Israel-US tension rises with Gaza death toll; Scotiabank cuts stake in Israeli defence firm Elbit

12 Mar 2024

Tension between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s war on Hamas has burst into the open as the two leaders bicker publicly.

Bank of Nova Scotia’s asset management arm reduced its stake in Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems, an investment that sparked protests last year as the war between Israel and Hamas raged on.

Two US House Democrats are probing whether terrorist organisations and sanctioned individuals are using and even monetising their paid premium-service accounts on Elon Musk’s X social media platform.

Tension between Israel and US rises with Gaza death toll

The almost daily phone calls stopped months ago. Now the tension between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s war on Hamas has burst into the open as the two leaders bicker publicly.

Late last week, the US announced its army would build a pier to bring aid to civilians in Gaza, with food in short supply and relief groups warning of famine amid Israel’s assault. Biden demanded the Israeli leader “pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost,” warning that “he is hurting Israel more than helping Israel”.

Netanyahu fired back the next day. “He’s wrong on both counts,” he said in an interview with Politico parent publishing company Axel Springer.

The public back-and-forth was a dramatic departure from Biden’s public embrace of Israel after the 7 October Hamas attacks, the deadliest in the country’s history. The US president worked closely with Netanyahu to deliver sweeping military and diplomatic support.

But with more than 30,000 dead, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, and Israel planning an assault on Rafah, the last major city in the enclave where residents are sheltering, tensions between the Israeli leader and his most important ally over the civilian death toll have become impossible to conceal.

Biden was caught on a hot mic on Thursday telling a legislator that he planned a “come-to-Jesus” meeting with Netanyahu. That came just days after his administration hosted Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, but also Netanyahu’s main political rival, for top-level meetings in Washington.

The Israeli leader smelled betrayal. “To the extent that Hamas believes that there’s daylight between us, that doesn’t help,” Netanyahu told Fox News on Monday. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organisation by the US and European Union.

For the moment, the Biden administration has kept up the flow of weapons and other support to Israel, even as it steps in to deliver humanitarian aid directly.

Biden (81) and Netanyahu (74) have differed for decades. But this time, the tensions are even more real. The US argues Israel isn’t doing enough to limit death and suffering among the millions of ordinary Palestinians who have no link to Hamas and its violent policies. In northern Gaza, US officials note, citing a World Health Organization statement, a dozen children have starved to death while their parents eat grass and use animal feed for flour.

Biden is under increasing pressure to do more to rein in his ally, both from other capitals and from key supporters at home, where liberal and younger voters are demanding an end to support for Israel.

The deaths of some 100 Gazans seeking aid from a convoy at the end of February became a turning point, US officials said. That event involved some shooting by Israeli troops but mostly, Israel says, trampling due to a stampede. It rejects the idea that it’s been careless towards civilians.

People close to Netanyahu argue that US policy is now aimed at separating the prime minister from his electorate in the hope of causing a political crisis in Israel that will lead to a more moderate government without Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners.

This was evident when Biden sanctioned extremist Jewish West Bank settlers, the key constituents of Netanyahu’s partners.

In a report to Congress on Monday, the US intelligence community questioned “Netanyahu’s viability as leader”. It predicted “large protests demanding his resignation and new elections” that it said may lead to a more moderate government.

For his part, Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, made sure in his Sunday interview to argue that he was not leading his nation anywhere it doesn’t wish to go. A recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found 75% of Jewish Israelis favoured expanding military operations in Rafah.

White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton said on Monday that Biden’s decades-long ties with the Israeli leader allowed the US president “to be direct and honest at a time where that’s needed. But there’s no change here in the strength of the two leaders’ relationship.”

Netanyahu says Israel will eventually invade Rafah, the southern Gaza city, where some 8,000 Hamas fighters, its leaders and the remaining 134 Israeli hostages are thought to be ensconced.

Biden doesn’t want Israel to move forward out of fear that too many civilians will be killed.

“Our view is that no military operation should take place in Rafah if there is not a credible and implementable plan to take care of the safety and security needs of the more than a million civilians who are sheltering there,” Dalton, the White House spokesperson, said on Monday. “And we’ve seen no such plan.”

But when Gantz, a popular opposition politician, met officials in Washington last week, his message was clear: The attack on Rafah must proceed eventually.

The tensions extend beyond the current fighting. The Biden administration believes that it’s time to start planning for the day after the war, meaning a regional arrangement involving Saudi and Emirati aid for a Palestinian state to run Gaza and the West Bank.

