Israeli Law Vesting War Power in Top Leaders Faces Criticism

Netanyahu is on video bragging about sabotaging the Oslo process. He has declared that there will be no Palestinian state and no Palestinian equality on his watch. This is the official policy of Israel's largest and most dominant political party, Likud(and of the many, many parties to its right.) Israel's president has echoed Netanyahu, claiming that the occupation will be permanent and that its end is not up for political debate. At no point in this "peace process" has Israel stopped building illegal settlements or ended its apartheid regime in the Occupied Territories. The fact is that Israel profits off of the occupation, that over 75 percent of Jewish Israelis oppose a 2 state solution and that no major Israeli party has any interest in making peace. Peace will only come from international pressure in the form of BDS, not from this farce which Israel sees as little more than a PR exercise as it controls the US Congress complete with getting it to donate $133 billion of US tax payer money & force the US to use its UN Sec. Council dozens of times to prevent the rest of the world from sanctioning the occupier state for its illegal land theft & brutal occupation of Palestine.

Iran was handed a path to becoming a nuclear power. Remember that most stringent inspection system of the universe of which John Kerry now says, well, maybe a few tweaks are needed, but didn't allow inspection of Iranian nuclear facilities? And the Iranian missile research that goes on, getting better and better missiles? It's at this point that Iran can be told that they won't be allowed to develop weapons of mass destruction, and they'll just have to stay in Iran and deal with their own problems. Including a set of leaders who long to become holy martyrs, and a 30% youth unemployment rate. Israel and Saudi Arabia don't need American and Russian military help at this point to stop Iran from rampaging through the Middle East from Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and on to the Mediterranean in Lebanon. Either let them put Iran back in its own nation now, or face a future where the world's superpowers will have to deal with a new Persian Empire with nuclear technology and a desire to see the world in flames.

Some of what I fear most these days are the tacit concessions, made beneath the facetious breath of distraction, that supposed democracies are granting to the increasing populist bent.

Let them have all the war they want without American support. Israel is real good at occupying other peoples' land.

"The Times " said that the Netanyahu show was like " a flair of stage magician" since all things he exposed are yet in th hands of experts IAEA official inspectors who monitor the Iranian atomic premises . There was an important lack in m Netanyahau speak: He never mentioned the existence in his arsenal of 500 atomic bombs ready for use and the huge quantity of rocket ready to launch them.. Maybe Israel has a special right to do what is forbidden for other countries?

You've got to be kidding, right? Israel is run by a criminal mad man who is facing charges that will get him into jail for many years to come and who needs a foreign enemy to distract from his problems at home. A prime minister who has just been caught at issuing a blatant lie as an excuse for going to war and who has lied repeatedly even in public hearings in the US. Israel is also committing war crimes by the dozen by bombing and killing in other countries. Israel is the only country in the region which has nuclear weapons unchecked by the IAEO. And this country has now passed a law that will give the proven liar and murderer it calls a Prime minister carte blanche for going to war without any further reason? This must be a Trump ally. Netanyahu is case for The Hague and then for decades of jail and medical care but not for any type of office. And now they have given him the trigger for an all out war he always wanted. BTW, the illustration shown in the picture was part of a presentation that still can be found on the internet - very secret indeed.

There Prime Minister is in trouble at home with corruption charges and to get the country to think less of his troubles a quick fix start a war with Iran. I feel congress in America and there legislature in Israel should be the only ones to decide to go to war. Now that Israel allows its corrupt leaders to go to war we need to distance ourself from there reckless war moves against Iran. Putin is there Allie and warned us all there will be international chaos if missiles are sent to there friends.

