Former Israeli PM says only Trump can stop Netanyahu’s ‘political’ war on Gaza

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has again criticised Israel’s war on Gaza, which he said was without “purpose”, and that only US President Donald Trump could make Netanyahu stop attacking the Palestinian territory.

A day after Olmert said that Netanyahu was waging a “political war” and that Israeli forces had committed “war crimes” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the former premier said there was no outcome from the war “that is worth the cost”.

Olmert told The Associated Press news agency that he understood why the EU and countries such as Britain, Canada and France had sent strong warnings to Israel this week, including threatening sanctions, after Israeli forces fired in the direction of foreign diplomats in the occupied West Bank.

But, Trump is key, he said.

“If at some point the president of the United States, President Trump, will take part and perhaps will summon the Israeli prime minister and say to him in no unclear terms that ‘enough is enough’ – that may be very useful,” Olmert said.

“I am against the expansion of the military operations in Gaza. I think that they bring us close to crimes because if there is no purpose and there is not a possible outcome that is worth the cost, then why should we continue?” he said.

But who will stop Trump... It's Trumps ethnic cleansing plan Netanyahu now cites as a condition to end the genocide, by finishing the genocide...

Netanyahu says Trump expressed support for Israel’s war plan on call

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with President Trump following the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night.

On that call, which comes amid rumours of a growing schism between the leaders over Netanyahu’s failure to end Israel’s war on Gaza, President Trump reportedly backed Israel’s war goals in the Palestinian enclave.

“President Trump expressed his support for the objectives set by Prime Minister Netanyahu for releasing the hostages, bringing about the elimination of Hamas and advancing the Trump plan,” Netanyahu’s office said in a post on X.

Netanyahu: Gaza Aid Scheme Gives Israel Cover to Finish the Genocide

Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim discuss how senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu and Finance Minister Smotrich, openly admit that minimal Gaza aid will be used as political cover to continue the genocide. Smotrich says the goal is to allow just enough food to avoid war crimes charges while Israel “annihilates” Gaza. Netanyahu frames the aid as a way to prevent famine images from derailing U.S. support—not to relieve suffering. T

hey also examine how Israel plans to weaponize the so-called aid zones to trap civilians in the south and prevent their return north, using humanitarian optics to drive mass displacement. Read: Jeremy Scahill’s latest report: “Gaza Aid Scheme Offers Israel Symbolic Cover to Finish the Genocide” on Drop Site News.

Leaked Netanyahu Video PROVES Trump Cucked By Israel

Ken McCarthy and Aaron Good discuss Trump, Smotrich, and newly leakerd evidence that Bibi has cucked America.

Sounds like Europe and Canada have increasingly enough of Israel. While for now it's just a strongly worded letter and annulment/freeze of trade agreements (or their talks for one in case of the UK), they could tariff the shit out of Israel. And if that's not enough, a trade ban similar to the one for Russia would hurt Israel massively since Israel needs to import almost everything.

China will have to act beyond words and token diplomacy. Israel imports the most from China which is the least supportive of Israel of the top 3. USA and Germany will be the last to sanction Israel :/

We (Canada) don't even rank in the top 10 but any sanctions will help. (Not that our government has put that on the table yet, it's all virtue signalling so far trying to pretend they're not complicit)

Israel bought $91.5bn worth of goods from around the world in 2024. The biggest exporters to Israel were China with $19bn, the United States with $9.4bn, and Germany with $5.6bn.

• China primarily exported electric vehicles, mobile phones, computers and metals.
• The United States sold Israel explosive munitions, diamonds, electronics and chemical products. Israel receives billions in US military aid, much of which is spent on American-made weapons, effectively boosting US exports.
• Germany exported vehicles, pharmaceutical products, machinery and electronics.

The USA is also by far the biggest importer of Israeli goods.

The biggest importers of Israeli products were the United States with $17.3bn, Ireland with $3.2bn and China with $2.8bn.

I'm surprised Ireland hasn't sanctioned Israel yet as the 3rd largest importer.

Ireland was the largest buyer of Israeli integrated circuits in 2024, importing some $3bn billion worth of electronic integrated circuits and microassemblies. These components are widely used in Ireland’s pharmaceutical, medical device and tech manufacturing sectors.


