Author: Micha Gefen

Micha is a government policy analyst for Israel Rising.
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Knesset Committee Votes to Recognize the Armenian Genocide

Although the general Knesset never passed a law recognizing the Armenian genocide that didn’t stop the Education, Culture, and Sports committee from recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915.

“It is our moral obligation to recognize the holocaust of the Armenian nation,” said the committee Chairman MK Zehava Galon of Meretz in a joint statement formulated with MK Yaakov Margi (Shas). The Ottoman Turks massacred 1.5 million Armenians in World War 1. With a relatively large amount of Armenians in Jerusalem, pressure has been put on Israel over the years to recognize the genocide.

“Each year we instill false hope in the people sitting here,” said Galon. “It is a disservice to the Knesset to continue going on and on about this issue, year after year, without reaching a decision that the State of Israel and the Knesset recognize the genocide of the Armenian people.”

With Turkey agreeing to the rapproachment deal with Israel, it would be surprising if Israel would officially agree to recognize Turkey’s responsibility in the genocide.

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Yehuda Glick: “A 15-year-old boy is not a ‘ticking bomb'”

Yehuda Glick

A special ministrial committee met on a specific case concerning the forced distancing of a 15 year old boy from his parents home in Yitzhar on the grounds that he engaged in violence towards Arabs.

MK Yehuda Glick was present at the meeting. “This kind of sentence ought to be reserved for emergency situations in which there is a ‘ticking bomb.’ A 15-year-old boy is not a ‘ticking bomb,'” Glick said. “If there is a suspicion that he is going to vandalize a mosque or punch a hole in some car tires, then there are ways to deal with this. The boy has no criminal background […] the means used against him are extraneous.”

Glick connected the plight of the boy to his own situation. “The police fought against me, libeled me, demonized me, made me out as the most dangerous man in the Middle East – thank G-d, the court awarded me damages.”

“The police justified their behavior by saying that I had wanted to disrupt the status quo. A citizen in a democratic country is allowed to want to change the status quo. There is a feeling that security forces are taking on a role that goes beyond their function – that of ‘educator of the correct ideology.”

The police have increasingly used their authority to force youth from Judea and Samaria to suffer harsh conditions by being distanced from their families or even jailed with no charges.

 

 

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Erdogan Restructuring Turkish Military, Ending Its Historic Independence

President Erdogan, continuing to utilize the failed coup attempt of 18 days ago, has ended the historic division between the army and government that has existed for nearly a century.

Wiping the last visages  military independence, Erdogan’s government made statutory decree as par of the three-month emergence decree that the prime minister, chief of General Staff, the deputy prime ministers, justice minister, foreign minister, interior minister, defense minister and force commanders would join to the Supreme Military Council.

This injection of “civilian” governance into the military would be fine in any other country, but in Turkey the Supreme Military Council was designed to remain separate in order to ensure that Turkey would remain secular in its institutions.  In a strange sense it is the military that was built to hold up democracy.

Turkey’s war academies, military high schools, and high schools that train non-commissioned officers have been closed.

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US Begins Airstrikes in Libya Against ISIS Targets

Responding to the UN backed government in Libya’s request for help against ISIS, the US began bombing strategic areas in Libya.

Ironically the core stronghold of ISIS is the hometown of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Sirte is extra important to ISIS as it is a Mediterranean coastal city across the sea from Europe. This makes the second most important conquest outside of Syria and Iraq.

The US bombing campaign is focused mainly on pushing the ISIS militants from Sirte in order to allow the Libyan government to go in and take over.

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Cracks Forming in Bibi Netanyahu’s Coalition as Bennett and Likud Trade Accusations

“I will not take back my criticism of the preparations for the tunnel threat,”Bennett told Army Radio. “The comptroller’s report is trustworthy and serious.” According to leaks from the soon to be released comprtoller report. State Comptroler Yosef Shapira accused Prime Minister Netanyau and then Defense Minister of not providing the security cabinet with real-time updates in connection with an imminent threat of war and Hamas’ tunnel capabilities.

The tension in the government conintued into Monday as Likud released a statement attacking Bennett and Shaked for serving the Left by undermining the Prime Minister.

“As I have said, the reality can’t be changed retroactively. I have full faith in the State Comptroller and his professionalism,” Bennett reitereated. “I have 100 percent, complete trust in the findings that he will release in another few weeks.”

The confrontation has gotten to the point where Finance Minister Moshe Kachlon insited: “We need to send this government on vacation. Send them out, urgently, before we have to institutionalize them, the whole government.”