Israel’s Netanyahu skips Davos over fear of arrest for Gaza war crimes

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos this week amid concerns he would face arrest in Switzerland under an International Criminal Court warrant, according to Israeli media reports.

Netanyahu was replaced at the summit by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, who travelled to Davos on Tuesday and met German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

During the meeting, Herzog criticised the absence of Israeli officials from the forum and called for the removal of ICC arrest warrants issued against Israeli leaders, describing the court’s actions as “politically motivated”.

He did not address the substance of the allegations against Israel stemming from the crimes committed by its military campaign in Gaza.

In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza.

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The US-Israel Hybrid War Against Iran

The question is not if the US and Israel will attack Iran, but when. In the nuclear age, the US refrains from all-out war, since it can easily lead to nuclear escalation. Instead, the US and Israel are waging war against Iran through a combination of crushing economic sanctions, targeted military strikes, cyberwarfare, stoking unrest, and unrelenting misinformation campaigns. This combination strategy is called “hybrid warfare.”

Both the American and Israeli deep states are addicted to hybrid warfare. Acting together, the CIA, Mossad, allied military contractors and security agencies have fomented chaos across Africa and the Middle East, in a swath of hybrid wars including Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen.

The shocking fact is that for more than a quarter century, the US and Israeli militaries and intelligence agencies have laid waste to a region of hundreds of millions of people, blocked economic development, created terror and mass refugee movements, and have nothing to show for it beyond the chaos itself. There is no security, no peace, no stable pro-US or pro-Israel alliance, only suffering. In the process, the US is also going out of its way to undermine the UN Charter, which the US itself had brought to life in the aftermath of World War II. The UN Charter makes clear that hybrid war violates the very basis of international law, which calls on countries to refrain from the use of force against other countries.

There is one beneficiary of hybrid war, and that is the military-industrial-digital complex of the US and Israel, with firms like Palantir and others profiting from their AI-supported assassination algorithms. President Dwight Eisenhower warned us in his 1961 farewell address of the profound danger of the military-industrial complex to our society. His warning has come to pass even more than he imagined, as it is now powered by AI, mass propaganda, and a reckless US foreign policy.

We are witnessing two simultaneous hybrid wars in recent weeks, in Venezuela and Iran. Both are long-term CIA projects that have recently escalated. Both will lead to further chaos.

The United States has long had two goals vis-à-vis Venezuela: to gain control over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves in the Orinoco Belt, and to overthrow Venezuela’s leftist government, in power since 1999. America’s hybrid war against Venezuela dates to 2002, when the CIA helped to support a coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez. When that failed, the US ramped up other hybrid measures, including economic sanctions, the confiscation of Venezuela’s dollar reserves, and measures to cripple Venezuela’s oil production, which in fact has collapsed. Yet despite the chaos sown by the US, the hybrid war did not bring down the government.

Trump has now escalated to bombing Caracas, kidnapping President Nicolas Maduro, stealing Venezuelan oil shipments, and imposing an ongoing naval blockade, which of course is a continuing act of war. It also seems likely that Trump is thereby enriching powerful pro-Zionist campaign funders who have their eyes on seizing Venezuelan oil assets. Zionist interests also have their eye on toppling the Venezuelan government, since it has long supported the Palestinian cause and maintained close relations with Iran. Netanyahu has cheered on America’s attack on Venezuela, calling it the “perfect operation.”

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CBS News Contributor Killed by Israel Just Weeks After His Wedding

Three journalists, including a CBS News contributor, were killed in an Israeli strike outside a camp for displaced people in Gaza on Wednesday.

Abdel Raouf Shaat – a contributor to CBS News and Agence France-Presse – was killed along with Mohamed Qishta and Anas Ghneim after their car was hit by an Israeli strike while leaving a camp for displaced people.

According to reports, the three journalists were recording footage of the camp while on assignment for the media arm of an Egyptian relief committee.

After leaving the camp, their car was struck by the Israeli military just a mile away.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces accused the journalists, without providing evidence, of operating “a drone affiliated with Hamas.”

“IDF troops identified several suspects who operated a drone affiliated with Hamas in central Gaza, in a manner that posed a threat to their safety,” the IDF claimed. “Following the identification and due to the threat that the drone posed to the troops, the IDF precisely struck the suspects who activated the drone.”

In its own statement, AFP mourned the loss of its contributor and demanded a full investigation into his killing.

“We are in mourning for the loss of our colleague Abdul Raouf Shaat who was a regular contributor to AFP’s production for nearly two years,” said AFP, adding that Shaat was “much loved” and remembered “as a kind-hearted colleague, with a gentle sense of humor and as a deeply committed journalist.”

The news organization continued, “AFP demands a full and transparent investigation into his death […] Far too many local journalists have been killed in Gaza over the past two years while foreign journalists remain unable to enter the territory freely.”

