120 days of Israeli West Bank assaults kill over 91 Palestinians, including 13 children

The al-Haq rights group said the death toll includes 13 children and three women, raising concerns over increased attacks and arrest campaigns.

The New Arab Staff

23 May, 2025

https://www.newarab.com/news/120-days-israeli-west-bank-assaults-kill-over-91-palestinians

Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank over the past 120 days have killed at least 91 Palestinians, including 13 children, a rights group has said.

The Ramallah-based Al-Haq rights organisation said the military raids and operations have included the use of snipers, airstrikes, reconnaissance drones, and Apache helicopters.

The group added that armed military vehicles and bulldozers have also been used to block off refugee camps in the West Bank.

The death toll includes at least 13 children and three women, Al-Haq reported, adding that there has been significant destruction to infrastructure in Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus, and Tubas.

Since the start of Israeli assaults on Jenin, at least 16,600 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in Jenin.

Arrests, destruction of infrastructure

This comes as the Israeli army carried out dozens of arrests across the West Bank, patrolling streets and conducting extensive search operations.

Local media reported that Israeli forces severely damaged a road linking key villages, Issa and Qaffin, north of Tulkarem.

In Nablus, Israeli army forces stormed the villages of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya and positioned vehicles near a mosque, with locals reporting that sound grenades were used against vehicles and residents.

Israeli settlers also escalated their attacks in recent days, demolishing huts and tents south of Hebron, while hundreds more raided the town of Bruqin, west of Salfit.

Meanwhile, two extremist Israeli settlers who are under sanctions from the UK government following an announcement this week, have joined in a campaign to push out Palestinians from their homes in the village of Mughayyir al-Deir.

Ben Pazi, who was also put on the UK sanctions list last year due to links to settlements and forcibly expelling native Palestinian Bedouins from their homes, has again made repeated visits to an illegal outpost this week.

The outpost is less than 100 metres away from a Palestinian home, garnering criticism from rights groups. Another settler, identified as Zohar Sabah, joined in the unlawful visits to outposts despite being added to a UK sanctions list for "threatening, perpetrating, promoting" acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians.

The latest developments come as Finland summoned the Israeli ambassador after Israeli forces opened fire on 35 international diplomats in Jenin on Wednesday.

Finland’s foreign minister, Elina Valtonen, denounced the shooting in a press statement, decrying it as a "serious incident that must be condemned".

She added that Finland has requested a formal explanation over what happened, highlighting concerns with the Israeli ambassador to Helsinki. The Finnish foreign ministry also noted that there was a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, urging international intervention in the crisis.

The UK too has called for Israel to launch an investigation into the incident, where diplomats from Ireland, France, Germany and Turkey were forced to escape Israeli fire.

Hamish Falconer, a UK Foreign Office minister, described the attacks as "unacceptable".

"Civilians must always be protected, and diplomats allowed to do their jobs. There must be a full investigation, and those responsible should be held accountable," he wrote on X.

In Trump’s second term, the MAGA vs neocons battle heats up

The nationalist MAGA wave is rewriting US foreign policy, but Washington's neocons and neoliberals will do whatever it takes to protect their US global dominance project. Who will win this epic battle fought inside the heart of empire?

Mohamad Hasan Sweidan

MAY 23, 2025

https://thecradle.co/articles/trumps-second-term-becomes-a-warzone-between-maga-and-the-deep-state

On 13 May, US President Donald Trump took the stage in Riyadh and launched a direct attack on his opponents in Washington. Speaking to Persian Gulf leaders, he denounced the meddling “nation-builders" of the neoconservative order who “wrecked far more nations than they built," and declared that these “interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”

On a furious roll, Trump also condemned the ruinous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and shook hands with Syria’s new self-declared, Al Qaeda-linked president as he lifted all US sanctions on Damascus. MAGA, he declared, would rewrite the rules of global power and bury the era of foreign entanglements.

Days later, Washington answered back. Former FBI Director James Comey posted a photo of the numbers “86 47” carved into the sand. For Trump supporters, it was a death threat: “86” meant elimination, “47” marked Trump as the 47th president. Comey deleted the image and denied any ill intent, but the signal was clear. The Secret Service launched an investigation, and MAGA loyalists accused the deep state of inciting assassination against the US president.

