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isaac herzog
New Low for Fetterman: Senator Privately Urged Pardon for Netanyahu
"For someone who claims to care about hostages, going to bat for a leader who sacrificed them for his own political survival... is the height of cynicism," said one Israeli critic.
Dec 11, 2025
US Sen. John Fetterman recently asked Israel's president to pardon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is on trial in his country for alleged bribery, fraud, and breach of trust—Talking Points Memo revealed on Thursday.
In a previously unreported December 2 letter sent to Israeli President Isaac Herzog and obtained by TPM, Fetterman (D-Pa.) asserted, “In a world this dangerous, I question whether any democracy can afford to have its head of government spending valuable hours, day after day, in a courtroom rather than the situation room."
“I believe there is a strong case to be made for a pardon—not to erase the past, but to secure the future," Fetterman added.
Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump have also asked Herzog to pardon the beleaguered Israeli prime minister, who in addition to facing domestic criminal charges is also a fugitive from the International Criminal Court, which last year issued a warrant for his arrest for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.
Scoop, w the incomparable @kateriga.bsky.social: John Fetterman asked Israel's President to pardon Netanyahu in a previously unreported letter talkingpointsmemo.com/news/fetterm...
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— Josh Kovensky (@joshkovensky.bsky.social) December 11, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Fetterman has taken more than $370,000 in campaign contributions from the pro-Israel lobby, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, according to AIPAC Tracker. He has been an ardent supporter of Israel's US-backed genocidal war on Gaza, which has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing and 2 million others forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.
In addition to repeatedly opposing calls by progressive members of his own party for an arms embargo on Israel, Fetterman has amplified Israeli claims regarding the war, and even giddily accepted a silver-plated beeper gifted by Netanyahu following the September 2024 pager bombings that killed at least 20 people in Lebanon, including children.
Asked Thursday about his letter to Herzog, Fetterman said, "I fully support it" and called the TPM's reporting "a pointless distraction."
“I know you guys use things like leaks, but I don’t know who did that," he told TPM reporters Kate Riga and Josh Kovensky, who broke news of the letter.
Responding to theTPM article, Israeli journalist Etan Nechin said on social media that "for someone who claims to care about hostages, going to bat for a leader who sacrificed them for his own political survival... is the height of cynicism"—a reference to allegations that Netanyahu prolonged the war, and thus the release of the more than 250 Israelis and others abducted by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 attack, in order to delay his corruption trial.
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'Birds of a Feather': Trump Urges Israeli President to Pardon Netanyahu in Fraud Case
One critic said such a move—which would require an admission of guilt—risks giving a "green light" to corruption.
Nov 12, 2025
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Wednesday that he had received a request from US President Donald Trump to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently on trial in Israel for alleged bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
“I hereby call on you to fully pardon Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been a formidable and decisive War Time Prime Minister, and is now leading Israel into a time of peace," Trump wrote in a letter to Herzog.
While Trump said that he "absolutely respect[s] the independence of the Israeli Justice System,” he denounced the case against Netanyahu as “political, unjustified prosecution.”
"It is time to let Bibi unite Israel by pardoning him, and ending that lawfare once and for all," Trump added, using Netanyahu's nickname.
U.S. President Donald Trump, also a criminal, has formally requested Israeli President Isaac Herzog to grant a pardon to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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— Josep Goded (New Main Account) (@josepgoded2.bsky.social) November 12, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Herzog's office responded to Trump's letter with the following statement:
The president holds great respect for President Trump and repeatedly expresses his appreciation for Trump’s unwavering support of Israel and his tremendous contribution to the return of the hostages, the reshaping of the Middle East and Gaza, and the safeguarding of Israel’s security. Without detracting from the above, as the president has made clear on multiple occasions, anyone seeking a pardon must submit a formal request in accordance with the established procedures.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid noted in a social media post that "Israeli law stipulates that the first condition for receiving a pardon is an admission of guilt and an expression of remorse for those actions."
Amir Fuchs, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem-based think tank Israel Democracy Institute, told the Washington Post that “pardon is a word for forgiveness, a pardon without some kind of admission of guilt is very unusual and even illegal."
Fuchs added that any pardon based on Trump's request could be viewed as giving a "green light" to corruption and "undermining the rule of law."
Many social media users responded to Trump's letter with the same four words—"birds of a feather"—noting that the Republican president was convicted of 34 felony charges related to the falsification of business records regarding hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 presidential election.
In addition to his domestic trial, Netanyahu is also a fugitive from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where he and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the Gaza genocide.
Herzog also faces criminal complaints filed in Switzerland alleging incitement to genocide over remarks including a suggestion that Palestinian civilians in Gaza were legitimate targets for Israeli strikes because "it is an entire nation out there that is responsible" for the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.
Like former President Joe Biden before him, Trump has supported Israel with billions of dollars worth of US armed aid and diplomatic cover including vetoes of United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolutions.
In the first prosecution of a sitting Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 for allegedly giving or offering lucrative official favors to media tycoons in exchange for positive news coverage or gifts valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars. The prime minister—who has also been accused of drawing out Israel's assault on Gaza to delay his case—denies any wrongdoing and, like Trump, has called his prosecution a "witch hunt."
