Cambodia evicts floating homes despite villagers' protests

Story by Reuters 

Cambodia's capital of Phnom Penh has started evicting its famous "floating villages" on the banks of the Tonle Sap River, despite the objections of longtime residents who say they have nowhere else to go.

 Cindy Liu/Reuters Residents demolish floating houses on the Tonle Sap river after being ordered to leave by local authorities in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on June 12.

For generations, the floating wooden houseboats of Phnom Penh have been both livelihood and way of life for mostly ethnic Vietnamese families, home to fish farming and interconnected by warrens of hand-built bridges interspersed with sunken poles and small boats.

"Our ancestors have always been here," said Kith Dong, 54, as he and relatives dismantled his home, consisting of a timber platform with a sloped tin roof off the shore of Phnom Penh's Prek Pnov district.

He said the city order did not give his family enough time to relocate.

"If they extended by a few more months, we would have time to build a home," he said.

The Phnom Penh Municipality says the communities amount to floating slums that are eyesores and health hazards, with trash bags and raw sewage floating alongside the houseboats.

Si Vutha, head of Prek Pnov district's land management office, oversaw the dismantling on Friday.

"There are 316 homes that we have to evict today. This really affects the beauty of the city, the environment. You sit on a boat, it smells very bad," Si Vutha told Reuters.

Si Vutha said the evictions are intended to clean up the capital ahead of Phnom Penh's hosting of the 2023 Southeast Asian Games, as the newly built stadium is only a few kilometers away.

"There are hundreds of viruses here, foreign tourists come and see our country like this?" he said.

But residents say the crackdown came too soon and questioned why they needed to move with the Games still more than a year away.

Si Vutha did not specify why the cleanup had to come now, and Phnom Penh city spokesperson Met Meas Pheakdey could not be reached for comment by Reuters on Saturday.

Dang Van Chou, 57, moved to Cambodia more than 20 years ago from neighboring Vietnam.

His family makes a living farming fish in enclosures off their dwelling, but this year's fish are too small to sell to raise money for a move, he said.

"I don't know where to go," he said. "I don't have any land."

 Heng Sinith/AP Local authorities order villagers to dismantle their floating houses along the Tonle Sap river bank, near the village of Prek Pnov in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on June 12.

American Millennials are about to get screwed yet again if Biden doesn't cancel student-loan debt

hhoffower@businessinsider.com (Hillary Hoffower) JUNE 13,2021

 Provided by Business Insider If Biden doesn't cancel student debt, millennials are in store for another economic challenge. TIMOTHY A. CLARY/Getty Images

Federal student-loan debt payments are set to resume this fall, coupled with higher interest rates.
Biden has yet to fulfill his campaign promise to cancel $10,000 in student debt per person.

If he doesn't, it would be just another way millennials get economically screwed.

Millions of Americans have enjoyed a reprieve from the squeeze of student debt during the pandemic. But, come fall, the student-debt crisis could pick up where it left off - or snowball into an even bigger problem.

The pause on student-loan payments and zero interest accrual that have been in place since March 2020 will lift at the end of September. When it does, borrowers will be paying 1% more in interest than they did in 2019. Although rates are still relatively low compared to previous years, Forbes reported that the new interest rates will cost borrowers as much as an additional $590 per $10,000 borrowed on a 10-year repayment term.

The impending lift on the payment pause, coupled with rising interest rates, doesn't bode well for millions of borrowers, who have been able to stay financially afloat during the pandemic without the burden of paying off their student-loan debt. That's especially true for millennials, for which student-loan debt has been one of many balls in a long-time juggling act of financial challenges.

Many have been hoping they wouldn't have any student-loan debt at all come fall - or at least, a much lighter load.

Joe Biden campaigned on supporting $10,000 in student debt cancelation per person, but since becoming president, he's given no clear timeline for doing so. He hasn't included his campaign promise in his stimulus plan, infrastructure plan, or his budget, and has resisted calls from Democratic lawmakers to cancel up to $50,000 per person using his executive powers. While he released a regulatory agenda on Friday that plans to improve student-loan forgiveness programs by 2022, it's not the immediate relief Democrats are looking for, and its details are vague.

Millennials have had bad economic luck. They've ventured through one financial woe after another since the oldest of them graduated into the dismal job market of the 2008 financial crisis. A dozen years later, many are still grappling with the lingering effects of The Great Recession, struggling to build wealth while trying to afford soaring living costs for things like housing and healthcare. The pandemic threw yet another wrench into their plans by giving them their second recession and second housing crisis before the age of 40.

And the generation has dealt with all of this while shouldering the lion's share of student-loan debt. If Biden continues not to act on debt relief, the student-loan crisis has the potential to intensify, adding to the pile of millennial economic challenges.
Student debt has left a stain on millennials' adulthood

Forty-three million borrowers currently share the $1.7 trillion of national student-loan debt. As of 2019, the 15.1 million borrowers ages 25 to 34 - a large chunk of the millennial population - owed an average of $33,000.

The burden is so great that it's prevented many millennials from achieving life milestones like buying a house, having kids, or moving to their dream city.

"I still haven't been able to save enough to put a down payment on a house and commit to another 30-year loan," Daniela Capparelli, who graduated with $150,000 debt, told Insider in the beginning of 2020, when she was 35. "I often feel like I already have a mortgage without the house."

  Student debt has been one of millennials' many economic woes. 

MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images

Read more: Millennials are finally catching up in earnings and homeownership, but student debt is keeping the generational wealth gap as vast as ever

Student loans are also keeping the generational wealth gap as vast as ever. If student loans didn't exist, millennials ages 28 to 38 would have a 76% net wealth-to-income ratio, higher than their current 56% wealth-to-income ratio, per a report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

For the millennials who have found themselves at the bottom of the intragenerational millennial wealth gap that the pandemic has exacerbated, student debt is especially painful. This group was more likely to already have lower earnings pre-pandemic, and to burn through savings when hit by unemployment or pay cuts.

The pause in payments has been a temporary solution to the nation's debt burden. Borrowers have saved $2,000 on average in interest during this time, per a report by travel research group Upgraded Points which also noted, "while those couple thousand dollars could have been imperative in keeping borrowers in the black during pandemic-related hardships, these borrowers are still far from climbing out of the holes they dug in college."

When the pause lifts, it has the potential to leave struggling millennials feeling more slammed with student debt than before, after a year spent falling further financially behind on other areas.