From a gold-trimmed platform in the Persian Gulf to a cryptic beach message in America, the dividing lines inside Trump’s own White House snapped into focus: a bitter fight between an insular nationalist movement and the old imperial establishment. This internal war is already reshaping US power at home and abroad.

MAGA vs the imperial machine

Trump’s 2024 re-election has brought the clash into the open. On one side is the America-First MAGA camp, where the president placed loyalists in every node of power. Vice President J.D. Vance leads the charge for economic retreat. 

Elon Musk runs the new Ministry of Government Efficiency, ostensibly slashing billions in federal spending. Stephen Miller floods the White House with executive orders to consolidate presidential control. Former National Guard officer and Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth, now secretary of defense, pushes a military doctrine of withdrawal. Kash Patel heads the FBI, purging what he calls anti-Trump factions.

Their worldview is clear: NATO, foreign aid, and democracy projects are costly illusions. As White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt put it: “America does not need other countries as much as other countries need us.” 

But opposing them in every quiet corner of the US capital is a bloc of neoconservatives and neoliberals – the globalists of Washington’s security class. Secretary of State Marco Rubio leads the charge, assuring Congress that his intent is “not to dismantle American foreign policy, and it is not to withdraw us from the world.” His deputy, Christopher Landau, stays close.

In Brussels, Matthew Whitaker promises NATO allies full support. At Langley, John Ratcliffe speaks of China and Russia as existential threats. Former national security advisor Mike Waltz, although now marginalized, still lobbies Congress to arm Ukraine “until victory.”

From the sidelines, war hawk John Bolton warned against “appeasing the Kremlin,” while Liz Cheney led a centrist Republican push to challenge the MAGA bloc’s isolationism. Neoconservative stalwarts Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan revived Cold War talking points.

For them, the US must remain the enforcer of global order. To retreat is to fall. The battlefield is set: a populist uprising inside the halls of empire.

Two foreign policies, one empire

Every domain of foreign policy now reflects this ideological rift. Trump’s bloc sees alliances and institutions as chains. He re-exited the Paris Agreement, quit the World Health Organization (WHO), questioned the rationale behind NATO and the UN, and in February, cut ties with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and froze UNRWA funding.

Imperial traditionalists argue that these structures are critical to upholding Washington’s global dominance.

On military power, MAGA wants to end what it calls “stupid wars” as those waged before in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet Trump, branding himself the “peace president,” announced an unprecedented $1 trillion defense budget in April – a record-breaking increase – launched an albeit short war against Yemen, threatened to attack Iran, and armed Israel's genocide in Gaza.

It signals his preferred model: dominance without responsibility. Neoliberals argue for limited humanitarian missions; neocons want overt force against enemies like Iran. However, both orbit Trump's erratic mix of threats and diplomatic overtures.

Trump has flipped friend and foe: punishing allies with tariffs and defense cost demands, while courting leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Critics say this saps trust and dismantles Pax Americana.

Foreign aid became ground zero. Trump froze development programs for 90 days, then axed billions in humanitarian funding. On 10 March, Rubio announced the termination of 80 percent of USAID contracts – 5,000 in six weeks. MAGA hardliners celebrated. Globalists warned it would kill people and shatter US soft power.

It is a rupture between those defending the 1945 imperial consensus and those dismantling it for raw sovereignty and dealmaking.

West Asia: where the split gets real

Though waged in Washington, this civil war finds its most dangerous expression in West Asia. Trump's second term is torn between isolationist pragmatism and imperial assertiveness. Capitals from Tehran to Tel Aviv are watching.

The MAGA agenda is transactional. End wars. Cut aid. Sign deals. Make money. Washington agreed to a ceasefire in Yemen and pivoted in Syria: lifting sanctions after Assad's fall and embracing “reformed” terrorist Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former US-wanted Al-Qaeda affiliated militant, who is now the de facto president of Syria. Trump framed it as interests over ideology.

After the initial verbal threats, talks with Iran resumed via Oman. April’s round in Muscat was the most serious in years. 

