If Trump had been in power for the past few months, the situation in Gaza would have looked very different.
This is claimed by the very right-wing Israeli security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in an interview with Wall Street Journal.
At the same time, he goes to great lengths to criticize Joe Biden’s handling of the war.
Fears “the worst massacre of the war”
Named after Trump
While Trump was president, he was a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This was evident, among other things, through Trump’s controversial choice to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy here.
Netanyahu also chose to name a new Israeli settlement on the Golan Heights after Trump, as a result of his decision to recognize the land as Israeli. The Syrian land area was occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967, but the annexation is not internationally recognized.
WERE CLOSE: When Donald Trump was president, he was a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the time since, however, the relationship has changed. Photo: Ronen Zvulun/ Reuters / NTB Show more
Ben-Gvir is one of two ministers in today’s Israeli government who belong to the Religious Zionist Party. This party is ultra-nationalist and opposes any transfer of land to the Palestinians.
On the contrary, they want Israel to take more land from the Palestinians.
In an interview with the Israeli radio channel Kan in January, he spoke about the possibility of mass emigrating Palestinians from Gaza in order to rebuild the Israeli settlements there, the newspaper writes Haaretz.
To the Wall Street Journal, he elaborates on how: He suggests encouraging residents of the Gaza Strip to emigrate to places “around the world,” without specifying where. Preferably in exchange for financial compensation.
Stormed hospital disguised as doctors
– Going to Hamas
Ben-Gvir also belongs to the part that believes Israel should ensure that neither food, water, electricity nor fuel should enter Gaza, in the belief that this would pressure Hamas to surrender.
Under pressure from, among others, the United States, Israel has had to ensure that emergency aid is allowed into the enclave, even though the UN strongly expresses that what is allowed in is far from enough.
ULTRANATIONALIST: Israel’s security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir believes the situation in Gaza would look different if it were Trump who was president of the United States. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg / AP / NTB Show more
– Instead of giving us his full support, Biden is busy giving humanitarian emergency aid and fuel to Gaza that goes to Hamas, Ben-Gvir tells the newspaper.
– If Trump had the power, he would handle it completely differently, he continues.
It is not the first time the minister has made clear criticism of the United States during the ongoing war.
When the US responded earlier this year to, among others, Ben-Gvir’s proposal to expel the Palestinians from Gaza by calling it “provocative” and “irresponsible”, Ben-Gvir responded as follows:
– I value the USA, but with all due respect, Israel is not a star in the American flag.
Netanyahu’s inner circle
Are residents themselves
Gvir has a background in Kahanism, a religious Zionist ideology. The political party that springs from the ideology, Kach, was banned in Israel and classified as a terrorist organization by both Israel and the United States.
Gvir himself is a resident of the city of Hebron in the West Bank, and is the leader of the settler movement here. He has been convicted several times, including for supporting the terrorist organization Kach Party and inciting racism.
A few days ago, Biden issued a presidential order targeting Israeli settlers who attack Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli media: Had a secret plan
It is completely contrary to Ben-Gvir’s wishes.
Shortly after 7 October, he launched a campaign to arm as many civilians as possible and called for a full military offensive on the West Bank.
The interview with Ben-Gvir attracts attention as it is unusually harsh and direct criticism of the sitting US president. This is because the USA is Israel’s biggest supporter financially and militarily.
The Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid goes hard and says Ben-Gvir’s statements harm Israel’s international standing. He further asks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get control of his minister, writes Haaretz.
During the week’s opening of the Knesset on Sunday, Netanyahu stated that he does not need Ben-Gvir’s help in figuring out how to navigate Israel’s relationship with the United States and the international community, writes Haartz.
The relationship soured
Whether the extreme Ben-Gvir would be completely satisfied with Trump is still not certain. In the time since Trump stepped down as president, relations with Prime Minister Netanyahu have soured.
It started with Netanyahu congratulating Trump’s successor Joe Biden on his 2020 election victory, at a time when Trump was still trying to get the result overturned.
Has attacked 36 targets
Trump subsequently claimed that Netanyahu failed the United States just before an airstrike in 2020 that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Netanyahu’s office responded to the allegations by saying it was shameful that a former president of the United States was “engaging in propaganda and spreading stories that hurt Israel’s fighters and citizens.”
Even after Hamas’ terrorist attack on 7 October, Trump came out hard against Netanyahu.
– He was not prepared. He was not prepared and Israel was not prepared.
At the same time, he believed that Israel “would not have needed” to be prepared for an attack from Hamas, if he were president.
2024-02-04 14:49:53
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