Did someone forget to tell Benny Gantz that Donald Trump is no longer the United States president?
It certainly looked that way last Friday as Israel's defence minister - who has been presented as a force for moderation in an Israeli government led by the settler right - declared six leading Palestinian human rights groups to be "terrorist organisations".
The move effectively outlaws the most prominent organisations in the Palestinian human rights community.
Despite the eternal bonds so often lauded by Israeli and US officials, President Joe Biden's administration appeared to be caught off-guard by the announcement, despite claims from Israel that Washington had been forewarned.
Israeli officials were reported on Sunday to be preparing to fly to the US to share intelligence justifying the new "terror list".
The targeted groups - most funded by European states - include those assisting farmers and promoting women's rights and democratic values, as well as others documenting Israeli violations of the rights of prisoners and children, and exposing war crimes.
Israel offered no evidence that any of the Palestinian lawyers, field researchers, community organisers and press officers that staff these organisations are carrying weapons or making bombs.
Shawan Jabareen, director of al-Haq, one of the organisations listed, noted the obvious paradox: "Gantz says we are a terror organisation when he himself is a war criminal".
Al-Haq has been at the forefront of efforts by the Palestinian human rights community to supply evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague that Israeli military commanders and politicians have been responsible for war crimes against Palestinians.
Gantz, for example, was head of the Israeli military back in 2014 when it laid waste to parts of Gaza, killing at least 1,450 civilians, including some 550 children. He later boasted that he had sent Gaza "back to the Stone Age".
Murky narrativeSo how exactly does Israel think most of the Palestinian human rights community qualifies as "terrorists"?
The indications so far are that Israel plans to construct a murky narrative for western capitals based on supposedly secret evidence tying the organisations financially to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
It has spoken vaguely of the human rights groups being "controlled by senior [PFLP] leaders" and acting as a "central source" of money for the PFLP by redirecting "large sums of money from European countries and international organisations".
There is a twofold advantage for Israel in presenting its claim this way.
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