Afghanistan, then Iraq, then Syria/Yemen; Why not add one more war? It strikes sounds like a great idea! Besides Netanyahu's desire to bomb Iran, it is unclear what he plans on dong the "day after the bombing"? Iran is 4 times bigger in geographic size than Iraq. and has roughly 3 times Iraq's population. Considering our "success" in Iraq, are we really ready for Israel to drag us into a prolonged war with no clear plan for success/end-game? From Cuba to Vietnam, we need to remember our failures to project power when we don't know our final end-game. Bombing is not the end-game. It is the first quarter kick-off to a prolonged conflict.

In America, we have fallen through the rabbit hole since Trump's election. Now we know that a world with Trump and Netanyahu as leaders of two great nations is becoming the Land of OZ. If only Trump had a brain and Netanyahu a heart, the exercise of their war powers could be trusted. It will take the courage of the Lion's in the military, the press, and the citizenry to stand up against these two deeply flawed leaders. Like Trump, Netanyahu soils, cheapens, and diminishes anything he touches. Vesting war powers with him and his Defense Minster is like handing a blow torch to an angry arsonist. My the God of Abraham and Moses protect us from these deplorable dictatorial wannabes.

As a Vietnam veteran, I had to laugh somewhat the irony of the legislature conceding their authority to make war to the prime minister. The Knesset just gave Bibi their own version of a Gulf-of-Tonkin-like resolution that the Senate gave LBJ to escalate our disastrous war in Vietnam. They will rue their decision in the future just as we eventfully did. “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose,” as the French would say.

It’s much easier for Mr. Netanyahu’s to declare war. His war, not the U.S.’s war! Israel wants the U.S., it’s ally, to intervene in Iran. Americans have no idea of the damage our Politicians have done in the Middle East for oil and Israel. On behalf of the U.K., another ally, the CIA violently overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minster of Iran for oil. They then put in a puppet ruler who abused the Iranians, thus starting the mess we are in today! Many believe U.S. Politicians have been bought off by the powerful State of Israel lobby for dollars, votes or both. The U.S has lost thousands of American lives, other countries hundreds of thousands, and the U.S. has borrowed and spent trillions of dollars in the Middle East. Trump says $7 trillion! Why? Oil and Israel. The U.S. is moving away from foreign oil. Israel is 70 years-old, highly educated, and prosperous. Israel must work to get along with its neighbors and not on the backs of U.S. taxpayers or with American lives. We must find a way to hold self-interested and self-enriching Politicians and their staffers, from both parties, personally liable, responsible and accountable for the lies they have told US, their gross mismanagement of our county, our $21T and growing national debt (108% of GDP), and approximately 80T in future, unfunded liabilities jeopardizing our economic and national security, while benefiting themselves, their party, and special interest donors. http://www.usdebtforum.com 

Ok, ‘No Peace on My Watch’ Netanyahu. A for taking a play out of the Trump TV playbook. I hope you had Dermer personally deliver the Macca’s Cheeseburger. Let ‘em rip! Just not in our name, and not with our ‘Foreign Aid’, and not with the weapons we sell you to get our ‘Foreign Aid’ back. You break it, you own it.

I do hope that the military personnel in Israël will not obey an order for war from Netanyahu.

And I suppose they don’t have to give up their nukes either?! What Chutzpah!

Remember when Israel’s war-making was portrayed primarily as defensive? It’s survival was threatened by surrounding Arab nations. Recent history indicates that Israel is an offensive belligerent. Shoot first and deflect questions later. This most recent war powers act is symptomatic of a wider trend of rubber stamp Democracy. It is the appearance of representative government with increased concentration of actual power. This has happened in the US since 911. Other nations (the Philippines, Turkey) are more fascistic. Frankly, the US does not support client state democracies; the better to do business. Netanyahu is clearly determined to push the envelope regarding war as far as the US will allow. But with, so called, democracies increasingly compromised by commerce and ideology who will stop the march toward war?

If Israel wants to go to start a war with Iran then they should be in their own. The US doesn't need to get involved other than letting our defense contractors sell them weapons at full price.

