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Netanyahu Calls for ‘Demilitarized, Deradicalized’ Post-War Gaza, Proposes ‘Abraham Alliance’ in Speech to US Congress
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of the US Congress in Washington, DC on July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broadly outlined his vision for the future of Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war ends, emphasized the necessity of maintaining a strong US-Israel relationship, and proposed a new Middle Eastern security alliance in a speech to a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday.
Netanyahu called for a complete revamping of Gaza’s government, suggesting that a “civilian administration” of Palestinians should run the war-torn enclave. Stressing that Israel has no plans of occupying Gaza, the Israeli prime minister suggested that “regional partners” could help maintain a “demilitarized” version of the enclave. He expressed hope that Gaza, which is ruled by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, would become “deradicalized” over time.
“Gaza should have a civilian administration run by Palestinians who do not seek to destroy Israel. That’s not too much to ask,” Netanyahu said.
Hamas launched the ongoing war in Gaza with its Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel. During the onslaught, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists massacred 1,200 people and kidnapped over 250 hostages. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling the military and governing capabilities of Hamas, whose leaders have vowed to carry out attacks similar to the Oct. 7 pogrom “again and again.”
“A new generation of Palestinians must no longer be taught to hate Jews, but rather to live in peace with us,” Netanyahu continued. “Israel does not seek to resettle Gaza, but for the foreseeable future we must retain overriding security control there to prevent the resurgence of terror, to ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.”
The vast majority of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank still support Hamas’ Oct. 7 onslaught in southern Israel and don’t believe the terrorist group engaged in war crimes, according to recent polling.
Beyond Gaza, Netanyahu also explained his vision for the broader Middle East, stating that a regional security alliance with the support of the US could help Israel and its neighbors mitigate threats from Iran, the chief international sponsor of Hamas. Leaders of both Iran and Hamas routinely call for Israel’s destruction.
Comparing the current state of the Middle East to post-World War II Europe, Netanyahu underlined the importance of regional cooperation “to counter the growing Iranian threat.” The Israeli premier suggested his proposed defense pact be named “The Abraham Alliance” — a reference to the Abraham Accords, which normalized Israel;s relations with several Arab countries and were brokered with the help of then-US President Donald Trump in 2020.
“The new alliance I envision would be a natural extension of the groundbreaking Abraham Accords,” Netanyahu said. “Those accords saw peace forged between Israel and four Arab countries, and they were supported by Republicans and Democrats alike. I have a name for this new alliance. I think we should call it ‘The Abraham Alliance.’”
The Israeli leader also emphasized the importance of the US and Israel working together to defeat Iran and its “terrorist proxies.” He warned that Iran plans on targeting the United States for destruction if it succeeds in its goal of eradicating the Jewish state, underscoring the necessity of the two countries continuing their relationship.
Netanyahu continued, claiming that Iran maintains the goal of “exporting the Iranian revolution” across the entire world. The dismantling of Hamas would be a “powerful blow to Iran’s axis of terror,” Netanyahu argued.
“This is not a clash of civilizations. This is a clash between barbarism and civilization,” he declared.
“For Iran, Israel is first, America is next. So when Israel fights Hamas, we’re fighting Iran,” the Israeli premier added. “When we fight Hezbollah, we’re fighting Iran. When we fight the Houthis, we’re fighting Iran. And when we fight Iran, we’re fighting the most radical and murderous enemy of the United States of America.”
Netanyahu also called for the United States to resume the full shipment of offensive arms to Israel, arguing that it would help Jerusalem finish the war faster.
“I deeply appreciate America’s support, including in this current war, but this is an exceptional moment. Fast-tracking US military aid could dramatically expedite an end to the war in Gaza and help prevent a broader war in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said. “Give us the tools faster, and we’ll finish the job faster.”
The Biden administration paused some offensive arms shipments of bombs to Israel back in May. Though US President Joe Biden insists that he still supports the Jewish state’s effort to defeat Hamas, he argues that these weapons kill too many Palestinian civilians. Israel insists that these weapons are necessary for the Jewish state to completely dismantle Hamas’ military operations in Gaza, including its underground tunnel network.
During his address, Netanyahu also discussed Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, declaring that the massacre will “forever live in infamy” for citizens of Israel much like the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor or the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have for Americans.
