Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 10-11/2023
UNIFIL: Priority remains to prevent escalation, safeguard civilian lives, ensure safety & security of peacekeepers
Hezbollah launched rocket ’20 meters’ from UN compound
UN peacekeeping position hit in south Lebanon, no casualties
Heavy fighting in south Gaza as Israel presses ahead with renewed US military and diplomatic support
Israeli warplanes wage violent strikes on southern Lebanese towns
Should Army Commander's term extension be Parliament's or Government's decision?
'Precision' attack: Hezbollah hits new Israeli army command center with drones
Is danger escalating in southern Lebanon?
Al-Rahi says southerners don't want a destructive war
Lebanon's banks to close tomorrow in compliance with solidarity decision
Al-Halabi announces closure of public & private schools, institutes, higher education institutions on Monday in solidarity with the Palestinian people
Closure of public administrations, institutions on Monday in response to global solidarity call with people of Gaza, Lebanese border villages
Israel’s survival clashes with America’s Lebanon delusions/Caroline B. Glick/JNS/December 10, 2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 10-11/2023
Syria intercepts Israeli rockets fired on Damascus surroundings
Israeli tanks reach center of Khan Younis in new storm of southern Gaza
Israel’s Netanyahu calls on Hamas militants to ‘surrender now’
Heavy fighting in south Gaza as Israel presses ahead with renewed US military and diplomatic support
Is ‘demilitarization’ of Gaza a euphemism for total destruction?
UN General Assembly likely to vote Tuesday on Gaza cease-fire demand — diplomats
Blinken says Palestinian civilian safety imperative, envisions durable peace
Israel ready to act against Houthi rebels if international community fails to, national security adviser says
Yemen rebels threaten Israel-bound Red Sea ships
Jordan says Israel aims to expel Palestinians from Gaza
Iran-backed militias target Americans 11 times in one day
Two Iranians arrested in Cyprus for targeting Israelis
Iran and Saudi Arabia to negotiate on direct scheduled flights - ILNA
Iran bans Mahsa Amini's family from traveling to receive the European Union’s top human rights prize
Swedish EU diplomat jailed in Iran faces charges of spying for Israel
Advocates look to stem radicalization as anger mounts over Israel-Hamas war
Egyptians vote for president, with al-Sisi certain to win
White House to intensify push for Ukraine aid and border security deal
Zelensky to meet with Biden, Republicans as war funding dries up
Asked about peace talks, Russia's Lavrov says: Ask Ukraine
Russia calls for international monitoring mission in Gaza

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 10-11/2023
How to End Hamas's War on Israel This Week/Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./December 10, 2023
New approach needed on Libyan disarmament/Hafed Al Ghwell/Arab News/December 10, 2023
Companies, individuals must protect themselves from cyberattacks/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/December 10, 2023
Desertification crisis demands world’s attention/Ranvir S. Nayar/Arab News/December 10, 2023
First split appears in Turkiye’s opposition front/Yasar Yakis/Arab News/December 10, 2023
The Issue is Bigger Than Hamas and Fatah/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper/December 10/2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 10-11/2023
UNIFIL: Priority remains to prevent escalation, safeguard civilian lives, ensure safety & security of peacekeepers
NNA/December 10, 2023
An issued statement today by UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti indicated the following: "On Saturday afternoon, a watchtower inside a UNIFIL position in the proximity of Aamra, in southern Lebanon was hit by shelling causing damages to the structure. Fortunately, no one was injured. The origin of the fire is under investigation. Any targeting of UNIFIL positions and any use of the vicinity of our positions to launch attacks across the Blue Line is unacceptable. Attacks against civilians or UN personnel are violations of international law. We remind the parties of their obligations to protect peacekeepers and avoid putting the men and women who are working to restore stability at risk. After over two months of active shelling along the Blue Line the potential for a miscalculation that could trigger a wider conflict is increasing. Restoring stability, through diplomatic channels is a priority to ensure the safety of all civilians who live near the Blue Line as well as peacekeepers.  UNIFIL’s priority remains to prevent escalation, safeguard civilian lives, and ensure the safety and security of peacekeepers."
*Press Release

Hezbollah launched rocket ’20 meters’ from UN compound
Yaakov Lappin/JNS/December 10, 2023
IDF Chief of Staff on Lebanon border: “This must end with a very clear change” • IDF kills new Shejaiya Hamas battalion commander.
