Benjamin Netanyahu vows ‘there will be no Hamas' in post-war Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that "there will be no Hamas" in post-war Gaza.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen.
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Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Gaza ceasefire hopes grow as Occupied Territories Bill continues to move through stages
Good morning. Hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza are tentatively growing and the story makes our front page lead this morning, even as health authorities there reported that the death toll had passed 57,000 . Sally Hayden writes from Jerusalem that Hamas was examining new ceasefire offers received from mediators Egypt and Qatar, but repeated that it wants an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops. Gideon Saar, the Israeli foreign minister, cited 'positive signs' in the talks to end the war in Gaza and free the hostages, the New York Times reported, though prime minister Binyamin Netanyhu repeated that there would be 'no more Hamas . . . We are not going back to that.' READ MORE With US pressure for a ceasefire seemingly increasing, we will likely know more today. Keep an eye on Truth Social. And obv. In few places has Gaza roiled domestic politics as it has in Ireland, with the Government under constant pressure from Opposition and campaigners to take action against Israel. The Government has moved slowly and cautiously on the Occupied Territories Bill – though compared to most other European governments, Dublin has been moving at warp speed. The Foreign Affairs Committee continued its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Government's new Bill last night, with Senator Frances Black among others urging the inclusion of services in the scope of legislation. The committee is expected to conclude this phase next week and then issue a report – it could yet recommend that services are included, posing a significant conundrum for the Government. The possible consequences of the bill continue to worry some in Government. Their worries will be heightened by comments yesterday by an influential US senator . It's 'blatant anti-semitism,' says foreign relations committee chairman Jim Risch. * The row about third level fees rumbles on, with Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Social Democrats acting leader Cian O'Callaghan raising the issue again on Leaders' Questions, where Fianna Fáil deputy leader Jack Chambers – also the Minister for Public Expenditure, so not exactly a disinterested observer in all this – was asked out straight four times if he would say whether students would have to pay €3,000 for the next academic year, or €4,000. Four times he declined to say . Earlier, the Minister for Higher Education James Lawless, whose RTE interview on Sunday kicked the whole thing off, sought to defuse the situation – a little anyway – on Kildare FM. He'll be seeking permanent reductions in the student charge during budget negotiations, he said. But could he say for sure that fees would come down? He could not . * Souvenir hunters, maybe? A portrait of Michael D Higgins h as been removed from Belfast City Hall , apparently on the orders of the new (DUP) Mayor of Belfast Tracy Kelly. Previously President Miggledy was up beside King Charles on the wall (which he would love) but Sinn Féin noticed recently that he had been deposed. Nothing is too petty for Belfast city politics. * Mayo for Sam: as talks between the EU and the Trump administration on a trade deal head into their final phase ahead of next week's deadline, meet the European Commission's trade spokesman , Mayoman Olof Gill who spent much of his childhood on Clare Island. 'I am proud that we are holding the line for liberal values,' he says. * Poll position: Paschal Donohoe is well-placed to win another term as head honcho of the Eurogroup , the powerful group of European finance ministers, writes Jack Power. Best reads Economic outlook is 'exceptionally uncertain': inside the Government's trade forum . Finn McRedmond on the necessity for the occasional long lunch . Micheal Martin is in Japan, but Irish pubs (and Irish music) got there first: Denis Staunton reports from a trad session in Tokyo . The population of Ireland has grown by a third in 20 years, according to census reports north and south . Playbook Big Jim O'Callaghan is up for justice questions at the ungodly hour – in parliamentary terms at least – of 8.45 am this morning, followed by agriculture PQs and then the final Leaders' Questions of the week at 12 noon. Government business in the afternoon includes EU rules regarding migrations – safe countries of origin, safe third countries, and a 'recommendation on a coordinated approach to the transition out of temporary protection for displaced persons from Ukraine.' There's something similar in the Seanad. It's a quieter day at the committees today. The Defence Committee will hear from a number of witnesses – including three MEPs – about the proposed abolition of the triple lock. Safe to say the witnesses from the Irish Neutrality League, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance and the Irish Anti-War Movement will not be agitating for jumping into bed with Nato. Elsewhere the Public Accounts Committee will interrogate officials from Children's Health Ireland and the National Treatment Purchase Fund. There could be skin and hair flyin' at that one alright. The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris is heading for the annual Ireland-Wales Forum in Swansea, where he will meet with the First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan. This year's Forum will see the launch of a new Ireland-Wales Shared Statement 2030. Exciting, no?
