Let Bibi go: Trump slams Israeli prosecutors over Netanyahu's corruption trial
US President Donald Trump once again lashed out at Israeli prosecutors over the ongoing corruption trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that it could undermine sensitive negotiations with both Hamas and Iran.In a post on Truth Social, Trump strongly defended Netanyahu and criticised the legal proceedings as politically motivated and damaging to regional diplomacy:'It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu,' Trump wrote, describing the Israeli leader as 'a War Hero, and a Prime Minister who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring Great Success in getting rid of the dangerous Nuclear threat in Iran.'advertisement
'Importantly, he is right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back,' Trump said.The US President also mocked the charges against Netanyahu, which include receiving gifts such as cigars and champagne, dismissing them as trivial.'How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING (Cigars, Bugs Bunny Doll, etc.). It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure.'"This travesty of 'Justice' will interfere with both Iran and Hamas negotiations,' Trump claimed. 'In other words, it is INSANITY doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu.''The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this.'advertisementHe concluded his message with a call to allow Netanyahu to focus on leadership rather than legal battles.'We just had a Great Victory with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu at the helm — And this greatly tarnishes our Victory. LET BIBI GO, HE'S GOT A BIG JOB TO DO!'This marks the second time in recent days that Trump has publicly criticised the trial. His comments align with Netanyahu's supporters, who argue that the proceedings are politically driven and poorly timed, especially amid escalating regional tensions and ongoing negotiations involving Gaza and Iran.WHAT ARE THE CHARGES AGAINST NETANYAHU? Netanyahu faces accusations of accepting lavish gifts, including expensive cigars and champagne, from a billionaire Hollywood producer in exchange for advancing the producer's business interests. He is also alleged to have promoted favourable regulatory changes for media moguls in return for positive coverage of himself and his family.However, he denies any wrongdoing. In the run-up to his court date, Netanyahu revived familiar pre-war rhetoric against law enforcement, describing the investigations as a witch hunt. He denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.- EndsTune InMust Watch
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UK government condemns 'Death to IDF' chants at Glastonbury festival
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LGBTQ Pride Month turns into protests in NYC, San Francisco, and other cities amid Trump's crackdown
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A few months ago, Hezbollah's operatives in Lebanon experienced something surreal—their pagers exploded. The next day, their walkie-talkies did the same. Israel, at first, said nothing officially. But later, it admitted what everyone already suspected: that its intelligence agency Mossad had orchestrated it. Israel managed to plant small explosives inside Hezbollah's pagers and walkie-talkies, possibly by creating a shell company that made these devices. A transmitted code then triggered blasts in thousands of devices, killing or maiming Hezbollah fighters and an unknown number of civilians. Israel seized this moment of chaos to launch a military air offensive, effectively decapitating the once-formidable militia that, like Iran, refused to accept Israel's right to exist. It is hard not to be impressed by Israel. But it's a complex sentiment. Awe for a nation whose survival strategies often involve morally devastating acts is also a peep into human nature. Israel elicits the admiration of outsiders for some unspoken reasons. Part of it is a masculine admiration for military genius, elegant tech and ruthless efficiency. Part of it is tangled with disdain for Muslims or the rest of West Asia. Perfectly good and sane people can claim, even to themselves, that they are moved by the plight of Gaza and also objectively dazzled by Israel. This may be because they do not consider all humans the same, even if they do not realize it. Some horrible things happen to humans. Once a population is framed as poor, the world tolerates a level of death and suffering among them. A dark algorithm seems to run, by which the perceived value of a life correlates with its wealth, or its nation's wealth. So the lives of air passengers in India are seen as more valuable than those of people on a public bus. Israeli lives appear more valuable than Iranian lives. And Iranian lives more valuable than Palestinian. There is something unsettling about awe. It is an omen that being 'neutral' is impossible. A person can resist all base human emotions to form an opinion about a faraway war. But then awe draws you in. Through awe, even objective observers pick a side. It is as though awe is human nature's way of forcing people to accept that they are primarily emotional above analytical. You can either marvel at the brilliance of Israel and submit to your hidden biases, or not be in awe at all because the oppressed remind you of your own oppressors, or maybe you are just a lovely person. If you accept there is such a thing as awe, Israel satisfies every condition to be a subject of this emotion. A tiny nation that is about 470km long and 135km at its widest, with a population of 9.5 million, has not only survived Arab nations that questioned its right to exist but also defeated their coalitions more than once, prospering all along with no oil but just people. Also consider Israel's sabotage of Iran's nuclear programme. The Natanz facility was 'air-gapped'—completely isolated from the internet to prevent cyber attacks. Yet, in 2009, Israel managed to infect it with the Stuxnet virus, probably developed in collaboration with the US. There is a theory that a Dutch engineer, reportedly recruited by Mossad, physically introduced the virus via a USB stick while servicing the facility. The malware disabled around a thousand centrifuges, setting Iran's nuclear ambitions back significantly. When Iran persisted with its uranium enrichment and, according to Israel, reached a point when it was just days away from developing a nuclear weapon, Israel struck in a spectacular way. In the opening hours of that offensive, it eliminated key figures in Iran's leadership. Israel's Iron Dome remains a modern marvel. As Iran launched waves of missiles, the system intercepted most of them with near-clinical precision. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei had to go into hiding, much like Salman Rushdie after the leader's predecessor issued a fatwa against him. Khamenei emerged after the ceasefire to make a defiant speech. A major reason behind Israel's success is its extraordinary human intelligence network, which is based on a remarkable way of the world: Israel manages to find traitors in other nations; other nations almost never find one in Israel. So, intellectually, objectively, analytically, it is possible to acknowledge Israel's genius without endorsing its transgressions. But such objectivity is rare and most people who are not Israeli and think their awe of Israel is objective are probably deluded or unable to face their own bias. Awe for Israel has a private history for many of us. I first encountered Israel's story as a child, listening to grown men discuss world affairs. One day, the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat went missing for many hours, and the men were saying that the amazing Israel might have picked him off. Eventually, Indians overimpressed by Israel could have ended with an imbalanced analysis of the world. India's right-wing often assumes there is a global fraternity of right-wing movements—that Netanyahu is somehow a brother-in-arms in their own politics. But this is a delusion. As this column has argued before, only the left can be a global fellowship. The right-wing everywhere is fundamentally local. If anything, right-wing governments tend to compensate for their harshness at home through exaggerated gestures of concern for foreign humanitarian causes—particularly those that do not cost them anything. The author is a journalist, novelist, and the creator of the Netflix series, 'Decoupled'.