The Israeli premier took a moment to honor the approximately 250 hostages taken captive by Hamas on Oct. 7. He invited Noa Argamani, a hostage who was freed during an Israeli rescue mission last month, to attend the speech. Several families of American hostages also attended the congressional address. Netanyahu promised that he “will not rest until all of your loved ones are home.” He stated that Israel is engaged in “intensive efforts” to secure the release of the remaining captives in Gaza.
During his speech, Netanyahu showered praise on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for their work in helping to defeat Hamas. He slammed critics of the IDF, touting research from military expert John Spencer that claims Israel has the lowest civilian to combatant casualty ratio of any urban war in history. Instead of unsubstantiated allegations of “genocide,” the IDF should be “commended,” Netanyahu argued.
The Israeli premier specifically highlighted the bravery of an Israeli soldier from Ethiopia who “ran eight miles” to the frontlines of the Israel-Gaza border area on Oct. 7 to combat the invasion. He also heaped praise on a Muslim Israeli soldier who helped defend a kibbutz attacked by Hamas and two other IDF soldiers who were maimed while fighting Hamas.
Netanyahu took a swipe at anti-Israel protesters, claiming that they are standing on the side of “evil” and calling them Iran’s “useful idiots.” He referenced US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’ recent warning that “actors tied to Iran’s government” have encouraged and provided financial support to rampant protests opposing Israel’s defensive military operations against Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu thanked Biden for lending military support and aid to Israel, including dispatching two military aircraft carriers to the Middle East “to deter a wider war.” He praised Biden for making a personal visit to Israel during the nation’s “darkest hour.” Touting his 40-year friendship with the US president, Netanyahu thanked Biden for labeling himself a “proud Irish American Zionist.”
Netanyahu also thanked Trump for spearheading the Abraham Accords, moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria. He also condemned the recent assassination attempt on Trump, arguing that political violence “has no place” within democracies.
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Israel Strikes Houthi Targets in Yemen
Smoke rises after Israeli strikes near Sanaa airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi terrorist group in Yemen on Thursday, including Sanaa International Airport, and Houthi media said three people were killed.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was about to board a plane at the airport when it came under attack. A crew member on the plane was injured, he said in a statement.
The Israeli military said that in addition to striking the airport, it also hit military infrastructure at the ports of Hodeidah, Salif, and Ras Kanatib on Yemen’s west coast. It also attacked the country’s Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations.
Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said two people were killed in the strikes on the airport and one person was killed in the port hits, while 11 others were wounded in the attacks.
There was no comment from the Houthis, who have repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following the attacks that Israel will continue its mission until it is complete: “We are determined to sever this terror arm of Iran’s axis.”
The prime minister has been strengthened at home by the Israeli military’s campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon and by its destruction of most of the Syrian army’s strategic weapons.
The Israeli attacks on the airport, Hodeidah and on one power station, were also reported by Al Masirah TV.
Tedros said he had been in Yemen to negotiate the release of detained UN staff detainees and to assess the humanitarian situation in Yemen.
“As we were about to board our flight from Sanaa … the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured,” he said in a statement.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” he said, adding that he and his colleagues were safe.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the incident.
More than a year of Houthi attacks have disrupted international shipping routes, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys that have in turn stoked fears over global inflation.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on Monday over Houthi attacks against Israel, Israel‘s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said on Wednesday.
On Saturday, Israel‘s military failed to intercept a missile from Yemen that fell in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area, injuring 14 people.
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Controversial Islamic Group CAIR Chides US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for Denying Report of ‘Famine’ in Gaza
US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew. Photo: Alchetron.
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for casting doubt on a new report claiming that famine has gripped northern Gaza.
The controversial Muslim advocacy group on Wednesday slammed Lew for his “callous dismissal” of the recent Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) report accusing Israel of inflicting famine on the Gaza Strip. The organization subsequently asserted that Israel had perpetrated an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza.
“Ambassador Lew’s callous dismissal of this shocking report by a US-backed agency exposing Israel’s campaign of forced starvation in Gaza reminds one of the old joke about a man who murdered his parents and then asked for mercy because he is now an ‘orphan,’” CAIR said in a statement.
“To reject a report on starvation in northern Gaza by appearing to boast about the fact that it has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population is just the latest example of Biden administration officials supporting, enabling, and excusing Israel’s clear and open campaign of genocide in Gaza,” the Washington, DC-based group continued.
On Monday, FEWS Net, a US-created provider of warning and analysis on food insecurity, released a report detailing that a famine had allegedly taken hold of northern Gaza. The report argued that 65,000-75,000 individuals remain stranded in the area without sufficient access to food.
