Politics – October 2021 – In memory of Neal Matthew Sher 1947-2021
Israel should do whatever it can to bring home Avraham Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed as well as the remains of Hadar Golden and Shaul Aaron.
It is no less than state duty and, of course, the just and decent thing to do.
I was pleased to read on The Jerusalem Post that “Significant progress” has been made toward reaching a prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas. According to unnamed sources, the progress was achieved after Israel reportedly made “a concession” regarding Palestinian security prisoners serving life terms in Israeli prisons. Senior Hamas official Zaher Jabarin said that his group has presented mediators with a proposal for a possible prisoner exchange. Jabarin said that Hamas is demanding that Israel release all the prisoners who were re-arrested after they were freed in the 2011 Gilad Schalit prisoner swap. Dozens of ex-prisoners who were released in the Schalit deal have been re-arrested by Israel.
I also wish to note the end of an era as Angela Dorothea Merkel completed 16 years in office and leaves the world leadership scene.
Ms Merkel is a leader I deeply appreciate, a rock of sanity and common sense in troubled times, a leader who refused to succumb to populism, who promoted human rights, liberty, tolerance and social responsibility not only in Germany but in the world at large. Farewell Merkel. I hope we won’t miss you too much.
The Blog is dedicated to the memory of Neal Sher.
In 1979, Neal joined the newly formed Office of Special Investigations (O.S.I), the Justice Department’s Nazi-hunting department, as a litigator and became its director four years later. Its targets were often individuals who had lied to enter the United States after World War II to conceal their Nazi past. Since 1979, the O.S.I. has deported, extradited or expelled 69 former Nazis.
In conjunction with Israel and Germany, Mr. Sher also led the O.S.I.’s efforts to find Josef Mengele, the notorious death camp doctor. The search led to the discovery in 1985 of a skeleton in a Brazilian graveyard that was determined to be Mengele’s. Mr. Sher himself had urged the German authorities to take blood samples of Mengele’s first wife and son for DNA testing.
In 1986, Mr. Sher recommended that Kurt Waldheim, a former secretary-general of the United Nations, be denied entry into the United States because of his service as a German Army lieutenant in the Balkans during brutal campaigns against Yugoslav partisans and mass deportations of Greek Jews to death camps.
Neal was also successful in ensuring the deportation to Estonia in 1987 of Karl Linnas, the former commandant of a Nazi concentration camp there who had been living on Long Island. Linnas died that year in a Leningrad hospital after the Soviet authorities had commuted his death sentence.
I came to know Neal when I served as Secretary General of “The Second Generation to the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance” Organization in Israel. During the 1980s the organisation was heavily involved in the discussions whether or not to bring an American citizen, John Demjanjuk, to trial in Israel for war crimes. For me, the most important thing was to ensure that that man was Ivan The Terrible from Treblinka. I met with the Israeli Minister of Justice, with people from the Ministry of Justice in Jerusalem, the O.S.I in Washington and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. They all were sure that Demjanjuk was that sadistic man from Treblinka. In 1985, I travelled to Washington to meet Neal Sher. Neal also assured me that Demjanjuk is Ivan The Terrible. I returned to Israel and recommended that our organisation will issue a press release, saying that we plead with the Israeli government to ask for Demjanjuk’s extradition. As you may know, later the Israeli Supreme Court concluded that Demjanjuk was not Ivan The Terrible. He was Ivan the Less Terrible, a guard in Sobibor extermination camp. Neal Sher was criticized for being overzealous in prosecuting Demjanjuk.
In 1994, Neal left the O.S.I. to become executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the main pro-Israel lobbying group in the United States.
In 2009, Neal acted on behalf of the victims and family members of the Ft. Hood, Texas terror attack. He filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, DC. against the Army and the FBI, alleging that the government was guilty of gross and willful negligence and wanton disregard for the safety of military and civilian personnel. Although possessing unmistakable knowledge and warning signs that the shooter, Major Nidal Hassan, posed a grave danger to the lives and safety of soldiers and civilians with whom he came into contact, they did nothing to eliminate the risk. On the contrary, he was promoted to higher ranks within the Army, virtually assuring that he would be in a position to commit the murderous terror attack at Ft. Hood.