Video: Will President Biden cancel student loan debt? (NBC News)

Biden has canceled billions of student loans that are only 0.2% of the total

Now, Biden has taken some steps toward student-loan debt assistance. He extended the payment pause, which was set to end in January, through September 30. And, through the Department of Education, he cleared up billions of dollars in debt in just a few months for borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools and borrowers with disabilities.

But, as Insider's Ayelet Sheffey reported, this still left trillions of outstanding debt. Alan Collinge, the founder of Student Loan Justice, told her that compared with the scale of the student-debt crisis, canceling debt for defrauded borrowers and borrowers with disabilities is "massively unimpressive."

"We're in a pandemic, and we've lost tens of millions of jobs," he said. "The people who are hurt the worst tend to be the people who have student-loan debt."

© Provided by Business Insider Millions of borrowers are waiting for Biden to fulfill his campaign promise of cancelling $10,000 in student debt per borrower.

ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

Read more: The case for cancelling student debt isn't political - it's practical. Here are the benefits of erasing $1.6 trillion, no strings attached.

So far, $2.3 billion in student debt has been cancelled - only 0.2% of student loans swimming through the system.

In February, he effectively rejected a plan put forward by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer to wipe out $50,000 in student-loan debt per borrower.

"I will not make that happen," he had said to a CNN town-hall audience, adding that he believed loan forgiveness depends on whether borrowers attended a private or public college. "I'm prepared to write off $10,000 in debt, but not 50. I don't think I have the authority to do it."

Both Democrats and cities have urged Biden to cancel $50,000 in student debt per borrower, arguing that it would provide immediate relief to borrowers if Biden used his executive authority to do so. But there's a discrepancy among Biden and lawmakers on whether he can actually use his executive powers to cancel debt.

He told The Washington Post that it is "arguable" the president can use executive powers to cancel student debt, and he would be unlikely to do so. That means the status of the cancelation of a minimum of $10,000 of debt remains in Congress' hands.
Student-loan forgiveness would be a 'lifeline' for millennials

Student-loan relief would benefit millions.

A Department of Education (DOE) analysis obtained by Yahoo Finance found that $50,000 in student-loan forgiveness per person would erase the entire debt for 84% of borrowers in the US with federal loans, while $10,000 in forgiveness would erase the entire debt for 35% of these borrowers.

That includes everyone from Gen Z to those over the age of 50. But millennials, facing one economic conundrum after another, have adopted new social norms to suit the times, hitting milestones like marriage and homeownership later than their parents, if they happen at all. The pandemic has created a whole new slew of crises for them that have exacerbated existing ones, student debt chief among them.

 Student-debt forgiveness would help narrow the generational wealth gap. 

Andrew Burton/Reuters

Read more: College is more expensive than it's ever been, and the 5 reasons why suggest it's only going to get worse

Student-loan forgiveness was a top priority for voters in the election. If Biden doesn't fulfill his campaign promise to relieve $10,000 in student debt, he'd be leaving the generation, many of whom were banking on him to absolve at least a portion of their biggest burdens, screwed yet again.

"We need some help, and that forgiveness, for a lot of us, would just be a lifeline," Alexander Cockerham, 38, who took out $42,000 in federal in private loans to attend school, previously told Insider.

But the resumption of student loan payments is drawing near, with little to no action in sight. In early April, Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, told Politico that the White House was "looking into" its legal authority to cancel $50,000 per person. Shortly afterward, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that option wasn't being ruled out.

An Education Dept. spokesperson told Insider that the agency remains "committed to delivering" targeted relief to borrowers and helping all of them manage repayment, and continues to closely review data related to return to repayment. It is also working with the Department of Justice and White House "as quickly as possible" to review all student debt cancellation options. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment).

While cancellation doesn't exactly need to happen before the pause lifts, it would be even more beneficial to borrowers if it did, helping them lower the amount they would pay interest on or even preventing them from ever having to pay again altogether. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in May he has not ruled out further extending the pause, but, again, no action has been taken yet to do so.

If Biden fails to cancel student debt, he's sacrificing opportunities to help narrow the racial wealth gap, assist low-income borrowers, and boost the economy. For millennials, specifically, it would just be the latest way they can't catch a break.

Read the original article on Business Insider

US documents solve mystery of war criminal Tojo's remains

TOKYO (AP) — Until recently, the location of executed wartime Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo's remains was one of World War II's biggest mysteries in the nation he once led.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Now, a Japanese university professor has revealed declassified U.S. military documents that appear to hold the answer.

The documents show the cremated ashes of Tojo, one of the masterminds of the Pearl Harbor attack, were scattered from a U.S. Army aircraft over the Pacific Ocean about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Yokohama, Japan’s second-largest city, south of Tokyo.

It was a tension-filled, highly secretive mission, with American officials apparently taking extreme steps meant to keep Tojo's remains, and those of six others executed with him, away from ultra-nationalists looking to glorify them as martyrs. The seven were hanged for war crimes just before Christmas in 1948, three years after Japan’s defeat.

The discovery brings partial closure to a painful chapter of Japanese history that still plays out today, as conservative Japanese politicians attempt to whitewash history, leading to friction with wartime victims, especially China and South Korea.

After years spent verifying and checking details and evaluating the significance of what he'd found, Nihon University Professor Hiroaki Takazawa publicly released the clues to the remains' location last week. He came across the declassified documents in 2018 at the U.S. National Archives in Washington. It’s believed to be the first time official documents showing the handling of the seven war criminals’ remains were made public, according to Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies and the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records.

Hidetoshi Tojo, the leader's great-grandson, told The Associated Press that the absence of the remains has long been a humiliation for the bereaved families, but he's relieved the information has come to light.

“If his remains were at least scattered in Japanese territorial waters ... I think he was still somewhat fortunate,” Tojo said. “I want to invite my friends and lay flowers to pay tribute to him" if further details about the remains' location becomes available.

Hideki Tojo, prime minister during much of World War II, is a complicated figure, revered by some conservatives as a patriot but loathed by many in the West for prolonging the war, which ended only after the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

About a month after Aug. 15, 1945, when then-Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s defeat to a stunned nation, Tojo shot himself in a failed suicide attempt as he was about to be arrested at his modest Tokyo home.

Takazawa, the Nihon University professor specializing in war tribunal issues, found the documents during research at the U.S. archives into other war crimes trials. The documents, he said, are valuable because they officially detail previously little-known facts about what happened and provide a rough location of where the ashes were scattered.