Hezbollah fired a rocket just 20 meters from a United Nations compound in Southern Lebanon on Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Sunday. In doing so, Hezbollah endangered the lives of UNIFIL soldiers and continues to systematically violate U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which bans Hezbollah from operating in Southern Lebanon. Since hostilities began on the northern border in parallel with Hamas’s mass murder attack on Oct. 7, Hezbollah has repeatedly used UNIFIL positions as human shields, firing on Israel from nearby. The UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander “was notified” of the latest incident, the IDF stated.  IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi visited the Israel-Lebanon border on Sunday, reviewing the 91st Territorial Division, and stating that “it is clear to us that this must end with a very clear change of the situation.”
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the chief of staff met forces in the area, adding that northern residents would return when security is restored. Meanwhile, in the south, IDF ground, air, and naval troops are continuing to carry out joint operations to destroy terrorists, their weapons and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. IDF troops are operating against a number of terrorist strongholds in the Gaza Strip, including Jabalia, Shejaiya, Beit Hanoun, and Khan Yunis. The troops attack the strongholds, eliminate terrorists, and locate and destroy terrorist infrastructure. In addition, IDF naval troops operate off the coast of the Gaza Strip, supporting IDF ground troops and striking terrorist targets from the sea. Following precise IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) intelligence, the Israel Air Force struck and killed the new commander of Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, Emad Krikae, the military stated. The previous commander of Shejaiya Battalion was killed by the IDF earlier in the war. “Krikae had been deputy commander of Shejaiya. Earlier he had been responsible for anti-tank missile training in the Gaza City Brigade,” said the military. He also participated in anti-tank missile fire and terrorist raids carried out inside Israeli territory.  Since Hamas violated the ceasefire in late November and the IDF resumed combat shortly thereafter, the IAF has struck over 3,500 terror targets in the Gaza Strip, said the military. Among those were real-time targets identified by IDF troops on the ground. Since the beginning of the war, over 22,000 terror targets have been struck in the Gaza Strip. Doctors, and paramedics of the IAF’s tactical search and rescue squadron, Unit 669, continue their rescue operations from in Gaza. Over the past week, 669’s helicopter crews and medical teams carried out approximately 60 evacuations of wounded soldiers from combat zones, providing advanced, life-saving treatment. In recent days, soldiers from the 282nd Brigade have been operating in the Gaza Strip, in cooperation with the 188th Brigade in the Shejaiya area. The Artillery Corps struck over 20 terrorist targets, including weapons storage facilities, booby-trapped houses, and Hamas infrastructure. Earlier on Sunday, two suspicious aerial targets, which infiltrated from Lebanon, were identified in the Western Galilee and were successfully intercepted by the IAF Aerial Defense Array. Two IDF soldiers were moderately injured, and some additional soldiers were lightly injured from shrapnel and smoke inhalation. In response, IAF fighter jets carried out extensive strikes on Hezbollah terrorist organization targets in Lebanese territory.

UN peacekeeping position hit in south Lebanon, no casualties
Agence France Presse/December 10, 2023
A United Nations peacekeeping position in southern Lebanon was hit on Saturday without causing casualties, the U.N. force said, adding it was seeking to verify the source of the fire. Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported that an Israeli Merkava tank targeted the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) position near the border across from Metula in northern Israel. An Israeli army spokeswoman said: "We did not aim at UNIFIL, we did not hit a UNIFIL position." UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said the force was "verifying" the source of the fire, and said the incident caused "no casualties" but damaged a watchtower at the base. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, raising fears of a broader conflagration. More than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side since October, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally. UNIFIL was set up in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon in reprisal for a Palestinian attack. It was bolstered after Hezbollah and Israel fought a devastating war in 2006, and its roughly 10,000 peacekeepers are tasked with monitoring the ceasefire between the two sides. Since the Hamas-Israel war began, UNIFIL has said its headquarters in southern Lebanon has been hit by shelling. Late last month, UNIFIL said Israeli gunfire hit one of its patrols despite a temporary Hamas-Israel truce largely quietening the Lebanon-Israel border at that time.

Heavy fighting in south Gaza as Israel presses ahead with renewed US military and diplomatic support
Associated Press/December 10, 2023
Heavy fighting raged overnight and into Sunday in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the U.S. blocked the latest international efforts to halt the fighting and rushed more munitions to its close ally.
Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a cease-fire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of nearly 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million people within the besieged territory, where U.N. agencies say there is no safe place to flee. But the United States has lent vital support to the offensive once again in recent days, by vetoing United Nations Security Council efforts to end the fighting that enjoyed wide international support, and by pushing through an emergency sale of over $100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel. The U.S. has pledged unwavering support for Israel's goal of crushing Hamas' military and governing abilities in order to prevent any repeat of the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. Hamas and other Palestinian militants stormed into southern Israel that day, allegedly killing some 1,200 people and capturing some 240, over 100 of whom were released during a weeklong cease-fire late last month. In response to the attack, Israel launched a devastating air and ground war that has killed thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, and forced some 1.9 million people to flee their homes, according to U.N. agencies. With only a trickle of aid allowed in, and delivery rendered impossible in much of the territory, Palestinians face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods. Israeli forces continue to face heavy resistance, even in northern Gaza, where entire neighborhoods have been flattened by air strikes and where troops have been operating for over six weeks. In Khan Younis, where ground forces moved in earlier this month, residents said they heard constant gunfire and explosions through the night as warplanes bombarded areas in and around the southern city, Gaza's second largest. "It doesn't stop," said Radwa Abu Frayeh, who lives close to the European Hospital in Khan Younis. "There's bombing, and then the ambulances head out to bring back victims."
DETENTIONS IN THE NORTH
Israel ordered the evacuation of the northern third of the territory, including Gaza City, early in the war, but tens of thousands of people are believed to have remained there, fearing that the south would be no safer or that they would never be allowed to return to their homes. In recent days, videos and photos have emerged showing the detention of dozens of men who were stripped to their underwear, bound and blindfolded. The Israeli military says it is detaining people as it searches for remaining pockets of Hamas fighters. Israel's Channel 13 TV broadcast footage showing dozens of detainees stripped to their underwear with their hands in the air. Several held assault rifles above their heads, and one man could be seen slowly walking forward and placing a gun on the ground before returning to the group. Israeli media pointed to such scenes as evidence that Hamas was collapsing in the north. Men from a separate group of detainees who were released on Saturday told The Associated Press they had been beaten and denied food and water. Osama Oula said Israeli troops had ordered him and others out of a building in Gaza City before bounding their hands with zip ties, beating them for several days and giving them little water to drink. Ahmad Nimr Salman showed his hands, marked and swollen from the zip ties. He said the troops asked if they were with Hamas. "We say 'no,' then they would slap us or kick us." He said his 17-year-old son Amjad is still held by the troops. The group was released after five days and told to walk south. Ten freed detainees arrived at a hospital in Deir al-Balah on Saturday after flagging down an ambulance. The Israeli military had no comment when asked about the alleged abuse.
NO SAFE PLACES
With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,700, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, saying it uses civilians as human shields in dense residential areas. The military says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive. Palestinians militants have also continued firing rockets into Israel. Israel says it has provided detailed instructions for civilians to evacuate to safer areas, even as it continues to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of the territory. Thousands have fled to the southern town of Rafah and other areas along the border with Egypt in recent days — one of the last areas where aid agencies are able to deliver food and water. Israel has designated a narrow patch of barren southern coastline, Muwasi, as a safe zone. But Palestinians described desperately overcrowded conditions with scant shelter and no toilets. They faced an overnight temperature of around 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit). "I am sleeping on the sand. It's freezing," said Soad Qarmoot, who described herself as a cancer patient forced to leave her home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. As she spoke, her children huddled around a fire.

Israeli warplanes wage violent strikes on southern Lebanese towns
Naharnet/December 10, 2023
Israeli warplanes on Sunday violently bombed the outskirts of the southern Lebanese border towns of Yaroun and Maroun al-Ras as artillery shelling targeted the peripheries of at least eight Lebanese border towns. Hezbollah later announced that it attacked the Jal al-Allam Israeli post near Naqoura with the "appropriate weapons."On Saturday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for nine attacks, saying one targeted an Israeli post near the town of Metula. The Israeli army said one of its fighter jets struck a Hezbollah operational command center in Lebanon. The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said the tower of one of its bases along the border with Israel was hit during the skirmishes, with no injuries. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, raising fears of a broader conflagration. More than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side since October, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Should Army Commander's term extension be Parliament's or Government's decision?
