RSS
‘We failed,” Smotrich and other Israeli lawmakers concede as rage simmers over government’s handling of attack
(JTA) — A handful of Israeli government officials — but not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — have acknowledged and taken responsibility for the failures that contributed to the Hamas attack Oct. 7 that left more than 1,300 Israelis dead, thousands wounded and nearly 200 people captive in Gaza.
The official line, widely repeated by people of all political orientations, is that the time for inquiries and assigning of blame will come after Israel concludes its war against Hamas. But a simmering rage over how Israel’s vaunted security apparatus could have been surprised by the attack, and over how the government has responded since, has repeatedly broken through.
Families of victims have castigated government officials who have come to hospitals. Supporters and family members of hostages protested outside an army base in Tel Aviv last week.
And on Monday, the mayor of Ashkelon, a southern Israeli city that has been pummeled by rocket fire from Gaza, castigated Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during a Knesset meeting about allocating aid in the wake of the attack. “After everything is over we will settle accounts with whoever is necessary,” Mayor Tomer Glam said.
Smotrich was one of at least three members of Knesset so far to acknowledge responsibility related to the attack. A minister who leads a faction of the government on the far right, he has been appointed to oversee a special council to distribute funds during the war.
Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich attends a press conference about the government’s war financing in Jerusalem, Oct. 15, 2023. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)
“I take responsibility for what was and what will be. We have to admit with pain and with a bowed head — we failed,” Smotrich said on Sunday. “The country’s leadership and the security system have failed in maintaining the security of our residents.”
Also on Sunday, Miki Zohar, the minister of culture and sports, said plainly on Israel’s Army Radio that the country had been unprepared.
“The preparations were not in place for an attack like this…. The government, the state, was not ready for an attack like this,” Zohar said, according to Times of Israel.
He added, “In the name of the government of Israel, and in the name of the whole State of Israel, we ask your forgiveness for what happened. Because the responsibility is on the government of Israel and the whole State of Israel.”
The apologies follow what was reportedly the first, by Education Minister Yoav Kisch, on Thursday, five days after the attack. Kisch suggested in his comments that the government was distracted by other priorities. Until the Hamas attack, the main issue occupying Israelis was the government’s effort to weaken the judiciary.
“No one will escape responsibility. We are responsible — I am responsible as a member of the government,” Kisch told Ynet on Thursday. “We were busy with nonsense. We forgot where we live.”
Polling shows that the vast majority of Israelis, including those who previously supported the government, believe Netanyahu and his fellow ministers deserve the blame for the attack.
On Saturday, Netanyahu visited some of the communities near Gaza that bore the brunt of the attack, in some cases seeing 10% of their populations murdered. It was his first visit to the area since the onslaught.
—
The post ‘We failed,” Smotrich and other Israeli lawmakers concede as rage simmers over government’s handling of attack appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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.