Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has quit Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government, saying the prime minister was making ‘total victory impossible.’ 

In announcing his resignation Sunday, Gantz said the government needs to put the return of the hostages seized Oct. 7 by Hamas ‘above political survival.’

‘Months after the October disaster, the situation in the country and in the decision-making cabinet has changed. Netanyahu and his partners have turned unity into a void call who has no cover. Fateful strategic decisions are met with hesitancy and procrastination due to political considerations,’ Gantz said. ‘Netanyahu is preventing us from progressing to a real victory. That is why we are leaving the emergency government today with a heavy heart, but with a whole heart.’

Months after the October disaster, the situation in the country and in the decision-making cabinet has changed. Netanyahu and his partners have turned unity into a void call who has no cover. Fateful strategic decisions are met with hesitancy and procrastination due to political considerations.’

A centrist member of Israel’s three-man war Cabinet and former military chief, Gantz joined Netanyahu’s government shortly after the Hamas attack in a show of unity. His presence also boosted Israel’s credibility with its international partners because of Gantz’s good working relations with U.S. officials.

For now, the move will have no immediate impact on Netanyahu, who still controls a majority in parliament. 

‘This is the time for unity and not for division,’ Netanyahu wrote on X. ‘We must remain united within ourselves in the face of the great tasks before us. I call on Benny Gantz – do not leave the emergency government. Don’t give up on unity.’ 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a right-wing member of Netanyahu’s government, has demanded a spot in the Cabinet, saying Gantz and the smaller Cabinet had bungled the war effort due to ‘dangerous ideological decisions. 

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called Gantz’s decision important and just, arguing that it was time to change the Netanyahu’s government with one that will lead to restore security, hostage releases, and rehabilitation of the economic and international status of Israel. 

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Gantz’s departure should not affect support for a deal to release the remaining hostages. 

‘The Netanyahu Deal is still on the table, and only it can return all the hostages: The living to rehabilitation and the dead to burial,’ read a statement from the Forum. 

Gantz has warned that he would resign by June 8 if Netanyahu did not formulate a new plan for postwar Gaza.

He scrapped a planned news conference Saturday night after four Israeli hostages were rescued from Gaza earlier in the day.

Israel said the hostages – three men and one woman – were rescued in the largest such hostage recovery operation since the eight-month war began.  

Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Shlomi Ziv, 41, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, were rescued in two separate locations in a complex special daytime operation in the heart of Nuseirat in central Gaza. They had been held in captivity by the terrorist group for 246 days.

At least 274 Palestinians, including children, were killed in the assault, Gaza health officials said.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Thousands of anti-Israel protesters raged outside the White House even as Israeli forces conducted a successful hostage rescue operation Saturday.

The protesters argued that Israel has crossed a ‘red line’ of ‘genocide’ in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel explained details of its weeks-long plans for Saturday’s hostage rescue mission, which saved the lives of four Israeli citizens who were captured during Hamas’ October 7 attack.

Protesters remained outraged with President Biden’s policies toward Israel and its conduct in Gaza, however.

‘The intention is to draw a red line where Biden won’t draw one when it comes to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and say we as the people are drawing the red line today to say enough is enough,’ Nas Issa, a protester from the Palestinian Youth Movement, told NBC News. ‘It’s time for an arms embargo, and it’s time to end this.’

Another protester told the outlet that she regrets voting for Biden in 2020 and that she ‘will never vote for him again.’

The IDF said the hostages, three men and one woman, were rescued in the largest such hostage recovery operation since the war with Hamas began in Gaza.

Noa Argamani, 26, was rescued at one site, while Almog Meir Jan, 22, Shlomi Ziv, 41, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, were taken from the second location. Argamani has been one of the most widely recognized hostages since video of her abduction was among the first to surface. She can be seen in the video between two men on a motorcycle with one arm outstretched and the other held down as she screams, ‘Don’t kill me!’

Officers of the National Police special anti-terror unit of Yamam along with Shin Bet agents simultaneously raided two Hamas buildings to pluck the hostages to safety. Argamani was rescued at one site, while Meir Jan, Kozlov, and Ziv were at the second location.

During the operation, Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora, an officer in the special anti-terror unit of Yamam, was critically injured and later died.

Protesters outside the White House, meanwhile, chanted slogans against Zionism and appeared to call for Israel to be wiped off the map.

‘We don’t want no two state, we’re taking back ’48,’ protesters could be heard chanting. The slogan refers to the year in which Israel was established following a UN partition plan that would have also created a Palestinian state. Instead, Arab nations attacked Israel, and after being defeated, Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip and Jordan controlled the West Bank.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates said President Biden respects protesters’ rights to be heard, but that any endorsement of terrorism was unacceptable.

‘President Biden has always been clear that every American has the right to peacefully express their views,’ Bates said. ‘But he has also always been clear that antisemitism, violent rhetoric, and endorsing murderous terrorist organizations like Hamas is repugnant, dangerous, and against everything we stand for as a country.’

Fox News’ Michael Dorgan contributed to this report

First lady Jill Biden flew from France to Delaware for one day on Friday to support stepson Hunter Biden in his trial before returning to Europe for the president’s state visit with the French president — all at U.S. taxpayer expense.