He plans to continue research into other executions. More than 4,000 people were convicted of war crimes in other international tribunals, and about 920 of them were executed.

Tojo and the six others who were hanged were among 28 Japanese wartime leaders tried for war crimes at the 1946-1948 International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Twenty-five were convicted, including 16 sentenced to life in prison, with two getting shorter prison terms. Two others died while on trial and one case was dropped.

In one of the newly revealed documents — dated Dec. 23, 1948 and carrying a “secret” stamp — U.S. Army Maj. Luther Frierson wrote: "I certify that I received the remains, supervised cremation, and personally scattered the ashes of the following executed war criminals at sea from an Eighth Army liaison plane."

The entire operation was tense, with U.S. officials extremely careful about not leaving a single speck of ashes behind, apparently to prevent them from being stolen by admiring ultra-nationalists, Takazawa said.

“In addition to their attempt to prevent the remains from being glorified, I think the U.S. military was adamant about not letting the remains return to Japanese territory ... as an ultimate humiliation," Takazawa said.

The documents state that when the cremation was completed, the ovens were "cleared of the remains in their entirety.”

“Special precaution was taken to preclude overlooking even the smallest particles of remains,” Frierson wrote.

Here's how the operation went.

At 2:10 a.m. on Dec. 23, 1948, caskets carrying the bodies of Tojo and the six others were loaded on a 2.5-ton truck and taken out of the prison after fingerprinting for verification, Frierson wrote in a Jan. 4, 1949 document.

About an hour and a half later, the motorcade guarded by truckloads of armed soldiers to protect the bodies arrived at a U.S. military graves registration platoon in Yokohama for a final check.

The truck left the area at 7:25 a.m. and arrived at a Yokohama crematorium 30 minutes later. The caskets were unloaded from the truck and placed directly “in the ovens” in 10 minutes, while soldiers guarded the area.

The remains were then transported under guard to a nearby airstrip and loaded onto a plane that Frierson boarded. “We proceeded to a point approximately 30 miles over the Pacific Ocean east of Yokohama where I personally scattered the cremated remains over a wide area.”

Today, even without the ashes, bereaved families and conservative Japanese lawmakers such as former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe regularly pay tribute at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where the executed war criminals are enshrined with 2.5 million war dead considered “sacred spirits” in the Shinto religion. No remains are enshrined at Yasukuni.

After the seven executed war criminals were enshrined there in 1978, Yasukuni has become a flashpoint between Japan and its neighbors China and South Korea, who see the enshrinement as proof of Japan’s lack of remorse over its wartime aggression. Yasukuni also enshrines five other convicted wartime leaders and hundreds of other war criminals.

Hidetoshi Tojo said his great-grandfather was consistently made a taboo in postwar Japan, never glorified.

“Everything about my great-grandfather was sealed, including his speeches. Taking that into consideration, I think not preserving the remains was part of the occupation policy,” he said. “I hope to see further revelations about the unknown facts of the past.”

Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press

OBJECTIVE NON-UCP STUDY
University of Alberta study links increased supervised consumption site visits to decreased fentanyl overdose deaths

Anna Junker 

EDMONTON JOURNAL

 12 hrs ago

A new study out of the University of Alberta shows a correlation between increased visits to supervised consumption sites and decreased fentanyl overdose deaths.

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© Provided by Edmonton Journal Syringes available for clients at the supervised drug consumption site at Boyle Street Community Services.

The study, published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry , used publicly available data from opioid-response reports between 2017 and 2020 published by the Government of Alberta along with the number of visits to supervised consumption sites.

Researchers found a “statistically significant” link between the two data sets, suggesting increased visits to supervised consumption sites play a role in fewer overdose deaths.

Lead researcher Tyler Marshall said fentanyl-related overdose deaths dropped to 103 by Q4 2019 from 178 at Q4 2017 while at the same time, supervised consumption site visits were increasing. But as the pandemic hit at the beginning of 2020, overdose deaths doubled while supervised consumption site visits decreased by 64 per cent.


“From our data, they’re clearly playing some type of role. We know that when people use alone, that is a serious risk of overdose. You can’t administer Naloxone on yourself,” Marshall said.

“So if somebody is there and overdoses, or if people are injecting drugs like methamphetamine and opioids (and) someone’s there, the probability of dying is substantially less … so it makes sense, the more people that use the service, you would expect fewer deaths.”

The research led by Marshall, a doctoral candidate, and U of A psychiatry professor Andrew Greenshaw, also shows that as visits to safe consumption sites decrease due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fentanyl-related overdose deaths increased by 118.4 per cent.

The study comes at a time when Alberta is facing an overdose crisis. Between January and March of this year, 346 Albertans died of an accidental opioid overdose, and of those, 109 were in Edmonton, the latest provincial data shows.

In late May, three men died together of suspected overdoses in a central Edmonton park.

Alberta Health Services also had to issue a public alert after paramedics responded to 55 opioid-related calls over two days in the Edmonton Zone.

There’s a strong indication that more people are using substances alone during the pandemic, which is a “huge risk factor,” but more data is needed to confirm it, Marshall said.

Marshall, who has a master’s degree in public health, has been interested in drug policy work and harm reduction for a while. He has also done volunteer work at a harm reduction centre in Red Deer.

He noted the public might not be aware that safe consumption sites also offer services other than a safe place to use drugs.

“I saw wound care and Hepatitis-C testing, education around Naloxone, drug abuse education, referral to several different other health and social services, income support. And then there’s a wide variety of staffing, too — there are paramedics, nurses, LPNs, peer support workers.”

While the study’s findings are only a correlation, more overdose data continues to be published. Marshall said he hopes this study prompts more research into safe consumption sites.

“We hope it’s just kind of a foot in the door for balanced research on the topic,” he said. “Hopefully, people will see it and take a similar approach.”

ajunker@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/JunkerAnna

South Dakota rocked again as a wind turbine plant shuts


John F. Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate, said only months ago that those losing fossil fuel jobs in coal and hydraulic fracturing will find they have a better choice in jobs in either the solar industry or as wind turbine technicians.

THE ABOVE IS THE EDITORIAL OPINION OF THE RIGHT WING WRITER

© Provided by Washington Examiner

That was then. Now, a wind blade manufacturing plant located in Aberdeen, South Dakota has announced it is shutting its doors permanently in less than two months.

The disappearance of Molded Fiber Glass will displace over three hundred workers and their families. It marks another major loss of energy jobs in the state following President Joe Biden's halting of the Keystone Pipeline on the first day of his administration.