LBCI/December 10, 2023
The political consensus is the sole guarantor for placing the repeated proposals for expedited laws related to extending the retirement age for the rank of General and the rank of Brigadier on the agenda of the general session of the Parliament, expected on Thursday. This matter will be discussed during the meeting of the Parliament's Bureau on Monday. Some sources indicated that the debate is still ongoing about whether the term extension for the Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, should be decided in the government or in the Parliament. However, Speaker Nabih Berri still prefers the matter to be settled in the government, while Hezbollah prefers it to be decided in the Parliament. At this time, legal studies are still being undertaken regarding the term extension for the Army Commander and the General Director of the Internal Security Forces, General Imad Othman. The latest study addressed the impact of these extensions on the service period of all officers from the rank of First Lieutenant and above. Sources also mentioned opposition from some ministerial and non-ministerial entities to the term extension for General Othman. Furthermore, contacts are reportedly underway with some MPs to ensure their opposition to this extension.

'Precision' attack: Hezbollah hits new Israeli army command center with drones
LBCI/December 10, 2023
On Sunday, Hezbollah announced: "We carried out an air attack with drones on a new command headquarters for the Israeli occupation army in the western sector, south of the Ya'ara barracks."It added: "Its targets were accurately hit, and we caused several injuries among its soldiers."

Is danger escalating in southern Lebanon?
LBCI/December 10, 2023
Security sources have pointed to the possibility of the widening scope of confrontations with Israel in southern Lebanon. This article was initially published in, translated from the online newspaper Al-Anbaa. These sources told the online newspaper Al-Anbaa that Israel is seeking to achieve a victory to restore its "prestige" after failing to "uproot" the Hamas movement and deport Gaza residents to Sinai. The sources expressed concern that Israel might resort to using its warplanes to target infrastructure in Beirut and Lebanese cities, as it did in the 2006 war. They stated, "This is where we can understand the underlying motives behind the 'crowd' of envoys to Lebanon, who warned of things sliding towards the worst."

Is danger escalating in southern Lebanon?
LBCI/December 10, 2023
Security sources have pointed to the possibility of the widening scope of confrontations with Israel in southern Lebanon. This article was initially published in, translated from the online newspaper Al-Anbaa. These sources told the online newspaper Al-Anbaa that Israel is seeking to achieve a victory to restore its "prestige" after failing to "uproot" the Hamas movement and deport Gaza residents to Sinai. The sources expressed concern that Israel might resort to using its warplanes to target infrastructure in Beirut and Lebanese cities, as it did in the 2006 war. They stated, "This is where we can understand the underlying motives behind the 'crowd' of envoys to Lebanon, who warned of things sliding towards the worst."

Al-Rahi says southerners don't want a destructive war
Naharnet/December 10, 2023
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday reiterated his solidarity with the residents of the clashes-hit Lebanese south. Referring to a recent visit to the South, al-Rahi said: “We told residents that our solidarity with them includes all their needs and the first outcry that we voice with them is: we don’t want a war that would destroy our homes, kill our children and displace us.”“Heroism is not in igniting war through lethal weapons that have no heart or brain; heroism rather lies in making peace,” the patriarch added. “War consumes hefty amounts of money for nothing, whereas peace feeds millions of hungry people. War stems from the pride of rulers and their tyrant interests, whereas peace comes from the heart of God,” al-Rahi went on to say. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, raising fears of a broader conflagration. More than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side since October, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Lebanon's banks to close tomorrow in compliance with solidarity decision
NNA/December 10, 2023
The Central Bank of Lebanon announced this evening that it will be observing the Prime Minister's closure decision of all public institutions and administrations tomorrow, Monday, December 11, 2023. Similarly, the Association of Banks in Lebanon issued a statement this evening announcing the closure of banks tomorrow, Monday, in solidarity with the people of Gaza and the southern Lebanese boder towns and villages.

Al-Halabi announces closure of public & private schools, institutes, higher education institutions on Monday in solidarity with the Palestinian people
NNA/December 10, 2023
Caretaker Minister of Education Abbas Al-Halabi, in conjunction with the Prime Minister’s decision regarding the closure of public administrations, government institutions, and municipalities tomorrow, Monday, in solidarity with the Palestinian people, issued a decision to close all schools, official and private technical institutes, and public and private higher education institutions tomorrow, December 11, 2023, in solidarity with the Palestinian people who are being subjected to extermination, displacement, and killing. The minister called on the countries of the world and their students to raise their voices loudly in the face of the governments that stand by Israel in its brutal aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and against our people and students in southern Lebanon.

