WASHINGTON: A beaming Donald Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to their first face-to-face meeting in nearly four years on Friday, patching up a political alliance important to both men that had broken down when the Israeli leader offended Trump by being one of the first to congratulate Joe Biden on his 2020 presidential victory.
Asked by journalists if his US trip was making progress toward a Gaza ceasefire at home, Netanyahu said, “I hope so,” and added that Israel was eager for an agreement.
Netanyahu handed Trump a framed photo that the Israeli leader said showed a child who has been held hostage by Hamas-led militants since the first hours of the war. “We’ll get it taken care of,” Trump assured him.
Trump’s campaign said he pledged in the meeting to “make every effort to bring peace to the Middle East” and combat antisemitism on college campuses if American voters elect him to the presidency in November.
Trump was waiting for Netanyahu on the stone steps outside his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, where he warmly clasped the hands of the Israeli leader. Both men have a strong interest in resuming their relationship, including for the political support and luster their alliance brings.
“We’ve always had a great relationship,” Trump insisted before journalists. Asked as the two sat down in a muraled room for talks if Netanyahu’s trip to Mar-a-Lago was repairing their bond, Trump responded, “It was never bad.”
As president, Donald Trump went well beyond his predecessors in fulfilling Netanyahu’s top wishes from the United States. Yet by the time Trump left the White House, relations had soured, with Trump publicly criticizing Netanyahu as disloyal despite the other man’s efforts to mend ties.
For both men, Friday’s meeting was aimed at highlighting for their home audiences in the United States and Israel their depiction of themselves as strong leaders who have gotten big things done on the world stage, and can again.
Netanyahu’s Florida trip followed a fiery address to a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday that defended his far-right government’s conduct of the war and condemned American protesters galvanized by the killing of more than 39,000 Palestinians in the conflict.
On Thursday, Netanyahu had met in Washington with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Both pressed the Israeli leader to work quickly to wrap up a deal to bring a ceasefire and release hostages.
Netanyahu is increasingly accused at home of prolonging the war to stave off the collapse of his government when the conflict ends.
For Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee, the meeting was a chance to be cast as an ally and statesman, as well as to sharpen efforts by Republicans to portray themselves as the party most loyal to Israel.
D ivisions among Americans over US support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza have opened cracks in years of strong bipartisan backing for Israel, the biggest recipient of US aid.
For Netanyahu, repairing relations with Trump is imperative given the prospect that Trump may once again become president of the United States, which is Israel’s vital arms supplier and protector.
One political gamble for Netanyahu is whether he could get more of the terms he wants in any deal on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release, and in his much hoped-for closing of a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, if he waits out the Biden administration in hopes that Trump wins.
“Benjamin Netanyahu has spent much of his career in the last two decades in tethering himself to the Republican Party,” said Aaron David Miller, a former US diplomat for Arab-Israeli negotiations, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
For the next six months, that means “mending ties with an irascible, angry president,” Miller said, meaning Trump.
Trump broke off with Netanyahu in early 2021. That was after the Israeli prime minister became one of the first world leaders to congratulate Biden for his presidential election victory, disregarding Trump’s false claim he had won.
“Bibi could have stayed quiet,” Trump said in an interview with an Israel newspape back then. “He made a terrible mistake.”
Netanyahu and Trump last met at a September 2020 White House signing ceremony for the signature diplomatic achievement of both men’s political careers. It was an accord brokered by the Trump administration in which the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel.
For Israel, it amounted to the two countries formally recognizing it for the first time. It was a major step in what Israel hopes will be an easing of tensions and a broadening of economic ties with its Arab neighbors.
In public postings and statements after his break with Netanyahu, Trump portrayed himself as having stuck his neck out for Israel as president, and Netanyahu paying him back with disloyalty.
He also has criticized Netanyahu on other points, faulting him as “not prepared” for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that started the war in Gaza, for example.
In his high-profile speech to Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu gave recognition to Biden, who has kept up military and diplomatic support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza despite opposition from within his Democratic Party.
But Netanyahu poured praise on Trump, calling the regional accords Trump helped broker historic and thanking him “for all the things he did for Israel.”
Netanyahu listed actions by the Trump administration long-sought by Israeli governments — the US officially saying Israel had sovereignty over the Golan Heights, captured from Syria during a 1967 war; a tougher US policy toward Iran; and Trump declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel, breaking with longstanding US policy that Jerusalem’s status should be decided in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
“I appreciated that,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, referring to Netanyahu’s praise.
He didn’t quiet his criticism, however, of Israel’s conduct of the war, which has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians.