MFG said in a news release that the closure will happen because of changing market conditions, foreign competition, and proposed revisions to tax policies affecting the wind energy industry in the United States.

Since 2007, the Aberdeen plant has been producing wind turbine blades. The plant will remain in operation for the next two months until it has have fulfilled existing orders.

A family member of one of the workers said they were informed of the closure last Monday. Employees was completely taken off guard by the announcement. She was also perplexed by it. “They should be swimming in orders right now," she said.

THEY HAVE USED THIS TACTIC BEFORE FOR TAX BREAKS

In 2017 MFG threatened to kill 400 jobs at the plant and shut down because of the “proposed revisions to tax policies.” At that time, Republican U.S. Sen. John Thune stopped the closure by pushing revisions of the 2017 tax bill to be more favorable to the industry.

Thune, in an emailed statement, said that it is troubling that at a time when wind energy is seeing record investment that this growth is not translating to American jobs. It’s especially hard for those working these good-paying jobs in Aberdeen to face uncertainty yet again. Thune criticized Biden's statement from his address to Congress — "There’s no reason, Biden said, "the blades for wind turbines can’t be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing.” But Beijing is getting all the business.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance recent ranking of global wind turbine manufacturers last year showed that 7 of the top 10 wind turbine manufacturers are Chinese companies. General Electric, an American company, is first, but Goldwind of China is in second place. The study also found more than half of the world’s newly installed wind power capacity was built in China in 2020.

Last month, Thune proposed an amendment to the Democrats’ expansive energy tax credit bill, requiring the administration to certify that U.S. manufacturers would not be undercut by foreign suppliers using low-cost labor and creating higher emissions. MFG, in closing its 14-year-old plant, cited precisely these two adverse factors as its reasons.

One day after the announcement, TC Energy, the Canadian pipeline company that sought to build the Keystone XL pipeline, announced that it was terminating the project, a 1,700-mile pipeline intended to carry 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Gulf Coast, passing through five states, including South Dakota.

Although the wind and pipeline industries are different sides of the climate change coin, both were considered economic lifelines to small-town South Dakota. Both promised economic stability and a revenue stream that would keep many towns hopping until tourism hit its stride once again.

“We are a smallish community of 28,000 people, so 300 jobs is a big deal,” said the family member of a worker. “Granted, two facilities in town, 3M and Banner Engineering, have recently doubled capacity, so most of the hourly employees should be absorbed by that,” she said. "However, some of these people have been with the company since 2008. How do you start over after 13 years?”

It is a question that has been asked by many Americans in manufacturing jobs, who have had to compete with cheaper overseas products for generations. And it is a question many workers in the energy industry may be asking soon.

Tags:

Original Author: Salena Zito

Original Location: WASHINGTON EXAMINER

French authorities race to clean up oil spill drifting to Corsica's coast

By Martin Goillandeau, CNN 

French authorities were racing to clean up an oil spill approaching the island of Corsica on Saturday, launching an "anti-pollution plan" to prevent the slick from reaching sunbathers on the coast.

© Florian Roussard/AFP/Getty Images This handout picture, taken and released on June 12 by the French Air Force, shows an oil spill approaching eastern Corsica which appears to have leaked from a ship.

The spill was spotted on Friday by the French navy during an exercise carried out from the Solenzara air base in Ventiseri, Corsica, according to maritime officials.

By Saturday morning, officials had detected two oil slicks over 19 nautical miles (35 kilometers), which were drifting about 5 nautical miles from Corsica's east coast, between Aléria and Solenzara, France's Mediterranean Maritime Prefecture said in a statement.

Pollution experts concluded the spill was heavy-grade oil and likely the result of a "degassing," which involves the release of any gases left in fuel tanks or crude oil tanks after they've been emptied.

"The size and nature of the products involved do not allow for natural dilution and require specific anti-pollution units and equipment," the prefecture said, adding that "the pollution (is) currently drifting towards the coast."

"Some materials are visible up to 800 meters from the coast," Christine Ribbe, a prefecture spokeswoman told French radio station France Inter on Saturday morning. "We fear that some of this pollution will reach the Corsican coast today," she added.

France's environment minister Barbara Pompili said she would visit the site on Saturday with maritime minister Annick Girardin.

Pompili said France's maritime police had opened an investigation into the spill. "Thank you to the professionals mobilized to fight against this environmental scourge," Pompili said on Twitter.

Authorities in the Haute-Corse department, the northern part of Corsica, have blocked access to the beaches in the towns of Aleria until Ventiseri and told residents "not to touch collect any oil clumps they find on beaches." Fishing was also prohibited in the same areas on Friday night.

Kamala Harris Becomes First Sitting Vice President to March in a Pride Event

Vice President Kamala Harris made history again on Saturday, becoming the first sitting VP to march in a Pride Event as she was joined by Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff at Capital Pride

By Glenn Garner
June 12, 2021 

CREDIT: ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES


Vice President Kamala Harris has made history once again, becoming the first sitting Vice President to march in a Pride event.

Harris participated in a march with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff on Saturday during Capital Pride in Washington, D.C. She wore a "love is love" t-shirt as she walked with other Pride-goers to a rally at Freedom Plaza, telling them, "Happy Pride!"

She spoke briefly at the event, advocating for the passage of the Equality Act while expressing her and President Joe Biden's commitment to advancing LGBTQ rights. "We need to make sure that our transgender community and our youth are all protected. We need, still, protections around employment and housing," Harris said, according to NBC Washington. "There is so much more work to do, and I know we are committed."

RELATED: Joe Biden to Name Pulse Nightclub a National Memorial 5 Years After Shooting at Orlando Gay Club

The Vice President also observed the fifth anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting on Twitter, paying tribute to the 49 people who were killed at the Orlando gay club on June 12, 2016.

"Five years ago, 49 LGBTQ+ people and allies were enjoying an evening out at Pulse Nightclub," she wrote. "And then, in an instant, they were gone. Today, we remember those who died and their loved ones-and we recommit to building a world free from gun violence."

   

Harris' post came as President Biden issued his own statement announcing that he'll sign a piece of legislation to name the nightclub a national memorial, which recently passed the House and Senate. He also advocated for stricter gun control and the passage of the Equality Act, acknowledging that the LGBTQ community is disproportionately impacted by gun violence, particularly transgender women of color.\

"In the memory of all of those lost at the Pulse nightclub five years ago, let us continue the work to be a nation at our best-one that recognizes and protects the dignity and safety of every American," Biden said in his statement.

