Former Israeli negotiator's perspective on the war in Gaza

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The Israel-Palestine conflict is a deeply complex and sensitive issue that has spanned decades, causing immense suffering for both Israelis and Palestinians. Finding a resolution to this conflict is crucial for peace and stability in the region.

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21 Dec 2023

In this episode of #CentreStage, Daniel Levy discusses the war in Gaza from historical, inter-faith, and geopolitical perspectives. Levy is the president of the U.S./Middle East Project, and served as an Israeli negotiator at Taba under Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin during Oslo B negotiations.
Daniel Levy discusses the Palestinian right of return, the consequences of the Oslo negotiations, and addresses anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Dareen Abughaida is a principal presenter at Al Jazeera English TV.

This episode is produced in partnership with the Islam and Muslims Initiative, an international platform that connects Muslims and non-Muslims in the realms of religion, politics, business, media, academia and civil society.

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23 Nov 2023

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's recent comments on CNN have sparked widespread outrage. Barak admitted that Israel itself had built bunkers under Al-Shifa hospital, allegedly utilised by Hamas.

This revelation has led to vehement reactions from Israeli figures like Kobi Peretz and Natalie Dadon, with Israeli officials emphasising Hamas' misuse of these spaces for terror activities.

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Retired Lebanese Army General Elias Hanna discusses Israel-Palestine conflict and unpacks the role played by Golani Brigade in the Gaza attacks.

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Osama Hamdan, senior member of Hamas’ political bureau, talks to TRT World about the Israel-Palestine conflict, explaining why Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

Comment Pieter: "Very coloured interview, neglecting the atrocities committed at 7 October 2023". "The deliberated killing of elderly people, women and children and very brutal rapes and gang rapes of Israeli women and girls and non Israeli women and girls, including genital mutilation of the female sexual parts and beheadings."

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20 Oct 2023

The Nir Oz kibbutz was among the hardest-hit communities by Hamas when the militant group launched surprise attacks in Israel. Survivors said one in four people were either killed or kidnapped in the kibbutz, which lies within view of southern Gaza.



23 Oct 2023
Israeli govt led by Benjamin Netanyahu released unseen footage of the deadly attacks launched by Hamas militants on October 7 in Israel. Israel released "raw and unedited footage" of Hamas' atrocities on the October 7 weekend as captured by Hamas militants' bodycams. Watch for details.

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23 Dec 2023

The 'little Hitler' fooled Israel by lying low before launching Oct 7 attack and now Yahya Sinwar is perhaps the world’s most-wanted terrorist. Sinwar is Number 2 in the Hamas leadership after Ismail Haniyeh, head of the organisation's political bureau. Believed to be hiding in the labyrinth of tunnels beneath Gaza, the 'little Hitler' has so far eluded capture. The inflexible 61-year-old Palestinian leader has proven all those in Israel who had already written him off as a dead man, wrong.

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Haytham Faraj, lawyer and former US Army Commander, talks to TRT World about the Israel-Palestine conflict and explains whether Israel is headed for defeat.

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Israeli scholar on Palestinian fighters: Unyielding spirit beyond military strategy

15 Dec 2023
155,863 views • 15 Dec 2023
Mordechai Kedar, an Israeli scholar, delves into the mindset of Hamas fighters, highlighting their deep-seated religious belief and endurance. Kedar points out, “Even if only one of Hamas remained, with a severed leg and hand, he would stand on the remains of a destroyed mosque and raise his two fingers in a victory sign.”

He stresses that for Hamas, survival and continuation through generations signify victory, reflecting a mindset vastly different from traditional military thinking.


Mordechai Kedar



Mordechai Kedar (Hebrew: מרדכי קידר, pronounced [moʁdeˈχaj keˈdaʁ]; born 25 November 1952) is an Israeli scholar of Arab culture and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, and the vice president of NEWSRAEL.

Biography

Mordechai Kedar was born in Tel Aviv. His Polish-Jewish parents moved to Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s.[3] Kedar's first language was Yiddish.

Kedar is a Religious Zionist and an expert in Israeli Arab culture. He served for 25 years in IDF Military Intelligence, where he specialized in Islamic groups, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic press and mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena.

He holds a Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University. He is fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. He is described as "one of the few Arabic-speaking Israeli pundits seen on Arabic satellite channels defending Israel".


