The Palestine Chronicle / July 25, 2024
Mass demonstrations against Netanyahu’s speech and the war on Gaza occurred both outside and inside the US Capitol.
US presidential nominee Donald Trump has said Israel should end the war in Gaza “quickly” as the country was “getting decimated with this publicity.”
Asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress on Wednesday, Trump told Fox News “I want him to finish up and get it done quickly.”
He added: “You’ve got to get it done quickly because they are getting decimated with this publicity. And, you know, Israel is not very good at public relations, I’ll tell you that.”
His comments on Thursday come a day ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu.
The former US president said Israel “has to handle their public relations,” as it was “not good.”
“And they’ve got to get this done fast because the world is not taking lightly to it,” he continued.
Trump reiterated that had he been president, “October 7th would have never happened….There was no chance.”
On the question of the US supplying Israel with weapons, Trump said “I’d make sure that it gets over with fast. You have to end this fast. It can’t continue to go on like this. It’s too long. It’s too much.”
Trump also criticized protesters voicing their opposition to Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress, saying “I think you should get a one-year jail sentence if you do anything to desecrate the American flag.”
Unprecedented boycott
Mass demonstrations against Netanyahu’s speech and the war on Gaza occurred both outside and inside the US Capitol.
Netanyahu faced an unprecedented boycott of his speech from about half of the Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate.
According to the Anadolu News Agency, “a historic number of House representatives and senators skipped Netanyahu’s speech”.
The total of “at least 96 lawmakers is nearly double the number of Democrats who boycotted his 2015 address — 58,” Anadolu reported.
Netanyahu will meet with US President Joe Biden on Thursday.
Ongoing genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
The country is currently on trial before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for genocide committed in the enclave since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 39,145 Palestinians have been killed, and 90,257 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
