Trump welcomes Netanyahu to Mar-a-Lago, mending relationship with key political ally

Update Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP)
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 27 July 2024
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Trump welcomes Netanyahu to Mar-a-Lago, mending relationship with key political ally

Trump welcomes Netanyahu to Mar-a-Lago, mending relationship with key political ally
  • Relations between the two broke down after Netanyahu rapidly congratulated Joe Biden on his 2020 presidential victory

WASHINGTON: A beaming Donald Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to their first face-to-face meeting in nearly four years on Friday, patching up a political alliance important to both men that had broken down when the Israeli leader offended Trump by being one of the first to congratulate Joe Biden on his 2020 presidential victory.
Asked by journalists if his US trip was making progress toward a Gaza ceasefire at home, Netanyahu said, “I hope so,” and added that Israel was eager for an agreement.
Netanyahu handed Trump a framed photo that the Israeli leader said showed a child who has been held hostage by Hamas-led militants since the first hours of the war. “We’ll get it taken care of,” Trump assured him.
Trump’s campaign said he pledged in the meeting to “make every effort to bring peace to the Middle East” and combat antisemitism on college campuses if American voters elect him to the presidency in November.
Trump was waiting for Netanyahu on the stone steps outside his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, where he warmly clasped the hands of the Israeli leader. Both men have a strong interest in resuming their relationship, including for the political support and luster their alliance brings.
“We’ve always had a great relationship,” Trump insisted before journalists. Asked as the two sat down in a muraled room for talks if Netanyahu’s trip to Mar-a-Lago was repairing their bond, Trump responded, “It was never bad.”
As president, Donald Trump went well beyond his predecessors in fulfilling Netanyahu’s top wishes from the United States. Yet by the time Trump left the White House, relations had soured, with Trump publicly criticizing Netanyahu as disloyal despite the other man’s efforts to mend ties.
For both men, Friday’s meeting was aimed at highlighting for their home audiences in the United States and Israel their depiction of themselves as strong leaders who have gotten big things done on the world stage, and can again.
Netanyahu’s Florida trip followed a fiery address to a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday that defended his far-right government’s conduct of the war and condemned American protesters galvanized by the killing of more than 39,000 Palestinians in the conflict.
On Thursday, Netanyahu had met in Washington with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Both pressed the Israeli leader to work quickly to wrap up a deal to bring a ceasefire and release hostages.
Netanyahu is increasingly accused at home of prolonging the war to stave off the collapse of his government when the conflict ends.
For Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee, the meeting was a chance to be cast as an ally and statesman, as well as to sharpen efforts by Republicans to portray themselves as the party most loyal to Israel.
D ivisions among Americans over US support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza have opened cracks in years of strong bipartisan backing for Israel, the biggest recipient of US aid.
For Netanyahu, repairing relations with Trump is imperative given the prospect that Trump may once again become president of the United States, which is Israel’s vital arms supplier and protector.
One political gamble for Netanyahu is whether he could get more of the terms he wants in any deal on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release, and in his much hoped-for closing of a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, if he waits out the Biden administration in hopes that Trump wins.
“Benjamin Netanyahu has spent much of his career in the last two decades in tethering himself to the Republican Party,” said Aaron David Miller, a former US diplomat for Arab-Israeli negotiations, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
For the next six months, that means “mending ties with an irascible, angry president,” Miller said, meaning Trump.
Trump broke off with Netanyahu in early 2021. That was after the Israeli prime minister became one of the first world leaders to congratulate Biden for his presidential election victory, disregarding Trump’s false claim he had won.
“Bibi could have stayed quiet,” Trump said in an interview with an Israel newspape back then. “He made a terrible mistake.”
Netanyahu and Trump last met at a September 2020 White House signing ceremony for the signature diplomatic achievement of both men’s political careers. It was an accord brokered by the Trump administration in which the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel.
For Israel, it amounted to the two countries formally recognizing it for the first time. It was a major step in what Israel hopes will be an easing of tensions and a broadening of economic ties with its Arab neighbors.
In public postings and statements after his break with Netanyahu, Trump portrayed himself as having stuck his neck out for Israel as president, and Netanyahu paying him back with disloyalty.
He also has criticized Netanyahu on other points, faulting him as “not prepared” for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that started the war in Gaza, for example.
In his high-profile speech to Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu gave recognition to Biden, who has kept up military and diplomatic support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza despite opposition from within his Democratic Party.
But Netanyahu poured praise on Trump, calling the regional accords Trump helped broker historic and thanking him “for all the things he did for Israel.”
Netanyahu listed actions by the Trump administration long-sought by Israeli governments — the US officially saying Israel had sovereignty over the Golan Heights, captured from Syria during a 1967 war; a tougher US policy toward Iran; and Trump declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel, breaking with longstanding US policy that Jerusalem’s status should be decided in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
“I appreciated that,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, referring to Netanyahu’s praise.
He didn’t quiet his criticism, however, of Israel’s conduct of the war, which has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians.
“I want him to finish up and get it done quickly. You gotta get it done quickly, because they are getting decimated with his publicity,” Trump said in Thursday’s interview.
“Israel is not very good at public relations, I’ll tell you that,” he added.
Trump has repeatedly urged that Israel with US support “finish the job” in Gaza and destroy Hamas, but he hasn’t elaborated on how.


