(JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday categorically rejected claims of starvation in the Gaza Strip, dismissing such reports as “a bold-faced lie.”
Speaking at a Daystar TV conference in Jerusalem hosted by Pastor Paula White, leader of the White House Faith Office, Netanyahu said, “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.” Israel, he continued, had “enabled humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the war to enter Gaza. Otherwise, there would be no Gazans.”
It is Hamas that had been preventing the distribution of aid in Gaza, said Netanyahu, noting that Israel had supplied 1.9 million tons of food to the war-ravaged territory since the beginning of the war nearly two years ago.
“Hamas robs, steals this humanitarian aid and then accuses Israel of not supplying it,” he continued.
The implementation of safe corridors over the weekend to allow food into Gaza, with 10-hour humanitarian pauses in the fighting, has taken away the United Nations’ “excuses and lies” that it could not deliver the food because it was too dangerous, said Netanyahu.
“The UN has no excuses left. No excuses left. Stop lying. Stop finding excuses,” said the Israeli premier. “Do what you have to do and stop accusing Israel deliberately of this egregious falsehood.”
‘Cherished Christian friends’
Netanyahu began his remarks at the event by highlighting the bond between Christians and Jews, which he called “a partnership bonded in faith, in history, in tradition,” and which he said was now facing “a battle of the truth.”
His outreach to the American evangelical Christian community also comes against the backdrop of spurious allegations against Israeli Jews regarding arson at a church, and a bureaucratic dustup, since resolved, over visas to evangelical Christian groups visiting the Holy land.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described the alleged July 7 attack on ancient church ruins in the Arab village of Taybeh in Samaria as “terror,” but the Israel Police subsequently announced that the holy site had not sustained any damage and arson had not been confirmed.
Meanwhile, Israel’s interior minister reversed a bureaucratic change in the process of issuing visas to American evangelicals that had led to delays and additional costs for pro-Israel Christian organizations.
“American Christians are some of Israel’s strongest supporters, and the resolution of this issue among friends is a welcome outcome,” stated Huckabee following the resolution of the visa issue.
Netanyahu on Sunday called the friendship between Christians and Jews “the mainstay of our present and future ability to live in a free, prosperous and peaceful world,” an alliance which he warned was “being challenged by an Islamic fundamentalism that seeks to subjugate all Muslims that they views as infidels and eradicate both the American and Israeli presence in the Middle East.”
Israel, he continued, was the “guardian of Christianity in the Middle East.” However, that “truth is being reversed,” he added.
“We see the effort to break down our bond, in America and other parts of the world. That partnership that promotes Judeo-Christian values, that protects in Israel Christians as nowhere else in the Middle East,” he said.
The Jewish state is portrayed by “purchased influencers” on American television as an enemy of Christianity, he continued.
“What folly, what lies. What a travesty of truth.”
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Netanyahu’s decision to create humanitarian corridors, pause fighting and allow food droppings are one of the most STUPID decisions he could make. Everywhere in the world photo’s of the droppings are published and the already brainwashed public looks at them as the ultimate vindication of the claims that the Gazans are starving. Please, STOP this show that silences everyone who still defends Israel.
It is already utterly senseless and immoral to let hundreds of Israeli soldiers die for no other reason than to ‘save’ a much smaller number of hostages. Let alone the enormous upsurge in antisemitism that is fuelled by the sheer duration of the war in Gaza and causes almost irreversable damage to Israels standing in the world. Bibi proves time and again that he is really and utterly blind for this danger, or stubbornly unwilling to change course. Send him home!!
I’m a big friend of Israel, but honestly, I’m loosing all my appetite to defend Israel in the media or in my church or business. If Bibi and the Israeli public really want to destroy the nation and make Jews hated everywhere in the world, then whatever I do is in vain. Even yesterday I heard a guest preacher in my church praying that the Jews might stop starving the Palestinians. Should I call him en try to inform him and convince him of a better opinion? He will say: “But didn’t you see the air droppings that prove how dire the situation is? That says it all!”
No, I have decided not to call him.
I will devote my time and energy to more promising things.
I will continue to pray for the hostages, the victims, for every fallen soldier and his family, for the wounded. But praying for the nation…, I’m so discouraged…