00:00Well, Israel's Prime Minister has toughened his stance this Wednesday by declaring that his country is in charge of its own security and isn't an American protectorate.
00:09Has he prepared to discuss progress on Gaza's fragile ceasefire agreement with the US Vice President J.D. Vance?
00:16Let's get more on why Benjamin Netanyahu spoke those words. Noga Tanopolsky is, of course, our correspondent joining us live from Jerusalem.
00:23Noga, very good evening to you. British soldiers deployed to Israel to be part of this gathering unit at this US base, which is causing some controversy.
00:34You told us about it 24 hours ago. Give us more on why Benjamin Netanyahu has been, in a sense, forced to say what he said.
00:40Well, both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Vice President Vance were forced to publicly address the question, almost a cartoonish question, of is Israel now a vassal state, I'm quoting, of the United States.
00:58We have, as you said, the President of the United States Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. To the best of my knowledge, he is still in Israel.
01:09And it was a press conference that he held yesterday with Vice President Vance and the President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at this American base in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat.
01:20Very little was known about this base until the American visitors held a pretty big press conference there.
01:29And all of a sudden, Israeli journalists realized that the United States is basically giving the orders.
01:35Everything that will happen in Gaza, at least from the Israeli side, is going to go through this US filter or US authorization.
01:44Prime Minister Netanyahu is a hard-right prime minister.
01:47He ran in the last election, in 2022, on a platform of, quote, sovereignty.
01:55That was his electoral slogan.
01:57And so you can imagine that he has been, got through quite a bit of a whiplash, I would say today, of being asked, is Israel operating like a sovereign state?
02:07Is Israel allowed to disagree with the United States?
02:11And to what extent is the US simply running now the entire Gaza operation?
02:15In all honesty, we don't have a response.
02:18And it does appear that the US is calling the shots and that the US has decided this war is over.
02:25And no matter what happens, however offended Israel or Israeli ministers are, the United States is calling the shots here.
02:34So today, on more than one occasion, the prime minister of Israel and the American vice president were directly asked the question, is Israel a protectorate of the United States or can it still operate independently?
02:46And Israelis are still waiting for, I would say, a convincing answer to that, among other questions.
02:52Now, can I just change tack here?
02:55The International Court of Justice is ruling that Israel must allow UNRWA and others to deliver Gaza aid and can't block operations.
03:02Can you give us some insight into that, please?
03:04Yes, I mean, the International Criminal Court has no enforcement branch.
03:11So this is not going to do much except for possibly threaten Israel's status to a certain extent at the UN.
03:19This doesn't have much bearing.
03:21But again, it is another stain against Israel in the international community.
03:25The criminal court says that Israel simply did not provide the evidence to show that a majority or a preponderance of UNRWA officials, UNRWA employees working in Gaza, were connected to Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist group.
03:42I have to just add as a journalist here that on more than one occasion, we've confronted pretty alarming claims by the Israeli army without any evidence being given.
03:53It doesn't mean that the claims are untrue.
03:54I really can't answer regarding UNRWA, but it does appear that Israel simply didn't provide, you know, the receipts necessary.
04:03And finally, Noah, may I ask you, Israeli lawmakers voting through a bill regarding settlements and possible annexation of the West Bank.
04:09Now, this is an extremely controversial issue and one that Trump has said that he's against.
04:17Absolutely.
04:18What we saw today in another reflection, I would say, like the vassal state question and another indication of Netanyahu's weakness as a prime minister, he was trolled.
04:31In fact, he was trolled by both sides of parliament today on purpose while J.D. Vance is visiting lawmakers from the very extreme right.
04:41He had pushed a bill that would impose, quote unquote, impose Israeli sovereignty.
04:45In other words, annex the entire of the Palestinian-occupied West Bank.
04:50And lawmakers from a centrist party, headed by the head of the opposition, Yair Lapid, presented a much more modest bill also,
04:58declaring Israeli sovereignty on one city near Jerusalem but also in the West Bank.
05:03None of these bills have any bearing on reality.
05:06They were just symbolic bills passed into committee.
05:09But it was another humiliation for the prime minister who would actually support annexation but simply doesn't have the political means to do it.
05:18Noga Tandopolsky, as always, thank you very much indeed.
05:20Noga, of course, is our correspondent in Jerusalem.
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