Netanyahu is right :( If even the biggest European critic of Israel and 3rd largest export trade partner won't step up, why would he slow down at all...

But the tide is turning, I hope Europe keeps up the pressure through protests and supporting the BDS movement.

Netanyahu faces growing criticism as Palestinian lawmaker removed from Knesset

Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing mounting criticism after a Palestinian member of the Knesset was removed during a speech in which he accused Israel’s leader of prolonging the war in Gaza for political gain.

Head of activist group says Israeli police showed up at his door in middle of night

Alon-Lee Green, the co-director of Jewish-Palestinian grassroots activist group Standing Together, has said Israeli police showed up at his door in the early hours of this morning “to ask me questions and demand that I identify myself”.

“That’s it, just to threaten in the middle of the night. And thanks to Ben-Gvir,” he said, referring to Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

As we previously reported, Green was among 10 protesters detained by Israeli police on Sunday while trying to march from the southern city of Sderot to Gaza to protest Israel’s war on the Palestinian enclave.

The activists spent two days in detention before being released to house arrest. Standing Together said the arrests were an “outrageous attempt to silence opposition at the exact moment the government is expanding the war”.


_{Standing Together’s Alon-Lee Green is arrested while protesting near the Israel-Gaza boundary}

Israeli civil society group to challenge Israeli PM’s ‘brazen’ appointment of new spy chief

An Israeli nonprofit said that it would file a legal petition to prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from appointing a new head to the Shin Bet domestic security agency.

Calling the appointment of Major-General David Zini a “brazen and defiant” move, after the attorney general had said the government must hold off on the appointment of a new Shin Bet chief, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel – a civil society group – said it will submit another petition to the High Court of Justice “against this invalid appointment”.

Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said earlier that Netanyahu’s announcement naming a new domestic security chief was “flawed”, and which came a day after she said the government must hold off on the appointment.

“The prime minister acted contrary to legal guidance. There is serious concern that he acted while in a conflict of interest, and the appointment process is flawed,” Baharav-Miara said in a statement following an announcement from Netanyahu’s office that he had picked Zini to be the next Shin Bet chief.

On Wednesday, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the government’s decision to fire the previous domestic security chief, Ronen Bar, was “unlawful”.

The court said Netanyahu had a conflict of interest in moving to fire Bar, as the Shin Bet was conducting a probe into alleged ties between the prime minister’s close aides and Qatar. Bar announced his resignation in April, saying he would step down after Netanyahu tried to remove him.

Former Israeli PM says war exacerbates ‘Israel’s diplomatic and legal isolation’

Israel’s former PM Ehud Barak says it is “highly doubtful that continuing the war could produce results that are different from the prior rounds of fighting in Gaza”.

Writing for the Israeli media outlet Haaretz, Barak said: “It would undoubtedly exacerbate Israel’s diplomatic and legal isolation, prompt a wave of anti-Semitism and constitute a death sentence for some or most of the living hostages.”

The war “would have made sense if it could bring about total victory over Hamas, but that won’t happen”, he added, calling for “a leadership that recognises the possibility of releasing all the hostages in a single stage, halting the senseless war and ending the humanitarian crisis, uprooting Hamas from power and eliminating its ability to threaten from Gaza”.

He called the proposal for permanent occupation of the Gaza Strip and the population transfer of two million Palestinians “baseless and delusional visions that would backfire on us and only accelerate the confrontation with the rest of the world”.

Barak also stressed the “urgent need to be relieved of the worst government in our history”, referring to the Netanyahu administration. “The sooner, the better.”

Protests in Paris, Athens and Chicago against Israel’s war on Gaza


<sub>People gather near the Egyptian embassy in Paris, France, on Thursday to protest against Israel’s war on Gaza and to urge Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to facilitate the passage of humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza


People take part in a demonstration against Israel’s war on Gaza, outside the Israeli embassy, in Athens, Greece, on Thursday


Protesters hold signs and Palestinian flags in front of the Israeli consulate in Chicago, Illinois, the United States, on Thursday</sub>

Microsoft fires employee for pro-Palestine protest at Build conference

As we previously reported, pro-Palestine protesters interrupted Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference in Seattle this week over the company’s provision of Artificial Intelligence (AI) services to the Israeli military.

The tech giant has now confirmed that it has fired one employee, named as Joe Lopez, who shouted at Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during a speech he was giving on Monday.

