Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 07-08/2023
Israeli bombing injures students at educational institute in southern Lebanon
A 'new phase:' The beginning of action following investigations into Israeli attack killing Issam Abdallah
Lebanon's Foreign Ministry condemns Israeli settlers' crimes in the West Bank, urges international action
Hezbollah mourns two members from Hermel amid ongoing conflict
Jumblatt's meeting with Hezbollah delegation: Delving into Resolution 1701 and military leadership
Report: US exploring possibility of Lebanon-Israel land border deal
Gallant vows to drive Hezbollah beyond Litani River
Israel-Hezbollah border skirmishes: Latest developments
Report: Paris warns South clashes may endanger entire Lebanon
Will Macron visit south Lebanon?
Rahi urges homeland protection, advocates for two-state solution
Al-Rahi from the South: We want peace
Anti-tank missile kills Israeli on Lebanon border
Rights groups say Israeli strikes on journalists in Lebanon were likely deliberate
Reuters Investigation Concludes Israeli Tank Fire Killed Lebanese Staffer & Calls On Israel For Explanation
Lebanon will add Reuters, AFP reports to U.N. complaint-statement
UNICEF and Japan reconstruct Health Ministry's warehouse in Karantina
Berri meets Teymour Jumblatt with delegation, receives Caretaker Tourism Minister, "Strong Leban

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 07-08/2023
US has not given Israel firm deadline to end Gaza operation -White House aide
Strikes on Rafah sow fear in last area to which people can flee
Fatah in freefall as Hamas and Israel wage war
Israel says Sinwar hiding underground as Netanyahu says his house encircled
Israeli foreign minister sharply criticizes UN chief
Son of Israeli minister killed in Gaza battles -statement
Gaza has gone 'far beyond' a humanitarian crisis -medical charity MSF
US still wants Israel-Saudi normalization, top envoy says
Abbas to US Envoy: Solution Lies in Assuming Full Responsibility in the West Bank, Gaza
UN: Gazans Living in ‘Utter, Deepening Horror’
Mosque decision points to possible Sinwar escape route
Hamas attack plans, including map of IDF base, suggest espionage
UN aid chief cites 'promising signs' in talks to open Gaza crossing
Two months of war in Gaza leave elderly and newborns destitute and displaced
IDF continues to push into Khan Yunis, Jabalia
Joly condemns Hamas rapes of Israeli women after weeks of pressure
US asks Israel not to respond to Houthi attacks
US imposes sanctions on Iran-backed network funding Yemen's Houthis
Who are the Houthis and why hasn't the US retaliated for their attacks on ships?
Russian girl, 14, shoots dead classmate, commits suicide
Iran's Raisi tells Putin in Moscow that West backs Gaza "genocide"

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 07-08/2023
Israel cannot outsource its future to the PA/Daniel Tauber/JNS/December 7, 2023
Hamas on Campus: Students for Justice in Palestine/Robert Williams/Gatestone Institute./December 7, 2023
The Second Round of the War on Gaza and its Horizons/Dr. Nassif Hitti/Asharq Al-Awsat/December 07/2023
Gaza war shifts Russia’s Middle East relations/Faisal Al Yafai/The Arab Weekly/December 07/2023
Why the world is watching the fate of EU-Latin America talks/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/December 07, 2023
Israel-Palestine war multiplies Arab suspicions of the West/Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/December 07, 2023
Can Mansour Abbas convince Palestinian factions to lay down their arms?/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/December 07, 2023
UNICEF faces major challenges 77 years on/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/December 07, 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 07-08/2023
Israeli bombing injures students at educational institute in southern Lebanon
Arab News/December 07, 2023
BEIRUT: Several students were left injured after Israeli shelling on Thursday struck an educational institution in the southern Lebanese town of Qunin. The attack came amid ongoing border exchanges between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. Qunin, in Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil district, is 120 km from Beirut but not directly on the border. It was hit by a series of explosions, and videos posted on social media showed rockets landing in the town and residents running for safety.Witnesses claimed smoke bombs were followed by artillery shelling. The Israeli army said that Israeli Air Force fighter jets “hit a series of targets for Hezbollah on Lebanese territory, including terrorist infrastructure, missile launch sites, and Hezbollah’s military outposts. “A number of shootings were spotted from Lebanese territory toward Israeli territory earlier in the day, prompting the army to attack the sources of the shooting.”
Lebanese Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said: “The Israeli criminality is unlimited, and this is what we are witnessing in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.”Mikati’s statement came as part of his comments on the results of an investigation conducted by global media institutions, which held Israel accountable for targeting a group of journalists in southern Lebanon on Oct. 13, killing Reuters photographer Issam Abdallah, and wounding six others. On Thursday morning, the outskirts of the towns of Hula, Markaba, Alma Al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, Al-Dhahira, and Majdel Selm were also the target of Israeli artillery shelling. And one person was taken to Marjayoun Governmental Hospital for treatment to injuries following Israeli bombing of Hamams Hill in Sarda. Other areas targeted included Wadi Saluki, Wadi Hamul, Ramyah, Bayt Lif, and the outskirts of the predominantly Christian border town of Rmeish.
The Israeli army reportedly fired six phosphorus shells toward Wadi Qatamoun while Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi was touring the south of the country. During stops at two churches in Tyre, Al-Rahi said: “This solidarity visit, in light of the difficult circumstances, is a humanitarian duty in the face of the horrors of what is happening, and it is for the sake of peace, especially since this region is paying the price of war. “This war is devastating, not only in Gaza, but it is a war outside all civilization and humanitarian laws. “We came to declare that without peace, there is no life, and every human has a role, and we refuse to distort humanity’s role.
“We want to stand against hatred, malice, and hostility, as we are brothers. This is the true Lebanese culture and the true ecclesiastical spiritual culture. “In our spiritual and Lebanese culture, we do not accept that the Palestinian cause be erased in a moment, but we strive for permanent peace.
“The two-state solution is required, and it is what achieves peace, and we will work to be peacemakers. “In Lebanon, we stand firm in our unity, and we know that our enemy always aspires to annex lands from Lebanon, and this has been its ambition for a long time. “We are witnessing a war of extermination, with no mercy, and we cannot watch the destruction of a people. “It is a programmed, destructive war. There are voices worldwide, but they do not result in stances that alleviate people’s suffering. The Palestinian people have the right to decide their fate,” Al-Rahi added.
Officials from the Disaster Risk Management Unit in the Union of Tyre Municipalities said 20,000 newly displaced people from southern villages had been registered as of Wednesday and housed in five shelter centers in Tyre, adding that hundreds of other displaced people had not yet registered with the unit. Unit managers noted they were being hampered in their work by a lack of available resources, especially as around 40 villages in the border area were unsafe for civilians. Hezbollah continued to target Israeli military outposts on Thursday. In a statement, the militant group said: “The vicinity of the Branit outpost was hit by a guided missile and many ambulances for the Israeli enemy were spotted moving in the area.”Hezbollah added that it also targeted, “the site of Al-Marj, the Ramim forest, and the Mitat barracks with appropriate weapons, achieving direct hits, as well as the site of Ma’ayan Baruch with appropriate weapons, causing direct hits.”

A 'new phase:' The beginning of action following investigations into Israeli attack killing Issam Abdallah
LBCI/December 7, 2023
It is the actions of Israel, the state that claims democracy and fails to distinguish between stones and humans. These are scenes of what the Israeli army did. It targeted and "cold-bloodedly" killed journalists in southern Lebanon who were just doing their job. Reuters and Agence France-Presse prepared reports in collaboration with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The investigations will not bring back Issam Abdallah and his friends, but they, at the least, offer a glimmer of hope for justice, even if partial. These investigations mark the beginning of action for the next phase.
International organizations and media institutions that reported on what happened have fulfilled their duty. What about governments and states? And after all these investigations were carried out by associations and institutions, what about the Lebanese state?
Military sources confirmed to LBCI that the army identified the incident's location, and since then, the Internal Security Forces have taken over the investigations under the supervision of the judiciary. The Israelis managed to kill Issam and injure his friends, but what they cannot eliminate is the courage of Lebanese journalists eager to reveal the truth and expose war crimes. The "ball" is now in the "court" of the Lebanese state, the Lebanese, and the international judiciary. Issam is a martyr for all of us, and Farah Omar and Rabih Maamari are also our martyrs. Is there anyone in Lebanon who will seek justice for them and us as journalists?

Lebanon's Foreign Ministry condemns Israeli settlers' crimes in the West Bank, urges international action
LBCI/December 7, 2023
Lebanon's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned, in a statement, "the criminal acts committed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, escalating significantly in recent weeks without any restraint or accountability from the Israeli occupation state and the international community."These acts have led to the death of approximately a thousand Palestinian residents of the West Bank during the current year. The ministry also denounced the "Israeli occupation forces' decision to establish a new settlement on occupied East Jerusalem lands, expand settlements, forcibly seize Palestinian lands, demolish Palestinian homes, evict their inhabitants, and take steps aimed at forced displacement of the population."These provocative actions, according to the ministry, represent blatant violations of international law and international resolutions, particularly UN Security Council Resolution 2334 issued in 2016, which deems settlement activities illegal in all occupied Palestinian territories. The ministry called on the international community to "urgently act to stop Israel's unilateral and illegal measures aimed at undermining all opportunities and initiatives seeking to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in our region and compel Israel to respect international legitimacy." "These aggressive actions coincide with the fierce war on the Gaza Strip, systematically destroying it and claiming the lives and injuries of thousands of civilians, especially children, women, and the elderly," it said.

Hezbollah mourns two members from Hermel amid ongoing conflict
LBCI/December 7, 2023
As the conflict in Gaza and southern Lebanon continues, Hezbollah has mourned on Thursday Hatem Ali Jaafar, “Kazem,” and Imad Mohammad Al-Rashaini, “Abou Al-Fadel,” from the town of Hermel in the Bekaa.

Jumblatt's meeting with Hezbollah delegation: Delving into Resolution 1701 and military leadership
LBCI/December 7, 2023
Several files were discussed during the meeting between the former leader of the Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, and a Hezbollah delegation, which included the political assistant to the Secretary-General of the party, Haj Hussein Khalil, and the head of the liaison unit, Wafiq Safa. The party's delegation responded to Jumblatt's invitation to the meeting, which focused on two main points:
The first one is the UN Resolution 1701 and the necessity of its implementation.
According to LBCI information, Jumblatt heard Israeli threats during his meeting with the Director of French Intelligence, Bernard Emie, in Beirut this week in the presence of Deputy Wael Abu Faour. The threats were that nothing would prevent Tel Aviv from opening a war on Lebanon.
He also heard advice from Emie, which Jumblatt conveyed to Hezbollah. The advice summarizes that Paris calls for implementing Resolution 1701 to avoid escalation in the south. France is also attempting to initiate negotiations, even indirectly, to implement Resolution 1701. According to some sources, a high-level French delegation from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense will discuss the file in Israel on Thursday and in Lebanon on Friday. However, Jumblatt, alongside Khalil and Safa, called for adhering to the international resolution and not providing any pretext for Israel to launch any aggression against Lebanon. The Hezbollah delegation, which carried a letter of appreciation from the party's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for Jumblatt's non-sectarian national stances, confirmed, regarding Resolution 1701, that the priority is to spare Lebanon from war. However, the ultimate decision lies in the field. The second point is the extension of the Army Commander's term.. This file was smoothly discussed in the meeting as Jumblatt raised it, urging the extension to preserve the military institution. However, the Hezbollah delegation did not give a final answer but expressed concern for the army and emphasized the good relationship with General Joseph Aoun.

Report: US exploring possibility of Lebanon-Israel land border deal
Naharnet/December 7, 2023
The U.S. is examining the possibility of an agreement between Israel and Lebanon on the land border between them, similar to the maritime border agreement signed in 2022, Israeli officials have said. The same sources told Israel’s Yedioth Aharonot newspaper that a senior White House official, Amos Hochstein, who was a key mediator in the maritime border deal and has been working on reducing the chance of escalation on the border since October 7, is examining the possibility of devising a similar mechanism to reach an agreement on the land border disputes between Lebanon and Israel. These disputes refer, among other things, to the Shebaa Farms area, which Lebanon says is Lebanese territory occupied by Israel. The formal purpose of such an agreement would be to regulate the border issues, which are the official argument that Hezbollah makes against Israel in the domestic Lebanese arena. But senior Israeli officials said that, in fact, the goal is to permanently remove Hezbollah from the border by "powerful" diplomatic means, so that Israel is “not forced to be dragged into a military campaign on the northern border.” The Biden administration has made it clear to Israel that it would not support an Israeli pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah, and President Joe Biden went out of his way to launch a credible threat aimed at detering Hezbollah from expanding the war it is already waging against Israel. This evening Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant held a tense meeting with the heads of the Israeli communities that lie on and near the frontline with Lebanon. The minister promised them that Hezbollah would be driven beyond the Litani River, either by political or military means. Only after Hezbollah is removed from the border will the residents of the Israeli north be returned to their homes, he said.
Last week Minister Gallant infuriated the residents of the north when he said that they will soon be able to return to their homes since Hezbollah is “deterred and removed from the border.” Now he made it clear that the war “will not end without the removal of Hezbollah,” Yedioth Aharonot said.

Gallant vows to drive Hezbollah beyond Litani River
Naharnet/December 7, 2023
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday evening vowed to drive Hezbollah away from the border with Israel beyond the Litani River. After concluding a highly tense meeting with the heads of frontline communities along the Lebanon border, Gallant assured them that the approximately 80,000 residents living within 9 kilometers of the border will not return to their homes until security in the area is restored. Gallant emphasized the preference for an international political agreement to ensure Hezbollah is pushed beyond the Litani River, based on U.N. Resolution 1701, which ended the war with Hezbollah in 2006. However, he noted, if this primary option fails, Israel will use all available means, including military action, to remove Hezbollah from that area.

Israel-Hezbollah border skirmishes: Latest developments
Naharnet/December 7, 2023
Israeli forces shelled and carried out air strikes on southern Lebanon Thursday, with Hezbollah also claiming several attacks on Israeli troops and positions. Hezbollah said it has targeted the Ramim barracks, al-Marj military post, Hadb al-Bustan, al-Jerdah, Bayyad Blida, Ma'ayan Baruch and a group of soldiers in the Mattat barracks. All targets on Israeli military positions were direct hits, Hezbollah said in a statement. Israeli media reported one death in Mattat. The Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of Tayrharfa, Dhaira, Alma al-Shaab, Markaba, Kounine, Rmeish and Wadi Slouki and an Israeli drone targeted the outskirts of Majdal Selem. On Wednesday, Hezbollah claimed 11 attacks on Israeli positions and said the attacks inflicted casualties. More than 110 people have been killed on the Lebanese side since October, mostly Hezbollah fighters and more than a dozen civilians. Israel says six of its soldiers and three Israeli civilians have been killed.

