NEW YORK: Several of former President Donald Trump ‘s Republican rivals denounced him on Thursday for lashing out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu days after Hamas’ deadly attack, a rare moment in which multiple competitors directly criticized the GOP front-runner.
Trump at a rally Wednesday night said Netanyahu “let us down” just before the US killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020. He also said Israeli leaders needed to “step up their game” and referred to Hezbollah, the group Israel fears may launch a large-scale attack from the country’s north, as “very smart.” In an interview that aired Thursday, he added to his criticism, saying Netanyahu “was not prepared” for the deadly weekend incursion from Gaza.
“Now is not the time to be attacking our ally,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of Trump’s 2024 rivals, echoing denunciations from the White House and elsewhere. More than 2,700 people are dead on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides, and Hamas is believed to have taken around 150 hostages.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, another GOP presidential contender, compared Trump’s comments to a foreign ally criticizing the US in the aftermath of 9/11 or the attack on Pearl Harbor. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said, “We cannot accept a single message to any of the enemies of Israel” that US and Israeli leaders are at odds.
Trump is generally treated with a hands-off approach by his leading Republican opponents, who are fearful of alienating his loyal base. But his criticism of Israel, so soon after the unprecedented attack, underscores the extent to which the man most likely to take on President Joe Biden next year is driven by personal enmity and resentments toward those who rejected his lies about winning the 2020 election.
While Trump and Netanyahu were close allies for years, the former president turned on the embattled Israel leader after Netanyahu congratulated then-President-elect Biden for winning the 2020 election while Trump was still trying to overturn the results. In interviews for a book about his Middle East peace efforts, Trump, according to its author, used an expletive to describe Netanyahu and said he believed the Israeli leader never really wanted to make peace.
Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary who serves on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said he wished Trump would “let his personal grievances with Bibi, whatever they are, slide for now.”
“I think it’s just a reflection that for Donald Trump, everything is personal,” Fleischer said. “But despite it, I’ll never forget and no one should forget Trump has been good for Israel.” Trump has long said that he did more to support Israel than any previous president, pointing to his decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem and to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
Others were less forgiving.
“I think it is another sign that Trump’s impulsiveness plays into the hands of those who are not his friends,” said Erick Erickson, a conservative radio host and Trump critic. “He’s given a propaganda win to a terrorist group. That’s unfortunate.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates called Trump’s statements “dangerous and unhinged,” while the Israeli communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, told Israel’s Channel 13 that it was “shameful that a man like that, a former US president, abets propaganda and disseminates things that wound the spirit of Israel’s fighters and its citizens.”
Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The prime minister and Israel’s intelligence services are under immense pressure to explain how they missed the planning of a multi-pronged attack unlike any in the country’s history. Before this week, his far-right government was facing mass protests over a proposed judicial overhaul and criticism from former senior officers of Mossad, Shin Bet, and other Israeli security services who said his proposed policies weakened Israel’s internal security.
In Washington, President Joe Biden and senior Democratic and Republican leaders have lined up behind Israel in the wake of the Hamas attack. Biden spoke to Jewish leaders on Wednesday and called the attack the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Trump has long tried to paint himself as one of Israel’s staunchest defenders and has continued to pledge support in the wake of the attack. In the immediate aftermath, he, like some other GOP contenders, tried to place the blame on Biden, and said he would support the country’s efforts to “crush” Hamas.
But on Wednesday night, after saying his prayers were with Israel and again vowing support, Trump told a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, that he was frustrated with Netanyahu over the 2020 mission that killed Soleimani, then the head of Iran’s Quds Force.
In Trump’s telling, “Israel was going to do this with us, and it was being planned and working on it for months.”
“We had everything all set to go, and the night before it happened, I got a call that Israel will not be participating in this attack,” Trump alleged, adding that he would “never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down.”
His account of Israel’s role in the raid could not immediately be verified.
Trump also seized on intelligence failures surrounding the past weekend’s onslaught, saying the Iraelis had to “strengthen themselves up.”
“They’ve got to straighten it out because they’re fighting, potentially, a very big force,” he said. “They’re going to have to step up their game.” He further criticized Israel’s defense minister, calling him “this jerk” for warning Hezbollah not to attack Israel from the north.
In an interview that aired Thursday morning on Fox News Radio, he told host Brian Kilmeade that Netanyahu “was not prepared and Israel was not prepared.”
“Who would have thought their intelligence wouldn’t have been able to pick this up?” he asked. “Thousands of people were involved. Thousands of people knew about it and they let this slip by.”
