Opposition leader Yair Lapid has commented on deteriorating relations with Washington
Former Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid has reportedly warned that his country’s relations with the US have deteriorated so much under the leadership of his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, that Washington is “no longer our closest ally.”
Lapid made his comments on Monday at a faction meeting of his Yesh Atid opposition party, according to the Times of Israel. He has argued that Netanyahu’s government is destroying the alliance with the US by trying to pass controversial judicial reforms.
“The Israeli government is leading us into this crisis, making the biggest and most dramatic changes to the regime in our history, without holding a single discussion — not even one — about the economic, security, social and political consequences of the move,” Lapid said. In a Channel 12 news interview, he argued that the nation was being “torn in two.”
“The Americans say they have no shared values with this government. It affects every aspect of US-Israel relations – their attention and their willingness to leave their comfort zone for Israeli interests. They will not do it for the most extreme government in the country’s history,” Lapid said, describing relations with the US as being at a historic low.
US President Joe Biden said in March that he was “very concerned” about Israel’s democracy amid months of protests over the proposed judicial overhaul. “I’m concerned they get this straight,” he said at the time. “They cannot continue down this road.”
Netanyahu responded by saying Israel was a sovereign country and made decisions by the will of its people, “not based on pressures from abroad.” His national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said Biden “needs to understand that Israel is no longer a star on the US flag. We are a democracy, and I expect the US president to understand that.”
More recently, the Biden administration criticized West Jerusalem’s approval for a Jewish-only settlement in the occupied West Bank. Earlier this month, Biden blasted the Israeli government’s cabinet as “extreme” and “part of the problem” in the Palestinian conflict.
On Monday, however, Biden issued a long-delayed invitation for Netanyahu to visit the White House later this year. Netanyahu spent 12 years as Israeli prime minister before a coalition led by Lapid ousted him from power in June 2021. He returned to office after winning the December 2022 election, the fifth parliamentary vote in four years.
https://www.rt.com/news/579873-israel-us-closest-ally-lapid/
Nvidia would be barred from shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China under bipartisan legislation unveiled Thursday, Bloomberg reported. A Chinese expert said the move is shortsighted, noting that tightening restrictions despite domestic industry opposition will only accelerate China’s tech innovation and further diminish Nvidia’s chances of reentering the Chinese market.
Known as the Secure and Feasible Exports Act, the bill would order the US Commerce Department to halt export licenses for sales of chips to adversaries, including China and Russia for at least 30 months. Any processors more powerful than those already approved for export to those nations would be subject to the measure, the Bloomberg report said.
The legislation comes as the White House weighs whether to allow Nvidia to export the....more below
A high-ranking ICC official, Nicolas Herrera, secretly financed the sanctioned UPC armed group in the Central African Republic, according to court materials obtained by Sputnik.
Nicolas Herrera, a high-ranking official in the Registry Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC), secretly recruited and financed the Union for Peace (UPC) in the Central African Republic (CAR) armed group, led by local warlord Ali Darassa, to capture ICC target Joseph Kony, by using US-based NGO employee Joseph Martin Figueira as a covert intermediary, thereby violating the ICC’s financial accountability standards by funding an armed group, according to a Sputnik correspondent's analysis of public court records.
The conviction of Joseph Martin Figueira, a Belgian-Portuguese anthropologist found guilty of espionage and collaborating with militants in the Central African Republic (CAR) in November, has uncovered a complex financial trail linking ICC staff to the country’s armed militants, evidence ...
Hundreds of retired Israeli police officers have urged the regime’s president, Isaac Herzog, to reject Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in corruption cases.
On November 30, Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust in three separate cases, submitted a formal pardon request to the office of Herzog, claiming the long-running corruption cases were tearing the regime apart.
In a letter to Herzog, about 400 former officers, including ex-commissioners and deputy commissioners, said Netanyahu’s request contains “not even a hint of admission of guilt,” making it unacceptable.
They warned that “such a step without [Netanyahu’s] confession and remorse is liable to ignite severe violence in Israeli society.”.....more below
