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Choosing the top 5 of the most ludicrous claims, among stories such as the “Ghost of Kiev” and “the last stand of the Snake Island defenders”, or pickle jar air defenses and the “Goat of Kiev”, has been quite a laborious task.

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The post The Great Betrayal of June 8, 1967: Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty is Never Mentioned by the US Political Establishment and the Mainstream Media appeared first on Global Research.

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The post Video: Macron Faked Vax. French Politician of 20 Years Announces Vax Wrecked Heart and Government Fakery appeared first on Global Research.

Opposition lawmakers demand their MK be selected for powerful judicial appointments committee.

By TPS

The Israeli opposition has brought negotiations over judicial reform to a standstill until a June 15 Knesset vote to choose two members of parliament to serve on the Judicial Selection Committee.

Opposition officials say they froze the talks to ensure that one of the two slots reserved for Knesset members goes to their side.

Traditionally, the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee, which selects Israel’s judges, includes one coalition lawmaker and one opposition lawmaker. However, the opposition is concerned about reports that Justice Minister Yariv Levin wants to break with tradition and appoint two coalition members to ensure a majority for the government.

If the opposition doesn’t receive a seat on the committee, the temporary suspension of talks will turn into a permanent one, according to Hebrew media reports.

Yesh Atid, the largest opposition party with 24 MKs in the 120-seat Knesset, on Wednesday submitted its candidate for next week’s vote, choosing MK Karine Elharrar. She is the sole nominee for the opposition slot.

“In these days when democracy is under attack, the opposition stands together to defend the judicial system,” Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid said.

Elharrar stated, “As an opposition representative, I am committed to acting as a loyal ambassador for strengthening democratic values and the judicial system.”

National Unity leader Benny Gantz announced his party would not be submitting a candidate for the position. Labor Party chief Merav Michaeli followed Gantz’s move by announcing the withdrawal of MK Efrat Rayten as a candidate.

In addition to the two Knesset members, the committee consists of the justice minister, who serves as chairperson, another Cabinet minister, two members of the Bar Association, the president of the Supreme Court and two additional justices.

On Wednesday, Levin, a key architect of the coalition’s judicial reform program, criticized the process of selecting judges, saying that the current makeup of the committee is “inappropriate.”

“Many, many of the problems and injustices that we deal with come from the fact that our judicial system looks the way it looks, that the process of selecting judges is done in an inappropriate and unacceptable way—a committee with an unacceptable makeup, which is unsuitable and inappropriate in a democratic country,” Levin said from the Knesset rostrum.

The governing coalition’s judicial reforms are deeply controversial. Legislation advancing through the Knesset would primarily alter the way judges are appointed and removed, give the Knesset the ability to override certain High Court rulings, restrict the ability of judges to apply standards of “reasonableness,” and change the way legal advisors are appointed to government ministries.

Supporters of the legal overhaul say they want to end years of judicial overreach while opponents describe the proposals as anti-democratic.

The post Judicial reform negotiations frozen appeared first on World Israel News.

Gunfire in Lod narrowly misses a woman lying in bed, prompting National Security Minister to issue ultimatum to police.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israel Police took action in Lod overnight Thursday after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told a station commander at 2AM that he would come to the city himself if quiet was not restored, after fielding several panicked messages from Jewish residents who had been hearing gunfire near their homes for an hour, Israel National News reported Thursday.

One woman, Ofra Lax, had an even more frightening experience, as she told the minister that a bullet had just missed her.

He wrote back to the residents that he had demanded that forces be sent to the scene and that “if the shooting doesn’t calm down within the next few minutes, I intend to come to the city to inspect the situation from in the field and demand intensive action to fight the dangerous illegal weapons.”

The report said that a large force of officers arrived very shortly thereafter, made several arrests, and the gunfire ceased. The residents were very thankful, telling INN that Ben-Gvir has been very attentive to the ongoing issue of Arab violence in their mixed city since he entered his office.

“He listened to our distress and is doing everything he can to fix it. We have to restore the security in Lod,” they stressed.

Lax, a journalist for INN’s parallel newspaper, Besheva, expressed both gratitude for her near-miss and incredulity about the perilous situation that is the norm in her town.

“A great miracle happened to me tonight,” she wrote after the incident. “I decided to go to bed early. 10:00 p.m. in bed. The city is indeed shaking from gunshots, but I try to ignore it.”

Suddenly she felt a small shower of wood, she wrote, so she called her husband in, and they found the bullet, which had hit her nightstand, missing her by mere inches.

“How does this happen in a major city in Israel? How does it make sense that they shoot here every night? And the truth? Not only here. I’m holding my breath, waiting for something to change,” she added.

Ben-Gvir has visited the city several times since the government was formed and has firmly backed the residents’ call to restore governability in Lod, which has been a constant cry since violent Arab rioting took place there during Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021.

His answer is his country-wide plan to hire more than 3,200 police officers, raise salaries significantly to make the job more attractive, and establish a National Guard to augment the force in fighting crime as well as terrorism.

The budget for all this, he said in May, should come “in the next few months.”

Lod Mayor Yair Revivo wants a faster solution, saying Thursday, “If the Shin Bet law to deal with Arab crime is not passed immediately, I will call for the toppling of the government.”