Report: Paris warns South clashes may endanger entire Lebanon
Naharnet/December 7, 2023
Lebanese officials have received warnings from France over the past hours, al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted “credible sources” as saying. “France fears greatly for Lebanon, especially that the Lebanese south region has become closer than ever to descending into harsh confrontations that would endanger the rest of the country,” the sources said. “Lebanon must exert effort to avoid” such an escalation, the sources added. The Nidaa al-Watan newspaper meanwhile quoted reports as saying that "France is actually preparing for the mission of U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein for the implementation of Resolution 1701 in return for a withdrawal from Kfarshouba, Ghajar and the Shebaa Farms." "It is a partner in this settlement and it is seeking to secure its success," the reports said. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, but also Palestinian groups. More than 110 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, mostly Hezbollah fighters and more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally, since fighting began in October. On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, Israeli authorities have said.

Will Macron visit south Lebanon?
Naharnet/December 7, 2023
A new French security delegation will arrive in Beirut over the next two days, following the visit carried out by French intelligence chief Bernard Emie days ago, Annahar newspaper reported on Thursday. “Meetings have been scheduled with several officials,” the daily added. Moreover, Annahar said that French President Emmanuel Macron might visit south Lebanon to inspect the French contingent operating within the UNIFIL peacekeeping force, despite the ongoing cross-border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah. “Every year, the French president visits French forces deployed abroad during the Christmas period, and Lebanon is among the countries that he might visit, knowing that no final decision has been taken until the moment and that he might end up visiting another country,” the daily added. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, but also Palestinian groups. More than 110 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, mostly Hezbollah fighters and more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally, since fighting began in October. On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, Israeli authorities have said.

Rahi urges homeland protection, advocates for two-state solution
NNA/December 7, 2023
Maronite Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi on Thursday began a solidarity visit to clashes-hit south Lebanon by praying at the Our Lady of the Seas Cathedral in the city of Tyre. "This solidarity visit, amid difficult circumstances, is a humanitarian duty in the face of the enormity of what is happening and is for the sake of peace [...] We can only come to Tyre to say to all our people in the south that we are with you and stand by you,” Al-Rahi stated. "We are keen to come to preserve our unity in its diversity, and this war is destructive not only in Gaza but is a war outside all civilization and humanitarian laws. We came to declare peace. Without peace, there is no life, and every human has a role, and we do not accept to distort humanity's role,” he noted. "We want to stand against hatred and hostility as brothers. This is the true Lebanese culture, and this is the true spiritual and ecclesiastical culture,” Al-Rahi continued. "All towns are experiencing the consequences of the war on Gaza, and the residents of southern towns have been forced to leave their homes. We salute all the towns and residents who are our brothers and our people, and we call for the protection of the homeland,” Al-Rahi urged. "We must work for the Palestinian cause, which is 75 years old [...] we do not accept this cause to be erased quickly but seek permanent peace,” he stated. The Patriarch emphasized that the two-state solution is required and achieves peace, and they will work to be peacemakers. -- Kataeb. org

Al-Rahi from the South: We want peace
Naharnet/December 7, 2023
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Thursday kicked off a solidarity visit to clashes-hit south Lebanon by praying at the Our Lady of the Seas Cathedral in the city of Tyre. “The war is not limited to Gaza and we fear its expansion,” al-Rahi said. “We want peace and we will visit the Muslim and Christian leaders in the city to tell the southerners that we are with them and by their side,” the patriarch added. Al-Rahi met at the cathedral’s fellowship hall with a number of dignitaries, including MPs Ali Khreis, Michel Moussa, Enaya Ezzeddine, Hassan Ezzeddine and Hussein Jishi. Muslim and Christian spiritual leaders and delegations from UNIFIL, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement were also present at the meeting. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, but also Palestinian groups. More than 110 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, mostly Hezbollah fighters and more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally, since fighting began in October. On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, Israeli authorities have said.

Anti-tank missile kills Israeli on Lebanon border
JNS/December 7, 2023
An Israeli farmer was killed on Thursday when an anti-tank missile hit a vehicle in the Upper Galilee community of Mattat near the Lebanese border.Paramedics pronounced dead a 54-year-old man “with no vital signs” after military medics evacuated him to the Fasuta Intersection near Mattat, the Magen David Adom emergency medical service said. The IDF responded by attacking Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon with helicopters gunships, tanks and artillery. Earlier on Thursday, Israel Air Force fighter jets attacked a series of Hezbollah targets following several instances of rocket fire targeting the Jewish state. Among the Hezbollah facilities bombed were rocket launch sites, observation posts and other terrorist infrastructure. Earlier, several rockets were fired from Lebanese territory, to which the military responded by attacking the source of the fire.
On Wednesday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told local leaders in northern Israel that Jerusalem plans to remove Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 stipulates that Hezbollah is not allowed to operate south of the Litani River, which is located some 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the Israel-Lebanon frontier.
The U.N. resolution, which was passed after the 2006 Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah and ratified by both Beirut and Jerusalem, also calls for the Iran-backed group to be disarmed. Hezbollah has been testing the waters in recent weeks, initiating a series of fire exchanges as the Jewish state fights Hamas terrorists to the south. Since Oct. 7, four Israeli civilians and six IDF soldiers have been killed in attacks near the northern border.
Some 126,000 residents of communities near the Gaza and Lebanon borders have been evacuated and are living in guest houses, hotels, or with family. Many were evacuated by the state but others opted to leave on their own. Overall, some 250,000 Israelis have been internally displaced by the war. The approximately 80,000 Israelis who live up to nine kilometers from the northern border will not be asked to return home “until security is established” and Hezbollah is pushed back to the north of the Litani River, Gallant said on Wednesday. The IDF on Wednesday attacked various targets in Southern Lebanon in response to ongoing cross-border attacks by Hezbollah terrorists. The strikes came in response to mortar shells fired from Lebanon towards military outposts in the areas of Mount Hermon and Arab al-Aramshe, according to the IDF. In a press conference held in southern Israel on Tuesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said the military was exacting a “heavy price” from Hezbollah, “which the group tries to hide.”

Rights groups say Israeli strikes on journalists in Lebanon were likely deliberate
BEIRUT (AP)/December 7, 2023
Two Israeli strikes that killed a Reuters videographer and wounded six other journalists in south Lebanon nearly two months ago were apparently deliberate and a direct attack on civilians, two international human rights groups said Thursday.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said that the strikes should be investigated as a war crime. Their findings were released simultaneously with similar investigations by Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Israeli officials have said that they don't deliberately target journalists. The investigations by the rights groups found that two strikes 37 seconds apart targeted the group of journalists near the village of Alma al-Shaab on Oct. 13. The strikes killed Issam Abdallah and wounded Reuters journalists Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television cameraman Elie Brakhya and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, and AFP’s photographer Christina Assi, and video journalist Dylan Collins. The seven journalists, all wearing flak jackets and helmets, were among many who deployed in southern Lebanon to cover the daily exchange of fire between members of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group and Israeli troops. The violence began a day after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel that triggered the latest Israel-Hamas war. Amnesty International said that it had verified more than 100 videos and photographs, analyzed weapons fragments from the site, and interviewed nine witnesses. It found that the group “was visibly identifiable as journalists and that the Israeli military knew or should have known that they were civilians yet attacked them.”London-based Amnesty said that it determined that the first strike, which killed Abdallah and severely wounded Assi, “was a 120mm tank round fired from the hills between al-Nawaqir and Jordeikh in Israel," while the second strike appeared to be a different weapon, likely a small guided missile, causing a vehicle used by the Al Jazeera crew to go up in flames. Amnesty said that the tank round, most likely an M339 projectile, was manufactured by the Israeli IMI Systems and had been identified in other Amnesty International investigations of attacks by the Israeli military. HRW said that it had interviewed seven witnesses, including three of the wounded journalists and a representative of the U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon. The New York-based rights group also said it analyzed 49 videos and dozens of photos, in addition to satellite images, and consulted military, video, and audio experts. HRW said it sent letters with findings and questions to the Lebanese and Israeli armed forces, respectively, but didn't receive a response from them. Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that the group has documented other cases involving Israeli forces. “Those responsible need to be held to account, and it needs to be made clear that journalists and other civilians are not lawful targets," he said. Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, condemned the "attack on a group of international journalists who were carrying out their work by reporting on hostilities.” “Direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks are absolutely prohibited by international humanitarian law and can amount to war crimes,” she said. Collins, the American AFP video journalist from Boston, said that the journalists had been at the scene for more than an hour before the strikes and felt “secure.”He said they were “on an exposed hill, visible to multiple Israeli positions, and they had drones in the air the entire time,” adding that there were "no military activities near us.”
“Our job is to tell the story, not to become the story,” Collins said. Abdallah’s mother, Fatima, told The Associated Press that the family was sure from the first day that Israel was behind the attack. Now that there is evidence, she said, she hopes “they (Israel) will be held accountable.” “This move is not only for Issam but for journalists to be protected in the future,” Abdallah said.

Reuters Investigation Concludes Israeli Tank Fire Killed Lebanese Staffer & Calls On Israel For Explanation
Melanie Goodfellow/Deadline/ December 7, 2023
A seven-week investigation by Reuters news agency into the death of staff member Issam Abdallah on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel on October 13 has concluded he was killed by Israeli tank fire. The report, which was released on Thursday, said its examination of the evidence showed that an Israeli tank crew killed Abdallah by firing two shells in quick succession. Abdallah, who was an experienced Reuters videographer, had travelled to the border with other international TV and agency journalists to cover exchanges of fire between Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Israeli army.
The incident, close to the Lebanese village of Alma al-Chaab, happened amid mounting tensions in the area in the wake of Hamas’s terror attack on southern Israel on October 7 and fears that the country faced a similar threat out of Lebanon in the north.The two strikes also injured another six journalists, two with Reuters, two with Al Jazeera and two with AFP. AFP photographer Christina Assi sustained life-changing injuries. Her left leg was amputated and she remains in hospital. In a separate report by AFP, which was also released on Thursday, the Paris-based agency said its investigation pointed to a tank round only used by the Israeli army. It said it had conducted the investigation with UK-based NGO Airwars, a UK-based organisation with a a team of investigators and a network of forensic and military experts. Reuters said it had spoken to more than 30 government and security officials, military experts, forensic investigators, lawyers, medics and witnesses to piece together the events around Abdallah’s death. It also reviewed hours of video footage from eight media outlets in the area at the time and hundreds of photos from before and after the attack, including high-resolution satellite images. The investigation also analyzed shrapnel on the ground and embedded in a Reuters car as well as flak jackets, a camera and other equipment. “The evidence we now have, and have published today, shows that an Israeli tank crew killed our colleague Issam Abdallah,” commented Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni. “We condemn Issam’s killing. We call on Israel to explain how this could have happened and to hold to account those responsible for his death and the wounding of Christina Assi of the AFP, our colleagues Thaier Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, and the three other journalists. Issam was a brilliant and passionate journalist, who was much loved at Reuters.” The AFP report also examined suggestions that the journalists had been deliberately targeted.The agency did not state its own conclusion on this but cited a number of witnesses and experts who suggested that it was clear that party was made up of journalists and that it was unlikely they had been mistaken for militants. The AFP report also noted that the fact there were two rounds of artillery, fired one after the other, suggested it was not a misfire.

Lebanon will add Reuters, AFP reports to U.N. complaint-statement
BEIRUT (Reuters)/December 7, 2023
Lebanon said on Thursday it would refer to the U.N. Security Council news reports by Reuters and Agence France-Presse that showed Israeli military fire killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six others in south Lebanon on Oct. 13.In a Lebanese government statement responding to the publication of separate investigations by the news agencies, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement: "Israeli criminality has no limits".Reuters is seeking comment from the Israeli prime minister's office on the Lebanese government statement. The Reuters investigation found an Israeli tank crew killed Issam Abdallah and wounded the six other journalists by firing two shells in quick succession from Israel while the group was filming cross-border shelling from a distance. The Lebanese government has submitted a complaint to the United Nations saying Israel has killed civilians in south Lebanon during weeks of hostilities across the border between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

UNICEF and Japan reconstruct Health Ministry's warehouse in Karantina
LBCI/December 7, 2023
Caretaker Minister of Health Firas Abiad, alongside the Japanese Ambassador to Lebanon, Magoshi Masayuki, and the UNICEF Representative in Lebanon, Edouard Beigbeder, inspected the warehouse of medical supplies and equipment belonging to the Ministry of Public Health in Karantina.
The warehouse had been destroyed in the Beirut port explosion on August 4, and Japan had financed its reconstruction under the supervision of UNICEF. Minister Abiad emphasized that "Lebanon lost a large quantity of medical supplies after the warehouse was destroyed," noting that "its complete renovation, funded by Japan under the supervision of UNICEF, covering an area of about 2,250 square meters, is of special importance to Lebanon and the Ministry of Public Health."In addition, the minister highlighted that "what distinguishes this warehouse is not only the construction but also the existing systems that allow the safe storage of medical supplies to the highest standards, specifically the advanced fire safety system that contributes to preserving the warehouse, its workers, and the surrounding area, especially as it is located near the Karantina Governmental Hospital."
Moreover, Minister Abiad affirmed that this step also reflects support for the healthcare system in Lebanon, particularly in its public sector, which plays a fundamental role in standing by vulnerable groups. In his turn, Ambassador Masayuki affirmed that Japan would continue to provide necessary assistance to Lebanon in all areas in collaboration with international organizations. Beigbeder also expressed his delight at the reopening and operation of the warehouse, mainly as it contributes to storing supplies currently used to support forcibly displaced Lebanese from their areas.

