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"It is not possible anymore to stop the Iranian nuclear program with conventional means," the hardline Knesset member and former Israeli defense minister said.
A longtime Israeli lawmaker and former defense minister took to the airwaves and social media on Wednesday to suggest his country should do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
"It is not possible anymore to stop the Iranian nuclear program with conventional means," Avigdor Liberman of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party said during a Channel 12 interview. "And we will have to use all the means that are available to us."
"We will have to stop with the deliberate policy of ambiguity, and it needs to be clear what is at stake here," Liberman continued, apparently referring to Israel's refusal to say whether it has nuclear weapons. "What is at stake here is the future of this nation, the future of the state of Israel, and we will not take any risks."
Member of Knesset and former Minister of Defense, Avigdor Liberman, live on Channel 12, openly calls to use nuclear weapon against Iran, in order to prevent it from reaching weaponization of its nuclear program. What a fuckin' psycho. pic.twitter.com/NYGfQ1zqVp
— B.M. (@ireallyhateyou) July 4, 2024
When pressed on what he meant by stopping Iran with non-conventional means, Liberman said, "I said it very clearly."
"Right now there is no time to stop the Iranian nuclear program, their weaponization, by using conventional means," he added.
Liberman made similar comments on social media, where his remarks sparked alarm and condemnation. The lawmaker's hardline call comes amid powder keg tensions between Tel Aviv and Tehran, which warned last week that any Israeli invasion of Lebanon—from which Iranian ally Hezbollah is resisting Israel's annihilation of Gaza—would trigger an "obliterating war."
According to the Arms Control Association (ACA), a U.S.-based advocacy group, Iran is a "threshold state," meaning "it has developed the necessary capacities to build nuclear weapons."
However, a February 2024 threat assessment report authored by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence stated that "Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities necessary to produce a testable nuclear device."
"Since 2020, however, Tehran has stated that it is no longer constrained by any JCPOA limits," the report says, a reference to so-called Iran Nuclear Deal from which the U.S. unilaterally withdrew in 2018 under former President Donald Trump. "Iran has greatly expanded its nuclear program, reduced [International Atomic Energy Agency] monitoring, and undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so."
Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, although Kamal Kharazi, a foreign policy advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
told the Financial Times earlier this week that his country would "have to change our doctrine" if faced with an existential threat.
The ACA and others estimate that Israel has around 90 nuclear warheads and fissile material for approximately 200 more.
Liberman isn't the first Israeli lawmaker to suggest nuclear war against Iran. Far-right Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi—who sparked outrage by saying Israeli forces are "too humane" in Gaza and should "burn" the Palestinian territory—said in April that "in the event of a conflict with Iran, if we do not receive American ammunition, we will have to use everything we have."
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A longtime Israeli lawmaker and former defense minister took to the airwaves and social media on Wednesday to suggest his country should do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
"It is not possible anymore to stop the Iranian nuclear program with conventional means," Avigdor Liberman of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party said during a Channel 12 interview. "And we will have to use all the means that are available to us."
"We will have to stop with the deliberate policy of ambiguity, and it needs to be clear what is at stake here," Liberman continued, apparently referring to Israel's refusal to say whether it has nuclear weapons. "What is at stake here is the future of this nation, the future of the state of Israel, and we will not take any risks."
Member of Knesset and former Minister of Defense, Avigdor Liberman, live on Channel 12, openly calls to use nuclear weapon against Iran, in order to prevent it from reaching weaponization of its nuclear program. What a fuckin' psycho. pic.twitter.com/NYGfQ1zqVp
— B.M. (@ireallyhateyou) July 4, 2024
When pressed on what he meant by stopping Iran with non-conventional means, Liberman said, "I said it very clearly."
"Right now there is no time to stop the Iranian nuclear program, their weaponization, by using conventional means," he added.