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Why is the United Nations not doing more to stop the starvation in Gaza?
The prognosis for life in Gaza is unimaginably bleak. A Donald Trump -brokered permanent ceasefire that sees the return of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas on October 7th, 2023 cannot come soon enough. In theory, this will see the cessation of Israel's bombardments. Whether there will be a return to UN-managed humanitarian aid distribution, replacing the death traps of the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid stations, remains to be seen. Whatever happens, even if tens of thousands of Palestinians were to avoid death by starvation in the coming weeks and months, Gaza will live in rubble for at least a generation, with the permanent effects of malnutrition, war injuries, disease, familial death and PTSD. Basic housing, healthcare, education or social services will not be restored for years, if ever. There is no long-term Israeli vision for Gaza that involves its reconstruction under any form of Palestinian self-government. As Hamas appears to be replenishing itself to the point where some commentators believe that it has as many active fighters now (through new recruits) as it had before October 7th, the worldview of many on the Israeli right has become a self-fulfilling prophecy: any Palestinian or foreign-led protectorate government in Gaza will inevitably become infiltrated by Hamas and cannot be allowed. The Israeli plan, if there is one, appears a deliberate attempt to starve, slaughter, weaken and traumatise Gaza to the point where two million Gazans consider 'voluntary' resettlement elsewhere. We will not find out for years whether the International Court of Justice determines that Israel's actions have met the legal threshold of genocide. Where is the UN in all this? Why can it not do more? There are, in fact, two UNs: the first is the intergovernmental system, where the 193 Member States debate and pass resolutions on various matters under mandates given to them by themselves. The second is the operational system, under which the secretary general oversees the various secretariat departments and appoints the heads of UN agencies. The latter system has largely done (and continues to do) all it can, as the UN operational system can only do what the member states allow. Senior UN officials, such as human rights commissioner Volker Türk, have documented Israel's grave breaches of international humanitarian law, while continuously calling on Hamas to release the hostages. The UN special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, who is not a UN official and whose pronouncements carry moral rather than legal weight, has used the term 'acts of genocide'. READ MORE [ Francesca Albanese: 'The struggle against the Mafia has marked me and my sense of justice' Opens in new window ] Nevertheless, the UN operational system has been humiliated and sidelined by an Israeli regime that loathes it, believing without evidence that Unrwa was implicated in the October 7th attacks via Hamas infiltration. For the Israeli right, allowing UN agencies to feed and shelter the Gazan population inevitably means feeding and sheltering Hamas. This leaves the UN's ability to work freely in Gaza in serious doubt. But more can be done within the intergovernmental system. While chapter VII of the UN charter authorises member states to use force in their own legitimate self-defence, UN military action 'to restore international peace and order' must be authorised by the security council. This has been done on 12 occasions since 1945, almost always with the tacit approval of the member state most concerned. What has never happened in its 80-year history is for the security council to authorise UN military action against a member state engaged in the mass killing, starvation or ethnic cleansing of either its own people or people living in disputed territory under its occupying control. To do so would require not only the approval of the security council, but also member states to supply military assets and personnel to ensure a successful military outcome, as well as support for a post-military political process. This is the context in which the UN finds itself in Gaza. As long as the Trump administration supports Israel's war aims, the US will wield its veto in the security council and permit only resolutions that call for humanitarian access and the safe return of hostages, rather than mandating action. It is, therefore, to the UN General Assembly, where resolutions are passed by simple majority, that those hoping for greater UN intervention in Gaza must turn. While the assembly has condemned Israel's 'starvation as a method of warfare', it has shied away from considering a stronger interventionist response. It shouldn't. The UN charter clearly gives it the authority to mandate peace operations and it has a track record of doing so ( as in Indonesia in 1962). While the consent of the 'host country' is required for such peace operations deployment, Israel is not the host country in Gaza, which the assembly itself recognises as Palestinian territory. The 1950 United for Peace Resolution gives the