Security escorted the software engineer out of the room as he shouted that he refused “to be complicit in this genocide”.

Lopez later sent an email to colleagues challenging Microsoft’s claims about how its Azure cloud computing platform is being used during Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Israeli military has been assisted by AI programs designed to produce targets with little human oversight. It is not clear to what extent foreign tech giants are directly involved.


_{Demonstrators march in support of Palestinians in Gaza near the Microsoft Build conference in Seattle, Washington, on May 21}

Gaza becomes focus of UN meeting on civilians caught in conflict

While the meeting was about civilians caught in armed conflict globally, a lot of the focus turned to Gaza. During the meeting, the UN said they estimate 28,000 women and girls have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. That averages to one killed every hour.

Denmark’s ambassador focused on the issue of impunity. Next week the UN Security Council is expected to hold a meeting where they will focus solely on the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.


_{Residents are seen moving south along al-Rashid Street as Palestinians continue to flee toward areas in Gaza they believe to be safer, carrying what belongings they can, amid intensified Israeli attacks on northern Gaza on Thursday}

Take your fucking time, UNSC is useless anyway.

Palestinians enduring ‘cruellest phase of this cruel conflict’: Guterres

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says “families are being starved and denied the very basics, all with the world watching in real time”.

Speaking to reporters at UN headquarters in New York, Guterres stressed that Israel has obligations under international law to provide aid that is needed to people in Gaza.

“Finally, a trickle of aid has crossed over. In recent days, almost 400 trucks were cleared for entry to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom [Karem Abu Salem] crossing. But supplies from only 115 trucks have been able to be collected, and nothing has reached the besieged north,” he said.

• “We are working around the clock to get whatever aid we can to people in need, and we managed to distribute some wheat, flour, baby food, nutrition supplements and medicine.”
• He says the assistance authorised to enter Gaza up until now “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required”.
• “Strict quotas are being imposed on the goods we distribute along with unnecessary delay procedures,” Guterres tells reporters.
• He says Israel’s military offensive is intensifying “with atrocious levels of death and destruction” and notes that four-fifths of Gaza’s territory is a “no-go zone” for Palestinians.
• He reiterates that the UN will not take part in any alternative aid schemes that do not adhere to humanitarian principles, and says the world body has the system and staff needed to deliver assistance in Gaza.
• “The big picture is that without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound.”

Guterres speech highlights ‘real frustration’ with Israel

We’ve heard the secretary-general say this before, but he again reaffirmed it today.

He was reminding the world that Israel has clear obligations under international law as the occupying power to not only provide aid to the population that they are occupying, but also not to forcibly displace any population.

We’ve heard this before but I think [we’re] sensing some real frustration not only from the secretary-general but from other UN officials, that their calls have so far gone unheeded. The secretary-general once again was calling out to the world to do whatever they can – whichever nations have leverage, to use that leverage on Israel right now.

‘Genocide must be stopped’: Colombia’s Petro

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has condemned Israel’s assault on Gaza and the recent warning that thousands of babies were at risk of starving to death in the territory.

“In the 21st Century, humanity cannot be a silent witness to a genocide,” Petro wrote on social media, warning that humanity will be lost if people do not speak out.

Petro is among a group of left-wing leaders in Latin America who have voiced criticism of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since it began in October 2023. Last year, Colombia announced it was seeking to join South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians.

Swiss NGO asks authourities to investigate US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

TRIAL International has asked authorities to investigate the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-backed organisation that plans to oversee a new model of aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave that the UN opposes.

TRIAL International said it had filed two legal submissions asking Swiss authorities to investigate GHF, which is registered in Geneva.

“We’re asking Switzerland to exercise their own obligation under the Geneva Conventions to respect international humanitarian law … there are very grave issues at stake,” Philip Grant, the group’s executive director, told the Reuters news agency.

GHF, in turn, told Reuters it “strictly adheres” to humanitarian principles, and that it would not support any form of forced relocation of civilians. The UN has criticised the GHF’s aid plan as one not impartial or neutral, and which forces further displacement and exposes thousands of people to harm.

Gaza woman tells Al Jazeera she’s stopped thinking of the future

“We cannot think of our future, because somebody else is controlling it,” said Gaza resident Reem Zidiah.