Despite overwhelming evidence, the Administration refused to call the mass murder an act of terror, instead describing it as “work place violence”. Despite strong resistance from the Pentagon and the White House, Neal Sher achieved a major victory by persuading Congress to enact legislation designating the attack as having been inspired by foreign terrorists, thereby making the Ft. Hood victims eligible for the Purple Heart.
Neal Sher. May you rest in peace.
https://www.nealsher.com
Richard Sandomir, “Neal Sher, U.S. Government’s Leading Nazi Hunter, Dies at 74”, NY Times, Oct. 7, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/us/neal-sher-dead.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20211008&instance_id=42310&nl=todaysheadlines®i_id=33802468&segment_id=70976&user_id=4f90d90719be4cf835ad78a361c068b1
Reflections on Last Newsletter
MESG Programme 2021-2022
Invitation: Online Book Launches at Reading and UCL
Jordan's King Abdullah reiterates support for two-state solution
Twitter blocked the accounts of far-right Israeli political activists
Israel Considers Holding Facebook Liable for Content
Israeli Police Recruits Hundreds of People to Police Arab Towns
Hamas rejects the idea of municipal elections
Israel has agreed to a $520 million deal to sell air defense systems to the Czech Republic
Israel Signs an Agreement to Double Water Supply to Jordan
Nominations for the 2022 Hedley Bull Prize in International Relations!
Short Article: “The Future of the Internet”, Academia Letters, Article 1962 (2021).
Short Article: “Israel as an Ethnic Democracy: Palestinian Citizens and the Fight for Equal Rights”, Berkley Forum (August 6, 2021).
Interview about my new book, Just, Reasonable Multinationalism
LSE Blog on Just, Reasonable Multinationalism
New Book: Sherrow O. Pinder (ed.), Black Political Thought: From David Walker to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
A Question
Do You Know?
Monthly Poem
Light Side:
Reflections on Last Newsletter
Dr Aron Mor wrote from Tel Aviv:
I enjoyed reading this one. Thank you!
Withdrawal from Afghanistan was right and had to be done as quickly as possible if Biden wanted to save lives of American soldiers. Otherwise, there would be bloodshed.
Consider the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon (Barak). If it wasn’t done quickly – many more Israeli soldiers would have died in vain.
Shana Tova,
Aron
MESG Programme 2021-2022
6 October 2021, 5:00-7:00pm
MESG Ambassador Forum
Ambassador Jon Allen (MESG)
The Role of Canada in the Middle East
Chair: Professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Lecture recording: https://www.gotostage.com/channel/923cb85986064f9bb7f9be592abf994d/recording/86227013344241dba7134796995a2ac6/watch
9 November 2021, 5:00-7:00pm
MESG Research Seminar
Opening words: PVC (International) Professor Philip Gilmartin
Rt Hon. Alistair Burt, former Minister for the ME and North America
Sir Richard Dalton (MESG)
Sir Vincent Fean (MESG)
Sir Tom Phillips (MESG)
Britain in the Middle East: Does it still have a role?
Link to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1598136170312728333
8 December 2021, 2:00-3:00pm
FBLP Research Seminar
Professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Just, Reasonable Multiculturalism
Discussant: Professor Naomi Chazan (MESG)
Chair: Professor Massimo La Torre (MESG)
Link to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7074420958859479052
8 December 2021, 6:00-8:00pm
MESG Annual Lecture
Sir Professor Lawrence Freedman
Great Powers and the Middle East: The Twenty Years Shift
Chair: Professor Stephen Hardy
Link to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8332035760999046157
19 January 2022, 5:00-7:00pm
MESG Ambassador Forum
Professor Daniel Kurtzer (MESG)
Biden’s Agenda in the Middle East: How Relevant will the United States Be?
