Daniel Imperato – Official Website
Daniel Imperato For President 2024
All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.
To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.
Click the share button above to email/forward this article …
The post Eye Witness Crimea appeared first on Global Research.
All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.
To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.
Click the share button above to email/forward this article …
The post Charter Schools Are Not State Actors appeared first on Global Research.
An Asiana Airlines official said a man in his 30s, sitting in the emergency seat, appeared to have opened the airplane door while the plane was approximately 700 feet above the ground and a few minutes away from landing, as reported by CNN.
Despite this, the aircraft landed safely, but the man was still apprehended at the Daegu Airport on Friday. The man told the police he had been under a lot of stress due to losing his job recently and feeling suffocated, and he wanted to get off the plane quickly.
South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport issued a statement in which they mentioned that the police and the ministry were investigating an individual for violation of aviation law, which would entail a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
Twelve people were reported to have suffered minor injuries due to hyperventilation, and nine had been taken to local hospitals.
The aircraft, identified as an Airbus 321 was on its journey from Jeju island, south of South Korea’s coast, to Daegu.
Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas of Airline Ratings expressed his amazement to CNN, dubbing the incident “very bizarre.” He pointed out that it would be almost impossible to open the door in-flight. That the winds at the landing speed of about 172 mph would be too strong to open against the airstream.
However, Asiana Airlines informed the outlet that the door could be opened when the aircraft was low and close to landing.
All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.
To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.
Click the share button above to email/forward this article …
The post Will The Covid “Operation Warp Speed” stop Trump’s presidential bid? appeared first on Global Research.
An electoral poster hangs for EH Bildu on May 26, 2023 in San Sebastián, Spain. (Unanue / Europa Press via Getty Images)
Spain’s local election campaign ends today, and politicians of all stripes have had just one party’s name on their lips: Euskal Herria Bildu (EH Bildu).
A left-nationalist party in the Basque Country, EH Bildu has been at the center of a storm whipped up by the conservative Partido Popular and its far-right ally Vox. The two parties have decided to throw everything at a scaremongering offensive about EH Bildu’s list of local candidates, forty-four of whom (out of almost 4,500) have served prison sentences for crimes related to the activities of Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA), the armed-struggle organization that long fought for Basque independence.
ETA laid down its arms over a decade ago and ceased to exist in 2018. But resurrecting its ghost is a political attack aimed not just at EH Bildu, but primarily at Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez. Since January 2020 his Socialist Party (PSOE) has led Spain in a coalition with left-wing Unidas Podemos, but their administration has also relied on EH Bildu’s votes to pass key legislation. This is the pretext for furious frothing at the mouth from Spain’s post-fascist right wing: their debate during this campaign has centered on whether EH Bildu — the second-largest party in the Basque Parliament — should be made illegal.
Most of the forty-four candidates concerned were convicted for purely political activities. Yet faced with this storm of criticism, seven who served sentences for crimes that caused harm to people announced that they would withdraw from the election, as a gesture toward EH Bildu’s commitment to “exclusively political and democratic means.”
This isn’t just a fight about the past, or even the national question, but the housing issues at the center of the local election campaign. In April, Sánchez’s government passed a new housing law with EH Bildu’s support, which includes a 2 percent rent cap this year and 3 percent next year in “rent stressed” areas, but it is up to regional governments across the country to decide whether to implement it. So far, the centrist Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the bigger partner in the Basque administration alongside PSOE, has refused to do so, despite the Basque Autonomous Community being among the most expensive regions for rent.
The city of San Sebastián (Donostia, in the Basque language) is particularly unaffordable. Indeed, it has the highest house prices in Spain, at €5,191 per square meter, which is over €1,000 per square meter more than the next-most expensive city, Barcelona. The tourist hot spot, which boasts a long stretch of beach in the town center and attracts global movie stars to its film festival each year, is also a landlords’ paradise and has been dubbed “a city for the rich.”
For residents — and the thousands of young people who have been pushed out of the city in recent years by the forces of gentrification — the housing crisis, mass tourism, and the cost of living are at the top of the agenda in the local election campaign.