“I want him to finish up and get it done quickly. You gotta get it done quickly, because they are getting decimated with his publicity,” Trump said in Thursday’s interview.
“Israel is not very good at public relations, I’ll tell you that,” he added.
Trump has repeatedly urged that Israel with US support “finish the job” in Gaza and destroy Hamas, but he hasn’t elaborated on how.
Trump welcomes Netanyahu to Mar-a-Lago, mending relationship with key political ally
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Trump welcomes Netanyahu to Mar-a-Lago, mending relationship with key political ally
- Relations between the two broke down after Netanyahu rapidly congratulated Joe Biden on his 2020 presidential victory
Israeli raids strike border villages amid fears of fresh escalation
- Army chief of staff threatens further ‘offensive measures’ inside Lebanon
BEIRUT: Escalating hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces in recent days have raised fears of a wider conflict, with a senior Israeli army official warning that his forces are preparing to take “offensive steps” inside Lebanon.
Israeli media reported on Saturday that several rockets fell in the Meron area in the north of the country.
Hezbollah also targeted a strategic military base near Safed, according to reports.
Signs of military escalation emerged on Friday as the Israeli army used concussion missiles in intensive raids centered on an area south of the Litani River.
Israel is demanding Hezbollah halt its military action in the area, particularly the launching of rockets, so that settlers in the north can return to their homes.
FASTFACT
Hezbollah has exchanged near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering war in the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Lebanon’s caretaker Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said that Israel had conveyed a message throuh intermediaries “that it is not interested in a ceasefire in Lebanon, even after reaching a ceasefire in Gaza.”
On Saturday, Israeli army Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi said that his forces are preparing to take “offensive steps inside Lebanon.”
During an inspection tour in the Golan Heights, Halevi said the Israeli army is focused on confronting Hezbollah, and that a significant number of militants had been killed in attacks during the past month.
The Israeli army was “working to reduce threats to residents of the northern region and the Golan Heights, while also preparing for an offensive at a later stage,” he said.
Israeli media confirmed that several rockets fell in the Meron area after sirens sounded in the city of Safed.
The Israeli army said that it “detected the launch of 30 shells from Lebanese territory toward the north.”
Israeli mortar shells and incendiary flares struck the Labouneh area in the western sector, causing fires on the Khiam plain for the second consecutive day.
Israeli media reported that a building in Shlomi was hit, and a fire broke out in Liman in Western Galilee after eight rockets were fired in a single salvo from southern Lebanon.
On Saturday, Israeli airstrikes were directed at areas around the towns of Qabrikha and Bani Hayyan, and the Kunin forests.
Israeli surveillance aircraft maintained a continuous presence over the western and central sectors of the south.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it retaliated against Israeli attacks on Friday by targeting a command post occupied by forces from the Golani Brigade with volleys of Katyusha rockets.
The group also targeted other Israeli military sites, including Hadab Yaron and Al-Raheb, with artillery fire.
Hezbollah said it targeted a deployment of Israeli soldiers around the settlement of Manot with rockets in response to attacks on the town of Kunin.
The Israeli air force said that raids on southern border villages on Friday night targeted rocket launch sites in towns including Beit Lif, Aitaroun, Dahra and Kfar Kila.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said that more than 15 missile platforms had been hit, in addition to several platforms that were ready for immediate launch.
Adraee said that “after targeting the platforms, several of which were prepared for immediate launch toward Israeli territory, multiple shells were seen being fired from the platforms and landing within Lebanese territory.”
Hijab-wearing singer Ghaliaa Chaker looks to inspire
- Chaker, a keen motorbike rider who is part of an all-hijabi biker squad in Dubai, began composing and writing lyrics at 16
DUBAI: In a Dubai recording studio, hijab-clad Ghaliaa Chaker tunes her guitar and belts out original songs as she builds a career that is turning heads for more than just her music.
The 26-year-old Syrian, raised in the UAE, has become a social media sensation, with 437,000 followers on Instagram and millions of views on her YouTube channel.
She offers not only a unique sound but also an unusual look in a region where artists who wear the hijab, the head covering characteristic of Muslim women, are few and far between.
“I hope that I have paved the way for other” hijabi singers, Chaker said at the studio.
“It is a very beautiful thing to know that you have ... given a push to a girl who has many dreams and is unable to achieve them because she has never seen another girl do the same thing.”
Chaker, a keen motorbike rider who is part of an all-hijabi biker squad in Dubai, began composing and writing lyrics at 16.
She drew inspiration from Nedaa Shrara, a veiled Jordanian singer who won “The Voice,” the Arabic version of the popular TV talent show, in 2015.