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'No Red Carpet' for Israel's Herzog: UK Urged to Arrest 'Genocide President' in London
"The only reason to welcome this man into our country," said one critic, "is to immediately facilitate his transfer to The Hague to be tried for war crimes."
Sep 10, 2025
Thousands of people turned out in London Tuesday to call for the arrest of visiting Israeli President Isaac Herzog—who is the subject of criminal complaints alleging incitement to genocide and crimes against humanity—and to denounce UK complicity in the annihilation of Gaza.
Demonstrators rallied outside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office in central London, where they waved Palestinian flags and chanted messages including, "Keir Starmer, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!" and, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!"
"Herzog's presence here is an insult to every Palestinian who has lost their home, their family, their life," said Amina, a 34-year-old protester holding a sign that read, "Stop the Genocide in Gaza."
"Starmer must act now—arrest Herzog and show the world that the UK stands against war crimes," she added.
Zarah Sultana—a member of Parliament (MP) who recently quit Starmer's Labour Party and joined with fellow former Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and others to launch the Independent Alliance—told protesters that Herzog has "dehumanized an entire population and openly called for their extermination."
"This Labour government is complicit, is enabling genocide," she added.
Later on Tuesday, protesters gathered outside the InterContinental London Park Lane Hotel, where Herzog was reportedly staying, calling him the "genocide president" and chanting, "Free Palestine!" and "No justice, no peace!"
While not targeted by the International Criminal Court—which last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza—Herzog is the subject of criminal complaints filed in Switzerland last year by the advocacy group Legal Action Against Genocide "for incitement to genocide and crimes against humanity."
Days after the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023 that left more than 1,100 Israelis and others dead—at least some of whom were killed by so-called "friendly fire" and under the intentionally fratricidal Hannibal Directive—and around 250 people kidnapped, Herzog suggested that every Palestinian man, woman, and child in Gaza was a legitimate target.
"It is an entire nation out there that is responsible," Herzog told reporters on October 13, 2023. "It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It's absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza."
That same month, Ezra Yachin—a 95-year-old veteran of the Zionist terror militia Stern Gang who allegedly took part in the 1948 massacre of more than 100 Palestinian civilians at Deir Yassin—delivered a motivational speech to troops about to invade Gaza, urging them to "wipe out [Palestinians'] memory, their families, mothers, and children."
Herzog hailed Yachin's speech as "a wonderful example to generations of soldiers."
When the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—which is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa—issued its January 2024 order for Israel to avoid genocidal acts in Gaza, Herzog's October 13, 2023 comments were listed second in a series of "dehumanizing" statements by Israeli officials who were possibly inciting genocide.
Tuesday's protests against Herzog followed a demonstration earlier in the day outside the Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair at Excel London at Royal Victoria Dock, where thousands of people rallied against UK complicity in Israel's genocidal war and famine.
Israel's 705-day onslaught has left at least 237,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans are starving due to Israel's "complete siege" and engineered famine, and around 1 million Palestinians are facing ethnic cleansing under a US-backed plan to conquer, occupy, and resettle Gaza.
UK leaders have come under fire for cracking down on anti-genocide protests, including by banning the group Palestine Action and arresting hundreds of people who have publicly voiced support for the organization.
Condemnation of Herzog's visit was not limited to the streets of London. In the House of Commons, Scottish National Party Leader Stephen Flynn told fellow parliamentarians that "Gaza is a graveyard."
"Gaza is a graveyard...What does it say of this Prime Minister that he will harbour this man whilst children starve?"SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn criticises the PM's decision to host Israel's president later today. #PMQs
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— Holyrood (@holyroodmag.bsky.social) September 10, 2025 at 5:34 AM
"But rather than end arms sales, extend sanctions, and stand by international law, the prime minister will today welcome into his home.. the man who called for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, and who signed the artillery shells that destroyed their homes, their families, and their friends," Flynn said.
"What does it say of this prime minister that we will harbor this man while children starve?" Flynn asked.
Zack Polanski, a member of the London Assembly and leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, said Tuesday in a statement that "welcoming a potential war criminal to the UK is another demonstration of how this Labour government is implicated in the ongoing genocide in Gaza."
"A refusal to detain Herzog can be seen as a contravention of the Geneva Convention, which makes clear that states have legal responsibility for preventing the targeting of civilians," Polanski added. "When this is breached, individuals must be prosecuted, and this should be applied to Herzog."
Critical media also decried Herzog's visit, with the pro-independence Scottish newspaper The National on Wednesday running the front-page headline, "Starmer Rolls Out Red Carpet for Genocide."
Tomorrow's front page 📰Starmer rolls out red carpet for genocide
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— The National (@scotnational.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Writing for Middle East Eye, British author, political commentator, and Labour politician Ali Milani noted Wednesday that "Starmer has... described the actions of Herzog's government as 'appalling, counterproductive, and intolerable.'"
"To say one thing in Parliament about Israel's actions, and then to roll out the red carpet for Herzog, would not only endorse the impunity granted to Tel Aviv over Israeli crimes in Gaza; it would also shred the credibility of Labour's foreign policy," he argued.
"There should be no red carpet. There should be no ministerial meetings. Instead, there should be accountability," Milani added. "The only reason to welcome this man into our country is to immediately facilitate his transfer to The Hague to be tried for war crimes."