Berri meets Teymour Jumblatt with delegation, receives Caretaker Tourism Minister, "Strong Lebanon" MP Atallah, calls Parliament bureau to convene...
NNA/December 7, 2023
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Thursday received at the Second Presidency in Ain al-Tineh, Progressive Socialist Party Head and “Democratic Gathering” Chief, MP Teymour Jumblatt, who visited him with an accompanying delegation including MPs Marwan Hamadeh, Akram Chehayeb, Hadi Abou el-Hessen, Wael Abu Faour, and Faisal Sayegh, as well as PSP command members. This took place in the presence of “Development and Liberation” Bloc MPs Fadi Alameh and Ashraf Baydoun, as well as a number of Amal Movement’s politburo and executive body members. The meeting was devoted to discussing the latest political and field developments in Lebanon and the region, in light of the escalating Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, in addition to discussing frameworks of cooperation and joint coordination between the “Development and Liberation” and the “Democratic” Gathering blocs, the Progressive Socialist Party, and the “Amal” Movement, in various fields.
 Speaker Berri later met at Ain El-Tineh with Caretaker Minister of Tourism, Walid Nassar, with whom he discussed the political developments and general conditions. Berri later received “Strong Lebanon” bloc MP Ghassan Atallah, who handed him an invitation to partake in the municipal forum on the Syrian displacement, which is organized by the Free Patriotic Movement in Rabweh on the 16th of this month. On the other hand, Berri called for a meeting of the Parliament bureau body on on Monday, December 11, 2023, at 2.00 p.m

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 07-08/2023
US has not given Israel firm deadline to end Gaza operation -White House aide
WASHINGTON (Reuters)/ December 7, 2023
The United States has not given Israel a firm deadline to end major combat operations against Hamas in Gaza, and if the war ended now, the Islamist group would continue to pose a threat, White House national security aide John Finer said on Thursday. "We have not given a firm deadline to Israel, not really our role. This is their conflict. That said, we do have influence, even if we don't have ultimate control over what happens on the ground in Gaza," Finer told the Aspen Security Forum in Washington. Israel has two objectives in Gaza, Finer said, ensuring Hamas can no longer govern the densely-populated enclave and it can no longer pose a threat to Israel following the deadly Oct. 7 attack during which its militants killed 1,200 people and abducted 240 others. "Frankly, if the war were to stop today, (Hamas) it would continue to pose (a threat) which is why we are not in a place yet of asking Israel to stop or to force ceasefire," Finer said. The United States believes that there are many "legitimate military targets" that remain in southern Gaza including "much if not most" of the Hamas leadership, Finer said, citing Israeli information but added that Washington did not have anything to contradict that assessment. There have been aspects of how Israel's military operations in northern Gaza was conducted that did not show "sufficient care" for civilian life, Finer said, and repeated U.S. calls to ameliorate those aspects. "We work day in day out and engage directly day in day out, including today, frankly, between the President and the Prime Minister on how the conflict is being conducted in all parts of Gaza but with a particular focus on the south," Finer said. He was referring to a call that took place earlier on Thursday between U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There were no immediate details of the call but a statement is expected later. Israel unleashed its military campaign in response to a surprise Oct. 7 incursion by Hamas fighters who rampaged through its towns, killing 1,200 people and seizing 240 hostages, according to Israel's tally. In retaliation against Hamas, Israel is bombarding Gaza, bombarding from the air, imposing a siege and launching a ground assault. Gaza's Health Ministry says that so far more than 17,000 people have been killed in the enclave of 2.3 million. Top U.S. officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have urged Israel publicly to conduct a more surgical offensive in southern Gaza to avoid the heavy civilian casualties inflicted by its attacks in the north. But since a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas broke down last Friday, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive in the south.

Strikes on Rafah sow fear in last area to which people can flee
Agence France Presse/December 7, 2023
Israeli troops battled Hamas militants Thursday in the heart of southern Gaza's main city where a suspected mastermind of the October 7 attacks is believed to be hiding, while pressing their offensive across the besieged territory. Breaking through Hamas's defenses of Gaza's second largest city, Israeli troops, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers rolled into Khan Yunis, forcing already displaced civilians to flee again, witnesses said. Hamas said late Wednesday on Telegram its fighters were engaged in fierce battles against Israeli troops "on all axes of the incursion into the Gaza Strip", as it claimed they destroyed two dozen military vehicles in Khan Yunis and Beit Lahia in the north of the territory. Earlier, the Israeli army said it had pierced defensive lines and carried out "targeted raids in the heart of the city", where they found and destroyed 30 tunnel shafts. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement that Israeli forces were closing in on the home of Hamas's chief in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar, with a spokesman saying it is "underground" in the Khan Yunis area. Sinwar stands accused of being one of the masterminds of the October 7 attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities, and saw around 240 hostages taken. Israel declared war on Hamas after the deadliest attack in its history, vowing to eradicate the group and bring home all the hostages. Sinwar has not been seen in public during the war, and Israel has named him and the leader of Hamas's armed wing, Mohammed Deif, as its top military targets. But humanitarian organisations have warned the spread of the war into the south of the Gaza Strip will leave civilians who fled the north, much of which is now destroyed, with nowhere to go. "We are devastated, mentally overwhelmed," said Khan Yunis resident Amal Mahdi. "We need someone to find us a solution so we can get out of this situation."The latest toll from the Hamas government said the war has killed more than 16,000 people in Gaza, most of them women and children.
'Where to go?' -
Much of northern Gaza has already been reduced to rubble by fierce fighting and bombardment, displacing 1.9 million people according to UN figures. Many civilians fled to Khan Yunis when Israel ordered them to evacuate the north of the territory earlier in the war. They are now being pushed further south to Rafah on the border with Egypt. "There was bombardment, destruction, leaflets dropping, threats, and phone calls to evacuate and leave Khan Yunis," said Khamis Al-Dalu, who told AFP he was first displaced from Gaza City, and then from Khan Yunis to Rafah. "Where to go? Where do you want us to go for God's sake? We left Khan Yunis and now we are in tents in Rafah."And Israeli bombardments have followed them there. A strike on a residential district in Rafah left 17 dead and dozens injured late Wednesday, the Hamas health ministry said, and an AFP journalist saw the wounded, including children, being taken to a local Kuwaiti hospital. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera television network said one of its journalists had lost 22 members of his family in a strike in the northern refugee camp of Jabalia. The Israeli army said Wednesday it had struck about 250 targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours and that troops had found a major arms depot "in the heart of a civilian population" near a clinic and school in the north of the territory. "The depot contained hundreds of RPG missiles and launchers of various types, dozens of anti-tank missiles," explosives and drones, it said in a statement. AFP footage from Wednesday showed smoke trails after rocket fire from Rafah towards Israel. According to the Israeli military, three Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in Gaza on Wednesday.
'Minimal' fuel increase
Mass civilian casualties in the war have sparked global concern, heightened by dire shortages caused by an Israeli siege that has seen only limited supplies of food, water, fuel and medicines enter. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he expects "public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions" in Gaza, with "potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole." Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Wednesday lashed out against Guterres, saying his tenure was "a danger to world peace" after he invoked a rare UN procedure over the Gaza war. "His request to activate Article 99 and the call for a ceasefire in Gaza constitutes support of the Hamas terrorist organization," Cohen wrote on X. "We, too, want this war to end," Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy told reporters, "But it can only end in a way that ensures that Hamas can never attack our people again." On Wednesday, Israel approved a "minimal" increase in fuel supplies to Gaza, to prevent a "humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip", according to Netanyahu's office.
New settlements approved
The war has sparked fears of a wider regional conflict, with near-daily exchanges of fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah across Israel's border with Lebanon and a surge of deadly violence in the occupied West Bank. On Wednesday, Israel said a missile fired at the Red Sea town of Eilat "was successfully intercepted" after sirens blared in the resort. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops raided two refugee camps and killed three Palestinians, one aged 16, according to the Palestinian health ministry and Wafa news agency.Palestinian authorities say more than 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire or settler attacks since the war began. Israeli authorities meanwhile approved the construction of more than 1,700 new homes, a non-governmental organisation said Wednesday, a move constituting the expansion of settlements in occupied east Jerusalem. Half the "new neighbourhood" comprising 1,738 housing units will be in the city's annexed east, the Israeli NGO Peace Now said. "If it weren't for the war (between Israel and Hamas), there would be a lot of noise. It's a highly problematic project for the continuity of a Palestinian state between the southern West Bank and east Jerusalem," Peace Now's Hagit Ofran told AFP.

Fatah in freefall as Hamas and Israel wage war
Agence France Presse/December 7, 2023
Fatah, the largest Palestinian party, has seen its popularity plunge during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, from where the Islamists violently ousted rivals Fatah in 2007. Fatah's chosen path of negotiations has not brought about the Palestinian state promised by the Oslo Accords of 1993, and Hamas -- after choosing violence instead -- has seen its popularity soar. Fatah chief Mahmud Abbas has led the Palestinian Authority -- which has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank -- since its creation in 1994. But the PA is now weakened like never before, and Palestinian political divisions run deeper than ever since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7. On that day, Hamas fighters swarmed across the border from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel and allegedly killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to the Israeli authorities. They also seized about 240 hostages and took them back into Gaza. In retaliation, seeking to destroy Hamas, Israel bombarded Gaza and launched a ground invasion in a campaign that the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory says has killed more than 16,200 people, again mostly civilians. The old guard in the West Bank where Fatah holds sway wants calm to prevail so talks can take place -- and so they do not jeopardize the positions and advantages they enjoy under the PA. But the younger generation there says it has nothing left to lose and wants to revive the armed wing of Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. Above all, they want an end to security cooperation agreements between the PA and Israel, which they deem to be a betrayal of the Palestinian cause. "Oslo gave us a shot of anesthetic," said one senior Fatah official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the issue. "Leaders who might have influence have too many personal interests linked to the Palestinian Authority, and can't take the risk of speaking out against its president" Abbas, the official said.
Little to show -
Abbas, 88, is widely unpopular in the West Bank, where the Israel-Hamas war has led to increased popular support for Hamas. On October 17, Palestinian police used tear gas against protesters chanting "Get out!" and "The people want the fall of the president!"According to researcher Xavier Guignard, "for the demonstrators, either because of its inaction or its security cooperation, the Authority is increasingly seen as conforming with Israeli policy".He told AFP there is "denunciation of the fact that Mahmud Abbas was incapable of reacting to what is happening in Gaza."
The Palestinian president -- whose mandate expired in 2009 -- cannot alienate the international community on which it is counting for help in reaching a settlement with Israel. According to another Fatah official, who spoke on the same terms of anonymity, the party "leaders are careful not to show any sign of support for Hamas for what it did" on October 7. Fatah, by choosing negotiation rather than violence, has little to show for this policy. Israeli settlements -- regarded as illegal by the United Nations -- continue to gain ground in the West Bank, and Israeli strikes on Gaza keep the human toll mounting.
The Barghuti factor
After Abbas succeeded Fatah founder Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades were sidelined. Most of its fighters had been killed in clashes or attacks, or jailed by Israel, many for life. Marwan Barghuti -- presented by Israel as leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades -- is the Palestinian prisoner best known across the world, and his name is most often raised in the context of a prisoner-hostage exchange. Israel says militants still hold 138 hostages inside Gaza. Hamas seeks to exchange them for the roughly 7,800 Palestinians jailed by Israel. Barghuti is serving a life term in an Israeli prison for his role in anti-Israeli attacks. "He is the only one who can bring Fatah back together," said a former member of the Fatah security forces, also speaking on condition that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak on the matter. "He is accepted by Hamas and he is popular on the street." In diplomatic circles, Barghuti is seen as the only man who can reconcile Palestinians and revive the Palestinian Authority. While war rages in Gaza, Israel has intensified its military operations in the West Bank, where at least 258 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, according to the PA. Among that toll are five Fatah fighters killed in Nablus on November 18. They represent a younger Palestinian generation, born after the Oslo Accords or during the second intifada, an uprising between 2000 and 2005, which says it no longer believes in diplomacy. "These fighters including from Fatah are organizing themselves away from the political leadership," said Fatah official and former PA intelligence chief Tawfiq al-Tirawi. It is, Tirawi told AFP, "a form of rebellion" affecting "the different Palestinian movements."

Israel says Sinwar hiding underground as Netanyahu says his house encircled
Associated Press/December 7, 2023
An Israeli army spokesman says Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar is hiding underground and it is the mission of the Israeli military to “find Sinwar and kill him." Israeli forces have pushed deeper into Sinwar’s hometown of Khan Younis over the past two days, heightening the focus on the Hamas leader seen as the mastermind of the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. Sinwar grew up in the refugee camp of Khan Younis which over the decades evolved into a crowded neighborhood of the city. Mohammed Deif, the shadowy military leader of Hamas, is from the camp as well. Earlier Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that troops “are encircling Sinwar’s house,” adding that “he can escape, but it’s only a matter of time before we get him.”Asked later whether this meant troops were closing in on the Sinwar home, as some media had reported, Israeli army spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said: “The house of Sinwar is the area of Khan Younis.”“Sinwar is not above ground; he is underground,” Hagari said. “I don’t want to elaborate where and how and what we know in terms of intelligence. This is not the place to talk about such things in the media. Our job is to find Sinwar and kill him.”

Israeli foreign minister sharply criticizes UN chief
Associated Press/December 7, 2023
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen is sharply criticizing the U.N. secretary-general after he issued a dire warning over the situation in the Gaza Strip, calling Antonio Guterres' tenure at the world body “a danger to world peace.”Guterres wrote to the 15-member Security Council on Wednesday urging it to use its influence to avert “a humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. He also reiterated an urgent call for a humanitarian cease-fire and warned that Israel's bombardment will soon lead to a complete breakdown of public order. Posting on the social media platform X, Cohen said Guterres' call for a cease-fire and request to activate Article 99 of the U.N. Charter “constitutes support of the Hamas terrorist organization and an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies and the rape of women.”“Anyone who supports world peace must support the liberation of Gaza from Hamas,” Cohen concluded. It was the first time since Guterres took the helm of the United Nations in 2017 that he has written to the Security Council under Article 99, which lets him bring to the council’s attention any matter he believes threatens international peace and security.

Son of Israeli minister killed in Gaza battles -statement
JERUSALEM (Reuters)/The son of Israeli cabinet minister and former military chief Gadi Eizenkot was killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party, said on Thursday. Party members Eizenkot and Gantz, also a former army chief, joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government shortly after Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attack which prompted an Israeli air, ground and sea offensive in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. The Israeli military did not provide precise details about the death of Gal Meir Eisenkot, 25, other than to say he was killed in combat in the northern Gaza Strip. "Together with all of Israel I send my support to Gadi and to his entire family, and a big hug. We are all committed to keep fighting for the sacred cause for which Gal died," Gantz said in a statement. In a condolence message, Netanyahu said he was heartbroken. Israel has vowed to annihilate the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas after its fighters killed 1,200 people in Israel and dragged 240 more back to Gaza as hostages, according to an Israeli tally. More than 17,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Health Ministry there, and around 1.9 million people, 85% of the population, have been displaced. Hamas, designated as a terrorist group by the United States and other Western countries, is sworn to Israel's destruction.

Gaza has gone 'far beyond' a humanitarian crisis -medical charity MSF
GENEVA (Reuters)/December 7, 2023
The head of medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Thursday that Gaza faces a catastrophe extending far beyond a humanitarian crisis, describing the situation in the densely populated enclave as chaotic. Israeli forces battled Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip's biggest cities on Thursday in a new phase of the war that is now entering its third month, with wide areas of the narrow territory flattened by Israeli bombardment and 85% of the 2.3 million population left homeless, according to U.N. figures. "My people on the ground keep updating me on the situation, and I can tell you that it has gone far beyond the humanitarian crisis," Dr Christos Christou, international president of Doctors Without Borders, told reporters in Geneva. "It is a humanitarian catastrophe. It is a chaotic situation, and I'm extremely worried that very soon people will be in a mode of just trying to survive, which will come with very severe consequences." In a bid to escape Israeli bombardment, Gazans have amassed at the southern tip of Gaza, heeding Israeli leaflets and messages saying that they would be safe on the border with Egypt. The United Nations and aid organisations have said that nowhere is safe in Gaza. "The people have been asked to be squeezed in a very small area," Christou said. "My teams on the ground keep saying to me that it is unbearable. It is unsustainable ... There is no safe place." In an open letter to the U.N. Security Council published on Monday, Christou implored the body to demand an end to Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza unimpeded. Israel says it does its utmost to minimise civilian casualties but that Hamas combatants use built-up residential areas for cover, something the Islamist militant group denies.

