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House Speaker Mike Johnson assured a pro-Israel crowd that if Democratic lawmakers get out of hand when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Congress on Wednesday, he will arrest them. Mr. Johnson’s threat to lock up Democrats came during remarks at a Republican Jewish Coalition event at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, less than a week before Mr. Netanyahu speaks before both chambers of Congress. “I want you to know that there’s a number of Democrats in the House who have said they’re going to boycott the event … and then some others are going to protest,” Mr. Johnson...

Joe Biden’s advisers believe the United States president does not want to bow out of the November election before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Washington this week, as Biden is unwilling to give Netanyahu “the satisfaction” given the two leaders’ tensions over the war in Gaza, The New York Times reported on Friday. The report, citing several unnamed people close to Biden, came after the Axios news site on Friday cited top Democrats as saying Biden had resigned himself to the pressure on him to quit, and could bow out as soon as this weekend. But advisers say that...

President Biden is expected to see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he is in Washington next week, but the White House cautioned the president’s recovery from COVID-19 will take priority. “We have every expectation that the two leaders will have a chance to see each other when Prime Minister Netanyahu is in town,” John Kirby, the White House communications director for national security, told reporters Thursday. Kirby said the president’s health and his recovery after testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday will take priority and that it is unclear “if and how that might affect the discussion.”

More than 200 anonymous staff members across 122 Democratic and Republican congressional offices signed a letter this week calling for Congress to protest or boycott Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech next week on Capitol Hill, citing concerns about the ongoing war in Gaza. The letter, organized by the Congressional Progressive Staff Associationa nd signed by 230 House and Senate staffers, said speaking out against Netanyahu’s July 24 joint address to Congress was an “issue of morality” and not politics. “Citizens, students, and lawmakers across the country and the world have spoken out against the actions of Mr. Netanyahu in...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Friday that Israel has no intention of withdrawing from the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi corridor, in a hostage deal, despite media reports to the contrary. In a statement, Netanyahu said (via Government Press Office): The Reuters report, according to which, Israel has discussed the possibility of withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor, is absolute fake news. The Prime Minister insists that Israel remain on the Philadelphi Corridor. He has instructed the negotiating teams accordingly, made this clear to US representatives this week, and updated the Security Cabinet to this effect last night. However,...

The release of Shifa Hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya from custody today was “a severe mistake and an ethical failure,” says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as various ministers and senior security officials have traded blame, each claiming they had nothing to do with the controversial move. ... This morning, Netanyahu ordered an investigation into how the release happened, the statement says. Shin Bet director Ronen Bar will present his findings to the premier tomorrow, ...

We are reaching all-new lows in American politics, but what do you expect with the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who now may be considered one of the senior members of the Squad? She is calling Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal. Are you surprised? Alexandria Occasio-Cortez (AOC), aka Baby Girl, throws one of her little hissy-fits to get attention by calling Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal. It’s all over social media, and news organizations are writing about it, so she has apparently reached her goal. Benjamin Netanyahu is invited to speak before Congress next month. AOC throws a tantrum.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Friday that there had been a “great slowdown” in U.S. arms and ammunition shipments, and said he publicly criticized the White House after months of quiet frustration. As Breitbart News reported, Netanyahu posted a video to social media earlier this week in which he thanked the Biden administration for its support, but urged it to stop withholding arms and ammunition. The White House claimed that it did not know what he was talking about, but Republican senators filled in the details: the Biden administration had been using bureaucratic tricks to delay weapons shipments since...

The spokesman for the Israeli military explained that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of eradicating Hamas is not achievable. The statement comes amid a growing rift between the Israeli leader and the military. In remarks to Israel’s Channel 13 News on Wednesday, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the military spokesperson, explained that the PM’s stated objective in Gaza is an insult to the Israeli people. “This business of destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear – it’s simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public,” he said. “Hamas is an idea, Hamas is a party. It’s rooted in the hearts of the...