Chair: Sir Richard Dalton (MESG)
Link to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6660273410942404621
9 February 2022, 5:00-7:00pm
MESG Research Seminar
Former Deputy President, Justice Professor Elyakim Rubinstein (MESG)
Moshe Dayan - A Personal Memoir
Chair: Mr Uzi Dayan
Link to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8260060630971209742
16 February 2022, 5:00-7:00pm
MESG Research Seminar
Mr Joel Singer (MESG)
From Oslo to Gaza
Chair: Professor Isabell Schierenbeck (MESG)
Link to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/636424135822788109
9 March 2022, 5:00-7:00pm
MESG Research Seminar
Mr Francesco Motta
Chief, Asia Pacific and MENA Branch, The United Nations
Between a Rock and a Hard Place – the work of the UN promoting human rights in the Middle East
Chair: Professor Glenn Burgess
Link to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8554371306472469776
27 April 2022, 5:00-7:00pm
MESG Books’ Celebration
Dr Alan Brener
Professor Alan Dowty
Professor Jack Goldstone
Professor Daniel Kurtzer
Professor Lester Grabbe
Professor Simon Smith
Professor David Tal
Professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Chair: Professor Stephen Hardy
Link to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6165794445316367888
All welcome!!
Invitation: Online Book Launch at Reading
SCHOOL OF LAW
UNIVERSITY OF READING
'JUST, REASONABLE MULTICULTURALISM' (CUP, 2021)
VIRTUAL BOOK LAUNCH AND PANEL DISCUSSION
WEDNESDAY 27 OCTOBER 2021, 5-7PM BST
On Microsoft Teams
https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting_MDU5YzUxZTgtZjhhOC00NDZhLTgzZWYtYTM0NzJlMGIyZmI4%40thread.v2%2F0%3Fcontext%3D%257b%2522Tid%2522%253a%25224ffa3bc4-ecfc-48c0-9080-f5e43ff90e5f%2522%252c%2522Oid%2522%253a%252277a500b6-022e-486b-a758-eee279674e8a%2522%257d%26anon%3Dtrue&type=meetup-join&deeplinkId=a7c599dd-781d-47f2-aacc-c6feb52e64cd&directDl=true&msLaunch=true&enableMobilePage=true&suppressPrompt=true
(Please contact r.ziegler@reading.ac.uk in case of need)
Panelists:
Raphael Cohen-Almagor (Chair in Politics, Hull)
Chris Hilson (Professor of Law, Reading)
Gila Stopler (Dean and Associate Professor of Law, College of Law & Business)
Aleardo Zanghellini (Professor of Law and Social Theory, Reading)
Chair and moderator:
Ruvi Ziegler (Associate Professor in International Refugee Law, Reading)
This book explores the main challenges against multiculturalism. It aims to examine whether liberalism and multiculturalism are reconcilable, and what are the limits of liberal democratic interventions in illiberal affairs of minority cultures within democracy. In the process, this book addresses three questions: whether multiculturalism is bad for democracy, whether multiculturalism is bad for women, and whether multiculturalism contributes to terrorism. Just, Reasonable Multiculturalism argues that liberalism and multiculturalism are reconcilable if a fair balance is struck between individual rights and group rights. Raphael Cohen-Almagor contends that reasonable multiculturalism can be achieved via mechanisms of deliberate democracy, compromise and, when necessary, coercion. Placing necessary checks on groups that discriminate against vulnerable third parties, the approach insists on the protection of basic human rights as well as on exit rights for individuals if and when they wish to leave their cultural groups.
For further details, please contact Ruvi Ziegler <r.ziegler@reading.ac.uk>
Invitation: Online Book Launch at UCL
The UCL Laws Faculty Centre for Ethics and Law
online book launch
Raphael Cohen-Almagor, Just, Reasonable Multiculturalism (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
Speakers include:
The Rt Hon. Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, former President of the United Kingdom Supreme Court
Deputy President (ret.), Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, Israel Supreme Court, Jerusalem, Israel
Professor Avrom Sherr, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Professor Emeritus, Director Emeritus
4th November 2021, 5 - 6.30pm
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/2021/nov/online-book-launch-just-reasonable-multiculturalism
The book
The book explores the main challenges against multiculturalism. Its primary objectives are twofold: to examine whether liberalism and multiculturalism are reconcilable, and what are the limits of liberal democratic interventions in illiberal affairs of minority cultures within democracy when minorities engage in practices that inflict physical harm on group members (e.g. Female Genital Mutilation) or non-physical harm (e.g. denying members property or education). In the process, the book addresses three questions: whether multiculturalism is bad for democracy; whether multiculturalism is bad for women, and whether multiculturalism contributes to terrorism.
