Right livid with Gantz
January 8, 2021
(Israel Hayom via JNS) Prominent figures on Israel’s right are furious with Defense Minister Benny Gantz for telling London-based Saudi news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat in a recent interview that he does not envision full regional peace without the Palestinians, and that Jerusalem had enough room to include a future Palestinian capital.
When asked about the status of Jerusalem, Gantz was quoted as saying, “Jerusalem must remain united, but it will include a place for a Palestinian capital. It is a very big city and full of places sacred to us all.”
Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Rafi Peretz (Jewish Home Party) said in a Twitter post that “united Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people, not the capital of anyone else. This is where our forefathers walked and this is where we were created. Gantz, I know you enough to know you believe that, too.”
Prominent Saudi women s rights activist sentenced to almost 6 years
December 28, 2020 / 6:57 AM / CBS/AP Saudi Arabia sentences women s rights activist to prison
Dubai, United Arab Emirates One of Saudi Arabia s most prominent women s rights activists was sentenced on Monday to nearly six years in prison under a vague and broadly-worded law aimed at combating terrorism, according to state-linked media. Loujain al-Hathloul s case as well as her imprisonment for the past two and a half years, have drawn criticism from rights groups, members of the U.S. Congress and European Union lawmakers.
Al-Hathloul was among a handful of Saudi women who openly called for the right to drive before it was granted in 2018 and for the removal of male guardianship laws that had long stifled women s freedom of movement and ability to travel abroad.
The reactions condemning the recent Arab moves of normalizing relations with Israel [all] omitted and disregarded one specific point, which had been [extensively] discussed [in other contexts], namely the vital needs of the normalizing countries. Few noted the fact that these countries and their peoples have problems of their own, [including] the danger posed by Iran and its expansionist tendencies; Morocco s [wish] to restore what it regards as its territorial integrity, and the removal of Sudan from the terror list, with all the economic implications this can have. These issues are by no means trivial. Even Lebanon, which has not normalized [its relations with Israel, held] direct negotiations with the Israelis on delineating the border [between the two countries], and explained this by noting the need to produce its own oil.
Israel is leveling up to join the race for quantum proficiency as leading countries, including in the European Union, seek.
Likud Knesset member and former Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat tweeted: “This is the eternal capital of the Jewish people, the capital of the State of Israel.”
Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff who currently heads the Blue and White Party, was also criticized by the Bithonistim, a group comprised of former military officials, which issued a statement calling on him to resign and retract his remarks.
“Gantz’s statements absolutely contradict Israel’s principles of security and have the potential to cause great harm to its security … In his remarks, Gantz gives up the most basic principle on which Israel was founded our ability to defend ourselves by ourselves, and instead calls for ‘security guarantees,’ in other words, that someone else will defend our security,” read a statement authored by three retired majors-general (Jerry Gershon, Gershon