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Tag: Antony Blinken

  • Qatari prime minister says Hamas had ‘generally positive’ response to Gaza cease-fire proposal

    Qatari prime minister says Hamas had ‘generally positive’ response to Gaza cease-fire proposal

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    DOHA, Qatar — Qatar’s prime minister says Hamas’ reaction to the latest Gaza cease-fire plan has been “generally positive.”

    Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani shared his assessment Tuesday at a news conference with the visiting U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken.

    Qatar has been working with the U.S. and Egypt to broker a cease-fire that would involve an extended halt in fighting and the release of hostages held by Hamas militants.

    Sheikh Mohammed gave no further details, but expressed optimism and said information was being relayed to Israel.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed ahead with a diplomatic tour of the Middle East on Tuesday, meeting Egyptian and Qatari leaders as part of his efforts to secure a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in exchange for the release of hostages.

    Blinken’s visit also comes amid growing concerns in Egypt about Israel’s stated intentions to expand the combat in Gaza to areas on the Egyptian border that are crammed with displaced Palestinians.

    Israel’s defense minister has said his country’s offensive will eventually reach the town of Rafah, on the Egyptian border, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge and are now living in increasingly miserable conditions.

    U.N. humanitarian monitors said Tuesday that Israeli evacuation orders now cover two-thirds of Gaza’s territory, driving thousands more people every day toward the border areas.

    Egypt has warned that an Israeli deployment along the border would threaten the peace treaty the two countries signed over four decades ago. Egypt fears an expansion of combat to the Rafah area could push terrified Palestinian civilians across the border, a scenario Egypt has said it is determined to prevent.

    Blinken, who met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, has said repeatedly that Palestinians must not be forced out of Gaza.

    Later on Tuesday, he traveled to Qatar and met with that country’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, shakes hands with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha, Qatar, Feb. 6, 2024.

    AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool

    BLINKEN PUSHING FOR PROGRESS

    During this trip, Blinken is seeking progress on a cease-fire deal, on potential normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and on preventing an escalation of regional fighting.

    On all three fronts, Blinken faces major challenges. Hamas and Israel are publicly at odds over key elements of a potential truce. Israel has dismissed the United States’ calls for a path to a Palestinian state, and Iran’s militant allies in the region have shown little sign of being deterred by U.S. strikes.

    Egypt and Qatar have been trying to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would lead to the release of more hostages in return for a several-week pause in Israeli military operations. The outlines of such a deal were worked out by intelligence chiefs from the U.S., Egypt, Qatar and Israel late last month and have been presented to Hamas, which has not yet formally responded.

    U.S. officials said Blinken hopes to get an update on Hamas’ response to the proposal. Blinken will then travel to Israel to brief Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his War Cabinet on Wednesday about what he heard from the Arab leaders.

    As on his previous four trips to the Mideast since the Gaza war began, Blinken’s other main goal is to prevent the conflict from spreading, a task made more difficult by stepped-up attacks by Iran-backed militias in the region and increasingly severe U.S. military responses in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the Red Sea that have intensified since last week.

    Blinken met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday evening, shortly after arriving in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Saudi officials have said the kingdom is still interested in normalizing relations with Israel in a potentially historic deal, but only if there is a credible plan to create a Palestinian state.

    FIGHTING ACROSS GAZA

    Any such grand bargain appears a long way off as the war still rages in Gaza.

    The Palestinian death toll from nearly four months of war has reached 27,585, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory, with 107 bodies brought to hospitals over the past day. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says most of the dead have been women and children.

    The war has leveled vast swaths of the tiny enclave and pushed a quarter of residents to starvation.

    Israel has vowed to continue the war until it crushes Hamas’ military and governing abilities and wins the return of the 100-plus hostages still held by the militant group.

    Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war and abducted around 250. More than 100 captives, mostly women and children, were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

    The Israeli military said Tuesday it was battling militants in areas across the Gaza Strip, including the southern city of Khan Younis, where it said troops killed dozens of militants over the past day.

    An Israeli airstrike in the city hit an apartment building, killing two parents and four of their five children, according to the children’s grandfather.

    Mahmoud al-Khatib said his 41-year-old son, Tariq, was sleeping along with his family when an Israeli warplane bombed their apartment in the middle of the night. The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes but blames Hamas for civilians deaths, saying the militants embed in civilian areas.

    HUMANITARIAN CRISIS PERSISTS

    U.N. humanitarian monitors said Tuesday that Israel’s evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip now cover two-thirds of the territory, or 246 square kilometers (95 square miles). The affected area was home to 1.78 million Palestinians, or 77% of Gaza’s population, before the war.

    The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said in its daily report that the newly displaced have only about 1.5 to 2 liters (50 to 67 ounces) of water per day to drink, cook and wash. It also reported a significant increase in chronic diarrhea among children.

    Parents of babies face a particularly difficult challenge because of the high cost or lack of diapers, baby formula and milk.

    Zainab Al-Zein, who is sheltering in the central town of Deir al-Balah, said she had to feed her 2.5-month-old daughter solid food, such as biscuits and ground rice, well ahead of the typical 6-month mark because milk and formula were not available.

    “This is known, of course, as unhealthy eating, and we know that it causes her intestinal distress, bloating and colic,” al-Zein said. “As you can see, 24 hours like this, she cries and cries continuously.”

    ___

    Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.

    Copyright © 2024 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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  • China skeptic wins Taiwan presidency in snub to Beijing

    China skeptic wins Taiwan presidency in snub to Beijing

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    TAIPEI — William Lai, a China skeptic with a track record supporting independence, won the Taiwanese presidential election on Saturday in a result that risks inflaming tensions between Beijing and Washington in the South China Sea.

    The election has been billed as the first major global geopolitical watershed of 2024, pitting the U.S. against China in a battle for regional influence. Beijing cast the vote as a choice between war and peace, and stressed the inevitability of the democratic island reunifying with the Communist mainland.

    Lai is currently the island’s vice-president and Saturday’s poll represents an unprecedented third successive time in power for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) — regarded as anathema by Beijing for its insistence upon Taiwan’s sovereign rights and its close relations with the U.S., Europe and other democratic forces. In terms of global security, the fear is Beijing could now ratchet up pressure on the island with warplanes and warships, as it did after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a whirlwind visit in 2022.

    Well aware of speculation that his victory could trigger heightened tensions with China’s President Xi Jinping, Lai held out an olive branch in his victory address, delivering a measured and cautious call for “exchanges and cooperation with China” on the basis of “dignity and parity.” He vowed to “replace confrontation with dialogue.”

    “As president I have an important responsibility to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. I will act in accordance with the Republic of China’s constitutional order in a manner that is balanced and maintains the cross-strait status quo,” Lai said, using Taiwan’s official name to please the more China-friendly constituents wary of his nativist Taiwan stance. “At the same time we are also determined to safeguard Taiwan from continuing threats and intimidation from China.”

    Beijing’s immediate reaction was dismissive. “The elections of China’s Taiwan region are local elections and China’s internal affairs. Regardless of the result, it will not change the the basic fact that Taiwan is part of China and there is only one China in the world,” said a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the U.K.

    With almost all the votes counted, Lai won slightly more than 40 percent of the vote. The election is a first-past-the-post contest.

    Hou Yu-ih from the more China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) won 33.5 percent of ballots cast. Ko Wen-je, of the Taiwan People’s Party, scored 26.5 percent.

    Hou conceded defeat at a KMT rally, saying: “I’m sorry I’ve let you down.”

    “I congratulate Lai and Hsiao, but I hope they won’t let the voters down,” he said, referring to Lai and his running mate Bi-khim Hsiao, the vice presidential candidate, who’s a famous figure in Washington, having served as Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the U.S. “Taiwan needs to be united and cannot be divided.” Hou continued. “Facing the U.S.-China-Taiwan relations, we need to approach them seriously, and leave the people with a stable environment.”

    The only good news for Beijing in the results is that the DPP has lost its parliamentary majority, with the KMT vying to take over the speakership. This makes it very hard for Lai, as president, to pass legislation through a hostile parliament, and would certainly clip his wings in terms of antagonism with China.