Trump's recent visit to the Persian Gulf exposed further frictions, this time over US defense guarantees. Former US president Joe Biden had promoted a grand bargain: a defense treaty with Saudi Arabia and assistance in the field of civilian nuclear technology in exchange for the kingdom's normalization of relations with Israel. 

This deal is now frozen. Indeed, leaks have revealed that Washington has dropped the requirement to recognize Israel from civil nuclear cooperation negotiations with Saudi Arabia, preferring unilateral deals to open defense agreements. The neoconservatives considered that Trump's approach squanders the opportunity to form a solid front against Iran. 

In contrast, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) is exploiting Trump's dealings: massive investments, advanced weapons, and progress on a nuclear project that is not matched by major political concessions. 

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have arguably managed to align themselves with the administration's bargaining mood: significant investments, a luxurious reception, and deep defense cooperation. Israel responds by unilaterally accelerating its military operations and intensifying its lobbying in Congress to ensure continued military superiority and defuse any bargain for its security.

In the end,  Trump got what he came for, signing $142 billion in arms deals with Saudi Arabia, and securing pledges for staggering investments in the US economy: Riyadh committed $600 billion, Doha $243.5 billion, and Abu Dhabi $1.4 trillion over the next decade – promising that the wealthy Gulf kingdoms would now pay for partnerships. In return, he catered to his hosts by downplaying the war option with Iran and embracing the new government in Syria.

The globalists saw betrayal. Their mission remains power change in Iran. Netanyahu flew to Washington seeking a green light for war, but Trump insisted on diplomacy. National security hawks want “zero enrichment, total dismantlement,” and accuse negotiators of backdoor concessions.

Israel's war on Gaza continues. Trump promised a ceasefire during the campaign, but the death toll has surpassed 53,000 Palestinians. His pragmatists call it a strategic burden; the neocons want the occupation state to finish the job. Despite ongoing arms flows, Trump skipped Tel Aviv during his Gulf tour, and mild US complaints about Netanyahu's defiance have leaked.

Even the special relationship looks fractured.

Trump's second term is no longer a presidency – it is a full-scale fight between the MAGA insurgency and the national security state. At stake is whether the US doubles down on its postwar empire or retreats into an isolationist shell.

But whichever side wins, the world should remember one truth: both camps view West Asia through the same lens of American interests. Neither cares about the region’s people. Had the Resistance Axis not raised the cost of US intervention, this split would never have surfaced. 

The American elite’s fracture is the result of two decades of blowback. And so long as Washington treats the region as a testing ground for internal power struggles, its people will continue to pay the price.

India–Pakistan War: The Winners and the Losers

Pepe Escobar • May 20, 2025

https://www.unz.com/pescobar/india-pakistan-war-the-winners-and-the-losers/

For all the alarming seriousness of two South Asian nuclear powers coming to the razor’s edge of a lethal exchange, the 2025 India–Pakistan war could not but contain elements of a Bollywood extravaganza.

Frantic dancing indeed, which risked getting out of control pretty fast. Forget dodgy, plodding UN mediation or any serious investigation of the suspicious attack out of the blue on tourists in India-held Kashmir.

Right off the bat, on 7 May, India’s Modi government dramatically launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ against Pakistan, a missile offensive billed as “counter-terrorism.” Pakistan immediately launched a counterpunch codenamed ‘Operation Bunyan al-Marsus’ against the “Indian invasion.”

Culture is key. Sindoor is classic Hindu culture, referring to the vermillion mark applied on the forehead of married women. No wonder the Chinese immediately translated it as ‘Operation Vermillion.’

Yet what the whole planet retained from the alarming escalation, irrespective of any attempt at contextualization, not to mention color-coded cultural practices, was the Top Gun element with a Bollywood twist: the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) and the Indian Air Force (IAF), on the night of 7 May, directly involved in the largest, and most high-tech air battle of the young 21^st century, lasting a full hour and featuring scores of 4^th and 4.5 generation fighter jets.

Dramatic entertainment value was provided, quirkily enough, not by Indians, but by a Chinese netizen, notorious internet blogger Hao Gege, and his hilarious global blockbuster parody video “The newly bought plane was shot down.” He was, of course, referring to the IAF’s French Rafales decimated by Chinese J-10C fighters, which have fully mastered electronic warfare and are equipped with cheap, precise, and brutally efficient PL-15 air-to-air missiles.