US still wants Israel-Saudi normalization, top envoy says
JNS/December 7, 2023
Washington still hopes Israel and Saudi Arabia will normalize relations, despite the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, a top Biden administration official said on Thursday. “I think that not every road is a straight road and sometimes it goes in different directions first. But the goal is still the same,” U.S. energy envoy Amos Hochstein told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry event in the United Arab Emirates. “And we remain as committed to that goal of regional integration, and it’s not just about Saudi Arabia and Israel, it has to be much broader than that,” he continued.“I don’t think we are changing directions, I  don’t think this conflict should do that. In fact, this conflict should be a doubling down on reminding us that if we don’t go towards regional integration, peace and security—this is the alternative.”The Saudis froze the U.S.-backed normalization negotiations shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas terrorists and the ensuing war in Gaza. However, Riyadh’s investment minister said last month that Saudi-Israel normalization “remains on the table” despite the war. Khalid al-Falih, speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, reiterated Riyadh’s stance that a diplomatic rapprochement with Jerusalem is “contingent on a pathway to a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian question. “That was on the table—it remains on the table and obviously the setback over the last month has clarified why Saudi Arabia was so adamant that resolution of the Palestinian conflict has to be part of a broader normalization in the Middle East,” the minister said during a panel discussion.
Iran FM warns of ‘terrible’ days ahead for Israel
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Wednesday warned of “terrible days” ahead for Israel in its war with the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, Iranian state media reported. The diplomat spoke during a phone call with Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, according to the pro-regime Tasmin and Fars news agencies. “Given the current trend, the upcoming days are going to be horrific for the invading Israeli army,” Amirabdollahian reportedly said. In Moscow on Tuesday, the Iranian foreign minister dismissed plans to replace the Hamas terrorist group as the ruler in the Strip after the war.“The U.S. and the Zionist regime are incapable of either eliminating Hamas and the resistance or making decisions instead of the people of Palestine and Gaza,” Amirabdollahian said.
France-Hezbollah meeting
The head of French intelligence held a secret meeting with senior Hezbollah officials during a visit to Lebanon and discussed the implementation of U.N. Security Resolution 1701 in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from the border areas, the Lebanese channel Al Jadeed reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, a French political and security delegation is expected to visit Jerusalem in the coming days to “complete the French effort to stabilize the front in Lebanon.” The delegation is also expected to visit Beirut to promote the plans. The Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar also reported on Wednesday that Arab and other foreign officials delivered messages to Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati about the security situation at the Israeli border during the COP28 U.N. climate conference in Dubai. Messages were conveyed that the situation changed after Oct. 7 and a new outline based on Resolution 1701 must be established. European envoys reportedly proposed the creation of a buffer zone to move Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force from the border with Israel northward towards the Litani River. Lebanon reportedly refused this proposal. The Iranian-backed terrorist group has increased its attacks on Israel since the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7.
UK defense minister to visit Israel
British Defense Minister Grant Shapps will visit Jerusalem and Ramallah, his office said. According to his office, Shapps will take the opportunity to press for the speeding up of humanitarian aid to Gaza and allowing its entry via the Mediterranean Sea.
Earlier this week, Shapps said that London is considering sending a Royal Navy ship to the shores of Gaza to deliver medical and humanitarian aid.
Putin meets with UAE, Saudi leaders
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the UAE on Wednesday, where he met with Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Putin was also expected to meet with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Moscow on Thursday.

Abbas to US Envoy: Solution Lies in Assuming Full Responsibility in the West Bank, Gaza
Ramallah: Asharq Al Awsat/7 December 2023
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reaffirmed his position on the post-war in Gaza, telling the White House Envoy, Philip Gordon, that the two-state agreement based on international legitimacy resolutions requires the State of Palestine to assume full responsibility over the West Bank and Gaza.
Gordon arrived in Ramallah on Wednesday coming from Tel Aviv, where he held extensive discussions with Israeli officials addressing attempts to "weaken the authority" in the West Bank and the establishment of a Palestinian entity that will assume responsibility in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip after the war.
Gordon, also National security Advisor to US Vice President Kamala Harris, discussed the two issues with Abbas, who asserted that the Palestinian Authority is present and has not left the Gaza Strip.Abbas stressed that peace and security are achieved by ending the Israeli occupation of the entire territory of Palestine along the 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and resolving the issue of refugees and their return by Resolution 194. "We will not allow the forced displacement of our Palestinian people to take place, whether in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, including Jerusalem," said Abbas. The President asserted that Washington needs to intervene to prevent the attacks, murders, demolition of homes, and displacement of the Palestinian population carried out by the Israeli occupation authorities and terrorist colonists in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Jordan Valley areas.
The US wants a "renewed Palestinian Authority," while the PA wants comprehensive rule within the framework of a political solution. Israel does not want any Palestinian authority of any kind.
Earlier, the Palestinian presidency lashed out at the United States holding it responsible for the Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh accused Israel of practicing "organized terrorism against Palestinians wherever they are."
Abu Rudeineh called on the UN Security Council to intervene urgently to stop this comprehensive aggression and stop the shedding of Palestinian blood in light of unprecedented international silence. The spokesman said the US administration was responsible for Israel’s escalation, urging it to pressure the Israeli government to stop the aggression and end the occupation.Gordon, accompanied by Harris' National Security Adviser Ilan Goldenberg, focused on discussing the future of Gaza and "day-after" scenarios and plans. A US official stated that Israeli officials who had been focused on fighting the war were "ready to talk about the future" in Gaza.
Washington wants to avoid a governing and security vacuum in Gaza after the war that might allow Hamas to rise again, as stated in two reports by the Axois website and the Israeli "Walla" website. The White House officials arrived in Israel from Dubai, where they accompanied Harris in her meetings with the UAE, Egypt, and Jordan leaders on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit. The US officials said the group discussed military objectives and operations in Gaza. "Gordon emphasized to the Israelis that Hamas is a barbaric terrorist organization and that no nation could accept the threat Hamas poses, and that we support Israel's legitimate military objectives and its right to defend itself," one of the US officials said. Gordon told his Israeli counterparts that the US wants to have a plan for Gaza's future to avoid allowing Hamas "to come back to life." A senior US official said there was movement on the "Israeli side from a point where they were only focused on the fighting and refused to discuss the day-after to a point where they are ready to talk about the future."A senior Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the Biden administration have been discussing the issue of post-war Gaza for weeks and that there'd been no change in Israel's approach. The US officials acknowledged there are still differences between how the US sees Gaza after the war and how Israel sees it, mainly around the question of what role the Palestinian Authority will play. On Tuesday, Netanyahu pushed back against the idea of the Palestinian Authority having a future role, stressing that the only way to make sure post-war Gaza is demilitarized is for the Israeli forces, not international troops, to oversee that process. "Nobody thinks the Palestinian Authority in its current state could run Gaza and provide security, but nobody sees at the moment any alternative to a Palestinian leadership in Gaza after the war," one US official said. He added: "We think we need to strengthen the Palestinian Authority so that it could govern Gaza."

UN: Gazans Living in ‘Utter, Deepening Horror’
Asharq Al Awsat/7 December 2023
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are living in "utter, deepening horror", the UN human rights chief said Wednesday, as he pleaded for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Volker Turk said there was a high risk of atrocity crimes being committed in such "catastrophic" humanitarian circumstances.""Civilians in Gaza continue to be relentlessly bombarded by Israel and collectively punished -- suffering death, siege, destruction and deprivation of the most essential human needs such as food, water, lifesaving medical supplies and other essentials on a massive scale," he told a press conference. "Palestinians in Gaza are living in utter, deepening horror."He said 1.9 million of the Palestinian enclave's 2.2 million people had been displaced and were being pushed into "ever-diminishing and extremely overcrowded places in southern Gaza, in unsanitary and unhealthy conditions"."The catastrophic situation we see unfolding in the Gaza Strip was entirely foreseeable and preventable."In these circumstances, there is a heightened risk of atrocity crimes," the United Nations high commissioner for human rights said. "As an immediate step, I call for an urgent cessation of hostilities and the release of all hostages," he said, adding: "you need to come back to your senses".
'Hateful rhetoric'
Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group's October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities, and saw around 240 hostages taken into Gaza. The latest toll from the Hamas-run government media office said 16,248 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, had been killed. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and free 138 hostages still held after scores were released during a short-lived truce. Turk said he was gravely concerned by "dehumanizing and inciteful statements" made by current and former Israeli officials, as well as Hamas figures. "History has shown us where this kind of language can lead," he said. "This is not just unacceptable, but a competent court may view such statements, in the circumstances in which they were made, as incitement to atrocity crimes." Decrying a sharp rise in hate speech globally over the past two months -- in particular anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bigotry -- he said political leaders using "inflammatory, toxic and hateful rhetoric... must be vigorously condemned".
Push for peace
Turk said the human rights crisis in the occupied West Bank was also "extremely alarming", calling for Israeli authorities to take immediate steps to end "widespread impunity" for violations. "The only way to end the accumulative sufferings is ending the occupation and achieving the two-state solution," he said. Turk said he had met Palestinians and Israelis who want a peaceful future for both sides, whose voices were currently not being heard. "I hope that they will be much stronger in the future," he said. "One thing is very clear: it cannot go back to what it was."

Mosque decision points to possible Sinwar escape route
JNS/December 7, 2023
Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar, considered one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 massacre, may try to escape into Egypt through entry points under mosques, according to Israeli media reports. Hamas’s Religious Endowment Ministry recently ordered the opening of mosques to accept displaced persons. At least five of them are near the Philadelphi Corridor, the name for the Gaza-Egypt border. The mosques have tunnels under them leading across the corridor into Egypt, Channel 12 reported on Wednesday, suggesting that they could provide an escape route for Sinwar and other senior Hamas leadership. “An explicit directive from the Hamas government to the mosques to open their doors to displaced persons has not been given until now in any of the days of the war. Therefore, the directive it issued regarding the Rafah mosques needs to arouse interest,” Channel 12 reported. The city of Rafah is the site of the Rafah Border Crossing, the sole official crossing point with Egypt from the Gaza Strip. Asked by JNS about Israel’s efforts to keep tabs on the border, Prime Minister’s Office spokesman Eylon Levy said that Israel could not comment on the “various intelligence means” it is using to target Sinwar and others. “We certainly will continue making every effort to bring them to justice and to get our hands on all of the monsters responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre,” he said.

Hamas attack plans, including map of IDF base, suggest espionage
JNS/December 7, 2023
New documentation, including the laptop of a key Hamas commander, offers additional proof of the terrorist group’s meticulous planning of the Oct. 7 massacre. The field intelligence unit of the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate, known by the Hebrew acronym AMSHAT, released the documents on Monday. The material provided to JNS by the IDF came from a laptop belonging to the head of Hamas’ Nukhba Force, who took part in the attack. It was recovered in southern Israel. Uploaded to the laptop was a notebook with detailed plans to conquer the army’s Nahal Oz base adjacent to the border fence along the northern Gaza Strip. It included a hand-drawn sketch of the base, providing a visual representation of the strategic details in the notebook. The illustration, revealing accurate knowledge of the base, suggests Hamas had help from within. Prior to Oct. 7 many Arabs from Gaza entered Israel regularly for work (17,500 daily at the time of the attack), and a week after the attack, Israeli security services had already begun investigating the possibility that some of these individuals had passed information to Hamas. Massacre survivors have reported that terrorists knew about their communities in great detail. Boris Volovik, a member of the 12-man security team of Kibbutz Nir Am, one of the few kibbutzim to mount a successful defense, told Knesset TV on Nov. 16, “The terrorists knew where the armories were on every single kibbutz and where the military security coordinators lived.”Volovik said in nearby Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of his friends was killed when he approached the armory and was ambushed. The military security coordinator at Kibbutz Kissufim was ambushed at his home, he said. While day workers from Gaza were employed in these communities, the IDF assured JNS that they were not allowed to work on IDF bases. However, according to Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, founder and chairman of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), that’s not quite true. “You have Arabs working in bases, especially in construction, and certainly in towns. And I think that Hamas might indeed have gotten intelligence from construction workers,” he said. These Arabs may have been from Gaza, or from Judea and Samaria, or may even have been Israeli Arabs, he said. “A company bids for a construction job. It’s an Israeli company. But then they take subcontractors and the subcontractors are Palestinian workers,” he added. Avivi also doesn’t rule out the possibility that out of the half-million or so officers and soldiers in the IDF, “three or four are actually spying—cooperating with the enemy. It can happen.”The plans found on the laptop included instructions for securing Israeli hostages, such as, “Cover the eyes and tie the hands of all adult hostages (men and women)” and “Kill those who cause trouble and anyone who tries to escape.” A list of “Important Words in Hebrew” was provided for terrorists to communicate with hostages. It included such phrases as, “Get down,” “Do not look back,” “Where is the head of the kibbutz?” and “Put your hands up and spread your legs.”

UN aid chief cites 'promising signs' in talks to open Gaza crossing
GENEVA (Reuters)/December 7, 2023
United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday there was some hope that the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel could soon be opened to allow more humanitarian supplies into Gaza, where the Israel-Hamas war has left people desperately short of basic needs. "We're still negotiating, and with some promising signs at the moment," Griffiths told reporters in Geneva. "There are promising signs now that that may be able to open soon."If that were to happen, Griffiths said it would represent a major boost for humanitarian operations seeking more access to the densely populated Palestinian enclave, which has been widely devastated by Israeli bombardment in the two-month-old war. "It would be the first miracle we've seen for some weeks, but would also be a huge boost to the logistical process and logistical base of a humanitarian operation," he said about the possible opening of Kerem Shalom.
He said the warring parties were more willing to open the crossing "probably not in one go, but certainly gradually". Aid currently being allowed into Gaza comes only through the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border, which was designed for pedestrian crossings and not trucks. The Kerem Shalom crossing was used to carry more than 60% of the truckloads going into Gaza before war erupted on Oct. 7. It sits at Gaza's southern border with Israel and Egypt and Griffiths said both Israel and Egypt had become much more open to the idea of reviving the route.
'HUMANITARIAN OPPORTUNISM'
Israeli attacks on Gaza after a short-lived truce have forced scores of people to flee to the south of the enclave, prompting fears among aid and health organisations that overcrowding and the lack of food and clean water could spread disease. Griffiths deplored the precarious state of aid efforts, saying, "we do not have a humanitarian operation in southern Gaza that can be called by that name anymore"."The pace of the military assault in southern Gaza is a repeat of the assault in northern Gaza," he added, referred to a the part of the enclave that has been largely cut off from humanitarian aid. Griffiths described the aid operation in Gaza was "at best humanitarian opportunism," where humanitarian workers were struggling to get the most essential supplies to people in dire need. "It's erratic. It's undependable," Griffiths said of the aid operation. "And frankly, it's not sustainable."