Liberman made similar comments on social media, where his remarks sparked alarm and condemnation. The lawmaker's hardline call comes amid powder keg tensions between Tel Aviv and Tehran, which warned last week that any Israeli invasion of Lebanon—from which Iranian ally Hezbollah is resisting Israel's annihilation of Gaza—would trigger an "obliterating war."
According to the Arms Control Association (ACA), a U.S.-based advocacy group, Iran is a "threshold state," meaning "it has developed the necessary capacities to build nuclear weapons."
However, a February 2024 threat assessment report authored by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence stated that "Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities necessary to produce a testable nuclear device."
"Since 2020, however, Tehran has stated that it is no longer constrained by any JCPOA limits," the report says, a reference to so-called Iran Nuclear Deal from which the U.S. unilaterally withdrew in 2018 under former President Donald Trump. "Iran has greatly expanded its nuclear program, reduced [International Atomic Energy Agency] monitoring, and undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so."
Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, although Kamal Kharazi, a foreign policy advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
told the Financial Times earlier this week that his country would "have to change our doctrine" if faced with an existential threat.
The ACA and others estimate that Israel has around 90 nuclear warheads and fissile material for approximately 200 more.
Liberman isn't the first Israeli lawmaker to suggest nuclear war against Iran. Far-right Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi—who sparked outrage by saying Israeli forces are "too humane" in Gaza and should "burn" the Palestinian territory—said in April that "in the event of a conflict with Iran, if we do not receive American ammunition, we will have to use everything we have."
A longtime Israeli lawmaker and former defense minister took to the airwaves and social media on Wednesday to suggest his country should do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
"It is not possible anymore to stop the Iranian nuclear program with conventional means," Avigdor Liberman of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party said during a Channel 12 interview. "And we will have to use all the means that are available to us."
"We will have to stop with the deliberate policy of ambiguity, and it needs to be clear what is at stake here," Liberman continued, apparently referring to Israel's refusal to say whether it has nuclear weapons. "What is at stake here is the future of this nation, the future of the state of Israel, and we will not take any risks."
Member of Knesset and former Minister of Defense, Avigdor Liberman, live on Channel 12, openly calls to use nuclear weapon against Iran, in order to prevent it from reaching weaponization of its nuclear program. What a fuckin' psycho. pic.twitter.com/NYGfQ1zqVp
— B.M. (@ireallyhateyou) July 4, 2024
When pressed on what he meant by stopping Iran with non-conventional means, Liberman said, "I said it very clearly."
"Right now there is no time to stop the Iranian nuclear program, their weaponization, by using conventional means," he added.
Liberman made similar comments on social media, where his remarks sparked alarm and condemnation. The lawmaker's hardline call comes amid powder keg tensions between Tel Aviv and Tehran, which warned last week that any Israeli invasion of Lebanon—from which Iranian ally Hezbollah is resisting Israel's annihilation of Gaza—would trigger an "obliterating war."
According to the Arms Control Association (ACA), a U.S.-based advocacy group, Iran is a "threshold state," meaning "it has developed the necessary capacities to build nuclear weapons."
However, a February 2024 threat assessment report authored by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence stated that "Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities necessary to produce a testable nuclear device."
"Since 2020, however, Tehran has stated that it is no longer constrained by any JCPOA limits," the report says, a reference to so-called Iran Nuclear Deal from which the U.S. unilaterally withdrew in 2018 under former President Donald Trump. "Iran has greatly expanded its nuclear program, reduced [International Atomic Energy Agency] monitoring, and undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so."
Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, although Kamal Kharazi, a foreign policy advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
told the Financial Times earlier this week that his country would "have to change our doctrine" if faced with an existential threat.
The ACA and others estimate that Israel has around 90 nuclear warheads and fissile material for approximately 200 more.
Liberman isn't the first Israeli lawmaker to suggest nuclear war against Iran. Far-right Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi—who sparked outrage by saying Israeli forces are "too humane" in Gaza and should "burn" the Palestinian territory—said in April that "in the event of a conflict with Iran, if we do not receive American ammunition, we will have to use everything we have."
