Netanyahu lashes out at allies
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday railed against growing criticism of his leadership from top allies over the devastating war with Hamas, describing calls for a new election as “inappropriate”.
In recent days, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highestranking Jewish official in the country and a strong Israel supporter, called on Israel to hold a new election, saying Netanyahu had “lost his way”. Support for Schumer’s comments came from President Joe Biden, who has accused Netanyahu of hurting Israel with the huge number of civilian deaths in Gaza.
On Fox News, Netanyahu denounced Schumer’s comments as inappropriate. Equating the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas last year with the September 11 attacks on the US in 2001, Netanyahu said Israel would never have called for a new US election.
“The people of Israel will choose when they will have elections, and who they’ll elect, and it’s not something that will be foisted on us,” Netanyahu said.
When asked by CNN whether he would commit to a new election after the war ends, Netanyahu said that “I think that’s something for the Israeli public to decide.”
Earlier, Netanyahu said holding an election now — which polls show he would lose badly — would force Israel to stop fighting and paralyse the country for months.
Thousands of Israelis demonstrated against Netanyahu’s government in Tel Aviv on Sunday calling for a new election and a deal for the release of hostages amid fears time is running out to bring them home alive.
The US has also expressed concerns about a planned Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where about 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. The spokesman for the National Security Council, John Kirby, told Fox the US is yet to see an Israeli plan for Rafah.
The US supports a new round of talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in exchange for the return of Israeli hostages taken in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli delegation to those talks was expected to leave for Qatar yesterday after meetings of the Security Cabinet and War Cabinet, which will give directions for negotiations.
Despite the talks, Netanyahu made it clear he would not back down from the fighting that has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. More than five months have passed since Hamas’ attack on southern Israel killed 1200 people and left another 250 hostage.
Netanyahu yesterday reiterated his determination to attack Hamas in Rafah and said his Government approved military plans for such an operation.
“We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen,” he said.
The operation is supposed to include the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of civilians, but Israel has not shown how it would do that or where they would go.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi reiterated his warning that an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would have “grave repercussions on the whole region”. Egypt says pushing Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula would jeopardise its peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of regional stability.
“We are also very concerned about the risks a full-scale offensive in Rafah would have on the vulnerable civilian population. This needs to be avoided at all costs,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after meeting with el-Sissi.
And German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, after meeting with Netanyahu yesterday, warned that “the more desperate the situation of people in Gaza becomes, the more this begs the question: No matter how important the goal, can it justify such terribly high costs, or are there other ways to achieve your goal?”