Closure of public administrations, institutions on Monday in response to global solidarity call with people of Gaza, Lebanese border villages
NNA/December 10, 2023
The Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers, Judge Mahmoud Makki, issued the following statement this evening: “The General Directorate of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers reports that Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced, by Memorandum No. 26/2023, the closure of all public administrations, public institutions and municipalities tomorrow, Monday, December 11, 2023, in response to the global call for Gaza and in solidarity with the Palestinians and our people in Gaza and the Lebanese border villages.”

Israel’s survival clashes with America’s Lebanon delusions
Caroline B. Glick/JNS/December 10, 2023
With regard to Lebanon, U.S.-Israel relations are on a collision course
Eyal Ozen was a 54-year-old farmer from Kibbutz Gesher Haziv in the Upper Galilee. He was killed by an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon last Thursday while tending to his apple orchard.
Ozen was the fifth Israeli civilian killed along the border with Lebanon since Oct. 7. His death is further proof that Israelis evacuated from their communities along the border with Lebanon cannot return home until the balance of forces between Israel and Hezbollah is radically transformed in Israel’s favor.
Early last week, Lebanon’s Al Akhbar newspaper reported that Amos Hochstein, President Joe Biden’s senior adviser and point man for dealing with Hezbollah, presented the Lebanese government with a proposal to avoid such a war. Hochstein’s proposal entails Israel surrendering sovereign territory from Nahariya in the west to the Syrian border in the east in exchange for symbolic concessions from Hezbollah.
Since Oct. 7, Hezbollah has gradually escalated its missile and drone assaults against Israeli civilian and military targets in northern Israel. So far, Iran’s Lebanese legion has opted not to launch either a major ground offensive into the Galilee or to expand its missile and drone offensive to areas of Israel further removed from the border.
From the outset, the Biden administration has worked energetically to prevent the expansion of the war in Gaza to the northern front. Biden’s decision to send the USS Eisenhower carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean was informed by this determination. Israel was initially deeply appreciative of the deployment. In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion, Biden’s announcement that he was sending the aircraft carrier group was a life saver. It took Israel several days to mobilize its reserves and remove its civilians from the border with Lebanon. If Hezbollah had attacked before Israel was mobilized and its civilians a safe distance from the border, the holocaust Israel suffered in the south on Oct. 7, would have looked like a walk in the park by comparison.
Hezbollah’s terror army comprises a combination of 150,000 missiles of all ranges and a terror army consisting of fanatical, armed-to-the-teeth veterans of the wars in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. This combined force is capable of invading and occupying large swaths of the Western and Upper Galilee and destroying strategic installations throughout Israel while causing tens of thousands of civilian and military casualties. A Hezbollah assault against an unprepared Israel has the potential to effectively destroy the Jewish state. Which is why the U.S. deployment was a godsend.
Now, however, Israel is in position to block a Hezbollah invasion. And the question of U.S. aims is cause for concern. It is one thing to prevent a war Israel would lose, and perhaps be destroyed fighting. It is another to prevent a war that Israel needs to fight and win to prevent Hezbollah from attacking it in the future. No war means no return of civilians to their homes. It means Israeli farmers permanently unable to return to their orchards and fields, and IDF forces being sitting ducks at the border for as long as they remain deployed. No war, in short, means Israel loses.
This would be true under all conditions, but Hochstein’s offer makes clear that the United States is willing to empower Hezbollah still more and give it an Israeli defeat. In other words, the U.S. policy of avoiding war is actually a policy of standing with Hezbollah against Israel.
The current U.S. position—standing with Hezbollah against Israel in time of war—is a long time in coming. It’s important to understand its origins. Since at least 2006, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the United States’ consistent policy has been to ignore the most essential fact about Lebanon: It is not a state. It is Iran’s forward terror base in its war to annihilate Israel, with people living on it.
One of the most important components of the United States’ Lebanon delusion is that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Lebanon’s intelligence service, the Internal Security Force (ISF), are independent institutions, when in fact they are controlled by Hezbollah. Other aspects of the U.S. delusion involve insisting that the Lebanese government, parliament and Supreme Court are independent state institutions that control the country, rather than straw organizations whose members live at Hassan Nasrallah’s pleasure, and as a matter of course, do what he tells them to. The final, and arguably most essential component of the U.S. delusion of Lebanon is that the LAF, the ISF, the government, parliament and the courts are able and willing to restrain Hezbollah, or even dismantle it, when they feel that they must, to protect the country.
