Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Antoine Shalhat
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Are Israeli-American relations losing their special status?
The phone call between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two nights ago, was described by most Israeli media outlets as favourable, particularly regarding the Iranian issue. It did not, however, dispel the prevailing impression in Israel that there is a negative change in America’s Middle…
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Why didn’t Israel win in Gaza?
Several Israeli analyses agree that Israel did not win its war on the Gaza Strip. What it did achieve, though, was the extermination of the people and the complete destruction of most of the enclave. Some of them suggest that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers issue strongly-worded statements,…
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What remains of the Oslo ‘peace’?
These days mark the 30th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to former Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, his Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, for signing the Oslo Accords, which was described at the time as a “peace agreement” between Israel and the…
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Netanyahu and his bet on Trump
It seems that the repercussions of the debate recently held between current US President Joe Biden and his rival, former US President Donald Trump, which caused a crisis for the former, fuelled a campaign led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the current US administration, and aims, among other…
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Israel’s benefits from the Russian war
Although Israel appears, in its position on the Russian war on Ukraine, as if it is a free player in choosing a certain neutral policy, as well as in changing and altering it sometimes, a closer look shows that this policy is mainly based on the benefit of the occupation…
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Israeli politics is full of military connections
There is an unprecedented increase in the number of political parties in Israel in the run up to the next General Election in March. This will be the fourth election in less than two years. Perhaps the most prominent of these parties is Kahol Laffan founded by the Mayor of…
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If Europe really wants influence in Israel-Palestine, it needs a new approach
As US President-elect Joe Biden waits to take office on 20 January, Israel is looking at turning over a new page in what it calls the transatlantic relations network. The US, meanwhile, is expected to coordinate its positions with the EU on a series of issues that will shape the…
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Towards another Israeli election among the right-wing
Israel is heading towards a fourth general election in less than two years, coinciding with another confirmed fact that the competition in this election will be between the components of the Israeli right-wing. The elections will be held against a single backdrop: the opposition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued…
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Racism in Israel isn’t going away, it’s getting worse
The racism that appears to be inherent within the state of Israel isn’t going away, it’s getting worse. Although Palestinian Arabs are its main targets, others are also affected. This was implied recently by the former MK of Russian origin, Ksenia Svetlova. In an interview with Haaretz when her book…
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The annexation in the controversy of the Israeli right
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed during the Likud meeting in the Knesset on 25 May that he does not intend to change the date set for annexing the Jordan Valley and settlements in the occupied West Bank in Israel. The date was set for early July. He mentioned that…
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Arab representation in the Knesset and its limitations
There is a lot of talk about the efforts to form a new government in Israel and the bitter confrontation between the rival Likud and Blue and White blocs over the need for it to be based on a Jewish majority. The parties are conscious of the growing strength of…
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Netanyahu’s message to the world
The statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the visit of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to Israel this week, as well as the statements he made shortly after President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, represent the most explicit expression of his current…
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Not only a racist rabbi, but a racist state
I have regularly written about the implications of the followers of murdered Rabbi Meir Kahane forming an official Israeli party called the Jewish Power party. This is a party that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently sought to include in the Jewish Home right-wing coalition consisting of Zionist religious…
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Shattering the myth of Rabin as the ‘man of peace’
Every year, to coincide with the Israeli Labour Party’s commemoration of the anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (November 4, 1995), we hear voices claiming that this assassination killed the “peace” he was aspiring to achieve. Within these voices one can find one or a couple…