Netanyahu Flip on Migrants Shows Influence of Hard-Line Allies

WORLD NEWSLeave a comment

Netanyahu Flip on Migrants Shows Influence of Hard-Line Allies Photo Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday canceled a deal with the United Nations on African migrants, a day after he had announced it. Credit Ronen Zvulun/Reuters JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed down under pressure before, but rarely in such a spectacular fashion as he did on Tuesday when he reneged on a deal with the United Nations, just one day after he announced it, to resettle thousands of African asylum seekers in Western countries.
Defending the abrupt reversal, he said he was responding to an outcry from members of his own conservative Likud party as well as partners in his governing coalition who routinely refer to the migrants as “infiltrators” and want all of them expelled. But the capitulation dented Mr. Netanyahu’s image as a master political player who has managed to outlast almost any other Israeli leader.
“This sort of zigzagging is not at all unusual,” said Gadi Wolfsfeld, ..

Afghan Leaders Admit Civilians Were Killed in Anti-Taliban Bombing

WORLD NEWSLeave a comment

Afghan Leaders Admit Civilians Were Killed in Anti-Taliban Bombing Photo Two people wounded in an airstrike on a religious seminary received medical treatment at a hospital in Kunduz on Tuesday. Credit Najim Raheem/EPA, via Shutterstock KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — A day after Afghan security forces killed or wounded more than 100 people in the bombing of a religious seminary where they said senior Taliban figures had gathered, officials on Tuesday admitted that civilians had been among the casualties.
For much of Monday, even as the bodies of wounded and dead civilians — including children — arrived at local hospitals, the Afghan government maintained that its airstrike in northern Kunduz Province had killed only Taliban leaders in a nonresidential area. Late Tuesday, the office of President Ashraf Ghani acknowledged the harm to civilians and said the bombing would be investigated.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said it was “actively looking into disturbing reports of serious harm..