Netanyahu
Updated 2024-08-28
2024-08-24 Netanyahu in dispute with Israeli negotiators over ceasefire conditions, source says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has locked horns with Israeli ceasefire negotiators over his insistence that Israel will not pull out of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor in the south of the Gaza Strip, a person with knowledge of the talks said.
The Philadelphi Corridor, along the border with Egypt, and the Netzarim Corridor cutting across the middle of the Gaza Strip, have been two of the main sticking points in talks backed by Egypt, Qatar and the United States.https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/netanyahu-in-dispute-with-israeli-negotiators-over-ceasefire-conditions-source-says/ar-AA1pmmti?
2024-08-05 Bibi’s Mideast Solution: Unending War The remote-control bomb that Israeli agents detonated in Tehran last week killed a lot more than Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. It also killed any prospect for a cease-fire in the Gaza war for the foreseeable future, absent the cessation of U.S.-provided offensive weapons. At the same time, it also made the prospects of a wider war, directly involving Iran and possibly even the United States, more likely.
With Israel’s war on Gaza now extending into its 11th month, this is not something for which the Israeli public is clamoring—least of all a rain of missiles from Iran. But by choosing to kill Haniyeh in the Iranian capital where he was a guest at the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Israel all but invited Iranian retaliation and short-circuited the ability of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, on his first day in office, to pursue his promised course of at least some reconciliation with Western governments. By assassinating Haniyeh, Israel was also eliminating Hamas’s chief negotiator of a Gaza war cease-fire and hostage release. https://prospect.org/world/2024-08-05-netanyahu-regional-war-gaza-hezbollah/
2024-08-02 Bibi’s Death Wish In one 24-hour period, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the killing of a top Hezbollah leader in an air strike on Beirut, and the assassination of the lead Hamas peace negotiator, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. That’s one sure way of destroying the peace talks.
Of all the Hamas leadership, Haniyeh was reportedly the most in favor of making a deal with Israel that traded a hostage release for a cease-fire and staged regional settlement. Now, talk of a hostage deal is off the table, much less the regional entente that the Biden Administration has been promoting—humiliating President Biden yet again.
Since the assassination of Haniyeh took place at an Iranian guesthouse, the world now waits to see what sort of retaliation ensues. Last April, the Iranians rained down some 300 missiles on Israel, taking care to limit casualties. That attack was in retaliation for Israel’s last assassination, one that also violated diplomatic immunity—the strike on Iran’s Damascus consulate on April 1 that killed seven officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, including two senior commanders.
Hezbollah was not involved in that carefully limited Iranian retaliation. But this time, Israel is on the verge of a war with Hamas and Hezbollah at the same time. Netanyahu has managed to bring together sworn enemies of each other, Sunni Hamas and Shia Hezbollah. Unlike Hamas, Hezbollah is armed by Iran and capable of inflicting massive damage on Israel in a regional war. https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-08-02-netanyahu-israel-war-hezbollah-iran/
2024-07-20 Rights Group Urges DOJ to Investigate Netanyahu for Genocide As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to visit Washington, D.C. next week, an American legal group on Friday pressured the U.S. Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into him and other officials for committing or authorizing genocide, war crimes, and torture targeting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Since Israel launched its retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7, Israeli forces partly armed by the U.S. government have killed at least 38,848 people and wounded another 89,459 — according to Gaza officials — while destroying civilian infrastructure and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.
“We believe ample credible evidence exists to sufficiently establish that serious crimes falling within U.S. criminal jurisdiction are systematically being perpetrated in Gaza,” says the Center for Constitutional Rights’ (CCR) 23-page letter to Hope Olds, who leads the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) of the DOJ’s Criminal Division. https://truthout.org/articles/rights-group-urges-doj-to-investigate-netanyahu-for-genocide/
2024-07-11 Netanyahu “Trying to Do Everything to Prevent a Deal,” Says Ex-Israeli Peace Negotiator Daniel Levy Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy discusses ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the ruling party in the Gaza Strip, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued hostility to compromise and the Biden administration’s ineffectual mediation. Contrary to its claims of brokering peace, the U.S. “will continue to send the weapons” Israel uses to devastate Gaza, unremittingly fueling an increasingly unpopular war, says Levy, who is now president of the U.S./Middle East Project. Democracy Now! is an independent global newshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pfJzZ2xAkU
2024-06-12 They’re Arresting the Wrong People Inside of Congress While they are arresting peace activists for exercising First Amendment rights, they are making plans to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—a war criminal with an actual arrest warrant request.
