2024-03-19 04:19:28
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevented a high-ranking intelligence official from holding a scheduled meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, who is visiting Israel. While he delayed for hours to accept another official’s meeting with Lev.
Netanyahu’s decision came before a phone call with US President Joe Biden yesterday, Monday, and in the midst of simmering tensions between Tel Aviv and Washington regarding Netanyahu’s handling of the war on Gaza.
Israeli Channel 12 said that Netanyahu ordered both the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, and the head of the Military Intelligence Division (Aman), Aharon Haliva, to cancel their scheduled meetings with Lev.
The report stated that it was eventually agreed to hold the meeting that was scheduled between the head of AMAN and the American official “after many hours of delay and procrastination,” while Barr’s meeting with the American official remains cancelled, in light of the lack of directives from Netanyahu allowing it to be held. the meeting.
The channel quoted informed Israeli sources as saying that canceling the meetings with the American officials came in the context of “an attempt by Netanyahu to broadcast messages to the American president and senior officials in his administration expressing his rejection” of what he considers interference in internal political affairs in Israel.
The report stated that the senior US State Department official met on Monday with a number of senior political and security officials in Israel to discuss developments in the Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip, as well as files related to the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli Prime Minister had addressed the international community, demanding that it stop putting pressure on Israel and focus the pressure on Hamas. Netanyahu directed harsh criticism at those he described as friends in the international community, stressing his rejection of pressures aimed at holding elections in Israel and stopping the war on Gaza.
The US President told Netanyahu on Monday night that a large-scale ground attack by the Israeli army in Rafah would constitute a “mistake.” Netanyahu responded by noting that he had assured Biden of Israel’s determination to “achieve all the goals of the war,” including “eliminating Hamas.”
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