Glembert
KN. Israel will be the United States’ strongest ally in the Middle East regardless of who is elected president in November, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before flying to Washington, where he was due to address the U.S. Congress.
Netanyahu said he would thank President Joe Biden for all he has done for Israel throughout his career and discuss issues such as securing the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, defeating the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, and confronting Iran and its proxies in the region.
Policies and practices used by Israel in its occupation of Palestinian territories are in breach of international law, the U.N. top court said in a landmark opinion. In its opinion, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said that Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as “the regime associated with them,” were established and are being maintained in violation of international law. The ICJ said Israel should cease all new settlement activities and evacuate settlers from Palestinian territories. Hamas said in a statement that Israel was continuing to massacre civilians in the Gaza Strip despite the issuance of a legal ruling by the ICJ.
Hamas announced it had signed an agreement in Beijing with other Palestinian organizations, including rival Fatah, to work together for “national unity,” with China describing it as a deal to rule Gaza together once the war ends. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who hosted senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzuk, Fatah envoy Mahmud al-Aloul, and emissaries from 12 other Palestinian groups, said they had agreed to set up an “interim national reconciliation government” to govern post-war Gaza. China, he added, was keen to “play a constructive role in safeguarding peace and stability in the Middle East.”
Foreign Minister Israel Katz insisted that “Hamas rule will be crushed” and accused Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose Fatah faction signed the deal, of embracing the group whose October 7 attacks triggered the war.
Indonesia hailed the signing of the Beijing Declaration by several factions struggling for Palestinian independence as a progressive step in advancing national reconciliation and unity in Palestine. Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who is currently in Vientiane, Laos to attend the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting, emphasized the importance of maintaining the unity of the Palestinian nation amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip. “Indonesia expects everything agreed to be implemented,” she said in a written statement.
Benjamin Netanyahu finally got the attention he so desperately wanted in the US capital. Republicans and their guests in the House chamber stamped their feet and whistled as a joint session was gaveled into order, while the Democrat lawmakers who chose not to boycott someone whom colleagues had called a “war criminal” looked on in sullen silence. In a 56-minute speech punctuated with 50 rounds of applause, the Israeli prime minister dashed hopes of a quick end to the war in Gaza and dispensed red meat to the Republican faithful, blasting anti-war protest culture and vowing to fight until “total victory”.
A’an Suryana, Visiting Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia; and Syafiq Hasyim, Visiting Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Lecturer and Director of Library and Culture at the Indonesian International Islamic University said Nadhlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation, made media headlines recently, for controversial reasons. First, it was criticised for being unethical after its officials announced that NU would ask the government to issue it a license to manage mining areas. The public argued that a religious organisation like NU was supposed to confine itself to promoting moral and religious norms, not to operate mines, which is outside its expertise.
The mining controversy had not died down fully when NU was hit with another controversy a few weeks ago, after five youth cadres from NU’s Jakarta and Banten chapters, and other organisations affiliated with NU, visited Israel. The five met Israeli President Isaac Herzog on 3 July, an action many in Indonesia lambasted, especially when many governments and communities across the world have condemned Israel for its atrocities in Palestine, including Gaza.
The United States criticized an Israeli bill that would declare the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees a terrorist organization, saying that such efforts are “incredibly unhelpful.” “UNRWA is not a terrorist organization, and we urge the Israeli government and the Knesset to halt the movement of this legislation,” said U.S. Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller. He further said that only the U.S. Congress could lift the ban on UNRWA funding after the agency completed its internal investigation into the October 7 attacks in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin said he is ready to press forward with Israel’s war against Hamas until he achieves “total victory” as he addressed lawmakers at the United States Congress. Netanyahu said that he would agree to a ceasefire only if Hamas surrenders, disarms and releases all hostages it is holding. He said Israel would continue to fight indefinitely until it destroys the group’s military capabilities and brings home all hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned an address to Congress into a forceful defense of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. He cast it as a battle for survival of the Jewish state while making almost no mention of the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed in its drive to destroy Hamas.
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