All posts tagged: Netanyahus

Netanyahu’s speech in Congress comes amid agony in Gaza

Netanyahu’s speech in Congress comes amid agony in Gaza

Published by Sam

You’re reading an excerpt from the WorldView newsletter. Sign up to get the rest free, including news from around the globe and interesting ideas and opinions to know, sent to your inbox on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks to U.S. lawmakers, Israel’s polarizing leader gets to eclipse Winston Churchill. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday afternoon will mark the fourth time he has been invited to deliver such an address, surpassing the wartime British prime minister whose bust once sat prominently in the White House. Netanyahu has frequently styled himself as Israel’s indispensable warrior statesman, but it’s unlikely his statue will grace the Oval Office anytime soon. The Israeli premier has a long history of turning friendly U.S. presidents into pawns in his own political battles, and using set pieces in Washington as platforms for his own campaigns in Israel. “One thing Netanyahu’s four speeches to Congress as premier have in common is that they were all made at the invitation of a Republican leadership on Capitol Hill …

Netanyahu’s Folly – The Atlantic

Netanyahu’s Folly – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration. On Wednesday, Benjamin Netanyahu will receive an ovation in the United States Congress, at least from a large swath of the chamber. But he hardly deserves one. More than 100 Israeli hostages—some alive, many dead—remain trapped in Gaza because of his failure to aggressively pursue a deal for their release. His strident refusal to ponder the postwar governance of Gaza means that anarchy and misery will prevail there for the indefinite future—conditions that terrorists almost always exploit. With his coalition fraying and his political future in doubt, Netanyahu has begun resorting to an old political instinct: He’s picked a diversionary fight with a Democratic president. Last month, he recorded a video falsely accusing Joe Biden’s administration of depriving Israel of the weapons it needs to win the war against Hamas. And upon his arrival in the U.S., he will embrace Biden’s political opponent, Donald Trump, and bask in the adulation of the president’s strident Republican critics. Although a skirmish with Biden might help Netanyahu …

Biden and Netanyahu’s fraught relationship hits new low

Biden and Netanyahu’s fraught relationship hits new low

Published by skeptic

“It’s definitely an earthquake.” That’s how American diplomat Richard Haass described the stunning declaration by U.S. President Joe Biden that his administration would stop supplying certain weapons to Israel if it went ahead with a planned invasion of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. “This was building up for a while, and Rafah was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Haass, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations and policy advisor during the George W. Bush administration, said in an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “There’s real skepticism in the administration that Rafah will bring about a deal for the hostages, like the Israelis have been saying.” The last several weeks have seen a fraught back and forth between Israel and Hamas and the Qatari, Egyptian and American mediators trying to come up with a deal that will allow a cease-fire between the warring parties and a release of the hostages still held by the Palestinian militant group. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long pushed for an invasion of Rafah — Gaza’s southernmost …

Editorial: Biden’s limit on bomb shipments may finally get Netanyahu’s attention

Editorial: Biden’s limit on bomb shipments may finally get Netanyahu’s attention

Published by skeptic

In quietly halting a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel last week, President Biden at last began exercising U.S. leverage to halt a full-scale invasion of Rafah, the final refuge in Gaza for about a million Palestinians displaced by Israeli destruction elsewhere in the besieged territory. It’s the right move, even though Israel may have a sufficient stockpile from previous U.S. shipments to press forward. Biden has tried to walk a line between supporting Israel in its effort to destroy Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed about 1,200 people, and pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit civilian casualties. Until now, that pressure came only in the form of words. The Gaza death toll is nearing 35,000, and much of the strip has been obliterated. Survivors face starvation because Israel cut off access to corridors for delivery of food and other humanitarian assistance. Pressure from Biden succeeded in reopening some aid routes, but Israel has since limited their use. Israeli has launched airstrikes in Rafah and its troops and …