Isreal is an autonomous nation and can well take military action to defend itself. In like regard, so is the U.S., and we reserve our right not to get involved both militarily and financially - especially if Netanyahu is stirring the pot to deflect from his own legal problems at home.

Extremely dangerous.

Netanyahu, Pompeo, Bolton and Trump. The four horsemen of the Iranian Apocalypse. Seriously.

Any similarities between NETANYAHU and TRUMP and PUTIN and ERDOGAN yes, they all can go to war with out their parlimant's ok. they are all stilling from their people, and they are representing the free world and tell to the second world countries how to run their countries, they do not like Muslims JEWS? , BLACKS IMMIGRANTS , and the name of this kind people is DICTATORS

How Trump-like. I guess we should expect as much from our puppet masters in Israel.

Do we see any analogies here? At least the Israelis are smart enough to limit the existential impulses of a fringe leader. Elections soon: “we’ll see”.

Any similarities between Netanyahu and Trump is purely coincidental.

It's truly amazing how much higher the bar is for Israel compared to its neighbors. Israel can never do right as opposed to Saudi Arabia and its dictatorial Prince whose pr machine worked triple-time to dupe Western newspapers, including this one, about what a thoughtful leader the new Prince is. Ridiculous. A little litmus test: when was the last time you went to a gay wedding in Saudi Arabia, the West Bank, or any other Arab or Muslim country? Answer: never. Israel on the other hand? Gays serve in their cabinet.

Another step in the wrong direction by an extremist government that does not see itself responsible to the public. Their hopes for an apartheid state are not parallel to apartheid with the entire public, separating the government from review. Traditionally Israelis have not let these types of actions to stand, booting out the government at first opportunity. Hopefully the sane part of Israel will coalesce and act appropriately.

At least there are two people in Israel to take the nation to war. It only takes one in the Democratic Republic of USA.

Get ready for a war on Iran.

Netanyahu is leading Trump like a bull to a fight with Iran. And the sycophants in his government are enabling him the same way the Republican handmaidens in the Congress and Senate are enabling the narcissistic, pathologically lying, con artist in the White House. This is just like when Bush, Powell, etc., used lies about "weapons of mass destruction" to lead us into the war with Iraq. It's amazing how much these leaders are all looking alike: Putin, Orban, Xi, Trump, Duterte, and the bozo in Venezuela who's managed to make a once wealthy oil-producing country a destitute shambles. Most people pay no attention to the lessons of history. And most people can't ever envision the worst of what's to come.

Like Trump in America, Netanyahu is making democracy unrecognizable in Israel!

As a Jew, I’d like to say the world would be better off without the current state of Israel.

Netanyahu will bring peace to the Middle East, by destroying everything in a mushroom cloud. Guess he would be up for the last Nobel Peace Prize, if anyone was around

You guys are too much! Attack Iran on your own!

Israel is careening toward a war in the Middle East that will draw in it's closest allies. The right wing government lead by Netanyahu has no intention of negotiating peace or making Arabs living within it's boundaries full participating citizens. Are there any liberal or even moderate voices left in Knesset? Menachem Begin must be rolling over in his grave.

We saw American attacking Iraq for the same reason. The result is chaos. Attacking Iran will truly threaten the stability of Israel in the middle east.

This is a very sad day for Israeli democracy. The Likud coalition couldn't have considered the ramifications Parliament's actions. How does the Knesset take back its role as a check on runaway power in the hands of these two men? Israel is always on a heightened state of alert because of Iran, Syria. Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hamas & other armed groups; any new circumstance can be spun as "extreme". Mr. Netanyahu is extremely corrupt & facing charges, it would be very easy for him & his defense minister to rationalize a situation to be extreme. By the time the government, courts & military can respond to stop one of his adventures, Israel could be in a very serious war with no clear path out of it!

So we have a two bit country who runs the GOP willing to start wars in the Middle East and then guess who has to bail them out like we did each time. When is enough, enough?

