“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Haaretz Thursday that it’s Israel’s full right to annex the Jordan Valley if it chooses to do so. Earlier Thursday, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda expressed concern over Israeli proposals to annex this West Bank region. Asked on the matter by reports in Lisbon, the premier said ‘It’s our full right to do so if we decide,’… Asked about a timeline for the proposed annexation, Netanyahu said ‘there are some questions about what can be done in a transition government. Exactly because of that we should form a government now and do it.’”

“…despite the official European rejection of Netanyahu’s declaration and the condemnation by the Arab states, for Palestinians…Israel’s annexation is more than a political aspiration. It is a daily reality. A reality that is ‘systematically reinforced and advanced by Israel,’ according to Maha Abdallah, legal researcher at the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq. ‘Most aspects of annexation are visible already in the West Bank,’ said Abdallah. ‘The most obvious of these aspects is the settlement-building and the infrastructure linked to it. But there is an entire process of legal, economic and administrative annexation.”

“The Palestinian leadership…held an emergency meeting in Ramallah on Nov. 19 and developed a plan of action to confront the US position.  According to the Palestinian leadership’s statement, the plan has two tracks. The first is a political and diplomatic effort to rally international and Arab support from the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, the Arab League and the Islamic Action Organization against the US position, in addition to joining important international bodies such as the World Intellectual Property Organization. The second track is domestic action such as expanding popular resistance against settlements, urging Palestinians to participate in demonstrations across the West Bank and tightening the 2010 prohibition on settlement products that criminalized any Palestinian dealings with settlements.”

“…it seems that as long as he felt his rule was secure, he believed that annexation would only embroil Israel regionally and internationally. He was better off continuing the policy of creeping annexation, steadily erasing the foundations of the Green Line. This kind of process, according to Netanyahu, would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state without raising the ire of the international community…From the moment his rule turns unsteady, however, the situation changes. On the one hand, he is entirely politically dependent on the nationalist right, even if its election prospects are in decline, and is thus forced to forgo his erstwhile strategy and adopt the rhetoric of Smotrich and his ilk. On the other hand, it is possible that Netanyahu wants to ensure that whoever takes his place, be it Sa’ar or Gantz, will be bound to the project of preventing a Palestinian state. The annexation of the Jordan Valley — or rather the North Dead Sea — is precisely such a step. It is the poison pill he wants to leave behind.”

“Twenty-five legislators from around the world will be coming on a visit to Israel as guests of the Israel Allies Foundation (there is such a thing) and of the Samaria Regional Council, which governs Jewish settlements in the northern West Bank. (Unfortunately there is such a thing as that too). They’re coming from such leading countries as Estonia, North Macedonia, Romania and Croatia. The delegation is to include the president-elect of Guatemala and someone whom the organizers call a foreign minister, Venezuelan shadow minister of foreign affairs Julio Borges. The itinerary arranged for them is fascinating. It gives them a glimpse at the Israeli right-wing’s propaganda machine and the right’s cynical use of emotion, which is bereft of its final vestiges of shame. Now it’s stuffing these high-level visitors with a diet of just more kitsch, references to the Holocaust, lies and death – unrestrained by fairness, proportionality, honesty or the truth.”

“Until recently, police have prevented Jews and other non-Muslims from praying conspicuously on the Temple Mount out of a concern that such activity would stoke tensions and lead to violence from Muslim worshipers. In the past, the police would routinely eject or detain any non-Muslim seen to be praying at the holy site, and this stance was mostly backed by the courts, which ruled that although in theory Jewish prayer was legal on the Temple Mount the police were entitled to prevent it due to security considerations. But all this has changed in recent months.”

“The Palestinian Archbishop of Jerusalem’s Greek Orthodox Church, Atallah Hanna, has spoken out against the Israeli occupation and stressed his support for the Palestinian people and cause, urging Christians around the world to do the same…Hanna said: ‘The city of Jerusalem is the city of the three Abrahamic religions…Christian and Muslim Palestinians living in Jerusalem suffer from the occupation, suffer from repression, tyranny and oppression.’”