The main thesis is that liberalism and multiculturalism are reconcilable provided that a fair balance is struck between individual rights and group rights. It is argued that reasonable multiculturalism can be achieved via mechanisms of deliberate democracy, compromise and, when necessary, coercion. Placing necessary checks on groups that discriminate against vulnerable third parties, commonly women and children, the approach insists on the protection of basic human rights as well as on exit rights for individuals if and when they wish to leave their cultural groups.
The author and presenter
Professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor, University of Hull
Chair
Professor Myriam Hunter-Henin, UCL Laws Faculty
Speakers
The Rt Hon. Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, former President of the United Kingdom Supreme Court
Deputy President (ret.), Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, Israel Supreme Court, Jerusalem, Israel
Professor Avrom Sherr, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Professor Emeritus, Director Emeritus
More about the author and speakers
Professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor, University of Hull
Raphael completed his DPhil in Political Theory at St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, where he worked with Geoffrey Marshall, Wilfrid Knapp and Isaiah Berlin. He is now Professor and Chair of Politics, University of Hull. Raphael taught, inter alia, at Oxford (UK), Jerusalem, Haifa (Israel), UCLA, Johns Hopkins (USA) and Nirma University (India). He was also Senior Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC, and Distinguished Visiting Professor, Faculty of Laws, University College London. He is the founder of Israel’s “Second Generation to the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance” Organization, The University of Haifa Center for Democratic Studies, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute Medical Ethics Think-tank, and The University of Hull Middle East Study Group. Raphael has published extensively in the fields of politics, philosophy, media ethics, medical ethics, law, sociology and history. His main books are: The Boundaries of Liberty and Tolerance (1994), The Right to Die with Dignity (2001), Speech, Media and Ethics (2001, 2005), Euthanasia in The Netherlands (2004), The Scope of Tolerance (2006, 2007), The Democratic Catch (2007), Confronting the Internet's Dark Side (2015), and Just, Reasonable Multiculturalism (2021). He Is now working on Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Critical Study of Peace Mediation, Facilitation and Negotiations between Israel and the PLO (forthcoming 2023). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raphael-Cohen-Almagor/e/B001HPMUFU
The Rt Hon. Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury
After reading chemistry at Oxford and then spending three years as an investment banker, David Neuberger was called to the Bar in 1975 and practised largely in property law, taking silk in 1987. He was appointed a High Court Judge, sitting in the Chancery Division, in 1996, and was Supervisory Chancery Judge for Midland, Wales and Chester and Western Circuits from 2001. In 2004, he was made a Lord Justice of Appeal, and a Privy Counsellor. In the same year, he was appointed Judge in charge of IT and modernisation. In 2007 he was promoted to be a Law Lord and became a peer. He was appointed Master of the Rolls in 2009. In 2012, he became the President of the United Kingdom Supreme Court, a position from which he retired in 2017. In 2018, he started practising as an arbitrator and legal expert from One Essex Court in the Temple, London.
Since 2010, Lord Neuberger has been a Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal and since 2018 a judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court. He was Treasurer of Lincoln’s Inn in 2017. He is an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society, and an honorary member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He also chairs the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom. He was on the Board of the University of the Arts London from 2001 to 2010, and was a trustee, and then chairman, of the Schizophrenia Trust from 2000 to 2012. He is a trustee of MHRUK, a mental health research funding trust, and of Prisoners Abroad, and patron of Sapere, a children’s educational trust. He was chair of the Magna Carta Trust 2009-2012. He chaired an investigation for the Bar Council into widening access to the barrister profession in 2006-2007, and also served on the panel on fair access to the professions in 2008-2009.
Deputy President (ret.), Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, Israel Supreme Court, Jerusalem, Israel
Elyakim Rubinstein is a former Deputy President of the Israeli Supreme Court. Beforehand, he served as the Legal Advisor to the Israeli Government (1997-2004). Rubinstein, a former diplomat civil servant, has had an influential role in that country’s internal and external affairs, most notably in helping to shape its peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. He graduated cum laude from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, with Bachelor’s degrees in Hebrew Language and Arabic Literature and Language in 1967 and in Law in 1969. Obtained a Master’s degree cum laude in Contemporary Jewry in 1974. Justice Rubinstein is the recipient of the Gabriel Peace Prize for his part in the Peace Treaty with Jordan. He was awarded honorary doctorates by Yeshiva University in New York, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, and Bar-Ilan University. Justice Rubinstein has written books and articles on the subject of the Israel Supreme Court, public law in Israel, the history of Israel during the British Mandate, the history of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, and the peace process. He taught at Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Justice Rubinstein is married to Miriam, Former Deputy State Attorney. They have four daughters and eleven grandchildren.