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Slamming Israeli Media Lies, Freed Hostage Says IDF Strike—Not Hamas—Wounded Her
"I cannot ignore what happened here over the past 24 hours, taking my words out of context," said Noa Argamani. "As a victim of October 7, I refuse to be victimized once again by the media."
Aug 23, 2024
An Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas militants on October 7 and held hostage for 245 days before being rescued lashed out on Friday at Israeli media outlets that twisted her words to make it seem as if she was wounded by her captors when in reality she was injured in an attack by the military in which she once served.
Responding to reports in outlets including The Jerusalem Post—which on Thursday ran the headline "Hamas Beat Me All Over"—Noa Argamani said on Instagram that "I can't ignore what happened in the media in the last 24 hours."
"Things were taken out of context," the 26-year-old navy veteran from Be'er Sheva said of her earlier comments to Group of Seven diplomats in Tokyo. "I was not beaten... I was in a building that was bombed by the Air Force."
"I emphasize that I was not beaten, but injured all over my body by the collapse of a building on me," Argamani added. "As a victim of October 7, I refuse to be victimized once again by the media."
Prominent Israelis including President Isaac Herzog and pro-Israel voices around the world including writer Aviva Klompas and the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council amplified the false claim that Argamani was "beaten" by her captors.
Argamani was partying with her boyfriend Avinatan Or at the Nova rave near the Gaza border when the festival was attacked by Hamas-led militants in the early morning hours of October 7. In now-famous video footage, she is seen begging, "Don't kill me!" as her captors whisk her away toward Gaza on a motorcycle. Or was also kidnapped and is believed to still be in Hamas custody.
"Every night, I was falling asleep and thinking, this may be the last night of my life," Argamani said Thursday of her time in captivity.
Argamani was one of four Hamas captives rescued during a June raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, an operation in which Israeli forces killed at least 236 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Three other Israeli hostages taken from the Nova rave were also rescued in the raid.
"It's a miracle because I survived October 7, and I survived this bombing, and I also survived the rescue," Argamani said in Tokyo on Thursday.
Argamani's rescue fulfilled a dying wish from her mother, who had terminal cancer, to be reunited with her daughter before she passed. Argamani was also freed on the birthday of her father, Yakov Argamani, who, from the start of the hostage ordeal, urged Israeli leaders to eschew revenge after the October 7 attack.
There are believed to be around 109 Israelis and others still held captive by Hamas in Gaza. Argamani implored the government to make freeing them its top priority.
"Avinatan, my boyfriend, is still there, and we need to bring them back before it's going to be too late," she said Thursday. "We don't want to lose more people than we already lost."
More than 1,100 Israelis and others including Thai farmworkers were killed on October 7, at least some of them in so-called "friendly fire" attacks by Israeli forces. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) employed a protocol known as the "Hannibal Directive" authorizing lethal force against Israeli soldiers in order to prevent them from being taken prisoner by enemy forces. More than 240 Israelis and others were abducted by Hamas and other militants.
Freed hostages have recounted being fired upon by Israeli aircraft as they were being taken by Hamas militants to Gaza. One former captive said in December that "every day in captivity was extremely challenging. We were in tunnels, terrified that it would not be Hamas, but Israel, that would kill us, and then they would say Hamas killed you."
Numerous Israeli hostages have been killed by their would-be rescuers, including a trio of men who managed to escape from their captors and were waving white flags and shouting for help in Hebrew when they were shot dead by IDF soldiers in Gaza in December, and five Israelis who likely suffocated to death due to a fire sparked by an Israeli assault six months ago on the tunnel where the hostages were being held.
In contrast to former Palestinian prisoners held by Israel—who, along with Israeli whistleblowers, have reported systemic torture, rape, starvation, and even murder committed by their captors—numerous Israelis kidnapped by Hamas have reported being relatively well treated. Other former hostages said they were physically, sexually, and psychologically abused.
Taking civilian hostages is a war crime in itself.
Israel's 322-day retaliation for October 7 has left at least 144,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing. Nearly all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced by Israel's bombardment and invasion, which has flattened much of the coastal enclave. A crippling siege has pushed hundreds of thousands of Gazans over the brink of starvation, with at least dozens of children dying of malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of medical care. Preventable diseases including measles, hepatitis, and polio threaten public health not only in Gaza but also in Israel and other neighboring nations.
Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
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Instead of Holocaust Museum, Detour Signs Direct Israel's Herzog to The Hague
"How is it possible that such a sacred space is being used to normalize genocide today?" asked one Dutch Jewish organizer behind the protest.
Mar 10, 2024
Human rights activists in The Netherlands greeted Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday with large protests and directed him towards the International Criminal Court at The Hague over his nation's alleged war crimes against the Palestinian people in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Herzog was in Amsterdam to attend the opening of the new National Holocaust Museum, but demonstrators said Herzog's presence needed to be challenged given the large scale death and destruction that Israel's military has unleashed in Gaza over the last five months.
As Al-Jazeera reports:
Dutch Jewish anti-Zionist organization Erev Rave, which organized the demonstrations at the musuem’s opening with the Dutch Palestinian community and Socialist International, said that while it is important to honor the memory of Holocaust victims, it cannot stand by while the war in Gaza continues.
