The region is bracing for escalating confrontation after a series of Israeli assassinations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be considered the “chief arsonist in the Middle East,” says American journalist Jeremy Scahill.
Scahill tells host Steve Clemons that Netanyahu “smells blood right now because [United States President] “Joe Biden is a president in decline.” This allows Israel to take more significant measures against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and also drag the United States into a confrontation with Iran, Scahill argues.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdullah Abdullah spoke after Israel claimed responsibility last week for the killings of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas' military wing in Gaza. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, the chief negotiator in talks to broker a ceasefire in Gaza, was also killed in Tehran. Israel is suspected of his killing but has not claimed responsibility.
