www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/world/europe/missiles-ukraine-war-attack-russia.html
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Tuesday 2 January 2024
Haaretz (1/2/24)
- Headline: “Israel’s top court deals Netanyahu and his band of thieves a decisive defeat.”
- The vote on the Israeli Supreme Court was 8 to 7, but even those in the minority failed to give the law a stamp of approval (kashrut).
- Headline: “The Supreme Court ruling proves that Israel’s democratic fortress has not fallen.”
- Headline: “Netanyahu’s coup hasn’t disappeared since Oct. 7, it hides behind a call for unity.”
- The importance of the ruling: “The judiciary is signaling to the reckless and aggressive legislature that if it persists in its campaign of destruction and attempts to undermine the foundations of democracy, such as freedom of expression, an independent judiciary or minority rights, it will face a stop sign.”
- The decision is “a stinging defeat for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, and their fantasizing messianic collaborators, who, for a full year, turned an entire country upside down, weakened it, and caused its enemies to conclude that they had a rare opportunity.”
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Sunday 31 December 2023
Sunday News Notes
- Netanyahu has said he will not step down even at the end of the war (NYT, 12/31/23). The protests against him have started up again in Israel for the first time since the beginning of the war (Podcast).
- American military helicopters came under fire from Iranian-backed Houthi fighters in the Red Sea. They struck three Houthi boats and killed those aboard. It is considered an escalation since it is the first time Houthis have targeted U.S. forces (NYT, 12/31/23).
- The Saudis prefer to watch developments with the Houthis, hoping for peace (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/25/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-yemen-houthis-gaza.html).
- Facts about Saudis and Yemen:
- Iran-backed rebels took over the capital of Yemen in 2014.
- Officials thought they would swiftly defeat the rebels with US assistance. Instead, it cost Saudi Arabia billions.
- Yemen was plunged into a humanitarian crisis.
- Faced with US pressure, Saudi and the UAE scaled back their military involvement and entered peace talks with the Houthis who now control northern Yemen.
- Mohammed bin Salmen is now the de facto Saudi ruler.
- Bin Salmen, committed to making Saudi Arabia into a “global business hub by 2030” had been trying to maintain peace and trying to bring about a rapprochement with Iran.
- Bin Salmen wants to attract tourists and investors.
- This is a tacit admission that after eight years, the Houthis have won. The Houthis have “settled into power in northern Yemen, where it has created an impoverished proto-state that it rules with an iron fist.”
- Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the Houthis leader, stated that the Houthis are not afraid of battling the US
- “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews,” is part of their slogan.
- Just before the war with Gaza started the Houthis were on the verge of signing an American-and Saudi-backed peace deal.
- It appears that the Houthis expect to receive “reconstruction and reparations” payments from Saudi Arabia.
- Saudi Arabia declined to become a part of a US led task force to deal with the threat in the Red Sea.
- Amnesty International about Houthis and rule: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/09/yemen-wave-of-arrests-by-huthi-de-facto-authorities-following-demonstrations/
- Cast of Characters Israel: Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen is trading places with energy minister Israel Katz. Both are members of Netanyahu’s Likud Party (NYT, 12/31/23).
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Thousands rallied across Israel on Saturday night, calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ousting amidst Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
Crowds gathered in Tel Aviv to rally against Netanyahu, while others protested outside the premier’s private residence in the northern city of Caesarea.
Maj. Gen. (res.) Guy Zur said at the Tel Aviv protest, “I asked myself, ‘Why protest now? During a time of war, while our soldiers are united at the front?’ To me, the answer is simple: It is our duty towards the next generations…he who weakened us and sacrificed us for his political needs and love of power, is not suited to lead us to victory.”
One of the arrested protesters is Israel Air Force Brig. Gen. (ret.) Amir Haskel, who has been active in anti-Netanyahu protests for years.
According to witnesses, the two protesters had not broken the law and had been standing in a public area, during hours when noise at a reasonable level was allowed. Three other protesters were summoned for questioning, and had their megaphones confiscated.
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www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/29/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-censorship.html
Just days after invading Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia signed a censorship law that made it illegal to “discredit” the army. The legislation was so sweeping that even his spokesman acknowledged it was easy to cross the line into prohibited speech. In the first 18 months of the war, the law scooped up a vast array of ordinary Russians — schoolteachers, pensioners, groundskeepers, a carwash owner — for punishment.
The law has led to more than 6,500 cases of people being arrested or fined, more than 350 a month on average, according to a New York Times analysis of Russian court records through last August. That’s a small percentage of Russia’s population of 146 million, but The Times analyzed the details of every case, revealing the extraordinary reach and invasiveness of the Kremlin’s crackdown; anyone questioning the war or revealing sympathy with Ukraine — even in a private conversation — is now liable to prosecution in Russia.
The censorship law has enabled Mr. Putin to perpetuate a nearly two-year invasion that has killed or maimed hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians, with minimal resistance from those at home who oppose it. While most Russians tell pollsters they support the war, close to 20 percent say they don’t.
In the past, the government would make examples of a few individuals, some prominent; now it is practicing widespread censorship. This year, with antiwar speech in public largely eliminated, the records show that authorities remained intent on stamping out criticism expressed online and in private. More than 3,000 cases involved social media or messaging platforms popular in Russia.
“A large number of totally unknown, nameless, nonpublic people, who simply wrote something or said something somewhere, are getting hit,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
To better understand the extent of this censorship, we spent months analyzing a database of every available public record of prosecutions under the new law provided by OVD-Info, a Russian human rights and legal aid group.
First-time offenders are typically handed a fine of 30,000 rubles — around $300 at the current exchange rate, about half the average monthly salary in Russia — while repeat offenders can receive prison time. Known as article 20.3.3, the law has become the most widely used tool in Russia’s wartime crackdown, and it is the focus of our analysis; another law punishes spreading “false information” about the Russian army with up to 15 years in prison.
Experts say the wartime censorship is transforming Russian society and setting the stage for even more widespread repression in the future, as the authorities automate their monitoring of the internet and encourage people to denounce each other online. Mr. Putin set the tone last year when he referred to opponents of the war as “scum and traitors” to be cleansed from society.
In response to the crackdown, many Russians have begun to self-censor. Demyan Bespokoyev, a private school tutor who was prosecuted for writing an antiwar message on his coat, described the process this way: “The prison forms inside your head.”
Silencing Protest
Law, Power, and Justice 