"For us Jews, these museums are part of our history, of our past," said Joana Cavaco, an activist with Erev Rav, addressing the crowd before the museum's opening ceremony. "How is it possible that such a sacred space is being used to normalize genocide today?"
A pro-Palestinian Dutch organization, The Rights Forum, called Herzog's presence "slap in the face of the Palestinians who can only helplessly watch how Israel murders their loved ones and destroys their land."
Along Herzog's route through the city, members of Amnesty International—which has accused Israel of apartheid and backed the findings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which said policies in Gaza may amount to genocide—carried fake detour signs pointing the motorcade towards the nearby ICC.
As the president of Israel, Amnesty International Netherlands said Herzog "is the political symbol of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza. It is unfortunate that Herzog was invited after his controversial statements. That is why we are taking action."
Amnesty and other rights groups have documented numerous incidents in Gaza and the West Bank that they say may amount to "war crimes," including the indiscriminate bombing of civilians areas, the use of prohibited weapons like white phosphorous, attacks on hospitals and emergency medical personnel, the blocking of life-saving food, water, and other supplies, and other acts of "callous disregard for Palestinian lives."
At a square nearby the museum where Herzog gave his speech, reports Reuters, demonstrators crowded the streets and chanted slogans like "Cease-fire Now!" and "Stop Bombing Children!" as they held signs that read "Jews Against Genocide" and "The Grandchild of a Holocaust Survivor Says: Stop Gaza Holocaust."
Israeli President Isaac Herzog attended an opening of Amsterdam’s Holocaust museum, where pro-Palestinian protesters demanding an end to Israel's assault in Gaza booed him https://t.co/L3NceMdAwk pic.twitter.com/ZspcNrl8FF
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 10, 2024
Ahead of Sunday's opening, the Jewish Cultural Quarter that operates the new museum, said in a statement that it was "profoundly concerned by the war and the consequences this conflict has had, first and foremost for the citizens of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank."
The statement said the museum stands "for a just and resolution for all those directly involved" and the impact the ongoing violence and hatred is having beyond the Middle East:
The reduction to black-and-white opposites and apparently incompatible arguments – oppressed against oppressor, good against bad, truth against lie. This polarization has spread hatred toward Jews and Islamophobia. It takes courage to speak out against injustice. It takes courage to recognize that the real world is complex and contradictory, and that our empathy need not be confined to one side.
At the heart of the National Holocaust Museum's mission is the desire to build a just society in the Netherlands by signalling the danger of dehumanizing and excluding those who live among us. That is the message in our presentation, our educational program and our events.
The group said Herzog had been invited to attend the opening prior to the Hamas-led attack on October 7 of last year, but that the fighting since has only further revealed the importance of remembering and learning from the past.
That "the war continues to rage," the statement concluded, "makes our mission all the more urgent."
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What We Want From Biden As We Prepare to March on Washington for Gaza
We plan to call upon the president to take three steps: Secure a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, stop unconditionally funding the Israeli government, and hold Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet ministers accountable.
Jan 10, 2024
This weekend, hundreds of thousands of people plan to march to the White House in what may be the largest U.S. demonstration for Palestinian human rights of the past three months.
Like the Americans who protested Lyndon Johnson over the Vietnam War and George W. Bush over the invasion of Iraq, we are marching because we cannot sit quietly here in America while our government enables an unjust war overseas.
We plan to call upon President Joe Biden to take three steps: Secure a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, stop unconditionally funding the Israeli government, and hold Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet ministers accountable for the war crimes they have committed with American taxpayer dollars.
We must say to Biden what was said to LBJ, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush years ago: Stop this war.
It has been nearly 100 days since Netanyahu's far-right government started wantonly and deliberately attacking civilians in Gaza—civilians who had nothing to do with the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. The Israeli bombing campaign, which Biden reportedly admits in private is "indiscriminate," has killed over 22,000 Palestinians, including at least 10,000 children and over 100 journalists.
The Israeli bombing has also reduced much of Gaza to uninhabitable rubble, displaced a large portion of its population, and created a humanitarian crisis. People across Gaza face starvation and live without access to running water, electricity, or gas.
None of this was accidental, and none of it should have come as a surprise to President Biden.
In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli officials made it clear that they intended to respond with a scorched-earth policy in Gaza.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, a supposed moderate, declared, "It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It's absolutely not true."
The Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallantsaid that the government was justified in cutting off water, electricity, and other basic necessities to all Palestinians because Israel is fighting "human animals."
Netanyahu justified the mass bombing of Gaza by referencing an ancient biblical verse about the mass slaughter of an entire city from animals to infants.
Despite such threats and clear evidence that the Israeli government has spent three months acting on them, Biden has not condemned them, conditioned U.S. support for the Netanyahu government, allowed U.N. cease-fire resolutions to take effect, or even privately demanded a cease-fire.
Just as Biden reportedly stopped Netanyahu's indiscriminate bombing of Gaza in 2021 by picking up the phone and telling him that "we're out of runway," he must do so again.