The first U.S. leader to make this fairytale the basis for U.S. policy was then-secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. During the 2006 Hezbollah war with Israel, Rice opposed an Israeli victory over Hezbollah. She insisted that the best way to push Hezbollah forces away from the border with Israel was by empowering the LAF to stand up to Hezbollah.
The position was absurd on its face. As Rice was singing its praises at the Security Council, the LAF was acting as Hezbollah’s Signals Corps on the battlefield. Its units provided targeting information for the terror army’s missile crews. But reality was no match for Rice’s delusion.
Rice’s brainchild, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which set the conditions for a ceasefire, called for the LAF—with the assistance of UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon)—to prevent Hezbollah from operating in south Lebanon. It was a joke from the very beginning. Hezbollah never left south Lebanon. Under the cover of the LAF, which it controls, and UNIFIL, which Hezbollah has intimidated into silence, Hezbollah rebuilt the war-damaged south as one big missile base.
Rice began a U.S. policy of “strengthening” the LAF and ISF. Billions in U.S. arms began flowing into the arsenals of Hezbollah’s auxiliary forces, which were quick to use them—at Hezbollah’s direction—against Israel. U.S. special forces were deployed to Lebanon to train them.
When Barack Obama came into office, he built on Rice’s delusion with his policy of realigning the U.S. away from Israel and the Sunnis in favor of Iran and its proxies. Obama insisted that the reason the Middle East was unstable was because Israel and the Sunnis were too powerful. The United States would be able to depart the Middle East, Obama argued, if it balanced Israel and the Sunnis by empowering Iran and its proxies against them.
Obama’s policy began with a rebranding effort to present Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies as “rational,” or “pragmatic,” forces that the United States could reach deals with. In the case of Hezbollah, one of the big propagandists for the repackaging campaign was Obama’s senior adviser and later CIA chief John Brennan. In 2010, for instance, Brennan insisted that Hezbollah was “a very interesting organization,” that had moderates and extremists, which had evolved from being “purely a terrorist organization.”
As Lebanon expert Tony Badran has painstakingly chronicled over the years, Obama based his “war against ISIS” on collaboration with both Iranian forces in Iraq and Syria and Hezbollah forces in Syria and Lebanon. In that “war” the LAF fought under Hezbollah command. In at least one battle, U.S. special forces working with the LAF did so under Hezbollah command.
Obama’s support for Iran and Hezbollah provided effective immunity to both from Israeli aggression. Israel, after all, was the source of instability, because it was too powerful. If Israel attacked Hezbollah’s growing missile arsenal, or its battle-hardened terror forces at Israel’s doorstep, then Israel would upset the “balance” even more egregiously. Even worse, it would strengthen the “hardliners” in Hezbollah against the “pragmatists.”
Donald Trump made a few weak attempts to realign Obama’s Lebanon policy with reality, but he was unsuccessful. After a decade, Rice’s and Obama’s fantasies were not a bug in the ointment of U.S. Lebanon policy. They were the ointment. Without abandoning 1701, which was predicated on a fallacious assertion of LAF military superiority to Hezbollah and the existence of an independent Lebanese state not controlled by Hezbollah, there would be no way to align U.S. policy with reality. Unwilling to topple that apple cart, Trump ended up doubling down on the insanity—expanding U.S. financing of the LAF and the ISF while paying lip service to Israel’s right to fight Hezbollah, which controls both.
This brings us to President Joe Biden. Biden reinstated and expanded Obama’s policies. He decided that the best way to “stabilize” Lebanon—that is, empower Hezbollah—is by providing it with steady income. So last year, Hochstein exploited Israel’s political instability to achieve that end. He compelled Israel’s interim government led by Yair Lapid to accept a deal to delineate Israel’s maritime border with Lebanon that was based entirely on Hezbollah’s legally unsupported claims to sovereign Israeli territorial waters and Israeli economic waters.
Which brings us to Hochstein’s plan for demarcating Israel’s land border with Hezbollah. When Israel withdrew from its security zone in south Lebanon in 2000, the United Nations determined that Israel had fully withdrawn to its border. Hezbollah, keen to maintain a casus belli, rejected the U.N. determination and presented claims to 14 points within sovereign Israeli territory. Hochstein’s offer means that the U.S. position is that Israel’s sovereign territory can be negotiated away, and indeed, the U.S. supports Israel being denied its sovereign territory.
