on a "very limited number of grounds," usually procedural, including "incompatibility with public policy" — the principles that shape society's laws.

One legal source told DW that if CAS had rejected protective measures for a witness, then that would be a reason to appeal.

In the aftermath of the CAS verdict, Jean-Bart held a virtual press conference to announce he was reclaiming his position as head of the Haitian Football Federation. In comments that appear to suggest his legal troubles aren't over, he added: "My enemies [...] continue to try to beat me by all means."

A so-called normalization committee, which FIFA established in 2020 to restore order to the FHF, is still running the federation and must remain in place until November of this year. Only then can new elections be held, including for the position of president.

HRW's Minky Worden told DW that FIFA should now change its rules to ensure that Jean-Bart can never run as president again.

"FIFA appealing the CAS decision clearing Jean-Bart is a small but important victory for survivors in football," she said.

"FIFA created the conditions which brought Jean-Bart to power, and he used that power to set up a system of exploitation in Haiti's national federation. In addition to the CAS appeal, which Jean-Bart can still manipulate, FIFA can, and should, bar him and his henchmen from all leadership positions on the basis of the extensive abuse testimonies collected by FIFPRO and Human Rights Watch."

Meanwhile, there has been no conclusion to the criminal case against Jean-Bart in Haiti. It is also understood that the US Department of Justice is investigating him on charges of human trafficking and visa fraud.

Edited by Matt Ford