Trump backs ‘hard stance’ on Gaza, says he does not know what Israel will do

Trump backs ‘hard stance’ on Gaza, says he does not know what Israel will do
Updated 15 February 2025
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Trump backs ‘hard stance’ on Gaza, says he does not know what Israel will do

Trump backs ‘hard stance’ on Gaza, says he does not know what Israel will do
  • Trump has proposed US takeover of Gaza amid fragile ceasefire
  • UN distressed by condition of released hostages and detainees

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Friday advocated taking a “hard stance” on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave for which he has proposed a US takeover and where a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants is in place.

Trump had said this week that Hamas should release all Israeli hostages in Gaza by Saturday midday or “let hell break out.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow (Saturday) at 12’o clock. If it was up to me, I would take a very hard stance but I can’t tell you what Israel is going to do,” Trump told reporters on Friday.

A ceasefire went into effect just before Trump returned to the presidency on January 20.Some Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners have been released by Israel since then.

The UN human rights office has described images of both emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released as distressing, saying they reflected the dire conditions in which they were held.

Trump on Friday reiterated his concerns about the appearances of released Israeli hostages without commenting on the state of the Palestinians.

Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.

The assault internally displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population and caused a hunger crisis.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Trump has faced international condemnation for his proposal to take over Gaza and permanently displace Palestinians there. Rights experts and the United Nations have called it a proposal for ethnic cleansing.


Top commander with UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon is injured by protesters

Top commander with UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon is injured by protesters
Updated 15 February 2025
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Top commander with UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon is injured by protesters

Top commander with UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon is injured by protesters
  • “We are shocked by this outrageous attack on peacekeepers who have been serving to restore security and stability to south Lebanon during a difficult time,” it said
  • The Lebanese army intervened to disperse the protesters

BEIRUT: The outgoing deputy commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon was injured Friday when protesters attacked a convoy taking peacekeepers to the Beirut airport, the force known as UNIFIL said in a statement.
“We are shocked by this outrageous attack on peacekeepers who have been serving to restore security and stability to south Lebanon during a difficult time,” it said.
The Lebanese army intervened to disperse the protesters. The army said in a statement that acting commander Maj. Gen. Hassan Odeh had contacted UNIFIL and promised to “work to arrest the citizens who attacked its members and bring them to justice.”
Demonstrators have been blocking the road to the airport and other roads in the capital to protest a decision by Lebanese authorities to revoke permission for a passenger plane from Iran to fly to Beirut on Thursday, leaving dozens of Lebanese passengers stranded.
The decision to ban the Iranian plane came after the Israeli army issued a statement claiming that Iran was smuggling cash to the militant group Hezbollah via civilian flights.
Lebanon’s civil aviation agency said Thursday that “additional security measures” meant some flights were temporarily rescheduled until Feb. 18 — the same day as a deadline for Israel and Hezbollah to fully implement their ceasefire agreement, including a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.


Syria receives local currency printed in Russia before Assad’s fall

A view of the Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (REUTERS)
A view of the Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (REUTERS)
Updated 14 February 2025
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Syria receives local currency printed in Russia before Assad’s fall

A view of the Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (REUTERS)
  • Syria has been facing a liquidity crunch since Assad’s ouster, with Syria’s new central bank governor, Maysaa Sabreen, saying in January that she wanted to avoid printing Syrian pounds to guard against a surge in inflation

DAMASCUS: Syria’s central bank said a batch of Syrian currency had arrived at Damascus airport from Russia, where banknotes were printed under the rule of toppled President Bashar Assad, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported on Friday.
The central bank did not specify the amount of currency that had arrived, but a source with knowledge of the matter said it was in the “hundreds of billions of Syrian pounds,” equivalent to tens of millions of US dollars.
The source said the cash had been printed in Russia under Assad’s rule but had not been shipped to Syria by the time he was toppled in early December 2024.
Syria’s new leadership ordered the Russian company printing the currency to stop after Assad fled to Moscow, the source said, without providing details on what prompted Friday’s delivery of the previously printed cash.

BACKGROUND

A source said the cash had been printed in Russia under Bashar Assad’s rule but had not been shipped to Syria by the time he was toppled in early December 2024.