I was arrested again inside of Congress for speaking out against U.S.-backed genocide. Myself and others were brutally tackled and carried out of the room by Capitol Police. I was charged with “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding” for speaking out and holding a sign as the secretary of state and the secretary of defense testified in Congress for more money for the endless U.S. war machine. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/congress-arresting-wrong-people
2024-03-23 Netanyahu ‘has got to go as soon as possible’: Ehud Olmert Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert joins ‘Cavuto Live’ to weigh in on a potential Rafah offensive, the calls for a new election, and reacts to remarks from Sen. Chuck Schumer https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/netanyahu-has-got-to-go-as-soon-as-possible-ehud-olmert/vi-BB1kpDc4?
2024-03-05 UNRWA Chief Accuses Netanyahu of ‘Concerted Campaign’ to Destroy Aid Agency The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees told the U.N. General Assembly on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies are intentionally trying to decimate the critical aid body as mass starvation looms in the Gaza Strip.
“UNRWA is facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations, and ultimately end them,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s commissioner-general. “Part of this campaign involves inundating donors with misinformation designed to foster distrust and tarnish the reputation of the agency. More blatant, is the Israeli prime minister openly stating that UNRWA will not be part of post-war Gaza.”
“The implementation of this plan is already underway with the destruction of our infrastructure across the Gaza Strip,” he continued. “Attempts to evict UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem, and from a nearby vocational training center for Palestine refugee youth, are underway. Draft legislation in the Israeli Knesset seeks to prohibit outright any activity by UNRWA on Israeli territory.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/unrwa-chief-netanyahu
2024-02-07 NETANYAHU’S WAR ON TRUTH Two weeks before Hamas commandos led a series of raids into Israel on October 7, Benjamin Netanyahu stood before an empty chamber at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The Israeli prime minister brandished a map of what he promised could be the “New Middle East.” It depicted a state of Israel that stretched continuously from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. On this map, Gaza and the West Bank were erased. Palestinians did not exist.
He was speaking on the grand stage of the U.N. General Assembly, but no world leaders bothered to attend. Outside, some 2,000 people, a mixture of American Jews and Israeli citizens, protested his attacks on the independence of the Israeli judiciary system. The scene served as a reminder of how deeply unpopular his far-right governing coalition, not to mention Netanyahu himself, had become in Israel. At that moment, it seemed that Netanyahu was pushed against the ropes, in a losing battle to continue his political reign.
Just days later, as Hamas commandos penetrated the barriers encircling Gaza and embarked on their deadly raids targeting several military installations as well as kibbutzim, everything changed in an instant. Just as the Bush administration exploited the 9/11 attacks to justify a sweeping war in which it declared the world a battlefield, Netanyahu is using the horrors of October 7 to wage the crusade he’s been preparing for his entire political career. With his grip on power fading last fall, the October 7 attacks provided him with just the opportunity he needed, and he hitched his political survival to the war on Gaza and what could be his last chance to eliminate Israel’s Palestinian problem once and for all. https://theintercept.com/2024/02/07/gaza-israel-netanyahu-propaganda-lies-palestinians/
2024-01-04 Netanyahu Wants To Arrange ‘Resettlement’ Of Gaza’s Population Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is arranging a “voluntary” resettlement for Gazans displaced by the IDF bombardment in what many are calling blatant “ethnic cleansing.” Ana Kasparian discusses on The Young Turks. “The “voluntary” resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza is slowly becoming a key official policy of the government, with a senior official saying that Israel has held talks with several countries for their potential absorption. Zman Israel, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site, has learned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is conducting secret contacts for accepting thousands of immigrants from Gaza with Congo, in addition to other nations.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjFdHJ7xni0
2024-01-02 Netanyahu: ISRAEL Must Control Egypt’s Border With Gaza Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is adamant that the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip should be under his control. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZFqhU5mhwA
2023-12-26 Palestinians Say Netanyahu ‘Confessions’ Reveal Truth of ‘Genocidal War’ in Gaza [MEK Note: Hitler spent years forcing Jewish people to leave Germany before the Holocaust years. No country would take them in mass. Zionists worked with Nazi to get out some to Palestine. This also seems to be Netanyahu and Israel’s long-time plan that has failed after 75 years! So now it is genocide if necessary]
The Foreign Ministry said that the Israeli prime minister’s push for what he terms “voluntary migration” shows that ethnic cleansing of the besieged enclave is the real goal of the ongoing bombing and ground invasion. Amid a ramping up of bombardments and military ground operations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he was working toward what he referred to as a “voluntary migration” of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli newspaper Hayom Daily reported. “Our problem is the countries that are willing to absorb (them), and we are working on it,” he said, according to a translation from the Anadolu Agency. https://www.commondreams.org/news/netanyahu-voluntary-migration-gaza
2023-12-26 Netanyahu Says Peace Depends on Hamas’ End, Demilitarized Gaza [MEK Note: Let’s look at Netanyahu’s prerequisites from a Palestinian viewpoint: End of oppression of Palestinians, demilitarize internal Israel forces and make Palestinians full and equal members of society with Jewish members]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined three prerequisites to achieving peace in its war with Hamas: the destruction of the group, the demilitarization of Gaza and for Palestinian society to be “deradicalized.”