Add to it Chinese hardware such as the HQ-9 air defense system and ZDK-03 AWACS. A J-10C, which, incidentally, costs only $40 million, roughly six times less than a Rafale.

Inevitably, the whole thing turned into a public relations nightmare, not only for New Delhi, but mostly for the French military-industrial complex, complete with a cornucopia of spin from all sides. Islamabad claimed it destroyed six Indian fighter jets (including as many as three Rafales, with a collective price tag of $865 million, plus one Russian Su-30, one MiG-29, and one Israeli Heron UAV); paralyzed 70 percent of India’s power grid; and smashed India’s made-in-Russia S-400 defense system. India, for its part, fiercely denied all of the above over and over again.

Then, after so much sound and fury, Pakistan on 10 May announced it had won the war. Two days later, India announced the same.

The sound and fury though continued unabated, ranging from the J-10C basking in Top Gun superstar status and Chinese stocks skyrocketing in a much-vaunted “DeepSeek moment” in modern warfare to the ridiculous sight of US President Donald Trump claiming he was responsible for the India–Pakistan ceasefire, which as it stands, looks more like a pause.

Get a Rafale for the price of six J-10Cs

The fact is both Islamabad and New Delhi deployed a fast and furious arsenal of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, glide bombs, and suicide drones to attack each other in a series of cross-border strikes, while at the same time confronted with the startling inneffectiveness of a great deal of their own air defense and anti-missile systems. No wonder both needed a ‘ceasefire’ – fast.

The predominant interpretation all across the globe does stand on solid facts. And those facts are profoundly game-changing: For the first time ever, Made-in-China weapons and equipment defeated similar-grade western weapons and hardware, not in a war gaming scenario, but in high-intensity air battle conditions. No amount of spin and glossy ads can compare with this practical demonstration by the Chinese military-industrial complex.

The J-10C, by the way, is not even a latest generation Chinese fighter; those would be the J-20 and J-35 (both 5^th generation stealth fighters); the J-16 and J-15 (4.5 generation multirole fighters); and the 6^th generation fighters (J-36 and J-50) still being tested.

Arguably, one of the best, concise explanations of the PAF/Chinese accomplishment was written by former PLA Air Force Colonel and strategist Professor Wang Xiangsui. He attributes it to a triad: mastery of systems warfare – as in highly integrated and synchronized Chinese air combat systems, Pakistani pilot competence, and preparedness for war. What PAF did, he reasons, emulates what China has been doing: investing in 6th-generation fighters, DF-17 missiles, and quantum satellites.

Further solid analyses by military expert Zhang Xuefeng and military expert Bai Mengchen complement in detail Wang’s conceptual framework.

When Hindutva meets Zionism

So what was this lightning war all about? It was not only about the intractable Kashmir problem inherited from the British Raj. As much as there are plenty of repulsive aspects inherent to both the Hindutva fanatics around Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ghastly Pakistani junta-in-charge who – illegally – imprisoned Pakistan’s sitting Prime Minister Imran Khan, such a war can only profit those usual suspects bent on unleashing various degrees of Hybrid War and Divide and Rule across the Global South.

Both India and Pakistan are permanent members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Their dispute could have been managed at the SCO table, with Russia, China, and Iran present to mediate and placate. Instead, Moscow and Tehran acted independently and bilaterally, both trying their own way to instill some sense in the belligerents as mediators. Their success is debatable.

India is also – in theory – a top BRICS member, one of the founders of the multipolar powerhouse. It boasts an excellent strategic relationship with Russia and a geoeconomic relationship with the new BRICS+ West Asian power, Iran. To pit India against Pakistan is to pit New Delhi against Beijing, which fully supports Islamabad via the flagship New Silk Roads project, CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor). So the war can also be viewed as an attack on BRICS from the inside.

It was so easy to have both India and Pakistan’s so-called “elites” fall into the trap. One just needs to manipulate cheap “national pride” emotions – and the usual suspects are masters of that domain.

The Big Picture gets even murkier when we see that New Delhi, always insecure because, unlike the Chinese, it has not buried its own “century of humiliation” vis a vis Anglo power, is still wobbling between deeper geoeconomic integration with Russia – and China – while relying on defense and security from the Washington–Tel Aviv axis.