EH Bildu’s candidate for mayor of San Sebastián is Juan Karlos Izagirre, a doctor who already served in this post from 2011 to 2015. He spoke to Jacobin’s Benjamin Wray about what it will take to make San Sebastián a livable city again.
Ben Wray
Nagua Alba, former general secretary of Podemos Euskadi (i.e. Podemos’s affiliate in the Basque Country) said in an article supporting your candidacy that she fears that San Sebastián is becoming like Venice, where residents are completely marginalized. Eneko Goia, the current PNV mayor of San Sebastián, has said that is a “ridiculous” comparison, because unlike Venice the number of residents in San Sebastián is still growing. Who is right?
Juan Karlos Izagirre
San Sebastián, in terms of size, isn’t Venice, but we’re seeing a phenomenon common in other tourist cities, where housing is moving from mass residential use to other uses that have nothing to do with housing, but more to do with the profit that can be obtained by using it for other services.
In San Sebastián, the gentrification effect is already real. There are neighborhoods, such as Gros and the center, where 20 to 25 percent of the population has had to move.
For us, politically, a city has to be built on neighborhoods in which the people who live there are people who are rooted in their neighborhood, who feel part of their neighborhood, who are proud to be from that neighborhood. Little by little, flats are being emptied and these flats are being used either for speculation or as tourist flats.
So, the dimensions are not the same as in Venice, but the tendency is the same as in Venice, Barcelona, and other tourist cities in Europe.
Ben Wray
Mass tourism is notorious for being dominated by big multinationals, with very low pay and precarious conditions, and is carbon intensive. Is another tourism possible, or is mass tourism inherently tied to neoliberal globalization?
Juan Karlos Izagirre
EH Bildu is accused of being against tourism, and that isn’t true. We are tourists; we like to get to know other cultures. We think that tourists who come to San Sebastián should be well looked after, and then when they go back home they will speak well of us and our culture.
“Sustainable tourism” — which everyone is talking about — means that tourist growth should never come at the cost of damaging the urban environment or the people who live there. At the moment there are some neighborhoods where residents feel that they have been hurt, because basic services have been reduced, because the facilities do not respond to their needs but to tourist demand.
San Sebastián, in terms of size, isn’t Venice, but we’re seeing a phenomenon common in other tourist cities, where housing is moving from residential use to other uses that have nothing to do with that.
We do think that it is possible to create sustainable tourism, which is what has not been done in recent years. How do we change this? We think that we have to identify the under-stress neighborhoods, and we have to make concrete policies so that those who live there regain their sense of belonging and are well cared for. That means making a series of investments in facilities and services for residents.
The measures we need include not building any more hotels for the moment. We want an in-depth study of how much tourist load each neighborhood can bear. There are areas that can no longer support more, but there are others that can. In the meantime, a moratorium; no more hotels.
And then, in the past seven or eight years, San Sebastián city hall has also done something harmful, which is the growth of the tourist flats. When I was mayor, tourist flats were limited to the first floor; now you can use any floor of a residential apartment. The problems multiply, so we think that we have to recover the first-floor policy, and we also have to put a horizontal limitation: there must be a minimum number of meters between one tourist flat and the next. There are now streets in San Sebastián where all the doorways have tourist flats.
Next, there must also be a review of the licenses granted. There are vulture funds that have applied for a tourist flat license and they do not even intend to provide tourist flats. They know that with this license, the price of the flat is inflated.
Another measure is to address the influx of people into certain public places in San Sebastián, which is massive at the moment. We think that groups of tourists who go with tour guides can be regulated, so that they have a maximum number of participants and that there is a maximum number of tours per day.
Also, for us it is very important that the information offered by the tour guides is regulated, because we have detected that the information offered has nothing to do with the history or the culture of our town. They make up all sorts of things!
Finally, we think that the tourist offer is currently centered on two or three neighborhoods, and it focuses a lot on the pintxos (tapas) and gastronomy. This is nice and should continue to be offered, but San Sebastián has other attractive places people should see, too.