assembly the authority to consider peace and security resolutions when the security council has vetoed same. As a result, therefore, the assembly should request the security council to adopt a resolution condemning Israel's violations of international humanitarian law and Hamas's continued illegal detention of Israeli hostages, and mandating Chapter VII UN military action to forcibly open humanitarian aid corridors. Any veto would have to be explained to the assembly within 10 days. Secondly, the assembly should adopt a further resolution appointing a special representative of the secretary general for Gaza, indicating its intention to establish a peacekeeping force to ensure aid distribution and the co-ordination of reconstruction efforts. It should call upon member states to voluntary impose a trade embargo and other economic sanctions on Israel should it resist. Finally, the resolution should request other intergovernmental bodies such as the EU or the Commonwealth to explore military options to open aid corridors. [ Hagai El-Ad: Sanctions against individual settlers are hopelessly inadequate. The real settler organisation is Israel Opens in new window ] Precedents for the UN co-operating with other intergovernmental bodies in the implementation of military activity exist, most notably in Bosnia in the 1990s, where the UN authorised Nato to impose a no-fly zone. Would the EU, the Commonwealth or any individual UN member state be prepared to conduct military operations to open Gaza aid corridors, citing the approval of the general assembly? Unlikely. But such a resolution could just move the political dial and put pressure on Israel to meet its international humanitarian obligations. What is the alternative? Niall McCann worked worldwide in various electoral capacities for the United Nations Development Programme, as well as the United Nations Mission in Liberia, from 2005-2022. He is co-author of The UN at Country Level – A p ractical guide to the United Nations Operational System
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Irish Times
Trump keen for US to manufacture iPhones; here's how India is doing it
A new iPhone factory in an out-of-the-way corner of India looks like a spaceship from another planet. Foxconn , the Taiwanese company that assembles most of the world's iPhones for Apple, has landed amid the boulders and millet fields of Devanahalli. The sleek buildings rising on the 300-acre site, operational but still growing, are emerging evidence of an estimated $2.5 billion (€2.1 billion) investment. This is what US president Donald Trump wants Apple to do in the United States. What is happening in this part of India shows why that sounds attractive and why it will probably not happen without sustained government financial support to revive US manufacturing and training to expand the pool of qualified factory workers. READ MORE In India, Apple is doubling down on a bet it placed after the Covid-19 pandemic began and before Trump's re-election. Many countries, starting with the US, were eager to reduce their reliance on factories in China. Apple, profoundly dependent on Chinese production, was quick to act. Analysts at Counterpoint Research calculated that India had succeeded in satisfying 18 per cent of the global demand for iPhones by early this year, two years after Foxconn started making iPhones in India. By the end of 2025, with the Devanahalli plant fully online, Foxconn is expected to be assembling between 25 per cent and 30 per cent of iPhones in India. This newest factory is the largest of several making Apple products in India. Its full frame is still rising from red dust. Cranes are at work above the skeletons of high-rise dormitories for female workers. But about 8,000 people are already at work on two factory floors. Soon, there should be 40,000. The effects on the region are transformative. It's a field day for job seekers and landowners. And the kind of crazy-quilt supply chain of smaller industries that feeds Apple's factory towns in China is coalescing in India's heartland. Businesses are selling Foxconn the goods and services it needs to make iPhones, including tiny parts, assembly-line equipment and worker recruitment. Some of the firms are Indian; others are Taiwanese, South Korean or American. Some were already in the area, while others are setting up in India for the first time. The changes spurred by Foxconn are rippling broadly through Bengaluru, a city of eight million people that had a start in the 20th century as home to India's first aerospace centres. But its manufacturing base was pushed aside, first by call centres and then by flashier work in microchip design and outsourced professional services. Going back to the factory floor, as they're doing in Devanahalli, is what Trump wants US workers to do. To see the changes afoot here is to understand the allure of bringing back manufacturing. Wages are rising 10 to 15 per cent around the Foxconn plant. Businesses are quietly making deals to supply Foxconn and Apple's other contractors. A factory that makes plastic parts for bank cash machines hosted a team from Foxconn for a tour. A foundry that makes yarn-spinning machinery was hoping it might