CBS News president Tom Cibrowski also informed staff of the news in a call on Wednesday morning, revealing that the journalist had just gotten married a few weeks prior.

While not on assignment for CBS News at the time of his death, the news organization stated that Shaat “filed regularly for CBS News from the city of Khan Yunis during the war in Gaza, even sending video from the back of an ambulance on one occasion when he was wounded.”

CBS News is owned by David Ellison – a close associate of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and led by pro-Israel commentator Bari Weiss, who has visited Israel more than 15 times.

At least 258 journalists and media workers have been killed since the beginning of the war in Gaza in 2023, according to the International Federation of Journalists.

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Genocide research institute levels accusations against Germany for denying Israel’s genocide against Palestinians

The Israel lobby in Germany has orchestrated a systematic denial of the genocide in Gaza by the government, politicians, and German mainstream media.

The internationally recognized Lemkin Institute for the Prevention of Genocide has issued severe criticism of Germany. In a statement dated 13th January 2026, it “condemns the persistent efforts by several high-profile German civil society organizations to deny the ongoing genocide in Gaza and to disseminate disinformation and denialist narratives among German political decision-makers.”

At the same time, the Institute accuses major German media corporations of having become “the Israeli government’s most loyal mouthpiece”. German policymakers are likewise criticized for turning away from the “international legal order” – an order “that was created in large part due to the horrors it produced”. This refers to Nazi crimes, including the Holocaust against European Jews, the genocide of the Sinti and Roma, and the war of annihilation against the Soviet Union.

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Which countries made the biggest deals with Israel in 2025?

Israel signed a record number of multibillion-dollar gas, technology and military deals in 2025.

One of its most prominent deals came in December when Prime Minister Netanyahu approved the largest energy deal in Israel’s history. The contract will supply Egypt with up to $35bn worth of gas through 2040 from the Leviathan field, further deepening the North African country’s energy dependence on Israel amid its ongoing energy crisis.

Egypt, which established diplomatic ties with Israel in 1979, stated that the deal was a “purely commercial” arrangement and that there are no “political dimensions”, especially amid mounting public anger over Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Israel has also signed several record multibillion-dollar deals in the technology and military sectors in 2025, profiting largely from selling military and surveillance equipment that has been “battle-tested” in Palestine and across the region.

US tech giant Google (Alphabet) is finalising its $32bn acquisition of cybersecurity company Wiz, while Nvidia has committed $1.5bn to establish Israel’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) data centre, located about 30km (19 miles) from Haifa.

In Europe, Israel’s $6.5bn Arrow 3 deal with Germany features an advanced defence system for intercepting long-range ballistic missiles, making it the largest military export in Israel’s history.

In this story, Al Jazeera unpacks some of the largest publicly disclosed deals signed with Israel in 2025.

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Netanyahu Blasts Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan, Claims Composition of Gaza Executive Board “Runs Contrary” to Israeli Policy – Israel National Security Minister Calls for “Return to War with Enormous Force”

Israel may be displeased with President Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has surprisingly come out claiming that  the President’s Gaza Executive Board was “not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy.”

As The Gateway Pundit reported, President Trump announced that the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed and chaired by himself, has been formed as the Trump Administration enters Phase Two of the  20-point Gaza Peace Plan announced last September.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Jared Kushner, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, and Trump adviser Robert Gabriel were announced as members of the “founding Executive Board” on Friday.

Additionally, the White House announced that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and senior Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi would serve on the Gaza Executive Board to support the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and “support effective governance and the delivery of best-in-class services that advance peace, stability, and prosperity for the people of Gaza,” sparking rebuke from Netanyahu.

Per the New York Post:

President Trump’s Gaza governance plan sparked backlash in Israel as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the makeup of the body, which includes Turkey and Qatar, contradicts Israeli policy — even as reports from said the lineup had, in fact, been approved.

Netanyahu’s office issued a statement on Saturday saying that the premier instructed his top diplomat to raise the government’s concerns with the Trump administration on the newly created “Board of Peace” set to run the Gaza Strip, according to Ynet.

“The announcement by the US administration regarding the composition of the Gaza Executive Board was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy,” Netanyahu’s office said in the statement, adding that the prime minister had ordered Sa’ar to raise Israel’s objections directly with Rubio.

The dispute centers on the inclusion of senior reps from Turkey and Qatar — two countries Israel accuses of backing Hamas.

However, reports claim that Netanyahu was only posturing “for appearances” as Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls for a “return to war with enormous force,” and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claims that the body is made up of “states that breathed life into Hamas.”

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After PM knocks Trump on Gaza panel, Ben Gvir calls for return to war with ‘overwhelming force’

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls for a full return to war in Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated that the US did not coordinate with Israel on the composition of a key panel intended to play a central role in the Strip’s postwar governance.