Two months of war in Gaza leave elderly and newborns destitute and displaced
GAZA (Reuters)/December 7, 2023
After two months of war in Gaza, most of its people are homeless, crammed by a pounding Israeli bombardment into yet smaller areas of an already tiny enclave where the elderly and newborns live alike in tents amid the rubble. Three women pushed from their homes in the Gaza Strip over 61 days of fighting have now ended up desperate for shelter and safety after fleeing from one place to another under air strikes and shellfire. Zainab Khalil, 57, is seeking to move for a fourth time as Israeli tanks roll into the southern city of Khan Younis. Israa al-Jamala, 28, lives in a tent tending her infant daughter who was born the night a short-lived truce began. And Mai Salim walks by the Egyptian border fearing she and her family will be forced across it into a life of permanent exile. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people were taken unawares by the sudden disaster that began to unfold for them on Oct. 7 as Israeli jets began strikes to retaliate for a surprise Hamas attack across the border that Israel says killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The Israeli military has vowed to crush Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza and is pledged to Israel's destruction, but says the group hides its weapons, command centres and fighters among a civilian population it uses as "human shields". Hamas denies this. Four-fifths of Gaza residents have now been displaced, many of them several times over. Their homes, businesses, mosques and schools have been damaged, destroyed or abandoned as too dangerous in the face of the Israeli assault. Health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say 17,177 people have been killed there. With no real sign of any imminent respite, Palestinians are living with little food or clean water, often on the street, trying to calm screaming children at night as bombs and shells fall. "A new mother should be in her home raising the child with her mother, with her family," said Jamala, cradling her tiny daughter, also called Israa, amid the tents that have sprung up around a hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. After the Jamala home was shelled, the family moved into the makeshift camp outside Shuhada al-Aqsa hospital, she said. Little Israa was born there on Nov. 24, the night a week-long truce began, raising hope that the conflict might relent. But after a week, fighting resumed and the family remains in the tent, a carpet covering the sand and Israa sleeping in a small cot. Like others in Gaza they struggle to find food and other necessities. "See how much we're in need. There's no milk. No powdered milk," Jamala said. Even when the war finally ends, she does not know what she will do as their home was shelled. "Where will we stay? Where can we raise this baby? Where can we live?" she said.
BOMBARDMENT
Khalil lived in Sheikh Radwan, a suburb of Gaza City near Beach Refugee Camp in the enclave's north. Israel started telling residents to go south in mid-October, though it continued with air strikes across the territory. She did not want to leave, calling it the most difficult decision of her life. She finally moved to a shelter nearby where she thought she would be safer from bombardment, but as air strikes intensified over 10 days she decided to move on. "A journey mixed with fear, despair, displacement and sadness under heavy bombardment," was how she described her odyssey from shelter to shelter. When Israeli troops pushed into Gaza City and surrounded al-Shifa Hospital, she headed south with a friend and her family, alternately walking and riding in a donkey cart. As they crossed a front line, Israeli soldiers ordered them to "walk a bit and stop, walk and stop" over four hours, she said. She wound up living in a school in Khan Younis being used as a shelter for around 30 displaced people, where some of her nieces had already ended up. "In this war, who doesn't get killed by bombs gets killed by disease, sadness and despair," she said. But Israel's military is now ordering people in Khan Younis too to leave and Khalil must look for a new place to stay. The only major town left to run to is Rafah, hard against the border with Egypt. Most Gaza residents are descended from refugees who fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel during the war of 1948. Many are terrified they will end up as refugees again, forced from Gaza altogether. Walking by the border fence, Salim and a friend peered over towards Egypt. She had fled her home in Gaza City, moving first to Nuseirat and later to Khan Younis before finally ending up in Rafah after the Israeli military ordered people to move again. "For us, this is the last stop. After that, if they want to forcibly displace us we will not leave. They can kill us right here but we will not leave our land and our entire lives. We will not do that," she said.

IDF continues to push into Khan Yunis, Jabalia
JNS/December 7, 2023
Israeli forces continue to operate across the Gaza Strip, engaging terrorists in the Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis in the south and Jabalia in the north, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday morning. In Khan Yunis, the Israeli Air Force attacked “dozens of terrorist targets.” Two terrorists were killed after a squad emerged from a tunnel shaft, which was destroyed. In Jabalia, Israeli forces raided a military post belonging to Hamas’s Jabalia Center Battalion, killing several terrorists and locating a network of underground tunnels, as well as a training complex and a weapons warehouse. Israeli Navy forces attacked Hamas terrorist infrastructure and military compounds using precision weapons and firing shells.
Israel approves fuel for southern Gaza
Israel’s Security Cabinet on Wednesday evening approved a “minimal supplement of fuel” into the southern Gaza Strip, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. The War Cabinet recommended the move as “necessary to prevent a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics.”Trucks carrying fuel entering the Kerem Shalom Crossing on the Israeli-Gaza border, Aug. 8, 2022. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90. The announcement stated that “the minimal amount will be determined from time to time by the War Cabinet according to the morbidity situation and humanitarian situation in the Strip.” Coalition Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir voted against the move to allow in additional fuel, which reportedly stemmed from U.S. pressure. Washington is reportedly demanding that the current daily delivery of 60,000 liters (nearly 16,000 gallons) be doubled or tripled. Channel 12 reported that the War Cabinet will gradually increase the daily amount from 60,000 liters to 180,000 liters (47,550 gallons).
Israeli casualties continue to rise
The IDF on Thursday published the names of three more soldiers killed during the ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Sgt. Amit Bonzel, 22, from Shoham, was killed on Wednesday in a battle in the center of the Gaza Strip. Sgt. Alemnew Emanuel Feleke, 22, from Kiryat Gat, was wounded in battle in southern Gaza on Tuesday and later died of his injuries. Maj. Gen. (res.) Maor Gershoni, 24, from Yokne’am Illit, a commander in Battalion 8173 of the 6th Etzioni Brigade, was killed on Wednesday in a battle in the north of the Gaza Strip. At least 87 soldiers have been killed in action in Gaza since the start of the IDF ground operation on Oct. 27; 414 Israeli soldiers have died since the war started on Oct. 7.Israeli forces have killed at least 5,000 Hamas terrorists during “Operation Swords of Iron,” according to The Washington Post, citing Israeli security officials.

Joly condemns Hamas rapes of Israeli women after weeks of pressure
The Canadian Press/December 7, 2023
OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is condemning sexual violence committed by Hamas during its attack on Israel, after weeks of pressure to speak out.
"Using sexual violence as a tactic of war is a crime," Joly wrote Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter. Joly made explicit reference to the brutal incursion two months ago by Hamas militants, who killed an estimated 1,200 people.
Canada strongly condemns sexual and gender-based violence, she wrote, "including rape, perpetrated by Hamas against women in Israel on Oct. 7. We believe Israeli women." Opposition parties have been pressing the government for weeks to condemn the sexual violence by Hamas, at times arguing that it's not enough to simply speak out against violence in general. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told delegates at the party's convention Oct. 14 that "there can be no justification for the torture, murder and sexual violence committed by Hamas." Two weeks ago in Parliament, ConservativeMP Michelle Rempel Garner called on the governing Liberals to denounce the United Nations for not having condemned Hamas's sexual violence, which the organization ended up doing a week later. At the time, parliamentary secretary Pam Damoff responded that Canadacondemns Hamas's "actions against women and other civilians."
Conservatives also took aim Thursday at Canada's embassy in Tel Aviv and its mission in Ramallah for a post on social media that the Tories say suggests Palestinians have been victims of sexual violence in the war between Israel and Hamas. "Sexual (and) gender-based violence impact both Israeli (and) Palestinian women and girls, and also men and boys, in distinct ways," the post reads. "Canada condemns all use of sexual and gender-based violence as a tactic of war. We advocate for justice for all victims and survivors." Seven minutes later, the embassy in Israel added that "we must acknowledge that Israeli women and girls have been profoundly impacted by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Accounts of brutal sexual violence during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks are deeply concerning and must be investigated."Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman pounced on the original post, writing, "You can't even get this right." Added former Conservative senator Linda Frum: "Only one side is using rape as a tactic of war."
Global Affairs Canada acknowledged but did not immediately address a request to clarify the original post. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is demanding the department explain the statement, which it called inaccurate and insensitive.
"Now is not the time for misinformation (and) false moral equivalence. Only one side — Hamas — is using rape as a tactic of war," the Canadian group posted on X. The group also thanked Joly for speaking out. "There is no statute of limitations on demanding accountability for heinous crimes," it wrote. Israel's embassy in Ottawa opted to focus on Joly's comment over the other posts. "We do take Melanie Joly's tweet as the valid position that was stated by Canada," a spokeswoman told The Canadian Press. The government's Thursday statements came four days after Canada's envoy for combatting antisemitism called it an anti-Jewish double standard to question reports of Hamas militants raping Israeli women. "What we are seeing with the refusal/indifference to believe Jewish women who were sexually assaulted is a clear form of antisemitism," Deborah Lyons wrote Sunday on X, chastising women's groups.
"Non-Jewish and non-Israeli women would not be questioned and challenged in this same way." In Edmonton, the University of Alberta replaced the head of its sexual assault centre last month for endorsing an open letter that questioned the validity of sexual assault claims against Hamas.
In Israel, women's organizations have been calling on the international community to speak out for weeks, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized other countries Tuesday for not doing so. Yet police in Israel are still investigating what happened two months ago, after officials prioritized identifying bodies instead of preserving evidence, The Associated Press reported. Officials say they have found it difficult to find rape survivors because many of the people believed to be victims of such acts were killed by their attackers. Israeli embassies have shown reporters videos of Hamas atrocities during the Oct. 7 attack. One scene showed the body of a woman with no pants or undergarments, but none of the videos compiled from social media, security cameras and Hamas fighters showed sexual assaults.
The group Physicians for Human Rights Israel, which has a record of advocating for Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip suffering under Israel's longtime blockade of the territory, published an initial assessment in November. "What we know for sure is that it was more than just one case and it was widespread, in that this happened in more than one location and more than a handful of times," Hadas Ziv, policy and ethics director for the organization, said Tuesday. "What we don’t know and what the police are investigating is whether it was ordered to be done and whether it was systematic."
Hamas has rejected allegations that its gunmen committed sexual assault.
On Dec. 1, UN Women said it condemned Hamas for "numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks" on Oct. 7. "This is why we have called for all accounts of gender-based violence to be duly investigated and prosecuted, with the rights of the victim at the core," the agency wrote. The agency's statement came after it had already raised the alarm about Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip being displaced and widowed by Israel's bombardment, which the UN says violated international law. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said it requested access to Israel and the Palestinian territories to allow it to collect information on the Hamas attack, including sexual violence. Israel says the office has pre-existing biases against Israel and it will not co-operate with the body.

US asks Israel not to respond to Houthi attacks
JNS/December 7, 2023
The United States has asked Israel not to respond to attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen lest it spark a wider regional conflict, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The United States told Israel to let the American military deal with the Houthis, the paper reported, citing U.S. and other government officials. The Iranian-backed proxy group fired a surface-to-surface missile towards Israel’s southern coastal city of Eilat on Wednesday. It was intercepted by Israel’s Arrow air-defense system. The missile, destroyed in the Red Sea area, “did not cross into Israeli territory and did not pose a threat to civilians,” said IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. Air-raid sirens were activated in Eilat “according to policy,” sending approximately 60,000 people running for shelter. Houthis have launched multiple missile and drone attacks against Israeli in recent weeks, some thwarted by Israel, others by U.S. or Saudi forces.
On Sunday, the Iranian terror proxy’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that “our armed forces will resume targeting the Zionist occupation entity with painful and decisive blows” in response to what he described as “brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip.”On Nov. 9, the Houthis fired a ballistic missile at Eilat, which was intercepted by Israel’s Arrow 3 in the aerial-defense system’s first operational use. On Oct. 31, the Arrow 2 air defense system for the first time intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired from the Red Sea area. Israel has bolstered its naval presence in the Red Sea area in response to the attacks.

US imposes sanctions on Iran-backed network funding Yemen's Houthis
WASHINGTON (Reuters)/December 7, 2023
The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on 13 individuals and entities for allegedly funneling tens of millions of dollars in foreign currency to Yemen’s Houthi group from the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities. The U.S. Treasury said in a statement that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s paramilitary and espionage force, backed the scheme involving a complex web of exchange houses and firms in multiple countries, including Yemen, Turkey, and St. Kitts and Nevis. Treasury Secretary Brian Nelson said funds provided by Iran have enabled recent attacks by the Houthis on commercial shipping in the Red Sea that endanger international trade. "The Houthis continue to receive funding and support from Iran, and the result is unsurprising: unprovoked attacks on civilian infrastructure and commercial shipping, disrupting maritime security and threatening international commercial trade," the Treasury statement quoted Nelson as saying.' The Houthis say they have been staging drone and missile attacks against Israel and Israeli ships in the Red Sea in response to the offensive Israel launched against Hamas in Gaza after the Oct.7 rampage into Israel by Hamas militants. Iran denies any involvement in the attacks.
The sanctions freeze all properties and interests in the United States of those targeted and generally prohibit Americans from conducting transactions with them.