US envoy Amos Hochstein told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting on Tuesday in Israel that his public comments this week that the US is “withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel” were “unproductive” and “more importantly, completely untrue,” a senior US official told CNN.In that same meeting, US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew also reiterated to Netanyahu that his comments were not correct, walking through all of the arms the US has transferred to Israel in recent months, according to two senior US officials. A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Israel confirmed that Lew spoke with Netanyahu...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will not attend a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected to be delivered next month to a joint meeting of Congress, she told The Hill on Tuesday. “Benjamin Netanyahu has created a humanitarian disaster,” Warren said. “The United States needs to be using its leverage, including restrictions on arm sales, as a way to advance a push toward peace in the Middle East,” said the former Democratic presidential candidate, when asked for her reaction to the Biden administration’s pursuit of a military sale to Israel. “We need a cease-fire, massive humanitarian relief, the return...

The White House has canceled a meeting with Israel to discuss the growing threat from Iran, retaliating against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his claim Tuesday that the Biden administration was delaying weapons deliveries. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer acknowledged in a briefing Wednesday that the meeting had been canceled, but said that U.S. ambassador to Israel Jack Lew had since reassured Netanyahu that the weapons in question were being delivered, and that Netanyahu had thanked him.

The White House has pushed back against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claims that the US is "withholding" weapons and ammunition from Israel, hours after he lashed out at the Biden administration. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed an ongoing pause remained on one particular shipment of bombs, echoing comments from Secretary of State Antony Blinken hours beforehand, but she insisted no other weapons were being withheld. "We genuinely do not know what he's talking about," Ms Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a video statement Tuesday urging the U.S. to stop withholding weapons and ammunition from Israel. In May, the Biden administration confirmed that it was withholding heavy precision bombs from Israel in protest against Israel’s decision to enter the southern Gaza town of Rafah to fight the last remaining Hamas battalions. As a result, Israel was forced to send troops into potentially booby-trapped buildings rather than bombing them. The White House said it was concerned about Palestinian civilian casualties, but a million civilians left Rafah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.The military had announced the daily pauses from 8am local time (3pm AEST) until 7pm in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards."When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official...

Democrats plan to disrupt Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a special joint session of Congress on July 24 in an unprecedented show of hostility to the democratically-elected leader of a close American ally. 56 Democrats boycotted Netanyahu’s speech in 2015, when Republicans invited him to argue against then-President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. This time, Axios reports, “Democrats plan to go bigger than a boycott”: The proposals include a press conference, a vigil, or an event with families of those taken hostage by Hamas, many of whom feel Netanyahu hasn’t done enough to free their loved ones....

A far-left organization in New York City that has been at the forefront of anti-Israel protests has vowed to “shut down DC” when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to speak before Congress. Netanyahu will be speaking before a joint meeting of Congress on July 24. The People’s Forum wrote in a post on X on Wednesday that the group would be shutting down Washington, DC, when Netanyahu arrives and would “issue a notice of a citizen’s arrest.” “The people charge Benjamin Netanyahu with genocide,” the group wrote. “When the car criminal comes to Washington DC on July 24, we...

“There was a knock on the door. A voice said, ‘It’s the IDF. We’ve come to take you home.’” This is how former hostage Noa Argamani described her rescue from Hamas on the Sabbath — Saturday, June 8 — which also happened to be her father’s birthday. Israelis spent the weekend cheering her rescue, along with the rescues of three other former hostages — Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv. All four, ranging in age from 22 to 41, were kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, Hamas’s notorious day of atrocities. Israeli intelligence recently determined...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is arriving in Israel and the Middle East Monday just after Benny Gantz, an opposition leader who is the main rival to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has left the government. It is a curious coincidence that, right-wing critics say, points to cooperation between Gantz and President Joe Biden’s administration in attempting to bring down the Netanyahu government and find a replacement in the midst of a war. The Biden administration is suspected of backing a “color revolution” — an attempt to use pressure from opposition parties, civil society, and the media to force...

Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel’s war cabinet, who is seen as a moderating presence, resigned from the government on Sunday, citing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza. Concerned with the open-ended conflict and the lack of success in retrieving those captured by Hamas, Gantz had, for weeks, been threatening to resign. He had set a deadline of Saturday for Netanyahu to address key issues, including the return of four hostages. After Israeli authorities announced the rescue of the hostages, Gantz postponed his planned news conference, choosing instead to wait a day before publicly...