In stubbornly refusing to change course, Biden has ignored the majority of his own party who support a cease-fire, harmed our nation's moral standing on the global stage, tarnished his own presidential legacy, contributed to a rise in anti-Muslim bigotry and anti-Palestinian racism, and enabled horrific violence unseen since the bombings of Aleppo and Grozny.
We must to say Biden what was said to LBJ, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush years ago: Stop this war.
If the president will not listen to the wails of Palestinian mothers grieving over their mangled children in besieged hospitals or to the pleas of journalists facing the threat of assassination or to the cries of children trapped under the rubble of their homes, we must ensure that he hears the voices of the American people in Washington, D.C.
That's why, on January 13, hundreds of thousands of Americans from all faiths, backgrounds, and political orientations plan to come together in our nation's capital to demand the following three things:
1. An immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza
The Biden administration has the ability to exert extreme pressure on the Israeli government to agree to an immediate and permanent cease-fire. As an Israeli official admitted, the government could not fight this war without resupply from the United States.
Just as Biden reportedly stopped Netanyahu's indiscriminate bombing of Gaza in 2021 by picking up the phone and telling him that "we're out of runway," he must do so again.
Securing a cease-fire that results in an end to the violence and the release of hostages in Gaza and political prisoners in Israeli jails should also set the stage for broader negotiations to pursue a just and lasting peace by ending the occupation.
2. Ending the unconditional U.S. funding of Israel's genocide against Gaza and the occupation of Palestine
The United States has provided 10,000 tons of arms and weaponry to the Israeli government since the start of its genocidal campaign. Biden has bypassed Congress multiple times to send billions of dollars in weapons to the Netanyahu government.
As long as Israel believes it will face no financial or diplomatic consequences for slaughtering Palestinians and scuttling the remaining hopes of a Palestinian state, it will not change course.
3. Hold Israel accountable for war crimes committed against the Palestinian people and its continuous violations of international law
Whenever the Israeli government's war on the people of Gaza comes to an end, our nation and international bodies cannot simply return to business as usual as if nothing happened. The Israeli officials responsible for these atrocities must be held accountable for their crimes and, at the very least, treated as international pariahs.
To that end, the Biden administration must not interfere with efforts by the International Court of Justice or other global bodies to hold the Israeli government or officials accountable for their crimes. The administration must refuse to welcome Netanyahu or other members of the current government to the White House and impose sanctions on those responsible.
Fulfilling these three demands is both a moral necessity and also in the interests of the United States.
The violence in Gaza threatens to drag our nation into another Middle Eastern forever war—American naval forces have already engaged Houthi forces in the Red Sea while the Israeli government is exchanging fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Netanyahu appears to be intent on prolonging and even escalating the violence to preserve his political power and delay a reckoning over his government's failures on Oct. 7.
For the sake of the innocent who are being slaughtered by the hundreds every day, for the sake of the innocents in danger of being slaughtered, for the interests of our nation, we urge the Biden administration to fulfill the demands laid out here.
Time is running out to not only save innocents in Gaza, but also—as President Biden would say—to save the soul of our nation.
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Auschwitz Museum Decries Israeli Mayor's 'Sick' Call to 'Empty' Gaza
"We do hope that Israeli authorities will react to such shameful abuse, as terrorism can never be a response to terrorism."
Dec 18, 2023
The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland on Sunday decried what critics called genocidal remarks by the mayor of an Israeli town who said all of Gaza should be ethnically cleansed of Palestinians and turned into a museum like the notorious Nazi death camp.
"The whole Gaza Strip needs to be empty. Flattened. Just like in Auschwitz," Metula Mayor David Azoulai said in a radio interview on Sunday, according to The Times of Israel. "Let it be a museum for all the world to see what Israel can do. Let no one reside in the Gaza Strip for all the world to see, because October 7 was in a way a second Holocaust."
In response, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim, southern Poland wrote on social media that "David Azoulai appears to wish to use the symbol of the largest cemetery in the world as some sort of a sick, hateful, pseudo-artistic, symbolic expression."
"Calling for acts that seem to transgress any civil, wartime, moral, and human laws, that may sound as a call for murder of the scale akin to Auschwitz, puts the whole honest world face-to-face with a madness that must be confronted and firmly rejected," the museum added. "We do hope that Israeli authorities will react to such shameful abuse, as terrorism can never be a response to terrorism."
Last month, the museum posted a statement from the International Auschwitz Council—whose members include Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum director Piotr Cywiński—supporting Israel's war on Gaza, which according to Palestinian and United Nations officials has now killed, maimed, or left missing more than 70,000 people, mostly women and children.
Numerous Israeli political and military leaders—as well as journalists, pundits, celebrities, and others—have made statements that critics have called incitement to or supportive of genocide in response to the Hamas-led attacks that killed more than 1,100 Israelis and others on October 7.
In a televised October speech, far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked Amalek, the ancient biblical enemy of the Israelites whom God commanded the Jews to exterminate. Israeli President Isaac Herzog asserted that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, while Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to "eliminate everything" there.
Last month, Israeli Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter declared that "we are now rolling out the Great Nakba," a reference to the ethnic cleansing, sometimes by massacre and death march, of over 750,000 Arabs from Palestine during the establishment of the modern state of Israel 75 years ago.
