ISRAEL
This week there was a significant operation in the Gaza Strip, mostly focused in the Northwest, that led to the most intense airstrikes since the beginning of the war, as Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas for its 7thOctober massacre in southern Israel.
On Monday, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, made a visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and to Baghdad often remarking the efforts that the Biden administration is making in providing more humanitarian assistance to Gaza and in preventing the conflict from expanding.
A critical point on the matter is the statement made on Tuesday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he said that Israel will need to oversee the security of the Gaza Strip once the fighting is over for an “indefinite period” to prevent future attacks. This decision has encountered the negative reaction of the White House, since Biden asserted that the reoccupation of Gaza by Israeli forces would represent a big mistake.
Since the beginning of the war, the United Nations and other aid groups have pressed Israel to commit a cease-fire or a pause to help Gazan civilians by allowing more humanitarian aid in the area. Nonetheless, Israeli officials have repeatedly said that they are not willing to stop and, in particular, Netanyahu declared that calling a cease-fire would mean to surrender to Hamas and, consequently, to terrorism. On Thursday, he rejected the proposal for a five-day cease-fire in return for the hostages held in the territory but, this time, he received disapproval from the public that rallied outside his residence asking Israel to prioritize hostage negotiations of those who are held in Gaza.
Nonetheless, Israel is aware that its time to carry out the operations is running out. Indeed, the endless mounting of the casualty toll is causing disappointment in the international community with the United Nations secretary general, Antonio Guterres, who highlighted that there is clearly something wrong in the operations against Hamas if the number of civilians killed is so high.
For this reason, Israel has agreed to establish daily pauses of four hours, in selected areas of northern Gaza, to allow civilians to flee or simply to go outside without jeopardizing their lives.
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TRUMP TRIAL
In the case brought by New York’s Attorney General Letitia James, Donald Trump is accused of fraudulently inflating the value of his business assets in order to obtain favorable loans and insurance deals. In addition to the fact that he and his sons have to be barred permanently from running a business in the State, Ms. James has asked the former president to pay a 250 million fine.
During his testimony, Trump acknowledged that he lowered the value of one property because he thought it was too high, but he tried to minimize his conduct asserting that the bankers pay very little attention to property values. Donald Trump also accused the Attorney General referring to her as a “political hack” and defining the whole proceeding as very unfair.
Bibliography:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/06/nyregion/trump-fraud-trial-testimony.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/09/donald-trump-fraud-trial-watergate-prosecutor-toast
KING’S SPEECH
On Tuesday, King Charles III held his first king’s speech, a ceremony in which the government’s program for the upcoming year is outlined. Since the text was drafted by the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, it is clear that it represents more a protocol event rather that a political one. Indeed, the king, as Queen Elisabeth has done earlier, remained neutral.
The text drew attention to the 21 legislative priorities of the government, which included the challenges left by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the stricter legislation on crimes. The latter extends the term of imprisonment for major offenses and introduces the fact that offenders will be forced to face their victims in court.
The point of the program that generated oddity among the public is the one related to the plan to expand oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, a decision that contradicts the lifelong support to the environmental cause that the king has had since he was 21 years old. On the other hand, the conservative government claims that the United Kingdom will still meet the goal of becoming a net-zero emitter of carbon dioxide by 2050.
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