Professor Avrom Sherr, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Professor Emeritus, Director Emeritus
Avrom Sherr leads the operation of the Independent Peer Review of legal aid work in England and Wales. He was Deputy Dean of the School of Advanced Legal Studies from 2011 to 2012 and Director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies from 2004 to 2014. From 1995 he was the founding Woolf Professor of Legal Education, a research chair. He set up the first Research Ethics Committee at the University of London School of Advanced Study in 2009-10 and was the Chair of that Committee for its first three years. He taught at the University of Warwick for 16 years, and was the first Alsop Wilkinson Professor of Law at the University of Liverpool. He qualified as a solicitor in 1974 and worked in commercial litigation at Coward Chance till 1980. From 1988 to 2012 he was also Director of Training at Macfarlanes.
Avrom Sherr's main research interests have been the provision of legal services, the development of legal education, the legal profession and ethics in professional work. He has also written in the areas of freedom of protest, discrimination relating to AIDS/HIV, issues of welfare rights provision within health care and carried out projects on On-line Dispute Resolution. He is the principal architect of the system of assessment of legal competence of legal aid lawyers known as Independent Peer Review. Since 2002 this has been used as the system for assessment of the quality of Legal Aid work in the UK, ensuring the quality of legal services received by the public.
He is the founding Editor of the International Journal of the Legal Profession, was the project leader producing the seminal report "Willing Blindness" on regulation of the legal profession, and has coordinated a number of trans-European projects on legal ethics, money laundering, legal and accountancy practitioner defaults and discrimination. He was a member of the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct and of the Legal Services Commission Quality Assurance Working Group. He was Chair of the Advisory Board & Strategy Committee of the UK Centre for Legal Education, Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education and is now again Chair of the Hamlyn Trust. He is also currently Chair of the Advice Quality Standards Project Committee. Recent work includes the Legal Education and Training Review, advising the Hong Kong Law Society on the future of qualification systems, advising the Legal Aid Board of Georgia and work with the National Legal Aid Centre of the Ministry of Justice in China. He currently also works with Save The Children UK, Research and Assessment Ethics Committee.
His consultancy and research on law and policy has included leading and advising the Council of Europe on Legal Aid legislation and implementation for Armenia, Azerbaijan
Professor Myriam Hunter-Henin, UCL Laws Faculty
Myriam Hunter-Henin is Professor in Comparative Law and Law & Religion at the Faculty of Laws at University College London. After graduating in Law both in France and England, she completed her DPhil at Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University (Paris, France) on personal status, leading to a monograph (Pour une redéfinition du statut personnel, PUAM, 2004, awarded the Dennery Prize) which explored the impact of fundamental rights and recognition approaches on the reasoning of Private International Family Law. Myriam has mainly taught on comparative law, family law, law & religion and human rights, first at Panthéon-Sorbonne University (Paris, France) where she was a research and teaching fellow and subsequently at the Faculty of Laws at University College London, where she was consecutively appointed as lecturer, Senior lecturer, Reader and from October 2021, Professor. She was also invited to Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (LUISS) (Rome, Italy) to teach on the Summer 2020 Programme on Constitutional Law (moved to on-line setting) and to over 60 talks and keynote lectures in prestigious Universities and settings, such as the French Conseil d’Etat (2016).
Myriam has published extensively on the interaction and tensions between law and religion, issues of religious discrimination and French secularism (laïcité). Her main publications include: Law, Religious Freedoms and Education in Europe, Ashgate 2011; “Why the French Don’t Like the Burqa: Laïcité, National Identity and Religious Freedom”, International Comparative and Law Quarterly, vol 61, August 2012 pp 1–27 (selected as the basis for the annual ICLQ lecture 2013); “Living together in an age of religious diversity: Lessons from Baby Loup and SAS”, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 2015, 1-25; “English Schools with a Religious Ethos: For a Re-Interpretation of Religious Autonomy”, Religion and Human Rights, 2018 (13), 3-26. More recently, Myriam has researched the connections between religious freedom/religious discrimination and democracy, which led to a new monograph: Why Religious Freedom Matters for Democracy. Comparative Reflections from Britain and France for a democratic ‘vivre ensemble’, Hart, Comparative Public Law Series, (2020) and article, “Religious Discrimination and Religious Freedom: Democracy as the missing link”, International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, 2021 (forthcoming).