Members of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, have called for Gaza to be "wiped off the map," bombed with nuclear weapons, and burned to the ground.
Numerous U.S. politicians, including Republican presidential candidate and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, have echoed Israeli calls for genocidal violence against Palestinians.
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‘Human Animals’: The Sordid Language Behind Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
The post-October 7 vocabulary used by Israelis, but also many Americans, created the atmosphere necessary for the savage Israeli response which followed.
Oct 26, 2023
“(Tutsis) are cockroaches. We will kill you.”
Arabs are like “drugged cockroaches in a bottle.”
The first quote was a line repeated frequently by the Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, a Rwandan radio station, which is largely blamed for inciting hatred towards the Tutsi people.
The second is by former Israeli army Chief-of-Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan in 1983, speaking at an Israeli parliament’s committee.
Rwanda’s hate-filled radio station operated for only one year (1993-94), yet the outcome of its incitement resulted in one of the saddest and most tragic episodes in modern human history: the genocide of the Tutsis.
Compare “Radio Genocide” to the massive Israeli-U.S.-Western propaganda, dehumanizing Palestinians almost with identical language to that used by Hutus’ media.
Since Israel’s top political authorities have already declared that all Palestinians are collectively responsible for the October 7 events, this means that all Palestinians are, per Gallant’s assessment, “human animals,” deserving no mercy.
Many seem to forget that, long before the Gaza war on October 7, and even long before the establishment of Israel itself in 1948, the Zionist-Israeli discourse has always been that of racism, dehumanization, erasure and, at times, outright genocide.
If one is to randomly select any period of Israeli history to examine the political discourse emanating from Israeli officials, institutions and even intellectuals, one is to draw the same conclusion: Israel has always built a narrative of incitement and hatred, thus making a constant case for the genocide of Palestinians.
Only recently, this genocidal intent is becoming obvious to many people.
“There is... a risk of genocide against the Palestinian People,” the U.N. experts said in a statement on October 19. But this “risk of genocide” is not born out of recent events.
Indeed, effective political or military actions anywhere in the world hardly take place without an edifice of text and language that facilitates, rationalizes, and justifies those actions. Israel’s perception of Palestinians is a perfect illustration of this claim.
Prior to the establishment of Israel, Zionists denied the very existence of the Palestinians. Many still do.
When that is the case, it becomes only logical to draw a conclusion that Israel, in its own collective mind, cannot be morally culpable of killing those who have never existed in the first place.
Even when Palestinians factor into the Israeli political discourse, they become “bloodthirsty animals,” “terrorists,” or “drugged cockroaches in a bottle.”
It would be too convenient to label this as just “racist.” Though racism is at work here, this sense of racial supremacy does not exist to merely maintain a sociopolitical order, in which Israelis are masters and Palestinians are serfs. It is far more complex.
As soon as Palestinian fighters from Gaza crossed into the southern border of Israel, killing hundreds, not a single Israeli politician, analyst, or mainstream intellectual seemed interested in the context of the daring act.
The post-October 7 language used by Israelis, but also many Americans, created the atmosphere necessary for the savage Israeli response which followed.
The number of Palestinians killed in the first eight days of the Israeli war against Gaza has reportedly exceeded the number of casualties who were killed during the longest and most destructive Israeli war on the strip, dubbed “Protective Edge,” in 2014.
According to The Defense for Children International–Palestine, a Palestinian child is killed every 15 minutes, and, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, over 70% of all of Gaza’s casualties are women and children.
For Israel, none of these facts matter. In the mind of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, often perceived as a “moderate,” the “rhetoric about civilians not (being) involved (is) absolutely not true.” They are legitimate targets, simply because they “could’ve risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime,” he said, referring to Hamas.
Therefore, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” according to Herzog, who promised payback.
Ariel Kallner, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, explained Israel’s goal behind the Gaza war. “Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 1948,” he said.
The same sentiment was conveyed by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the man responsible for translating Israel’s declaration of war into an action plan: “We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly,” he said on October 9. “Accordingly,” here, meant that “there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed.” And, of course, thousands of dead civilians.
Since Israel’s top political authorities have already declared that all Palestinians are collectively responsible for the October 7 events, this means that all Palestinians are, per Gallant’s assessment, “human animals,” deserving no mercy.
Expectedly, Israel’s supporters in the U.S. and other Western countries joined the chorus, also using the most violent and dehumanizing language, thus cementing mainstream Israeli political discourse among ordinary people.
U.S. presidential hopeful Nikki Haleytold Fox News on October 10 that the Hamas attack was not just on Israel but “is an attack on America.” It was then that she made her sinister declaration, while looking directly at the camera, “Netanyahu, finish them, finish them... finish them!”
Though U.S. President Joe Biden and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not use the exact same words, they both made comparisons between the October 7 events and the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The meaning behind this requires no elaboration.
For his part, U.S. Senator Lindsey Grahamrallied American conservative and religious supporters, declaring on October 11, also on Fox News, “We are in a religious war here... Do whatever the hell you have to do... Level the place.”
Much more, equally sinister language was—and continues—to be uttered. The outcome is being broadcast around the clock. Israel is “finishing off” the Gaza civilian population, it is “leveling” thousands of homes, mosques, hospitals, churches, and schools. Indeed, it is producing another painful episode of the Nakba.
