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President Joe Biden’s rigid pro-Israel stance would have been considered convention for United States policy 50 years ago.

“It’s not a mainstream position any more,” says Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.

Alterman tells host Steve Clemons that Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel, and Israel’s continuing destruction of the Gaza Strip, will force major changes in the political leadership of Palestinians and Israelis.

There will be no progress unless Israel makes way for a solution “that gives dignity and some sense of self-determination to the Palestinians,” says Alterman.

Israel’s beleaguered prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has bowed to pressure after a five-day march by families of hostages taken by Hamas and thousands of supporters.

He has finally agreed to meet the families along with his war cabinet on Monday.

A huge march set off from Tel Aviv on Tuesday, arriving in Jerusalem on Saturday, with thousands joining them on the way.

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Among them was Dr Guy Halfteck, who told Sky News it should never have been needed.

“It should not have required a march of 80km (50 miles) with people suffering and families suffering only to get a meeting with the prime minister,” he said.

Shelley Shemtov’s 21-year-old son Omer was taken by Hamas at the music festival near Gaza on 7 October. The last month and a half has been unbearable, she said.

“It’s 43 days of nightmare. We don’t sleep, we don’t eat. I don’t know (if) my son (is) eating, if they are giving him food or if they are beating him. I know nothing. It’s a nightmare.”

Asked if marching with thousands of others soothed her pain, she said: “Very much. It’s a power. They are giving us power.”

They were here with a message for the Israeli government. Moran Mina, whose grandmother is being held, said there should be only one Israeli mission in Gaza.

“The message is that there will be victory,” she said. “We already lost. We have 240 people in Gaza. We need to bring them all back and this is our victory.”

In a moment of haunting poignancy they released balloons, one for every hostage still missing. The mood was sombre, with a sense of deep sadness and pain. But also of determination that their voices are heard and their loved ones are not forgotten.

Read more:
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The march, which ended outside Mr Netanyahu’s office, adds to the pressure on Israel’s beleaguered leader.

Ariel Tishbi told Sky News the prime minister should take the hint and stand down: “Our prime minister doesn’t belong here. He lost his credit long ago and what happened in the last year is horrible and led to these events. No, I’m sorry, Mr Netanyahu should go home.”

By the end of the day, there was another huge rally in Tel Aviv, keeping up the pressure on the prime minister – pressure he seems to be bowing to, agreeing to the meeting with the families who will use it to press their case.

About 170,000 took to the streets, a day after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was sworn in for a second term.

Tens of thousands of protesters have marched through Madrid in opposition to a controversial Catalan amnesty law that enabled Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to form a government for a second term.

Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) secured the backing of the Catalan separatist Junts party by offering amnesty to those linked to a botched bid for regional independence six years ago.

According to the authorities, more than 170,000 took part in Saturday’s protest, the largest yet against the deal, which has prompted the opposition to take to the streets in cities across the country.

Sanchez was sworn in on Friday, nearly four months after an inconclusive election left the country with a hung parliament. The conservative main opposition People’s Party (PP) won the largest share of the vote, however, the right-wing coalition with the far-right Vox party failed to secure the absolute majority needed to form a government.

Protesters waved Spanish flags and held signs that read “Sanchez traitor” and “Don’t sell Spain”.

Four judicial associations, opposition political parties and business leaders say the law threatens the rule of law and the separation of powers.

PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo and Santiago Abascal, head of Vox, were among the demonstrators.

After the rally, hundreds of people protested on the motorway near the Moncloa Palace, the prime minister’s residence in Madrid. The A6 road was closed for about an hour during the protest but later reopened after the police cleared the area.

A small protest was held outside the Spanish Embassy in London.

Approximately 400 people involved in the independence bid that came to a head in 2017 will benefit from the law, including both separatists and police involved in clashes with activists.

Among them is former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, the leader of Junts and the brains behind the illegal referendum, who today lives in exile in Belgium.

The independence referendum was declared illegal by the courts and resulted in Spain’s worst political crisis for decades.

The amnesty will be the largest in Spain since the 1977 blanket amnesty for crimes committed during the Francisco Franco dictatorship, and the first amnesty law approved in the European Union since 1991, according to Spain’s CSIC research council.

Sanchez, who won a parliamentary vote to form a new government on Thursday by 179 votes in favour and 171 against, has defended the law saying an amnesty would help to defuse tensions in Catalonia. Some of his ministers, including PSOE senior official Felix Bolanos, have hailed the legislation as a way to “heal wounds and resolve the existing political conflict” in the region.

Protesters, including neo-Nazi groups, have held demonstrations outside the Socialist party’s headquarters in Madrid for 15 consecutive nights since the deal was announced, leading to violent clashes with police and arrests.

In a survey by pollster Metroscopia in mid-September, approximately 70 percent of respondents – 59 percent of them Socialist supporters – said they were against the idea of an amnesty.

A group of 15 Palestinians, including eight children and their families, arrived in Abu Dhabi, UAE, by plane for treatment after being evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt, according to the Reuters news agency.

A few of the seats on the plane were removed to make room for the most critically wounded children, who needed to lie on stretchers. Some children had bandaged arms and legs. Some sat quietly next to their parents or relatives, while others travelled alone.

Mohammed Abu Tabikh, 14, was one of the more seriously wounded children on the flight. He suffered injuries to his neck and spine when a car he was travelling in was hit in an attack.

“When I got injured, I felt shock. And then I stopped moving,” he said.

The patients, including some with critical injuries and a cancer patient, were the first to arrive after President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed pledged to treat 1,000 in UAE hospitals. Daily flights are expected to bring more in.

The unwavering United States support for Israel’s all-out assault on Palestinians in Gaza is shifting global perceptions.

Several analysts and Arab leaders have warned that Washington risks severe reputational damage in the region if it continues to back Israel – whose forces bomb hospitals, schools and refugee camps.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has been criticised for failing to pressure Israel to declare a ceasefire.

The US is no longer the world’s only superpower. The emergence of several new alliances could challenge US dominance.

So, where does this leave the US on the international stage?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Rami Khouri – Issam Fares Institute distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut and author of, A US Pivot Away from the Middle East: Fact or Fiction?

Samuel Ramani – Associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and a military and geopolitical analyst

James F Jeffrey – Former US ambassador to Iraq and Turkey, and chairperson of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center