Josep Borrell: ‘…No Force Can Stop Netanyahu…’

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Friday, lamented no force, including that of the United States, can stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his war on Gaza and Lebanon.

“What we are doing is putting all the diplomatic pressure to stop the fire, but no one seems to have the power to stop Netanyahu, neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank,” Borrell told reporters while attending the UN General Assembly.

Borrell backed a French and US initiative for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon that Israel has ignored as it intensifies its strikes on Hezbollah targets.

Borrell said Netanyahu had been clear that the Israelis would not stop until Hezbollah was destroyed, just as they have been in the nearly year-long war in Gaza against Hamas.

“If the interpretation of destruction is the same as what happened with Hamas, then we are going to a long war,” Borrell added.

US failure

The outgoing EU foreign policy chief again called for diversifying diplomatic efforts away from the United States, which has unsuccessfully tried to reach a truce in Gaza that would include the release of detainees.

He added that the United States cannot be relied upon alone to reach a ceasefire, as it has tried several times and failed to do so.

“I do not see that it is ready to start a new negotiation process that could lead to another Camp David,” he said, referring to the talks held at the US presidential resort in 2000, in which former President Bill Clinton unsuccessfully sought to broker a historic agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu pledged in a speech to the United Nations on Friday to achieve Israel’s goals against Hezbollah, which began launching attacks on Israel following Hamas’s attack on October 7.

Since Monday, the Israeli army has launched the most violent and extensive attack on Lebanon since the beginning of the confrontations with Hezbollah about a year ago, killing 726 people and wounding 2,173 others, while its war on Gaza has continued since October 7, leaving more than 137,000 Palestinians dead and wounded.

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    CrossFireArabia

    Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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    “Prime Minister Netanyahu is an alleged war criminal, who is accused of using starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally attacking civilians and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.  As a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Hungary must arrest him if he travels to the country and hand him over to the Court. Any trip he takes to an ICC member state that does not end in his arrest would embolden Israel to commit further crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

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    “Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary must not become a bellwether for the future of human rights in Europe. European and global leaders must end their shameful silence and inaction, and call on Hungary to arrest Netanyahu during a visit which would make a mockery of the suffering of Palestinian victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its war crimes in other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and its entrenched system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights it controls.

    “Amnesty International calls on the ICC Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute all Israel’s crimes. Hungary should equally do so by applying universal jurisdiction principles. Powerful leaders, like Netanyahu, accused by the ICC of war crimes and crimes against humanity, must no longer enjoy the prospect of perpetual impunity.”

    “The ICC was established to ensure accountability for victims of genocide and other crimes under international law, and so that crimes which shock the human conscience would “never again” be accompanied by impunity. In ‘bringing power to justice’, the ICC is now facing a global backlash from powerful leaders seeking to undermine the international rule of law and stamp out the prospect of accountability for the most powerful.”

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    In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as al-Qassam brigades commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    Since then, leaders from ICC member states France, Germany, Italy, Hungary and Poland have stated or implied that they would not arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he travelled to their respective countries. The United States has also enacted sanctions against the ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan.

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    Israel Violates Syria With 11 Air Raids

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    https://twitter.com/warintel4u/status/1907509948881502435

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