Netanyahu’s political survival in hands of far-right ministers | Israel

Netanyahu’s political survival in hands of far-right ministers | Israel

Published by skeptic

Israel’s national security minister presented himself before the television cameras to make a statement on Sunday, shortly after leaving a meeting with the country’s prime minister. Invoking divine support, Itamar Ben-Gvir said he had “warned the prime minister that if God forbids it, Israel will not enter a ceasefire”. He said Benjamin Netanyahu “promised that Israel would enter Rafah, that the war would not end, and promised that there will be no irresponsible deal”. The following Tuesday, Israeli troops had entered the Philadelphi corridor on the southern border with Egypt and taken control of the Rafah border crossing, hoisting Israeli flags from the terminal. The sequencing of the two events was revealing. Faced once again with the threat posed by a fringe and extremist politician – who Netanyahu had elevated into government – the prime minister had given every appearance of blinking, underlining his reliance on far-right coalition allies such as Ben-Gvir and the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich. The two are widely assessed to hold Netanyahu’s future political survival in their hands. While Netanyahu could …

There’s one thing standing in the way of a ceasefire: Netanyahu’s refusal to compromise | Simon Tisdall

There’s one thing standing in the way of a ceasefire: Netanyahu’s refusal to compromise | Simon Tisdall

Published by skeptic

The latest twists and turns in negotiations to end the war in Gaza appear labyrinthine and confusing. But it’s really not that complicated. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, must compromise on the outstanding details of the proposed ceasefire deal and Hamas’s weekend counter-offer – and immediately halt Israel’s criminal bombing of Gaza and reckless military incursions into refugee-populated areas around Rafah. For its part, Hamas must honour previous understandings about the staged release of Israeli hostages and cease its crude, last-minute haggling, especially about exactly how many Palestinian detainees, and which ones, are freed in return. Its priority should be alleviating the plight of Gaza’s civilians, not scoring points. Its demands that Israel agree a “permanent” end to the war at this stage were always unrealistic. Wholly unrealistic, too, is Netanyahu’s position, adopted immediately after the 7 October massacres of Israeli civilians, that the only true measure of victory is the complete and utter destruction of Hamas. This is the biggest single obstacle to peace. Since this aim is, and always was, practicably unattainable, Netanyahu …

Al Jazeera is shut down in Israel by Netanyahu’s government amid war

Al Jazeera is shut down in Israel by Netanyahu’s government amid war

Published by Sam

JERUSALEM — Israel’s government moved Sunday to shut down the Al Jazeera Media Network’s operations in Israel, clamping down on one of the few international broadcasters providing largely uninterrupted coverage of the Gaza war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the decision followed a unanimous vote by Israel’s war cabinet, posting on X that “the incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel.” In a separate statement, he accused Al Jazeera correspondents of having “harmed the security of Israel” and said “the time has come to eject Hamas’s mouthpiece from our country.” Source link

Netanyahu’s government votes to close Al Jazeera offices in Israel

Netanyahu’s government votes to close Al Jazeera offices in Israel

Published by skeptic

FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel on Oct. 28, 2023. Abir Sultan/AP hide caption toggle caption Abir Sultan/AP FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel on Oct. 28, 2023. Abir Sultan/AP TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s cabinet has voted to shut down the offices of the Al Jazeera network operating in the country with immediate effect. Writing on X – formally known as Twitter – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government had decided “unanimously” to close Al Jazeera in Israel. He accused the Doha-headquartered network as an “incitement channel” against Israel. Al Jazeera, which broadcasts in both English and Arabic, has previously vehemently denied such an allegation and said the Israeli leader had made a “false accusation in a disgraceful manner.” Despite having operated on the ground in Gaza throughout the war, Al Jazeera has long had a difficult relationship with Israel. In April, the Israeli parliament …

Netanyahu’s Cabinet votes to close Al Jazeera offices in Israel after rising tensions

Netanyahu’s Cabinet votes to close Al Jazeera offices in Israel after rising tensions

Published by skeptic

TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his government has voted unanimously to shut down the local offices of Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera. Netanyahu announced the decision on X, formerly Twitter, but details on the implications of the step on the channel, when it would go into effect or whether the measure was permanent or temporary were not immediately clear. There was no immediate comment from the channel headquarters in Doha, Qatar. An Al Jazeera correspondent on its Arabic service said the order would affect the broadcaster’s operations in Israel and in east Jerusalem, where it has been doing live shots for months since the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war in Gaza. It would not affect Al Jazeera’s operations in the Palestinian territories, the correspondent said. Israeli media said the vote allows Israel to block the channel from operating in the country for 45 days, according to the decision. “My government decided unanimously: the incitement channel Al Jazeera will close in Israel,” Netanyahu posted on X. Al Jazeera …