The Biden/Harris administration has made LGBTQ issues one of their priorities, restoring transgender healthcare protections and removing Donald Trump's ban on transgender military members. One of Biden's first executive orders was calling for an end to discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

"Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports," the order read. "Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes. People should be able to access healthcare and secure a roof over their heads without being subjected to sex discrimination."

This year's Pride Month comes during an uncertain time for the LGBTQ community. As of March, there were 192 anti-LGBTQ bills under consideration in state legislatures across the country, according to HRC. Of those, a record 93 directly target transgender people.

DARNELLA FRAZIER, THE TEENAGER WHO FILMED GEORGE FLOYD’S MURDER, GETS A 2021 PULITZER PRIZE SPECIAL CITATION

by Andrea Blackstone

June 12, 2021

The Pulitzer Prize Board awarded a 2021 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation to Darnella Frazier for exhibited courage to record the famous video of George Floyd’s murder. Image- Twitter

The Pulitzer Prize Board awarded a 2021 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation to Darnella Frazier—the teenager who exhibited the courage to record a video of George Floyd’s murder on her cellphone. The announcement mentioned that the video spawned worldwide police brutality protests and highlighted the critical role that citizen journalists have in the search for both truth and justice.

Now This captured footage of how recording the video led to the next chapter of both protests and trauma for Frazier, after the teenager shared the disturbing footage online. The footage, which included Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as Floyd kept saying that he could not breathe, was chilling and revealing. Those words continue to shape the course of police officer’s duties, while citizens examine who is seeking to truly serve and protect them when emergencies arise.

ABC News mentioned that Frazier was also tasked with testifying in Chauvin’s trial. The former Minneapolis police officer was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murde, and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and his defense attorney Eric Nelson attend closing arguments during Chauvin’s trial for second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd with his defense attorney Eric Nelson in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. April 19, 2021 in a still image from video. Pool via REUTERS

“He was in pain,” Frazier said while testifying in April, according to ABC News. “It seemed like, he knew … he knew it was over for him. He was terrified. He was suffering. This was a cry for help.”

Within the bittersweet celebration of why Frazier is being recognized, the teenager is receiving some support as news of her 2021 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation crawls around the internet. Frazier has been both praised and criticized for filming the iconic video that drew attention to social justice. Hopefully, the world will let her indulge in this noteworthy recognition. When many did nothing about injustice, one brave teenager who was walking to the store when she witnessed what happened to Floyd, stood up. She quickly took action as a citizen journalist by using a cell phone. Then, her heroic act helped to ignite a worldwide social justice movement.

Sustainable Peace Must End Israeli Apartheid. Anything Else Is Just a Ceasefire.

Palestinian protesters run to take cover during a protest against the expanding of Jewish settlements and the Israeli annexation plan in the village of Beita, south of the West Bank city of Nablus, on June 8, 2021.

NIDAL ESHTAYEH / XINHUA VIA GETTY IMAGES

After four elections in less than two years, Benjamin Netanyahu’s record 12-year rule comes officially to an end on Sunday. The government to replace him consists of a coalition of eight parties from across Israel’s political spectrum and will be led by the ultranationalist Naftali Bennett who will serve for the first two years.

Indeed, indicative of the direction of Israeli politics and society over the course of the last 15 years or so, the end of the corrupt and much-maligned Netanyahu reign may be no reason for celebration, as it will be replaced not simply by a coalition government built around numerous structural contradictions, but by one that may potentially prove to be far more reactionary and dangerous.

The situation is grave for Palestinians, who only a few weeks ago experienced under Netanyahu’s orders yet another massive assault on Gaza, which ended in the death of more than 200 people including dozens of children, and widespread damage to the enclave’s infrastructure. The person to replace Netanyahu as prime minister is a religious extremist who has been a vocal advocate of Israeli settlements and a fervent opponent of a Palestinian state.

The dawn of the new era in Israeli politics starts with the latest cycle of violence against the Palestinians, which seems to have been directly related to the reality of domestic Israeli politics in general and the policy of ethnic cleansing in particular. This is the view of Richard Falk, one of the world’s most insightful and cited scholars of international affairs over the course of the last half century, as made clear in the exclusive interview below for Truthout. Falk is professor emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, Chair of Global Law at Queen Mary University of London, former United Nations Human Rights Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, and author of more than fifty books and thousands of essays in global politics and international law.

C.J. Polychroniou: Richard, the latest Israeli attack, which caused massive destruction in the Gaza Strip, ended with a ceasefire after growing U.S. and international pressure after 11 days. In your view, what factors or parties reignited the violence?

Richard Falk: This latest upsurge of violence in the relations between Israel and Palestine seems to arise from a combination of circumstances…. It is clear that Israel’s usual claim of a right to defend itself is far from the whole story, especially when its behavior seemed designed to provoke Hamas to act in response. In light of this, we should investigate why Israel wanted to launch a major military operation against Gaza at this time when the situation seemed quiet.

The easiest answer to the question — to save Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s skin. It seems that the precarious political position and legal vulnerability of the Israeli leader, is the best back story, but far from a complete picture. It helps account for the seemingly reckless Israeli provocations that preceded the flurry of rockets from Hamas and affiliates. Netanyahu had failed three times to form a government and was facing an opposition coalition that was effectively poised to displace him as leader. If displaced as prime minister, Netanyahu would have to face substantial criminal charges for fraud, bribery and breach of public trust in Israeli courts, which could result in a jail sentence.

Why would a wily leader and ardent nationalist play roulette with the well-being of Israel? The answer seems to involve the character of the man rather than an astute policy calculation…. To the extent the Netanyahu approach was knowledge-based, it reflected the reasonable belief that Israelis put aside differences and give their total allegiance to the head of state during a wartime interlude. Netanyahu had every reason to believe that in this situation, as so often in the past, Israelis would rally around the flag, and be thankful for his leadership in a security crisis.If displaced as prime minister, Netanyahu would have to face substantial criminal charges for fraud, bribery and breach of public trust in Israeli courts, which could result in a jail sentence.

There is no doubt that Israeli behavior preceding the rockets was so inflammatory that we must assume it was intended to be highly provocative. First came high-profile evictions of six Palestinian families from their Sheikh Jarrah homes on flimsy legal grounds, with a prospect of more evictions to follow. These court rulings enraged the Palestinians. It reinforced their sense of continuing victimization taking the form of insecurity as to Palestinian residence rights in East Jerusalem, perceived as ethnic cleansing. This reawakened the memories of the 700,000 or more Palestinians who fled or were forced across the borders of what became Israel to Jordan, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank (until 1967 under Jordanian administration) in the 1948 War, becoming refugees, and never thereafter allowed to return to their homes or homeland, which was and is their right under international law.

