TAIPEI/BEIJING: Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Sunday that Chinese warplanes and warships had carried out another “combat patrol” near the island, after Beijing threatened to take countermeasures in response to a $2 billion arms sale package by the United States.
The United States is bound by law to provide Chinese-claimed Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, to the constant anger of Beijing.
The Pentagon said on Friday the United States had approved a potential $2 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, including the delivery for the first time to the island of an advanced air defense missile system battle-tested in Ukraine.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had detected 19 Chinese military aircraft, including Su-30 fighter jets, carrying out a “joint combat readiness patrol” around Taiwan in conjunction with Chinese warships starting on Sunday morning.
It said the Chinese aircraft flew in airspace to the north, center, southwest and east of Taiwan, and that Taiwanese forces were dispatched to keep watch.
China’s defense ministry did not answer calls seeking comment outside normal office hours.
China stages such patrols around Taiwan several times a month, but this was the first since Beijing held a new round of full-blown war games near the island this month.
In a statement late on Saturday, China’s foreign ministry said it strongly condemned and firmly opposed the latest US weapons sales and had lodged “solemn representations” with Washington.
China urges the United States to immediately stop arming Taiwan and stop its dangerous moves that undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, it added.
“China will take resolute countermeasures and take all measures necessary to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” the ministry said, without elaborating.
China has over the past five years stepped up its military activities around democratically governed Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
Taiwan’s government has welcomed the new arms sale, the 17th to the island under US President Joe Biden’s administration.
“In the face of China’s threats, Taiwan is duty-bound to protect its homeland, and will continue to demonstrate its determination to defend itself,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said on Saturday, responding to the arms sale.

JERUSALEM: With the US presidential election heading into the home stretch, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely be hoping for Donald Trump to return to the White House.
Trump’s last time in office was good for Netanyahu, and in the lead-up to the November 5 vote, the former president has sent mixed messages on his Middle East policy.
His remarks have ranged from encouraging Netanyahu to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities — which Israel refrained from in its strikes Saturday — to criticizing the Israeli leader, saying “the October 7 attack would never have happened if I was president” and that he will pressure Israel to end the wars.
Yet it is these unclear policies, combined with Trump’s “make America great again” campaign slogan, that analysts say Netanyahu is hoping for.
An isolationist, Trump as a Republican president might give Netanyahu more freedom to navigate the conflicts that continue to rage in Gaza and Lebanon.
“One of Netanyahu’s milestones is the US election. He is praying for a Trump victory, which he thinks will give him a lot of freedom of movement, which will let him do what he aspires,” Gidon Rahat, political science professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told AFP.
Aviv Bushinsky, a political commentator and Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, similarly said: “His experience with Republicans is very good... unlike with the Democrats who are much tougher on him.”

Pro-Israel moves

In 17 years as prime minister, Netanyahu has only served opposite one Republican leader, Trump.
During his presidency, Trump went ahead with several moves that boosted Netanyahu’s domestic standing while upending some long-standing US policies on Israel, its conflict with the Palestinians and the wider region.
The Republican president moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, which Israel claims as its undivided capital, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, and oversaw the normalization of ties between three Arab states and Israel.
Trump also withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal with Israel’s arch-foe Iran and reimposed tough economic sanctions on the Islamic republic.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has long had a frosty relationship with Netanyahu despite insisting on his “ironclad support” for Israel.
Unlike Trump, Biden had warned Netanyahu against striking Iran’s oil production and nuclear facilities.
Trump and Netanyahu also enjoy a close personal relationship, with the former US president boasting this week of having had frequent phone calls with the Israeli premier.
“We have a very good relationship,” Trump said at a rally in Georgia. “We’re going to work with them very closely.”
Those positives will outweigh any concerns, said Bushinsky.
“I think Netanyahu would be willing to take the risk of Trump’s unpredictability,” he said.

Trump popular with Israeli public

Trump is popular not just with Netanyahu but with the Israeli public.
An opinion poll conducted in September by Mitvim, the Israel Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, said 68 percent of Israelis see Trump as the candidate who will best serve Israel’s interests.
Only 14 percent chose Vice President Kamala Harris, despite her repeatedly declaring her support for Israel and its right to defend itself.
“In Israel, more than any other liberal democracy outside the United States, Trump is more popular than Harris,” said Nadav Tamir, a former Israeli diplomat to the United States and a member of Mitvim’s board of directors.
A new Trump administration, though, could come with surprises, according to Tamir.
The former president has increasingly surrounded himself with Republicans “who are isolationists and don’t want America to be the leader of the free world or international alliances,” he said.

No better choice for Palestinians
Among Palestinians there is little enthusiasm for either candidate, said Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian political scientist and pollster.
“Palestinians distrust both candidates and see little difference between them,” he said.
Taher Al-Nunu, a Hamas official, told AFP that he believed “successive US administrations have always been biased” toward Israel.
On the street, Palestinians said no matter who wins, life in their territories will not improve.
“I do not believe that the American elections will have a positive impact on our political reality,” said Leen Bassem, a 21-year-old student at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank.
Hassan Anwar, 42, a sound engineer, also said he did not believe there was any difference, “because American policy is completely clear in its support and backing of Israel.”