Who are the Houthis and why hasn't the US retaliated for their attacks on ships?
Associated Press/December 7, 2023
When Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched missiles and hit three commercial ships in the southern Red Sea last weekend, it triggered an immediate question: Will the U.S. military strike back? The Houthis have sharply escalated their attacks against ships as they sail toward the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait. And U.S. Navy ships have shot down an array of drones headed their way and believed to have been launched by the militant group from territory it controls in Yemen. But so far, the U.S. has avoided military retaliation — a marked difference from its multiple strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria that have fired rockets, missiles and drones at bases housing American forces in both countries. No one has been reported hurt in the Houthi incidents, although the commercial ships suffered some damage. And U.S. officials argue that the Houthis haven't technically targeted U.S. vessels or forces — a subtlety that Navy ship captains watching the incoming drones may question. Here's a look at the Houthis and their increasing attacks, and why the U.S. believes it is more acceptable to bomb some Iranian-linked targets than others.
WHO ARE THE HOUTHIS AND WHAT'S GOING ON IN YEMEN
Houthi rebels swept down from their northern stronghold in Yemen and seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, launching a grinding war. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to try to restore Yemen's exiled, internationally recognized government to power.
Years of bloody, inconclusive fighting against the Saudi-led coalition settled into a stalemated proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, causing widespread hunger and misery in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country. The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more. A cease-fire that technically ended more than a year ago is still largely being honored. Saudi Arabia and the rebels have done some prisoner swaps, and a Houthi delegation was invited to high-level peace talks in Riyadh in September as part of a wider détente the kingdom has reached with Iran. While they reported "positive results," there is still no permanent peace.
ATTACKS ON SHIPS
The Houthis have sporadically targeted ships in the region over time, but the attacks have increased since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas and spiked after an explosion Oct. 17 at a hospital in Gaza killed and injured many. Houthi leaders have insisted Israel is their target. After the weekend attacks, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the group wants to "prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Red Sea (and Gulf of Aden) until the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops."One of the commercial ships hit on Sunday — the Unity Explorer — has a tenuous Israeli link. It is owned by a British firm that includes Dan David Ungar, who lives in Israel, as one of its officers. Israeli media identified Ungar as being the son of Israeli shipping billionaire Abraham "Rami" Ungar. But any Israel connections to other ships are unclear. Sunday's flurry of attacks included missiles that hit the Unity Explorer, the Number 9 and the Sophie II, all bulk carriers. And throughout that day, the USS Carney, a Navy destroyer, shot down three drones that were headed toward the ship and also went to the aid of the commercial vessels. On Wednesday, the USS Mason shot down a drone heading in its direction. In a statement, U.S. Central Command said, "We cannot assess at this time whether the Carney was a target" of the drones.
THE US CALCULUS
While the U.S. has carried out airstrikes on Iranian-back militias in Iraq and Syria that have targeted American troops in 77 different attacks since Oct. 17, the military has not yet retaliated against the Houthis. That reluctance reflects political sensitivities and stems largely from broader Biden administration concerns about upending the shaky truce in Yemen and triggering a wider conflict in the region. The White House wants to preserve the truce and is wary of taking action that could open up another war front.
U.S. officials warn that military action is an option and they haven't taken it off the table. But both publicly and privately, officials stress that there is a difference between the Iraq and Syria bombings and the Houthi attacks. Iran-backed militia have launched one-way attack drones, rockets or close-range ballistic missiles at bases in Iraq 37 times and in Syria 40 times. Dozens of troops have suffered minor injuries — in most cases traumatic brain injuries. In all instances so far, the personnel have returned to work.
In response, the U.S. has retaliated with airstrikes three times in Syria since Oct. 17, targeting weapons depots and other facilities linked directly to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and the militias. And it struck multiple sites in Iraq late last month after a militia group for the first time fired short-range ballistic missiles at U.S. forces at al Asad air base. The Houthis, meanwhile, have fired missiles at vessels in the Red Sea, launched drones and missiles targeting Israel and sent drones in the direction of Navy ships. Also, last month, Houthis seized a vehicle transport ship linked to Israel in the Red Sea off Yemen, and still hold the vessel. And Houthi missiles landed near another U.S. warship after it assisted a vessel linked to Israel that had briefly been seized by gunmen. Defending the lack of retaliation for those attacks has forced U.S. officials to dance on the head of a pin.
In one breath, the Pentagon officials say the Navy ships shot down the Houthi drones heading toward them because they were deemed "a threat." But in the next breath officials say the U.S. assesses that the ships were not the target. That determination often comes later after intelligence assessments review telemetry and other data.
That, however, is certainly no comfort to sailors on the ships who watch the radar track of incoming drones and must make rapid decisions about whether it represents a threat to the ship. At the same time, the U.S. has consistently said it wants to protect free navigation of the seas. But the Houthi actions have prompted the International Maritime Security Construct to issue a warning for ships transiting the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb. It says ships should choose routes as far from Yemeni waters as possible, travel at night and not stop, because that makes them an easier target.
This week the U.S. said it was talking with allies about using a naval task force to escort commercial ships in the Red Sea. About 38 countries participate in a similar task force in the region — largely to battle piracy off the coast of Somalia. Officials have to discuss the issue with allies to see who wants to be involved in a new effort.
ESCALATION?
The Biden administration has talked persistently about the need to avoid escalating the Israel-Hamas war into a broader regional conflict. So far, strikes on the Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria have not broadened the conflict, said Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary. So it's not clear if targeted strikes against Houthi weapons depots or similar sites — which also have Iranian support — would cross a line and trigger a wider war. "We will continue to consult with international allies and partners on an appropriate way to protect commercial shipping going through that region, and at the same time ensuring we do what we need to do to protect our forces," said Ryder.

Russian girl, 14, shoots dead classmate, commits suicide
Associated Press/December 7, 2023
A Russian schoolgirl shot several of her classmates with a gun on Thursday, killing one person and injuring five others, before killing herself, state news agencies and authorities said. The shooting happened at a school in Bryansk, in a region that borders Ukraine, Russia's Investigative Committee said. Children were reportedly among the wounded. One of the people injured was in serious condition, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said. Video shared by Ria Novosti showed children cowered in a classroom behind a door barricaded with upended desks and chairs during the attack. Preliminary investigations found that the 14-year-old girl had brought a pump-action shotgun to the school that she used to fire at her classmates, Russia's Investigative Committee said. The girl's father was taken for questioning as a witness, RIA Novosti said. Investigators also wanted to ask him how his daughter came into possession of the gun, the Telegram channel Shot reported. The presidential Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova said on her Telegram channel that she was overseeing the care of the injured children. In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Lvova-Belova and Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing them of responsibility for the abduction of children from Ukraine. Russia's Interior Ministry said it was looking into a motive for the shooting, which is one of several school shootings in the country in recent years. In September 2022, a gunman opened fire in a school in central Russia, killing 17 people and wounding 24 others before shooting himself dead. In April 2022, a man killed two children and a staff member at a kindergarten also in central Russia. In May 2021, a man opened fire at pupils at his former high school in the Russian city of Kazan, killing nine people including seven children. In 2018, an 18-year-old student in Russian-occupied Crimea killed 20 people in a mass shooting at a college.

Iran's Raisi tells Putin in Moscow that West backs Gaza "genocide"
Reuters/December 7, 2023
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi accused the West on Thursday of supporting "genocide" by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza, at the start of talks in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin. As part of a burst of meetings focused on the Middle East, Putin greeted Raisi in the Kremlin a day after visiting the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, where he discussed the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and efforts by Russia and OPEC to boost oil prices.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 07-08/2023
Israel cannot outsource its future to the PA
Daniel Tauber/JNS/December 7, 2023
U.S. aid to Israel has always come with strings attached, and. American assistance following Oct. 7, as great and welcome as it is, has been no different. The U.S. has pressured Israel to reduce its bombing of Gaza, “pause” military action against Hamas, permit the entry of humanitarian aid that may be diverted to Hamas, and more. While these demands may hamper Israel’s war effort, they are in line with U.S. pressure on Israel in previous conflicts.
One American demand, however, crosses the line.
It was only a week after Oct. 7 that President Joe Biden mused on “60 Minutes” that “There needs to be a … path to a Palestinian state.” Since then, the revival of the “two-state solution,” which requires major Israeli security and territorial concessions to the Palestinians, has become a major part of the administration’s post-Oct. 7 policy.
In particular, the Biden administration is pressing for the installation of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in Gaza following Hamas’s expected downfall. As Biden wrote in The Washington Post, following hostilities, Gaza should be governed by “a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution.”Biden may be sticking to decades-old U.S. policy, but with this demand, he is ignoring what has transpired in those decades and is laying the groundwork for the next Oct. 7. For it was in Gaza that the two-state solution was already implemented most fully. As part of the Oslo Accords, the P.A. was already granted rule over the Palestinian population in Gaza. It was during PA rule that Hamas became more popular and powerful than the Fatah-led PA. And once Israel fully withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Hamas handily beat Fatah in P.A. parliamentary elections a few months later and proceeded to violently (and easily) expel Fatah from Gaza in 2007. Similarly, in P.A.-governed areas in Judea/West Bank, Hamas has long been building its organization. All the while, the P.A. and Fatah continue to indoctrinate Palestinian society against Israel.
Biden’s post-war policy also ignores the deep unpopularity of P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA itself. A Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll conducted in March had 52% of Palestinians agreeing that the P.A.’s dissolution would serve Palestinian interests and 63% saying the P.A. is a burden. Seventy-seven percent supported Abbas’s resignation. A September survey showed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh beating Abbas 58%-37% in presidential elections. No wonder Abbas has refused to hold presidential or parliamentary elections for nearly two decades. Given all this, implanting the Fatah-led P.A. in Gaza might even hasten its demise or, more likely, make it again a tool for extremists there, whether from Fatah or Hamas.
Renewing the drive for Palestinian statehood after the Oct. 7 attack is also downright insulting. A popular Palestinian organization elected by Palestinians to a majority in their parliament, along with other Palestinian groups, just murdered 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped nearly 240 more, including women, children and Holocaust survivors. It has terrorized Israel with over 10,000 rockets in two months. Scores of Israeli soldiers have died and more will die in Gaza fighting these terrorists. The Fatah-led P.A. has not condemned the attack, has even denied it, while Fatah and its affiliates celebrated it. Biden’s push to reward such barbarism with land, money and power and to make such barbarism and the sacrifice of Israeli soldiers the foundation of Palestinian statehood is shocking.
The cycle of empowering and rewarding terror must end. It provides no hope of peace but sustains the fantasy of war against Israel. The onus must be on the P.A. and Palestinian society to demonstrate their desire for peace with Israel. End “pay-for-slay.” Remove terrorists’ names from streets and squares. Remove terror-supporting officials. Educate Palestinian children for coexistence. Stop worrying about Jewish housing numbers or Jews praying at Judaism’s holiest site. Give up the fantasy of Israel’s destruction as recently evidenced in a June poll showing that 66% of Palestinians believe Israel will not last until 2048 and 51% believe Palestinians can recover all territory west of the Jordan. Show us popular Palestinian coexistence movements like those in Israel, such as the annual kite festival put on by some of those slaughtered by Hamas.
Of course, the thought that this would occur is laughable. This is why Israel cannot outsource its security and, by extension, its future to a Palestinian state or the Palestinian Authority—revitalized or not.