From Golda Meir’s “Palestinians did not exist” ( 1969) to Menachem Begin’s Palestinians are “beasts walking on two legs” (1982), to Eli Ben Dahan’s “Palestinians are like animals, they aren’t human” (2013), to numerous other racist and dehumanizing references, the Zionist discourse remains unchanged.
Now, it is all coming together, the language and the action are in perfect alignment. Perhaps, it is time to start paying attention to how Israel’s genocidal language is translated to an actual genocide on the ground. Sadly, for thousands of Palestinian civilians, this awareness is simply too late.
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The ‘Sacred Bond’ Between the US and Israel Is Less Sacred Than Ever
While Republican kinship to Israel remains strong, that of the Democrats is not.
Jul 29, 2023
Israeli President Isaac Herzog added nothing of great value in his speech at the United States Congress on July 19.
His was the typical language. He spoke of a “sacred bond,” touted the shared experience between both nations as “unique in scope and quality,” and celebrated the great, common “values that reach across generations.”
But this theatrical language was meant to hide an uncomfortable truth: The relationship between Israel and the U.S. is changing at a fundamental level.
Two days before Herzog’s speech, Israel’s opposition leader and former prime minister, Yair Lapid, declared that “the United States is no longer (Israel’s) closest ally.”
While it is true that Netanyahu played a role in widening the distance between Tel Aviv and Washington, that distance was growing based on other dynamics—a mixture of political, geopolitical, and demographic changes and trends.
Lapid’s words were a mix of facts and political opportunism.
Lapid and others in his camp are keen on blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the waning relationship between both countries; or to use more pertinent language, for weakening the “sacred,” “unbreakable bond,” which has for many years joined the two countries together.
Lapid’s assessment, however, is imprecise. While it is true that Netanyahu played a role in widening the distance between Tel Aviv and Washington, that distance was growing based on other dynamics—a mixture of political, geopolitical, and demographic changes and trends.
But whose assessment is closer to the truth? Herzog’s claim of a “sacred bond,” or Lapid’s more dramatic assertion of a faltering alliance?
To address this question, we must look beyond the exaggerated public statements made by officials from both countries and particularly from the leaders of the U.S.’ two powerful parties, the Republicans and the Democrats.
In terms of language, the leaderships of both parties insists that Washington’s devotion to Israel is beyond politics and that Israel’s security is above America’s own political polarization.
In a speech at the Israeli Knesset (parliament) on May 1, U.S. House speaker Kevin McCarthyfollowed the typical American script on Israel. He, too, spoke of an “unbreakable bond” and “bipartisan U.S. support” and, expectedly, was met with resounding applause.
President Joe Biden, too, is a resolute supporter of Israel. His oft-repeated phrase, “You don’t have to be Jewish to be a Zionist,” is now a mantra among U.S. allies of Israel.
Yet, while Republican kinship to Israel remains strong, that of the Democrats is not; so weak, in fact, that in June 2022, a Pew Research Center poll said that “more Democrats and those who lean Democratic express a favorable view of Palestinians than of Israelis.”
So, the notion that Israel is a common cause between America’s top political parties is simply untrue. No wonder that Biden has, for seven months, delayed inviting Netanyahu to the White House following the formation of Israel’s latest government coalition.
Crowded with far-right politicians, Netanyahu’s coalition is simply a liability to any democratic system anywhere in the world.
Many Israelis agree, believing wholly or partially that their government is no longer democratic—due to Netanyahu’s growing control over the country’s once-independent institutions.
Amid all of this, Biden is struggling to find the balance.
“I'm very concerned,” Biden told reporters last May. “(Israel) cannot continue down this road, and I've sort of made that clear.”
This is the same Biden who described as “bizarre” a proposal by former U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to withhold funds from Israel due to its mistreatment of Palestinians.
Washington gives Israel at least $3.8 billion annually in military aid. If the anti-Israel trend among Democrats continues, the calls of withholding funds might, in the coming year, no longer appear so “bizarre.”
The new generation of Democratic politicians is viewing Israel, at least the Israeli Right, as an extension of the Republican Party, thus the growing hostility towards Israel.
Under intense pressure from the pro-Israel lobby, on July 17, Biden finally invited Netanyahu to the White House. The visit, however, considering the intensifying anti-Netanyahu protests, is unlikely to reset the relationship between Washington and Tel Aviv.
In fact, even if the protests subside, relations between the U.S. and Israel will not be the same.
For over a decade, the U.S. has slowly, but unmistakably, walked away from the Middle East, partly because of the disastrous outcomes of the Iraq invasion, and partly due to the growing power of China in the Asia-Pacific region.
The U.S. retreat has rung alarm bells in Israel, with Israeli politicians and mainstream intellectuals urging self-reliance. This led to an unrelenting Israeli search for new allies, mostly in the Global South.
The success, from Netanyahu’s viewpoint, of this campaign has helped Israel somewhat liberate itself from any commitment to the U.S. agenda in the Middle East, including engaging in the U.S.-led “peace process” with the Palestinian leadership.
Despite Biden’s insistence, during his Middle East trip in July 2022, on the need for a “reinvigorated” peace process, Tel Aviv neither supported nor even seemed to notice Washington’s new quest.