This process of coercive demographic rebalancing was integral to the essential racial and idealistic character of the Zionist movement, which sought to establish not only a Jewish state but a democracy that could qualify for political legitimacy by Western criteria. To achieve this goal, however, depended on implementing policies ensuring and maintaining a secure Jewish-majority population, [policies] which were themselves denial of fundamental human rights. These controversial Sheikh Jarrah evictions were continuing this Judaizing of East Jerusalem after more than 70 years since Israel was founded. In other words, what Israeli Jews treated as a demographic imperative that was almost synonymous with maintaining a Jewish state for the Palestinians had the character of a continuous process of ethnic cleansing, which meant second-class citizenship and living with perpetual insecurity.

Days before the rockets were launched, there was further provocation that took the form of unregulated marches by right-wing Jewish settlers through Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem carrying posters and shouting, “Death to the Arabs,” coupled with random acts of violence against Palestinians and their property. Such events reinforced the impression that the Palestinians in Israel were acutely insecure and vulnerable to thuggish manifestations of settler racism and would not be protected by the Israeli state. This pattern exhibited the jagged edges of Israel’s distinctive version of apartheid.

Likely, the most provocative of all these events … were the several intrusions at al-Aqsa compound and mosque by Israeli security forces in a manner that obstructed Muslim worship during the last days of Ramadan. As well, Muslims were prevented from coming to al-Aqsa from the West Bank during this period. These encroachments on freedom of religion again seemed designed to provoke Palestinian reactions of resistance by harshly discriminatory practices of Israeli interpretations of “law and order.”

Against this background, Palestinian protests mounted, and Hamas undoubtedly felt challenged to maintain its claim as the inspirational leader of Palestinian resistance. Because of the limited options available to Hamas, resistance took the characteristic form of firing hundreds of primitive rockets, many falling harmlessly or intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. The rockets were indiscriminate and inflicted some Israeli casualties, minor damage to towns in southern Israel. Such a tactic violates international humanitarian law, and is undoubtedly very frightening to the Israeli civilian population.

It should be appreciated that Israel’s violations far outweighed the violations of the Palestinians in several crucial respects: the death and destruction caused by the two sides; the refusal of Israel to uphold its legal obligations as the occupying power toward the civilian occupied Palestinian people who were already long subjugated by an unlawful blockade (in place since 2007) responsible for unemployment levels over 50 percent and dependence on humanitarian aid by over 80 percent of the Gazan population. Israel also ignored its specific duty outlined in Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect the civilian population during a time of “contagious disease or epidemic,” and instead subjected Palestinians to what has been described as “medical apartheid,” which was most evident on the West Bank where all Jewish settlers were vaccinated while almost no Palestinians received even a first dose.

The Arab world condemned the latest Israeli assault, but took no action. My question about this is twofold: First, to what extent did the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, precipitate the renewal of violence? And, second, what’s behind the cozy relationship between Israel and Arab countries, particularly Gulf states?

With respect to the Abraham Accords, I am not aware of any concrete indications of a link, although some circumstantial evidence suggests its plausibility. On the Israeli side, the Accords seem to have given Israel greater confidence that they could make life even more miserable for the Palestinian people without having to fear adverse repercussions from their Arab neighbors. Without Trump in the White House, the right wing in Israel seemed to believe that their expansionist goals, including annexationist hopes for most of the West Bank, would have to be achieved unilaterally without diplomatic cover from the United States, and that meant intensifying their already bellicose reputation.

On the Palestinian side, opposite forces seemed at play. A sense that Netanyahu and the settlers were exerting increasing pressure to make the Palestinians believe that their struggle was futile, a lost cause, with the goal of making them agree to whatever “peace arrangement” was put forward by Israel (what I call “the Daniel Pipes” scenario, squeezing the Palestinians so hard that they give up). More assertively interpreted, the rockets expressed a resolve not to be ethnically cleansed from their homes nor silenced and intimidated by the settlers nor by those who would interfere with their religious practices. It may have also been intended as a warning to the Palestinian Authority not to accept some arrangement that validated this coercive Israeli approach to “peace.” These direct encounters originating in Jerusalem were dealt with harshly by the Israeli government, prompting Hamas to act in solidarity, which meant sending rockets, the only weapon in their arsenal capable of sending a message to Israel….

Also at play undoubtedly was the challenge posed by the Accords to Palestinian steadfastness or sumud — a Palestinian show of resistance, even with the full awareness that the rockets would bring a massive Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military operation as in the past, and with it, death, displacement and destruction in Gaza. It was the Palestinian way of saying that our struggle goes on regardless of the costs, and even in the face of this symbolic abandonment by our Arab brothers and sisters, or at least their regimes, which in any event had long been more a matter of words than deeds. This abandonment had been previously expressed substantively by these Arab governments, especially the Gulf monarchies, which were never comfortable with Palestinian or Islamic movements from below in their region, especially in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution when political Islam showed its willingness and ability to challenge the control of the established order (as confirmed by their counter-revolutionary support for the Sisi coup in 2013 against Muslim Brotherhood leadership in Egypt).

As far as the motivations behind Arab elite willingness to ignore the pro-Palestinian sentiments of their own populations and become parties to the Abraham Accords, three factors are explanatory: First, the governments involved were given transactional rewards by the Trump diplomatic offensive in the form of weapons, economic inducements, delisting as a terrorist government and support for political claims; secondly, applying especially to the Gulf monarchies, seeking a common front with Israel in opposing and destabilizing Iran, not only in relation to its nuclear program but with respect to its political solidarity relationships in the region, which included Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen; and thirdly, by seeming to take political risks at home to support U.S. pro-Israeli objectives in the region so as to gain leverage in Washington as a dependable ally.

Israeli police have arrested thousands of people over the last couple of weeks in Israeli Arab communities as part of a “law and order” operation. What is Israel really hoping to achieve with such actions against Palestinian protesters who, incidentally, happen to be Israeli citizens?

