Israel: Gantz quits Netanyahu government

According to Reuters, Israeli minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's emergency government on Sunday, withdrawing the only centrist power in the embattled leader's far-right coalition amid a months-long war in Gaza.

The departure of Gantz's centrist party will not pose an immediate threat to the government. But it could have a serious impact nonetheless, leaving Netanyahu reliant on hardliners, with no end in sight to the Gaza war and a possible escalation in fighting with Lebanese Hezbollah.

Last month, Gantz presented Netanyahu with a June 8 deadline to come up with a clear day-after strategy for Gaza, where Israel has been pressing a devastating military offensive against the ruling Palestinian militant group Hamas. Netanyahu brushed off the ultimatum soon after it was given.

On Sunday, Gantz said politics was clouding fateful strategic decisions in Netanyahu's cabinet. Quitting while hostages were still in Gaza and soldiers fighting there was an excruciating decision, he said.

"Netanyahu is preventing us from advancing toward true victory," Gantz said in a televised news conference. "That is why we are leaving the emergency government today, with a heavy heart but with full confidence."

Netanyahu responded in a social media post, telling Gantz it was no time to abandon the battlefront.

With Gantz gone, Netanyahu would lose the backing of a centrist bloc that has helped broaden support for the government in Israel and abroad, at a time of increasing diplomatic and domestic pressure eight months into the Gaza war.

While his coalition remains in control of 64 of parliament's 120 seats, Netanyahu will now have to rely more heavily on the political backing of ultra-nationalist parties, whose leaders angered Washington even before the war and who have since called for a complete Israeli occupation of Gaza.

This would likely increase strains already apparent in relations with the United States and intensify public pressure at home, with the months-long military campaign still not achieving its stated goals - the destruction of Hamas and the return of more than 100 remaining hostages held in Gaza.

Polls have shown Gantz, a former army commander and defence minister, to be the most formidable political rival to Netanyahu, whose image as a security hawk was shattered by the October 07, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel.

Warning that the conflict in Gaza could take years, he urged Netanyahu to agree on an election date in the autumn, to avoid further political infighting at a time of national emergency.

Gantz joined a unity government soon after October 07 as part of Netanyahu's inner war cabinet where he, Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant alone had votes.

On Sunday, Gantz described Gallant, who has sparred with Netanyahu and some ultra-nationalists ministers, as a brave leader and called on him 'to do the right thing,' though he did not elaborate on what that meant.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded Gantz's now vacant seat at the war cabinet soon after the resignation was announced.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement Gantz was giving Israel's enemies what they want.

Asked whether he was worried about his departure impacting Israel's standing abroad, Gantz said Gallant and Netanyahu both know "what should be done."

"Hopefully they will stick to what should be done and then it will be okay," he said.

 

Iran demands trial of Israelis for war crimes

More than a thousand members of the Iranian legal community have signed a petition calling for an immediate arrest and trial of the Zionist regime’s criminals in the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

The petition was signed on the sidelines of a conference on the Islamic Republic’s Constitution on Sunday. The members of the legal community lambasted the crimes of the Israeli regime in Gaza.

The edited text of the petition reads as follows: 

In the Gaza war, the international community has witnessed living documentation of countless international crimes committed by Israel's apartheid and child-killing regime against the defenseless people of Gaza. As a result of this war, more than 16,000 people have been killed, more than 36,000 people have been injured, and 7,000 people are missing. So far, 1.5 million people have been displaced, and 205 members of the medical staff, 25 members of the relief forces, and 64 journalists have been martyred. The barbaric attacks of the Zionist army on Gaza have caused 26 hospitals and 55 medical centers to go out of service. 

The Israeli defense minister, who has violated all human rights rules, has issued a complete blockade of Gaza, and subsequently, the access of the people of Gaza to electricity, food, water, gas, a safe environment for accommodation, treatment, and even the Internet has been cut off. Unfortunately, world leaders are only witnessing the cruel and collective punishment of the Palestinian nation by the occupying regime. Even after the temporary ceasefire, the Gazan people have had no shelter to return to because 43,000 of their residential units have been leveled down. Despite the recommendations of the United Nations and human rights organizations, the Zionist army disagreed with the extension of the ceasefire and resumed its war crimes.