    Taiwan has no formal diplomatic relations with any major power as Beijing treats it as renegade region with no claim to sovereignty. It wields genuine economic heft, however, producing some 90 percent of the world’s most advanced semiconductors.

    The only good news for Beijing in the results is a possibility the DPP could lose its parliamentary majority | Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images

    The winner, expected to be formally announced later Saturday, will succeed outgoing Tsai Ing-wen on May 20, amid growing fears of an escalation of tensions between between China and Taiwan. Beijing has been heavily critical of Lai over recent years, as the DPP leader has associated himself with the Taiwanese independence movement.

    Indeed Lai went so far as to call himself a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence” in 2017, although he has now cooled that language.

    Lai is a 64-year-old Harvard graduate and hails from a humble background. His father died in a mining accident when he was not yet one year old; and he was among six children raised by his mother. Before he became vice president, he was mayor of Tainan city and later Taiwan’s premier.

    During the campaign, Lai ruled out declaring independence during his tenure, in an apparent bid to reassure Washington, which — alongside European allies — prefers that neither Beijing nor Taipei change the status quo unilaterally.

    U.S. President Joe Biden reacted to Lai’s victory with a blunt message on Saturday: “We do not support independence” for Taiwan. The Biden administration has clarified that while it does not back Taiwanese independence, it favors dialogue between Taipei and Beijing and expects differences to be resolved peacefully and without coercion.

    However, analysts and diplomats believe Beijing will increase pressure on Taiwan between now and the mid-May inauguration.

    Days before the election, Beijing again threatened Taiwan by calling Lai a warmonger. “Lai … will bring Taiwan farther and farther away from peace and prosperity, and closer and closer to war and decay,” Chen Binhua, spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Thursday.

    Lai is a 64-year-old Harvard graduate and hails from a humble background | Alastair Pike/AFP via Getty Images

    China and the U.S. have shown signs of trying to manage the tension ahead of the election. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the visiting Chinese Communist Party’s international department chief Liu Jianchao, a day before the Taiwanese vote.

    The U.S. and China also held the first physical military dialogue in four years, with Beijing demanding that the U.S. stop arming Taiwan. The Pentagon’s readout made no mention of how the U.S. responded to that call.

    After Saturday’s vote, the U.S. State Department congratulated Lai on his victory and “the Taiwan people for once again demonstrating the strength of their robust democratic system and electoral process,” according to a statement. “The United States is committed to maintaining cross-Strait peace and stability, and the peaceful resolution of differences, free from coercion and pressure,” it said.

    U.S.-China relations have seen a relative calm following U.S. President Joe Biden’s summit with China’s Xi in San Francisco in November. Xi, who’s grappling with an ailing economy at home, reportedly told Biden he had no timeline for achieving the ultimate goal of unifying Taiwan — indirectly pushing back at U.S. and Taiwanese officials’ suggestion that an invasion could take place by 2027.

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    Stuart Lau

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  • The ‘dirty dozen’ of Davos

    The ‘dirty dozen’ of Davos

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    It’s that time of year again: Leaders, business titans, philanthropists and celebs descend on the Swiss ski town of Davos to discuss the fate of the world and do deals/shots with the global elite at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

    This year’s theme: “Rebuilding trust.” Prescient, given the dumpster fire the world seems to be turning into lately, both literally (climate change) and figuratively (where to even begin?).

    As always, the Davos great and good will be rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s absolute top-drawer dirtbags. While there’s been a distinct dearth of Russian oligarchs in attendance at the WEF since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Donald Trump will be tied up with the Iowa caucus, there are still plenty of would-be autocrats, dictators, thugs, extortionists, misery merchants, spoilers and political pariahs on the Davos guest list.

    1. Argentine President Javier Milei

    Known as the Donald Trump of Argentina — and also as “The Madman” and “The Wig” — the chainsaw-wielding Javier Milei has it all: a fanatical supporter base, background as a TV shock jock, libertarian anarcho-capitalist policies (except when it comes to abortion), and a … memorable … hairdo.

    A long-time Davos devotee (he’s been attending the WEF for years), Milei’s libertarian policies have turned from kooky thought bubbles to concerning reality after he was elected president of South America’s second-largest economy, riding a wave of discontent with the political establishment (sound familiar?). The question now is how far Milei will go in delivering on his campaign promises to hack back public service and state spending, close the Argentine central bank and drop the peso.

    If you do get stuck talking to Milei in the congress center or on the slopes, here are some conversation starters …

    Milei’s likes: 1) American mobster Al Capone — “a hero.” 2) His cloned English Mastiff dogs — his advisers. 3) Spreading the gospel on tantric sex. 4) Selling human organs on the open market.

    Milei’s dislikes: 1) Pope Francis — “a filthy leftist” and “communist turd” — though the Milei administration has recently invited him back to Argentina to visit. 2) Taxes — insisting (incorrectly) Jesus didn’t pay ’em. 3) Sex education — a Marxist plot to destroy the family. 4) Fighting climate change — a hoax, naturally.

    2. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

    Rumor has it that Mohammed bin Salman will make his first in-person WEF appearance at this year’s event, accompanied by a giant posse of top Saudi officials.

    It’s the ultimate redemption arc for the repressive authoritarian ruler of a country with an appalling human rights record — who, according to United States intelligence, personally ordered the brutal assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. 

    Rumor has it that Mohammed bin Salman will make his first in-person WEF appearance at this year’s event | Leon Neal/Getty Images

    Perhaps MBS would still be a WEF pariah — consigned to rubbing shoulders with mere B-listers at his own Davos in the desert — if it were not for that other one-time Davos-darling-turned-persona-non-grata: Russian President Vladimir Putin. By launching his invasion of Ukraine, which killed thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of troops, Putin managed to push the West back into MBS’ embrace. Guess it’s all just oil under the bridge now.

    Here’s a piece of free advice: Try to avoid being caught getting a signature MBS fist-bump. Unless, of course, you’re the next person on our list …

    3. Jared Kushner, founder of Affinity Partners

    Jared Kushner is the closest anyone on the mountain is likely to come to Trump, the former — and possibly future — billionaire baron-cum-anti-elitist president of the United States of America. 

    On the one hand, a chat with The Donald’s son-in-law in the days just after the Iowa caucus would probably be quite a get for the Davos devotee. On other hand … it’s Jared Kushner.

    The 43-year-old, who is married to Ivanka Trump and served as a senior adviser to the former president during his time in office, leveraged his stint in the White House to build up a lucrative consulting career, focused mainly on the Middle East.

    Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, is largely funded through Gulf countries. That includes a $2 billion investment from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, led by bin Salman — which was, coincidentally, pushed through despite objections by the crown prince’s own advisers. 

    Kushner struck up a friendship and alliance with MBS during his father-in-law’s term in office, raising major conflict-of-interest suspicions for the Trump administration — especially when the then-U.S. president refused to condemn the Saudi leader in Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, despite the CIA concluding he was directly involved.

    4. Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president

    What does an autocrat do with a breakaway state within his country’s borders? Take advantage of Russia’s attention being elsewhere along with the EU’s thirst for his gas to launch a lightning-fast offensive, seize control, deport those pesky ancestral residents, lock up any rascally reporters — and then call a snap election to capitalize on the freshly whipped patriotic fervor, of course!

    Not that elections matter much for Ilham Aliyev — a little ballot stuffing here, a bit of double-voting there, add a sprinkle of violence and suppression — and hey presto, you’ve got a winning recipe, for two decades and counting.

    Running Azerbaijan is something of a family business for the Aliyevs — Ilham assumed power after the death of his father, Heydar Aliyev, an ex-Soviet KGB officer who ruled the country for decades. And the junior Aliyev changed Azerbaijan’s constitution to pave the path to power for the next generation of his family — and appointed his own wife as vice president to boot.

    5. Chinese Premier Li Qiang

    Li Qiang is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ultra-loyal right-hand man, and will represent his boss and his country at the World Economic Forum this year.