Peace proposal

Since 2012, Kedar has promoted a Palestinian-Israeli peace plan referred to as the "Palestinian Emirates" or "Eight-State Solution".

According to Kedar, "The eight-state solution is based on the sociology of the Middle East, which has the tribe as the major cornerstone of society. We should follow this characteristic of Middle Eastern culture as the basis for the Israeli-Palestinian solution." He says that the Western-style nation-state structures imposed on regions inhabited by multiple tribes such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Libya are failed or failing, whereas states based on homogenous tribes such as the United Arab Emirates can succeed.

The eight Palestinian city-states would be the Gaza Strip, Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Jericho, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, and the Arab part of Hebron, all of which he says possess traditional tribal leadership structures capable of transitioning to a self-governing emirate. Geographically, each emirate would govern its city and surrounding land. Each state could independently decide its own form of government, make its own laws, educate its own people, and print its own currency if it wishes, as well as have its own media, develop its own industry and commerce, or have its people find employment within Israel. This structure gives control and responsibility to local residents to decide their own future.

Kedar says this proposal would result in self-governance and self-determination for the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs, with the remaining (sparsely populated) area of the West Bank to be annexed by Israel and its residents offered Israeli citizenship. As part of the arrangement, Israel would provide free passage of people and goods between each city-state and internationally. This proposal also satisfies Israeli security concerns, retaining strategic depth and minimizing the threat of rockets or terror tunnels.

Views and controversies

Status of Jerusalem

Kedar said in June 2008, on Al Jazeera, that, "Jerusalem belongs to the Jews, period".

Rape only deterrent against suicide bombers

In July 2014, he said that threats to kill or imprison terrorists are an ineffective deterrent stating: "the only thing that deters them is if they know that their sister or their mother will be raped in the event that they are caught." A further joint statement by Kedar and Bar-Ilan University further clarified his point, stating "he did not call and is not calling to fight terror except by legal and moral means", and that:

"[Kedar] wanted to illustrate that there is no means of deterring suicide bombers, and using hyperbole, he gave the rape of women as an example. In order to remove all doubt: Dr. Kedar's words do not, God forbid, contain a recommendation to commit such despicable acts. The intention was to describe the culture of death of the terror organizations. Dr. Kedar was describing the bitter reality of the Middle East and the inability of a modern and liberal law-abiding country to fight against the terror of suicide bombers."

Cancelled speeches

In December 2014, the Finchley United Synagogue in London cancelled a speech by Kedar that had been organized through the local chapter of the Zionist Federation. On the same week, scheduled appearances at three Jewish schools were cancelled after protests regarding his association with Pamela Geller, an anti-Islam organizer from the U.S., who was banned from the U.K. the previous year. The cancellation was met with mixed reactions; the federation chair defended Kedar, and said that he had been the victim of a smear campaign, while political scientist Michael Pinto-Duschinsky said that Kedar was "toxic for interfaith relations" in the U.K. Kedar has been on the board of advisors of Geller's organization Stop Islamization of Nations (SION).

Conspiracy theory on Rabin murder

In a rally to support Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on the 30 October 2019, Kedar raised a conspiracy theory and suggested Yigal Amir is not the assassin of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. That idea was rejected publicly by Prime Minister Netanyahu on the following day.

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7 Dec 2023

“It’s the only state in the world that lobbies for its existence. Not for its policies. Not for its better economic performance, but for it’s very moral justification, and it’s losing that battle.”

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe says that Israel is a settler colonial project which may be coming to an end. He warns that settler colonial projects reaching their last phase become more “brutal and ruthless”.

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24 Oct 2023
An American Jewish woman shares her personal experiences of living in Israel and the Palestinian territories. She brings attention to the harsh realities of occupation, including the use of surveillance cameras in Palestinian homes, autonomous weapons activated by video footage, and the dehumanizing effects of a system analogous to apartheid. The woman contends that the occupation is not rooted in religious or historical rationale, but rather driven by power, control, and white supremacy.

She draws a correlation between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the historical mistreatment of Native Americans in the United States.

The woman expresses compassion towards her friends who have suffered loss and the resilient Palestinians who face ongoing hardships without access to essential resources like water.

She emphasizes that the ongoing denial of basic human rights and dignity serves as a catalyst for resistance.