start making the metal bits Foxconn might need in its new factory. Neither Foxconn nor Apple replied to requests for comment about their operations in India. India has been working toward a breakthrough like this for a long time. Its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, called hydroelectric dams, steel plants, and research institutes the 'temples of modern India'. How the wealthy are buying up land to avoid inheritance tax Listen | 22:03 In 2015, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi announced a 'Make in India' policy. Since 2020, his government has committed $26 billion to subsidising strategic manufacturing goals. India's most urgent reason for developing industry is to create jobs. Unlike the US, it does not have enough: not in services, manufacturing or anything else. Nearly half of its workers are involved in farming. With India's population peaking, it needs about 10 million new jobs a year just to keep up. It also wants to achieve the kind of financial power and technological autonomy that China found as it became the factory of the world. One problem is that India's electronics factories still import the most valuable of the 1,000 components that go into a finished iPhone, like chips and camera modules. Sceptics disparage India's success with the final assembly of iPhones as 'screwdriver work,' complaining that too little of the devices' value is made in India. But the government, dangling subsidies, is persuading companies like Apple to source more of those parts locally. It is already getting casings, specialised glass and paints from Indian firms. Apple, which opened its first Indian stores two years ago, is required by the Indian government to source 30 per cent of its products' value from India by 2028. Indo-MIM, an Indian company with a US-born boss, is the kind that contributes to the neighbourhood forming around Apple's production and also benefits from it. At a plant near Devanahalli, in southern Karnataka state, Indo-MIM's engineers perform metal-injection moulding for hundreds of companies worldwide. It makes parts for aircraft, luxury goods, medical devices and more. The company is already making jigs or brackets for use in the Foxconn plant. In addition, a 'critical mass' of speciality firms means that Indo-MIM no longer needs to make many of the tools it uses to make its products, said Krishna Chivukula, its chief executive. 'You don't want to have to make everything yourself,' he said, adding that it means Indo-MIM can concentrate on what it does best. Chivukula said the workforce made Devanahalli fertile ground for factories. 'The people here are very hungry,' he said. 'They're looking for opportunity, and then on top of that, millions of them are engineers.' Still, despite the surplus of engineers, companies are bringing in talent from East Asia. Prachir Singh, an analyst for Counterpoint, said it had taken 15 years to figure out what would work in China and five years to import this much of it to India. Centum is an Indian-origin contract manufacturer, like Foxconn is to Apple. Centum makes circuit boards that go into products like air-to-air missiles, forklifts and fertility scanners. Nikhil Mallavarapu, its executive director, said the company was in talks to customise testing equipment for the Foxconn factory. Newly hired engineers and other professionals are pouring into the area. Many moved hundreds of miles while others must commute hours a day to get to work. Some rise at 3:30 am to make the 8am shift. But India is thick with people. A five-minute walk away, a village called Doddagollahalli looks the same as it did before Foxconn landed. Nearly all the houses clustered around a sacred grove belong to farming families growing millet, grapes and vegetables. Some villagers are renting rooms to Foxconn workers. Many more are trying to sell their land. But Sneha, who goes by a single name, has found a job on the Foxconn factory's day shift. She holds a master's degree in mathematics. She can walk home for lunch every day, a corporate lanyard swinging from her neck. It is people like Sneha, and the thousands of her new colleagues piling into her ancestral place, who make Foxconn's ambitions for India possible. Trump wants to revive the fortunes of left-behind US factory towns, but the pipeline of qualified young graduates is not there. Josh Foulger has recruited lots of motivated Indian workers like Sneha. He heads the electronics division of Zetwerk, an Indian contract manufacturer with factories in Devanahalli that sees itself as a smaller competitor to Foxconn. He said he routinely got 700 job applications a year from local tech schools. It is a matter of scale: Karnataka state alone, he said, has a population half the size of Vietnam's. All of India's 'states are very keen on getting manufacturing,' said Foulger, who grew up in southern India and made his home in Texas before moving back to India, where he set up shop for Foxconn. India has jobs for engineers and managers and all the way down the ladder. 'Manufacturing does a very democratic job' of meeting the demand for good jobs, he said. This article originally appeared in The New York Times . 2025 The New York Times Company
