HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — California Governor Gavin Newsom agreed Tuesday with the belief that Israel is an “apartheid state.”
He said during a book tour stop in Los Angeles that the country is racially segregated and discriminatory, an idea some people, like Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Friedman, have expressed.
“I mean, Friedman and others are talking about it appropriately – sort of an apartheid state,” Newsom said.
The National News Desk requested comment from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but hasn’t received a response. He has defended his treatment of Palestinians, though, who are at odds with Israel.
Newsom noted during the event, moderated by podcast hosts Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor, that some Israelis want to annex the West Bank, which is disputed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
That want, along with Netanyahu’s political issues, may have influenced the prime minister’s decision to carry out an attack with the U.S. against Iran, according to Newsom. Netanyahu has had some legal issues and faces an election in the fall.
“The issue of Bibi is interesting. Because, he’s got his own domestic issues,” Newsom said. “He’s trying to stay out of jail. He’s got an election coming up. He’s potentially on the ropes. He’s got folks, the hard line, that want to annex the West Bank.”
“They couldn’t even – I mean, we’re talking about regime change?” the governor questioned, referencing Israel’s fatal strike against Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei this past weekend. “For two years, they haven’t even been able to solve the Hamas question in Israel. So this is, I mean, you know, I wanna be careful here, but, you know, in so many ways, that influence in the context of the conversation of where Trump ultimately landed on this is pretty damn self evident.”
Netanyahu, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, has expressed confidence about his political status and described the attack on Iran as a preemptive strike against Israeli enemies. The prime minister said during a Monday visit to the site of an Iranian missile strike that Tehran would target Israel, the U.S. and countries in between.
“And if this regime, this terrorist regime of the kind we’ve never seen in the world, if they get nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them – ballistic missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles – they will threaten all of humanity,” Netanyahu asserted. “So we set out to protect ourselves, but in so doing, we protect many others.”
Iran has accused Israel and the U.S. of disrupting peace around the world. Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a letter to the United Nations on Saturday that the strikes in Tehran were aggressive acts which violated Iranian sovereignty.
Have questions, concerns or tips? Send them to Ray at rjlewis@sbgtv.com.
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