Jewish supremacy is the core of the Zionist project as it has played out in Israel, which has in turn generated racial policies and practices that are increasingly perceived as a form of apartheid. The government must convince the “dominant race” that it can maintain the racial hierarchy. This means that any show of resistance by the subjugated race must be disproportionately punished, with the hope of deterring future defiance by the downtrodden.The mass arrests of Palestinian protesters were the method relied upon to reestablish the appearance of stable control of the asymmetric relations between Jews and Palestinians.

In the past 20 years, Gaza and its people had borne the brunt of this Israeli need to exhibit its political resolve and ability to crush any challenge, however indirect, to the policies and practices of apartheid. This was the first time that communal violence in towns where Palestinians and Jews cohabited arose within Israel at a time coinciding with an IDF military operation in Gaza. It was a new internal threat to the apartheid regime, but posed a different kind of challenge as Israel didn’t want to devastate towns within Israel, calling for an appropriate challenge. The mass arrests of Palestinian protesters were the method relied upon to reestablish the appearance of stable control of the asymmetric relations between Jews and Palestinians.

Palestinians have been facing a severe leadership crisis for many years now, but solidarity with the Palestinian people has shifted massively on a global scale. Are there hopeful prospects for Palestinian unity? And is the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement an effective way to challenge Israeli oppression without hurting the victims themselves?

As indicated earlier, deficiencies of Palestinian leadership have weakened the Palestinian movement for self-determination. In part, this reflects Israel’s overall approach … as it has pursued for many years “a politics of fragmentation,” including at the leadership level. Such fragmentation includes its occupation administration on the West Bank with more than 700 checkpoints, making internal travel incredibly difficult for Palestinians, as well as administering the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in different ways that make Palestinian interaction difficult and unity hard to maintain. Of course, there’s the toxic split between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. As well, Israeli denial to Palestinians of any right of return has kept the refugee status of millions of Palestinians static, untenable and precarious. Refugee demands for return create tensions with Palestinians living under occupation, many of whom believe the formula “land for peace” is the best deal that they can hope for. Further, they realize that Israel might agree to end the occupation but it would never assent to upholding the repatriation rights of the refugees, which is seen as a deal-breaker. Only a strong leader with support from all of these constituencies could provide the Palestinian people with authentic leadership capable of representing both Palestinians living under occupation and in refugee camps. Israel remains determined at this point not to let this happen, and feels strong and secure enough to refuse meaningful Palestinian statehood as well as to deny refugee rights.

The Palestinians have discredited themselves to some extent by not putting aside their differences so as to establish a common front to achieve their primary goal of self-determination. The top echelons of the Palestinian Authority live a comfortable life, rumors of corruption abound, and one senses a willingness to lie low until they can make some sort of deal that hides their political defeat. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader who is internationally recognized as representing the Palestinian people, has not held promised elections since 2005, and recently canceled elections scheduled for this year on the alleged grounds that Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem would not be allowed to vote. Critics insist that elections were canceled because Hamas was seen as the sure winner.

Hamas, although mischaracterized in the U.S. and Israel, has governed harshly in Gaza, making many Palestinians fear its leadership. Yet as Sandy Tolan and other researchers have made clear, Hamas was induced by Washington to pursue its goals by political means and compete electorally, but it was not supposed to win as it did in Gaza in 2006. When it won, it made diplomatic overtures to Washington and Tel Aviv, offering a long-term ceasefire, up to 50 years, in exchange for Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 “green line” borders, but these were rebuffed, and Hamas was returned to its “terrorist” box, and the people of Gaza were blamed for their victory in the elections.

The Palestinians have never set forth their own [collective] vision of peace, probably because it would reveal sharp differences between those willing to settle for some version of partition and those who seek a unified Palestine with a secular constitution assuring equality of rights. As matters now stand, a sustainable peace presupposes the prior dismantling of apartheid structures and the renunciation of Zionist foundational claims of Jewish supremacy. Without such steps, any agreed outcome would end up as a “ceasefire.” It is instructive to study the fall of apartheid in South Africa, and its aftermath, that failed to fulfill all of the hopes of South Africans or result in economic and social retaliation that the whites feared. Both races benefited from the transition. A bloody armed struggle was averted and so was a vindictive sequel to apartheid.A sustainable peace presupposes the prior dismantling of apartheid structures and the renunciation of Zionist foundational claims of Jewish supremacy. Without such steps, any agreed outcome would end up as a “ceasefire.”

The South African narrative is also important for illustrating its “impossible” unfolding: internal resistance, strongly reinforced by a global civil society anti-apartheid campaign supported by the UN and highlighted by BDS pressures, releasing Nelson Mandela from 27 years confinement in prison despite his life sentence so that he could negotiate the transition to constitutional multi-racial democracy and become the natural choice of the population to be the first president of the new South Africa. It all sounds plausible 25 years after the fact, but before these dramatic events, it seemed “impossible,” a dream too good to come true….

A final observation. The South African apartheid leadership did not awake one morning and become aware that their regime was immoral and illegal. It decided through backroom debate and reflection that it was better off taking the risks of constitutional democracy than go on living as a pariah state waiting for the day when the roof would collapse. In other words, the white leadership made a rational public policy decision, the contemplation of which was kept as a closely guarded state secret until a consensus reached, and the extraordinary events started happening to the great surprise of the world.

One final question. What are your thoughts on Israel’s new government? What can one expect from it in general, and will it be able to skirt the Palestinian issue?

The coalition that has managed to prevail, and for the moment, the political impasse in Israel by taking over the Israeli government is not united on policy or belief. Its only unifying principle is a deep hostility to Netanyahu’s personality and character. For that reason, the diversity of its composition makes it fragile with respect to sharp departures from Likud consensus on Palestine that has prevailed for the last twelve years in Israel.

At the same time, the dominant elements in the Bennett-Lapid coalition are correctly perceived on Palestinian issues as further to the right on such issues as accelerated ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem, expansion of West Bank settlements, annexation of all or most of the West Bank, opposition to any genuine form of Palestinian statehood, and greater severity with respect to the implementation of apartheid policies and practices. Further, it is expected that Naftali Bennett, an exponent of the extreme right-wing settler movement and maximal Zionist goals, will be Israel’s prime minister for the next two years during which he will undoubtedly be tempted to push Israeli policy even further to the right.

It is, of course, possible that Bennett will contain his anti-Palestinian fury so as to hold the coalition together, but it is just as likely that he will be prepared to pay the price of a collapsed coalition by being able to attract support for his program from the Likud members and other rightists outside the coalition who agree with his approach on Palestine and are no longer tied to Netanyahu or preoccupied with having a place in the leadership of the government. It is also possible that Bennett will move more cautiously to avoid weakening American support, which is already weaker than it has been in this century. Bennett is less abrasive in personal style than Netanyahu, which is hardly a notable achievement, but is more of an extreme ideologue and less of an opportunist.