Hindutva and Zionism meet in more ways than one. India uses Heron and Searcher Israeli drones to patrol its borders, as well as Spike anti-tank missiles. Israeli advisors have trained Indian intel ops. Israeli cybersecurity firms help New Delhi track espionage threats and assorted “insurgencies.”

Junaid S. Ahmad, the director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Decolonization (CSID) in Islamabad, takes it a step further. He directly points to “Gaza in the Himalayas” – with the Modi government embroiled in a “fantasy war” over Kashmir.

With India importing vast swathes of war tech equipment, Ahmad argues, “Zionism and Hindutva do not merely share tactics – they share a cosmology: a belief that supremacy is sacred, and conquest is redemption,” with Muslims in Gaza branded as “Hamas sympathizers” finding the equivalent in Kashmiris branded as “terror-adjacent.”

Ahmad correctly identifies Hindutva as a “supremacist theology,” with a Hindu state “purified of difference – be it Muslims, Christians, or Dalits.” How can that possibly be accepted by the BRICS ethos?

The 2025 India–Pakistan war may go down in history because of the notorious air battle and the Bollywood antics – a messy post-modernist interpolation of tech warfare, psychological operations, information warfare, and cognitive dissonance. It stood casually, for a few days, as a global reality show and entertainment spectacular rather than an actual war. And that’s worrying enough, because it masks deep troubles inside systemically troubled India.

What does the Bharat concept – the new official name for India – really entail? Bharat refers to Emperor Bharata, identified as the first conqueror of the whole Indian subcontinent. Very Israeli-style, a Bharata Empire mural has since 2023 been showcased in the Indian Parliament, directly incorporating territories that belong to Pakistan and Bangladesh.

So what can be realistically interpreted as “terrorism” under a Bharat lens, really? All Kashmiris, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis may be categorized as such? The actual leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) parent organization, the Rashtrapati Bhagwat, insists that the “Bharata Empire” will inevitably come to fruition. In parallel, Indian media went into a frenzy promoting the independence of Balochistan from Pakistan.

Who wins out of all this strife? Certainly not Indians themselves. Certainly not BRICS. Only the usual Divide and Rule suspects.

 

Gaza doctor receives charred bodies of her nine children while on duty

Paediatrician Alaa al-Najjar was treating victims of Israeli attacks when her children were killed in a strike on their home

By Maha Hussaini in Gaza City, occupied Palestine

Published date: 24 May 2025

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-doctor-receives-bodies-her-nine-children-while-duty

A Palestinian paediatrician received the charred bodies of nine of her children while on duty after an Israeli strike hit her home in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Dr Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatric specialist at al-Tahrir hospital within the Nasser Medical Complex, was treating victims of ongoing Israeli attacks across the strip on Friday when she was shocked to find her own children and husband brought into the hospital.

The children - the eldest aged 12 and the youngest just six months - were severely burned in the bombing.

Shortly before the strike, Najjar had left for work with her husband, Hamdi al-Najjar, who then returned home.

Not long after, an Israeli bombardment struck their house in the Qizan al-Najjar area in southern Khan Younis, killing nine of their 10 children and wounding the 10th.

Najjar’s husband, who sustained serious injuries, remains in intensive care.

Footage released by the Palestinian Civil Defence showed rescue crews pulling the children’s bodies from the rubble as flames still engulfed the family's home.

Hampered by a lack of proper equipment and the vast scale of destruction, civil defence workers could be heard calling into the rubble, desperately searching for signs of life.

Civil defence teams reported that seven bodies were recovered and transferred to Nasser hospital, where their mother works.

Two others, including the six-month-old baby, remain trapped under the rubble.

The children were identified as Yahya, Rakan, Ruslan, Jubran, Eve, Revan, Sayden, Luqman and Sidra.

'Steadfast woman'

Najjar insisted on returning to work shortly after giving birth to her youngest child six months ago, determined to treat child victims amid relentless attacks and a dire shortage of medical staff.