“Israel’s near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies to besieged areas of North Gaza Governorate” has resulted in mass starvation among scores of innocent civilians in the beleaguered enclave, the report stated.
Lew subsequently issued a statement denying the veracity of the FEWS Net report, slamming the organization for peddling “inaccurate” information and “causing confusion.”
“The report issued today on Gaza by FEWS NET relies on data that is outdated and inaccurate. We have worked closely with the Government of Israel and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report,” Lew wrote.
“At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this. We work day and night with the UN and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs — which are great — and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible,” Lew continued.
Following Lew’s repudiation, FEWS NET quietly removed the report on Wednesday, sparking outrage among supporters of the pro-Palestinian cause.
“We ask FEWS NET not to submit to the bullying of genocide supporters and to again make its report available to the public,” CAIR said in its statement.
In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, Israel has been repeatedly accused of inflicting famine in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Despite the allegations, there is scant evidence of mass starvation across the war-torn enclave.
This is not the first time that FEWS Net has attempted to accuse Israel of inflicting famine in Gaza. In June, the United Nations Famine Review Committee (FRC), a panel of experts in international food security and nutrition, rejected claims by FEWS Net that a famine had taken hold of northern Gaza. In rejecting the allegations, the FRC cited an “uncertainty and lack of convergence of the supporting evidence employed in the analysis.”
Meanwhile, CAIR has been embroiled in controversy since the onset of the Gaza war last October.
CAIR has been embroiled in controversy since the Oct. 7 atrocities. The head of CAIR, for example, said he was “happy” to witness Hamas’s rampage across southern Israel.
“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad said in a speech during the American Muslims for Palestine convention in Chicago in November. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in.”
CAIR has long been a controversial organization. In the 2000s, it was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. Politico noted in 2010 that “US District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented ‘ample evidence to establish the association’” of CAIR with Hamas.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim and asserted that it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”
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Jewish Civil Rights Group Representing Amsterdam Pogrom Victims Slams Dutch Court for ‘Light Sentences’
Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters are guarded by police after violence targeting Israeli football fans broke out in Amsterdam overnight, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ami Shooman/Israel Hayom
The international Jewish civil rights organization legally representing more than 50 victims of the attack on Israeli soccer fans that took place in Amsterdam last month has joined many voices in lambasting a Dutch court for what they described as a mild punishment for the attackers.
“These sentences are an insult to the victims and a stain on the Dutch legal system,” The Lawfare Project’s founder and executive director Brooke Goldstein said in a statement on Wednesday. “Allowing individuals who coordinated and celebrated acts of violence to walk away with minimal consequences diminishes the rule of law and undermines trust in the judicial process. If this is the response to such blatant antisemitism, what hope is there for deterring future offenders or safeguarding the Jewish community.”
On Tuesday, a district court in Amsterdam sentenced five men for their participation in the violent attacks in the Dutch city against fans of the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv. The premeditated and coordinated violence took place on the night of Nov. 7 and into the early hours of Nov 8, before and after Maccabi Tel Aviv competed against the Dutch soccer team Ajax in a UEFA Europa League match. The five suspects were sentenced to up to 100 hours of community service and up to six months in prison.
The attackers were found guilty of public violence, which included kicking an individual lying on the ground, and inciting the violence by calling on members of a WhatsApp group chat to gather and attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. One man sentenced on Tuesday who had a “leading role” in the violence, according to prosecutors, was given the longest sentence — six months in prison.
“As someone who witnessed these trials firsthand, I am deeply disheartened by the leniency of these sentences,” added Ziporah Reich, director of litigation at The Lawfare Project. “The violent, coordinated attacks against Jews in Amsterdam are among the worst antisemitic incidents in Europe. These light sentences fail to reflect the gravity of these crimes and do little to deliver justice to the victims who are left traumatized and unheard. Even more troubling, they set a dangerous precedent, signaling to future offenders that such horrific acts of violence will not be met with serious consequences.”
The Lawfare Project said on Wednesday that it is representing over 50 victims of the Amsterdam attacks. It has also secured for their clients a local counsel — Peter Plasman, who is a partner at the Amsterdam-based law firm Kötter L’Homme Plasman — to represent them in the Netherlands. The Lawfare Project aims to protect the civil and human rights of Jewish people around the world through legal action.
Others who have criticized the Dutch court for its sentencing of the five men on Tuesday included Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights attorney and CEO of The International Legal Forum; Tal-Or Cohen, the founder and CEO of CyberWell; and The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel.
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