The comments, made in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal published Monday, come amid rising pressure on Israel to scale back the conflict in Gaza, which began following Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault on southern Israeli communities that killed 1,200 people — with Hamas militants kidnapping scores of Israelis. “In destroying Hamas, Israel will continue to act in full compliance with international law,” Netanyahu wrote, saying that eliminating Hamas “is the only proportional response to prevent the repeat of such horrific atrocities.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/netanyahu-says-peace-depends-on-hamas-end-demilitarized-gaza/ar-AA1m1P1G
2023-12-24 Israelis to have insurmountable debt, Netanyahu must quit now – MK I srael is facing an impending economic catastrophe that could burden the state with insurmountable debt for generations to come, Knesset State Control Committee chairman MK Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid) said, calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately resign from power with or without elections.
Levy criticized the prime minister for prioritizing personal survival over the welfare of Israel, stating, “He only thinks of himself. All of his moves are designed to preserve his own survival, and these far outweigh the decisions he’s made for the benefit of the state.” He further claims that even within the Likud Party, there is widespread dissatisfaction with Netanyahu’s conduct, asserting that he has caused heavy damage to the party.
Expressing concern over the state budget, Levy accused it of “looting” funds for unnecessary purposes, and that this was not exclusive to all the money earmarked for Israel’s haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector. He stressed the importance of equal opportunities in education and criticized the inclusion of unnecessary expenditures, such as allocating over NIS 600 million for promoting Jewish identity.
Levy predicted that the 2024 budget will worsen Israel’s economic situation, burdening future generations with insurmountable debts. He warned that Israel’s GDP will decrease, the deficit will soar, and external debt will continue to rise. The lawmaker suggested closing at least 10 ministries that he deemed to be redundant, especially during times of war when every shekel should be directed towards the war with Hamas. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israelis-to-have-insurmountable-debt-netanyahu-must-quit-now-mk/ar-AA1lYaLr
2023-12-20 Netanyahu rules out cease-fire as Hamas leader visits Egypt | DW News The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, has been in Egypt for talks on halting the fighting with Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again ruled out a cease-fire until Hamas is eliminated and the remaining hostages are freed. Several countries including Germany classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. Meanwhile there’s been no let up in attacks on the Palestinian territory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e8fkwng56M
2023-12-17 Netanyahu’s Bold Boast: ‘Proud’ to Thwart Palestinian State Creation Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was “proud” of preventing the creation of a Palestinian state during a press conference in Tel Aviv Saturday night. Speaking alongside Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, Netanyahu claimed that he had halted the progression of the Oslo peace process, which began in 1993, calling the Oslo Accords “a fateful mistake” and said the results of the “little Palestinian state in Gaza” brought about by the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 demonstrated the danger of allowing Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank.
The Oslo Accords were an agreement signed by Israel and the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) that saw the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza as part of a process that was meant to lead to a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Netanyahu’s comments come after several Israeli officials said that there would be no two-state solution following the end of Israel’s indiscriminate war on Gaza, which has destroyed much of the occupied territory and killed at least 18,800 Palestinians, primarily women and children, in Israeli attacks since October 7, according to the territory’s health ministry.https://www.commondreams.org/news/netanyahu-s-bold-boast-proud-to-thwart-palestinian-state-creation
2023-12-12 In Dueling Remarks, Biden and Netanyahu Spar Over Gaza’s Future President Biden and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clashed Tuesday over who should govern Gaza after the war, in a remarkable public display of differences emerging between the two leaders over the conflict.