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/2021/nov/online-book-launch-just-reasonable-multiculturalism
Jordan's King Abdullah reiterates support for two-state solution
Jordan's King Abdullah said Israel and the Palestinians could achieve "genuine security" only "through the two-state solution, a solution that leads to the establishment of an independent, sovereign and viable Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital." "How many more children will die before the world wakes up?" Abdullah asked at the UN General Assembly in a pre-recorded speech. "A solution that leads to the establishment of an independent, sovereign, and viable Palestinian state on the basis of the June 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side-by-side with Israel in peace and security," as Abdullah described it, "and Jerusalem is at the heart of this peace. Billions of people around the world hold this Holy City dear."
Twitter blocked the accounts of far-right Israeli political activists
Twitter blocked the accounts of far-right Israeli political activists Bentzi Gopstein and Baruch Marzel. Neither party was permitted to appeal this decision. Baruch Marzel heads the Jewish National Front party and has worked for the controversial Rabbi Meir Kahane in the past. Bentzi Gopstein is known for founding the Lehava organization. The two polarizing figures have been subject to sharp criticism in Israel over the course of several years for their extremist views. In response to the ban, far-right religious Zionist MP Itamar Ben-Gvir attacked Twitter for allowing “terrorist” accounts to remain open while blocking Israel’s political figures. Bentzi Gopstein was indicted previously in 2019 on charges of inciting terrorism, violence and racism. In the same year, the two men were banned from running for the Knesset on the list of the Otzma Yehudit party, which is now led by Ben-Gvir.
Source: I24 News
Israel Considers Holding Facebook Liable for Content
A group of specialists in Israel will explore solutions to limit the negative impact of social media platforms, according to Channel 12. The experts will be selected by Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel, and will look at potential options to stem the influence of social networks. Members of the team could attempt to prompt Facebook for details on the company’s post algorithm and ask for a reveal of the site’s censorship policies. Some potential regulations detailed in the news broadcast include holding platforms legally accountable for damaging content on their sites. The possible restrictions could mark a first for the largely unregulated industry if imposed. Social media platforms have come under increased scrutiny following a European Union review on the sites, as well as revelations detailed by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. Haugen testified before the United States Congress on Facebook’s potential for harm.
Source: Israel Hayom
Israeli Police Recruits Hundreds of People to Police Arab Towns
A string of recent homicides, along with a call to action on Twitter, prompted police to recruit hundreds of new officers to combat growing violence in Israel's Arab communities. Supporters of the digital campaign, known as #ArabLivesMatter, criticized authorities' lack of initiative in extending resources to under-serviced Arab sectors. Public Security Minister Omer (son of Haim) Barlev issued a statement announcing Israel's authorities would step up efforts in the coming weeks. Barlev confirmed Israel's security agency, the Shin Bet, will assist in securing the areas. The Shin Bet is normally involved in counter-terrorism operations, but investigations are underway on avenues which would permit the agency's participation. A report conducted by the Abraham Initiatives nonprofit found 89 members of the Arab and Druze communities were killed in Israel during 2021. A 2020 Knesset report found that around 400,000 illegal weapons are in Israel.
Source: I24 News
Hamas rejects the idea of municipal elections
Unsurprisingly, Hamas announced that it would boycott municipal elections called by the Palestinian Authority (PA) unless Palestinian presidential and legislative votes were set as well. “The PA’s announcement of piecemeal local elections is an insult to our national situation, and a deviation from our nation’s path. Hamas will not be a part of it,” Hamas spokesperson Hazim Qasim told reporters. The PA called the local vote against the backdrop of increasing domestic criticism, in part for indefinitely delaying the first planned national elections in 15 years in April. Hamas would only agree to participate in the local elections should the Palestinians see a return to elections at every level, from the over-arching Palestine Liberation Organization to the town councils, Qasim said. Islamic Jihad has also said it will likely boycott the planned vote, as in previous years.
