CrossFireArabia
According to Israeli media reports, following Israel’s bombardment of Beirut, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to assert his view that Israel is pushing for a regional war according to Quds News Network.
Netanyahu responded by suggesting that instead of pressuring Israel, it is time for France to increase pressure on Hezbollah.
CrossFireArabia
Ex-President Donald Trump, appearing at a pair of pro-Israel events, dramatically told attendees there that Israel “will cease to exist within two years” if American Jews vote for the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Harris.
His comments have gone viral all over the social media with graphics of him and Harris with images of him deadly serious at the allegations he is making.
The same images show the Democratic president having a whale of a time, smiling, not appearing to be laughing off at what he is saying.
In his Washington speech at an antisemitism event, Thursday, Trump claimed he will be the “defender” of Jewish-Americans but he has to win back the White House seat, adding that if he doesn’t win it will be their fault, the voters.
“You have to defeat Kamala Harris more than any other people on Earth. Israel, I believe, has to defeat her. I’ve never said this before,” he said.
“My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House,” Trump bombasted.
“I’m at 40%; that means you got 60% voting for somebody that hates Israel,” Trump said, alluding to the vice president.
He told his audiences that they must turn the percentages around because “I was the best president ever for the people of Israel and Jewish people. I did more for them than any president and probably any president can or will do.”
Trump added that the Democrats are bad for “Israel, very bad…” and are taking away the pro-Israel groups’ lobbying power.
“Over the past 12 months, Kamala Harris has repeatedly demanded an immediate cease-fire to save Hamas,” accusing the Biden administration of “building a $237 million pier to save Hamas….every time there was a little rain, it fell apart,” he said.
“She has even suggested she would put a full arms embargo on Israel,” he continued.
“If these are positions she takes before the election, just wait to see what she does after the election.”
Later in the evening, at an event for the Israeli American Council, Trump continued the same theme.
Again, he appealed to Jewish-American voters whilst blaming them for not treating him properly, repeating again that he believed “Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years, and I believe I’m 100 percent,” if he is not elected as the next president of the United States.
Earlier in the night, at the antisemitism event, Trump called on his Democratic opponent to “disavow the support of all Hamas sympathizers, anti-Semites, Israel haters, on college campuses and everywhere else,” according to the Quds News Network.
CrossFireArabia
A boy in hysterics tells how his whole family was killed. The family members were baking bread in a burning oven when an Israeli missile suddenly landed on their house and killed the grandmother, grandfather, uncle and his father. They were killed instantly except for the boy at the Nuseirat Camp, Thursday morning.
CrossFireArabia
Senior U.S. officials have privately acknowledged they don’t expect a Gaza ceasefire agreement to be reached before the end of President Biden’s term in January 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The newspaper cited top-level officials in the White House, State Department and Pentagon without naming them according to the Quds News Network.
“No deal is imminent,” one of the U.S. officials said. “I’m not sure it ever gets done.”
Officials cited two main reasons for the pessimism.
The two obstacles that have been especially difficult: Israel’s demand to keep forces in the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt and the specifics of an exchange deal of Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
As a result, the mood inside the administration and in the Middle East is as gloomy as it has been in months, the newspaper said.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan met Wednesday with the relatives of the remaining seven American captives held in Gaza, telling them that securing their release was a top priority for Biden. But a statement from the families said they “expressed frustration with the lack of tangible progress” to Sullivan, urging the administration to make a deal as soon as possible.
John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, told reporters Wednesday the prospects of a completed deal were “daunting,” and though the administration signaled for months that a deal was near, said, “we aren’t any closer to that now than we were even a week ago.”
One of the officials said “it would be irresponsible” for the administration to give up seeking an agreement that brings at least temporary relief to the region. But the official also signaled frustration with the Israelis and Hamas.
“As we’ve said from the outset, it is going to require leadership and compromise,” the official said, “and we urge all sides to demonstrate it.”
“I can tell you that we do not believe that deal is falling apart,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters on Thursday before the report was published.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said two weeks ago that 90% of a ceasefire deal had been agreed upon.
The United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt have for months attempted to secure a ceasefire but have failed to bring Israel and Hamas to a final agreement.
CrossFireArabia
Israel continues to block the entry of food aid to Gaza. It said that shortly after 7 October. Today, it continues to do so except for the bare minimum whilst deliberately starving the people of the enclave.