Biden made his toughest remarks since the war began about Netanyahu’s government. He suggested that its hard-line stance has prevented Netanyahu from accepting the Biden administration’s postwar plan to have the Palestinian Authority take over Gaza, and that it would also obstruct progress toward political, economic and security arrangements that could spawn a separate Palestinian state—an outcome the U.S. president sees as a long-term solution to the conflict.
President Biden’s comments came as Netanyahu said in Israel he would block the Biden administration’s postwar plan to have the Palestinian Authority take over Gaza, the sharpest sign of Israeli pushback against the U.S. blueprint for administering the enclave after Israel’s invasion ends.
“After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism,” Netanyahu said, referring to the Palestinian Authority, which currently oversees parts of the West Bank, in a statement Tuesday.
Israel’s position on who will replace Hamas in postwar Gaza may not become fully clear until elections that are expected to be held next year, when it will be decided whether Netanyahu survives as prime minister.
His rejection Tuesday of a Palestinian Authority role in Gaza was intended to help shore up his flagging domestic support, amid calls for his resignation for failing to prevent Hamas’s attack and the government’s early fumbles in handling the crisis, Israeli analysts said.
It is a message designed to resonate with Netanyahu’s right-wing and centrist voters, said Michael Oren, who served as Israel’s U.S. ambassador under Netanyahu from 2009 to 2013. The prime minister is “saying Oslo was a worse catastrophe for Israel than Oct. 7 and I am the best guarantor you have that [such an agreement] won’t happen again.”
He “is playing politics with our national security,” Oren added, noting a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire last weekwas blocked because of “an American veto.” Ehud Yaari, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Netanyahu’s opposition to Palestinian Authority rule in Gaza is related to his own domestic political survival, but it isn’t a position necessarily shared by his entire cabinet, which sees little to be gained from defying the White House. “At the moment, Bibi is just playing to the gallery, and the gallery is his political base,” said Yaari, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “I don’t think we’re at a point where Bibi feels he is obliged to make a decision.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/in-dueling-remarks-biden-and-netanyahu-spar-over-gaza-s-future/ar-AA1lou8j
2023-12-05 Netanyahu’s game of Russian roulette With diminishing strategic gains from Israel’s Gaza war and internal and external threats to his prime ministership, an embattled Netanyahu may choose war with Lebanon to prolong his political survival. Forced into a Gaza truce by an angry public demanding prisoner exchanges, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now faces his toughest challenge since launching air and land assaults on the Gaza Strip in October. The frequency of his threats to both Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Israel’s northern front has spiked since Netanyahu’s reluctant acceptance of the Qatar-brokered truce.
Biden administration “does not support southern operations unless or until the Israelis can show that they have accounted for all the internally displaced people of Gaza.” Netanyahu, however, harbors a different agenda, seeking to prolong the conflict for personal gains rather than political success. The continuation of the war means he will stay in office longer, and have the time to strike internal and external deals that ensure his post-conflict survival.
For now, “King Bibi” faces mounting pressure from both allies and adversaries. International calls for tangible outcomes from the conflict are intensifying, with the mainstream media increasingly compelled – by social media – to highlight Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Domestically, Netanyahu is grappling with almost daily demands for his resignation or for the removal of extremist cabinet ministers from the Otzma Yehudit and religious Zionist parties. https://new.thecradle.co/articles/netanyahus-game-of-russian-roulette
2023-11-28 Netanyahu Says He Is ‘Only One Who Will Prevent a Palestinian State’ “Look Joe Biden: Netanyahu is spitting in your face,” said one critic. “Are you going to keep hugging him in public or are you going to finally end the blank check and hold him accountable for his words and actions?”