Syria has been facing a liquidity crunch since Assad’s ouster, with Syria’s new central bank governor, Maysaa Sabreen, saying in January that she wanted to avoid printing Syrian pounds to guard against a surge in inflation.
Syria’s pound has strengthened on the black market since the new leadership took over, helped by an influx of Syrians from abroad and an end to strict controls on trade in foreign currencies.
It traded 9,850 pounds to the US dollar on Thursday, according to exchange houses closed on Friday.
According to statements by the central bank, the official foreign exchange rate has stayed around 13,000 pounds to the US dollar.
But that has sparked concerns about liquidity in Syrian pounds.
The central bank only has foreign exchange reserves of around $200 million in cash, sources said, a considerable drop from the $18.5 billion that the International Monetary Fund estimated Syria had in 2010, a year before civil war erupted.
Russia is hoping to retain the use of naval and air bases in Syria under its new leaders.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Syria’s President Ahmad Al-Sharaa on Wednesday, the first call between the two leaders since Assad’s ouster.
The Syrian presidency said Putin had invited Syria’s new foreign minister to visit Moscow.

 


Gazans return to ruined homes and severe water shortage

Gazans return to ruined homes and severe water shortage
Updated 14 February 2025
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Gazans return to ruined homes and severe water shortage

Gazans return to ruined homes and severe water shortage
  • Wells, pumps destroyed during the war
  • Israel claims it has repaired some damage

BEIT LAHIYA: A ceasefire has enabled some Gazans to go back to their ruined homes without fear of Israeli airstrikes, but they have returned to a severe water crisis.

“We returned here and found no pumps, no wells. We did not find buildings or houses,” said 50-year-old farmer Bassel Rajab, a resident of the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
“We came and set up tents to shelter in, but there is no water. We don’t have water. We are suffering.”
Drinking, cooking, and washing are a luxury in Gaza, 16 months after the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Rajab said he sometimes walks 16 km, hoping to shower in Gaza City. Some Palestinians have dug wells in areas near the sea or rely on salty tap water from Gaza’s only aquifer, contaminated with seawater and sewage.
The Palestinian Water Authority estimates it will cost $2.7 billion to repair the water and sanitation sectors. Palestinians were already facing a severe water crisis as well as shortages of food, fuel,  and medicine before the wells were destroyed in the war.
The Palestinian Water Authority said in a statement on its website that 208 out of 306 wells had been knocked out of service during the war, and a further 39 were partially out of service.
“There is a big shortage as the occupation (Israel) is preventing the entrance (into Gaza) of drills, excavators, machines, equipment, and generators that are needed to operate wells and to dig them,” said Beit Lahiya Mayor Alaa Al-Attar.
Attar said small companies were trying to fix the wells but had minimal equipment.
He added: “We are trying to establish new wells to mitigate the severity of the water crisis at this stage.”
COGAT, the branch of the Israeli military that manages humanitarian activities, has said it has coordinated water line repairs with international organizations, including one to the northern Gaza Strip.
The Hamas-Israel ceasefire has been in force since Jan. 19.
Gazans hoping to one day rebuild are squeezed by shortages of water, food, medicines, and fuel in Gaza, which was grappling with poverty and high unemployment even before the war erupted.
Youssef Kallab, 35, says he has to carry heavy water containers to the roof of his home using a rope. The municipality supplies water every three days.
“We do not have the strength to carry it up and down the stairs. We have children, we have elderly. They all want water,” Kallab said as he lifted water containers.
Twelve-year-old Mohammed Al-Khatib says he has to drag a cart for 3-4 km to get water.
Mohammed Nassar, a 47-year-old Palestinian supermarket owner, said he has to walk for miles to fill buckets from a water pipe despite health problems and cartilage damage.
“We turn a blind eye to the pain because we have to,” he said.

 


Tunisian startup takes on e-waste challenge

Tunisian startup takes on e-waste challenge
Updated 14 February 2025
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Tunisian startup takes on e-waste challenge

Tunisian startup takes on e-waste challenge
  • The aim is to have “an environmental and social impact, but also an economic gain,” Cheriha said, adding that refurbished products can be up to 60 percent cheaper in a country where the average monthly salary is around 1,000 dinars ($310)

TUNIS: Engineer turned social entrepreneur Sabri Cheriha hunches over a washing machine at a small depot in a suburb of Tunisia’s capital, the unassuming home of a startup he launched to tackle the country’s mounting electronic waste problem.
Cheriha said there were about 8 million household appliances and 9 million cell phones in use across Tunisia, but once these devices break down or are replaced, “there’s no service to dispose of them properly.”
WeFix, the startup that won him a second-place regional social entrepreneur award last year, stands out by offering an “all-in-one service,” providing collection, repairs, and recycling to reduce e-waste.
The aim is to have “an environmental and social impact, but also an economic gain,” Cheriha said, adding that refurbished products can be up to 60 percent cheaper in a country where the average monthly salary is around 1,000 dinars ($310).
The startup “avoided” 20 tonnes of waste in 2023 and 80 tonnes last year, according to its founder, who anticipates handling another 120 tonnes this year.
“When we talk about ‘avoided waste,’ we’re also considering the resources needed to manufacture a single washing machine — 50 or 60 kg of finished product require over a tonne of raw materials,” he explained.