Netanyahu rival visits US, signaling wider cracks in Israeli wartime leadership - ExBulletin
Source: ExBulletin
TEL AVIV, Israel -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reprimanded a senior minister who arrived in Washington on Sunday for talks with U.S. officials, according to an Israeli official, signaling growing fissures within the country's leadership nearly five months after the start of his war with Hamas.
The trip by Benny Gantz, a centrist political rival who joined Netanyahu's war cabinet after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, comes as friction deepens between the United States and Netanyahu over how to relieve the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and the post-war plan for the enclave. should look like.
An official from Netanyahu's far-right Likud party said Gantz's trip was planned without the Israeli leader's permission. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu had difficult discussions with Gantz and told him the country had only one prime minister.
Gantz is scheduled to meet with US Vice President Kamala Harris and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Monday and with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, according to his National Unity Party. A second Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity said Gantz's visit was aimed at strengthening ties with the United States, building support for Israel's war and pushing for the release of Israeli hostages.
In Egypt, talks were underway to broker a ceasefire before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next week.
Israel did not send a delegation because it is awaiting answers from Hamas on two questions, according to a third Israeli government official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Israeli media reported that the government is waiting to find out which hostages are alive and how many Palestinian prisoners Hamas is seeking in exchange for each.
The three Israeli officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the disputes with the media.
The United States began dropping humanitarian aid into Gaza on Saturday, after dozens of Palestinians rushing to collect food from an Israeli-organized convoy were killed last week. The airdrops bypassed an aid distribution system hampered by Israeli restrictions, logistical problems and fighting in Gaza. Humanitarian officials say airdrops are far less effective than truck deliveries.
US priorities in the region are increasingly hampered by Netanyahu's cabinet, dominated by ultranationalists. Gantz's more moderate party sometimes acts as a counterweight.
Netanyahu's popularity has fallen since the start of the war, according to most opinion polls. Many Israelis hold him responsible for his failure to stop the October 7 Hamas cross-border raid, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage in Gaza, including women, children and elderly people, according to Israeli authorities. .
More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. About 80% of the 2.3 million people have fled their homes and UN agencies say hundreds of thousands are on the brink of famine.
Israelis critical of Netanyahu say his decision-making was tainted by political considerations, a charge he denies. Criticism particularly focuses on plans for post-war Gaza. Netanyahu wants Israel to maintain unlimited security control over Gaza, with the Palestinians handling civil affairs.
The United States wants to see progress in creating a Palestinian state, envisioning a revamped Palestinian leadership running Gaza with an eye toward an eventual state.
This view is opposed by Netanyahu and his government's hardliners. Another senior government official from Gantz's party questioned the management of the war and the hostage release strategy.
Netanyahu's government, Israel's most conservative and religious, has also been shaken by a court-set deadline for passing a new bill to expand the military draft of ultra-Jews. orthodox. Many of them are exempted from military service in order to pursue religious studies. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7 and the army is seeking to refill its ranks.
Gantz has remained vague on his vision for the Palestinian state. Polls show he would win enough support to become prime minister if a vote were held today.
A visit to the United States, if it results in progress on the hostage front, could further bolster Gantz's support.
Israel and Hamas are negotiating a possible new ceasefire agreement and release of hostages. Vice President Harris said Sunday that it is now up to Hamas to accept it. Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks, which is currently on the table, Harris said.
Israelis, deeply traumatized by the Hamas attack, have largely supported the war effort as an act of self-defense, even as global opposition to the fighting has grown.
But a growing number of people are expressing dismay at Netanyahu. Some 10,000 people demonstrated on Saturday evening to demand early elections, according to Israeli media. Such demonstrations have increased in recent weeks, but remain much smaller than those of last year against the government's judicial reform project.
If political divisions deepen and Gantz leaves the government, the floodgates will open to broader protests from a public already unhappy with the government when Hamas struck, said Reuven Hazan, a political science professor. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
At least 12 people were killed, including five women and two children, in an Israeli strike Sunday that hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to an Associated Press journalist from Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. And two Israeli strikes southwest of Deir al-Balah killed at least five people and destroyed a humanitarian truck, according to witnesses and hospital staff.
Amid concerns over the broader regional conflict, White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein was traveling to Lebanon on Monday to meet with officials, according to an administration official who was not authorized to comment. White House officials want Lebanese and Israeli officials to prevent tensions along their border from escalating.
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Shurafa reported from Rafah in the Gaza Strip and Magdy in Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem and Aamer Madhani and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
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See more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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