Israel ‘not a protectorate’ of the US, Netanyahu says ahead of meeting with Vance • FRANCE 24

Well, Israel’s prime minister has toughened his stance this Wednesday by declaring that his country is in charge of its own security and isn’t an American protectorate as he prepared to discuss progress on Gaza’s fragile ceasefire agreement with the US vice president JD Vance. Let’s get more why Benjamin Netanyahu spoke those words. Noatani is of course our correspondent joining us live from Jerusalem. No, very good evening to you. uh British soldiers deployed to Israel to be part of this uh gathering uh unit at this US base which is causing some controversy. You told us about it 24 hours ago. Uh give us more on why Benjamin Netanyahu’s been in a sense forced to say what he said. Well, both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Vice President Vance were forced to publicly address the question uh almost a cartoonish question of is Israel now a vassal state? I’m quoting of uh the United States. We have um as you said the president of the United States Middle East envoy Steve Witkov to the best of my knowledge he is still in Israel and it was a press conference that he held yesterday with vice president uh Vance and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner at this American base in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat. Um, very little was known about this base until the American visitors held a pretty big press conference there. And all of a sudden, Israeli journalists realized that the United States is basically giving the orders. Everything that will happen in Gaza, at least from the Israeli side, is going to go through this US filter or US authorization. Prime Minister Netanyahu is a hardright prime minister. He ran um in the last election in 2022 on a platform of quote sovereignty. That was his electoral slogan. And so you can imagine that he has been got through quite a bit of a whiplash I would say today of being asked um is Israel operating like a sovereign state? Is Israel allowed to disagree with the United States? And to what an extent is the US simply running now the entire Gaza operation? In all honesty, we don’t have a response. And it does appear that the US is calling the shots and that the US has decided this war is over. And no matter what happens, however offended Israel or Israeli ministers are, the United States is uh calling the shots here. So today on more than one occasion the prime minister of Israel and the American vice president were directly asked the question is Israel a protectorate of the United States or can it still operate independently and Israelis are still waiting for uh I would say a convincing answer to that among other questions. No can I just change tack here? The international court of justice is ruling that Israel must allow and others to deliver Gaza aid and can’t block operations. Can you give us uh some insight into that please? Yes. I mean the International Criminal Court has no enforcement branch. So this is not going to do much except for possibly threaten Israel’s status to a certain extent at the UN. This doesn’t have much bearing. But again, it is another stain against Israel in the international community. The criminal court says that Israel simply did not provide the evidence to show that a majority or a prepundonderance of UNRA officials uh UNRA employees working in Gaza were connected to Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist group. I have to just add as a journalist here that on more than one occasion, we’ve confronted pretty um alarming claims by the Israeli army without any evidence being given. It doesn’t mean that the claims are untrue. I really can’t answer regarding UNRA, but it does appear that Israel simply didn’t provide, you know, the receipts necessary. And finally, no, may I ask you, Israeli lawmakers voting through a bill regarding uh settlements and possible annexation of the West Bank. Now, this is an extremely controversial issue and one that Trump has said that he’s against. Absolutely. what we saw today um in another reflection I would say like the the uh vassal state question in another indication of Netanyahu’s weakness as a prime minister uh he was trolled in fact he was trolled by both sides of parliament today on purpose while JD Vance is visiting um lawmakers from the very extreme right pushed a bill uh that would impose quote unquote impose Israeli sovereignty in other words annex the entire of the Palestinian Inian occupied West Bank and lawmakers from a centrist party, the head of the headed by the head of the opposition, Y laid presented a much more modest bill also declaring Israeli sovereignty on one city near Jerusalem but also in the West Bank. None of these bills have any bearing on reality. They were just symbolic bills passed into committee. But it was another humiliation for the prime minister who would actually support annexation but simply doesn’t have the political means to do it. Noatanapolski as always. Thank you very much indeed. No, of course is our correspondent in Jerusalem.

Israel’s prime minister toughened his stance Wednesday by declaring that his country is in charge of its own security and isn’t an American protectorate as he prepared to discuss progress on Gaza’s fragile ceasefire agreement with U.S. Vice President JD Vance. FRANCE 24’s Noga Tarnopolsky reports from Jerusalem.
#Israel #Gaza #war

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40 comments

  2. Since when 😅😅😅, it has always been ,
    but it is Isreali Zionist that actually control the USA that protects Isreal , they run by the same owners . So Isreal is a protected of theirs.

  4. It has always been a Nato protectorate! From first day on! Without our Nato money, political support, weapons, technology transfer this country would not exist for 1 minute

  11. Then why is my AMERICAN tax dollars being used to fund their whole defense? The criminal welfare state of Izreal can’t survive without AMERICA

  16. The whole democracy is true education they are good men in bible directed good because first gentiles then barbarian first true education first democracy Europe is gentiles then good men/heart women intelligence is true education I think first then them democracy Europe then vision take it away then US U5 two

  19. What you might call a very unhealthy codependency. AIPAC in the US controls the US government, but Israel would be nowhere without the billions of dollars of aid and weapons given to it by the US

  20. Israel is and has always been a protectorate or proxy of the US. Israel always lies. Make Israel the 51st state not Canada- with all the money we spend and fund on israel they better be the 51st state or we pull all funding.

  22. Neither is the US BiBi. We should have Qatar develop the beachfront just, for insulting JD Vance. Unreal. Just the most disrespectful people on the planet.

  23. Every six-year-old child at some point threatens to leave home because he doesn't need his parents anymore! 😂

  31. Vassal? No. That would mean Israel would listen to the US, and they don't. But I'm pretty sure if the US stopped protecting Israel, it would be absolutely screwed. That… Would make it a protectorate.

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