Speaking to reporters after filing for the New Hampshire primary on Thursday afternoon, DeSantis said Netanyahu was “managing one of the most difficult situations Israel’s ever had to face.”
“You may have a personal vendetta or beef with him, but is that really the time to be out there doing that and to be attacking the Israeli defense minister? I don’t think so,” he said. He also criticized Trump for calling Hezbollah “very smart.”
Trump campaign aides defended the former president’s comments, saying that there was nothing new about his criticism of Netanyahu over the 2020 strike and defending his use of the word “smart” to describe bad foreign actors.
“President Trump was clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack,” said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung. “Smart does not equal good. It just proves Biden is stupid.”
It remains unclear how the new war in the Middle East might impact both the GOP primary, which will begin in three months in Iowa, or the general election.
While the war in Israel was not top of mind for many of the Republican primary voters who gathered at the New Hampshire statehouse on Thursday to see DeSantis, several were aware of Trump’s comments. One of them, 34-year-old Republican Melissa Blasek, of Merrimack, said it was another example of why she had lost faith in the former president.
“One of the things I always liked about Trump was his strong support for Israel,” said Blasek. “I don’t really know what he meant. It was very rambling. What’s clear is that this is not the Trump of 2016. He is not the same candidate … And so things sound less coherent. And I am tired of incoherency. I like an articulate and coherent president.”
Trump’s criticism of Israeli PM Netanyahu draws strong condemnation from GOP rivals
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Trump’s criticism of Israeli PM Netanyahu draws strong condemnation from GOP rivals
- Trump at a rally slammed the Israeli PM for being "not prepared" for the Hamas incursion and praised the Hezbollah as "smart"
- The former president has not forgiven Netanyahu for congratulating Biden for winning the 2020 election that Trump refuses to accept
Floods displace 122,000 people in Malaysia
- The number surpassed the 118,000 displaced during one of the country’s worst floodings in 2014
The number surpassed the 118,000 displaced during one of the country’s worst floodings in 2014, and disaster officials feared it could rise further as there was no let-up in torrential downpours.
The death toll remained at four recorded across Kelantan, Terengganu and Sarawak.
Kelantan state bore the brunt of the flooding, accounting for 63 percent of the 122,631 people displaced, according to data from the National Disaster Management Agency.
There were nearly 35,000 people evacuated in Terengganu, with the rest of the displacements reported from seven other states.
Heavy rains, which began early this week, continued to hammer Pasir Puteh town in Kelantan, where people could be seen walking through streets inundated with hip-deep waters.
“My area has been flooded since Wednesday. The water has already reached my house corridor and is just two inches away from coming inside,” Pasir Puteh resident and school janitor Zamrah Majid, 59, told AFP.
“Luckily, I moved my two cars to a higher ground before the water level rose.”
She said she allowed her grandchildren to play in the water in front of his house because it was still shallow.
“But if the water gets higher, it would be dangerous, I’m afraid they might get swept away,” she added.
“I haven’t received any assistance yet, whether it’s welfare or other kinds of help.”
Muhammad Zulkarnain, 27, who is living with his parents in Pasir Puteh, said they were isolated.
“There’s no way in or out of for any vehicles to enter my neighborhood,” he told AFP.
“Of course I’m scared... Luckily we have received some assistance from NGOs, they gave us food supplies like biscuits, instant noodles, and eggs.”
Floods are an annual phenomenon in the Southeast Asian nation of 34 million people due to the northeast monsoon that brings heavy rain from November to March.
Thousands of emergency services personnel have been deployed in flood-prone states along with rescue boats, four-wheel-drive vehicles and helicopters, said Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who chairs the National Disaster Management Committee.
China coast guard says it conducted patrols around Scarborough Shoal in South China Sea
- Tensions between China and the Philippines over disputed areas of the South China Sea have escalated throughout the year, particularly over the Scarborough Shoal
BEIJING: China’s coast guard said it had conducted patrols around the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Saturday to safeguard China’s territorial rights.
The coast guard has continued to strengthen law enforcement patrols in the territorial waters and surrounding areas of Scarborough Shoal since the beginning of November, and “resolutely safeguarding the country’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” it said in a statement.
Tensions between China and the Philippines over disputed areas of the South China Sea have escalated throughout the year, particularly over the Scarborough Shoal.
13 more killed in Pakistan sectarian fighting
- Fresh fighting broke out last Thursday when two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims traveling under police escort were ambushed, killing more than 40
Peshawar: Sectarian feuding in northwest Pakistan killed 13 more people, a local government official said Saturday, as warring Sunnis and Shiites defied repeated ceasefire orders in recent conflict claiming 124 lives.