The idea to use Israel’s internal security agency with all its intelligence and surveillance methods that are applied to prevent terrorist attacks in order to fight the upsurge in crime in the Arab sector, is a controversial one. It was first raised in 2021 by the previous government.

The post 2AM call: Police crackdown on Arab gunfire in central Israeli city after Ben-Gvir issues ultimatum appeared first on World Israel News.

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“We need to maintain cohesion and unity, that’s our strength,” says Likud MK Danny Danon. “None of us want the return of a left-wing government.”

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

As a deadline regarding a crucial aspect of judicial reform grows nearer and it’s unclear whether a compromise on the matter between coalition and opposition parties will be reached, rifts over next steps are emerging within the Likud party.

After passing the state budget at the end of May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that reforms to Israel’s judicial system were next on the agenda.

Since the current ruling coalition took office in December 2022, only one law regarding the reform has been passed – a bill that prevents the Attorney General from demanding that Netanyahu step down due to conflict of interest.

Hebrew-language media outlets have reported that Netanyahu is interested in reaching a compromise regarding potential changes to Israel’s legal system, and is not opposed to softening the language of many of the bills proposed for the overhaul.

However, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, along with other strong supporters of the reforms including Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar, have reportedly threatened to resign from the coalition should the reforms be frozen or passed in a weakened form.

“I suggest that everyone avoid making threats. I hear all kinds of ultimatums and threats: ‘We will bring down the coalition we will resign’. We are all in the same boat. It makes sense to keep the coalition together,” MK Danny Danon told Mako News.

“Not everyone is happy all the time, but when Ministers Levin and Zohar say constantly: ‘We will resign if one or two things don’t happen,’ it doesn’t help. We need to maintain cohesion and unity, that’s our strength. None of us want the return of a left-wing government.”

Beyond ideological issues, Netanyahu is also contending with power struggles within the party regarding appointments to committees.

According to a report, Levin is unhappy with Netanyahu’s choice for the head of a municipal committee within Likud. The report indicated that Levin has been pressuring the premier to install his choice of candidate instead.

“Netanyahu has never been in such a situation before,” a source in the Likud party, speaking anonymously, told Hebrew-language outlet Ma’ariv.

“If he gives in to the pressure, it will project serious weakness and harm his position in Likud and within the coalition.”

The post Netanyahu vs. Levin – Could Likud rift lead to resignations? appeared first on World Israel News.

Zelensky will appeal to the Swiss parliament for weapons on June 15.

Israel agrees to launch pilot program making it easier for Palestinian-Americans to enter the country – a condition for joining America’s visa waiver program.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israel has agreed to launch a pilot program in July that will ease Palestinian Americans’ entry to the country, in order to comply with one of the rules of the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP), The Times of Israel reported Thursday.

During the one-month trial, Arab Americans who claim Palestinian heritage can apply to the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) for a 90-day travel permit. They will then be allowed to enter Israel through Ben Gurion airport and travel freely in the country, including Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria.

White House officials expect the application process to be a quick one, with a response time of up to two days. They also want to see that the online application can handle “a critical mass” of requests, and that the travelers can use their permits without problems at Ben Gurion, the report said.

The idea, said the report, is for this authorization to eventually mimic the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) that travelers from VWP countries fill out to visit the U.S. This allows visitors to stay for up to three months as many times as they want over a two-year period, as long as they do not work illegally when in the country.

Estimates vary of how many Palestinian Americans there are, with numbers ranging as high as 400,000, and according to the Public Religion Research Institute there are some 3.7 million Muslim Americans. These two groups have complained for years of Israeli discrimination and rejection of entry requests, particularly to the Palestinian Authority.

Most use the Allenby Crossing from Jordan, which adds time and expense to their journey. U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides pressed Israel for over a year to open the crossing 24/7 in order to ease travel in both directions. In April, Israel went to a 24/5 format, closing the border point on Fridays and Saturdays at 3:30PM.

Israel is open about its use of profiling at its borders, saying its sole aim is to help prevent terror attacks. But one of the mainstays of the VWP is reciprocity – if Israelis can enter the U.S. no matter their religion, race, or ethnic heritage, then the same rule must be applied to Americans coming to Israel.

A group of 15 U.S. senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month urging that Israel be specifically held to this commitment in order for it to be approved for the VWP.

Nides held a call Tuesday with a group of Arab American organizations about their concerns regarding the VWP, said the report. One of them said that there was little to distinguish the new program from the one currently in place, as COGAT is now the address for entry permit requests.

“[Nides] talked about ‘snapbacks,’ but we all know that once Israel is admitted [to the VWP], no US administration is going to remove Israel if it violates the conditions,” the representative said.

Arab American Institute President James Zogby was also not satisfied with the pilot, saying that limiting it to Ben Gurion airport will not help prove that Arab Americans will not face discrimination at other checkpoints when trying to visit Israel.

“The problem is every port of entry and exit. It doesn’t do you much good to get in if you then are humiliated at every step along the way once you’re in,” Zogby said. “I’m still not convinced that there’s a clear enough understanding on the part of everybody involved in this process.”

The post Israel to ease entry for Palestinian-Americans in bid to join US visa waiver program appeared first on World Israel News.