An explosive new report from The New York Times flatly contends that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has "prolonged the war in Gaza" to stay in power and avoid potential criminal prosecution.
The Times' reporting reveals that Netanyahu in April 2024 was close to signing off on a six-week cease-fire proposal that would have led to the release of more than 30 hostages captured by Hamas six months earlier and "would have created a window for negotiations with Hamas over a permanent truchttps://www.commondreams.org/news/netanyahu-gaza-ware."
However, Netanyahu abruptly changed course when Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hardliner who has long demanded the reestablishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza, warned Netanyahu he and his allies would quit their coalition government if any cease-fire deal were reached. Such a move would collapse the coalition and force new elections, which polls at the time suggested Netanyahu would lose.
According to the Times, the Israeli prime minister tossed the cease-fire proposal away and kept the war grinding on until this very day, even expanding military operations into nations such as Lebanon and Iran.
International Glance
The US has resumed military supplies to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, after Washington halted some shipments of critical arms last week.
Ukraine said it had arrested a Chinese father and son, both suspected of spying on Kyiv’s Neptune cruise missile programme. Counterintelligence officials detained a 24-year-old former student in Kyiv after they provided him with “technical documentation” related to Neptune production, Ukraine’s SBU said. They later swooped on his father when he visited Ukraine from China to “personally coordinate” his son’s work and smuggle out the documents to the Chinese special services, the SBU said.
Europe’s top human rights court delivered damning judgments on Wednesday against Russia in four cases brought by Kyiv and the Netherlands, including finding Moscow shot down flight MH17, killing all passengers, including 38 Australians.
Donald Trump was basking in the praise of a group of African leaders on Wednesday, when the Liberian president took the microphone.





