It is possible to have sustainable tourism, because the Donostiarra (people from San Sebastián) don’t mind that people come and see the city; the problem is the tourists who come occupy the houses where they were living, and they have to go to another neighborhood. Or, locals want to access their home and can’t because there are tourists that invade the doorway. They don’t want these things, so we have to make sure that both parties are comfortable.
It can be done. When I was mayor from 2011 to 2015 it was very difficult, but we brought together the hotel and catering sector with the residents of the old part of the city to draw up regulations for the terraces. It was a horrible job, because everyone was defending their own positions, but we managed to reach a consensus.
In San Sebastián, the gentrification effect is real. There are neighborhoods, such as Gros and the center, where 20 to25 percent of the population has had to move.
It is an example of how things can be done that are not just in favor of big business, because normally the regulations are organized in the interests of the hotel and catering sector.
Ben Wray
Tourist flats are big business. One analysis found that landlords charge three times as much in San Sebastián for a tourist flat than for private rental accommodation, and private rents are the second most expensive in Spain. How can rents be controlled?
Juan Karlos Izagirre
What we have realized is that the vulture funds cannot be given a free hand. What they have done here is to buy entire buildings from one day to the next, and then raise the rent by 50 percent. People can’t pay; they leave, and then the funds make a hotel or tourist flats out of that building, or they leave it there in reserve to speculate and raise the price. This has to be stopped.
There’s different ways of doing that. There is a law from 2015, from the Basque Parliament, that allowed, for example, that if the property remained empty for more than two years, you could force it to move to the normal residential market, so that it cannot be used as a tourist flat. This has not been applied in San Sebastián, but it can be applied and we would do so.
Also, the Spanish Parliament has just passed a housing law that allows for price caps. That is, if a fund or someone buys a flat, they can’t tell the tenant, “Well, I’m going to raise it by 50 percent.” If this law was applied to the whole of San Sebastián, the rent rise has to be a maximum of 2 percent, the following year it will be 3 percent, and from then on it will never be higher than the inflation rate. And on top of that, if you put a new building up for rent, you can apply a reference price. That is, the price is set by the administration, not by the owner. And you can, in addition, use taxation to incentivize if the price is lower, or penalize if the price is higher.
Then, it is also important to build new housing, but it must be public rental housing, and there are good examples like in Vienna, where half of all housing stock is public housing. The vulture funds are also coming into Vienna, but the price of rent is determined more by the public sector, because the government owns half of the dwellings. In San Sebastián, public housing is currently less than 2 percent of all dwellings.
Additionally, the public rental housing needs to be in different tranches. That is to say, there is public housing of €200 per month in San Sebastián for people who have very few resources, but we also have to consider public rental housing at prices of €700–800 for people who have more income, but who cannot afford to pay €1,500. We have to open up the range of public housing. We do this by buying housing that already exists, which is very expensive, or building new housing, but with the objective that it has to be public.
If that were all to happen, it would not be so easy for the vulture funds, because they can have a flat for rent for €2,000, but if you are offering the people of San Sebastián rents for €700–800, who is going to go to the vulture funds?
Ben Wray
The housing crisis in San Sebastián didn’t start yesterday. You were mayor from 2011 to 2015. How do you reflect on your time in office? Could you have done more?
Juan Karlos Izagirre
We took the mayoralty in 2011, which was a big surprise. We did not expect it. The first problem was that there was a very serious economic crisis that affected our work. To give you an idea: the budgets in 2012–2015 were 25 percent lower than they had been in 2009–2011. In that context, we were quite limited.
Then, it was a period in which we were cornered politically and in the media. If stones came up on the beach, it looked like we had thrown them there. Politically, everything we did was negative; we were under a lot of pressure and we had to work hard to get out of it alive.
In the meantime, there was the peace process here. At the international level, a lot of work was done because the abertzale left [Basque left-nationalist movement] was outlawed, and it was up to us to do a job that a mayor’s office should not have to do.