“Mkhaimer Abusada, a political science professor at al Azhar University in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that “neither Hamas nor the political leadership of the PIJ wanted a military confrontation with Israel… Abusada said that Hamas allowed Islamic Jihad to engage in a limited military retaliation after Abu al-Ata’s killing in order to give the group the chance to respond. ‘Hamas did not intervene militarily, but it at least it did not tie Islamic Jihad’s hands when it retaliated against Israel,’ Shihab [Dawood Shihab, a senior Islamic Jihad official in Gaza] said. Abusada argued that Netanyahu’s precarious political position meant there was a heightened risk that the Israeli prime minister would attack Gaza. ‘But as the governing authority in Gaza, Hamas has an interest to keep the situation under control and deny Netanyahu an opportunity to wage an all-out war with Gaza,’ he said.”

“One of Gaza City’s oldest cinemas had a 100-meter-long red carpet rolled out for a weeklong human rights film festival on Wednesday. Hundreds of Gazans, among them rights activists, attended the opening night. The Red Carpet Human Rights Film Festival, in its fifth edition, kicked off with an opening address followed by film promotions and a short speech by Irish Representative to Palestine Jonathan Conlon, who expressed his country’s support for the Palestinian cause and the Palestinians’ right to live freely and independently. The day ended with a screening of the film Gaza.”

“After a three-week lull, the weekly protests near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel are expected to resume on Friday. The High National Commission for the  March of Return and Breaking the Siege, which consists of several Gaza-based Palestinian groups, announced that Friday’s demonstrations will be held under the banner: ‘The March is Continuing.’ The announcement was issued in Gaza after a meeting of representatives of Palestinian groups. The commission urged Palestinians to ‘preserve the popular and peaceful character’ of the protests, and called for wide participation in Friday’s planned protests.”

“Some 147 United Nations member states, including the European Union, have called to halt all aid to West Bank settlements, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing to annex the Jordan Valley. At the General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, they approved a resolution which called on the international community not to ‘render aid or assistance to illegal settlement activities, including not to provide Israel with any assistance to be used specifically in connection with settlements in the occupied territories.’”

Palestinian officials have expressed concern over a report by the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor that includes a warning that Palestinian stipends to the families of those killed or imprisoned as a result of the Israel-Palestine conflict could constitute a war crime.Palestine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Riad Malki on Thursday said the ICC report was ‘based on misleading narratives of a political nature … rather than an objective and accurate description of the relevant facts’.”

“Parliament members in Norway, one of the world’s main donors to the Palestinian Authority, demanded these contributions be suspended over incitement in school textbooks. Members of the ruling coalition said in a statement Thursday that it is instructing the government to ‘reduce or withhold financial support to the Palestinian Authority if they do not provide satisfactory improvements in school materials’ soon. The instruction is not legally binding but politically difficult to ignore for Norway’s center-right government under Prime Minister Erna Solberg. If implemented, it spells a loss of $24 million in funding for the Palestinian Authority, according to a statement on the move by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education.”

“At a talk in north London on Sunday night, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) hosted Naomi Linder Kahn, director of the international division of the Israeli NGO Regavim… Regavim has spuriously painted the presence of Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip as “the quiet occupation” and a ‘silent conquest.’ Claiming to advocate for the “protection” of Israel’s national land, Regavim initiates legal actions in Israeli courts to spur home demolitions and expulsions of Palestinians, particularly in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, and in the occupied West Bank. It further promotes its agenda by publishing reports and lobbying the Knesset regarding the so-called ‘hostile takeover of Judea and Samaria.’”

“The Israeli Mission to the UN continues to push for recognition of the 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran. Together with the organization Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA), the mission hosted an event at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday to promote Ambassador Danny Danon’s initiative. Danon introduced the resolution on Tuesday during a General Assembly discussion marking 72 years since the UN’s historic November 29, 1947, partition plan vote. He called on the General Assembly to adopt a resolution recognizing the Jewish refugees.”

“So we’re headed for an election. It’s a 99-percent certainty. Unity is passé. Gantz will not back down. Netanyahu will not back down. The regime in the Balfour Street residence has been pushing for an election for a long time. They believe in playing for time. A third election could even spawn a fourth election. Throughout this whole period, the prime minister has been the prime minister of a transition government. He’s blocked, but is also blocking. He will not be budged.”

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is looking into direct elections for prime minister instead of a third election for the Knesset, he said on Thursday. ‘It’s starting to look interesting,’ he said in a briefing to journalists who joined him on his trip to Lisbon, where he met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Portuguese leaders.”

“The findings of the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment tests (PISA) that were released this week showed a significant gap between Hebrew and Arabic speakers in Israel for all three of the educational skills assessed — reading, mathematics and science — and revealed that the divide was even bigger than found in the last such test in 2015.”