With his approval ratings in the tank, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly been lobbying members of his Likud party in a bid to keep their support, claiming he is “the only one who will prevent a Palestinian state” in Gaza and the West Bank. “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu told his colleagues in 2019. “This is part of our strategy—to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”
Analysts have long argued that one democratic state, not two states, is the only viable alternative to the apartheid status quo, given factors such as ever-expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Throughout his career, Netanyahu has vociferously opposed a peaceful resolution and worked to divide Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by propping up Hamas. https://www.commondreams.org/news/netanyahu-palestinian-state
2023-11-12 Netanyahu Blames Arabs – Not Hitler – For The Holocaust! An old video of Benjamin Netanyahu has surfaced in which the Israeli Prime Minister alleges that Adolf Hitler had not planned the Nazi’s “Final Solution” to exterminate Europe’s Jewish population until he was given the suggestion by a Palestinian Mufti. He was rightfully raked over the coals for this Nazi whitewashing and attempt to place blame for the Holocaust on Arabs. Jimmy and his guests Russell Dobular and Keaton Weiss from Due Dissidence discuss the political angle of Netanyahu’s comments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnvsGSJu3wc
2023-11-10 Palestinian Groups Ask ICC to Arrest Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for War Crimes & Genocide in Gaza We speak with Palestinian human rights lawyer Noura Erakat about a new effort to hold Israel accountable at the International Criminal Court over the war in Gaza, where Israel’s monthlong air and ground assault has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians. On Wednesday, three Palestinian rights groups filed a lawsuit with the international body, urging it to investigate Israel for the crimes of genocide and apartheid. The petition also calls for arrest warrants to be issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. International inaction against Israeli aggression is part of “a systematic failure to hold Israel to account for decades,” as well as the “absolute double standard” applied to war crimes committed against people of the Global South, says Erakat, who was part of a team of academics and activists who came together to support the ICC lawsuit. “This is not just a crisis of international legal institutions, but also a crisis of democratic — or so-called democratic — institutions in the countries in which we live.” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtBN7mVO1T8
2023-11-08 NETANYAHU’S SAVAGE GAME: MASS KILLING PALESTINIANS, EXPLOITING ISRAELI GRIEF PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU continues to reject international calls for a ceasefire and says Israel will oversee security in Gaza indefinitely. This week on Intercepted, Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain discuss Israel’s monthlong scorched-earth campaign in Gaza and the U.S. government’s complicity.
You and I both have reported on Israel’s sieges of Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine over the years, and so, on one level, what we’re seeing, we’ve seen play out — I mean, you could make an argument that it’s played out for 75 years — but just, even in the past several Israeli campaigns, we’ve witnessed this killing of civilians. But the scale, the industrial scale on which children are being killed right now is shocking to the soul.
You mentioned this contract that people felt that they had with the government and with the military. And, of course, Benjamin Netanyahu, a lot of his appeal to people was that he’s a very, very security-focused prime minister.
Even before October 7th — obviously, as you mentioned — there was a judicial overhaul plan. There were protests, mass protests, a lot of the security establishment, the former security establishment, the people in the army were openly protesting against Netanyahu and his government. And there were already a lot of people going on record saying they don’t trust him with Israel’s security. And there were warnings from within the General Security Service here that the government’s policies and plans have undermined the national unity and resilience, and are making us look weak in the eyes of our enemies. This was the kind of statements that were being put out by top security officials in Israel. So, that was. already happening before October 7th.
Since October 7th, it’s just across the board that, literally, I would say, nobody in this country wants Netanyahu in his chair, and yet he’s still there. And it’s hard to really overstate how much the failure is on him. Like, people really hold him responsible. And it’s not just that day, but also years and years of … He’s basically been the longest serving prime minister. Something like 15 years now, he’s been in power, and so, he’s shaped Israel’s entire approach to the Palestinian issue in general, and to Hamas specifically.
There’s been tons of criticism about the fact that he’s basically propped up Hamas, and left Hamas to kind of be in power and be funded by Qatar while undermining the P.A. in order to basically avoid any kind of dialogue, any kind of political framework or negotiation towards a solution.
