Middle east crisis.

[sandGroundZero]

Washington News Top Democrat Schumer calls for new elections in Israel, saying Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday called on Israel to hold new elections, saying he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “lost his way” and is an obstacle to peace in the region amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Schumer, the first Jewish majority leader in the Senate and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the U.S., strongly criticized Netanyahu in a 40-minute speech Thursday morning on the Senate floor. Schumer said the prime minister has put himself in a coalition of far-right extremists and “as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows.” “Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah,” Schumer said. The high-level warning comes as an increasing number of Democrats have pushed back against Israel and as President Joe Biden has stepped up public pressure on Netanyahu’s government, arguing that he needs to pay more attention to the civilian death toll in Gaza amid the Israeli bombardment. The U.S. this month began airdrops of badly needed humanitarian aid and announced it will establish a temporary pier to get more assistance into Gaza via sea. … Schumer said that if Israel tightens its control over Gaza and the West Bank and creates a “de facto single state,” then there should be no reasonable expectation that Hamas and their allies will lay down arms. It could mean constant war, he said. “As a democracy, Israel has the right to choose its own leaders, and we should let the chips fall where they may,” Schumer said. “But the important thing is that Israelis are given a choice.” Mary Clare Jalonick & Ellen Knickmeyer | March 14, 2024 Copyright 2024 The Associated Press.

[sandGroundZero]

Schumer faces backlash after calling for new Israeli elections to oust Netanyahu Senate majority leader says Israeli prime minister has ‘lost his way’ and warns that country risks becoming ‘a pariah’ [Sen. Schumer] listed Netanyahu, who has long opposed Palestinian statehood, as among several roadblocks to implementing the two-state solution supported by the United States, alongside rightwing Israelis, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas. “These are the four obstacles to peace, and if we fail to overcome them, then Israel and the West Bank and Gaza will be trapped in the same violent state of affairs they’ve experienced for the last 75 years,” Schumer said. He added that the US could not dictate the outcome of an election in Israel, but “there needs to be a fresh debate about the future of Israel after October 7”. Netanyahu’s cabinet is dominated by ultranationalists who share the prime minister’s opposition to Palestinian statehood and other aims that successive US administrations have seen as essential to resolving Palestinian-Israeli conflicts in the long term. … Chris Stein and agencies | Thu 14 Mar 2024 © 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited

[sandGroundZero]

US news Authors withdraw from PEN America festival in protest over Israel-Gaza war Group of more than a dozen writers decry organization’s inadequate response to ‘genocide’ being committed by Israel … In the latest missive, the 16 authors say their decision to pull out of the festival, scheduled to take place in New York from 8-11 May, follows PEN’s “failure” to support human rights organizations and the United Nations security council in demanding a Gaza ceasefire. “Palestine’s poets, scholars, novelists and journalists and essayists have risked everything, including their lives and the lives of their families, to share their words with the world,” the letter states. “Yet PEN America appears unwilling to stand with them firmly against the powers that have oppressed and dispossessed them for the last 75 years. An unrelenting genocidal campaign is currently being waged against Palestinians in Gaza, a horror that has been filmed daily and streamed live around the world. “We hope that our decision not to participate will add to existing efforts to yield concrete and lasting change at a time that calls for moral courage from us all.” … Richard Luscombe | Fri 15 Mar 2024 © 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited

[sandGroundZero]

Top senator calls on Biden to ‘use all levers’ to pressure Israel over Gaza Democrat Chris Van Hollen says Biden must cease giving arms to Israel until it lifts restrictions on aid and does more to protect lives … This week, Van Hollen and seven of his colleagues sent a letter to the president arguing that Israel was in violation of the Foreign Assistance Act, a section of which prohibits the sale and transfer of military weapons to any nation that restricts the delivery of US aid. Their call comes as the administration faces mounting domestic and international pressure over what critics have described as an “absurd” and “inherent contradiction” at the heart of US policy on Israel’s war against Hamas: while the US attempts to ease the deepening humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s military campaign in the Palestinian territory, it continues to arm the country. … Lauren Gambino in Washington | Sat 16 Mar 2024 © 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited

[sandGroundZero]

Netanyahu rails against US criticism and says Israel won’t stop until ‘total victory’ is achieved TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed Sunday against growing criticism from the United States against his leadership amid the devasting war with Hamas, saying the pressure won’t stop Israel from achieving “total victory.” … “No international pressure will stop us from realizing all of the goals of the war: Eliminating Hamas, freeing all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel,” he said. He reiterated his determination to attack Hamas in Rafah and said that his government approved military plans for such an operation. “We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen,” Netanyahu said. Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul-general in New York and an outspoken critic of Netanyahu, said that the Israeli leader’s comments fit in with his efforts to find someone else to blame should Israel not achieve it’s wartime goal of destroying Hamas. “He’s looking on purpose for a conflict with the U.S. so that he can blame Biden,” Pinkas said. Both sides have something to gain politically from the public spat. The Biden administration has come under increasing pressure from progressive Democrats and some Arab-American supporters to restrain Israel’s war against Hamas. Netanyahu, meanwhile, has used the recurrent arguments to show his base that he can withstand global pressure, even from Israel’s closest ally. Israel’s offensive has driven most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes. A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, according to the U.N. The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 31,645 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. By TIA GOLDENBERG and Ravi Nessman | March 17, 2024 Copyright 2024 The Associated Press.

