'There Should Be More Outrage': Bibi's Upcoming Address to Congress, and Hezbollah Tension
© AP Photo / Ariel Schalit
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Some US officials have suggested that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the conflict in Gaza, nor the US itself. And some US Republican lawmakers have suggested sanctioning the ICC members and their families for its decisions, which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has suggested supporting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on July 24. The address comes at an awkward time, as the prime minister’s government continues to wage an increasingly unpopular war in the Gaza Strip which has resulted in a humanitarian disaster. In addition, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar and other officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, Jeremy Kuzmarov, the managing editor of Covert Action magazine, sat down with Sputnik’s The Final Countdown. He suggests that Netanyahu’s visit is to reaffirm US support, but added that the goal of destroying Hamas remains unrealistic.
“What Netanyahu wants is probably to firm up US support. Yes, Biden has started to criticize him a little bit - he called for him to pull back on Rafah, but he also provided billions and billions of military support for him to carry out his war on Gaza,” Kuzmarov explained.
“It's sad the major leaders invited to Congress are two of the worst leaders of modern times. Volodymyr Zelensky and Netanyahu are arguably both major war criminals,” he suggested.
“What does it say about the US Congress that they're inviting these leaders? They're doling out billions of dollars to these horrific leaders who plundered countries into war and the abyss. It's really sad. There should be more outrage,” said the editor and author.
At least 40 people were killed including 14 children and nine women in a strike on a UN school in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, said the Gaza Health Ministry. The munitions used by Israeli fighter jets appear to have been US-made, said three weapons experts who examined and verified footage, a report from The Washington Post claims.
The school, which is organized and operated by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is located in the Nuseirat refugee camp where some 6,000 civilians were sheltering after being displaced by the war, said UNRWA. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed their aircraft attacked “three classrooms” with precision weapons while targeting a group of militants they say participated in the October 7 attacks.
“It's unclear what the Israeli war aims are and what they could achieve. They claim to want to destroy Hamas, but that seems totally unrealistic. This kind of assault on the people of Gaza will only empower Hamas and legitimize them as a principal resistance force,” Kuzmarov explained. “So he has to explain what he hopes to achieve and how this war can end because if [his] goal is to destroy Hamas, this war could go on endlessly and even his hardline supporters may not want that.”
“I think [Netanyahu] may be beating the drums of war with Iran. That's been the theme of Netanyahu throughout his political career; ‘the evil of Iran, the development of their nuclear program, the threat of Iran,’ and that dovetails with some of the neoconservatives in the US who've long wanted regime change in Iran,” the author explained. “So, this visit may be the drumbeat for war in Iran. And he's doing everything to provoke that. He murdered an Iranian commander in Syria, besides bombing their embassy in recent months.”
“Behind the scenes, the [US and Israel] really cooperate very, very closely, including things like intelligence sharing and cooperation in the realm of intelligence as well as military,” he added. “They definitely have been discussing military intelligence cooperation and intensifying that cooperation. Meanwhile, Biden publicly tries to kind of distance himself a little bit from Netanyahu for political reasons.”
In May, Netanyahu announced his government’s inventions to take decisive actions against the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in the north, Sputnik reported at the time.
"At the beginning of the war, we said we would restore security in the south and the north, and we will… We are ready for very strong actions in the north. One way or another, we will restore security in the north," the prime minister said.
Hezbollah is essentially controlling the government of Lebanon, said Sputnik’s Ted Rall. and The group was considered a serious threat to Israel at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. Israel’s allies did not want to open up another conflict with Hezbollah, but now it appears as if Israel is trying to do just that, added Rall.
“I think we have to recognize that Israel is controlled by hardliners and extremists, and seeing that they've been planning a wider war for a long time, probably with the neoconservatives in the US, that they've had their sights on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon for a long, long time, just like they've had their sights on Iran,” said Kuzmarov.
“And many believe that October 7th was engineered in some way by Israel. Israel was supporting Netanyahu's government. Extremists, they were supporting Hamas. It was out in the open that they funded them. They were doing everything to provoke them. There's the question of border security on the day of October 7th. Why wasn't there, the question of foreknowledge of the October 7th attacks,” he added.
“There's evidence that they wanted this attack, or somehow helped engineer it, knew it was coming, and that was, you know, the part. By design, they needed some 9/11-type incident to justify a regional war, which is what these extremists always wanted.”
Angie Wong then asked The Final Countdown’s guest what he thinks the Israeli prime minister’s end goal is, exactly, noting that the one thing he will not be asking Congress for is more money, unlike Zelensky. Netanyahu may instead be concerned about his legacy as he may be approaching the end of his power, she added.
“I think he's in a very desperate position now. He knows he can go to jail,” said Kuzmarov of Netanyahu. “He's facing corruption charges. He's faced with a revolt among his own people.”
“Whether it was engineered or allowed to go forward, October 7th was great for him because he was going to jail and he was facing revolt of his people. And that's a trick of a leader, you know, that they have to engineer a foreign war to save their skin, to divert the public's attention.”