In a testimony given to Middle East Eye, Dr Yousef Abu al-Rish, undersecretary of the Palestinian health ministry, said: “I learned that our colleague, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, was standing in front of the surgery room, waiting for any news about her son - the only surviving child out of 10. I rushed there, sensing I was about to witness a unique example of humanity: a doctor who left her own children behind in Gaza, a place where even attempting to describe the suffering only deepens the anguish.

“She left them to fulfil her duty to all the sick children who have nowhere else to turn but Nasser hospital, a place choking with the cries of innocent souls.

“There were men and women lined up, their faces clouded with confusion. I scanned the anxious faces and immediately recognised the most devastated expression. I began searching for words to comfort her, but she pointed to another woman.

“Calm, patient and filled with faith - that was Dr Alaa al-Najjar. The last thing I expected was that this steadfast woman was the one who lost her children.”

The reality of healthcare workers

According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, at least 1,400 healthcare professionals have been killed in Israeli attacks since 7 October 2023.

“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” Dr Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian ministry of health, said in a post on X, commenting on the attack.

“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted. Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”

In addition, at least 111 civil defence workers have also been killed.

On Thursday, the health ministry reported that at least 53,822 Palestinians - including 16,503 children - have been killed in ongoing Israeli attacks across the blockaded Strip.

Among the children killed, 916 were under one year old; 4,365 were aged one to five; 6,101 were between six and 12; and 5,124 were aged 13 to 17.

According to the health ministry and the civil defence, thousands more remain missing and are presumed dead beneath the rubble.

 

Gaza Health Ministry Publishes Names of 16,506 Children Killed by Israeli Military Since October 2023

The first 27 pages list 917 babies who didn't make it to their first birthday

by Dave DeCamp May 22, 2025

https://news.antiwar.com/2025/05/22/gaza-health-ministry-publishes-names-of-16506-children-killed-by-israeli-military-since-october-2023/

On Thursday, Gaza’s Health Ministry published a list of 16,506 Palestinian children it has identified who have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza since October 2023.

The first 27 pages list 917 babies who didn’t make it to their first birthdays. The list also includes 4,365 children killed between the ages of one and five, 6,101 who were between six and 12, and 5,124 who were between 13 and 17 years old.

The full 486-page list includes names, ID numbers, birth dates, ages, and how the children were confirmed killed, whether by the Health Ministry’s own records or through reports from their families.

The US has continued to back Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza despite the mass slaughter of children.

Since the Health Ministry’s list is of children who have been fully identified, it is likely a significant undercount. A study published by The Lancet earlier this year that used a statistical method called capture-recapture analysis estimated that the Health Ministry’s numbers likely under-reported violent deaths by 41%.

The Economist recently extrapolated the data from The Lancet study to get an idea of what the death toll might be now. On May 5, the Health Ministry’s total death toll was 52,615. The Economist report determined that the real toll based on the study was between 77,000 and 109,000.

These figures only include Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes, gunfire, or other types of violence and do not take into account indirect deaths caused by the blockade. 

Israel commits daily war crimes in Gaza, West Bank: Ex-premier

‘War crimes are not being committed in Gaza alone. They are committed daily in the West Bank,’ Ehud Olmert says

Zein Khalil and Mohammad Sio |21.05.2025

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-commits-daily-war-crimes-in-gaza-west-bank-ex-premier/3575491

JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

Israel is committing daily war crimes in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday.

In an interview with Israel’s public broadcaster KAN, Olmert condemned remarks by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who called for the Palestinian village of Huwara in the northern West Bank to be burned.

“Anyone who calls for burning villages is calling for genocide,” Olmert said.

“War crimes are not being committed in Gaza alone. They are committed daily in the West Bank by Israelis, without intervention from the police or the army – or they turn a blind eye,” he added.

Olmert, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2009, also criticized Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, describing it as a “political war without purpose” that would fail to bring home any hostages and would only lead to further loss of Israeli soldiers’ lives.

Israel estimates 58 hostages are still held in Gaza, including 20 believed to be alive. Around 250 were taken as hostages in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas incursion. Many were released in a week-long truce in November and during the 42-day first phase of the ceasefire that took effect in January and later abandoned by Israel in March.

Meanwhile, more than 10,100 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons, facing torture, hunger and medical neglect, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights reports.