Given this further turn to the right in Israel there is no realistic prospect of any kind of meaningful diplomacy for the foreseeable future. There are, in contrast, real possibilities of stronger global solidarity efforts through the UN and by way of civil society campaign such as BDS, and a stronger public support for Palestinian grievances.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.



Copyright © Truthout. 

C.J. Polychroniou  is a political economist/political scientist who has taught and worked in numerous universities and research centers in Europe and the United States. Currently, his main research interests are in European economic integration, globalization, climate change, the political economy of the United States, and the deconstruction of neoliberalism’s politico-economic project. He is a regular contributor to Truthout as well as a member of Truthout’s Public Intellectual Project. He has published scores of books, and his articles have appeared in a variety of journals, magazines, newspapers and popular news websites. Many of his publications have been translated into several foreign languages, including Arabic, Croatian, Dutch, French, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. His latest books are Optimism Over Despair: Noam Chomsky On Capitalism, Empire, and Social Change, an anthology of interviews with Chomsky originally published at Truthout and collected by Haymarket Books; Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet (with Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin as primary authors); and The Precipice: Neoliberalism, the Pandemic, and the Urgent Need for Radical Change, an anthology of interviews with Chomsky originally published at Truthout and collected by Haymarket Books (scheduled for publication in June 2021).
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Who is Naftali Bennett, Israel's incoming Prime Minister?

Joseph Krauss, Jun 14 2021

Israel swears in new coalition government ending Netanyahu's long rule

Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned rival, became prime minister after a 60-59 vote

EXPLAINER: Naftali Bennett, who was sworn on Sunday (NZT Monday) as Israel's new prime minister, embodies many of the contradictions that define the 73-year-old nation.

He's a religious Jew who made millions in the mostly secular hi-tech sector; a champion of the settlement movement who lives in a Tel Aviv suburb; a former ally of Benjamin Netanyahu who has partnered with centrist and left-wing parties to end his 12-year rule.

ARIEL SCHALIT/AP
Israel's new prime minister Naftali Bennett embodies many of the contradictions that define the 73-year-old nation.

His ultranationalist Yamina party won just seven seats in the 120-member Knesset in March elections – the fourth such vote in two years. But by refusing to commit to Netanyahu or his opponents, Bennett positioned himself as kingmaker. Even after one member of his religious nationalist party abandoned him to protest the new coalition deal, he ended up with the crown.

Here's a look at Israel's new leader:

An ultranationalist with a moderate coalition

Bennett has long positioned himself to the right of Netanyahu. But he will be severely constrained by his unwieldy coalition, which has only a narrow majority in parliament and includes parties from the right, left and centre.

He is opposed to Palestinian independence and strongly supports Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians and much of the international community see as a major obstacle to peace.

ARIEL SCHALIT/AP
Naftali Bennett represents a third generation of Israeli leaders, after the founders of the state and Netanyahu's generation, which came of age during the country's tense early years marked by repeated wars with Arab states.

Bennett fiercely criticised Netanyahu after the prime minister agreed to slow settlement construction under pressure from former US President Barack Obama, who tried and failed to revive the peace process early in his first term.

He briefly served as head of the West Bank settler’s council, Yesha, before entering the Knesset in 2013. Bennett later served as cabinet minister of diaspora affairs, education and defence in various Netanyahu-led governments.

“He’s a right-wing leader, a security hard-liner, but at the same time very pragmatic," said Yohanan Plesner, head of the Israel Democracy Institute, who has known Bennett for decades and served with him in the military.

He expects Bennett to engage with other factions to find a “common denominator” as he seeks support and legitimacy as a national leader.

Rivalry with Netanyahu

The 49-year-old father of four shares Netanyahu's hawkish approach to the Middle East conflict, but the two have had tense relations over the years.

Bennett served as Netanyahu's chief of staff for two years, but they parted ways after a mysterious falling out that Israeli media linked to Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, who wields great influence over her husband's inner circle.

ARIEL SCHALIT/AP
Israel's new prime minister Naftali Bennett shakes hands with outgoing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a Knesset session in Jerusalem.

Bennett campaigned as a right-wing stalwart ahead of the March elections and signed a pledge on national TV saying he would never allow Yair Lapid, a centrist and Netanyahu's main rival, to become prime minister.

But when it became clear Netanyahu was unable to form a ruling coalition, that's exactly what Bennett did, agreeing to serve as prime minister for two years before handing power to Lapid, the architect of the new coalition.

ARIEL SCHALIT/AP
Israeli politician Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party sends greetings during a Knesset session in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Netanyahu's supporters have branded Bennett a traitor, saying he defrauded voters. Bennett has defended his decision as a pragmatic move aimed at unifying the country and avoiding a fifth round of elections.

A Generational shift

Bennett, a father of four and a modern Orthodox Jew, will be Israel's first prime minister who regularly wears a kippa, the skullcap worn by observant Jews. He lives in the upscale Tel Aviv suburb of Raanana, rather than the settlements he champions.

Bennett began life with his American-born parents in Haifa, then bounced with his family between North America and Israel, military service, law school and the private sector. Throughout, he’s curated a persona that’s at once modern, religious and nationalist.

After serving in the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, Bennett went to law school at Hebrew University. In 1999, he co-founded Cyota, an anti-fraud software company that was sold in 2005 to US-based RSA Security for US$145 million (NZ$203 million).

Bennett has said the bitter experience of Israel’s 2006 war against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah drove him to politics. The month-long war ended inconclusively, and Israel’s military and political leadership at the time was widely criticised as bungling the campaign.

ARIEL SCHALIT/AP
Bennett (right) is opposed to Palestinian independence and strongly supports Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians and much of the international community see as a major obstacle to peace.

Bennett represents a third generation of Israeli leaders, after the founders of the state and Netanyahu's generation, which came of age during the country's tense early years marked by repeated wars with Arab states.

“He's Israel 3.0,” Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist for Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, wrote in a recent profile of Bennett.

“A Jewish nationalist but not really dogmatic. A bit religious, but certainly not devout. A military man who prefers the comforts of civilian urban life and a high-tech entrepreneur who isn’t looking to make any more millions. A supporter of the Greater Land of Israel but not a settler. And he may well not be a lifelong politician either.”


AP