Israeli soldiers and settlers order Israeli and foreign peace activists to leave the site during a protest in support of local landowners whose property is threatened with seizure by Israeli settlers, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Beit Sahour, Friday. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) |
There’s a reason why Israel has done little to rein in settler violence. It’s not just Netanyahu |
A dayslong standoff in the occupied West Bank points to Israel's reluctance to rein in settler violence against Palestinians. Many of Israel's political leaders have criticized the violence. But most support the larger settlement enterprise aimed at cementing control over the West Bank and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads the most settler-friendly government in Israel's history and it has eased military restrictions on them. But the settlements, considered illegal by much of the international community, have grown under all of his predecessors. Read more.
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Trump told Ukraine it had no cards. Then Kyiv took the war to Russia |
U.S. President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last year that he had “no cards" in the fight against Russia. In the months after that disastrous meeting, Trump warmly welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and seemed ready to push Ukraine into an unfavorable peace deal. But since the meeting, Ukraine has shown it can take the war to Russia. In one operation, drones smuggled into the country destroyed or damaged Russian bombers worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Kyiv has ramped up a campaign of longer-range strikes, increased production of weapons, targeted Russian air defenses, and hit oil infrastructure and warehouses of a major retailer. But as Ukraine’s strikes have intensified, so have Russia’s. Read more.
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