Category Archives: Benjamin Netanyahu

BBC Expert Demolishes Trump And Netanyahu’s Case For Bombing Iran: ‘A War Of Choice’

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A BBC expert has demolished Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s case for bombing Iran.

Israel said the attacks were “pre-emptive” to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and firing at them.

In his statement announcing the bombing, Trump said: “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”

But Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s international affairs editor, dismissed those arguments.

He said: “Israel used the word ‘pre-emptive’ to justify its attack – the largest in the Israeli Air Force’s history, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

“The evidence is that this is not a response to an imminent threat, which the word pre-emption implies. Instead, it is a war of choice.”

The military action, Bowen said, was “another blow to the tottering system of international law”.

He added: “In their statements, both Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was a danger to their countries – Trump said it was a global danger.

“The Islamic regime is certainly their bitter enemy. But it is hard to see how the legal justification of self-defence applies given the huge disparity of power between the US and Israel on one side and Iran on the other.”

Bowen also warned that Trump’s stated objective of regime change in Iran will be far from straightforward – and could lead to a wider conflict in the Middle East.

He said: “There is no precedent for regime change happening just because of air strikes.

“Even if this becomes the first case of air power alone collapsing a regime, the Islamic regime will not be replaced by a liberal democracy that upholds human rights. There is no credible alternative government in exile waiting in the wings.”

The Middle East expert went on: “Iran’s remaining leaders will now be calculating how to ride out the war, how to survive and how to manage its consequences.

“Their neighbours, led by Saudi Arabia, will be dismayed by the huge uncertainty and potential consequences of today’s events.

“Given the capacity of the Middle East to export trouble, the eruption of renewed and intensified war deepens the instability of a region and wider world that is already turbulent, violent and dangerous.”

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Why 2 Of Trump’s Claims About Israel-Gaza War Have Been Torn Apart

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Donald Trump made two major claims about the Israel–Gaza conflict in a press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday – but do they stand up to scrutiny?

The US president hosted the Israeli prime minister in Florida on Monday as American officials try to push both Israel and Hamas into the second phase of its Gaza peace plan.

The strategy, adopted in October, is now meant to turn the delicate ceasefire established in the first stage, into a sustainable settlement.

While supposedly encouraging Netanyahu to pull his troops back from Gaza, Trump also claimed there “will be hell to pay” for the Palestinian militants unless they full disarm – and soon.

The president also talked up the impact he’s had on the war and outlined a rough timeline – two claims which have been efficiently taken apart in the last day…

1. The Real Impact Of The Biden Administration

The US president claimed “just about” every Hamas hostage was released by his White House team – but that’s not true.

Trump told the press: “Every hostage just about that has been released was released because of me, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner – my whole team – Pete Hegseth – they were all released because of us.

“None were released because of the Biden administration. None. Then, we had a lack of releases with respect to the dead, and all of sudden they start coming. back.”

Joe Biden’s administration actually pushed Hamas to release 138 hostages via a series of deals.

Hamas also released many individuals sporadically during the first 10 months of the year, before Trump’s ceasefire deal came into place.

It has freed 20 living hostages and returned the bodies of 27 dead hostages since the US agreement was introduced in October.

Out of the 251 people taken captive on Israeli soil back on October 7, 2023, only the body of one – 24-year-old Ran Gvili who was killed during the Hamas attack – is yet to be sent home to his relatives.

Returning the remains of every hostage is a key part of the ceasefire deal.

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🚨UNBELIEVABLE: Trump claims “every Israeli hostage just about” was released because of HIM — and says NONE were released under Biden.

FACT CHECK: 138 Israeli and American hostages were released while Biden was president.
pic.twitter.com/spB48dkOY2

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) December 29, 2025

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🚨UNBELIEVABLE: Trump claims “every Israeli hostage just about” was released because of HIM — and says NONE were released under Biden.

FACT CHECK: 138 Israeli and American hostages were released while Biden was president.
pic.twitter.com/spB48dkOY2

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) December 29, 2025

2. When Phase 2 Of The Gaza Peace Plan Could Really Start

Trump repeatedly insisted that Hamas and Israel need to move to the second phase “as quickly as we can” on Monday.

Speaking about Hamas, he said: “If they don’t disarm as they agreed to do, they agreed to it, and then there will be hell to pay for them. They have to disarm in a fairly short period of time.”

He also claimed the reconstruction of Gaza could “begin pretty soon”, although stopped short of offering a clear timeline.

But former UK National Security Adviser, Lord Ricketts, told the BBC that phase two of this plan is “nowhere near ready to being implemented”.

He warned the disarming of Hamas is just one part of the 20-point peace plan.

Other elements include the establishment of a Palestinian technocratic committee meant to run Gaza, an international stabilisation border force and a Trump-chaired Board of Peace.

“None of that seems to me to be at all ready,” Ricketts said.

“Hamas are not just going to disarm like that. The whole point of the 20-point plan is that Hamas would disarm gradually, with international monitoring, as an international force took over.

“For all Donald Trump’s optimism, I don’t think any of that is in place. The Arab nations are not queuing up to put their troops into Gaza, no one wants to be seen to be disarming Hamas at the say-so of the Israelis.

“Behind this performative friendship [between Trump and Netanyahu], not much has happened on stabilising the Gaza peace plan.”

He added that the Israelis “absolutely” don’t want to withdraw in the meantime, and so they are in a “kind of circular problem here”.

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President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu met in Florida yesterday to discuss the Gaza peace plan.

Lord Ricketts, former UK National Security Adviser, says phase two of the plan, including Hamas disarming and the IDF withdrawing, is ‘nowhere near ready to being implemented’. pic.twitter.com/H16lrGuxdW

— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) December 30, 2025

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President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu met in Florida yesterday to discuss the Gaza peace plan.

Lord Ricketts, former UK National Security Adviser, says phase two of the plan, including Hamas disarming and the IDF withdrawing, is ‘nowhere near ready to being implemented’. pic.twitter.com/H16lrGuxdW

— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) December 30, 2025