The Biden administration‘s rift with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became even more acute Sunday, when Vice President Kamala Harris called for a cease-fire in Gaza the day before a controversial meeting with a top Israeli official and longtime Netanyahu rival.
Israeli Cabinet minister Benny Gantz traveled to Washington without the endorsement of Netanyahu, who instructed the Israeli Embassy in the U.S. to withhold assistance in arranging his meetings, Israel Hayom reported.
An official from Netanyahu’s far-right Likud party said Gantz’s trip was planned without authorization from the Israeli leader. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu had a “tough talk” with Gantz and told him the country has “just one prime minister.”
Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday is hosting a member of Israel’s wartime Cabinet who is visiting Washington in defiance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Benny Gantz, a centrist political rival of Netanyahu, is sitting down with several senior Biden administration officials this week, including Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken,
The unreleased report, a copy of which CNN obtained, is largely based on the testimony of Gazan detainees held in Israeli prisons and at military sites and released back into Gaza at the Kerem Shalom border crossing between mid-December and mid-February. An UNRWA spokesperson said that when the report was leaked, the agency had not yet decided whether to release it publicly.
The detainees cited in the report gave testimony of beatings, sleep deprivation, sexual abuse and threats of sexual violence against both men and women detained by the Israeli military. Some of the detainees are also reported to have died while in Israeli custody, at times allegedly as a result of the abuse they suffered in detention.
In light of recent developments, the German chancellor (SPD/S&D) spoke out in support of Assange at a Q&A session at a school in Baden-Württemberg.
“I believe it would be good if the British courts would grant him the necessary protection, because he is facing prosecution in the United States, as he has leaked American state secrets,” Scholz said in Sindelfingen.
As an example, the publication notes that Germany’s decision to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine last year did not help the Ukrainian Armed Forces carry out a successful counter-offensive.
The NYT writes that “at best, Germany has about 100 Taurus missiles.”
What Ukraine needs most, U.S. officials say, is old-fashioned artillery shells to counter slow Russian territorial advances, as well as air defense against missile and drone attacks.
„Grundsätzlich sei gesagt, dass eine Kriegsbeteiligung Deutschlands im Grunde nur durch zwei Szenarien zustande käme: Erstens, wenn deutsche Soldatinnen und Soldaten aktive und unmittelbare Kampfhandlungen ausführen würden oder zweitens, wenn der Bündnisfall (NATO oder EU) durch die Ausweitung der Kampfhandlungen auf einen EU- oder NATO-Mitgliedsstaat ausgelöst würde.“
Durch bloße Waffenlieferungen oder Ausbildung, selbst auf ukrainischem Staatsgebiet, wäre dies nicht der Fall, so Schwarz. Heikel könne es im Kontext der „Taurus“-Raketen dann werden, wenn deutsche Soldatinnen und Soldaten direkt beim Einsatz dieser Waffen eingebunden wären.
(June 25, 2022)
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the Army’s 10th Special Forces Group, which before the war had been training Ukrainian commandos at a base in the country’s west, quietly established a coalition planning cell in Germany to coordinate military assistance to Ukrainian commandos and other Ukrainian troops. The cell has now grown to 20 nations.