RSS
‘Crossed The Line’: MK Calls for Sky News Anchor Resignation After She Compares Hamas War to Holocaust
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, with Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein standing next to him, speaks to the media outside the General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, June 26, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Shannon Stapleton.
Likud chairman and MK Danny Danon called for the resignation of Belle Donati, an anchor on the British broadcaster Sky News, after comments she made in an interview with Danon last Friday which were widely panned as antisemitic.
In the interview, Donati pushed back on Danon’s calls for voluntary emigration of Gazans to Arab or Western states, calling the proposal “ethnic cleansing” and sought to compare the move to the Holocaust, calling the Jews transfer to concentration camps “voluntary relocation.”
Danon told The Algemeiner in an interview “I’m used to some of the anchors being hostile, but what happened on Friday crossed the line… She started with line of ethnic cleaning, and then the comparison to the Holocaust.”
Danon said he is normally calm, but this caused him “to lose it. I told her she needs to apologize.”
In a letter he addressed separately to the executive chairman of Sky News, David Rhodes, Danon wrote “I found it particularly distressing when [Donati] audaciously likened the present situation in Gaza to the Holocaust, the largest premeditated mass murder of Jews in history.”
Sky News issued an apology later in the day of the interview, denouncing the “comparison between Mr. Danon’s comments on Israel’s war with Hamas and the treatment of Jewish people in the Holocaust. Sky News recognizes the complete inappropriateness of this comparison and the offensive nature of those comments. Sky News would like to apologize unreservedly for the comparison and to Mr. Danon personally for making the comparison.”
Danon acknowledged the apology, but wrote “My disappointment lies in the absence of a personal and sincere apology from Ms. Belle Donati herself… Furthermore, my concern deepens as I observe her Twitter feed, which exhibits a discernible bias and a clear anti-Israel stance.”
He then called for the media group “To facilitate the immediate resignation of Ms. Donati from her current position.”
The former UN ambassador said there has yet to be a response from the group, but “I won’t be quiet until she is removed from the position.” He added that he has “received a lot of comments from people all over the world who were shocked by what happened last Friday.”
Danon has emerged since the war as a moderate voice on what he views as a humanitarian solution to the situation of Gazans – voluntary emigration. In his Wall Street Journal op-ed published with opposition MK Ram Ben-Barak, they wrote “One idea is for countries around the world to accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate.” He drew comparisons to other conflicts around the world, pointing out that emigration is a natural outcome of war.
“Looking to these examples, countries around the world should offer a haven for Gaza residents who seek relocation. Countries can accomplish this by creating well-structured and internationally coordinated relocation programs. Members of the international community can collaborate to provide one-time financial-support packages to Gazans interested in moving to help with relocation costs and to ease refugees’ acclimation to their new communities,” the pair wrote.
Stressing the importance, they added “The international community has a moral imperative—and an opportunity—to demonstrate compassion, help the people of Gaza move toward a more prosperous future and work together to achieve greater peace and stability in the Middle East.”
He added on this front that voluntary emigration is “a very legitimate discussion. Allowing those seeking to leave to facilitate that.”
Asked why he takes on combative interviews like Friday’s, he said “It’s important to have zero tolerance for antisemitism.” More so, “I hope it can be an example for advocates for Israel.”
The post ‘Crossed The Line’: MK Calls for Sky News Anchor Resignation After She Compares Hamas War to Holocaust first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.