Rather than treat this law, which will immediately be challenged in court, in a complete vacuum, it would have been helpful for the reporter to inform us of to how other democracies handle the issue. In the US, while Congress alone has the constitutional authority to declare war and its 1973 War Powers Act sought (albeit unsuccessfully) to curb presidential encroachment on that power, it certainly seems that the US President can engage in hostilities without prior congressional approval. Who decides this issue in the UK or France, for instance. And to imply that any leader would go to war without prior consultation with their military (you do need a plan, after all, as well as an idea of whether you'll succeed) and diplomatic personnel (you usually need allies, if not for political cover then for munitions) is simply foolish. Without such context, Israel is once again being held to some hypothetical standard of perfection not expected of any other nation.

What is much more remarkable is that the United States Constitution vests the power to make war in Congress and yet Congress has ceded its power to the President. How many wars has the U.S. fought back to and including Vietnam? How many of those wars was actually declared by Congress? Zero.

Bibi is going on the same path that Putin and Erdogan went before him. He started as a democratic leader, and as the years went by, he started cracking down on free speech, free press, consolidating more power than prime ministers usually have had, and became more corrupt. next on his list, limiting the power of the supreem court. What a shame!

Can't help wondering, if Netanyahu stopped threatening, wouldn't the threat disappear?

It's not like the cabinet is not filled with bloodthirsty warmongers. But it is significant that each step towards more authoritarian control is grabbed at.

I'd note that even with these extreme and ill advised changes, it's a toss up as to whether Mr. Netanyahu is more restrained, de facto or de jure, than an American president.

Israel is the only country in the Middle east that has bombed all its neighbours. The World has forgotten that Israel is the aggressor , occupying foreign land that does not belong to him. Russia receives sanctions for its occupation of Crimea ( which has always been Russian ) and Israel received more weapons to continue its occupation. What is the difference between the treatment of Palestinians under Israel with the treatment of Rohningyas under Myanmar ? Geography.

This is the country we keep calling the great democracy in the middle east? Please.

It makes sense that the PM should have the right to order a defense of the country, but to declare war should be should be a joint undertaking in any country.

This is a recipe for confrontation authorized by a wannabe dictator and a sidekick. If it was extreme circumstances, are you telling me that the rest of the Israeli government wouldn't concur with retaliation So, Netenyahu will be permitted to provoke Iran or others as done in Syria, and if they retaliate are you telling me he won't claim the license to attack Iran on their soil--namely suspected nuclear facilities as "extreme circumstances and an "appropriate" response? Netenyahu is not to be trusted for doing the right thing. And with a stooge Trump to back them up--I fear for the rest of the world

This is not much different than America's AUMF. It gave the POTUS carte blanche to wage war, taking Congress' role out of the equation. And now look who has 1,500+ nuclear weapons plus an AUMF.

like a slow moving truck, israel and the u.s. have carefully, thoughtfully, and incrementally brought the world to a precipice. as the body count rises at the border fence, as the american embassy move draws near, and as the 70th anniversary looms over nakba, the dahiya doctrine waits patiently in the wings for her moment on the 15th. decades of preparation have brought us here. will the u.s stand by, will the world stand by. will iran, turkey, and the kurds stand by. will the centrifuges start turning. will israel join the iaea, will iran leave it. the stage is most certainly set

Israeli Parliament Gives War Power to 2 Top Leaders [ This is terrifying, even with a cabinet that supports the prime minister. What has happened to the concept of democracy? ]

For at least a few decades, the balance has been shifting from democracy to dictatorship throughout most of the world. Perhaps journalists should investigate the root causes, which might include corruption of established political processes as well as intractable problems politicians fear to address.

Can't believe Israel is giving Netanyahu, who is under indictment, the power to commence war, especially in that our huge amount of aid has helped finance Israel's purchase of weapons. Netanyahu's unilateral acts, should not influence, nor mandate our participation in such a war, especially with Iran. Netanyahu is out of control.