Back then, Netanyahu was not even a prime minister, as Israel was ruled by a government coalition under the leadership of Lapid himself.
While Netanyahu is being conveniently blamed for the dwindling ties, the disengagement from Washington was, in fact, mostly a collective decision and protracted process.
When, on July 10, Israel’s far-right minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir declared that “President Biden must internalize that Israel is no longer another star in the American flag,” he was merely reiterating a popular line used by others before him.
Even Netanyahu resorted to similar language when, in March, he told the U.S. administration that Israel is “a strong, proud, and independent democracy.”
Though much of Israel’s self-proclaimed “independence” was an outcome of unconditional U.S. support, Israelis hardly acknowledge this fact.
Israel’s Ministry of International Defense Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT) is constantly reporting on the growth in Tel Aviv’s military exports to the rest of the world. These exports reached $12.5 billion last year. Most of this technology was either developed by the U.S., or jointly with the U.S., and much of the research was funded by American taxpayers.
Nonetheless, this sense of “independence” has given Netanyahu the needed confidence to abandon the Democratic Party in favor of the more accommodating Republicans.
For their part, the new generation of Democratic politicians is viewing Israel, at least the Israeli Right, as an extension of the Republican Party, thus the growing hostility towards Israel.
In the final analysis, both Herzog and Lapid are partly wrong: The “sacred bond” is less sacred than ever and, whether the U.S. is Israel’s closest ally or not, it makes little difference, since Israel is unlikely to find an alternative to Washington’s blind support anytime soon.
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'Israel Is an Apartheid State': Progressives Explain Decision to Boycott Israeli President's Speech
"It's contradictory to claim to support human rights when you're arming the oppressors with billions of dollars of bullets and bombs," said Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush.
Jul 19, 2023
Two U.S. House progressives on Tuesday made clear that their decision to stand up against the violent apartheid policies of the Israeli government is not viewed as controversial by international human rights experts and that the facts are on their side, even as the vast majority of Democratic lawmakers joined Republicans in welcoming Israel's president to deliver a joint address to Congress.
Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the first Palestinian-American to be elected to Congress, was joined by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) in explaining the position of several progressive lawmakers who boycotted President Isaac Herzog's speech on Wednesday.
"The facts are clear, and the international consensus is resounding—Israel is an apartheid state," said Tlaib and Bush. "To assert otherwise in the face of the colossal body of evidence and the consensus of the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B'Tselem—the largest human rights organization in Israel—and countless others is to deny this reality."
The lawmakers accused the majority of U.S. lawmakers of hypocrisy, citing the roughly $3 billion in military aid that the U.S. provides to Israel while U.S. President Joe Biden claims to condemn "extreme" members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
"It's contradictory to claim to support human rights when you're arming the oppressors with billions of dollars of bullets and bombs," said Bush and Tlaib. "It is hypocritical to claim to be deeply concerned about attacks on Palestinian families, and then smile for a photo op with the president of the government enabling these human rights abuses and maintaining the status quo."
Herzog addressed Congress Wednesday morning, following numerous Israeli military raids on the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, where dozens of Palestinians have been killed and wounded this year. At least 177 Palestinians have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since the beginning of 2023, and the government has approved the construction of 13,000 illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, called for the IDF to "wipe out" a town of more than 5,000 people in the West Bank earlier this year.
"This is the government that we are protesting," said Bush and Tlaib.
As Congress prepared to welcome Herzog on Tuesday, Tlaib and Bush were among nine progressive members who voted against a resolution pledging that the U.S. "will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel" and claiming that the country "is not a racist or apartheid state."
The resolution was passed days after Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said at a conference that Israel is a "racist state."
"The Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy," she told activists gathered at a Netroots Nation in Chicago on Saturday.
Following backlash from Republicans and leaders of her own party, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Jayapal walked back her remarks a day later while maintaining that Israel's "extreme right-wing government... has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies."
Such displays of disapproval from Democratic leaders amount to bipartisanship being "used as a justification for apartheid," said Bush and Tlaib.
"It's important to remember that South Africa's apartheid government also had bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress," said the lawmakers. "It is shameful to deliberately ignore—and even normalize—this racist and oppressive system of apartheid by welcoming President Herzog or any member of the Israeli government to address Congress. In solidarity with the Palestinian people and all those who have been harmed by the Israeli apartheid government and their policies, we will be boycotting President Herzog's joint address to Congress."
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) also boycotted Herzog's address, and were among the nine lawmakers who voted against Tuesday's resolution.
Jewish Voice for Peace Action noted ahead of the Israeli president's appearance that the progressive members' positions "are popular" outside of Capitol Hill.
A Gallup poll released earlier this year found for the first time that Democratic voters sympathize more with Palestinians than with the Israeli government, by a margin of 49% to 38%. More than 31% of American adults said they were sympathetic toward Palestinians' right to self-determination compared to just 12% a decade ago.
"When violence occurs at the hand of the state against marginalized communities anywhere, we speak up," said Bush and Tlaib. "We do not look the other way. Racism and oppression must not be tolerated in America or anywhere else in the world. We urge all members of Congress who stand for human rights for all to join us in boycotting apartheid."
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