We, the signatories of this petition, while expressing our sympathy with the survivors of the Palestinian martyrs, express our disgust for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the widespread aggression and genocide of Palestinians by Israel and their European and American supporters. We request urgent action by the international community to expel the criminal Zionist regime from the occupied territories and immediately prosecute the Israeli criminals. 

 

Exploring affiliation of Israeli cabinet members

Benjamin Netanyahu's newly formed cabinet has been officially sworn in despite receiving no favorable headlines from around the world, reports Tehran Times

Even some Israeli media outlets have referred to the new cabinet as the most rightwing during the entity’s decades-long history.

Israel, as a colonialist regime, has always been viewed as an extremist right-wing occupation committing atrocities and Palestinian do not see much difference between any Israeli cabinets over the past seven decades.

All the regime's cabinets have committed crimes against humanity that included war crimes, genocide, the mass slaughter of children, the ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign along with so many other violations of international law.

However, the newly formed Netanyahu cabinet is perhaps the most extreme and right-wing and that's according to Israel’s leftist parties who are afraid that it will result in an increased number of retaliatory operations by the Palestinians.

A member of Israel’s own Knesset admitted that the occupation, under the rule of Netanyahu and his extremist cabinet, is moving toward a full-fledged fascist state.

The remarks were made during an Israeli settler protest outside the Knesset in strong opposition to the return of Netanyahu who has been Israel's longest-ever serving Prime Minister.

The truth is Israel has always held a fascist ideology but it is now under the rule of a more extreme and fascist ideology. The regime has given the powers of governance to war criminals and extremists because Israel has never been so weak and vulnerable as it is at the moment.

It has been exposed because of the unprecedented armed resistance that has been emerging from the occupied West Bank this year. 

Such is the extent of the resistance; Israel has turned to Netanyahu, the war criminal and a person that is facing multiple corruption charges along with a coalition that is so extreme that it has called for the expulsion of all Palestinians from their native land and the execution of Palestinian prisoners.

Netanyahu was forced to bring in these fascist figures because he wanted to secure a majority that can bring him back to power and save him from corruption charges.

In other words, the war criminal does not care for the safety of Israeli settlers which is something that is very concerning for Israelis who are planning on leaving the occupied Palestinian territories in their droves, according to surveys.

There are now Israelis protesting against the new cabinet, for the first time in history, because of new ministers in an office such as Itamar Ben-Gvir who has made so many disturbing and racist statements that even Israel’s allies are concerned.

The most extreme and right-wing fascist cabinet in history will put Israel at odds with large parts of the Israeli public, and concern Israel's closest allies while escalating tensions with the Palestinians.

Reports indicate that some elements of the new Israeli cabinet are so extreme that the administration of US President Joe Biden will not deal with them as they feel uncomfortable with such elements. 

Netanyahu's incoming hardline government will place illegal West Bank settlement expansion at the top of its agenda and had already pledged to legalize dozens of illegally built outposts and annex the occupied territory as part of its coalition deal with ultranationalist allies.

Some members of the new cabinet squat on illegal settlements themselves, in a sign that there will be a major push in the future toward expanding settler units, despite the fact they are considered illegal under international law. 

But experts say the newly formed West Bank resistance groups will expand their armed operations in the face of further settlement expansion, which comes alongside Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes.

The new cabinet members also support the Israeli settlers storming of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, something Palestinians have said is a red line. 

There is no doubt this will represent a new escalation in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) next year and the wider occupied West Bank as well as inside the occupied Palestinian territories.

Some Palestinian analysts say they are glad the new Israeli government is in power because it represents the real face of the regime in front of the international community. 

Meanwhile, Palestinians have welcomed a vote by the United Nations General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to deliver a widespread opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

"The time has come for Israel to be a state subject to law, and to be held accountable for its ongoing crimes against our people," said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a senior Palestinian official based in the occupied West Bank.

In a social media post, another senior official Hussein al-Sheikh said that the vote "reflects the victory of Palestinian diplomacy."

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution calling on the ICJ to give an opinion on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.

The General Assembly voted 87 to 26 with 53 abstentions on the resolution, with Western nations split but with virtually unanimous support in the Islamic world – including among Arab states that have normalized relations with Israel.

Russia and China also voted in favor of the resolution.