In this context, what we did was to make a commitment to two neighborhoods in particular, which are those crossed by the Urumea River, which suffered major flooding and where people were left homeless and without premises. We made a commitment to invest to prevent further flooding, to rehabilitate the neighborhood, and to take advantage of this to build public housing.
The most important public housing development in the whole of the southern Basque Country — which includes the Basque Autonomous Community and Nafarroa (Navarre) — in those years was the one planned by us in 2011–2015, and that is still happening now.
How did we do it? We thought that in order to get public housing it is important that you have land. So, we spent these four years acquiring land. Sometimes expropriating, sometimes buying.
We spent practically 50 percent of the investment we made in those four years — in which we had little money — to buy land. We planned development, and 72 percent of the social housing is for rent. We gave two plots to the Basque government, and we kept one for San Sebastián. And on our plot, 100 percent of the housing that has been built, all of it, was subsidized and rented.
Our commitment was clear, we were economically limited, we were under a lot of political and media pressure, but even so we made an important contribution.
Ben Wray
Do you think there is something distinctive about the approach of the abertzale left to questions of urbanism?
Juan Karlos Izagirre
Of course, we have a different way of thinking. The PNV, which now governs most of the institutions in the Basque Country, thinks very differently. Its model is to use housing for economic profitability. In general, its housing developments are in the private sector, with higher prices, and there is a big economic benefit for the companies involved.
The model that has been built in recent years is taking citizens away from their neighborhoods and their city.
We believe that this shouldn’t be the case. If you build housing, the objective has to be to respond to the right to housing of the people who live in your city.
So, there are two different models, and we do agree on this with Podemos and all of the Spanish left, and indeed the Left across Europe.
Ben Wray
There is a protest taking place as we speak called “Donostia is not for sale — for a sustainable city.” There has been important movements that have developed in European cities in recent years to defend the right to the city. Is such a movement important to the politics of EH Bildu?
Juan Karlos Izagirre
This is fundamental. EH Bildu’s way of doing politics is to be in the institutions, yes, but we are also on the street.
Today [May 21] EH Bildu is also represented at this demonstration because we agree with what the demonstrators are saying: that the model that has been built in recent years is taking citizens away from their neighborhoods and their city. And we are committed to another model of the city, in which citizens feel at home in their own neighborhood and feel part of their own neighborhood.
So, of course this matters to us. For example, when the 2011 floods came and we decided to prioritize interventions around the river, and in the new neighborhood of Txomin, with public housing, we didn’t do it ourselves from an office. In the first meeting we had with all the government institutions we said to them: “The residents who live next to the river are missing from here.”
After that, there were always residents represented. They took the decisions together with the rest of the institutions, who brought us direct information, and they relayed back to their neighborhoods the information about the decisions that were being made. That is participation. That is having the people organized, and opening the door for them to be in the places where decisions are made.
Today there’s a lot of talk about participation, but little is done about it. We believe in participation, and that is why popular movements are very important; the more organized they are, the better. I defend well-organized popular movements and well-organized neighborhoods everywhere.
I even told the current, right-wing mayor: “This is a very important tool if you want to govern well. You don’t have to be afraid of them.” Because the right wing is afraid of the popular movement, the right wing is afraid of the organization of a neighborhood. And that’s a mistake, because if you want the decisions that are taken to be shared and to be accepted, and you already have grassroots organization, take advantage of it, because it’s a gem.
So, of course the popular movements have to have their influence. They even have to be in the decision-making bodies so that the city functions better. And those who are demonstrating today, well, we are with them in the streets now, but when we are in the institutions, they will be in the institutions with us. We will open our doors to them.
Supporters wave flags during a rally for the Green Left Party (YSP) in Diyarbakir, Turkey, May 13, 2023. (Mehmet Masum Suer / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images)
Turkey’s elections this May 14 were widely considered the most important in the country’s recent history. At stake was not only the future composition of the parliament, but a decision on the country’s political system and the legacy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s two decades in power. After an unusually short election campaign marked by repression and state censorship, voter turnout was nevertheless close to 90 percent.
