Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a defiant tone against US President Joe Biden after Washington withheld a shipment of bombs as a warning to its top Middle East ally not to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
In a first, punchy clip on the social media site X, Netanyahu said: “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone” and “fight tooth and nail.”
He then pivoted to a more conciliatory approach when chatting with Phil McGraw, the US talk show host known as Dr Phil.
Photo: AP
“I’ve known Joe Biden for many years, 40 years and more,” Netanyahu said in the interview on Thursday on Dr Phil Primetime broadcast on Merit Street Media. “We often had agreements, but we’ve had our disagreements and we’ve been able to overcome them. I hope we can overcome them now.”
Netanyahu said Israel must go into Rafah to finish off the remaining battalions of Hamas, the US-designated terrorist group that killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped about 250 on Oct. 7 last year.
He said Hamas would “murder again and again” if allowed to survive in Rafah.
“We have to achieve victory,” he said. “That means we have to destroy all these battalions, which we will. We face very strong opposition to that, but we’re going to overcome it.”
Netanyahu said Israel would do its utmost to make sure civilians leave Rafah, where more than 1 million people are sheltering, before any attack.
He also criticized the “madness” of pro-Palestinian rallies on US college campuses, saying protesters are “supporting genocide,” adding that this reflected “the sorry state of American higher education.”
On Wednesday, Biden said he would halt additional shipments of offensive weapons to Israel if it launches a ground invasion of Rafah, decrying the potential loss of civilian life as “just wrong.”
“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” Biden said in an interview with CNN, referring to air-defense weaponry. “But it’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”
Like Netanyahu, US officials followed sharp criticism with more conciliatory remarks on Thursday.
White House officials said the US stands by its ally, while urging Netanyahu to refrain from an assault that could worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the administration paused, but did not cancel, the shipment of about 3,500 bombs, which he said was limited to specific munitions that could add to the civilian death toll in Gaza.
“The arguments that somehow we’re walking away from Israel flies in the face of the facts,” Kirby told reporters.
There were also indications that the White House had not sought an open confrontation with Netanyahu.
US officials initially planned to inform the Israeli government privately that the US intended to pause the bomb shipment to ramp up pressure on Netanyahu — but not to follow through unless there was a major incursion into urban areas of Rafah. However, that plan was foiled when Israeli officials leaked it, people familiar with the situation said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS