Haredi party threatens to leave Netanyahu's coalition military service exemption law is not presented
Degel Hatorah is giving the government 24 hours to make a decision. Ultra-Orthodox party Shas is also reportedly threatening to resign from the government within days.
A yeshiva is an Orthodox Jewish college.
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Middle East Eye
27 minutes ago
- Middle East Eye
Bernie Sanders calls Israeli government "racist"
US lawmaker Bernie Sanders has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a disgusting liar" in a post on X on Wednesday. The Senator for Vermont said, "Children are starving to death. The United States cannot continue to supply his racist government with hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid that is used to kill innocent people". His comments come ahead of a resolution he has introduced to stop sending weapons to Israel.
Middle East Eye
14 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Most Americans do not support Israel's war on Gaza, polling shows
Not since 7 October 2023 has support for Israel among Americans been this low. In a dramatic 10 percentage point drop since a poll from September 2024, only 32 percent of Americans said they support Israel's war on Gaza, new Gallup polling results released on Tuesday showed. As of July 2025, 60 percent of Americans said they disapprove of Israel's military action, and 52 percent said they see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a negative light - a significant shift from a year and a half ago. Netanyahu has also never been viewed this unfavourably in any of its previous polling stretching back to the 1990s, Gallup said, citing a "continued deterioration in his image". The International Criminal Court has an outstanding arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The decline in support for the war and for Netanyahu is mainly driven by those who identify as Democrats and Independents, the results showed. The vast majority of Republicans still back Israel and its leadership. The contrast is sharp. Among Democrats, only eight percent of respondents said they approved of Israel's military action. Among Independents, that figure rose to 25 percent. Among Republicans, 71 percent of respondents said they approved of what Israel was doing in Gaza. Of those with a positive opinion of Netanyahu - a total of 29 percent of survey respondents - 67 percent of them identify as Republicans, compared with 19 percent who are Independents, and nine percent who are Democrats. Most who support Netanyahu and the war on Gaza are white males aged 55 or older. They significantly outnumber women of the same race and age group. The lowest level of support for Israel and Netanyahu came from the 18-34 age group who identify as non-white. Their favourable opinions were in the single-digit percentages, creating a dramatic gap between them and older white men. All of this comes as several US allies around the world - backed by NGOs and the United Nations - have either strongly condemned Israel's conduct under Netanyahu or, in some cases, referred to it as a genocide, and mass protests in support of Palestinian rights have upended the US political landscape. Israel has killed over 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children. Gallup - a global analytics and advisory firm best known for its survey expertise - carried out a similar survey just a few weeks after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023, which sparked the war, and back in November 2023, half of the American public was on board with Israel's military response. " Since then, disapproval has outpaced approval in each survey, peaking at 55 percent in March 2024 before dipping to 48 percent in two readings later in the year," Gallup found. November 2023 was when South Africa filed its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice - a harbinger of what was to come. Iran Gallup also looked at American attitudes toward the Israeli bombing of Iran - an event US President Donald Trump termed "the 12-day war" last month. The questions posed by Gallup include the "US assist" to Israel, which consisted of bunker-busting bombings of Iran's three main nuclear sites. That was a one-day attack. A majority of 54 percent of Americans said they disagreed with the conflict with Iran. But only 18 percent of Republican respondents said they disapproved of the attacks, compared to 60 percent of Independents and 79 percent of Democrats. Starving child in Gaza was killed minutes after receiving aid, former US military contractor says Read More » An overwhelming 78 percent of Republicans said they were on board with the move, compared to just 31 percent of Independents and a mere 12 percent of Democrats, highlighting a drastic gap. This is despite Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, also having floated a possible attack on Iran, while carrying out heavy bombings of its proxies - the Houthis - in Yemen. Gallup did not include those who said they had no opinion on the matter. As for the demographics, it was once again white males aged 55 and older who made up the majority of support for Israeli and US attacks on Iran. Of those aged 18-34, only 15 percent felt the same. Respondents who identified as non-white did not appear to make up even one quarter of the support for any of the conflicts. The poll results are derived from a random sample of 1,002 adults, aged 18 and older, across all 50 US states, during the period from 7-21 July, Gallup said. The margin of error is +/- four percentage points.