"What we're focused on are those members who come from states with large Medicaid populations, and who should have the guts to stand up for their constituents," said the founder of Protect Our Care.
With President Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, the GOP is examining numerous ways to offset the revenue loss that's expected from the proposed extension of the 2017 tax cuts—a decision that's expected to cost more than $4 trillion, with wealthy individuals and businesses benefiting the most.
But the advocacy group Protect Our Care, which was founded in 2017 as the first Trump administration faced intense backlash against its effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is now working to ensure that Medicaid cuts are left out of upcoming budget reconciliation talks—and that Republicans who support such cuts face consequences in upcoming elections.
The group on Tuesday launched a $10 million campaign titled "Hands Off Medicaid," with TV and digital ads running nationwide, particularly in states with high numbers of Medicaid enrollees and Republican lawmakers whom Protect Our Care believes could be pressured to defend the program.
"What we're focused on are those members who come from states with large Medicaid populations, and who should have the guts to stand up for their constituents," Leslie Dach, founder of Protect Our Care, told The Washington Post. "This is a campaign designed to stop these cuts from happening in reconciliation."
While the ads will be seen across the nation, reminding lawmakers that 79 million Americans are covered under the healthcare program for low-income people, children, and patients with disabilities, the Republicans who are being particularly targeted include Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan Collins (Maine), Thom Tillis (N.C.), and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Reps. Michael Lawler (N.Y.), Ryan Mackenzie (Pa.), and David Schweikert (Ariz.).
In addition to launching an ad blitz, Protect Our Care is organizing the writing of op-eds and letters to the editor placed by experts, healthcare professionals, and people who rely on Medicaid; grassroots lobbying and meetings with lawmakers; and in-person and virtual events in key states and districts.
While the group shares the stories of people covered by Medicaid, including more than 31 million children, Republicans have been perusing a "menu" of more than $5 trillion in potential spending cuts, including an estimated $2.3 trillion from the healthcare program.
Republicans are considering changes to the program's payment structure that would fund Medicaid based on state population; reintroducing work requirements, which Trump greenlit during his first term; and lowering the rate of federal payments for Medicaid beneficiaries who are covered under the ACA's expansion of the program.
On Monday night, hours after his inauguration, Trump rescinded an executive order signed by former President Joe Biden that made it harder to impose work requirements for Medicaid enrollees.
The advocacy group Social Security Works pointed out ahead of Trump's inauguration that "every member of the U.S. House is on the ballot in two years."
"If they try to cut ONE PENNY from Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, we will make sure that they lose their jobs," said the group.
More than 300 organizations signed a letter earlier this month, as members of Congress were sworn in, warning them that cutting Medicaid "would betray your constituents of all political affiliations who are seeking more economic security, not less."
Dach noted on Tuesday that Republicans are eyeing cuts to social spending after an election in which the party "claimed to care about working people and the cost of living."
"Nothing could be more outrageous than ripping away healthcare from millions of seniors, children, moms, and workers to pay for another round of tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires," said Dach. "The American people didn't vote in November to have their grandparents kicked out of nursing homes or healthcare ripped away from kids with disabilities or expectant moms in order to give [billionaire Trump backer] Elon Musk another tax cut."
"We know firsthand from the campaign to defeat [the] ACA repeal eight years ago, and every healthcare fight since, that healthcare is a top-of-mind issue for Americans—and they want lawmakers to do more to ensure affordable access to coverage, not less," Dach added. "Our 'Hands off Medicaid' campaign will make that abundantly clear and demand that Medicaid cuts are off the table—for good."
"This order is about administering political loyalty tests to everyday employees in the federal workforce," said the president of the National Treasury Employees Union.
A union representing workers across dozens of federal agencies sued the Trump administration late Monday over an executive order stripping many career civil servants of protections designed to insulate them from political pressure.
