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‘We Are Determined to Do This’: Netanyahu Reaffirms Intention to Launch Rafah Offensive After Biden Expresses ‘Deep’ Concern
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Feb. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday reaffirmed his intention to launch a military offensive into Rafah — the Hamas terror group’s last stronghold in Gaza — despite US President Joe Biden’s warning against such a move just a day earlier.
“We are determined to complete the elimination of Hamas,” Netanyahu said in introductory remarks to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset. “This requires the elimination of the remaining battalions in Rafah and, of course, the 1.5 battalions in the camps in the center. We are determined to do this.”
Netanyahu’s comments came one day after Biden told Netanyahu that he has “deep concerns about the prospect of Israel conducting a major ground operation in Rafah, where more than one million displaced civilians are currently seeking shelter after fleeing fighting in the north,” according to a White House readout regarding their conversation.
The Israeli premier acknowledged the concern, saying, “We have a debate with the Americans over the need to enter Rafah, not over the need to eliminate Hamas, but the need to enter Rafah. We see no way to eliminate Hamas militarily without destroying these remaining battalions.”
At the same time, he said, “Out of respect for the president, we agreed on a way in which they can present us with their ideas, especially on the humanitarian side; of course, we fully share this desire to facilitate an orderly exit of the population and the providing of humanitarian aid to the civilian population. We have been doing this since the beginning of the war.”
The latest back and forth between Netanyahu and the Biden administration comes amid rising tensions between the leaders.
After US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who is Jewish, attacked Netanyahu on the Senate floor as a principal obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians — and called for new elections in Israel to oust Netanyahu — Biden called it a “good speech.”
Many observers saw Schumer’s commentary on Israel’s domestic political affairs as inappropriate.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations wrote in a statement that “at a time when Israel is fighting an existential war, on the embers of the 1,200 innocents massacred on Oct. 7, it is not a time for public criticisms that serve only to empower the detractors of Israel, and which foster greater divisiveness, when unity is so desperately needed.”
Netanyahu also addressed Schumer’s comments during an interview on CNN.
“It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there,” Netanyahu said. “That’s something the Israeli public does on its own.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called it “an interesting irony” that “the prime minister [is] speaking on American television about his concerns about Americans interfering in Israeli politics,” noting that he was asked by a reporter whether Americans should “be speaking into Israeli politics, which, in fact, we don’t do nearly as much as they speak into ours.”
“But that’s not a constructive answer to your question. Just an observation,” he added.
Biden has been under pressure from some of his political allies to limit future support for Israel, particularly if it moves forward with an operation in Rafah to root out Hamas.
Earlier this month a group of 37 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the White House suggesting an Israeli invasion of Rafah may violate its outlined conditions on aid. The lawmakers wrote: “While we continue to urge Israel to avoid an expanded operation in Rafah, we share your [Biden’s] obvious concern about the absence of a credible plan for the safety and support of the more than one million civilians sheltering in Rafah.”
They concluded such an operation “should not be supported by US taxpayer-funded assistance” when it “likely” violates “specific principles outlined” by the Biden administration.
The tension may start to fizzle out, or it could get stronger when US and Israeli officials meet in Washington, DC in the near future.
According to the White House, “the president and prime minster agreed to have their teams meet soon in Washington to exchange views and discuss alternative approaches that would target key elements of Hamas and secure the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground operation in Rafah.”
The post ‘We Are Determined to Do This’: Netanyahu Reaffirms Intention to Launch Rafah Offensive After Biden Expresses ‘Deep’ Concern first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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