    Li’s claim to infamy: imposing a brutal lockdown on the entirety of Shanghai for weeks during the coronavirus pandemic, which trapped its 25 million-plus inhabitants at home while many struggled to get food, tend to their animals or seek medical help — and tanking the city’s economy in the process.

    Li’s also the guy selling (and whitewashing) China’s Uyghur policy in the Islamic world. In case you need a refresher, China has detained Uyghurs, who are mostly Muslim, in internment camps in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where there have been allegations of torture, slavery, forced sterilization, sexual abuse and brainwashing. China’s actions have been branded genocide by the U.S. State Department, and as potential crimes against humanity by the United Nations.

    Li Qiang will represent his boss and his country at the World Economic Forum this year | Johannes Simon/Getty Images

    The Chinese government claims the camps carry out “reeducation” to combat terrorism — a story Li has brought forward during recent meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar. Guess we know whom Li will be lunching with.

    6. Rwandan President Paul Kagame

    Nicknamed “the Napoleon of Africa” in a nod to his campaign to seize power in 1994, Paul Kagame has ruled over the land of a thousand hills since. He’s often praised for overseeing what is probably the greatest development success story of modern Africa; he’s also a dictator.

    The former military officer changed the Rwandan constitution to scrap an inconvenient term limit and cement his firm grip on the levers of power, while clamping down on dissent. But despite being accused of overseeing the imprisonment, exile and torture of Rwandan dissidents and journalists, Kagame has managed to stay in the West’s good books — and on the Davos guest list. 

    7. Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico

    Slovakia just can’t seem to quit Robert Fico. 

    Forced from office in 2018 by mass protests following the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, Fico rose from the political ashes to become Slovakian prime minister for the fourth time late last year. His Smer party ran a Putin-friendly campaign, pledging to end all military support for Ukraine.

    Slovakian courts are still working through multiple organized crime cases stemming from the last time Smer was in power, involving oligarchs alleged to have profited from state contracts; former top police brass and senior military intelligence officers; and parliamentarians from all three parties in Fico’s new coalition government.

    8. President of Hungary Katalin Novák

    Katalin Novák, elected Hungarian president in 2022, must’ve pulled the short straw: she’s been sent to Davos to fly the flag for the EU’s pariah state. Luckily, the 46-year-old is used to being the odd one out at a shindig: She’s both the first woman and the youngest-ever Hungarian president.

    You’d think Novák, given her background, would be a trail-blazing feminist seeking to inspire women to reach for the stars. But the arch social conservative is a hero of the international anti-abortion, anti-equality, anti-feminism movement.

    It’s her thoughts on the gender pay gap, though, that ought to get attention at the famously male-dominated World Economic Forum: In an infamous video posted back in late 2020, Novák told the sisterhood: “Do not believe that women have to constantly compete with men. Do not believe that every waking moment of our lives must be spent with comparing ourselves to men, and that we should work in at least the same position, for at least the same pay they do.” That’s us told.

    9. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet

    You may be surprised to see Hun Manet on this list: The new, Western-educated Cambodian prime minister has been touted in some circles as a potential modernizer and reformer. 

    But Hun Manet is less a breath of fresh air and a lot more continuation of the same stale story. Having inherited his position from his father, the longtime autocrat Hun Sen, Hun Manet has shown no signs of wanting to reform or modernize Cambodia. While some say it’s too early to tell where he’ll land (given his dad’s still on the scene, along with his Communist loyalists), the fact is: Many hallmarks of autocracy are still present in Cambodia. Repression of the opposition? Check. Dodgy “elections”? Check. Widespread graft and clientelism? Check and check. 

    10. Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani

    How has a small kingdom of 2.6 million inhabitants in the Persian Gulf managed to play a starring role in so many explosive scandals?

    There were the influence-buying allegations that claimed the scalps of multiple European Union lawmakers. The claims of undisclosed lobbying by two Trump-aligned Republican operatives. The multiple controversies over attempts at sportswashing. Not to mention the questions raised about what officials in the emirate knew ahead of the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas — of which Qatar is the biggest financial backer.

    Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani is the prime minister of Qatar, a country that’s played a starring role in many explosive scandals | Chris J. Ratcliffe/AFP via Getty Images

    You’d think that sort of record would see Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani shunned by the world’s top brass. Nah! Just this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the Qatari leader and told him the U.S. was “deeply grateful for your ongoing leadership in this effort, for the tireless work which you undertook and that continues, to try to free the remaining hostages.” 

    See you on the slopes, Mohammed!

    11. Polish President Andrzej Duda

    When you compare Polish President Andrzej Duda to some of the others on this list, he doesn’t seem to measure up. He’s not a dictator running a violent petro-state, hasn’t invaded any neighbors or even wielded a chainsaw on stage.

    But Duda is yesterday’s man. As the last one standing from Poland’s nationalist Law and Justice party that was swept out of office last year, Duda’s holding on for dear life to his own relevance, doing his best to act as a spoiler against the Donald Tusk-led government by wielding his veto powers and harboring convicted lawmakers. All of which is to say: When you catch up with President Duda at Davos, don’t assume he’s speaking for Poland.

    12. Amin Nasser, CEO of Aramco

    The Saudi Arabian state oil and gas company is Aramco — the world’s biggest energy firm — and Amin Nasser is its boss. If you read Aramco’s press releases, you’d be forgiven for assuming it is also the world’s biggest champion of the green energy transition. Spoiler alert: It’s far from it.

    Exhibit A: Aramco is reportedly a top corporate polluter, with environment nongovernmental organization ClientEarth reporting that it accounts for more than 4 percent of the globe’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1965. Exhibit B: Bloomberg reported in 2021 that it understated its carbon footprint by as much as 50 percent. 

    Nasser, meanwhile, has criticized the idea that climate action should mean countries “either shut down or slow down big time” their fossil fuel production. Say that to Al Gore’s face!

    This article has been updated to reflect the fact Shou Zi Chew is no longer going to attend the World Economic Forum.

    Dionisios Sturis, Peter Snowdon, Suzanne Lynch and Paul de Villepin contributed reporting.

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    Zoya Sheftalovich

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  • Netanyahu’s coalition bickers over Gaza

    Netanyahu’s coalition bickers over Gaza

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    Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brittle governing coalition isn’t anywhere near resolving its internal splits over how the Gaza Strip should be governed once Hamas has been crushed, and the situation is testing the patience of the country’s Western allies — including an increasingly exasperated United States.

    Judging by an ill-tempered security Cabinet meeting last week, which was an exceptionally rowdy affair even by the rambunctious standards of Israel’s politics, Netanyahu’s coalition — widely judged as the most right-wing in the country’s history — is fraying. And the sharp differences over Gaza’s fate aren’t helping.

    More of a no-holds-barred verbal brawl than a sober meeting at a moment of great national peril, last week’s security Cabinet had been summoned to agree on outlines for a “day-after” plan for Gaza, which the U.S. is ever more urgently demanding. But according to local media reports, as well as background briefings by officials, stark differences between the governing parties over a Gaza plan are exposing deeper underlying divides that are both ideological and personal.

    This, in turn, raises questions about just how much longer the country’s wartime unity government can hang together, especially as a protest movement calling for Netanyahu to quit is starting to flex its muscles.

    Ministers rounded on each other for much of the acrimonious meeting, with religious nationalists and hard-right leaders excoriating the Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Herzi Halevi, and taking potshots at a proposal offered by Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

    Coming on the eve of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s arrival in Israel, where he’ll be pressing Netanyahu to start winding down military operations in Gaza and conform to U.S. expectations on the enclave’s postwar future, the brawl was especially poorly timed. It also augurs badly for any meeting of the minds on postwar Gaza governance between Israel and Washington — let alone with Israel’s Arab neighbors.

    The sharp-tongued bickering was initially sparked by Halevi disclosing he’d set up an internal army inquiry headed by former defense officials, probing the failings of Israel’s security services before the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

    Led by ministers Miri Regev, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition partners complained that holding an internal inquiry while fighting rages in Gaza is inappropriate and would distract from what should be the real focus — winning the war.

