Israel’s departing army chief on Friday warned against plans by Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition to grant more control to pro-settler politicians and make other changes to the Israeli security establishment, joining a chorus of criticism against the most right-wing government in the country’s history.
In several interviews with Israeli news outlets just days before he steps down, Lt Gen Aviv Kochavi took unusually sharp aim at Mr Netanyahu’s coalition agreements with hard-line Jewish settler activists who seek to entrench Israeli rule in the occupied West Bank, restructure the defence ministry and control a special paramilitary police unit.
“This is likely to cause damage and adversely affect our preparedness for war,” Gen Kochavi told the Israeli news site Ynet.
While the coalition deals have sparked furore from many segments of Israeli society, Gen Kochavi’s worries have deep significance. Among Jewish Israelis, the military is considered an emblem of stability and one of the country’s most trusted institutions.
Gen Kochavi expressed particular concern about the coalition’s plans to create three separate sources of authority in the West Bank. Mr Netanyahu gave his right-wing finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, control over an Israeli military body that regulates planning for Israeli settlements and Palestinian construction in parts of the West Bank where Israel maintains civilian control.
Mr Smotrich is an advocate of the outright annexation of parts of the West Bank that the Palestinians want for an independent state.
“There cannot be two commanding authorities [in the West Bank],” Gen Kochavi said. “The separation between us is not good and may cause damage and lead to a worse situation for all populations.”
Israel captured the West Bank in 1967 along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem — territory the Palestinians seek for a future state. Israel has established dozens of Jewish settlements home to about 500,000 Israelis who live alongside about 2.5 million Palestinians. Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.
Another move that Gen Kochavi fears could undermine the army’s chain of command in the West Bank stems from Mr Netanyahu’s agreement with Itamar Ben-Gvir, a right-wing politician whose views were so extreme that the army banned him from compulsory military service.
As national security minister, Ben-Gvir now oversees the paramilitary border police, which, until now, has worked under the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.
“The work that the border police is doing in Judea and Samaria is excellent and I hope that the situation remains just as it is today. The chain of authority must be maintained,” Gen Kochavi said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.
In other interviews, Gen Kochavi said he called Mr Netanyahu twice to warn him about the far-reaching consequences of the coalition’s moves for the cohesion of the defence establishment.
Mr Netanyahu has sought to assure the public — as well as the US and Israel’s European and Arab allies — that he has veto power over any changes that the far-right ministers make. But critics say he has so far failed to restrain his coalition partners.
After serving nearly four years as chief of staff, Gen Kochavi is preparing to hand over the reins to Maj Gen Herzi Halevi next week.
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In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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A Kensington Palace Gardens house with 15 bedrooms is valued at more than £150 million.
A three-storey penthouse at Chelsea Waterfront bought for £22 million.
Steel company Evraz drops more than 10 per cent in trading after UK officials said it was potentially supplying the Russian military.
Sale of Chelsea Football Club is now impossible.
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
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