The panel, the Gaza Board of Peace’s executive committee, includes top officials from Turkey and Qatar, both of which have been highly critical of Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza. The premier’s office said the unveiling of the board “contradicts” Israeli policy.

“I commend the Prime Minister for his important statement. The Gaza Strip does not need any ‘governing council’ to oversee its ‘rehabilitation’ — it needs to be cleared of Hamas terrorists, who must be eliminated, alongside the encouragement of large-scale voluntary emigration, in accordance with President Trump’s original plan,” writes the far-right minister in a Hebrew-language post on X.

Trump called early last year for the permanent relocation of Gaza’s population and for the US to take over the postwar Strip, but has since abandoned that plan and is focused on implementing the current Gaza peace framework, which calls for Palestinians not to be displaced from Gaza.

Ben Gvir calls on Netanyahu “to instruct the IDF to prepare to return to the fighting in the Strip with overwhelming force, in order to achieve the central objective of the war: the destruction of Hamas.”

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Slow genocide: Death and displacement continue in Gaza months into ceasefire

The ceasefire has stopped most of the bombs, but not the cancer eating away at Najat Sayed al-Hessi’s body.

The 61-year-old Palestinian from Gaza has been waiting for her monthly cancer medications for 27 months, without receiving a single dose.

“Nothing has changed for cancer patients in Gaza since the ceasefire,” she told Middle East Eye, as the disease continues to progress unchecked.

“I had an appointment to travel to Ramallah for my medication and injection on 7 October 2023, the day the war began,” she added from her makeshift tent in Deir al-Balah. “I couldn’t go that day, and I have been waiting ever since.”

Since the war started, medical referrals outside Gaza have stopped, and hospitals in the war-battered enclave are unable to provide even minimal treatment for cancer patients.

“I fear the disease is advancing in my body with each passing day,” al-Hessi said.

Her plight reflects the wider crisis in Gaza, where nearly two million people continue to live under dire conditions three months after the ceasefire.

After two years of Israeli bombardment, much of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and public health system has been destroyed.

People had hoped the October ceasefire would bring some respite and a gradual path to recovery. 

But with continued Israeli restrictions on border crossings, aid, and goods, residents feel the situation has merely shifted from an intense genocide to a slower-paced one.

For those like Al-Hessi, the pause in fighting has brought no pause in suffering.

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Mark Carney to accept role on Trump’s Gaza ‘Board of Peace’

 Prime Minister Mark Carney will accept a role on U.S. President Donald Trump’s newly formed Gaza “Board of Peace,” according to a senior Canadian government official.

Trump will serve as chairman of the board, which includes U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair, and which is designed to oversee the U.S. peace plan to end the war between Israel and Hamas.

According to the Canadian government official, who briefed reporters travelling with Carney in Beijing, the invitation was officially sent on Friday but had been discussed by the two leaders for some time.

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Anti-Defamation League CEO reveals he is working with Ted Cruz to ‘take down’ Tucker Carlson

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has revealed he is working behind the scenes with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx) and others to take down “revolting lunatics” like Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes.

“I think the only way we are going to defeat the rise in antisemitism on the right is from the right,” Greenblatt said during a panel interview at a Los Angeles synagogue on Wednesday.

“Nick Fuentes is disgusting, Tucker Carlson is disgusting, Candace Owens is disgusting, and so on, but there have been good people like Ted Cruz and Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin [and] Speaker [Mike] Johnson pushing back on these revolting lunatics.”

Greenblatt went on to say he was helping the lawmakers and conservative personalities “behind the scenes” in a bid to get social media platforms to crack down on antisemitism and hate-filled speech.

“We definitely are working a lot to try to get the platforms to kind of enforce their own terms of service so that we can pull down the most offensive hate speech or get them to do it,” he said.

“What I try to do at ADL, what we try to do is provide data, is to provide tools, is to step up often quietly behind the scenes.”

Last month, Carlson was named “Antisemite of the Year” by StopAntisemitism, a prominent Jewish civil rights group, for offering platforms to Jew-haters and -bashers on his show.

Carlson has come under fire for interviewing Palestinian pastor Munther Isaac, who refers to Israel as a “terrorist entity,” and Holocaust revisionist Darryl Cooper, who claimed the Nazis didn’t intend to kill Jews.

The political commentator praised Cooper as “the best and most honest popular historian in the United States,” the group said.

The biggest backlash Carlson has faced was hosting Fuentes, with the white nationalist telling the host he was a “fan” of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who promoted policies that discriminated against Jews.

Carlson himself also slammed “Christian Zionists” for supporting Israel, saying they had been “seized by this brain virus” during the chat — singling out former President George W. Bush, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Sen. Cruz.

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