    But their anger was largely concentrated on the inclusion of former Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz — who oversaw the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza — in the inquiry team. They see Israel’s Gaza disengagement as the original sin that allowed Hamas to grow and become the force it has, able to launch attacks as devastating as the ones on October 7. They want the 2005 withdrawal reversed and Israel to annex part, or all, of Gaza, even discussing the possibility of Gazans “voluntarily” being resettled elsewhere — including the DR Congo.

    This clash, which saw some defense officials walk out in protest, merely added fuel to the fire over Gallant’s proposal that Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas administer the enclave after the war. Under Gallant’s plan, there would be no Israeli resettlement of Gaza — which infuriated religious nationalists like Smotrich — however, the IDF would retain military control on the borders, and have the right to mount military operations inside Gaza when deemed necessary.

    “Gaza residents are Palestinian. Therefore, Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel,” Gallant said last week. But for Smotrich, “Gallant’s ‘day after’ plan is a re-run of the ‘day before’ October 7.”

    Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich walks with soldiers during a visit to Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the border with the Gaza Strip | Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images

    Scorned by the government’s hard right, the defense minister’s proposal is unlikely to cut it with the U.S. or with Israel’s Arab and Gulf neighbors either, as there would be no role for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which oversees the West Bank. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration wants Gaza to be handed over to what it calls a “revitalized” PA, although it hasn’t detailed exactly what that means or the necessary steps for such a revamp.

    Netanyahu eventually broke up the Cabinet meeting after three hours of confrontational exchanges, insults and ministers swearing at each other, once again leaving Gaza’s postwar future unresolved in Israeli minds. And all this, just as the Biden administration redoubles its insistence on a serious and credible postwar plan that Arab nations can accept.

    The disastrous meeting also prompted three key centrists in the wartime government — Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot and Yechiel Tropper of the National Unity government’s Blue and White faction — to skip a full meeting on Sunday, highlighting the growing tensions and coalition rifts.

    Tropper linked his boycott to the right-wing ministers assailing Halevi. He told national broadcaster Kan that he didn’t know “how long we will be in the government; I only know that we entered for the good of the country and our exit will also be related to the good of the country.”

    Gantz, a former defense minister and onetime chief of the General Staff, had led his centrists into Netanyahu’s government after October 7 for the sake of national unity. “There is a time for peace and a time for war. Now is a time for war,” he had said when accepting Netanyahu’s offer to join the war Cabinet.

    But Gantz’s popularity has risen dramatically since then, and he’s now seen as Netanyahu’s most likely challenger. So, if he chose to bolt from the government, it would increase the likelihood of an early election — and that’s something anti-Netanyahu activists are starting to demand once more. Until very recently, there was little appetite for demonstrations, with small turnouts of around just a few dozen to a few hundred people. However, rallies over the weekend saw several thousand participating, with protesters taking to the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, calling for the prime minister’s removal.

    So far, Netanyahu has been circumspect in outlining a postwar Gaza plan, mainly restricting himself to dismissing a role for the PA. And this has partly been due to his worry that disputes over Gaza’s postwar governance could prove fatal for his coalition. It looks like that may well turn out to be true.

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    Jamie Dettmer

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  • EU, US warn against Israel-Hamas war expanding into regional conflict

    EU, US warn against Israel-Hamas war expanding into regional conflict

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    EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, both on trips to the Mideast, warned on Saturday against the Israel-Hamas war escalating into a regional conflict as hostilities increased following the killing this week of a top Hamas official.

    “It is absolutely imperative to ensure Lebanon is not drawn into a regional conflict,” Borrell told a press conference in Beirut, according to Reuters and Agence France-Presse. “I’m also sending this message to Israel: No one will win from a regional conflict,” he said,.

    Blinken met on Saturday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan as part of a new diplomatic tour of the Middle East. Blinken “emphasized the need to prevent the conflict from spreading, secure the release of hostages, expand humanitarian assistance and reduce civilian casualties,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in comments to Reuters.

    Borrell said he agreed with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati to work on “de-escalation and long-term stability,” during a meeting that touched on southern Lebanon, the Gaza war and Syria.

    He also sounded the alarm about a “worrying intensification of exchange of fire” at the United Nations demarcation between Lebanon and Israel, known as the Blue Line.

    “The priority is to avoid regional escalation and to advance diplomatic efforts with a view to creating the conditions to reach a just and lasting peace between Israel, Palestine and in the region,” said Borrell in a post on X.

    Fears that the Israel-Hamas conflict will spread to neighboring countries have grown as the Gaza Strip death toll of nearly 23,000 keeps rising after three months of Israel’s heavy military retaliation to a Hamas massacre in early October that killed over 1,200 people and led to the hostage-taking of nearly 250 others.

    Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Saturday fired dozens of rockets at Israel after a strike earlier this week killed Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri. Houthi militants, meanwhile, have increased their attacks of commercial ships in the Red Sea.

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    Clothilde Goujard

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  • Hezbollah fires rockets at Israel in response to killing of Hamas leader

    Hezbollah fires rockets at Israel in response to killing of Hamas leader

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    Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at Israel on Saturday in retaliation for the targeted killing of a Hamas leader in Beirut this week amid mounting fears of a larger regional war, according to media reports.

    Hezbollah said in a statement Saturday that it targeted an Israeli air surveillance base in northern Israel with 62 missiles as an “initial response” to the suspected Israeli strike on January 2 that killed senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut. The Israeli military said around 40 rockets were fired from Lebanon at its territory.

    Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, said earlier this week that the killing of al-Arouri will “not go unpunished.”

    Israel’s military said it responded to the Hezbollah rocket attacks with a drone strike on “the terrorist cell responsible for the launches toward the area of Metula.”

    The escalation comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has embarked on his fourth diplomatic tour of the Middle East as the Israel-Hamas war reaches its three-month mark and amid growing international criticism of Israel’s strategy. Yemen’s Houthi militants have also increased their attacks on cargo ships and fuel tankers in the Red Sea.

    Blinken met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday. U.S. officials said Blinken was seeking Turkish buy-in, or at least consideration, of potential monetary or in-kind contributions to reconstruction efforts and some form of participation in a proposed multi-national force that could operate in or adjacent to the territory, the Associated Press reported.

    Turkey has been harshly critical of Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the prosecution of the war and the impact it has had on Palestinian civilians.

    In addition, officials said, Blinken will stress the importance Washington places on Ankara ratifying Sweden’s membership in NATO, a long-delayed process that the Turks have said they will complete soon. Sweden’s accession to the defense alliance is seen as one critical response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who was in Lebanon on Saturday, warned that it was imperative to avoid the Israel-Hamas war growing into a regional conflict.

    Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, some of whom have been released.

    Israel has for the last three months bombed the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, resulting in nearly 23,000 people dying and around 59,000 others being injured, according to the Palestinian enclave’s health authorities.

    In another warning, the United Nations’ humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on Friday that Gaza has become “uninhabitable” for its nearly 2.3 million inhabitants and repeated that “a public health disaster is unfolding” in the enclave. 

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    Clothilde Goujard

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  • Top Biden administration officials meet with Mexican president amid record migrant crossings

    Top Biden administration officials meet with Mexican president amid record migrant crossings

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    Blinken, Mayorkas to meet Mexican president


    Blinken, Mayorkas travel to Mexico for immigration meetings

    03:00

    President Biden dispatched top officials to Mexico City this week as migrants are crossing the U.S. border in record numbers and Congress has been unable to reach a consensus on funding border security. 

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Mr. Biden’s homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall traveled to Mexico on Wednesday to meet with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador as unauthorized crossings have strained federal and local resources in communities across the U.S.

    Blinken “will discuss unprecedented irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere and identify ways Mexico and the United States will address border security challenges, including actions to enable the reopening of key ports of entry across our shared border,” the State Department said ahead of the visit. 

    The White House said last week that Mr. Biden spoke to López Obrador on Thursday about “ongoing efforts to manage migratory flows in the Western Hemisphere.” The two leaders “agreed that additional enforcement actions are urgently needed so that key ports of entry can be reopened across our shared border,” the White House said. 

