Amnesty International recently reported: “‘Utterly preventable’ Gaza flood tragedy must mobilize global action to end Israel’s genocide.” Since the so-called ceasefire took effect in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports“Israeli attacks have killed at least 401 Palestinians and injured 1,108.”
AntiWar.com reports: “U.S. Airstrikes Hit Somalia on Christmas Day as Trump Continues Unprecedented Bombing Campaign,” and “Israel Becomes First Country To Recognize Somaliland as an Independent Nation,” which notes: “Somaliland could serve as a foothold for Israel in a future war with Yemen or as a place to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza.”
The National reports: “Israeli officials continue to back efforts to rehabilitate the family of the former shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and promote a restoration.”
Ramy Abdu of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor writes: “Let journalists into Gaza before the evidence of genocide is erased,” and “The aircraft carrying Netanyahu flew over the airspace of three International Criminal Court member states — Greece, Italy, and France — despite the ICC arrest warrant, before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.”
Trump’s newly-confirmed ambassador to South Africa, Brent Bozell, vows to “press South Africa to end proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice.”
JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN, [email protected]
Loewenstein is former associate director of Middle Eastern Studies and senior lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has lived in and reported extensively on the Mideast. She appeared on the IPA news release “Netanyahu: Crimes and Lies” in July.
SINA TOOSSI, [email protected], @SinaToossi
Toossi is a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy. He said today that six months after the June war with Iran and just over two months after the so-called Gaza ceasefire, “Benjamin Netanyahu is arriving in the United States with a familiar list of demands. As NBC News has reported, Netanyahu plans to press Donald Trump for U.S. backing for another round of war with Iran, now framed around Iran’s ballistic missile program. This comes after Trump has repeatedly declared Iran’s nuclear program destroyed, a claim that has politically closed the nuclear file and removed Israel’s most powerful historical justification for U.S. support for war with Iran.
“Netanyahu’s pivot to missiles should therefore be read not as the discovery of a new threat, but as an effort to manufacture a replacement casus belli after the nuclear argument collapsed. As Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan also said this week, Netanyahu’s rush to Washington reflects a failure to convert tactical military gains into strategic victories through political agreements and diplomatic consolidation.
“That same pattern now extends well beyond Iran. Netanyahu’s visit unfolds against a backdrop of unresolved fronts, with widening disputes with Washington over the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, including postwar governance, reconstruction, and Turkish involvement. At the same time, Israel is seeking greater latitude to escalate again against Hezbollah in Lebanon, an end to U.S. accommodation of Syria’s new leadership, and firm assurances on expanded military aid. What remains unclear is Netanyahu’s actual order of priorities, even as a transactional give and take appears inevitable.
“The deeper tension shaping this visit lies in the diverging regional strategies of the United States and Israel. Trump appears committed to a vision of regional integration among U.S. partners, pursued through normalization, economic deals, and managed de escalation. Israel, by contrast, appears to have moved beyond that framework, prioritizing maximal security freedom of action and resisting binding political and economic arrangements that would constrain its use of force.
“That gap is widening, not narrowing, despite fragile points of convergence. For example, U.S. pressure recently yielded an Egypt-Israel gas deal, yet this was followed by Israel’s unilateral recognition of Somaliland, which has sparked severe regional backlash led by Egypt and underscored Israel’s growing willingness to threaten the interests of traditional U.S. partners in the Arab world.
“Taken together, Netanyahu’s visit is less about resolving any single crisis than about postponing strategic reckoning. The outcome will signal whether Washington is prepared to continue underwriting open ended escalation, or whether this meeting marks the beginning of clearer limits on Israel’s regional strategy.”