The 73-year-old accompanied President Biden to Normandy this week to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, before she flew back stateside for Hunter’s gun trial. 

The first lady was back in France on Saturday for a state visit with Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron. 

On Friday, Biden and Macron met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris.

Hunter Biden is accused in his federal trial of lying about his drug addiction on a form he filled out to get a gun and illegally possessing a gun. 

The first lady has attended the trial every day this week except Thursday.  

In a 2022 interview, the first lady referred to herself as Hunter’s ‘mom’ while speaking about his investigation. 

‘I mean, I have to support him and love him, and, you know, I’m constantly talking to him, sending him texts; ‘How you doing?’ Because it’s tough,’ she said, according to The New York Times. 

The modified Boeing 747s that serve as the iconic Air Force One cost about $200,000 per hour to fly and Air Force Two, often used by first ladies, can cost tens of thousands of dollars per hour. 

Prosecutors on Friday rested their case accusing Hunter Biden of lying when he swore that he was not a drug user on a federal form to buy a gun in October 2018. The defense could call at least one more witness when the trial resumes on Monday before lawyers make their closing arguments.

Biden has pleaded not guilty 

The president is not expected to attend his son’s trial. 

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was gifted four concert tickets by pop superstar Beyoncé valued at $3,700, according to a financial disclosure. 

The Biden appointee also disclosed a $900,000 advance for her upcoming memoir ‘Lovely One’ out in September, and two gifts of artwork in her chambers worth $12,500. 

The disclosures were part of an annual filing deadline for the justices, which all met except for Samuel Alito who asked for an extension, according to The Hill. The filing covered all of 2023. 

While Jackson’s filing didn’t specify which concert she received the tickets for, it was during Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance World Tour.’

Vice President Kamala Harris also previously filed that she was gifted tickets by Beyoncé, valuing them at $3,300, according to CNBC. 

Last year, Jackson, who was appointed to the court in 2022, also had a couple of eye-popping filings, including more than $6,500 in clothes from a photo shoot and a $1,200 flower display from Oprah Winfrey, according to The Hill. 

Justice Clarence Thomas also amended his 2019 filing to reveal two trips to Indonesia and Sonoma County, California, that he said were paid for by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow after they were ‘inadvertently omitted’ initially. 

Justice Brett Kavanaugh also reported being paid $340,000 by Regnery Publishing company. The court confirmed Friday that he is writing a legal memoir.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A Yale Law professor suggests there is another strategy former President Donald Trump’s legal team could pursue to limit the impact of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case on the 2024 presidential election, after a New York jury found the former president guilty of 34 felony counts of falsified business records.

In a newly-created podcast, titled Straight Down the Middle, Yale Law Professor Jed Rubenfeld took a look at what legal options Trump’s defense team have been left with following the jury’s verdict, as well as the appeal process that is slated to soon take place.

The most obvious path for Trump’s legal team to take in an effort to challenge the conviction is that of an appeal through the New York Appeals Court system in hopes of ending up at the Supreme Court – a process that Rubenfeld argued will take years to complete and could result in ‘irreparable harm.’

‘Of course that would take years, and that’s a problem here. Why is it a problem? It’s a problem because the election will have taken place and if this conviction is unlawful and unconstitutional, it could have an effect on that election,’ Rubenfeld, a Constitutional law professor, said on his podcast.

Pointing to surveys that show a ‘substantial number’ of voters from the American electorate who say they will still vote for Trump in the upcoming presidential election if he is a convicted felon, Rubenfeld said, ‘If that’s true, an unlawful conviction in this case could interfere with, and in fact decide the outcome of, the next election of the next President of the United States.’

‘Even if the conviction were reversed on appeal years later, that effect could not be undone. In legal terms, that’s called irreparable harm,’ Rubenfeld said.

If the conviction were to be reversed on appeal down the road, Rubenfeld suggested that Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan would have ‘unlawfully interfered with the election and decided the outcome of the next election through unconstitutional means.’

‘And no years-long appeal could have any effect on that,’ he added.

Despite media reports, Rubenfeld insisted that it’s ‘not true’ that Trump is already a ‘convicted felon,’ arguing that one is ‘not a convicted felon because of a jury verdict.’

‘You are not convicted until the judge enters that judgment of guilt. Now, in New York, it’s very likely that Judge Merchan will enter that judgment of guilt against Trump on the same day that he issues sentencing. That’d be July 11th.’

Rubenfeld insisted there’s ‘one other avenue’ Trump’s attorneys could take in combating the conviction — to sue in federal court and ‘ask for an emergency, temporary restraining order.’

Outlining what that effort would look like, Rubenfeld said: ‘In this federal action, Trump would sue District Attorney Bragg and other state actors and ask the judge, the federal judge, for an emergency temporary restraining order halting Judge Merchan from entering that judgment of guilt until the federal courts have had an opportunity to review and rule out the serious constitutional arguments that exist here.’