    The visit comes after Border Patrol processed nearly 50,000 migrants who entered the U.S. illegally in just five days last week. In November, Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 191,000 migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border unlawfully. This month, as many as 10,000 migrants were apprehended daily at the southern border. 

    Mexico’s president said last week he’s willing to help address the issue, but he wants the U.S. to provide more aid to the region and ease sanctions Cuba and Venezuela. 

    “We have always talked about addressing the causes [of migration]. The ideal thing is to help poor countries,” López Obrador said, according to the Associated Press. 

    In the U.S., Congress has debated border policy changes for weeks as part of a larger package including assistance to Ukraine and Israel. To convince Republicans — who want harsher border security measures — to support more foreign aid, Democrats are considering drastic limits on asylum and increased deportations. 

    Caitlin Yilek

    Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at cbsnews.com and is based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.

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  • Antony Blinken Defends Lone U.S. Veto On UN Cease-Fire Resolution For Gaza

    Antony Blinken Defends Lone U.S. Veto On UN Cease-Fire Resolution For Gaza

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    Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the U.S. government’s decision to, for the second time, veto the United Nations Security Council’s resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, as Israel continues to kill and displace tens of thousands of Palestinians.

    The 15-member council introduced the cease-fire resolution during an emergency meeting on Friday, which was convened days after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked an article that allows him to raise what he believes are threats to international peace and security.

    It was the second time the council brought a cease-fire resolution to the floor since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, which killed about 1,200 people and resulted in hundreds taken hostage, more than 100 of whom were released during a weeklong pause in the violence last month.

    Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 17,700 people in Gaza ― 70% of whom are women and children ― wounded more than 46,000 and trapped thousands more under rubble. The violence has also resulted in about 1.9 million Palestinians displaced, and forced surviving families to flee to southern Gaza.

    But despite global support for a cease-fire and an end to what human rights groups have described as the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, the U.S. vetoed the resolution. The United Kingdom abstained, while the remaining council members voted in favor of the cease-fire.

    “It is unconscionable that the Biden administration would stand alone in voting to continue the ethnic cleansing, starvation and genocide being carried out by Israel’s far-right government in Gaza,” CAIR National Executive Direct Nihad Awad said on Friday after the veto. “It is not clear what level of suffering by the Palestinian people would prompt our nation’s leaders to act in their defense.”

    In addition to a cease-fire, the draft resolution called for all parties to comply with international humanitarian law, protect Israeli and Palestinian civilians, and release all hostages. Despite the demands in the resolution aligning with what the White House has publicly called for, the U.S. government still vetoed the resolution.

    The decision by the U.S., who serves as Israel’s strongest ally, drew widespread backlash from those who warn that the move will lead to more civilian deaths. But on Sunday ― the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ― Blinken defended the decision, saying that the U.S. supports temporary “humanitarian pauses” but that a cease-fire would only benefit Hamas.

    “We have been a strong proponent of humanitarian pauses. In fact, because of our advocacy, because of the work we did, we got pauses. We got pauses on a daily basis to make sure that people could get out of the way, that humanitarian supplies could get in. We helped negotiate the longer pause that results on the release of more than 110 hostages, and it also allowed doubling of the humanitarian assistance that was getting into Gaza,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”

    “But when it comes to a cease-fire in this moment, with Hamas still alive, still intact, and again, with the stated intent of repeating Oct. 7 again and again, that would simply perpetuate the problem,” he continued. “And so our focus is on trying to make sure that civilians are protected to the maximum extent possible [and] that humanitarian assistance gets in to the maximum extent possible.”

    On Friday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that fewer than 100 trucks carrying humanitarian aid had entered Gaza over 24 hours.

    Despite Blinken’s statements claiming the U.S. cares about the protection of Palestinian civilians, the country’s veto on the cease-fire resolution has and will only result in more Palestinian deaths. On Friday, Guterres described the status of aid access in Gaza as a “spiraling humanitarian nightmare.”

    “There is no effective protection of civilians,” the secretary-general told the council. “The people of Gaza are being told to move like human pinballs ― ricocheting between ever-smaller slivers of the south, without any of the basics for survival. But nowhere in Gaza is safe.”

    Aid groups and journalists in Gaza ― whose numbers are dwindling due to Israel’s deadly attacks on the press ― have reported civilians facing starvation and thirst; patients with severe injuries undergoing treatment without anesthesia due to the lack of medicine; men digging children out of rubble with their bare hands; and soldiers rounding up, blindfolding and stripping hundreds of Palestinian men.

    Blinken’s claim that the U.S. is trying to reduce Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza also directly contradicts the State Department’s controversial move this weekend to bypass Congress and approve the emergency sale of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106 million to Israel. Previously, some Democratic lawmakers had proposed making $14.3 billion in American assistance to Israel contingent on concrete steps by Netanyahu’s government to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza.

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  • David Cameron is living his best life — while Boris Johnson squirms

    David Cameron is living his best life — while Boris Johnson squirms

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    LONDON — As David Cameron heads to Washington this week for his first big speech back on the world stage, his bête noire Boris Johnson will be sat in a dingy room in west London.

    Johnson is to give two days of televised testimony before Britain’s COVID-19 inquiry, answering a barrage of questions under oath about decisions he took while prime minister in 2020 and 2021 which — many believe — cost thousands of people their lives.

    As Johnson battles to salvage his battered reputation, Cameron will be strutting through America in a ministerial motorcade, glad-handing Washington’s power players and preparing to address the Aspen Security Forum as U.K. foreign secretary.

    It’s a stark symbol of just how quickly the political sands can shift.

    Cameron had long been written out of the British political scene, famously retreating to a hut in his garden to write his memoirs after calling — and losing — the divisive Brexit referendum in 2016. Johnson — an old acquaintance from his school days — had fought on the opposite side, and his star rose rapidly after the referendum victory. As Cameron licked his wounds, Johnson became foreign secretary in 2016 and then prime minister — with the landslide majority Cameron also craved — three years later.

    But with Johnson now long gone and Cameron handed a dramatic ministerial comeback — along with a seat in the House of Lords — in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet reshuffle last month, the two men’s fate has come full circle.

    And former colleagues say Cameron is making no secret of his delight at the turn of events, frequently texting associates to say how much he is enjoying the new gig. 

    Despite now having the run of the palatial Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office — known as the grandest building on Whitehall — Cameron has also been awarded two large private rooms in the House of Lords, displacing Conservative colleagues in the process. 

    Some friends believe he’s having more fun than when he was actually running the country.

    “He has got the bits of the job he enjoyed, he has shed the bits he didn’t. It is the perfect semi-retirement job for him,” a former No. 10 adviser who worked for Cameron said. (The adviser was granted anonymity, like others in this article, to speak candidly about private interactions with the foreign secretary)

    “All prime ministers like being on the world stage. It allows them to grapple with big issues,” a second former No. 10 adviser who worked closely with Cameron said. 

    Cameron’s closest political ally, his ex-Chancellor George Osborne, says his friend’s return will have fulfilled the “strong element of public service” in the ex-prime minister, which he claimed has “always been part of his DNA.”

    Cameron’s closest political ally, his ex-Chancellor George Osborne (left), says his friend’s return will have fulfilled the “strong element of public service” in the ex-PM | Pool photo by Petar Kujundzic via Getty Images

    “It’s like the sound of the trumpet. Back on … the political playing field, and serving your country. He’s doing it because above all he thinks he can make a difference,” Osborne said on a recent podcast.

    Others are less impressed.

    One Whitehall official, while acknowledging the diplomatic advantages of having a former PM in post, described Cameron’s appointment as “failing upward, writ large.”

    Cameron’s peerage means MPs cannot quiz him in the House of Commons like other ministers, another fact which rankles with opponents.

    “Once again Cameron is jetsetting around the globe with seemingly no accountability to the British public,” Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran said. 

    “We have very little idea whom this unelected foreign secretary is meeting and what he is saying. Maybe if he spent as much time — or indeed any time at all — making himself available for scrutiny from MPs, we would understand exactly what his foreign policy priorities are.”