Shrara had stirred controversy among Arab fans who were not accustomed to seeing a singer wearing the head covering.
But for Chaker, who says she often receives criticism online, Shrara was a symbol of “self-confidence.”
After seeing her, “I said to myself that I can do it too,” Chaker said.
Chaker’s first song, composed in English, was picked up by Dubai radio stations in 2018, marking the start of her musical career.
She now sings mainly in Arabic, at a time when the regional music scene is witnessing the rise of young talents with innovative sounds.
The green-eyed singer said the headscarf has never been an obstacle. “There is nothing I have wanted to do and not done because I wear the veil,” Chaker said.
However, the issue of women singing has always been controversial in conservative Islamic societies.
Although the Qur’an does not explicitly prohibit singing, or ban women from performing music, some religious scholars frown upon the idea, viewing it as immodest.
Chaker said her immediate family has always supported her, but relatives in Syria were “very surprised at first,” mainly because they feared how people would react.
She said she receives a lot of “negative comments” on social media, including from family and friends.
“It bothers me of course, but I try to remember the positive comments and how much people love my music,” she said.
Chaker traces her artistic influences to her early upbringing in Al-Ain, a former desert oasis and now a city in Abu Dhabi, one of the UAE’s seven sheikhdoms.
At home, her father blasted Arab singers such as Fairouz, an iconic Lebanese singer, and Egyptian diva Umm Kalthoum. Chaker’s mother preferred Western music, including Elvis Presley.
“The music mixture in the house was always rich,” she said, influencing her sound, which she describes as a mix of R&B, hip-hop, electro-pop, indie and jazz.
A multi-instrumentalist, Chaker credits her father with her love of the drums, guitar, and piano, all of which she plays.
She said that instead of gifting her toys as a child, he would buy her new instruments.
The Middle Eastern darbuka drum is “the closest to my heart because I often played it with my father, who loves it very much, and it is the basis of oriental rhythm,” she said.
In addition to Arabic and English, Chaker sometimes sings in Turkish, Armenian, and Persian.
The singer, who performed in the Lebanese capital Beirut in August, said she wants to take her music beyond the Middle East.
“It is vital to me that my music is heard in Europe, in America, in Australia, in the whole world, maybe even in Latin America,” she said, adding that she aspires to “collaborate with many artists from different countries.”
“It is time for the Western world to know how beautiful our music is.”
Queen Rania of Jordan hits out at Western ‘double standards’ over war in Gaza
- Speaking at a conference in Italy, she says the result of this is ‘loss of faith in the rules and moral standards meant to govern our world’
- People deserve a ‘system they can trust, free of prejudice, moral loopholes and deadly blind spots’ and ‘trust in that system has become intrinsically tied’ to fate of Palestinians, she adds
LONDON: Jordan’s Queen Rania on Saturday criticized what she described as Western “double standards” regarding the war in Gaza, which she said are contributing to a “loss of faith in the rules and moral standards meant to govern our world.”
Speaking at the 50th European House Ambrosetti Forum, an annual economic conference in Cernobbio, Italy, the queen said that in the aftermath of global wars and other bloody conflicts in Europe during the 20th century the international community established a number of global institutions with the aim of preventing similar violence.
“The people of the world deserve a global system they can trust, free of prejudice, moral loopholes and deadly blind spots. And trust in that system has become intrinsically tied to the fate of the Palestinian people,” she said as she urged European countries to weigh their responses to the conflict in Gaza against their proclaimed values.
“From the United Nations to the International Court of Justice to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the world came together to establish norms for a future better than its past, a future based on the values of the UN Charter: peace, justice and human rights,” she said.
However, many people around the world are struggling to maintain their belief in the integrity and impartiality of these norms, Queen Rania added.
“Looking at Israel’s war in Gaza, they see a glaring double standard or, worse yet, a seeming abdication of any standards at all,” she said.
Over the past 11 months, the Gaza Strip had been hit by an estimated 70,000 tonnes of bombs, the queen continued, which is “more than all bombs dropped on London, Hamburg and Dresden throughout all of the Second World War.”
She noted that almost the entire population of Gaza is facing acute food insecurity, and denounced Israeli obstruction of humanitarian aid deliveries while Palestinian children are starving.
She also highlighted other ways in which the war is taking a high toll on Gaza’s children, pointing out that the conflict has resulted in more child amputees than any other.
“Doctors describe the horror of amputating on children too young to walk,” Queen Rania said. “According to Save the Children, over 20,000 children are estimated to be lost, detained, buried under the rubble or in mass graves.”