President Erdoğan’s main opponent was Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). He campaigned on the defense of democratic norms such as the separation of powers, and a return to the rule of law and a parliamentary system. Yet, he fell short of predictions, with his 44.9 percent of the vote placing him substantially behind Erdoğan, who scored 49.5 percent. The incumbent thus goes into today’s runoff vote with every chance of victory.
The result was even clearer in the parliamentary election, where the People’s Alliance — a coalition of Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and far-right nationalist and religious parties — won an outright majority. By contrast, the progressive Alliance for Labor and Justice, led by the Green Left Party (YSP), took just 10 percent. It had run in the election in place of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which would have been threatened with exclusion if it had stood under its own name.
But even though Erdoğan’s result was better than expected, his failure to reach the 50 percent mark means that the Turkish opposition still has a chance to topple him today. What does this mean for socialist parties? Perihan Koca is a leading member of the Social Freedom Party (TÖP), elected as a member of parliament for the southern province of Mersin on YSP’s list. She spoke to Jacobin’s Max Zirngast about the left alliance’s position on the runoff and prospects for the Left in the period to come — with or without Erdoğan as president.
Max Zirngast
First, we would like to hear your assessment of the election results. What is your assessment of the parliamentary result, and what opinion is emerging in light of the presidential vote?
Perihan Koca
First of all, we must note that like all recent elections in Turkey, these were not free and fair elections. Apart from the already unfair distribution of opportunities and resources available to those forces already in control of the state apparatus, there was also the fact that the HDP had to campaign under a different name due to the threat of a party ban. Besides this, there were also numerous irregularities reported on election day at polling locations. Many objections have been lodged, and appeals have been made to repeat the election.
The reality is this: there will be no remotely free and fair elections under the existing administration. At the same time, these irregularities can’t blind us to the fact that the despotic government still has support within the population.
Turkey’s neoliberal capitalist model of accumulation has been in a deep crisis for years, stoking conflicts and contradictions among different factions of the state apparatus and sectors of capital.
If we base our analysis on the official results, we see that the vote for Erdoğan’s AKP has dropped by 7 percent since the 2018 elections. There are two reasons for this: the economic crisis and the impact of the February 6 earthquake. According to recent data, eighteen million out of the total eighty-five million people in our country live below the poverty line. Inflation and especially the cost of food have reached staggering proportions, and unemployment is rampant, especially among young people. Turkey’s neoliberal capitalist model of accumulation has been in a deep crisis for years, stoking conflicts and contradictions among different factions of the state apparatus and sectors of capital. These clashes are precisely what led to the AKP’s setbacks.
But at the same time, the wearing down of the government by these disasters and conflicts has not directly translated into a political shift in favor of democratic forces or the socialist left. The crisis of the socialist left is ongoing, which can lead the people’s anger and frustration to be channeled in a fascist direction. I deliberately say “can” because there is no fully consolidated fascism in Turkey yet.
Max Zirngast
What do you make of the Right’s performance in these elections?
Perihan Koca
While in recent years we have focused primarily on the growing fascistic tendencies of Erdoğan’s reactionary conservative administration, various Turkish nationalist and fascist groups with much older origins have also made gains in this election. They total about 25 percent, but their vote is spread across several parties and even across the various coalitions that make up the government, as well as the bourgeois opposition. Currently they are divided and cannot harness the appearance of strength that unity might bring them. But it remains possible that through further economic and political crises and their relative electoral success, the Turkish nationalist groups could unite into a single movement.
Many people expected that Erdoğan would be significantly weakened by this presidential election. But he received 49.5 percent of the vote. How he managed this is still not entirely clear. If he had received just half a percentage point more he would have been reelected in the first round. It was assumed that Kılıçdaroğlu, the candidate of the bourgeois-democratic opposition, would come out ahead at least in the first round. This was also what most pollsters indicated.
On election night, a real psychological-political war broke out over who would gain the moral high ground and win the battle to interpret the meaning of the results. However, it is obvious that a whole series of negotiations took place between many different parties and factions of the state on election night and the following days. Opposition forces like us, of course, were not invited to the table in these negotiations.