Hamas on Campus: Students for Justice in Palestine
Robert Williams/Gatestone Institute./December 7, 2023
Many pro-Hamas demonstrations that have been taking place on US campuses since Hamas launched its war on Israel on October 7, when more than 3,000 Hamas terrorists invaded and raped, pillaged, murdered and kidnapped their way through the small communities of southern Israel, have reportedly been led by a radical organization known as National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP).
According to a 2018 monograph... NSJP was founded in 2010 by leaders of American Muslims for Palestine and the US Palestinian Community Network, two organizations linked to US-designated terror organizations.
The letter [to nearly 200 university presidents] cites the NSJP toolkit document: "The toolkit refers to the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel as 'the resistance.' This was followed by statements at campus events where students proudly declared 'We are Hamas,' and 'We echo Hamas.'"
Material support for a terrorist organization is a serious matter, too dangerous to leave for university presidents to solve. They frequently appear more concerned about placating the radical elements on their campuses.
Many of these academic institutions receive federal funding. However, Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance." Title IV also covers "violations based on religion."
If a university allows material support for a terrorist organization, or discrimination against Jews, its federal financial assistance should be cancelled at once.
Many pro-Hamas demonstrations have been taking place on US campuses since Hamas launched its war on Israel on October 7, when more than 3,000 Hamas terrorists invaded and raped, pillaged, murdered and kidnapped their way through the small communities of southern Israel. Pictured: Students participate in a demonstration in support of Hamas outside Columbia University campus on November 15, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Many pro-Hamas demonstrations that have been taking place on US campuses since Hamas launched its war on Israel on October 7, when more than 3,000 Hamas terrorists invaded and raped, pillaged, murdered and kidnapped their way through the small communities of southern Israel, have reportedly been led by a radical organization known as National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), which, according to a report in The Atlantic, announced a "national day of resistance".
"The National Students for Justice in Palestine released a 'toolkit' which refers to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as 'the resistance' and unequivocally states: 'Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement.'"
The "Day of Resistance Toolkit" document describes the October 7 massacre, in which more than 1,200 defenseless Israeli women, children and men were brutally murdered, many of them raped, beheaded and burned alive, thusly:
"[T]he Palestinian resistance stormed the illegitimate border fence, gaining control of the Gaza checkpoint at Erez, and re-entering 1948 Palestine... Fearlessly, our people struggle for complete liberation and return...
Today, we witness a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: across land, air, and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers of the Zionist entity, taking with it the facade of an impenetrable settler colony and reminding each of us that total return and liberation to Palestine is near. As the Palestinian student movement, we have an unshakable responsibility to join the call for mass mobilization. National liberation is near— glory to our resistance, to our martyrs, and to our steadfast people...
The document states that the Israelis murdered on October 7, overwhelmingly civilian women, children and men, were not really "civilians" and therefore not deserving of protection:
"Settlers are not 'civilians' in the sense of international law, because they are military assets used to ensure continued control over stolen Palestinian land."
Hamas routinely refers to all Israelis, wherever they live in Israel, as "settlers." To many Palestinians, Israel is just one big "settlement."
The toolkit document also provided students with guidance for organizing a local protest on October 12, talking points, and advice on how to handle media, complete with graphics to print out for banners: a photograph of Hamas terrorists celebrating October 7 on a captured Israeli tank and a drawing of the paragliders used by terrorists to invade Israel.
The document continues:
"Palestine will be liberated from the river to the sea, and our resistance, through their bravery and love for land, continue to bring dignity and honor to the Palestinian people. As the diaspora-based student movement for Palestine liberation, our responsibility is to not only support, but struggle alongside our people back home."
Hmm. It sounds as if NSJP has exactly the same goals as Hamas: the eradication of Israel and all its Jewish inhabitants. A coincidence? Not quite.
According to a 2018 monograph published to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, NSJP was founded in 2010 by leaders of American Muslims for Palestine and the US Palestinian Community Network, two organizations linked to US-designated terror organizations.
"In 2010, National Students for Justice in Palestine, a national network of affiliate SJP groups, was formed by the terror-affiliated American Muslims for Palestine and US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) at a conference sponsored by the Boycott National Committee (BNC). American Muslims for Palestine, USPCN, and the BNC are tied to Palestinian and Islamic terror organizations.
"American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) was founded in 2005, after three organizations, KindHearts, the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development were implicated by the federal government between 2001 and 2011 for financing Hamas. Leaders and top donors of these organizations were jailed or deported for terror connections. Several members who remained in the United States, who were not imprisoned, have since migrated to AMP.
"SJP founder Professor Hatem Bazian also chairs American Muslims for Palestine and is listed on the 2013-2015 990 tax forms for AMP's fiscal sponsor Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundations' as the organization's president. Bazian also receives a yearly salary from AMP.
"Prior to and since founding the first SJP chapter at UC Berkeley in 2001, Bazian perpetrated a number of subversive, anti-American, anti-Semitic and terror-supporting acts. He has called for violent subversion of the United States, declaring, 'It's about time that we have an Intifada in this country [USA], We've been watching Intifada [violent uprising] in Palestine, we've been watching an uprising in Iraq [against US soldiers] and the question is that: what are we doing? How come we don't have an Intifada in this country?' The only language the [Israeli] slave master understands is the language of violence.'"
It is doubtful that the majority of the students marching with Students for Justice in Palestine on campuses are aware of the NSJP's ties to Hamas, but the universities and colleges themselves should have an interest in investigating any illegal ties that student organizations on their campuses have. If not, state or federal authorities should: Since 1997, Hamas has been a designated by the US foreign terrorist organization, which it is forbidden to support. Thousands of university students across the US, however, now seem to be doing exactly that, by carrying Hamas slogans and shouting "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." That is most likely constitutionally protected free speech, but it is nevertheless a call for genocidal violence.
The Anti-Defamation League and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law sent a letter on October 25 to nearly 200 university presidents, which argued that SJP "provides vocal and potentially material support to Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization," and requested:
"We write to you today... with an urgent request that your university investigate the activities of your campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for potential violations of 18 USC 2339A and B, and its state equivalents, that is, for potential violations of the prohibition against materially supporting a foreign terrorist organization."
The letter added:
"Many of the [SJP] organization's campus chapters have explicitly endorsed the actions of Hamas and their armed attacks on Israeli civilians, voicing an increasingly radical call for confronting and 'dismantling' Zionism on U.S. college campuses. Some SJP chapters have issued pro-Hamas messaging and/or promoted violent anti-Israel messaging channels. SJP chapters are not advocating for Palestinian rights; they are celebrating terrorism."
The letter cites the NSJP toolkit document:
"The toolkit refers to the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel as 'the resistance.' This was followed by statements at campus events where students proudly declared 'We are Hamas,' and 'We echo Hamas.'"
Despite the massive demonstrations and support for Hamas on campuses, very few universities have acted to address or rebut SJP.
Material support for a terrorist organization is a serious matter, too dangerous to leave for university presidents to solve. They frequently appear more concerned about placating the radical elements on their campuses. Florida is the only state to have ordered state universities to ban SJP for supporting Hamas. The US as a whole, however, has a huge problem on its hands.
Many of these academic institutions receive federal funding. However, Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance." Title IV also covers "violations based on religion."
If a university allows material support for a terrorist organization, or discrimination against Jews, its federal financial assistance should be cancelled at once.
*Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States.
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The Second Round of the War on Gaza and its Horizons
Dr. Nassif Hitti/Asharq Al-Awsat/December 07/2023
The second round of the Israeli war on Gaza began after a week-long ceasefire. It continues after two months. The Israeli leadership, although it is unwilling to publicly admit this, realizes that it has fallen captive to the unattainable goals to obliterate Hamas it had set. The war rages on because several government ministers, starting with the Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir, have threatened to withdraw from the government and bring it down otherwise. Also, Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing opposition from right-wing groups because of his handling of the war.
They hold him primarily responsible for this security failure and its strategic repercussions, which allowed Hamas to succeed with its attack in October and has had negative implications for Israel. The attack also “covers” those attacking Netanyahu, amplifying criticism tied to other Israeli policies. This has heightened tensions within the right-wing camp between his supporters and those who oppose him. The resumption of this war is now linked to preventing Netanyahu’s political career from coming to an abrupt end.
The increased global, and especially Western, public outrage at the war has begun to embarrass Israel's allies, particularly given the unrealistically high bar it has set. These allies led by Washington have realized that they must explore more realistic and achievable options. Nonetheless, some continue to cling to the same objectives that the Israeli government has set for its war against the Gaza Strip. Other allies have started to subtly hint, though with trepidation for now, at the need for more temporary ceasefire or an open-ended truce that ends this genocidal war, because they recognize that Israel is incapable of achieving the objectives it had set at the beginning of the war.
Israel and its friends understand that for reasons of principle and practicality, no Arab or global country could accept to, let alone succeed in, temporarily administering the Gaza Strip amid Israeli security control, given the regional and international implications. Moreover, Israel is beginning to realize that the objectives it had declared on the first day of the war are unattainable: the establishment of a safe zone in southern Gaza and the previously stated goal of expelling them to Egypt.
Israel is now surely aware that this is not feasible. Both the Palestinians and Egyptians prevent the realization of these objectives. In its war against Gaza, Israel has become captive to the slogans it had raised and will find itself caught in a protracted conflict that escalates and de-escalates without any of the war's core objectives being achieved. Indeed, tensions have begun to expand, as expected, to the West Bank, and recent developments, particularly in the Jenin area, are a clear indication of that. We should remember that the government’s clearly articulated policy of Judaizing the West Bank, through both laws and measures, as well as the increasing settlement activity and violence against Palestinians, could lead to a third Intifada in the West Bank.
Some Western countries’ handling of the situation has been interesting. On one hand, they repeatedly voice their support for a two-state solution and thus the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. However, they have done nothing to push back against Israel's actions, especially settlers' efforts to undermine the foundations of a future Palestinian state. It is both surreal and sad to see threats of action being taken against the settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank, as the settlements are a blatant violation of international law, norms, and UN resolutions concerning occupied territories. These powers have not taken a single concrete position or action against the policy of dismantling the foundations of the solution that the international community laid out for these territories since Israel occupied them in June 1967.
Today, there are three different "theaters of confrontation." The intensity and declared objectives differ in each of them, but they are interconnected: first and foremost, Gaza, with the ongoing war and all its repercussions, which have spilled over to the other two theaters: the West Bank and South Lebanon.
One cannot look at Gaza and the West Bank separately in assessing the current situation and proposing solutions for the conflict, whether through violence or de-escalation. The link between the two becomes evident when one looks for practical solutions that safeguard peace within the framework laid out by UN resolutions, even if those solutions are on hold until further notice although this delay makes reaching a solution more difficult. Nonetheless, the delays and Israeli wars do not provide a realistic and sustainable alternative to what is the only durable solution.
Over time, Israel may "come down from the tree" it has placed itself on and accept a prolonged ceasefire or a cessation of hostilities at a later stage, contenting itself with parallel security arrangements to create calm along the borders between Gaza and Israel, rather than Israeli control over the Gaza Strip. Israel could back down and “get off its high horse,” agreeing to a long-term truce and security guarantees that ensure calm on the border between Gaza and Israel.
The second theater of confrontation is the West Bank. Developments there are evolving quickly, and they will have serious ramifications, not only for the West Bank but also for the region and neighboring countries, specifically in the event that things get out of hand, which cannot be ruled out so long as the foreign actors capable of influencing Israel’s position do nothing but issue warning that have no impact on the ground. Meanwhile, the policy of Judaization continues in various forms and at different rates, with the aim of eliminating the prospect of the needed Palestinian state.
The third theater in South Lebanon. There are growing concerns that the skirmishes on this front could precipitate a destructive war like in 2006. Israel is trying to alter the rules of the engagement and establish a safe zone along the border, demanding the implementation of a provision of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (point two of paragraph eight regarding the demilitarization of the area between the Blue Line and the Litani River). Decision-makers on the Lebanese side (Hezbollah and its allies) on the ground believe that as long as Lebanese territory remains occupied (Shebaa Farms, northern Ghajar, and the Kfar Shuba Hills), Lebanon must fight to ensure they are liberated, and they cannot accept Israeli conditions. Others believe that the issue of the occupied Lebanese territories is merely a pretext to allow Hezbollah to maintain its arsenal and use it to serve broader objectives.
The demands set by Israel cannot be achieved, and thus what is attainable is restoring calm and going back to the pre-war status quo and rules of engagement. Some argue that the rules of engagement have also changed after the Gaza war, since the adoption of the strategic doctrine of the "unity of fronts," which the ongoing war has underlined. Besides the "Palestinian front," the most significant and active front in this strategy is currently the Lebanese front, which remains central to this strategy.
Undoubtedly, the developments in Gaza and the settlement that could be reached with time, as we mentioned earlier, will have an impact. It could be reached if Israel walks back on its declared objectives, which requires international pressure on Israel that compels it to end its ongoing assault, which could lead to a regional war. Negotiations through indirect channels and active mediators are needed for the re-establishment of stability along the Lebanese front. This would lead to the crystallization of new rules of engagement, as happened after the 2006 war.
All the fronts are interconnected, despite their varying degrees of intensity, and they could all either escalate or de-escalate. While de-escalation is necessary, it is not sufficient if we do not, despite all the obstacles (both old and new) revive the peace process. This is no easy task, and many conditions must be met if this is to happen. While it is not impossible, overcoming these impediments will prove challenging. The most important is undoubtedly that the Palestinians get their house in order.

Gaza war shifts Russia’s Middle East relations
Faisal Al Yafai/The Arab Weekly/December 07/2023
For Russia, shifting away from Israel carries the possibility of gaining political support from across the Muslim world. It makes it harder for Arab states and Turkey, to support Ukraine openly.
From the start of the Ukraine invasion, Vladimir Putin has understood that Russia retains one immeasurable advantage: time. The sheer size of the Russian landmass, population and economy, as well as Putin’s iron grip over the country’s politics, means that the war could churn on for weeks, months or even years without causing government-altering pain in Moscow. Indeed, part of the West’s strategy in arming Ukraine so rapidly after the invasion was to force the pace against Moscow, to try to inflict a series of defeats on Russia that would force it to the negotiating table.
So it has proven. Twenty months into the invasion and another war came along, taking the political focus of the West and the wider world away from Ukraine. The Gaza war, what historians will likely call the Second October War, coming 50 years after the 1973 October War, has become an opportunity for Russia, a chance to regain the moral high ground, grandstand among the Global South and change the country’s relationships with Middle Eastern nations.
The first has been much discussed. The carte blanche offered to Israel by the United States and other countries has been a gift from the West to Moscow.
The Kremlin and its political and media supporters have repeatedly drawn an unflattering parallel between the way the US responded to the Ukraine invasion, with threats and sanctions against Russia, and the way it has responded to Israel’s attacks on Gaza. The hypocrisy is glaring and perfectly fits Russia’s narrative that great powers behave differently and rules do not apply to them. Why therefore, they ask, must rules apply to a great power like Russia, when it perceives a danger from Ukraine?
Related to this attempt to regain the moral high ground has been the ability to grandstand among the countries of the Global South.
Analysts have noted that the United Nations resolution introduced by Russia ten days after the Gaza war started to bring about a ceasefire was a diplomatic failure, and it was, but only in part. Yes, the resolution failed to pass, but with China and Russia in favour and the expected Western allies of the US, the UK and France against, a message was conveyed to the court of public opinion in the Global South that the global body was biased against their interests.
Those changes are more about public image than real politics, although they do have an effect. But the Gaza war is also altering Russia’s relationship with other countries in the Middle East.
For years, Russia has tried to maintain pragmatic relations with Israel. With its strong footing in Syria, it has tried to play the role of a mediating power, allowing Israel some leeway to bomb sites inside the country, while also giving Iran room to act.
The Gaza war has shifted that. Within two weeks of the October 7 attack that started the war, Russia welcomed an Hamas delegation to Moscow, ostensibly to discuss how to safeguard Russian citizens. But since that could have been done without such an official visit, and as it was noted that Iran’s deputy foreign minister was there at the same time, the not unreasonable interpretation was that Russia was facilitating planning between the two. Since then, the relationship has soured further, and the UN envoys of both countries have traded harsh words.
For Russia, shifting away from Israel carries the possibility of gaining political support from across the Muslim world. It makes it harder for Arab states, and Turkey, to support Ukraine openly. After Volodymyr Zelensky’s open support for Israel and lack of statements on the destruction in Gaza, he will not be welcome at next year’s Arab League summit. That may have been a miscalculation on Zelensky’s part, but Moscow will capitalise on it.
The war also means that Russian-Turkey relations are getting warmer.
Long before the Ukraine invasion, the two have warily circled each other in Syria, and the Ukraine conflict has seen Turkey try to balance relations with both sides. But the Gaza war has changed that and placed them both on the same side. Both have aimed their barbs either at Israel or its principal backer the United States; both see in that a chance for a greater role. For Turkey, that would be something like the moral leadership of the Middle East; for Russia, a rival to China for leadership of the Global South.
The Gaza war has offered an opportunity to Russia to move beyond the war in Ukraine in its relations with the Middle East.
The return of Russia to the Middle East is often overstated. Russia, for all its search for ways to project influence across the Global South, appears uninterested in the extensive backing for Arab and African governments seen during the Cold War.
Instead, Russia today practices a form of “vacuum diplomacy,” rushing to fill the spaces left by a retreating America, or pushing out Western influence once it becomes unpopular, or supporting sidelined political groups. Those elements can be seen in its recent welcome of Hamas to Moscow; in the way Wagner operatives collaborate with African governments, or the way Moscow was happy to save the Syrian regime from its armed opponents.
The same is true for this Gaza conflict, which has come at an opportune time for Putin. With Western backing for Israel seemingly without conditions or limits, a space has opened for Russia to once again dive into the politics of the Middle East. It was only a matter of time.
*Faisal Al Yafai is currently writing a book on the Middle East and is a frequent commentator on international TV news networks. He has worked for news outlets such as The Guardian and the BBC, and reported on the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa.
Syndication Bureau www.syndicationbureau.com.

Why the world is watching the fate of EU-Latin America talks
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/December 07, 2023
In Oscar Wilde’s masterful play “The Importance of Being Earnest,” which was first performed in 1895, Lady Bracknell famously says that “to lose one parent … may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness.”
Fast forward more than a century and, in a very different context, this same sentiment is today being felt in much of Brussels amid the potential failure of the EU’s trade negotiations with Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay). The possible collapse of these discussions comes swiftly on the heels of the failure of the bloc’s trade talks with Australia. Speculation had grown that an EU-Mercosur deal could be concluded this week. However, that prospect seems to have been extinguished after comments from incoming Argentine President Javier Milei, an anarcho-capitalist political maverick who will take office on Sunday, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The signals from Argentina are mixed, as incoming Foreign Minister Diana Mondino said this week that the new administration wanted to see a conclusion to the deal “soon.” However, Macron then used Milei’s earlier comments to come out with his own criticisms. This is key because the deal, if it is finalized, may have to be concluded as an agreement covering the competences of both the EU and the 27 member states, which would allow France to issue a veto.
While the potential failure of the Australian and Mercosur talks would not be catastrophic for the EU, they would both be serious setbacks in several respects. Firstly, EU trade negotiations will be put on the political back burner in 2024, with European Parliament elections due in June.
Secondly, the failures may slow Europe’s “de-risking” process with China. The EU increasingly needs trade and investment deals with reliable political partners following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the bloc’s desire to reduce its reliance on China for raw materials.
For example, the Australian deal offered the possibility of giving Europe greater access to huge deposits of raw materials such as rare-earth metals and energies like green hydrogen. The collapse of the pact, mainly because of disagreements over agricultural issues, disappointed many across Europe. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said that if the EU “can’t make progress even with Australia, a liberal democracy firmly rooted in the Western world, that is concerning.”
However, the potential collapse of the Mercosur deal is, in some ways, even more alarming for many in Brussels. The pact, which has been under discussion for more than 20 years, would create an integrated market of about 780 million consumers and remove an estimated €4 billion ($4.35 billion) of import tariffs on European products.
It would also be a win for Brussels, as it would pull the two regions closer geopolitically amid a broader international competition for influence. This has seen Beijing and Moscow try to strengthen diplomatic ties with resource-rich countries in Latin America.
Both sides had identified a possible window of opportunity in the coming days to finally get the deal over the line. In part, this was because Spain — a big supporter of the pact — holds the presidency of the Council of the EU, which rotates every six months, while Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had been pushing for an agreement before his nation’s chairing of Mercosur ends this week.
However, final stage talks ran into difficulties when, firstly, the transition team of Milei said that he wanted to look more closely at the details. This Argentine gambit then gave Macron a political opening to come out strongly against the deal. The French president’s chief concern is over agricultural issues, with farming lobbies politically very powerful in France. The big fear in Paris is that a Mercosur deal would see a surge in Latin American agricultural exports to France in particular and the EU in general.
However, multiple other leaders across the bloc, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, are still pushing hard for the deal. Both of these leaders have traveled to Latin America in the last year to lobby for it. Von der Leyen and Scholz have pledged that the Mercosur deal will be concluded by the end of the year. Scholz, for instance, said that “the negotiations have already lasted long enough.”The big fear in Paris is that a Mercosur deal would see a surge in Latin American agricultural exports.
The vast Latin America region, home to half a billion people, has the world’s largest reserves of arable land, producing an estimated 15 percent of global food and 45 percent of net international agri-food trade. It also has huge resource reserves, including critical minerals and the largest share of renewables in the world. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell even said in recent months that this emerging market has the potential to become the “new Gulf,” given its critical mineral assets such as lithium.If the EU-Mercosur trade talks do collapse this month, the world will be watching, as this would send out a signal that the constraints on trade liberalization are growing again. This may significantly undermine the creaking rules-based trading system, with the World Trade Organization at its heart, which may face a new wave of protectionism from the US if Donald Trump wins a second term as president next year.
For now, however, all eyes are on whether there may still be a chance to get the EU-Mercosur deal over the line in the coming days, cementing the deepening of ties between the two powers. The fear in Brussels is that if an agreement is not concluded this month, the best-case scenario may be that talks resume in 2025, in what could be a much-changed political landscape.
*Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.