So, Israelis definitely understand that, and they definitely are extremely angry with him, and they believe that he will have to move from his chair. Some believe it’ll happen during the war, some think it’ll happen after the war. It’s kind of amazing that he’s still there because, really, nobody trusts him. And you can also see in the way that he’s been handling this war, in his public statements, and just his general approach, is [that] he lacks any empathy for the families of the kidnapped. There’s clear disarray in his cabinet, and he clearly is interested in himself and his legacy, and also in trying to save whatever is left of his political career. https://theintercept.com/2023/11/08/intercepted-israel-netanyahu-gaza/
2023-11-03 Video: Netanyahu Admits To Plan To Wipe Out Gaza! Recently surfaced decades-old footage of Benjamin Netanyahu goes a long way to explaining the Israeli Prime Minister’s thinking when it comes to Palestine, the United States and the rest of the international community. Israel needs to devastate Gaza, he says, and, when asked, adds that the United States is easily manipulated and that he doesn’t care what the international community thinks. Jimmy, along with The Convo Couch host Craig Jardula and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger, discusses the comments that should give Netanyahu heartburn if the media would ever ask him about them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdq1zhLANT0&t=18s
2023-11-01 Netanyahu’s ‘PSYCHOTIC’ Tweet Deleted As GROWING COALITION of Israelis Push To DUMP PM: Analysis Senior correspondent at Vox Zack Beauchamp weighs in on Israel’s view of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu amid the war with Hamas. #Palestine #Gaza https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUb8xm1mwus
2023-10-30 Netanyahu Accused of ‘Genocidal Intentions’ in Gaza After ‘Holy Mission’ Speech “The biblical reference to Amalek is genocidal,” noted one theologian after the prime minister invoked an ancient enemy. “The Bible commands to wipe out Amalek, including women, babies, children, and animals.” Human rights defenders on Monday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of an “explicit call to genocide” after he delivered a televised address calling Israel’s imminent invasion of Gaza a “holy mission” and invoked an ancient mythical foe whom the God of the Hebrew Bible commanded the Israelites to exterminate. Declaring the start of a “second stage” of Israel’s war on Gaza—which he described as a “holy mission”—Netanyahu said that “you must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible.” According to the Hebrew Bible, the nation of Amalek was an ancient archenemy of the Israelites whose extermination was commanded by God to Saul via the prophet Samuel. https://www.commondreams.org/news/netanyahu-genocide
2023-10-17 The Israeli War on the Palestinian People Will Netanyahu Survive? On the domestic front, Netanyahu’s problems are not minor. Under his administration, Israel has just suffered an unprecedented attack on its own territory. Not coincidentally, this has been compared with the Yom Kippur War of 1973, when Israel was surprised by the combined action of Egypt and Syria. Its impregnable security was breached by the action of Hamas, a militia with completely asymmetrical firepower, the attack perpetrated with a combination of artisanal methods, such as gliders and backhoes. The operation included not only military targets but also attacks on hundreds of young people who were at a rave, families living in kibbutzim and other nonmilitary targets. The attack on military posts and civilians alike was easily instrumentalized by Netanyahu and the imperialist states in an attempt to legitimize their declaration of war. In turn, this demonstrates that Hamas lacks any strategy to succeed in the struggle for the liberation of the Palestinian people.
In the immediate term, Netanyahu succeeded in welding a reactionary national unity. The establishment of a new unity government, however, does not mean that the Israeli state has overcome the deep social, political, and state fractures that led to the massive mobilizations against Netanyahu’s judicial reform (an “unrepublican” reform that took away powers from the judiciary to reconcentrate them in the executive branch). So far this year, every Saturday, tens of thousands of Israelis — mainly from the secular middle classes, the technology sector, reservists, and even pilots of the armed forces — have been rallying in major cities against Netanyahu’s coalition government and the settler and extreme religious right-wing parties, which among other privileges do not perform military service and receive millions in subsidies from the state. These same sectors, together with relatives of the hostages, began to take to the streets and hold Netanyahu responsible for the disaster in the south of the country, arguing that the army was concentrating on protecting settlers in the West Bank.
Their political differences, however, do not result from how Israel treats Palestinians. As the Israeli-born historian Ilan Pappé correctly explains, the opposition to the judicial reform is not, as the Western press claims, a movement in “defense of democracy,” for the simple reason that it does not question the oppression of the Palestinians. In Israel, there is a basic consensus on the Zionist state’s colonial policy, even if some people reject extreme solutions, such as the expulsion of Palestinians and the outright annexation of the West Bank, as openly proposed by Netanyahu’s ministers.
