Joe Biden’s open criticism shows patience with Israel is wearing thin

Published

5 months ago

December 13, 2023

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It is one of the classic cliches of diplomacy, that a country speaks supportively of its allies in public whilst taking a more honest and harder tone in private, and that has long been the common assumption for America’s dealings with Israel.

Occasionally, however, there comes a point when the behind-doors diplomacy isn’t having the desired effect and so a more open, and usually critical, approach is needed.

It seems like the White House has now reached that moment in this war.

Israel-Hamas latest: UN calls for immediate ceasefire in general assembly vote

Over recent weeks, it was becoming obvious that the US government was frustrated with Israel on two issues in particular: the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza and the lack of humanitarian aid being allowed in.

There has also been a disagreement over how long the intense fighting in this war can last – Israel says months, the US says weeks.

Comments made by the vice president, the defence secretary and secretary of state in recent days all reflected that shifting mood in Washington.

It is no secret that the White House is no fan of Israel’s extreme-right cabinet, but for the US president to clearly state that Netanyahu has to “change this government” is the bluntest expression of that to date.

Specifically, that relates to a disagreement between Washington and Israel over what happens ‘the day after’ in Gaza.

In recent weeks, the US has said the war must eventually end with the re-establishment of talks towards a two-state solution, but Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected that future, saying he will not let Gaza become “Hamastan or Fatahstan”, referring to the two main Palestinian political bodies.

Biden’s description of Israel’s bombing campaign as “indiscriminate” is language we are more used to hearing from Arab leaders, not the American president.

I have spent a large part of this year reporting on Netanyahu’s push for controversial judicial reforms in Israel and President Biden‘s opposition to them.

However, beyond denying Netanyahu an invitation to the White House, which will have stung someone of Bibi’s character, it’s hard to see how the US pressure had much effect on that particular matter.

If the reforms were stymied, it was more to do with fierce domestic opposition than opposition from the White House.

This situation is different: the war in Gaza isn’t simply an internal Israeli issue, it has significant and extremely worrying regional consequences and the months ahead will require an extraordinary, and perhaps an unprecedented, alliance of Middle Eastern states to map out the future of Gaza and the West Bank.

The US does have diplomatic options that it could deploy if it feels ignored by Israel.

It could change its position within the UN Security Council, for example, and vote in favour of a ceasefire rather than rejecting one, as it did a few days ago.

This happened in 2009, when the UK government made a last-minute decision to vote in favour of a ceasefire, the US followed, and a ceasefire came into force a week later.

Netanyahu’s popularity in Israel was in steady decline throughout the year as anger spread against the judicial reforms.

This war provided him with an unexpected respite, as the nation rallied and united to avenge the Hamas attacks.

More than two months on from that dreadful 7 October day, signs are once again emerging that Netanyahu’s position is fragile.

A recent poll on one Israeli TV station revealed that 72% of Israelis thought he should resign either immediately or once the war was over.

Reservist soldiers, who were among the most vocal and damaging opponents to the judicial reforms earlier this year, are now reportedly resentful of what they believe are shameless photo opportunities when Netanyahu visits them on the frontline.

And so faced with the return of domestic opposition to his premiership, can Netanyahu risk losing the support of the White House too?

The US remains supportive of Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas, but is now clearly unimpressed with the way they are going about it.

US

Donald Trump ‘not thinking about Melania’ when he paid off Stormy Daniels, says ex-lawyer Michael Cohen

Published

9 hours ago

May 14, 2024

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Donald Trump 'not thinking about Melania' when he paid off Stormy Daniels, says ex-lawyer Michael Cohen

Donald Trump “wasn’t thinking about (his wife) Melania” when he paid off a former porn star, his former lawyer has testified.

Michael Cohen told a court Mr Trump personally approved $130,000 in hush money to Stormy Daniels over an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.

The payout isn’t illegal, but Mr Trump is accused of falsifying records to hide it – a claim he denies.

On Monday, his trial in New York heard from Mr Cohen, once a lawyer and self-described “fixer” for the ex-president.

Mr Trump’s lawyers have painted the hush money as an attempt to protect his wife from rumours and upset.

However, Mr Cohen said his boss was purely concerned with keeping the claims quiet as he ran for the presidency.

“He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign,” he said, prompting Mr Trump to shake his head in response.

Mr Cohen told the court he’d heard Stormy Daniels was considering selling her story and he told his boss swift action was required.

Mr Trump denies the affair and his lawyers say Mr Cohen acted on his own – a claim he denied in court.

He told jurors in Manhattan that “everything required Mr Trump’s sign-off” and he was ordered to “just do it”.

Mr Cohen said he stumped up the $130,000 himself after Mr Trump told him he would pay him back.

He said he set up a shell company – listed as a “real estate consulting company” – to make the payment.

Prosecutors say Mr Trump later paid the money back and covered it up by recording it as a legal retainer fee.

