Benjamin Netanyahu ‘shouldn’t’ lead Israel in the long run after country’s ‘most severe blow’, ex-PM says
A former prime minister of Israel has said Benjamin Netanyahu should not remain the leader of the country in the long run after Hamas’s unprecedented incursion.
In an interview with Sky News’s Mark Austin, Ehud Barak said the attack was “shocking for everyone in the country”.
“It’s a barbarian murderous act that reminds you of al Qaeda or Daesh-like operations, unheard of.
“It was the most severe blow Israel suffered since the day of its establishment,” he said.
War latest: ‘Major conundrum’ facing ‘imminent’ offensive
Asked if Mr Netanyahu can survive as prime minister in the long run, he said: “I think he shouldn’t. I think that in a normal place he would have resigned.
“Just by looking at the kind of thing that happened under his responsibility, even if he were not involved in any way, that put a huge responsibility on him personally.”
Mr Barak, who served as Israel’s prime minister from 1999 to 2001 and is now the voice of the opposition, said the purpose of the Israeli response was “well defined”, explaining: “It is to make sure that any military capability of Hamas will be paralysed and erased.
“No military cover, not a single launcher for rockets, not a single magazine dump or lab, or training site. And that’s the purpose.
“We [would have been] lucky if it could have been completed from the air, [but] it cannot be accomplished, so you have to come on the ground, so highly probably there will be a wide-scale operation on the ground.”
Read more:
Couple’s desperate messages before massacre revealed
How the war has escalated since shocking surprise attack
Asked how Israel can avoid civilian casualties, Mr Barak said: “Israel is not going to deteriorate into the behaviour of Hamas. We are committed to international law.
“[To] the population, we said we are going to hit every asset of Hamas. So any one of you citizens of Gaza who knows that in his residential place, in the working place, there is any installation of Hamas, asset of Hamas now or in the last, let’s say a year or two, be careful.
“This is a target. Leave the area. Don’t stay there. We are serious.”
Discussing the blockade on Gaza, he said: “Israel will not let people die in the hospital of Gaza because we blocked a medical kind of drugs or whatever the hospital needs. No baby will die because there is no milk because of Israel.”
A siren sounded midway through the interview, bringing it to a momentary pause.
“Take it from me, it won’t land here, the missile,” Mr Barak said.
Asked if his attempt to negotiate a peace deal in 2000 with Yasser Arafat, then the Palestinian president, was a missed opportunity, Mr Barak said: “You cannot judge whether it’s a missed chance. People tell me you were so close, so close with Arafat. How come you didn’t come to an agreement?
“I say when you want to measure the size of a gap, you have to multiply the width by the depth. We were probably very close, but very deep.
“Myself and [then US president Bill] Clinton put on the table a far-reaching proposal that covered metaphorically more than 90% of whatever Arafat can dream of.
“The fact that he rejected it… And till these days, Clinton still, when he’s asked, he says Arafat is responsible because we were very serious and he rejected it.”
The then Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak with US president Bill Clinton and Palestinian president Yasser Arafatin the 1990s
He said “we are further than 25 years ago” from a genuine peace.
However, he added: “But I never lose eye contact with the objective.
“The objective should be engagement with the Palestinians and solving with a border inside the Holy Land, where we have 80% of our settlers and all the strategic interests of Israel to live side by side with the Palestinian state, which [is] demilitarised but kind of viable.
“That’s the vision because we need it.”
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈
Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway