2 hours ago
picture description,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chaired a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday
Israeli ministers have criticized the US president after he said their government had “some of the most extreme” members he had ever seen.
Netanyahu’s nationalist-religious coalition includes far-right parties.
The leader of one of them, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, denied he was an extremist.
Mr Ben-Gvir, who was convicted of racial incitement and supporting a terrorist organization, also warned Mr Biden that he “must recognize that we [Israel] are no longer a star on the American flag.”
Energy Secretary Israel Katz, a member of Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party, said the US president “knows the rules of democracy”.
He also referred to Mr Netanyahu’s security cabinet’s decision on Sunday to “act to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority”. Mr Ben-Gvir voted against the move, while another far-right minister abstained.
Mr. Biden also said in the CNN interview that the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank that are not under full Israeli control, has “lost its credibility” and “created a vacuum for extremism among Palestinians.”
“So it’s not all of Israel in the West Bank, it’s not all of Israel’s problem. But they are part of the problem, especially those people in the Cabinet who say, ‘We can settle wherever we want; they have no right to it.’ here etc.’”
“We talk to them regularly and try to contain the events. Hopefully Bibi will continue to move towards moderation and change,” he added, using the Israeli Prime Minister’s nickname.
Mr. Netanyahu returned to power in late December, leading the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.
It was immediately condemned by Palestinians and human rights groups for claiming that the Jewish people have an “indisputable right to all territories of the Land of Israel,” including the occupied West Bank.
The government has since pushed ahead with plans for 13,000 new housing units in settlements across the West Bank, according to Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now. That’s three times as many as in all of last year.
Most countries consider the settlements built on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War to be illegal under international law, although Israel disagrees.
The Biden administration warned last month that settlement expansion undermines the viability of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — the longstanding international peace formula — fueling tensions and damaging trust between the two parties.
The past seven months have also witnessed a spike in deadly violence in the region.
On Monday, the Israeli military said its troops shot dead a Palestinian who threw a grenade and opened fire on them near the village of Deir Nidham.
The incident came a week after the military launched a so-called “full-scale counter-terrorism effort” in the city of Jenin. Twelve Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed during the two-day operation, which involved hundreds of ground forces supported by drone strikes.