Olmert criticized the Israeli government for failing to condemn extremist rhetoric, saying: “No one is shocked anymore when the head of the Samaria Regional Council calls for genocide, or when ministers shout: ‘Leave no child alive in Gaza.’”

He held the government responsible for its military policy, which, he said, is resulting in “a large number of innocent victims.”

Earlier Wednesday, Olmert told the BBC that thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed, and described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “close to a war crime.”

His comments sparked backlash from Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar who criticized Olmert along with opposition leader Yair Golan of the Democratic Party.

Sa’ar posted on X, that “Yair Golan, Ehud Olmert, and others are actively participating in the political campaign, narrative war, and legal battle against the State of Israel and its army.”

On Tuesday, Golan denounced Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying “a sane state does not wage war on civilians, does not kill children for sport, and does not pursue a policy of displacement.”

He warned in an interview with KAN that Israel risks becoming “a pariah state” unless it starts acting like a sane nation.

At least 969 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In Gaza, Israel has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since October 2023.

The International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal last July and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

Cut Israel Off—for Its Own Sake

The Gaza war is terrible for Israelis as well as Gazans.

Andrew Day

May 20, 2025

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/cut-israel-off-for-its-own-sake/

All eyes were on President Donald Trump last Tuesday when he touched down in Riyadh for a four-day, three-country tour of the Middle East. But by the end of Trump’s big trip, a more momentous Mideast event was unfolding about 1,000 miles northwest, in the Gaza strip.

There, the Israeli military was laying the groundwork for Operation Gideon’s Chariots, a campaign to flatten Gaza, conquer the strip, and concentrate all civilians in small areas of the enclave. As Trump toured opulent Gulf states, Israel escalated strikes on the beleaguered Gazans, killing hundreds on Thursday and Friday alone. On Saturday, one day after Trump departed the region, Israel announced it had launched its planned operation.

Just before the president’s trip, many analysts, detecting a rift between Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had expected (and hoped) that the U.S. president would push Israel to halt its war rather than escalate it. Rumors arose that he might even formally recognize a Palestinian state. While Trump did make some noises about the hunger crisis in Gaza, he did not implore Netanyahu to cease fire, and, indeed, he renewed his call for the U.S. to participate in the Gaza takeover.

This was a serious error by the president, the only person outside Israel with the power to stop the carnage in Gaza. While Trump has signaled a desire to put some policy daylight between the two nations, he hasn’t suspended military aid to Israel, nor even threatened to do so (though some in his inner circle may have conveyed such a threat in private). Unless that changes, the Gaza war likely will rage on toward a grim finale, namely, ethnic cleansing. That would be a catastrophe for the Gazans themselves, obviously, and would further destabilize the Middle East. But it could also, in the long run, put the people of Israel in grave danger, leaving their nation isolated and despised on the world stage. 

A small country with under 10 million people—around one-tenth the population of Iran, its chief adversary—Israel is weaker than it seems and dependent on the U.S. for its security needs. Washington not only sends Israel billions of dollars in military aid each year, but positions U.S. forces to deter Israel’s enemies, scrambles to thwart attacks on Israel when deterrence fails, and runs diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations. 

There are signs, however, that Israel’s superpower shield won’t be around indefinitely.

Like much of the world, Americans are turning against Israel—with a majority of U.S. adults, especially younger ones, now disfavoring the country—and increasingly don’t want their tax dollars to fund the war in Gaza and Israel’s related antagonisms in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. Other Western nations—including Italy, normally a vocal supporter of Jerusalem—have soured on Israel and are calling for an end to hostilities in Gaza. Meanwhile, Antonio Guterres, the UN chief, has been doubling down on harsh condemnations of Israeli actions. 

As Israel’s expansionist militarism alienates Western allies and the international community, it’s also inflaming the antipathy of neighbors and rivals in the Middle East, which is why Saudi Arabia has put on hold plans to normalize bilateral relations. This is a perilous dynamic. If 10 years from now a new generation of Western leaders withdraw assistance, Israel could experience pronounced military vulnerability, deep unpopularity globally, and near-total diplomatic isolation. Trump should cut Israel off now before it finds itself in that unenviable circumstance.