Source: Times of Israel
Recent Palestinian polls show that the PA is possibly in the lowest point of popular support. I think the PA made this concession to hold municipal elections only because its leaders know that this idea will be rejected by Hamas. The PA chances to win any fair elections are extremely low.
Israel has agreed to a $520 million deal to sell air defense systems to the Czech Republic
The deal involves four SPYDER batteries, a defense system based on air-to-air missiles that is designed to intercept airborne threats including planes, helicopters and drones --- The SPYDERs will be produced by Israeli defense firm RAFAEL --- Amir Eshel, director-general of Israel's Defense Ministry, said, “This is the first time that Israel will deliver a full air defense system to a NATO country” --- Czech Defense Minister Lubomir Metnar said the acquisition “will push our armed forces to the 21st century in the air defense domain”
Source: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Israel Signs an Agreement to Double Water Supply to Jordan
Israel formally agrees to double the amount of freshwater it provides to neighbor Jordan, one of the world's most water-deficient countries. The agreement is proof that "we want good neighborly relations," says Karine Elharrar, Israel's minister of infrastructure, energy and water resources. Elharrar traveled to Jordan for a signing ceremony between representatives to the Joint Water Committee that manages bilateral water relations.
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Nominations for the 2022 Hedley Bull Prize in International Relations!
Do you know of an impressive, original book recently published in the field?
We are now accepting nominations for the 2022 Hedley Bull Prize in International Relations! https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGlkXsdBVVZzbtKdFDkLldBCMph
Short Article: “The Future of the Internet”, Academia Letters, Article 1962 (2021). https://www.academia.edu/49992422/The_Future_of_the_Internet
Thoughts how the Internet will develop, in what ways, with what innovations that will present new challenges.
Short Article: “Israel as an Ethnic Democracy: Palestinian Citizens and the Fight for Equal Rights”, Berkley Forum (August 6, 2021), https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/israel-as-an-ethnic-democracy-palestinian-citizens-and-the-fight-for-equal-rights
There are no angles in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is a story of two people who have legitimate claims over a small piece of land. Each side believes that its claims are more compelling than the other’s. Both sides made many mistakes along the way. Those mistakes compounded an already difficult and complex reality. Thus, the history of the conflict is bloody and sad. The more blood is shed, the longer the conflict lingers, the more difficult it is becoming to bring the conflict to conclusion.
Unlike the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Palestinians are entitled by law to enjoy the same citizenship rights as the Jewish citizens of Israel. The Israeli Palestinians constitute a significant minority in Israel: 21% of the population. I will differentiate between full citizenship and formal citizenship, arguing that the Israeli Palestinians enjoy formal but not full citizenship. I detail the areas in which Israel needs to invest to make the Palestinians full citizens. It is argued that while Israeli Palestinians are discriminated against, there is no apartheid in Israel. Apartheid exists in the occupied territories.
Interview about my new book, Just, Reasonable Multinationalism
Vital Interests, Fordham University, New York:
https://www.centeronnationalsecurity.org/vital-interests-issue-87-raphael-cohen-almagor
Watch my interview with Lord Professor Bhikhu Parekh about my book, Just Reasonable, Multiculturalism, https://studio.youtube.com/video/sA5mtaM9xyU/edit
LSE Blog on Just, Reasonable Multinationalism
The LSE asked me to write a short piece about my book: A theory of just, reasonable multiculturalism, LSE, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2021/09/29/a-theory-of-just-reasonable-multiculturalism/
New Book: Sherrow O. Pinder (ed.), Black Political Thought: From David Walker to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
The book articulates the experiences of black people in the United States. It focuses on how and why black people in the United States, as individuals and as a group, have been discriminated by the elite; why and how black people were treated as inferior beings; what excuses were found to deny black people the civic rights. The volume is divided into six parts. Each part addresses different yet related questions. Part one concerns slavery and its discontents. Part two discusses the evolving black political independence. Part three is about black nationalism. Part four relates to race and racism. Part five is about feminism and difference, and the final part discusses whiteness, racism and identity. This volume is an important textbook that contributes to the understanding of black political thought. Furthermore, the volume sheds important light on different modes of racial inequality. This analysis is essential for a critical analysis of the history, the sociology, the politics and the legal foundations of the United States.