She said it has been nearly eight months since the highest court in the world, the International Court of Justice, ruled it was “plausible” that Israel is committing acts of genocide in Gaza, and noted that authorities in the country also recently launched a wide-ranging military assault on the West Bank.
“For decades, beginning before last October, Palestinians have been subjected to a crushing, criminal occupation,” she said. “Palestinians, too, have the right to live in security and peace. And yet, here we are, still.
“Is the world saying that Israel’s security is more important than anyone else’s and, therefore, nothing is off-limits in its pursuit? That no level of Palestinian suffering is too high a price to pay?
“This devaluation of life must be called out for what it is: anti-Palestinian racism. This failure cannot stand.”
The queen said that Europe has long positioned itself as a champion of international law and human rights, adding: “What is the Global South supposed to think when they see the West stand up for the people of Ukraine while leaving innocent civilians in Gaza to unprecedented collective punishment? What conclusions are people to draw about who matters, who doesn’t, and why?
“More than hypocritical, the double standard is dehumanizing. It is cruel. And if it isn’t racist, I don’t know what is. That’s why rejecting double standards, demanding accountability, and finding a common path to peace are necessary to create the future that Palestinians, Israelis and all of us deserve.”
Queen Rania went on to highlight a number of basic, “indisputable” principles that could provide a shared foundation for the warring parties to build on, and which must be upheld to achieve a mutual, sustainable peace.
They included the respect for international law and basic human rights, the countering of extremist voices in debates surrounding Israel and Palestine, and the need to ensure human dignity at all times.
The conference in Cernobbio brought together Italian and international decision-makers to examine and discuss geopolitical, economic, technological and social scenarios.
Other officials and heads of state that participated included Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, and Vice President of the European Commission Josep Borrell.
Lebanon says Israeli attack kills 3 emergency workers
- The health ministry “condemns this blatant Israeli attack that targeted a team from an official body of the Lebanese state“
- The cross-border violence has killed at least 614 people in Lebanon
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said three emergency personnel were killed on Saturday and two others wounded in an Israeli attack on a civil defense team putting out fires in south Lebanon.
“Israeli enemy targeting of a Lebanese civil defense team that was putting out fires sparked by the recent Israeli strikes in the village of Froun led to the martyrdom of three emergency responders,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Two others were wounded, one of them critically, the statement said, adding however that the toll was provisional.
The health ministry “condemns this blatant Israeli attack that targeted a team from an official body of the Lebanese state,” the statement said.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has exchanged near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
The cross-border violence has killed at least 614 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including at least 138 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.
On Saturday, Hezbollah announced a string of attacks on Israeli troops and positions near the border, including with Katyusha rockets, some in stated response to “Israeli enemy attacks” on south Lebanon.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israel carried out air strikes and shelling on several areas of the country’s south.
The Israeli military said it had identified “projectiles” crossing from Lebanon, intercepting some of them.
It said it struck “Hezbollah military infrastructure and a launcher” in the Qabrikha area of southern Lebanon, as well as striking the Aita Al-Shaab and Kfarshuba areas.
Gaza civil defense says 3 killed in Israeli strike on school
- The Israeli military said it conducted a “precise strike” at the school
- A large crowd gathered outside the building in the aftermath of the strike, picking their way over rubble as emergency workers tried to help the wounded
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli air strike targeting a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians killed at least three people on Saturday, while the military reported it struck a Hamas command center.
“Three martyrs and more than 20 wounded people were retrieved after an Israeli warplane fired two missiles at a prayer room and a classroom at the Amr Ibn Al-Aas School, where refugees were sheltering in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defense agency, told AFP.
The Israeli military said it conducted a “precise strike” at the school.
The strike targeted “terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command and control center... embedded inside a compound that previously served as Amr Ibn Al-Aas school,” the military said in a statement.
A large crowd gathered outside the building in the aftermath of the strike, picking their way over rubble as emergency workers tried to help the wounded, AFPTV footage showed.
Displaced Gazan Abd Arooq said the school had served as a shelter for more than 2,000 people.
“We don’t know where to go. We are in the street,” he said.
“There is no sanctity for mosques, schools or even the houses we live in.”
In recent months, Israeli forces have struck several schools that were housing displaced Palestinians, many of them in Gaza City, saying the strikes targeted Hamas militants.
Tens of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge in schools since the war in Gaza, which entered its 12th month on Saturday, broke out following Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7.
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians and some hostages killed in captivity, according to official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has so far killed at least 40,939 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
According to the United Nations human rights office, most of the dead are women and children.