As Lebanon’s Al Akhbar reported last week, Hochstein’s offer includes Israel “vacating all contested points in Lebanon’s favor, including withdrawal from the northern part of Ghajar and key posts in the occupied Shebaa Farms, on condition that the matter be implemented in two stages: declaring the Lebanese identity of these territories and agreeing that the UN oversee them militarily and security and social-wise until the emergence of another political situation.”
“Shebaa Farms” are the Lebanese term for Mount Dov, a strategic location along Israel’s border with Syria in the Golan Heights. The United States recognized Israeli sovereignty over Mount Dov in 2020.
In exchange for transferring its sovereign lands to Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hochstein’s plan would involve Hezbollah proclaiming that it is abiding by UNSC Resolution 1701, which it of course will never abide by.
Israel is not eager to open a front with Lebanon, at least not until it has largely defeated Hamas throughout the Gaza Strip. Such a war will require the bulk of IDF forces to be moved from the south to the north, reversing the current balance in forces between the two fronts. But it is obvious that Israel cannot end the war without doing so. This places U.S.-Israel relations on a collision course that can only be averted if the United States abandons its delusions about Lebanon.
https://www.jns.org/israels-survival-clashes-with-americas-lebanon-delusions/
**Caroline B. Glick is the senior contributing editor of Jewish News Syndicate and host of the “Caroline Glick Show” on JNS. She is also the diplomatic commentator for Israel’s Channel 14, as well as a columnist for Newsweek. Glick is the senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington and a lecturer at Israel’s College of Statesmanship.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 10-11/2023
Syria intercepts Israeli rockets fired on Damascus surroundings
Reuters/December 10, 2023
DAMASCUS: Syria’s air defense intercepted Israeli rockets fired at the surroundings of the capital Damascus, Syrian state media said on Sunday. Meanwhile, violence escalated at Lebanon’s border with Israel on Sunday as Hezbollah launched explosive drones and powerful missiles at Israeli positions and Israeli air strikes rocked several towns and villages in south Lebanon. Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading fire since the war in Gaza erupted two months ago, in their worst hostilities since a 2006 conflict. The violence has largely been contained to the border area. An Israeli air strike on the town of Aitaroun destroyed five homes and damaged many more, Ali Hijazi, a local official, said

Israeli tanks reach center of Khan Younis in new storm of southern Gaza
Reuters/December 10, 2023
GAZA/CAIRO: Israeli tanks battled their way to the center of Khan Younis on Sunday in a major new push into the heart of the main city in the southern Gaza Strip which is sheltering hundreds of thousands of civilians who fled other parts of the enclave. Residents said tanks had reached the main north-south road through the middle of Khan Younis after intense combat through the night that had slowed the Israeli advance from the east. Warplanes were pounding the area west of the assault. The air rumbled with the constant thud of explosions and thick columns of white smoke rose over the city. As morning broke near a city-center police station, the constant rattle of machine gun fire could be heard. Streets there were deserted apart from an old woman and a girl riding on a donkey cart. “It was one of the most dreadful nights, the resistance was very strong, we could hear gunshots and explosions that didn’t stop for hours,” a father of four displaced from Gaza City and sheltering in Khan Younis told Reuters. He declined to be identified for fear of reprisals. “In Khan Younis tanks reached Jamal Abdel-Nasser Street, which is at the center of the city. Snipers took positions on buildings in the area,” he said.
At the opposite end of the Gaza Strip, in northern areas where Israel had previously said its forces had largely completed their tasks, residents also described some of the most intense fighting of the war so far. Israeli troops were pushing into militant strongholds and meeting fierce resistance in Jabaliya and the Shejjaiya district of Gaza City, areas that are still inhabited despite orders weeks ago to clear out of the entire north. “I daresay it is the strongest battle we have heard in weeks,” said Nasser, 59, a father of seven sheltering in Jabaliya after his house was destroyed in Beit Lahiya, another northern area. Explosions could be heard as he spoke. “We are not going to leave Jabaliya regardless of everything. We shall die here as martyrs or they will leave us alone.”Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, after militants burst across the fence on Oct. 7 and went on a rampage through Israeli towns, gunning down families in their homes, killing 1,200 people and seizing 240 hostages. Since then, Gaza’s health authorities say at least 17,700 people have been confirmed killed in Israeli strikes, with thousands more missing and presumed dead under rubble. The toll no longer includes figures from northern parts of the enclave, beyond the reach of ambulances and where hospitals have ceased functioning.
