The Israeli military says it has approved operational plans for an offensive against Hezbollah.
The Israeli military says its Northern Command has approved operational plans for war with Lebanon.
Israel is ready for an “all-out war” in Lebanon and has plans approved for an offensive targeting Hezbollah, officials have said.
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in border fighting since shortly after the start of the war on Gaza, following the October 7 attacks on Israel. The confrontation is increasingly expanding, with both sides saying they are ready to go to war.
More than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, including journalists and paramedics, over the past eight months, with 25 deaths in Israel. At least 90,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, and more than 60,000 have been forced from their homes in northern Israel.
I hear Putin is a dictator and there are tons of evidence. I hear Xi is a dictator and there are tons of evidence. The evidence you gave (an article with words from one person) is laughable at best, sorry. Israeli people seem to live just fine under Netanyahu. Also it doesn't seem probable that he would attack Gaza if the October 7 attack didn't happen (and people are having a hard time trying to prove that he somehow made it possible). Same with Lebanon.
You're acting ignorant with the last sentence. There is no line between democracies and dictatorships. There is a long way until we could call Israel a dictatorship. When they will marsh the streets after some next elections get cancelled (unconstitutionally), and huge numbers get arrested, then we'll talk.
What exactly would you call a government where a single person acts as a unitary executive and gets everything they want and when people go against him, he just gets rid of them?
You don't need to ask me how I prefer calling a regime in a country in order to make it look bad. I don't have such preferences. There are people suffering in any country including yours, and their lives could get better with new elections. This is not an extraordinary situation.
I don't need to invent words for Israel. I would call it bad when I see it does terrible things to its own people. This is not a case for now and from what I know, there is no imminent conflict/crisis between government and citizens. That's aside from the war conflict/intervention situation of course. I would also appreciate hamas if they did a better job at governing gaza, but instead they bombed it with inaccurate missiles as a side effect of trying to harm Israel. This is a huge difference - I call the Palestinian regime bad because of that, and suggest they could manage it much better. When compared to Israel, I don't see much obvious room for improvement (I don't see a lot of Israeli people suffering) and thus I can't call it bad.
You're changing the subject by trying to describe it with unsuitable words. Your actual thought is that it's bad and should be changed, but you first tried calling it a dictatorship, then autocracy. People of Israel aren't living in such conditions yet. Better just get back to "doing war is bad" stance.
Now... if it is neither an autocracy nor a dictatorship, what is Israel's form of government. Surely you aren't trying to suggest that Israel has no government.
As I said before, there is no line. You can't assume some regime fell into the other side after a short time. These things develop for years. Or could you try to classify the US regime? Surely it's not a democracy when people can only choose between 2.
At this point it's clear that the reason you can't tell me what form of government Israel has is because you know it's a dictatorship and you can't think of a way to admit that while also maintaining that it isn't one.
Also, the U.S. is a constitutional republic, not a democracy. Classified and done.
The Israeli regime enacts in all the territory it contols (Israeli sovereign territory, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip) an apartheid regime. One organizing principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians.
B’Tselem rejects the perception of Israel as a democracy (inside the Green Line) that simultaneously upholds a temporary military occupation (beyond it). B’Tselem reached the conclusion that the bar for defining the Israeli regime as an apartheid regime has been met after considering the accumulation of policies and laws that Israel devised to entrench its control over Palestinians.
President Joe Biden has said that there is “every reason” to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is continuing his assault on Gaza for political gain, appearing to acknowledge that Netanyahu is not interested in pulling out of the region despite the Biden administration’s insistence that the latest ceasefire deal is backed by Israel.
Protesters demanding new elections in Israel clashed with police near the Jerusalem house of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday after he dissolved the government's War Cabinet, leaving him as the unquestioned decision-maker regarding the eight-month-old conflict in Gaza.
Not helping. Apartheid or not, my criteria is how well government cares about its citizens, and that term ignores that. Political gain or not, my stance is that it started with October 7th attack, which was not prepared by current Israeli government, therefore it's correct to blame another party. Protesters doing their thing is good for everyone, we should start worrying when they are unable to do that anymore due to oppressive laws, police raids etc.
Sure, if you ignore the discrimination and inequality of the millions of Palestinian citizens of Israel, on top of the millions within the Occupied Territories that have been under Israeli Military Control since 1967. If you ignore all of that, then your criteria of 'how well government cares about its citizens' could make sense.
Yet holding elections is not enough. Totalitarian regimes also engage in a process they refer to as “elections,” but this does not make them democracies. Democratic elections must reflect core principles such as equality, liberty and freedom of expression. These allow not only the act of voting itself, but also the free exchange of ideas and meaningful participation in shaping the future. Democratic elections must also ensure one vote for every citizen that is exactly equal to all others, and allow all citizens to run for office, present their platforms and work to further their agendas. Legal restrictions on voting and on running for office must be extremely limited, if at all permitted.
Roughly 5.5 million Palestinian subjects live in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967: about 3.5 million in the West Bank (including roughly 350,000 in East Jerusalem) and some 2 million in the Gaza Strip. None of them are allowed to vote or run for Knesset, and they have no representation in the political institutions that dictate their lives.
Your criteria doesn't make sense, and ignores the reality of Apartheid. If you consider a democracy based on equality, liberty and freedom of expression, and also consider all aspects of the Apartheid Regime; Israel falls tremendously short of being a Democracy.
have been under Israeli Military Control since 1967.
You didn't see the comment tree? It's about Netanyahu. Are you going to pretend he is responsible for all of that?
If you ignore all of that
When we're talking about whether or not some person is a dictator - yes, its irrelevant. Dictatorship is about having a power against the will of too many citizens, also silencing them, jailing them, killing them etc.
If you consider a democracy
Don't need that. There are not 2 types of government. It may not be a democracy, but it's similarly difficult to qualify as a dictatorship.
Palestinian citizens are about 20% of Israeli population. Black people are about 14% of the US population. Both of them hold legal citizenships and rights but often face disparities. Does that make the US an apartheid by your logic?
It's about Netanyahu. Are you going to pretend he is responsible for all of that?
Considering he's part of the Likud party which was created out of the Lehi and Irgun, it's certainly relevant.
Dictatorship is about having a power against the will of too many citizens, also silencing them, jailing them, killing them etc.
That is the reality for Palestinians, yes
Palestinian citizens are about 20% of Israeli population. Black people are about 14% of the US population. Both of them hold legal citizenships and rights but often face disparities. Does that make the US an apartheid by your logic?
Again, you are conveniently ignoring the Palestinians within the Occupied Territories. And yes, America during Chattel Slavery, where Black people did not have citizenship, was certainly a form of Apartheid.
Whatever you prefer calling occupied territories, I don't consider a subject for dictatorship. Dictatorship is something I consider an internal state of the country, so no other territories should affect it. An aggression on neighbouring territories can be a result of dictatorship but never a reason for it. So whatever is going on with "occupied" territories is not a subject for this discussion for me.