The National
16 hours ago
- The National
UK recognition of Palestine 'highly likely' after Israel's furious reaction
Britain has boldly made its move on recognising a Palestinian state but the question remains, will Israel listen? It is less than likely that Israel will seek to fulfil the four conditions that Prime Minister Keir Starmer set out on Tuesday, in his major foreign policy reversal, as it has vehemently criticised the British move. But academics have told The National that there is a chance that the major change in UK foreign policy could influence the Israeli government's decisions. More importantly, with a number of countries moving towards recognition, including France, it could have an impact on Donald Trump's thinking. The US President, it is argued, is the only leader who can sufficiently influence Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. UK recognition of Palestine as a state is now 'highly likely' to happen in September as Israel will not meet the conditions set out, Sir William Patey, co-chairman of the Labour Middle East Council, told The National. While he believed that recognition should have been made without conditions, it would at least give the Palestinians 'some hope that the international community has not gone soft on a two-state solution, even if one is not immediately in prospect'. Sir William, who is a former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, believes that Britain acting together with France and Saudi Arabia, could help 'end the carnage and to move things forward in a more positive light'. 'But they are up against the two most intransigent set of people that we've ever seen in the Middle East, Hamas and the most right-wing Israeli government that ever existed,' he added. President Sheikh Mohamed on Wednesday received a phone call from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer when he praised Mr Starmer's statements regarding Britain's intention to recognise the Palestinian state. He also stressed the priority of reaching an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and continuing the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave. Israel rejection Mr Starmer's conditions demand that Israel ends the starvation in Gaza, achieves a ceasefire with Hamas, refrains from annexing the occupied West Bank and commits to the two-state solution, otherwise Britain will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September. Israel's immediate response was to utterly reject the proposal with Mr Netanyahu condemning Mr Starmer's position as one that 'rewards Hamas's monstrous terrorism' and could ultimately threaten Britain. Co-operation on the conditions therefore seems unlikely, especially with a host of others pitching in, including former hostage and dual British-Israeli citizen Emily Damari, who said the UK's new policy would not 'advance peace – it risks rewarding terror' and sent a message 'that violence earns legitimacy'. There is also little hope from the Israeli opposition, with Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, stating that Britain's position 'does not advance the two-state solution – if anything, it distances it'. Eyes on Trump The words are strong but ultimately all eyes will be on Mr Trump's reaction. 'Many people, even in Israel, really hope that this time Trump will be the one who will say, 'game over, no more war', and that it will put an end to the fighting,' said Dr Michael Milshtein, head of Palestinian studies at Tel Aviv University. The Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin, who has close contacts with Hamas, agreed that 'everything is dependent – the war in Gaza, the hostages and agreements – on what Donald Trump does and nothing else'. 'If he tells Netanyahu to end the war, the war ends,' he added. 'If he tells Israel they can stay in Gaza, they'll stay in Gaza. If he says 'you got to get out of Gaza', they'll get out of Gaza.' He cited the Israeli government's rapid U-turn on aid after Mr Trump expressed dissatisfaction over the images of starving Gazan children as the far reach of this influence. So far, Mr Trump has been equivocal, stating he had 'no view' on the issue and did not vehemently object to it. 'I guess Starmer is doing the same thing as [French president] Macron, and that's OK. It doesn't mean I have to agree,' he said before departing Scotland on Tuesday. Pressure building But others see this as a longer-term shift that goes beyond Mr Netanyahu's time in office. Recognition is needed to 'kick-start a process' that would 'reach over the head of the Israeli government to the Israeli people' showing that 'this is the way forward', suggested MP Emily Thornberry, chairwoman of parliament's foreign affair committee. She told the BBC that Britain would remain 'long-term allies' with Israel but would not do so 'with this far-right government' and it is now down to Mr Trump to 'lean on' Mr Netanyahu Allied with France's decision last week to recognise Palestine, alongside the Netherland barring entry to Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the UK's move could influence the US position. Just as Israel's population has been affected by images of starving Palestinians broadcast by its popular Channel 12 news, those same pictures are influencing Americans. 'People speak here about an international tsunami against Israel, that the gathering of American and European pressure on Israel can really have a massive impact,' said Dr Milshtein. 'Things can change' But what makes Mr Netanyahu highly unlikely to accept the British conditions is that the moment he agrees a ceasefire it will entail an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and his coalition government will almost certainly collapse. 'But everything is very dynamic, so things can change,' said Dr Milshtein. 'Right now it is Trump's opinion and let's see what will happen with that. He has already surprised us when he spoke about starvation in Gaza so it can happen again.' Bronwen Maddox, director of the Chatham House think tank, argued that Palestinian recognition would be an 'an unequivocal statement' that Britain views that as the only way to a secure future. 'The alternative to the creation of a Palestinian state is conflict without end, one that jeopardises Israel's security,' she added.
