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Biden Suggests Netanyahu Prolonging Israel-Hamas War for ‘Political Self-Preservation’
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks during a Hanukkah reception at the White House in Washington, US, Dec. 11, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
US President Joe Biden has suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees a political advantage in dragging out the duration of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, potentially escalating tensions between allies Washington and Jerusalem.
During a wide-ranging interview with Time magazine published on Tuesday, Biden reflected on his foreign policy agenda, including his assessment of the Israeli war effort in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The US president revealed that he recently spoke with Israeli officials regarding their progress in Gaza, but he was hesitant to divulge the details of those communications.
Biden then hinted that he agreed with speculation that Netanyahu is extending the Israel-Hamas war “for his own political self-preservation” and to avoid facing accountability from the Israeli public.
“There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion. And I would cite that as — before the war began, the blowback he was getting from the Israeli military for wanting to change the constitu — change the court. And so it’s an internal domestic debate that seems to have no consequence,” Biden told Time, referring to Netanyahu’s controversial plan to reform Israel’s judiciary before the war began. “And whether he would change his position or not, it’s hard to say, but it has not been helpful.”
Biden stated that he does not agree with former US President Donald Trump that Netanyahu bears most of the blame for the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7. In April, Trump said that the terror attacks “should have never happened” and criticized Netanyahu for allowing them to occur under his watch.
“I don’t know how any one person has that responsibility. He was the leader of the country, so therefore, it happened. But he wasn’t the only one that didn’t pick it up,” Biden said.
The president revealed that his “major disagreement” with the Israeli prime minister is “what happens” after Israel wraps up the war effort in Gaza. Any effort by the Israeli military to occupy the Gaza Strip at the conclusion of the war would be met with pushback by neighboring Arab countries, Biden said.
“I’ve been talking to the Egyptians and been talking to the Saudis. I’ve been talking to the Jordanians, I’ve been talking to the Emiratis. The answer is, if that’s the case, it can’t work,” Biden said.
Instead of occupying the Gaza strip, Biden argued that Israel needs to take steps to establish a Palestinian state.
“There needs to be a two-state solution, a transition to a two-state solution. And that’s my biggest disagreement with Bibi Netanyahu,” Biden said.
Neighboring Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan could help with the management and transition of Gaza at the conclusion of the Israel-Hamas war, Biden said. These countries, he explained, could provide security and assist in the rebuilding of the war-torn enclave in exchange for movement toward a two-state solution.
“I think there is a clear path for a transition where the Arab states would provide security and reconstruction in Gaza in return for a longer-term commitment to a transition to a two-state solution,” the president continued. “And that extends all the way from Saudi Arabia, who I continue to talk to — my team — to the Jordanians that are trying to work bringing in goods and certain goods now, food, medicine, etc. And the Egyptians who I’ve been talking with frequently about what happens in terms of access for more material to get into Gaza to prevent this catastrophe from continuing.”
The US and Israel have engaged in intense negotiations to wind down the war in Gaza in recent months. Biden announced a three-phase plan on Friday to secure both the return of the remaining hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 and Israel’s exit from the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials have said that Biden disclosed only part of the proposal and that Israel has not agreed to end Israel’s military operations against Hamas.
Biden has yet to reveal how he plans to help dismantle Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that launched the war in Gaza by slaughtering over 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapping over 250 others on Oct. 7.
The post Biden Suggests Netanyahu Prolonging Israel-Hamas War for ‘Political Self-Preservation’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
The post Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
The post Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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