#BREAKING Netanyahu accepted an invitation to speak before a joint session of Congress - from Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Netanyahu will be the first foreign leader to have addressed a joint session of Congress four times. He is currently tied with Winston Churchill, having done so three times.
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#BREAKING Israel's cabinet voted unanimously to shut down Al Jazeera in Israel
This proposal was raised repeatedly since Oct. 7 in light of Al Jazeera reporters' membership in Hamas, giving away IDF positions, etc - but it was delayed again and again, in part bc Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, is the mediator in hostage negotiations.
The Knesset passed a law on April 1 temporarily empowering the cabinet to vote to stop foreign news outlets from operating in Israel if security services report that they are endangering national security - something that they indeed reported about Al Jazeera. The order must be brought to a district court for review. The order is valid for 45 days and can be renewed.
This is what Israeli Health Ministry representative Gilad Bodenheimer said at the same Knesset meeting: "We know of only a few cases of suicide. We must be cautious with numbers that could do public damage."
I don't necessarily take the government at its word, but I also question how the survivor would know about 50 cases. (I'm not attributing malice to the survivor, to be clear.)
#BREAKING Netanyahu announces that if the US doesn't veto the UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire today, he's canceling Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi's White House meetings.
Dermer and Hanegbi's trip to Washington came after Biden asked Netanyahu on the phone last week to send a delegation to discuss alternatives to a major IDF operation in Rafah.
Sources tells me that earlier today, U.S. officials notified Dermer the U.S. plans to allow two separate ceasefire resolutions to pass in the UNSC: one calling for a ceasefire and one calling to release the hostages, without one being a condition of the other.
Blinken: “While there are some clear nonstarters in Hamas’ response, we do think it creates space” to negotiate a hostage release deal.
Also talks about negotiations to get Hezbollah off the northern border so Israelis can return to their homes.
Blinken spends much more time talking about humanitarian aid to Gaza and the toll of the war on civilians than about everything else combined. Calls on Israel to open the Erez crossing to northern Gaza, improve coordination w aid providers, stop anyone from blocking aid.
Blinken says that Hamas dehumanized Israelis on Act 7 and continued to dehumanize the hostages every day, but says it cannot be a reason to dehumanize Gazans, most of whom, he says, had nothing to do with the attack.
Nine-year-old Emily Hand’s father said when she returned she would only whisper because she was threatened if she made noise. She was only given bread and olive oil to eat and lost significant weight. She thought she was gone for a year.
Hamas trying to move the goalposts. Senior Hamas terrorist in Beirut says that they won't release hostages today unless Israel allows 300 trucks into Gaza and releases prisoners in order of how long they're in prison "as promised."
Except that was never what Israel agreed to.