[sandGroundZero]

Israel’s Shifa raid shows its grip is slipping as a ‘forever war’ looms Retaking of Shifa complex shows Hamas militants, despite heavy losses, are still operational in northern Gaza The latest raid on al-Shifa hospital reveals that the Israeli military’s hold on the areas of Gaza supposedly cleared of Hamas militants is considerably more tenuous than the country’s political leaders have claimed – and suggests the region’s military superpower is facing its own “forever war” in the territory with enormous costs for everyone involved, particularly civilians. The fighting around the Shifa hospital and its eventual seizure was the climactic moment of the first phase of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, launched last year after Hamas killed 1,200 and captured 250 people, mostly civilians, in a surprise raid on 7 October. There was bitter argument over whether the hospital’s buildings and basements had been used by Hamas as a covert command centre, as Israel claimed, but none over the strength of Israel’s control of the site when its soldiers moved in on 15 November. Three months later, Monday’s raid is an implicit admission that this control seems to have slipped. … Netanyahu has said that once Israel’s forces have destroyed their enemy’s forces in Rafah, the southernmost town in the territory and where more than a million displaced are sheltering, then the war will in effect be over. Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, recently told US officials: “Ending the war without clearing out Rafah is like sending a firefighter to extinguish 80% of the fire.” Monday’s raid on Shifa makes clear that, despite the grey ash and rubble across so much of the territory, the fire in Gaza is not fully extinguished anywhere. by Jason Burke in Jerusalem | 18 March 2024 © 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited

[shippy]

Israel’s Shifa raid shows its grip is slipping as a ‘forever war’ looms Retaking of Shifa complex shows Hamas militants, despite heavy losses, are still operational in northern Gaza

Hamas are moving underground through those intended war tunnels. I believe that at the time of the IDF forces were pushing ahead South, some of the Hamas terrorists doubled back to Shifa hospital,to where they had arms and facilities…
80 Hamas terrorists gave themselves up to the IDF today, and many others were eliminated.

Let’s hope some information can be obtained as to where the hostages are.
What a pity Hamas never invested the enormous amounts of money they received, .to providing proper homes and roads for Gaza.
The Hamas terrorist leadership have become almost billionaires overnight..
pocketing donations into their own bank accounts in Qatar and Turkey. Money intended for the Palestinians, shocking

England, especially around the London area, has become a centre for a free for all.
Police are afraid to ‘offend’ the perpetrators and many are just given a warning.
It’s a shambles. It’s not the Britain I grew up in 80 years ago. My late Father will be turning over in his grave.

[Hamble]

Hamas are moving underground through those intended war tunnels. I believe that at the time of the IDF forces were pushing ahead South, some of the Hamas terrorists doubled back to Shifa hospital,to where they had arms and facilities…
80 Hamas terrorists gave themselves up to the IDF today, and many others were eliminated.

Let’s hope some information can be obtained as to where the hostages are.
What a pity Hamas never invested the enormous amounts of money they received, .to providing proper homes and roads for Gaza.
The Hamas terrorist leadership have become almost billionaires overnight..
pocketing donations into their own bank accounts in Qatar and Turkey. Money intended for the Palestinians, shocking

England, especially around the London area, has become a centre for a free for all.
Police are afraid to ‘offend’ the perpetrators and many are just given a warning.
It’s a shambles. It’s not the Britain I grew up in 80 years ago. My late Father will be turning over in his grave.

I hope the IDF find more Israeli hostages.

[shippy]

I hope the IDF find more Israeli hostages.

I hope so too Hamble. Dreadful sufferings for people on both sides of the border.

