2024-03-12 07:09:00
(CNN) — The US intelligence community considers that the “viability as leader” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “in danger”, according to its annual report on national security threats facing the United States, presented this Monday before Congress.
“Distrust in Netanyahu’s ability to govern has deepened and widened in public opinion from its already high pre-war levels, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections,” the report says. “A different, more moderate government is a possibility.”
Netanyahu has faced harsh criticism within Israel for his government’s failure to predict or prevent the October 7 attack, when the Hamas terrorist group killed 1,200 Israelis and took 240 hostages. Public polls also suggest that many Israelis question whether Netanyahu’s crushing military offensive, which has devastated Gaza and killed tens of thousands of people, is the best way to recover the hostages.
The intelligence report notes that the Israeli population widely supports the destruction of Hamas. But his assessment of Netanyahu’s political fortunes nevertheless offers a harsh report on a leader whom President Joe Biden once claimed to “love.”
The report comes amid an increasingly tense — and public — split between the two leaders over the number of civilian casualties in Gaza.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. (Credit: Getty Images)
As reports of civilian casualties and, increasingly, hunger and disease mount, the Biden administration has pressured Israel to allow more aid into the Palestinian enclave. In an interview over the weekend, Biden warned that Netanyahu is “harming Israel more than helping it.”
Netanyahu replied in another interview that if Biden was suggesting “that I am pursuing private policies once morest the wishes of the majority of Israelis, and that this is harming Israel’s interests, then he is wrong on both counts.”
The US intelligence report also warns that Israel will have difficulty defeating Hamas militarily.
“Israel is likely to face persistent armed resistance from Hamas for years, and the military will have difficulty neutralizing Hamas’ underground infrastructure, which allows insurgents to hide, regain strength, and surprise Israeli forces,” it says. The report.
Military experts and analysts have issued similar assessments, warning that Israel’s aggressive bombing campaign can only serve to inspire future generations of terrorist actors.
Both Al Qaeda and ISIS have been inspired by Hamas and “have directed their followers to carry out attacks once morest Israeli and American interests,” the report says.
The threat of a terrorist attack in the US increases.
In the United States, the threat of a terrorist attack “has gone to another level” since the October 7 attack, FBI Director Chris Wray declared this Monday before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a hearing on the publication of the report.
“Even before October 7, I would have told this committee that we were at an elevated threat level from a terrorism perspective, in the sense that this is the first time in a long, long time that I’ve seen that threats from extremists indigenous violent extremists; that is, jihad-inspired extremists, domestic violent extremists, foreign terrorist organizations, and state-sponsored terrorist organizations are rising at the same time,” Wray said.
The so-called Annual Threat Assessment forms the backbone of the intelligence community’s public communication each year and offers congressional leaders the opportunity to publicly question the nation’s top intelligence officials. It offers an unclassified snapshot of how the intelligence community views the panoply of national security threats facing the United States.
The forum, normally focused on security, entered clearly political territory on Monday, with Republican lawmakers on the committee repeatedly pressing intelligence officials on security issues related to the southern border of the United States. In the final moments of the hearing, the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, traded veiled accusations with Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho regarding the commission’s politicization.
“One of the things I think we’ve always been proud of [en esta comisión] is that we can agree without questioning each other’s patriotism, without questioning each other’s motives,” Warner said. “And I hope that tenor remains.”
Risch countered, referring to Warner and another Democratic senator who criticized the Republican line of questioning: “I’ve been on this committee for 15 years and we do a really good job until politics creeps in, and that’s what happened here this followingnoon with the last two presidents.”
Warnings regarding Ukraine
In their appearance before the commission, both the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, and the Director of the CIA, Bill Burns, also issued harsh warnings regarding the state of the war in Ukraine, in which Russia is considered to have regained control. initiative and Ukraine has been forced to ration ammunition.
Burns said that without additional US aid, Ukraine “will likely lose ground and probably significant ground in 2024.” A $60 billion aid package to Ukraine has stalled in the House of Representatives amid Republican resistance to additional funding.
“I think without additional aid in 2024, you’re going to see more Avdiivkas, and that seems to me to be a massive, historic mistake for the United States,” Burns said, referring to a city recently taken by Russia.
With more military aid, Burns said, the CIA assesses that “Ukraine can stay on the front lines” and “regain the offensive initiative” by “late 2024, early 2025.”
According to the intelligence community report, Russia is benefiting from both “uncertainties regarding the future of Western military aid” and “stalemate” on the battlefield, which “plays to Russia’s strategic military advantages.” and the momentum is increasingly shifting in favor of Moscow.”
The report also offers an intriguing clue regarding the extent of China’s support for Russia in the conflict, long viewed with suspicion by US officials. Beijing, according to the report, has more than tripled its exports of goods with potential military use to Russia since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
China has provided “economic and security aid to Russia’s war in Ukraine through support for Russia’s defense industrial base, including the provision of dual-use material and weapons components,” the report noted.
Trade between the two has been increasing since the start of the war – reaching more than US$220 billion in 2023, exceeding its record total volume in 2022 by 15% – and, in return, Russia offers China cheaper prices of energy and greater access to the Arctic, according to the report.
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