As we face the second round, we must ensure that as many people as possible go to the polls and vote for the opposition candidate, despite his myriad of shortcomings and his recent further arrangement with an ultranationalist-racist fringe party. But it is also crucial that the Left strengthens its programmatic and organizational independence and prepares itself for the coming period.
Max Zirngast
You ran as the Alliance for Labor and Freedom. The YSP lists also included socialist candidates from other parties. The Workers’ Party of Turkey (TIP) ran in many places with its own list in the alliance. How do you evaluate the work of the alliance?
Perihan Koca
Our alliance clearly performed below its potential. It is a result that we must discuss and evaluate collectively. Still, 10 percent of the vote is not nothing and will give us the opportunity to represent the burning concerns of the people in parliament. We will be the voice of the people in parliament — the political arena of the ruling class — alongside many of our socialist and democratic comrades. Ultimately, we will not abandon the people.
We have left behind the debate about the TIP contesting the elections with its own candidates under the umbrella of our alliance. There was much debate about it, but we are leaving it in the past. Of course, we let the party know that we thought that its desire to run under its own name is legitimate, but effectively took the wrong form. But ultimately this is not a debate we should continue to dwell on, and it would be good if all the alliance partners restrained themselves in the future. We are glad that four TIP deputies will enter the parliament and we will fight together with them.
Our aim as an alliance was to get one hundred deputies into the six-hundred-member parliament. It was a lofty goal, but certainly not unattainable. The prospects for us did not seem bad. But the short campaign period and problems arising from alliance’s internal conflicts meant that we fell short of our potential.
Max Zirngast
The presidential election is now entering its second round. What is the strategy of the Alliance for Labor and Freedom and your party, TÖP?
Perihan Koca
As an alliance, we did not run a presidential candidate. We have openly called for people to vote for Kılıçdaroğlu. We have made the tactical decision to support the bourgeois candidate, for the restoration of democratic norms, in order to defeat Erdoğan in this election. Although we are not on the same side on many issues, and in terms of class politics he is certainly not our friend, extraordinary circumstances call for strategic decision-making.
Could we have called for a boycott of the election? The defeat of Erdoğan’s government is crucial for the working class and the peoples of Turkey. In light of our sense of political responsibility and our evaluation of the current balance of power, we could not consider a boycott the right thing to do, and supported Kılıçdaroğlu. Of course, we will maintain this position in the second round.
It would not be a revolutionary stance given the current situation to raise hopes among people that elections will take us very far. Kılıçdaroğlu will have an even more difficult time in the second round, and his additional second-round alliance with nationalist forces distances him even further from our positions. Nevertheless, we are still calling for people to vote for him in the runoff, because the main goal is to defeat Erdoğan.
It is important to note that an electoral defeat would also not be the end of the world. We will explain this to the people as well. The real struggle is in the streets, in our communities, and in our workplaces. And it is precisely this struggle that we must push even harder in the coming period, no matter what the political balance of power in parliament and the institutions looks like. But this does not mean that we underestimate the possibilities of political representation in bourgeois institutions, and as a deputy I will try to do everything I can not only to represent the interests of the people, but also to strengthen their self-organization.
It is important to note that an electoral defeat would also not be the end of the world. The real struggle is in the streets, in our communities, and in our workplaces.
Max Zirngast
You were elected as a deputy in Mersin. What was the election campaign like on the ground?
Perihan Koca
Mersin is one of the cities in Turkey with a large working-class population based in industrial, port, and agricultural areas, and a large service sector. It is the eleventh-largest city in the country. In addition, the population tends to be very young, and there has been ongoing migration from Kurdish regions for years. In addition, Alevis (a significant religious minority in Turkey) make up an important part of the local population.
This overall picture makes Mersin a very important city for socialists. During our campaign, we had frequent contact with rural workers, and with workers in industrial areas, in the port, and in the service sector. We went to Kurdish and Alevi neighborhoods. We met with women and with young people. I can say from the bottom of my heart: these meetings constantly boosted our motivation and morale. We drew strength from these meetings. All parts of the population had high hopes. We saw firsthand how these crises have made their lives a living hell. But we also felt the anger and the will to exact change, and we will continue to do everything we can to be the voice of that change.