    Back on the world stage

    On his first visit to the U.S. since becoming foreign secretary on Wednesday, Cameron will meet key members of the Biden administration, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as Republican and Democratic Congressional figures in an effort to shore up support for Ukraine. 

    Cameron’s appointment has certainly made diplomats in foreign capitals sit up and take notice, if only because his is a familiar name in the hard-to-follow soap opera of British politics. 

    Even in the U.S., his appointment triggered some excitement. As one U.K. official put it, “Americans have a sort of respect for former office-bearers in a way that Brits don’t.”

    An EU diplomat said that despite having “gambled” on the Brexit referendum, Cameron is still well thought of in Brussels.

    Cameron will certainly feel at home, having relished life on the world stage as prime minister, according to multiple advisers who worked with him at the time. 

    “You get the idiosyncrasies of different leaders and he enjoyed that. He has a good sense of humor,” the second former adviser quoted above said. The aide recounted how a Nigerian president had once left a soap opera playing on TV throughout his meeting with the British prime minister. “[Cameron] came out laughing. He could roll with the weird and wonderful.”

    With Johnson now long gone and Cameron handed a dramatic ministerial comeback in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet reshuffle last month, the two men’s fate has come full circle | Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

    Predictably, Cameron has slipped back easily into government — perhaps a little too easily, according to the Whitehall official quoted above who said he had to be reminded he needed clearance before texting friendly hellos to former acquaintances from foreign powers. 

    The same person said he was demanding fast, detailed briefings at a rate more associated with No. 10, and has sometimes sent papers back asking for a more creative approach. They pointed out his only previous job in government had been as prime minister, which influences his way of working. 

    Green with envy

    The notoriously competitive Cameron also won’t be displeased by the reaction to his appointment by his political peers. 

    Arch-rival and former school frenemy Johnson, who was ousted from office in 2022 over his handling of various personal scandals, couldn’t help but mock Cameron’s return, describing it as “great news for retreads everywhere.”

    Osborne, Cameron’s closest political friend, admitted to being “a little bit jealous, but in a good way,” after he returned. 

    “There’s a little bit of me that goes ‘I’d fancy being foreign secretary,’” Osborne admitted, before insisting: “But I’m very happy with what I’m doing with the rest of my life, and I think it probably keeps me sane.”

    Even the man who appointed Cameron — Sunak — may start to envy Cameron’s ability to detach from the day-to-day management of a fractious Conservative Party, something he endured throughout his own premiership from 2010-2016. 

    Two government officials said Cameron was essentially “prime minister of foreign affairs,” leaving Sunak to fix his attention on a raft of nightmarish domestic problems in the run-up to the next election, which he is expected to lose.

    “[Cameron] can really dedicate himself in a way he never could as PM, because you’re on the plane back and you’ve got to deal with Mark Pritchard and circus tent animals, or whatever else there is when you are prime minister,” a third former adviser said, referencing a furor over a Tory backbench rebellion on banning circus animals. 

    Adrenaline rush

    Life will certainly be different from the past seven years. Shortly after his appointment last month, Cameron told peers the Chippy Larder food project — where he volunteered for two years during his political retirement — would have to manage without him for a while.

    “There’s an element of it being quite hard to replay that adrenaline rush [of being PM], the pace of what you do,” the second former adviser quoted above said, noting Cameron had quit before he was 50 and had been “at the peak of his abilities.”

    “It’s a shot of redemption,” the third former adviser added. “He’s got another chance at it — and this one probably isn’t going to end in his failure.”

    Jon Stone contributed reporting

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  • In rare action against Israel, U.S. will deny visas to extremist West Bank settlers

    In rare action against Israel, U.S. will deny visas to extremist West Bank settlers

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    In a rare punitive move against Israel, the State Department said Tuesday it will impose travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in a rash of recent attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the step after warning Israel last week that President Biden’s administration would be taking action over the attacks. 

    Blinken said the new visa restriction policy “will target individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including through committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities.”

    “The United States has consistently opposed actions that undermine stability in the West Bank, including attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, and Palestinian attacks against Israelis,” Blinken said on Tuesday. “As President Biden has repeatedly said, those attacks are unacceptable. Last week in Israel, I made clear that the United States is ready to take action using our own authorities.”

    PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-WEST BANK
    A relative of Palestinian Bilal Saleh points at an Israeli settlement near the village of As-Sawiyah in the occupied West Bank, on Nov. 29. Saleh was killed on Oct. 28.

    KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images


    The decision comes at a sensitive moment in U.S.-Israeli relations. The Biden administration has firmly backed Israel since it was attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, even as international criticism of Israel has mounted.

    The new policy falls under the Immigration and Nationality Act and is expected to affect “dozens of individuals and potentially their family members,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a briefing Tuesday, adding that the policy will apply to Israelis and Palestinians. 

    Since Palestinians are not included in the U.S.’s Visa Waiver Program, their eligibility for applying for visas would be affected if found guilty of violence, Miller said. Israelis who have committed violence will either have their visa revoked or be blocked from applying for a visa. 

    When asked why the U.S. was taking action now, given the significant uptick in violence in the months leading up to the war, Miller said the U.S. has repeatedly raised the issue with the Israeli government and emphasized the need to curb settler violence. Miller said the U.S. has not seen significant action taken by the Israeli government.

    Israel Palestinians West Bank's War
    Abdelazim Wadi, 50, holds up a poster commemorating his brother, Ibrahim Wadi, and his nephew, Ahmed Wadi, who were killed by Israeli settlers during a funeral procession on Oct. 12 in the village of Qusra, West Bank.

    Mahmoud Illean / AP


    Miller declined to comment on the U.S.’s plan to hold American settlers to account for violence, saying the Israeli government is primarily responsible for them; he deferred further questions to the Department of Justice.

    The Israeli Embassy in Washington declined to comment on the development.

    Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday condemned violence against Palestinians by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, Reuters reported, saying only the police and the military had the right to use force.

    In recent weeks, the Biden administration has stepped up calls on Israel to do more to limit civilian casualties as the Israelis expand their offensive and target densely populated southern Gaza. The U.S. has refrained from outright criticism of that offensive. It has been increasingly outspoken, however, about settler violence in the West Bank and Israel’s failure to respond to U.S. calls to stop it.

    The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Monday that since Oct. 7 at least eight Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by settlers. The U.N. agency said it has recorded 314 attacks by settlers that have resulted in Palestinian casualties, damage to Palestinian-owned property or both. One-third of the attacks included threats with firearms, including shootings, and in nearly half of the attacks the settlers were accompanied or actively supported by Israeli forces.

    ISRAEL GAZA WAR
    Neighbors of Mohammad Abed inspect Abed’s home and farmland allegedly damaged by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank on Nov. 15.

    Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times


    “Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have the responsibility to uphold stability in the West Bank,” Blinken said earlier. “Instability in the West Bank both harms the Israeli and Palestinian people and threatens Israel’s national security interests.”

    Tuesday’s move comes shortly after Israel was granted entry into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, which allows its citizens visa-free entry into the U.S. Those targeted by the action will not be eligible for the program, and those who hold current U.S. visas will have them revoked.

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  • Renewed concerns about civilian deaths as Israel intensifies assault on southern Gaza after weeklong cease-fire ends

    Renewed concerns about civilian deaths as Israel intensifies assault on southern Gaza after weeklong cease-fire ends

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    Israel pounded targets in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, intensifying a renewed offensive that followed a weeklong truce with Hamas and giving rise to renewed concerns about civilian casualties.

    At least 240 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed Friday morning, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, even as the United States urged ally Israel to do everything possible to protect civilians.

    “This is going to be very important going forward,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday after meetings with Arab foreign ministers in Dubai, wrapping up his third Middle East tour since the war started. “It’s something we’re going to be looking at very closely.”

    Many of Israel’s attacks Saturday were focused on the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza, where the military said it had struck more than 50 Hamas targets with airstrikes, tank fire and its navy. Israeli forces said that they have struck more than 400 targets overall since fighting resumed in Gaza on Friday. 