Israel-Palestine war multiplies Arab suspicions of the West
Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/December 07, 2023
While giving me a lift to Amman from the airport where I arrived last week, my taxi driver told me: “Look at McDonald’s outlets and Starbucks cafes. They are empty.” This is the least people could do to express their sympathy and solidarity with the Palestinians under Israeli attack in Gaza and against a biased West, he told me. A few hours earlier, before boarding my flight from London to the Middle East, another taxi driver, a British Asian, explained to me how he, his wife and his young family had been unable to fathom the violence seen on our screens daily. He said that the world was numb to Arab and Muslim suffering.
The situation for the Palestinian civilians in Gaza continues to worsen by the minute. They have suffered two months of intensive Israeli bombardment, with more than 15,000 killed and thousands more injured as Israel attempts to eradicate the militant group Hamas. Arab and Muslim publics have been glued to their television and smartphone screens, watching in disbelief as the bloodshed unravels. As Palestinian women and children are slaughtered, the international community stands watching, unable even to extend aid or agree any new truce that could be the first step toward ending the onslaught.
In the face of such systematic and deliberate killing of innocent civilians, available to view by everyone across the world, one fallout from this Israeli war on Gaza is a multiplying of Arab suspicions of the West, due to what is seen as its continued and unhindered support for Israel’s actions. All this has, in a short space of time, been translated into a sense of popular anger at what is seen as a biased West and its double standards regarding Palestinians’ suffering due to the relentless and disproportionate bombardment by the Israeli army.
Since Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group’s Oct. 7 attacks that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and which saw about 240 hostages taken back to Gaza, the language used in the West to describe the war has been closely scrutinized. In the minds of many Arabs — both on the street as well as among experts — the West risks further inflaming an already volatile situation and producing a heightened anti-Western sentiment that could take decades to heal.
During my recent stay in the Middle East, many people I met expressed their disillusionment at the West’s stance. Many of them had been educated in the US and Europe and are among the moderates in the region. In these discussions, they evoked the dangers and impact of the use of certain names and phrases, such as referring to an Israel-Hamas war instead of Israel-Palestine. There was also anger about the Western media’s narrative that describes what Hamas did on Oct 7 as “attacks,” while what Israel is doing through its armed forces’ actions are mere “strikes” or “retaliatory action.” The people I met described this as all-out war and an invasion of Gazan neighborhoods, leveling them to the ground and leaving innocent civilians, a majority of whom are anti-Hamas, with nowhere to go.
Others, including academics and experts from across the region, have talked about the Global South losing its trust in the Western media and its ethos, which has for a long time seen it lecturing the rest of the world on media impartiality and objectivity. The dominant impression felt by many during this conflict is that the Western media’s approach has bordered on “dehumanizing” the Palestinians.
They claimed that Western politicians and media have failed to stay balanced. In the first few weeks, they frequently agreed with the narrative presented by Israelis, while often cross-examining the Palestinian or pro-Palestinian side of the story, where and when it was allowed to be presented. Some have even understood the West’s behavior to be a justification for the killing to continue and maybe represents a green light for a plan to transfer the Palestinians from Gaza toward Egypt and from the West Bank toward Jordan.
In my media career, I have witnessed and reported on numerous conflicts and instances of violence, along with their aftermath, in many regions of the world, including the Middle East. Yet never before have I seen the divide reaching the scale it has reached today. The narrative deployed to report on and analyze the Middle East’s forever conflict risks increasing the misunderstanding and misinformation, rendering any work to promote peace and understanding — which is the evident next stage after the guns fall silent — hopeless.
There is a sense of popular anger at what is seen as a biased West and its double standards regarding Palestinians’ suffering.
Apart from the generic condemnation of the continued violence by the UN secretary-general and various UN agencies, in addition to certain nations from both the Global South and Global North, efforts aimed at stopping the war have been timid from most state actors. This includes those that have often aligned themselves and their interests closer to those of the Palestinians and their right to self-determination and a state that lives in peace alongside Israel.
This sense of the West allowing the conflict to continue to spiral out of control and indirectly sanctioning more killing and destruction not only threatens to expand the war in the volatile Middle East, it risks creating more recruits for extremist groups on all sides. These groups have long been preying on the weak and the desperate to bolster their numbers on the back of such devastating civilian suffering.
My taxi driver did not want to boycott more than McDonald’s and Starbucks at this stage, so he is holding on to his American smartphone, particularly as he uses it as a tool to help earn his living. But my conversation with him gave me a sense of the desperation being felt by the man on the street, which could slowly translate into a lack of tolerance for any talk of peace and coexistence. For decades, such approach has insisted to both the Israelis and the Palestinians that they must work for peace, as it will be the only route to secure their future.
*Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years’ experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy. He is also a media consultant and trainer.

Can Mansour Abbas convince Palestinian factions to lay down their arms?
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/December 07, 2023
Mansour Abbas, the chairman of the United Arab List in the Israeli Knesset, who is referred to as a pragmatic Islamist, last week called for the various Palestinian factions to lay down their arms and join the political struggle. He said that what we are facing is a political problem that needs a political solution.
Abbas is totally right, in principle. The question is, if the Palestinians were to lay down their arms, would Israel accept giving the Palestinians their state? It is pertinent to point out that the Palestine Liberation Organization gave up armed struggle for the Oslo Accords in 1993. But did that further their cause in any meaningful way? Abbas did not spell out what this political struggle might look like. How can the political struggle exist when Palestinians have no political representation? The entire problem is that there are 5.35 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who are stateless — they do not have a country and do not have proper passports. Israel is refusing to give them nationality as part of a one-state solution because the country would lose its Jewish majority. At the same time, Israel does not want to give the Palestinians a state because this would mean giving up on “Judea and Samaria.”
This dilemma is driving a political stalemate and pushing every government to avoid tackling the issue in order not to face a backlash. Politicians saw what happened to Yitzhak Rabin when he tried to make a compromise in order to secure a peaceful settlement to the problem. No one wants to face the same fate.
The main hurdle that prevents the finding of a settlement is the medieval mentality that drives Israeli politics. The main hurdle that prevents the finding of a settlement with the Palestinians is the medieval mentality that drives Israeli politics. The concept of the Israeli state is linked to the sacred, to some commandment by God. This type of mentality drove the Crusades as well as the Arab conquests. This was adequate 1,000 years ago but it is not today. Today, modern states are defined by international law, not by a biblical claim.
The problem is the mentality whereby many Israelis view themselves as the chosen people, to whom God promised the land between the sea and the river. This mentality existed before the emergence of the Iranian threat and before the creation of Hezbollah or Hamas. Several statesmen have spelled it out, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
However, what Israel calls Judea and Samaria is the West Bank, which is an integral part of Palestine under international law. This ideology is preventing the Israeli leaders from making any concessions that would allow a two-state solution and peace. Instead, they resort to repressing the Palestinians and, as a result, they suffer a backlash every now and then. This will continue in perpetuity until this ideology is relinquished. Today, Israelis have to choose between ideology and security. Unfortunately, they have been under the impression that they can have both. They can coerce the Palestinians by maintaining the occupation, subjugating them day in, day out and facing no consequences because of American and Western complicity. We cannot blame the Israelis for adopting an ideology; everyone does so to differing degrees. Ideologies are broad ideas that influence our worldview. Even the most pragmatic people are influenced by ideology. They have it in the back of their mind even if they do not realize it. However, when people have to choose between ideology and survival, they choose survival — this is why people prioritize security over ideology.
Decades ago, the Palestine Liberation Organization took exactly the path Abbas suggested, only for it to backfire
Israel will not relinquish its ideology unless it has to; unless it feels it needs to make this choice. Israel needs to be coerced to make this choice because it always thinks it can suppress Palestinians and get away with it. Here, the US should give Israel tough love and compel it to choose between ideology and international acceptance. Hence, what Abbas said is valid only if the international community supports him — i.e., if the international community commits to pressuring Israel to accept the two-state solution. Nevertheless, Israel is a sovereign state. International pressure should be coupled with a change in public opinion. So, Abbas needs to work domestically. But how can he convince the Israeli ideologues? He needs to create a peace camp.
Abbas has already taken a step that earned him the respect of many Israelis: he reached out to the families of the hostages, which is something Netanyahu has been reluctant to do. Can Abbas now build on the momentum? Can he lead parts of Israeli society to engage in some introspection driven by the hostages’ ordeal? Can he push them to ask themselves the very basic question: Why did this happen? Why are they resorting to “terror” against us? Is occupation sustainable? Will occupation guarantee the security of our children?
However, in this endeavor, Abbas definitely needs the protection and support of the international community, otherwise he will be subjected to many false allegations by the racist government of Netanyahu and its members in the Knesset. For Abbas to convince Palestinian factions to lay down their arms and lead a peaceful struggle, he needs to show them it works. Decades ago, the PLO took exactly the path Abbas suggested, giving up armed struggle in favor of political negotiations, only for it to backfire. The PLO could not fulfill the Palestinian dream of statehood.
Palestinians are very skeptical; they have been fooled several times before. Therefore, the international community should put all its weight behind Abbas and help him create the conditions conducive to a two-state solution and Palestinian statehood.
*Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.

UNICEF faces major challenges 77 years on
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/December 07, 2023
The 77th anniversary of the founding of UNICEF will be marked next week. While the organization has made significant and remarkable progress since its establishment, more work has to be done in order to prevent violence against children and to fully protect the rights, safety, well-being and health of children around the world. UNICEF has come a long way. The UN General Assembly established the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund on Dec. 11, 1946, in order to provide relief, food, clothing and support to children living in countries, particularly European nations, that were devastated by the Second World War. In 1953, it became a permanent agency of the UN and the organization’s name was subsequently changed to the UN Children’s Fund, although it retained the original acronym.
Nearly two decades after its establishment, UNICEF’s role shifted from solely providing food and relief to children to also advocating for children’s rights and education. UNICEF also played a key role in the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was later adopted by the UNGA. Three critical pillars of the convention are protecting children from any type of discrimination, prioritizing the best interests of the child and ensuring the rights of children to life, development and survival.
UNICEF has saved many lives and supported communities in more than 190 countries and territories
The significance of this convention is that it expands children’s rights, as it includes a wide range of rights, ranging from social, cultural, educational, political and civil rights to economic rights. Children’s rights also include having access to essentials such as food, shelter, healthcare, education and clean water, as well as safety from any form of exploitation and protection from physical and emotional harm. Children must also be able to express their opinions and be treated with respect for their perspectives and views. The agency has accomplished much in the years since its establishment. UNICEF has saved many lives and supported communities in more than 190 countries and territories. Its projects in water, sanitation and hygiene have reduced preventable childhood diseases and death. Its campaigns to eradicate yaws, leprosy and trachoma were very effective. Tens of thousands of maternal and child welfare centers in many countries receive UNICEF supplies and technical training. It was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 for the “promotion of brotherhood among nations.”
UNICEF has provided aid for mothers and children during conflicts, played a role in decreasing infant and child death rates, increased life expectancy in developing countries and raised the percentage of children going to school and receiving education. It was at the forefront of fighting the Zika virus in 2016 and it helped nearly 1.5 million children in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe who were left without homes, schools and food due to Cyclone Idai in 2019.
UNICEF has become one of the largest social welfare organizations in the world. It provides immunization and disease prevention programs, offers emergency relief in the wake of natural disasters, promotes education and children’s rights and improves childhood and maternal nutrition, as well as sanitation.
Nevertheless, one of the shortcomings of the agency is that it has often failed to protect children during times of war, partially due to the fact that it does not have any enforcement power to mandate compliance with rules, laws and rights. And children are the ones that bear much of the brunt of war.
One of the shortcomings of the agency is that it has often failed to protect children during times of war
In other words, in spite of UNICEF’s work and in spite of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, millions of children still face violence. For example, UNICEF this week acknowledged: “The escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip is having a catastrophic impact on children and families. Children are dying at an alarming rate — more than 5,000 have reportedly been killed and thousands more injured. Well over 1.7 million people in the Gaza Strip have been displaced — half of them children. They do not have enough access to water, food, fuel and medicine. Their homes have been destroyed; their families torn apart.”
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell added on the resumption of fighting in Gaza after last week’s temporary ceasefire: “The Gaza Strip is once again the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. After seven days of respite from horrific violence, fighting has resumed. More children will surely die as a result.”In another conflict-affected country, Sudan, children are also bearing the brunt of a war that has been going on for more than seven months. Millions of children are being exposed to violence, abuse and exploitation, while more than 1,200 children under the age of five have died in nine camps in the country because of a deadly combination of measles and malnutrition.
Another tragedy is that the recruitment of children as soldiers has been seen in Sudan. “The recruitment of children by armed groups for any form of exploitation — including in combat roles — is a gross violation of human rights, a serious crime and a violation of international humanitarian law,” said Siobhan Mullally, the UN special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children.
In conclusion, UNICEF has evolved from being a relief agency to advocating for children’s rights and education. Its humanitarian efforts have helped millions of children and their families around the world. But millions of children still face violence and their rights are violated on a daily basis. Since the agency lacks enforcement power to mandate compliance, it is often unable to protect children in times of war, such as in the Gaza Strip today.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. X: @Dr_Rafizadeh