Max Zirngast
What will your strategy be as a congresswoman? What issues will you emphasize and what are your goals?
Perihan Koca
The political strategy of the Social Freedom Party is based on the idea that Turkey needs a democratic republic. We believe that a thorough democratic transformation — which the Turkish bourgeoisie has repeatedly neglected and ultimately left unfinished — can only be realized by a political force supported by the working class and the oppressed.
The way we see it, the Turkish state is a despotic bourgeois state that emerged as a restoration of the Ottoman state. In place of this state, we advocate for the power of the councils, that is, direct democratic-participatory bodies of the people.
On the way to this goal we support the reforms demanded by recent social struggles — reduction of working hours, freedom of organization, freedom of expression, the right to strike, the prohibition of lockouts, equal rights for women, as well as various struggles against the ecological crisis and the capitalist hyper-exploitation of nature, the enforcement of an effective children’s rights policy, the constitutional guarantee of all the existential rights of the Kurds, the enforcement of secularism worthy of the name, among other policies.
We advocate the creation of a new a popular constitution that can guarantee these rights and reforms. This constitution would mean a real shift in the balance of power between capital and labor and give people the opportunity to develop, self-organize, and more effectively promote their interests. We believe it will advance the struggle for socialism. This kind of change can’t just be rhetorical; we also need material change.
We will use our voice in parliament to strengthen the organization of the working class and the oppressed, and to represent the concerns and demands of the people.
Judicial reform not mentioned in the prime minister’s overview of the government’s agenda.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Getting prices down for the Israeli consumer is now the government’s first priority, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting.
“We have passed the budget and this is an important step for stability,” Netanyahu said. “I have put forward a proposal for forming a ministerial committee to fight the high cost of living [and] I will chair the committee. I demand a schedule and a plan. The fight against the cost of living is our top priority. By working together we will succeed in lowering [it].”
In an Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) survey earlier this month, the high cost of living topped the respondents’ list of concerns by far, with 31% saying it worried them most. This was far more than the issues of judicial reform and personal security (15%), which have taken up most of the media chatter in the last several months. Over a quarter, 26% said they have “given up foodstuffs or other basic products,” over the past year due to economic hardship, and 12% had even cut back on education or health expenditures.
Most Israelis (60%) blamed the government for the situation, as food prices have shot up, including basics like bread, milk, chicken and vegetables, as well as utilities. The Bank of Israel has also steadily hiked interest rates to the highest it has been in 17 years in an attempt to fight rising inflation, which has added many hundreds of shekels to home-owners’ mortgage payments per month.
When campaigning before the elections that brought him back to power, Netanyahu had slammed the previous government’s supposedly weak response to higher costs and vowed in January after he won that “the first thing we are dealing with is the cost of living.”
A major effort to reduce the market control of big Israeli suppliers and thereby lower prices was deleted from the Economic Arrangements bill before it was passed last week. This was a clause requiring that the major food and pharmaceutical suppliers could only work with one “large manufacturer,” instead of many, which enabled them to corner the market on many types of products at once.
This is because the ten largest local suppliers from overseas producers are responsible for 53% of the products sold in supermarkets and pharmacy chains, Calcalist reported in January, so they can basically set the prices for the retailers.
The largest local marketing chains are also making good money off the Israeli consumer all by themselves, and the now-defunct proposal didn’t even address that issue. For example, supermarkets that fill their shelves with their own brand of products would not have been considered a supplier for the purpose of the law.
In a nod to this reality, 27% of those the IDI surveyed blamed Israel’s large monopolies rather than the government for their worse economic state.
It is common knowledge that Israelis pay some of the highest prices in the OECD for food and pharmaceuticals.
The post Lowering cost of living is the government’s top priority, says PM appeared first on World Israel News.
The armored personnel carriers can carry 12 men, drive at 90 kph and be in operational use for days at a time.
