Democrats pressure Israel about far-right overtures
A group of Jewish Democrats in the US grilled Israel's US Ambassador Michael Herzog during a meeting on Thursday, Axios learns. The whole thing should have been about the statements made by the two ultra-nationalist Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
About 15 Democrats reportedly attended the meeting with Herzog. According to House of Representatives member Jan Schakowsky, the politicians were in full agreement that the Israeli ministers' statements were over the line. Some of them even brought forward demands to Herzog that Smotrich and Ben-Gvir should be fired.
Bezalel Smotrich has said, among other things, that "there is no Palestinian people".
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Analysis: Israel can be condemned by the leaders' own statements
It is not Israel's acts of war but its loose politicians that are behind the country standing before the International Court of Justice in The Hague at all, writes Alon Pinkas in an analysis in the Israeli Haaretz.
"A collection of misfits appointed to a government spewing idiotic one-liners: nuke Gaza, burn Gaza, flatten Gaza, erase Gaza, clear Gaza, eliminate Gaza, expel Gazans - all of which have found their way into South Africa's application to the International Court of Justice," he writes.
He believes that the entire legal process is unnecessary due to Israel's right to self-defense after Hamas attacks, and that after all, Israel presented a robust defense aimed both at denying intent to commit genocide and at questioning the court's jurisdiction.
Genocide scholar Raz Segal tells Al Jazeera that South Africa presented strong arguments to the court, and he too refers to the many statements "filled with dehumanizing language" by senior Israeli politicians.
"Rejecting this overwhelming evidence would be a complete affront to international law," he told Al Jazeera.
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The Israel-Hamas war|The Swedish security situation
Experts: "Takes the information seriously" - "is a party to the war"
Experts that TT spoke to draw somewhat different conclusions from Israel's information that Hamas planned terrorist acts in Sweden.
Israel and Palestine researcher Anders Persson assesses them as probable.
- I take the information seriously. There is no reason to distrust them, Israel and Sweden have good relations.
At the same time, he emphasizes that it would be new if Europe became a playing field for Hamas.
Middle East expert Aron Lund also says that it would mean a changed Hamas if the information is correct.
- I would raise my eyebrows if Hamas did something like this, on the other hand, so much has happened since October 7, he says.
Lund, on the other hand, thinks that the statement should be seen as a "party submission" from one side of two in the war. He urges to wait for statements from the Swedish authorities.
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