    APTOPIX Israel Palestinians
    Palestinians look at destruction after the Israeli bombing In Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza Strip on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.

    Mohammed Dahman / AP


    The military dropped leaflets the day before warning residents to leave but, as of late Friday, there had been no reports of large numbers of people leaving, according to the United Nations. 

    “There is no place to go,” lamented Emad Hajar, who fled with his wife and three children from the northern town of Beit Lahia a month ago to seek refuge in Khan Younis.

    “They expelled us from the north, and now they are pushing us to leave the south.”

    Some 2 million people — almost Gaza’s entire population — are crammed into the territory’s south, where Israel urged people to relocate at the war’s start and has since vowed to extend its ground assault. Unable to go into north Gaza or neighboring Egypt, their only escape is to move around within the 220-square-kilometer (85-square-mile) area.

    In response to U.S. calls to protect civilians, the Israeli military released an online map, but it has done more to confuse than to help.

    It divides the Gaza Strip into hundreds of numbered, haphazardly drawn parcels, sometimes across roads or blocks, and asks residents to learn the number of their location in case of an eventual evacuation.

    capture5.png
    The Israeli military on Friday published a map of what it called “evacuation zones” in the Gaza Strip, after international demands to create safe areas where civilians can shelter from devastating bombardments.

    OpenStreetMap contributors


    “The publication does not specify where people should evacuate to,” the U.N. office for coordinating humanitarian issues in the Palestinian territory noted in its daily report. “It is unclear how those residing in Gaza would access the map without electricity and amid recurrent telecommunications cuts.”

    In the first use of the map to order evacuations, Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, specified areas in the north and the south to be cleared out Saturday in posts on X, formerly Twitter.

    Adraee listed numbered zones under evacuation order – but the highlighted areas on maps attached to his post did not match the numbered zones.

    Egypt has expressed concerns the renewed offensive could cause Palestinians to try and cross into its territory. In a statement late Friday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the forced transfer of Palestinians “is a red line.”

    U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who was in Dubai on Saturday for the COP28 climate conference, was expected to outline proposals with regional leaders to “put Palestinian voices at the center” of planning the next steps for the Gaza Strip after the conflict, according to the White House. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has been emphasizing the need for an eventual two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state coexisting.

    The renewed hostilities have also heightened concerns for 136 hostages who, according to the Israeli military, are still held captive by Hamas and other militants after 105 were freed during the truce. For families of remaining hostages, the truce’s collapse was a blow to hopes their loved ones could be the next out after days of seeing others freed. The Israeli army said Friday it had confirmed the deaths of four more hostages, bringing the total known dead to seven.


    What does end of Israel-Hamas cease-fire mean for hostages still held in Gaza?

    05:01

    During the truce, Israel freed 240 Palestinians from its prisons. Most of those released from both sides were women and children.

    The war began after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants, who killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and took around 240 people captive.

    After the end of the truce, militants in Gaza resumed firing rockets into Israel, and fighting broke out between Israel and Hezbollah militants operating along its northern border with Lebanon.

    Hundreds of thousands of people fled northern Gaza to Khan Younis and other parts of the south earlier in the war, part of an extraordinary mass exodus that has left three-quarters of the population displaced and facing widespread shortages of food, water and other supplies.

    APTOPIX Israel Palestinian
    Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel, Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.

    Tsafrir Abayov / AP


    Since the resumption of hostilities, no aid convoys or fuel deliveries have entered Gaza, and humanitarian operations within Gaza have largely halted, according to the U.N.

    The International Rescue Committee, an aid group operating in Gaza, warned the return of fighting will “wipe out even the minimal relief” provided by the truce and “prove catastrophic for Palestinian civilians.”

    Up until the truce began, more than 13,300 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s assault, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

    The toll is likely much higher, as officials have only sporadically updated the count since Nov. 11. The ministry says thousands more people are feared dead under the rubble.

    Israel says it is targeting Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods. Israel says 77 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive in northern Gaza. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence.

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  • Renewed Israel-Gaza war crowds out climate at COP28

    Renewed Israel-Gaza war crowds out climate at COP28

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    DUBAI — The war in Gaza crashed into the United Nations climate summit on Friday, as furious sideline diplomacy, blunt censures of violence and an Iranian boycott shoved global warming to the side.

    It was a sharp change in tone from the COP28 opening on Thursday, which ended on an upbeat note as countries promised to support climate-stricken communities. The mood darkened the following day as news broke that the week-old truce between Israel and Hamas was collapsing. 

    Israeli President Isaac Herzog spent much of the morning in meetings telling fellow leaders about “how Hamas blatantly violates the ceasefire agreements,” according to a post on his X account. He ended up skipping a speech he was meant to give during Friday’s parade of world leaders.

    There were other conspicuous no-shows. Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was absent, despite being listed as an early speaker. And Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader, also disappeared from the final speakers’ list after initially being scheduled to talk just a few slots after Herzog. 

    Then, shortly after leaders posed for a group photo in the Dubai venue on Friday, the Iranian delegation announced it was walking out. The reason, Iran’s energy minister told his country’s official news agency: The “political, biased and irrelevant presence of the fake Zionist regime” — referring to Israel. 

    By Friday afternoon, the Iranian pavilion had emptied out. 

    The backroom drama played out even as leader after leader took the stage in the vast Expo City campus to make allotted three-minute statements on their efforts to stop the planet from boiling. The World Meteorological Organization said Thursday that 2023 was almost certain to be the hottest year ever recorded.

    U.N. climate talks are often buffeted by outside events. This is the second such meeting held after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That war provoked some public barbs and backroom discussions at last year’s summit in Egypt, but leaders still maintained their scheduled speaking slots and a veneer of focus on the matter they were supposedly there to discuss.

    This year, that veneer cracked. 

    “There are currently a number of very, very serious crises that are causing great suffering for many people. It was clear that these would also affect the mood at the COP,” a German diplomat, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly, told POLITICO. 

    But that can’t distract officials working on climate change, the diplomat added: “It is also clear that no one on our planet, no country on Earth, can escape the destructive effects of the climate crisis.” 

    Tell-tale signals

    There had been early signs that the conflict would spill over into discussions at the climate summit. 

    Sameh Shoukry, president of the COP27 climate conference and Egyptian minister of foreign affairs, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, president of COP28 | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    At Thursday’s opening ceremony, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry — president of last year’s COP27 summit — asked all delegates to stand for a moment of silence in memory of two climate negotiators who had recently died, “as well as all civilians who have perished during the current conflict in Gaza.” 

    On Friday, Jordanian King Abdullah II, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were among the leaders who used their COP28 speeches to draw attention to the war.

    “This year’s COP must recognize even more than ever that we cannot talk about climate change in isolation from the humanitarian tragedies unfolding around us,” Abdullah said. “As we speak, the Palestinian people are facing an immediate threat to their lives and wellbeing.”  

    Ramaphosa went further: “South Africa is appalled at the cruel tragedy that is underway in Gaza. The war against the innocent people of Palestine is a war crime that must be ended now. 

    But, he added, “we cannot lose momentum in the fight against climate change.”

    Asked for comment, an official from the United Arab Emirates, which is overseeing COP28, said the country had invited all parties to the conference and “are pleased with the exceptionally high level of attendance this year.” 

    The official added: “Climate change is a global issue and as the host for this significant, momentous conference, the UAE  welcomes constructive dialogue and continues to work with all international partners and stakeholders across the board to deliver impactful results for COP28.”  

    The other summit in Dubai

    In the back rooms of the conference venue, leaders were holding urgent talks on the war. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken huddled with Herzog on Thursday, according to a post on Herzog’s X account. 

    “In addition to participating in the COP, I’ll have an opportunity to meet with Arab partners to discuss the conflict in Gaza,” Blinken told reporters Wednesday while in Brussels for a NATO gathering. He didn’t offer further details.

    A senior Biden administration official told reporters Vice President Kamala Harris would also be “having discussions on the conflict between Israel and Hamas” during her trip to Dubai.