This is anathema to Netanyahu who says if a Palestinian state is the result of the 7 October massacre, that rewards terror. Palestinians, he and his aides say, must learn the opposite — that violence will bring only harsh reprisal.

Scotiabank cuts stake in Israeli defence firm Elbit as war drags on

Bank of Nova Scotia’s asset management arm reduced its stake in Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems, an investment that sparked protests last year as the war between Israel and Hamas raged on.

Scotiabank’s 1832 Asset Management trimmed its holdings in Elbit to 4.3% in the fourth quarter, according to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. That was down from 5.1% in the third quarter, though the fund manager remains the largest non-Israeli shareholder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Scotiabank spokesperson Heather Armstrong declined to explain the share sale, saying it didn’t comment on changes to individual securities in its mutual funds and that holdings might fluctuate over time.

In November, amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, protesters briefly occupied the bank’s headquarters in downtown Toronto. However, the investment was controversial even before the war because Elbit had been accused of manufacturing cluster munitions, which can kill or maim civilians during a conflict or long after it has ended.

Advocacy group Eko, formerly known as SumOfUs, launched a petition in 2022 calling on Scotiabank to divest. Elbit has denied producing cluster bombs and the Canadian bank backed that position when the petition was launched.

Read more: Scotiabank draws ire for holding shares in Israeli defence firm

The bank told Bloomberg at the time that its asset management arm “does not knowingly invest in companies that directly manufacture cluster munitions” and said it had confirmed with a third-party investment research firm that Elbit didn’t do so.

“Scotiabank’s quiet divestment still falls short,” Angus Wong, senior campaign manager at Eko, said via email. “They must demonstrate genuine commitment by fully divesting from Elbit Systems and prioritising human rights over profits.”

After the November protests, Scotiabank asked Eko to end its campaign and take down its online petition, accusing the advocacy group of spreading misinformation. A senior executive at the bank said the protesters had endangered staff and customers, according to an email seen by Bloomberg.

Eko did not remove the petition, which has garnered more than 16,000 signatures online, but updated it to include some of Scotiabank’s responses. The group also indicated that it “received information from a research firm after the petition was launched that Elbit, as of April 2022, no longer produces cluster bombs”.

Haifa, Israel-based Elbit is one of Israel’s largest defence contractors and has been awarded a series of contracts from the country’s defence ministry since the beginning of the war with Hamas, according to company statements. The shares are up about 17% in the past year.

Democrats question whether Musk’s X profits from terror groups

Two US House Democrats are probing whether terrorist organisations and sanctioned individuals are using and even monetising their paid premium-service accounts on Elon Musk’s X social media platform.

Representatives Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Daniel Goldman of New York point to recent news reports that senior leaders of Hezbollah, Iranian news outlets and Russian state media have been among subscribers to such X services.

“If true, this raises significant concerns that X may be violating US sanctions law by facilitating financial transactions from terrorist organisations and other entities sanctioned by the US Treasury,” they wrote in a letter on Monday to Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer.

The two Democratic lawmakers want Comer to commit to “swiftly holding” a hearing on the matter.

A spokesperson for X responded by pointing to a statement released following a February investigation by the Tech Transparency Project, which identified more than a dozen X accounts for US-sanctioned entities with a blue checkmark.

The company said in the statement it had a “a robust and secure approach” to complying with legal obligations, including sanctions. “Several of the accounts listed in the Tech Transparency Report are not directly named on sanction lists, while some others may have visible account check marks without receiving any services that would be subject to sanctions,” the company said in the statement.

Those who pay for premium X subscriptions can receive several perks and benefits, including the blue checkmark verification status on their profiles. Other benefits include the ability to post longer text and videos, broader amplification or visibility for posts, and even a chance to receive a share of X’s advertising revenue.

Raskin and Goldman asserted that X may have broken US law if the platform has sold such premium service to groups, individuals and countries under US sanction, or even potentially shared in advertising revenue.

Included among those premium accounts, according to the report, were those of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and the group’s deputy secretary-general, Sheikh Naim Qasem. Both are listed as “Specially Designated Nationals”, under the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Raskin and Goldman wrote. DM

Read more in Daily Maverick: Israel-Palestine War

Categories:

World

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

World

Tension between Israel and US rises with Gaza death toll

Scotiabank cuts stake in Israeli defence firm Elbit as war drags on

Democrats question whether Musk’s X profits from terror groups