Former senior Israeli security officials call for end to war, ‘comprehensive’ deal
Several former top-ranking members of the Israeli security establishment have made public statements calling for an agreement that will bring back all captives held in Gaza and end the war.
Former head of military intelligence and CEO of Israel’s national water company Mekorot, Major General Uri Sagi, said during a live broadcast that the war must end immediately, and said statements by officials that they will achieve complete victory over Hamas are “incomprehensible”.
Amos Yaron, who was director general of the Ministry of Defence, said a true leader must understand when “the cost of war is heavier than the price of victory” in reference to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He and others also called for the establishment of a state inquiry into the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas and the government’s handling of the situation.
Fourteen arrested at anti-war protest in Haifa: Police
Israel’s police service says on X that the demonstrators were arrested after “they ignored repeated police calls and raised banners and chanted slogans against Israel and its military operations in Gaza, potentially posing a threat to public safety”.
Calls from within Israel to end its war on Gaza and speed up the return of Israeli captives have grown in recent weeks, in tandem with similar calls from European governments.
German FM meets Netanyahu amid war of words over Palestinian statehood
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has met Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, according to the office of the Israeli prime minister, which did not provide details of the meeting.
Wadephul told reporters moments ago that Israel is in danger of becoming isolated. Countries around the world have been increasingly speaking out against Israel as it continues to manufacture famine in the Gaza Strip, carries out daily bombing raids that kill civilians and supports extremist settlers in the occupied West Bank.
“Israel must always find friends, partners and supporters in the international community. And that is currently in danger in this situation. And if there is one country that has a responsibility to prevent this, then in my view it is Germany,” Wadephul said.
Wadephul met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar earlier, shortly after Germany said recognition of a Palestinian state should come at the end of talks on a two-state solution.
The stance angered far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who wrote on X that “80 years after the Holocaust, and Germany is returning to support Nazism”.
Saar said Germany remains a friend of Israel, and this does not change “even when there are disagreements between us”.
‘Oslo-style’ two-state solution is dead: Scholar
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Menachem Klein, a professor emeritus of political science at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, has said that countries recognising Palestinian statehood must elucidate what a modern two-state solution would actually look like.
“I think an Oslo-style two-state solution is dead. There’s no way to revive it,” he said, referring to the 1993 accords that set a pathway to a future Palestinian state, based on the gradual withdrawal of Israel from the Palestinian territory.
“So all the countries, entities, organisations speaking about a two-state solution must reconsider their vision and say what kind of two-state solution they mean that is relevant to the changing realities on the ground with the expansion of Israeli settlements and the lessons learned from the failure of the Oslo agreement,” he said.
“But no one in the West, no one speaking of the two-state solution, comes up with a concrete plan, with a concrete idea,” he said.
That's because it's mostly a deflection from the ongoing genocide and escalating humanitarian crisis. Let's talk about the day after in September while more people are starving to death every day.