The configuration of Israeli power after the Hamas attack expresses both the moment of unity achieved by Netanyahu and its strategic weaknesses. With the approval of the Knesset (Israeli parliament), the prime minister formed a “war cabinet” and an “emergency unity government,” which was joined by Benny Gantz of the opposition center-right National Unity Party, and possible replacement candidate whom Joe Biden is trying to court. So far, Yair Lapid of the main opposition party (Yesh Atid) has rejected the invitation, perhaps saving himself for a major crisis. In exchange for this “national salvation,” Netanyahu accepted the condition of excluding his right-wing ministers from the decision-making table. Strategically, perhaps this attack will mean the end of his political career, as happened with Golda Meir, who resigned two years after the Yom Kippur War. https://www.leftvoice.org/the-israeli-war-on-the-palestinian-people/
2023-10-16 Israel Is Making a Terrible Mistake One notable difference with 9/11, which led to a skyrocketing approval rating for Bush, is that Israeli Jews overwhelmingly hold Netanyahu and his government responsible for the attack. This is true on several levels. First and most obviously, Netanyahu’s core political promise (in part as cover for his egregious corruption) is that only he can protect Israeli civilians through an “iron wall” apartheid policy. Not only did he fail, it seems that the government ignored warnings from Egypt that some kind of attack was in the works.
Second, partly thanks to Netanyahu’s dependence on two tiny extremist settler parties for a majority in the Israeli parliament, during the attack many Israeli military units were out protecting feral settlers in the West Bank (who have provoked many bloody clashes with Palestinians over the last year) instead of being stationed at the border with Gaza. Third, failing to secure some kind of lasting settlement with the Palestinians has obviously stoked anti-Israel rage and hence support for Hamas.
Fourth and most importantly, Netanyahu has literally lent substantial material support to Hamas in the form of money and diplomatic legitimacy—not because he likes them, but as a counterweight to the secular Palestine Liberation Organization, to divide the Palestinian people and obstruct the movement for a Palestinian state. Indeed, Israel has pursued similar policies for decades, which were directly implicated in the original formation of Hamas in the 1980s.
Again and again, Netanyahu and the Israeli nationalist right have prioritized the occupation and their own power over the safety and security of Israeli Jews (not to mention the human rights and lives of Palestinians). And this new war on Gaza might be the final culmination of this policy. https://prospect.org/world/2023-10-16-israel-biden-administration-terrible-mistake/
2023-10-12 ‘NETANYAHU IS FINISHED’ The Bibi doctrine—his belief that he could control Hamas—compromised Israeli security and has now begat a bloody war https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/netanyahu-is-finished
2023-10-11 While Israeli Media Examine Government Failure, US Papers Push ‘National Unity’ How could Israel—so famous for its military might and advanced intelligence capabilities—have missed the warnings of such an attack? The coordinated nature of the rocket attacks and assaults on nearby towns make clear that this was a huge operation that took time and planning; paragliding attacks require practice runs that are not easy to hide (L’Orient Today, 10/9/23), for instance. Already, Israeli media have begun looking closely at the Israeli government’s actions to understand how and why this happened—in sharp contrast to US broadsheet opinion, which has largely rallied unquestioningly behind Israeli “national unity.”
An Israeli military veteran in the New York Post (10/9/23), hardly considered a pro-Palestine publication, blamed Israel for ignoring warnings from Egyptian intelligence about “something big.”
An editorial at Ha’aretz (10/8/23) put the blame squarely on Netanyahu, saying “he is the ultimate arbiter of Israeli foreign and security affairs.” It also pointed the finger at his right-wing policies on settlement expansion and allies with far-right extremist parties. “As expected, signs of an outbreak of hostilities began in the West Bank, where Palestinians started feeling the heavier hand of the Israeli occupier,” the editorial said, noting that “Hamas exploited the opportunity in order to launch its surprise attack.”
At the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (10/7/23), David Halperin, chief executive officer of the Israel Policy Forum, wrote that for the last year, “my colleagues and I…have joined with others in expressing concern about the nature of Israel’s far-right government.” The article—which questioned why Netanyahu’s government, famously hard-nosed on security, failed to protect the people—was reprinted in the Jerusalem Post (10/7/23).
Alon Pinkas (Ha’aretz, 10/9/23) wrote more directly: “Netanyahu should be removed as prime minister immediately—not ‘after the war,’ not after a plea bargain in his corruption trial, not after an election. Now.” https://fair.org/home/while-israeli-media-examine-government-failure-us-papers-push-national-unity/
2023-10-08 For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it’s blown up in our faces The premier’s policy of treating the terror group as a partner, at the expense of Abbas and Palestinian statehood, has resulted in wounds that will take Israel years to heal from. https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/
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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict
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