    On his X account, Herzog said he had met with “dozens” of leaders at the summit. His post featured photographs of Britain’s King Charles III, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, India’s Narendra Modi and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He also posted about meetings with Blinken and UAE leader Mohamed bin Zayed.

    Erdoğan met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at COP28 to discuss the war in Gaza, according to a statement by the Turkish communications directorate that made no mention of climate action. 

    U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made no secret of the fact that he intended to use some of his brief visit to Dubai to talk about regional security.

    U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made no secret of the fact that he intended to use some of his brief visit to Dubai to talk about regional security | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    “I’ll be speaking to lots of leaders … not just [about] climate change, but also the situation in the Middle East,” he told reporters on his flight out of the U.K. Thursday night.

    The reignited Israel-Hamas conflict came to dominate his time at the summit. Meetings with other leaders were arranged with regional tensions in mind — not climate. Sunak met Israel’s Herzog and Jordan’s Abdullah, as well as Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al Sisi and the emir of Qatar.  

    “Given the events of this morning in Israel and Gaza, the prime minister has spent most of his bilateral meetings discussing that situation,” Sunak’s spokesperson told reporters in Dubai.

    The meetings focused on “what more we can do both to support the innocent civilians in Gaza, to de-escalate tensions, to get more hostages out and more aid in,” the spokesperson said.

    Even the U.K.’s ostensibly nonpolitical head of state, King Charles III — in Dubai to give an opening address to world leaders — was deployed to aid the diplomatic effort. Buckingham Palace said the king would “have the opportunity to meet regional leaders to support the U.K.’s efforts to promote peace in the region.”

    Separately, French President Emmanuel Macron was planning to meet various leaders on the security situation and then fly on for talks in Qatar, according to an Elysée Palace official. 

    Meanwhile, three of Europe’s leaders who have been the strongest backers of the Palestinians — Irish leader Leo Varadkar, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez — held talks on the fringes of COP on Friday morning.

    Earlier on Friday, Israel withdrew its ambassador to Spain, blasting what it called Sánchez’s “shameful remarks” on the situation.

    Brazil’s Lula, whose country will host a major COP conference in 2025, lamented that just as more joint action is needed to prevent climate catastrophe, war and violence were cleaving the world apart.  

    “We are facing what may be the greatest challenge that humanity has faced till now,” he said. “Instead of uniting forces, the world is going to wars. It feeds divisions and deepens poverty and inequalities.”

    Zia Weise, Suzanne Lynch and Charlie Cooper reported from Dubai. Karl Mathiesen reported from London.

    Clea Calcutt contributed reporting from Paris. Nahal Toosi contributed reporting from Washington, D.C. 

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    Biden playing “central role” in Gaza hostage negotiations, White House says – CBS News


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    President Biden was on the phone Saturday with Qatari leaders in an effort to resolve the holdup which delayed the release of Hamas-held hostages in Gaza. This came after Hamas halted its agreement with Israel for several hours. The two sides eventually resolved their disagreement, and 17 hostages were released, along with 39 Palestinian prisoners. Weija Jiang has details.

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  • Temporary cease-fire in Israel-Hamas war expected to begin Friday

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    Temporary cease-fire in Israel-Hamas war expected to begin Friday – CBS News


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    A temporary pause in the fighting in Gaza between Israeli forces and Hamas militants is expected to begin at 7 a.m. local time Friday, with the first batch of hostages expected to be released Friday afternoon. Lilia Luciano has the latest.

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    In an op-ed published in the Washington Post Saturday, President Biden wrote that a “two-state solution is the only way to ensure the long-term security of both the Israeli and Palestinian people,” with Gaza and the West Bank governed by the Palestinian Authority. Christina Ruffini reports from Washington.

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  • Blinken calls U.S.-China relationship

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    A day after President Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Northern California in an effort to ease growing tensions between the two superpowers, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS News that China represents “one of the most consequential relationships” the U.S. has with any nation.

    “This is one of the most consequential relationships we have,” Blinken told “CBS News Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell Thursday. “One of the most consequential relationships between any two countries in the world. And we have an obligation to try to responsibly manage that relationship.”

    Among the most important results to come out of Wednesday’s meeting near San Francisco was the two leaders agreeing that the U.S. and China would resume direct military-to-military communications.

    “Yesterday, we agreed that our militaries would start talking again, at the most senior levels, and at the operational level,” Blinken told CBS News. “And this is a very important way of trying to avoid a miscalculation, a mistake that could lead to a conflict.”

    Mr. Biden also said that Xi had agreed to cooperate with the U.S. on tackling the opioid crisis through counternarcotics efforts. In recent years, the U.S. has been working to halt the flow of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl that are illegally trafficked to the U.S. from China.

    “In terms of actually making a difference in the lives of the American people, the number one killer of Americans aged 18-to-49 is fentanyl,” Blinken said. “Not car accidents, not guns, not cancer, it’s fentanyl.”

    The chemical precursors, Blinken said, “have been coming from China, going to the Western Hemisphere, turned into fentanyl, and then coming into the U.S. We now have an agreement with China to take concrete action against the companies that are engaged in this practice.”

    A senior administration official told CBS News on Wednesday that the U.S. is working with the Chinese on a plan to have China use a number of procedures to go after specific companies that make those precursors. The official said the Chinese have already acted against several of the companies for which the U.S. has provided information. The official also said that China is taking a number of steps intended to curtail supplies used to make the chemicals.

    “As the president said yesterday, ‘trust but verify,’ and that’s what we’re doing,” Blinken said when asked if the U.S. can trust that China will follow through on the crackdown.

    In his solo news conference following Wednesday’s meeting, Mr. Biden for the second time this year referred to Xi as a “dictator” in response to a reporter’s question.

    “Well look, he is,” Mr. Biden said. “I mean, he’s a dictator in the sense that he is a guy who runs a country that is a communist country.”

    In June, Biden also called his Chinese counterpart a dictator while speaking to supporters during a private fundraising event in Northern California.

    Cameras captured Blinken’s uncomfortable response to Mr. Biden’s remarks during Wednesday’s news conference. A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry called the remarks “wrong” and “irresponsible.”

    When pressed by O’Donnell on whether Mr. Biden’s comments were the position of the U.S. government, Blinken responded that the president “speaks for all of us.”

    “Well, it’s not exactly a secret that we have two very different systems,” Blinken said. “And the president always speaks candidly, and he speaks for all of us.”

    “It’s clear that we will continue to say things and continue to do things that China doesn’t like, just as I assume that they will continue to do and say things that we don’t like,” Blinken continued. “But what’s so important about the meeting yesterday, about all the work we have been doing over the last six months to make sure that we’re engaged diplomatically with them, is precisely to make sure, for the things that really matter: Pursuing this competition in a way that doesn’t become conflict, managing our differences, and also looking for areas of cooperation.”

    — Kathryn Watson contributed to this report. 

    Faris Tanyos

    Faris Tanyos is a news editor for CBSNews.com, where he writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He previously worked as a digital news producer at several local news stations up and down the West Coast.

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    Blinken calls U.S.-China a “consequential relationship” – CBS News


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    One day after President Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Northern California, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told “CBS News Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell in an interview Wednesday that China represents “one of the most consequential relationships” the U.S. has with any nation. He also addressed President Biden’s remarks in which Mr. Biden again referred to Xi as a “dictator.”

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    In an interview with “CBS News Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would consider a “temporary cease-fire” only if Hamas frees hostages. Netanyahu also said Israel has “concrete evidence” Hamas was using Al-Shifa hospital as a military command center.

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  • White House supports daily pauses, calls for civilian protections in Gaza amid protests

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    White House supports daily pauses, calls for civilian protections in Gaza amid protests – CBS News


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    Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel should do more to avoid civilian casualties amid the war in Gaza, while the White House said it supported daily humanitarian pauses in the territory. In the U.S., tensions are running high and protests are growing. Christina Ruffini has more.

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    An Israeli air strike Friday hit Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, leaving several people dead, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel insists Hamas is using Gaza hospitals to coordinate attacks and hide its commanders. Debora Patta has more.

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