I thank Cambridge University Press for sending me a copy.
A Question
“It is my body”, argue anti-vaccination advocates. People should inquire about their position on abortion. I wonder…
Do You Know?
What is the only natural food which never spoils?
Answer at the end.
Monthly Poem
A COSMIC SONG
In some distant aeons past,
Came we into being, how you may well ask!
Something from nothing
Or something from something else,
From whence the Cosmos came .. expansion from a singularity, cosmic scientists relate
Most choose to call it the “Big Bang”,
But I heard a different story… it was the “Big Cool” that my shape and form did create!
Listening to the soft murmur of the Cosmos as it sang….
For I am become dimensioned space
So different to my past non-dimensional place
From featureless fluid I have emerged as infinite strands of Cosmic lace,
Woven into an endlessly divisible fabric
Yet invisible to your eyes as if I were magic
Some call this Dark Matter
Some call me Dark Energy
Both true
As I am just an unseen reflection of everything, of all of you
For you stretch the fabric of my soul
Imprinting your energy signatures within my whole
In such a way matter first appeared
Visible energy being M = E on C squared.
And as it arose out of the time of the Big Cool
Matter was made to obey one pervading rule.
For when my fabric developed its singular elasticity
A property which varies nought across my entirety,
Matter must always be spread rationally across my infinitude
To keep symmetry in all directions spherical, it must try
The energy in every material cluster distributed with even exactitude
For this is the fundamental of that irrational number π.
Such is why galaxies and constellations are ever expanding in a continuum
Seeking their share of infinity, dividing it evenly, maintaining the energy equilibrium
Starry heavens stretching everywhere in all directions
But always maintaining their intimate connections
For it is my whole that connects everything and all
Knows instantly should anything move, rise or fall,
Come into or out of existence –
Some call that “Spooky action at a distance”.
But I am close all around you
I am the protective force field that surrounds you
You are the action, I am the reaction
If you gain energy and rise, you stretch my fabric, you stretch the web of my very soul,
Your energy becomes my energy potential
When that energy is lost, my fabric contracts and you experience a fall
You have named this effect… Gravitational.
And this last stanza forms both the last and the first verse of this song…..
A star is seen dying, its energy subsiding and, in its place, we find a black hole
Formed as my cosmic fabric draws itself around the final embers of that once bright soul
Not to be imagined as a dying shroud, more as a protective restoring cloak
Drawing in energy, kindling new celestial fires until the heat my being does soak
Distending again my fabric to the point of spectacular explosion… a supernova
Creating new beauty, wondrous new cosmic heavens, the universe born over
Listen carefully as the Cosmos still sings, whispering its constant themes,
Rise and fall… Appear and disappear… Create and destroy
Erase and restore… Lose and gain… Let go and feel secure
Our connected stories formed within its loving abundant web
Ever ending and ever beginning….
Ian Crawford
Light Side:
This old joke always makes me laugh:
Ariel Sharon comes to Washington for meetings with George W.
For the State Dinner, Laura decides to bring in a special Kosher Chef
and have a truly Jewish meal.
At the dinner that night, the first course is served and it is Matzoh Ball Soup.
George W. looks at this and after learning what it is called, he tells an aide
that he can't eat such a gross and strange-looking brew.
The aide says that Mr. Sharon will be insulted if he doesn't at least taste it.
Not wanting to cause any trouble (after all, he ate sheep's eye in honor of his Arab guests),
George W. gingerly lowers his spoon into the bowl and retrieves a piece of Matzoh ball and some broth.
He hesitates, and then swallows and a grin appears on his face.
He finds that he really likes it and digs right in and finishes the whole bowl. "That was delicious," he says to Sharon. "Do the Jews eat any other part of the Matzoh, or just the balls?"
Peace and Good Health to you all
Rafi
My last communications are available on Israel: Democracy, Human Rights, Politics and Society, http://almagor.blogspot.com
People wishing to subscribe to this Monthly Newsletter are welcome to e-mail me at r.cohen-almagor@hull.ac.uk
Twitter at @almagor35
Honey