“The life expectancy of residents of Israel differs sharply according to the particular city in which they live, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics. A resident of the ultra-Orthodox settlement Modi’in Ilit is likely to live until age 87.6, which is 8.6 years more than the average resident of the Israeli Arab town of Umm al-Fahm, where the average life expectancy is 79 years.”

“Israel’s Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev stole the show once again at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, reminding creatives that despite the current political deadlock, she remained committed to the idea of making public funding conditional on loyalty to the state.  Regev made her case at the 40th edition of the Israeli Union of Performing Artists’ (known by its Hebrew acronym EMI) annual ‘life achievement’ awards. ‘If you want to yell, this is the time,’ Regev said during her speech. ‘I will continue to insist that venues supported by public money shall not give the stage to lovers of shaheeds [martyrs] and subversives undermining our very existence as a Jewish and democratic state.’”

“Israel played a role in President Donald Trump’s reported plans to send an additional 14,000 troops to the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reported. Multiple reports citing unnamed officials say Trump is planning to deploy the troops to counter increased Iranian adventurism in the region. On the record, the Trump administration has denied the reports. On Wednesday, the Journal reported that the increase came in part at the behest of the Israeli government. Aides to the president reportedly also pushed for the increase.”

“Two Muslim US congresswomen have been targeted by a vast international operation that exploits far-right pages on Facebook to inflame Islamophobia for profit, a Guardian investigation has found. A mysterious Israeli-based group uses 21 Facebook pages to churn out more than a thousand coordinated fake news posts per week to more than a million followers around the world. It milks the traffic for revenue from digital advertising.  Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who earlier this year became the first Muslim women to serve in the US Congress, have been singled out for vicious attacks by the coordinated effort.”

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made progress on a defense pact between their countries in their meeting in Lisbon this week, Netanyahu said on Thursday. ‘The meeting with Pompeo was critical for Israeli security,” Netanyahu said of the discussion that took an hour and 45 minutes on Wednesday. “We agreed to promote a defense pact.’”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Morocco today for a one-day trip aimed boosting ties with a country that the State Department deemed a “critical partner” across a range of issues ahead of the visit. Pompeo is expected to discuss a broad array of topics with King Mohammed VI and top government officials including energy cooperation, Iran’s influence in the region and Rabat’s disputed control over the Western Sahara. Looming over the visit, however, is what embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu perceives as a historic opportunity to normalize relations between Morocco and Israel.”

“US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not discuss normalizing ties with Israel with Moroccan officials while visiting that country, a senior State Department official said Thursday.”

“Julian Castro, former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary and current Democratic presidential candidate, said on Thursday that if elected, he would keep the U.S. embassy in Israel in Jerusalem… Other candidates who’ve pledged to keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem include former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and author and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson…”

“Egypt is pressing Israel and Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip, to agree to a five-year ceasefire deal, Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds reported Wednesday, citing Palestinian officials. Israeli TV said Sunday that there had been ‘significant progress’ in Egypt’s mediation efforts with Hamas to achieve an agreement for a sustained period of calm in Gaza, also quoting Palestinian sources.”

“Hamas deputy chief in the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hayya, has denied that the terror group is moving to achieve a long-term ceasefire deal with Israel. ‘The talk about a calming for ten years or a halt of the resistance’s actions against the enemy is completely untrue,’ Hayya told the pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper in an interview published on Thursday.”

“Hezbollah’s years of fighting in Syria alongside Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Russian army officers have given the organization and its commanders critical experience in fields that were unfamiliar to them in the past. …the return to the south gives Hezbollah another advantage: The proximity of its top units to the border theoretically shortens the time it needs to carry out a surprise attack against Israel, in the nature of a move talked about it recent years – a surprise takeover of communities or Israeli army positions along the border.”

“Troops from the IDF’s 215 Artillery Division have completed a week-long tactical drill simulating war on the Lebanese front using a new operational concept aimed at producing a higher level of effectiveness on the battlefield. Hundreds of troops as well as officers, commanders and reservists from the 402nd and 55th battalions participated in the tactical drill taking place in the Jordan Valley, which began on Sunday. The level and size of the exercise is ‘something that has never happened before,’ 402nd Battalion Commander Lt.-Col. Udi Amir told The Jerusalem Post.”