Netanyahu:

The first thing is you want a background check on pilots.

Even if you have metal detectors, they’re usually for the passengers, and it’s quite possible that pilots just don’t go through that.

So obviously, that’s a loophole that has to be corrected.

Netanyahu:

A million Israelis have visited the United Arab Emirates. I don’t think people know that.

And that’s been the case throughout the war. The war didn’t stop it. This alliance, or this relationship, withstood the Iran war.

Netanyahu on Iran:

They’re trying to develop nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to every city in the United States.

It will take them some time, but they’re working on this.

Netanyahu:

I didn’t ignore any warnings before October 7 because I didn’t receive any warnings. I mean, that’s a complete hoax.

It’s politically propagated by certain countries or by certain elements abroad, and they’re simply false.

Q: You control, by the latest estimate I saw, 60% of Gaza. Is the intention still to give all of that back?

Netanyahu: No. The intention right now is to make sure that that horrific attack which occurred on October 7th… never happens again.

Q: But Mr. Prime Minister, that’s not the question. The question is this 60% hold that the Israeli military has inside Gaza. Is your intention today still to reach a point where all of that is given back to the Palestinians?

Netanyahu: No. My goal right now is to make sure that the Hamas terrorists who are still in Gaza… don’t have the capacity to do another attack.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered Iran’s UN delegation, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, to leave New York immediately after U.S.-Iran talks stalled Monday.

Qatari mediators had tried to broker a compromise, but neither side moved. Araghchi’s delegation left for Doha hours later, though one source said he had already been scheduled to depart that night.

Source: Axios

Netanyahu on Hamas:

People are giving Hamas a pass. I mean, these are murderers, murderous monsters who raped our women and then murdered them, beheaded men, burnt babies alive in front of their parents.

And I challenge you, Tony, and everyone else listening to me. What would America do if, from a neighboring territory, you had that kind of attack on Americans?

You’d make sure that never happens again. And that’s what we’re doing in Gaza right now.

Netanyahu:

We’re not in Gaza because we have great colonialist impulses. It’s ridiculous.

Netanyahu on Lebanon:

Lebanon would make peace with us in two seconds if Hezbollah wasn’t there.

Netanyahu:

You sent — and rightly so — your forces against al-Qaeda. You went into Fallujah, you went into Mosul and so on.

I’m not sure that America took more security precautions than we did to make sure that civilians are out of harm’s way.

Netanyahu on Gaza:

Hamas, at gunpoint, kept civilians in harm’s way. That’s why you had the casualties.

Netanyahu on Gaza:

The only way you’re going to stop this is by destroying Hamas.

It’s like the only way you got peace in Germany is by destroying the SS.

You didn’t say, "Oh, well, we’ll leave an enclave of the SS, and then we’ll have peace."

Netanyahu on Gaza:

You have to "deradicalize" the situation in Gaza.

They imbibe with their mother’s milk this hatred, this insane hatred for Jews and for Israel — and, by the way, for Americans too.

They have suicide kindergarten camps. You’ve got to understand this.

I think we need to disarm, demilitarize and "deradicalize" Gaza.

The Trump administration is excluding several major NATO allies — including the UK, France and the Baltic states — from a Pentagon-led working group on the alliance’s future.

The smaller “Bergen Group” currently includes the U.S., Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby says it is meant to develop ideas that can later strengthen the wider alliance.

Excluded allies, including some of NATO’s biggest defense spenders, say the criteria are unclear and fear Washington is dividing members into favored and unfavored groups.

Denmark could also be invited following its agreement with the U.S. to expand the American military presence in Greenland.

Source: POLITICO

Netanyahu:

This pilot, the attacking pilot, is now being interrogated in Saudi Arabia. He’ll be, I assume, moved very quickly to Dubai.

He’s an Omani national. He’ll be investigated and interrogated, and we’ll join the interrogation and find out what happened there exactly.

Netanyahu on Iran:

It’s a lunatic regime, and it should not have nuclear weapons. That’s clear.

Netanyahu:

The settler violence thing is a tremendous hoax.

Netanyahu:

We’re fighting the battle against the barbarians. These people are barbarians.

U.S. officials increasingly believe a Chinese invasion of Taiwan before 2028 is unlikely, despite Xi Jinping’s goal for the PLA to be capable of taking the island by force by 2027.

Officials cited military readiness delays caused partly by Xi’s anti-corruption campaign and Beijing’s interest in Taiwan’s 2028 election.

Some Chinese officials reportedly hope it could produce a government more open to closer ties with Beijing.

U.S. officials also believe China has learned from the wars in Ukraine and Iran that any attack would need to be rapid and avoid becoming a prolonged conflict.

Source: Reuters