By JNS
Nahal Brigade infantry soldiers drilled on Sunday for the first time ever with Eitan APCs, simulating combat scenarios in northern Israel.
“After several years of hard work in developing, testing, and manufacturing, the first serial production Eitan APCs have been delivered to the esteemed Nahal infantry brigade,” said Brig. Gen. Oren Giber, head of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Tank and APC Directorate.
“The Eitan constitutes a groundbreaking leap forward in the field of wheeled combat vehicles and is the first of its kind in the IDF. It offers a unique set of capabilities, including superior mobility and survivability for our fighting forces. It has the capability to fight alongside the Merkava Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) and Namer Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs),” he added.
This milestone achievement is the result of collaborative efforts across numerous industries, most of them domestic and some international, making it an exciting program,” Giber said.
The Eitan Armored Personnel Carrier has eight wheels, can carry 12 combat personnel, and is based on Merkava and Namer technologies. The 750-horsepower Eitan APC can drive at around 90 kilometers per hour, has high all-terrain maneuvering capabilities and can be in operational use for days at a time.
Tank and APC Directorate engineers developed the APC incorporating state-of-the-art technologies such as peripheral cameras equipped with day and night vision, front calculation and processing capabilities using computerized technology, and touch monitors and processors.
“We are humbled and immensely proud to operationalize the first Eitan company in the Nahal infantry brigade. We recognize that each Eitan delivered to the IDF will replace older M113 vehicles, ensuring that our combat soldiers are equipped with state-of-the-art, highly protected and capable weapon systems, assisting them in securing victory on the battlefield and ensuring their safe return home,” said Giber.
Said Col. Oren Simcha, commander of the Nahal Brigade: “The Nahal Brigade is proud to be the first in the IDF to receive the Eitan APC—a tool that will transform the brigade and allow us to become more operational, independent and protected.
“We understand the weight of this responsibility and the professional challenge involved in adopting this tool and thank the hundreds of professionals who took part in the planning, development, production and implementation of the Eitan APC.”
The post IDF inaugurates next-gen Eitan APCs appeared first on World Israel News.
Biden administration reportedly dangles offer of streamlined Saudi normalization, White House visit in exchange for Netanyahu shelving legislation aimed at limiting foreign funding to NGOs in Israel.
By Adina Katz, World Israel News
The Biden administration promised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a long-awaited invitation to visit the White House in exchange for his agreement to shelve a bill which would limit foreign funding to NGOs operating in Israel, Hebrew language media reported on Sunday.
The bill, which would see nonprofit organizations in Israel subject to new financial requirements such as paying a 65 percent tax on funding coming from foreign donors, sparked major backlash from the U.S. and Europe.
Netanyahu’s Likud party has promoted the bill as critical for minimizing foreign interference in Israel’s domestic affairs, and the legislation’s backers have noted numerous incidents in which NGOs purporting to promote human rights have served as smokescreens for terror.
But according to a report from Army Radio, Netanyahu is willing to freeze the bill in order to secure a face-to-face meeting with President Joe Biden in Washington D.C.
As an additional incentive for dropping the bill, the U.S. has also reportedly floated its assistance in streamlining a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Biden has long taken an icy approach towards diplomatic relations with Netanyahu, failing to phone the premier for more than a month after taking office in January 2021.
The president has also resisted inviting Netanyahu to visit the White House, much to the premier’s chagrin.
Biden told American media that the snub was a consequence for Netanyahu’s support for potential reforms to Israel’s judicial system, stating he was “very concerned” over the legislation.
It’s unclear when Netanyahu will visit the White House, or if a formal invitation has been issued.
Speaking to Ynet on Sunday morning, Likud MK Nissim Vaturi said the NGO law was critical to ensure that foreign governments and interests cannot affect Israeli domestic policy.
“We don’t need people from the outside to preach to us,” Vaturi said. “[Foreign funding to Israeli NGOs] is a loophole for anti-Israeli causes, and I am not in favor of us folding [and shelving the bill] because of international pressure.”
The post Biden demands Israel drop NGO bill in exchange for White House invite, Saudi peace deal appeared first on World Israel News.