The lawsuit was filed by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) shortly after President Donald Trump signed an order that reinstated, with some amendments, the "Schedule F" measure he implemented at the tail end of his first White House term—an action that former President Joe Biden reversed.
On Monday, Trump rescinded Biden's order and signed a new one declaring that "any power" federal employees have "is delegated by the president, and they must be accountable to the president." Trump also moved to reverse a Biden administration rule that bolstered protections for career federal workers.
Referring to the new order during a post-inauguration event, Trump said that "we're getting rid of all of the cancer, the cancer caused by the Biden administration."
NTEU national president Doreen Greenwald in a statement that "this order is about administering political loyalty tests to everyday employees in the federal workforce who took an oath to uphold the Constitution and serve their country."
"Trump's order is a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees' due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons."
Restoring Schedule F—which reclassified tens of thousands of federal workers as political appointees, making them easier to terminate—was one of the policy priorities laid out in the Project 2025 agenda crafted by dozens of officials from Trump's first administration. Analysts have argued that Schedule F is illegal.
Vox's Zack Beauchamp warned that "in theory," Trump's restoration of Schedule F "could be as damaging to democracy as the birthright citizenship order—if not more so."
"Schedule F in its original form applied, per some estimates, to somewhere around 50,000 civil servants (and potentially quite a lot more)," Beauchamp noted. "Purging that many people and allowing Trump to replace them with cronies would be a powerful tool for turning the federal government into an extension of his will."
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement Monday that "Trump's order is a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees' due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons."
"This unprecedented assertion of executive power will create an army of sycophants beholden only to Donald Trump, not the Constitution or the American people," Kelley added. "The integrity of the entire federal government could be irreparably harmed if this is not stopped."
"There is no cease-fire for Palestinians," said Palestinian writer Yara Hawari.
Israeli security forces on Tuesday launched an attack on the West Bank city of Jenin, just a day after U.S. President Donald Trump rescinded Biden-era sanctions that were levied on extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank accused of carrying out violence against Palestinians.
Trump moved to overturn the sanctions even after Israeli settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank carried out attacks against Palestinians communities earlier this week. The events highlight the threat of future violence in the West Bank.
A resident of Jenin, Asaad Salim, told the outlet Middle East Eye that the Tuesday attack on Jenin began with Israeli special forces infiltrating a neighborhood in the east of the city. Salim reported Israeli warplanes firing on the city and the Jenin refugee camp and armed clashes took place between Palestinian resistance fighters and the Israeli army, per Middle East Eye.
"There are bodies in the streets, and many people are injured, but no one can reach them. Ambulances can't move due to the intense and sudden assault," Salim told the outlet.
At least eight Palestinians were killed and 35 people were injured, per Reuters, citing Palestinian health services.
"There is no cease-fire for Palestinians," wrote Palestinian writer Yara Hawari, reacting to an Al Jazeera news alert that Israeli forces had attacked the Jenin refugee camp. Her remarks were in reference to a cease-fire deal that went into effect on Sunday, halting hostilities in the war-torn Gaza strip.
The Israeli army and Shin Bet security service announced Tuesday's operation, calling it a counter-terrorism measure codenamed "Iron Wall," according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. It will continue "as long as necessary," the outlet reported.
According to Reuters, Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the operation was the beginning of a "strong and ongoing campaign" against militant groups "for the protection of settlements and settlers." Smotrich earlier had said he was pleased with Trump's decision to lift sanctions on settlers who are accused of violence against Palestinians, per Reuters.
At multiple points last year, Israel launched attacks on Jenin, and just last week Israeli airstrikes killed three people there, according to Palestinian officials. In December, forces with the Palestinian Authority—which administers parts of the West Bank—stormed the Jenin refugee camp and began a crackdown on armed groups in the camp, which has long been a site of armed struggle and resistance to Israel.