He faces 34 counts of falsifying business records over the claims.

The court also heard a recording of a conversation between Mr Trump and Mr Cohen over hush money said to have been paid to another woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who he also allegedly had an affair with.

Mr Cohen suggests in the recording setting up another company to repay David Pecker – who said he provided the $150,000 to cover up the story.

The former National Enquirer boss previously testified he bought the story to keep it hidden and eventually decided against seeking reimbursement.

Later in the recording, Mr Trump can be heard suggesting the $150,000 might be better off being paid in cash.

Mr Cohen told the court this was to “avoid any type of paper transaction”.

The 57-year-old – who once said he would take a bullet for Mr Trump – worked for him for nearly a decade.

He pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law in 2018 over the Stormy Daniels payment and was jailed, but at the time prosecutors did not bring charges against Mr Trump.

Mr Cohen’s credibility is in the sights of defence lawyers as he has previously admitted lying under oath.

Mr Trump – who will take on Joe Biden in his bid to become president again in November – is unlikely to face a custodial sentence if found guilty.

His other cases are potentially more damaging but mired in delays.

They concern allegations of keeping stacks of secret documents after leaving office and trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. He denies the claims.

US

Dublin-New York livestream portal temporarily shuts after ‘inappropriate behaviour’

Published

12 hours ago

May 13, 2024

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Dublin-New York livestream portal temporarily shuts after 'inappropriate behaviour'

A livestream portal between Dublin and New York was temporarily shut down after “inappropriate behaviour” in the Irish capital.

Thousands of people have visited the two-way portal, which allows people on either side to see and interact with each other.

And while there have been a number of wholesome moments – including Irish dancing and even a proposal – a handful of people have behaved “inappropriately”, Dublin City Council has said.

Videos on social media have shown people on the Irish side flashing body parts, and displaying images of 9/11 and swear words on phone screens.

A woman was also escorted away by police after being seen grinding against the portal.

In a statement issued on Monday evening, a spokesperson for Dublin City Council said “technical solutions” to address this are being implemented in the next 24 hours.

“We will continue to monitor the situation over the coming days with our partners in New York to ensure that Portals continue to deliver a positive experience for both cities and the world,” they said.

“The team at portals.org and partners are still working on improving the software for better stability and to prepare for Portals to expand to more locations on Earth.

“Those works are being done mostly at night and during those hours, the livestream might be paused.”

Dublin City Council noted there has been an increase in footfall since the Portal was unveiled in north Dublin, facing O’Connell Street. The New York portal is at the busy Manhattan junction of Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street.

“The overwhelming majority of interactions are positive,” the spokesperson added. “We have seen families and friends unite, dancing moves being shared as well as new friendships being made. There was even a successful marriage proposal.

“The Portal offers a window to other cities and is connecting people and cultures in a unique manner – what we are seeing between Dublin and NY is reflective of a wider narrative of cultural behaviour.”

The Portals Organisation said: “We do not intend to suggest people to interact with Portals in any particular way – our goal is to open a window between far away places and cultures that allows people to interact freely with one another.

“We encourage people to be respectful and from our position as observers, we see that the absolute majority of experiences is on the bright side.”

In an earlier statement, they confirmed the livestream had been paused so they could “update the software used on the Portal”.

US

GPT-4o: OpenAI to begin rollout of latest version of artificial intelligence chatbot

Published

14 hours ago

May 13, 2024

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GPT-4o: OpenAI to begin rollout of latest version of artificial intelligence chatbot

The new version of the ChatGPT AI chatbot has been unveiled and offers near-instant results across text, vision and audio, according to its maker.

OpenAI said it was much better at understanding visuals and sounds than previous versions.

It offers the prospect of real-time ‘conversations’ with the chatbot, including the ability to interrupt its answers.

The firm says it “accepts as input any combination of text, audio, and image and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs”.

GPT-4o is to be rolled out over the next few weeks amid a battle by tech firms to develop ever-more advanced artificial intelligence tools.

Monday’s announcement showed tasks such as real-time language translation; using its vision capability to solve a maths question on a piece of paper, and to guide a blind person around London.

GPT-4o can respond to audio in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which the company says is similar to human response time.

To try to ease concerns over bias, fairness and misinformation, the Microsoft-backed company says the new version has undergone extensive testing by 70 external experts.

It comes after Google earlier this year had a major PR blunder over images generated by its Gemini AI system.

GPT-4o model will be free, but premium ‘Plus’ users get a greater capacity limit for messages.

Previous versions of the chatbot have caused unease in schools and universities due to some students using it to cheat by producing convincing essays.

When it launched two years ago, ChatGPT was said to be the fastest-ever app to reach 100 million active monthly users.

The announcement also stole a march on Google, which is expected to tomorrow show off its own new AI features at its annual developers’ conference.