Pakistan is a Sunni-majority country, but Kurram district — in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the border with Afghanistan — has a large Shiite population and the communities have clashed for decades.
Fresh fighting broke out last Thursday when two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims traveling under police escort were ambushed, killing more than 40.
Since then 10 days of fighting with light and heavy weapons has brought the region to a standstill, with major roads closed and mobile phone services cut as the death toll surged.
A Kurram local government official put the death toll at 124 on Saturday after 13 more people were killed in the past two days.
Two were Sunni and 11 Shiite, he said, whilst more than 50 people have been wounded in fresh fighting which continued Saturday morning.
“There is a severe lack of trust between the two sides, and neither tribe is willing to comply with government orders to cease hostilities,” he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Police report that many people want to flee the area due to the violence, but the deteriorating security situation makes it impossible,” he added.
A seven-day ceasefire deal was announced by the provincial government last weekend but failed to hold. Another 10-day truce was brokered Wednesday but it also failed to stymie the fighting.
A senior security official in the provincial capital of Peshawar, also speaking anonymously, confirmed the total death toll of 124.
“There is a fear of more fatalities,” he said. “None of the provincial government’s initiated measures have been fully implemented to restore peace.”
Police have regularly struggled to control violence in Kurram, which was part of the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas until it was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 79 people had been killed in the region between July and October in sectarian clashes.
The feuding is generally rekindled by disputes over land in the rugged mountainous region, and fueled by underlying tensions between the communities adhering to different sects of Islam.
Schools shut as heavy storm approaches India coast
- Cyclonic storm Fengal is forecast to make landfall in Tamil Nadu state with sustained winds of 70-80 kilometers an hour
- The forecast urged fishing crews to stay off the water and predicted surging waves of one meter that posed a flood risk
BENGALURU: Schools in India’s south were shut and hundreds of people moved inland to storm shelters ahead of a powerful cyclone storm set to hit the region on Saturday.
Cyclonic storm Fengal is forecast to make landfall in Tamil Nadu state with sustained winds of 70-80 kilometers an hour (43-50 mph) in the afternoon, India’s weather bureau said.
The forecast urged fishing crews to stay off the water and predicted surging waves of one meter (three feet) that posed a flood risk to low-lying coastal areas.
Schools and colleges in numerous districts across Tamil Nadu were shut and at least 471 people had been moved to relief camps, the Economic Times newspaper reported.
Cyclones — the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the northwestern Pacific — are a regular and deadly menace in the northern Indian Ocean.
Fengal skirted the coast of Sri Lanka earlier this week, killing at least 12 people including six children.
Scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful as the world heats up due to climate change driven by burning fossil fuels.
Warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, which provides additional energy for storms, strengthening winds.
A warming atmosphere also allows them to hold more water, boosting heavy rainfall.
But better forecasting and more effective evacuation planning have dramatically reduced death tolls.
Thailand flooding kills nine, displaces thousands
- ‘Very heavy rain’ could continue to affect some areas of the country’s south through next week
- The government has deployed rescue teams to assist affected residents
BANGKOK: Flooding driven by heavy rains in southern Thailand has killed nine people and displaced more than 13,000, officials said Saturday, as rescue teams using boats and jet skis worked to reach stranded residents.
Local media footage showed residents wading through murky, chest-deep water and cars submerged in flooded streets.
“Flooding across eight provinces in southern Thailand has affected 553,921 households and claimed nine lives, prompting agencies to mobilize urgent assistance,” the country’s disaster agency said on its official Facebook page.
More than 13,000 people had been forced to flee their homes, with temporary shelters set up in schools and temples, it added.
Nampa, a resident of coastal Songkhla province, told state broadcaster Thai PBS she was concerned about the dwindling food supplies.
“We are doing fine now, but I am not sure how long can we stay in this condition,” she said.
Two hospitals in nearby Pattani province suspended operations to prevent floodwaters from damaging medical facilities.
In neighboring north Malaysia, the rains have forced the evacuation of at least 80,000 people to temporary shelters this week, with disaster officials there saying at least four people have been killed.
The Thai Meteorological Department has warned that “very heavy rain” could continue to affect some areas of the country’s south through next week.
The government has deployed rescue teams to assist affected residents and designated 50 million baht ($1.7 million) in flood relief for each province.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said Friday on social media platform X that the goal was to “restore normalcy as quickly as possible.”
While Thailand experiences annual monsoon rains, scientists say man-made climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.
Widespread flooding across the country in 2011 killed more than 500 people and damaged millions of homes.
