Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
With each day of Israel’s unrelenting bombardment and ground assault of the Gaza Strip, the pressure on US President Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire builds.
As the death toll in the densely populated enclave approaches 20,000 people, according to Gaza officials, and images of dead and gravely wounded children are seen across the world, Mr Biden has remained resolute in his support of Israel and its war efforts.
But a chink in his unyielding support may now be showing. On Tuesday, he offered his strongest rebuke yet of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, calling its bombings “indiscriminate”.
“Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States," Mr Biden told a fund-raising event.
"It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting them.
“They’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place.”
The White House tried to play down the comments and the Pentagon has refused to say if it agrees with the Commander-in-Chief's assessment.
“The President was reflecting a concern that we have had for some time, and will continue to have as this military operation proceeds, about the need for reducing civilian harm and being as precise and careful and deliberate as possible,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
As the war has progressed, US officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken have increasingly called on Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians.
But their words appear to have yielded few results, with Israel's military shift to the south of the Gaza Strip as deadly as its initial assault on the north.
And even as US leaders sound a more critical public tone, Washington has continued to support Israel’s military actions.
Last week, the US vetoed a UN resolution for an immediate ceasefire, the lone dissenting voice on the Security Council, expressing outrage that the measure did not include a condemnation of the October 7 Hamas attacks.
The State Department went so far as to bypass Congress to push the sale of about 13,000 tank rounds to Israel, despite acknowledging a “gap” between Israel’s intention to protect civilians and the results.
“In the case of this President, I think his frame has evolved in relation to the exponential rise of Palestinian deaths and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“[But] even though the rhetoric has essentially gotten tougher, watch what American presidents do. Don't always watch what they say.”
Mr Biden is also under intense domestic pressure as calls for a ceasefire grow and support for Israel appears to wane.
A poll last month showed an 11 per cent drop in Americans who believed Washington should support Israel.
Mr Biden, a self-proclaimed Zionist who has a more than 50-year relationship with Israel, must next year answer to voters.
“The Israeli operational clock in Gaza is measured in months,” Mr Miller said.
“Biden's political clock is measured in weeks, and it is quite conceivable that by January – and I think the administration has January in mind – by January they're expecting to see an end to the intense kinetic military operations Israeli conducted in the north and south.”
Mr Miller told The National that Mr Biden can maintain the same level of support and defence of Israel for another six weeks tops, an estimate shared by other regional analysts.
US media reports including by The New York Times suggest that US officials have told the Israeli authorities that the intensity of the bombardment needs to be reduced in a matter of weeks.
Despite this, on Israel's Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant said on Thursday that the country needed months to reach its objective of destroying Hamas.
“It will require a long period of time – it will last more than several months, but we will win and we will destroy them,” Mr Gallant said.
Ghaith Al Omari, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he thought the US would ultimately support Israel longer than a few weeks.
“What we're going to start seeing more and more is what we're seeing right now, which is an occasional kind of expression of frustration from maybe spokespeople," Mr Al Omari told The National.
"But when it comes to the principles, they will continue showing support. I just don't see this eroding in the next two or three weeks."
For now, Israelis can bank on Mr Biden's support, but that may change in the new year if the bombardment continues unabated.
Latest from the Israel-Gaza war – in pictures
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Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
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ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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%3Cp%3E%22Whatever%20the%20initial%20intent%2C%20what%20took%20place%20at%20many%20of%20these%20gatherings%20and%20the%3Cbr%3Eway%20in%20which%20they%20developed%20was%20not%20in%20line%20with%20Covid%20guidance%20at%20the%20time.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%22Many%20of%20these%20events%20should%20not%20have%20been%20allowed%20to%20happen.%20It%20is%20also%20the%20case%20that%20some%20of%20the%3Cbr%3Emore%20junior%20civil%20servants%20believed%20that%20their%20involvement%20in%20some%20of%20these%20events%20was%20permitted%20given%20the%20attendance%20of%20senior%20leaders.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%22The%20senior%20leadership%20at%20the%20centre%2C%20both%20political%20and%20official%2C%20must%20bear%20responsibility%20for%20this%20culture.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%22I%20found%20that%20some%20staff%20had%20witnessed%20or%20been%20subjected%20to%20behaviours%20at%20work%20which%20they%20had%20felt%20concerned%20about%20but%20at%20times%20felt%20unable%20to%20raise%20properly.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%22I%20was%20made%20aware%20of%20multiple%20examples%20of%20a%20lack%20of%20respect%20and%20poor%20treatment%20of%20security%20and%20cleaning%20staff.%20This%20was%20unacceptable.%22%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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Torque: 600Nm
Price: AED 356,580 incl VAT
On sale: now.
About Krews
Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
Number of employees: 10
Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
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6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
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UAE squad to face Ireland
Ahmed Raza (captain), Chirag Suri (vice-captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmad, Zawar Farid, CP Rizwaan, Aryan Lakra, Karthik Meiyappan, Alishan Sharafu, Basil Hameed, Kashif Daud, Adithya Shetty, Vriitya Aravind
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Scoreline:
Cardiff City 0
Liverpool 2
Wijnaldum 57', Milner 81' (pen)
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
England's all-time record goalscorers:
Wayne Rooney 53
Bobby Charlton 49
Gary Lineker 48
Jimmy Greaves 44
Michael Owen 40
Tom Finney 30
Nat Lofthouse 30
Alan Shearer 30
Viv Woodward 29
Frank Lampard 29
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