Rubenfeld, expressing concern over how it’s a ‘bad look for this country’ to criminally target former presidents for ‘unclear’ crimes, also outlined what he believed to be problems with the case surrounding Trump.

‘Going after, criminally, a former president of the United States and somebody who is running for president now, that’s a very bad look for this country,’ he said. ‘It’s an especially bad look when the folks bringing the case and the judge deciding it are members of the opposing political party. And it’s an even worse look when the crime is so unclear that the state is hiding the ball about what the actual charges are right up through the trial and indeed into the trial.’

”Even now, we don’t know exactly what the jury found Trump guilty of,’ Rubenfeld added.

Rubenfeld said those who criminally target members of opposing political parties, in this case Trump, the ‘poll-leading candidate,’ then they ‘better have the goods.’

‘You better not be pursuing some novel legal theory where you have to hide the ball [and] it’s not even clear what the charges are,’ he said. ‘That could be a very dangerous precedent for this country. A very bad and dangerous precedent.’

‘That’s why it’s so important for a federal court to review the constitutionality of this prosecution and decide was it constitutional or was it not,’ he added. ‘The only way to achieve that before the election takes place is for the Trump team to file an action in federal court and ask the federal court to temporarily hold off the entry of the judgment of guilt until the federal courts, and maybe the Supreme Court itself, can, on an emergency basis, adjudicate the likelihood of success of these constitutional arguments.’

If that doesn’t happen, Rubenfeld said, then ‘that ‘irreparable harm’ danger that I mentioned before, well, that’s where we are.’

‘But if it does happen, the nation could get a ruling from the federal courts, even the Supreme Court of the United States, before the election takes place,’ he said. ‘Maybe that’s what the nation needs, and maybe that’s what the law requires here.’

Last week, at his trial in Manhattan, Trump was found guilty by the jury on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election.

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 and could be sent to prison, just days before the Republican National Convention is slated to take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

President Biden was criticized by conservatives Friday over a speech at France’s Pointe du Hoc marking the anniversary of D-Day that they said closely resembled a speech former President Reagan delivered there 40 years ago.

‘Unreal,’ Young Americans for Liberty posted on X on Friday. ‘It appears that Biden’s D-Day speech is just a paraphrase of Reagan’s D-Day speech.’

‘Joe Biden essentially plagiarized Ronald Reagan’s famous 1984 speech at Pointe du Hoc today in Normandy,’ OutKick Founder Clay Travis posted on X. ‘Watch these clips side by side. Wow.’

‘Biden camp tries to make Biden sound like Reagan,’ former Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker posted on X. ‘But he wasn’t a great communicator just because of the words he said. He was a great communicator because he believed what he said and he made us believe it too. Joe Biden will never be as great a leader as Ronald Reagan!’

Walker went on to say in another post, ‘Biden had to drop out of the presidential race 37 years ago for this kind of plagiarism. He should drop out again.’

‘Why would he do this?’ former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen posted on X. ‘Why invite a direct comparison with Reagan with whom no president could ever compete in telling this story, much less one as inarticulate as Biden?’

‘Joe Biden: Once a plagiarist, always a plagiarist,’ conservative communicator Steve Guest posted on X.

Both speeches similarly described the events of the D-Day invasion, and videos circulating on social media showed clips of the two speeches side by side.

‘At last the hour had come. Dawn. Sixth of June, 1944,’ Biden began, similar to Reagan’s speech, in which he said, ‘At dawn on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944.’

Biden said, ‘Two hundred and twenty-five American Rangers arrived by ship, jumped into the waves and stormed the beach,’ compared to Reagan who said, ‘Two hundred and twenty-five Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs.’

‘They launched their ladders, their ropes and grappling hooks, and they began to climb,’ Biden said, compared to Reagan who said, ‘They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up.’

‘When the Nazis cut their ladders, the Rangers used the ropes, and the Nazis cut the ropes,’ Biden said. ‘The Rangers used their hands.’

Reagan’s speech said, ‘When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again.’

Biden continued, ‘And inch by inch, foot by foot, yard by yard, the Rangers clawed, literally clawed their way up this mighty precipice until at last they reached the top.’

Reagan said, ‘Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top.’

‘They breached Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, and they turned, in that one effort, the tide of the war that began to save the world,’ Biden said.

‘And in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe,’ Reagan said. 

Days before Biden’s speech, Politico Playbook reported, ‘Biden Seeks His Gipper Moment. [Aides] have studied the Reagan trip closely and are looking to similarly capture the attention of a distracted, disillusioned public and remind them of how much is still at stake.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response.

Travis later defended his post against an article from the left-leaning outlet Mediaite that argued Biden was not plagiarizing or copying Reagan in the speech but rather detailing what happened during the invasion. 

In his speech, Biden repeatedly referenced an ‘instinct’ to ‘walk away’ from democracy while discussing the heroics of the Army Rangers who scaled Pointe du Hoc more than 80 years ago on D-Day. 

‘We talk about democracy, American democracy. We often talk about the ideals of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. What we don’t talk about is how hard it is, how many ways we’re asked to walk away, how many instincts there are to walk away,’ Biden said. ‘The most natural instinct is to walk away.’