[sandGroundZero]

Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats ‘hate Israel’ and their religion NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and hate “their religion,” igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders. Trump, in an interview, had been asked about Democrats’ growing criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of the war in Gaza as the civilian death toll continues to mount. “I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump responded to his former aide, Sebastian Gorka. “I think they hate Israel. And the Democrat party hates Israel.” … Jill Colvin | March 19 2024 Copyright 2024 The Associated Press

[sandGroundZero]

Israel urges UN court to reject South Africa’s request for more emergency orders in genocide case … Israel’s response was published on the day that the U.N. food agency said that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza, where 70% of the remaining population is experiencing catastrophic hunger, and that a further escalation of the war could push around half of Gaza’s total population to the brink of starvation. The food agency’s statement came less than two weeks after South Africa urged the world court “to do what is within its power to save Palestinians in Gaza from genocidal starvation.” Israel fervently denies that its military campaign in Gaza amounts to a breach of the Genocide Convention. It acknowledged in its written response to South Africa’s request that there are “also tragic and agonizing civilian casualties in this war. These realities are the painful result of intensive armed hostilities that Israel did not start and did not want.” … Mike Corder | March 18, 2024 Copyright 2024 The Associated Press

[sandGroundZero]

Zero post #2361 Israel’s Shifa raid shows its grip is slipping as a ‘forever war’ looms Retaking of Shifa complex shows Hamas militants, despite heavy losses, are still operational in northern Gaza

Heavy fighting rages around Gaza’s biggest hospital as Israel raids it for a second day RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Explosions and shootings shook the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital and surrounding neighborhoods as Israeli forces stormed through the facility for a second day Tuesday. The military said it had killed 50 Hamas militants in the hospital, but it could not be independently confirmed that the dead were combatants. The raid was a new blow to the Shifa medical complex, which had only partially resumed operations after a destructive Israeli raid in November. Thousands of Palestinian patients, medical staff and displaced people were trapped inside the sprawling complex Tuesday as heavy fighting between troops and Hamas fighters raged in nearby districts. “It’s very hard right now. There’s heavy bombardment in the area of Shifa, and buildings are being hit. The sound of tank and artillery fire is continuous,” Emy Shaheen, who lives near the hospital, said in a voice message with repeated booms of shelling audible in the background. She said a large fire had been raging for hours near the hospital. The Israeli military said it raided Shifa early Monday because Hamas fighters had grouped in the hospital and were directing attacks from inside. The claim could not be confirmed, and the Hamas media office said all those killed in the assault were civilians. But the surge in fighting in Gaza City underscored Hamas’ continued presence in northern Gaza months after Israeli ground troops claimed they largely had control over the area. … By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY | March 20, 2024 Copyright 2024 The Associated Press

[sandGroundZero]

US and UK doctors in Washington to warn of IDF’s ‘appalling atrocities’ in Gaza … Professor Nick Maynard, the former director for cancer services at Oxford University who worked at the al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza at the beginning of the year, accused the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) of “appalling atrocities”. “The IDF are systematically targeting healthcare facilities, healthcare personnel and really dismantling the whole healthcare system,” he said. “It’s not just about targeting the buildings, it’s about systematically destroying the infrastructure of the hospitals. Destroying the oxygen tanks at the al-Shifa hospital, deliberately destroying the CT scanners and making it much more difficult to rebuild that infrastructure. If it was just targeting Hamas militants, why are they deliberately destroying the infrastructure of these institutions?” … Chris McGreal | Wed 20 March 2024 © 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited

[The PNP]

.^Forget about rescuing hostages....Degrading/destroying the Palestinians infrastructure, looks to have been a primary aim of the IDF's game right from the outset.

[shippy]

.^Forget about rescuing hostages....Degrading/destroying the Palestinians infrastructure, looks to have been a primary aim of the IDF's game right from the outset.

Would you want to forget about the hostages , if it was someone from your close family in the hands of a terrorist organization such as Hamas?

War is a very ugly thing, Israel are dealing with a murderous terrorist organization..HAMAS
Until this terrorist gang Hamas, has been eradicated, Israel (and Gaza) will never have the chance of living in peace and safety.

The international community have been very negligent in allowing Hamas to keep the civilian community of Gaza in poverty.
It wasn’t a secret.

Not forgetting digging that elaborate tunnel system under nearly every building ( including hospitals. Schools and mosques) financed by money which was for the civilians of Gaza.

Building those tunnels with money donated by international countries. Pity that the donations were not checked as to what they were used for.
A water refinement system was one of the top priorities..that never happened..proper roads etc, the list goes on and on.

Hamas were offered deals to stop the war, by calling a ceasefire in exchange for the hostages ..
On a number of occasions this offer stayed on the table. Hamas refused.
The offer is still there.

Dealing with extreme radical Islamic terrorists, is like dealing with a cancerous tumour. If it’s not fully removed it will spread.
As many people have witnessed with cancer treatment , there are always hard side effects .

PNP I don’t know one person who is not sympathetic to the situation of the
civilian people of Gaza, and I really hope that a solution can be brought about asap. Both sides of this war are suffering.
.