An ancient text sheds light on the ethics of America’s continued military aid to Israel. In Plato’s Republic, Socrates imagines a scenario in which a man has borrowed weapons from a friend who subsequently goes mad. Should the man give back the weapons, as pledged? Socrates believed that he should weigh the debt obligation against the potential harms of returning what was owed. In this case, as Socrates sought to show his interlocutors, justice requires withholding weapons from a friend who poses a danger to himself and others.

The same logic applies to America’s military aid to its ally Israel, which has acted with a degree of violent recklessness in Gaza lacking any precedent in modern times. Indeed, this real-world case is clearer cut than the one imagined by Socrates, since the U.S. does not “owe” Israel any weapons at all. The munitions that Washington sends abroad are funded by American taxpayers and delivered to foreign nations at the discretion of the White House and Congress, however entitled to them some recipients, including Israel, have come to feel.

Many American politicos, including in the Trump administration, have lost sight of this basic asymmetry at the heart of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, during a recent meeting with Israeli families, explained why the U.S. wouldn’t force Israel to end its war. “We’re not the Israeli government,” Witkoff said. “The Israeli government is a sovereign government. They can’t tell us what to do, we can’t tell them what to do.” 

Witkoff’s insistence that Israel “can’t tell us what to do” is encouraging, but his comments also reflect a misconception of the U.S.-Israel relationship. The White House, in fact, has every right to demand an immediate end to the Gaza war, since it is being fought with American weapons. Israel, of course, would then have every right to refuse—in which case American assistance should cease. And honestly, when has the U.S. ever declined, on principle, to tell other countries what to do?

The actual reason the Trump administration isn’t pushing Israel to end the Gaza war pertains not to the principle of non-interference in the politics of other nations, but to the fraught politics of America, where the Israel lobby remains a powerful force. While a split seems to have developed between Trump and Netanyahu—the former declined to visit Israel during his Middle East trip, has struck bilateral deals with Israel’s enemies Hamas and the Yemeni Houthis, is pursuing a nuclear deal with its arch-nemesis Iran, and lifted sanctions on Syria over Israel’s objections, among other moves—the president has been reluctant to challenge Israel publicly. 

Indeed, Trump has dismissed the claim that private tensions exist. During a Saturday interview on Fox News, Trump denied that he was “frustrated” with Netanyahu. “No, look, he’s got a tough situation,” Trump said. “You have to remember, there was October 7 that everyone forgets.” Until Trump takes a harder line, Netanyahu will continue to brush aside White House concerns. 

To be sure, criticisms from Trump and other officials secured Israel’s decision Sunday night to permit a small amount of food aid into Gaza. But the U.S., despite its enormous leverage, is failing to halt the military campaign that makes such aid depressingly necessary. Because of this lack of progress, some commentators have questioned whether an actual rift between Trump and Netanyahu has even emerged. 

My own view is that the rift is real, but narrower than many believe and with more limited consequences. Amid the deterioration in bilateral relations, White House officials have cancelled trips to Israel and exhibited real frustration with Netanyahu, notwithstanding the president’s denial. But they’ve also taken pains not to highlight or even acknowledge the discord in public. 

After Vice President J.D. Vance called off a Tuesday visit to Israel, he cited “logistics” as the reason, though the decision was reportedly motivated by Netanyahu’s escalation in Gaza. Like the Biden administration, which routinely grumbled about Netanyahu behind closed doors, Trump officials haven’t given the Israeli leader much reason to think that U.S. assistance is conditional on good behavior.

Time is running out for the White House to change tack. While most Israelis favor striking a ceasefire agreement that brings the hostages home and enables normalization with Arab nations, Operation Gideon’s Chariots represents a different, darker path forward. If Israel carries the operation through, its reputation on the world stage will suffer irreparable damage, and Western leaders will grow increasingly reluctant to sustain assistance to the Jewish state. In that possible future, Israel’s geopolitical position will be precarious.

Trump, in his inaugural address, vowed to govern as a “peacemaker and unifier.” Ahead of the election in November, he presented himself as Israel’s “big protector.” The White House regularly says that the president will continue to be the greatest “friend” Israel has ever known. But as Socrates knew, sometimes giving weapons to a friend who is expecting them isn’t the right thing to do. The president should suspend military aid to Israel now—for its own sake.