Who’s alive?
After weeks of fighting concentrated in the north, Israel launched its ground offensive in the south this week with a storm of Khan Younis. With combat now under way along nearly the entire length of the Gaza Strip, international aid organizations say the enclave’s 2.3 million people have been left with nowhere to hide. At the site of one Khan Younis home that had been destroyed by bombing overnight, relatives of the dead were combing the rubble in a daze. They dragged the body of a middle-aged man in a yellow T-shirt from under the masonry. “We prayed the nighttime prayer and went to sleep, then woke up to find the house on top of us. ‘Who’s alive?!’” said Ahmed Abdel Wahab. “Three floors above collapsed down and the people are under it,” he said. “My mother and father, my sister and brother, all of my cousins.”The main hospital in Khan Younis, Nasser hospital, has been overrun with dead and wounded. On Sunday there was no floor space left in the emergency department as people carried in more wounded wrapped in blankets and carpets. Mohamed Abu Shihab wailed and swore revenge for a son he said had been killed by an Israeli sniper. The Israeli military said it bombed underground tunnel shafts in Khan Younis and attacked a squad of Palestinian gunmen preparing an ambush, but said nothing about any tank advance. The vast majority of Gaza’s residents have now been forced from their homes, many fleeing several times with only the belongings they can carry. Israel says it is doing what it can to protect civilians, but even its closest ally the United States says it has fallen short of those promises. An Israeli siege has cut off supplies, with the United Nations warning of mass hunger and disease. At an international conference in Doha, capital of Qatar which acted as the main mediator for a week-long truce that saw more than 100 hostages freed, Arab foreign ministers criticized the United States for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution on Friday that demanded a humanitarian cease-fire. Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said the war risked radicalising a generation across the Middle East. Jordan’s foreign minister said the Israeli campaign aimed to drive Palestinians from Gaza and met the legal definition of genocide, accusations Israel called outrageous. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he would “not give up” appealing for a cease-fire. “I urged the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and I reiterated my appeal for a humanitarian cease-fire to be declared,” Guterres said. “Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it, but that does not make it less necessary.”Israel has spurned demands it halt the fighting. Briefing his cabinet on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had told the leaders of France, Germany and other countries: “You cannot on the one hand support the elimination of Hamas, and on other pressure us to end the war, which would prevent the elimination of Hamas.”

Israel’s Netanyahu calls on Hamas militants to ‘surrender now’
AFP/December 11, 2023
JERUSALEM: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for Hamas militants to lay down their arms, saying the Palestinian Islamist group’s end was near, as the war in the Gaza Strip raged more than two months after it began. “The war is still ongoing but it is the beginning of the end of Hamas. I say to the Hamas terrorists: It’s over. Don’t die for (Yahya) Sinwar. Surrender now,” Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to the chief of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “In the past few days, dozens of Hamas terrorists have surrendered to our forces,” Netanyahu said. The military has, however, not released proof of militants surrendering, and Hamas has rejected such claims. Almost one month ago, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hamas had “lost control” of Gaza. The militants late on Sunday boasted of success in their fight with Israeli forces in Gaza. Izzat Al-Rishq, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, said history would “remember Gaza as the clearest of victories” for the Palestinian militants. “The end of the occupation has begun in Gaza,” Rishq said. Hamas triggered the conflict with the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7 in which it killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures, and dragged around 240 hostages back to Gaza. Israel has responded with a relentless military offensive that has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed at least 17,997 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Heavy fighting in south Gaza as Israel presses ahead with renewed US military and diplomatic support
Associated Press/December 10, 2023
Heavy fighting raged overnight and into Sunday in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the U.S. blocked the latest international efforts to halt the fighting and rushed more munitions to its close ally.
Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a cease-fire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of nearly 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million people within the besieged territory, where U.N. agencies say there is no safe place to flee.But the United States has lent vital support to the offensive once again in recent days, by vetoing United Nations Security Council efforts to end the fighting that enjoyed wide international support, and by pushing through an emergency sale of over $100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel. The U.S. has pledged unwavering support for Israel's goal of crushing Hamas' military and governing abilities in order to prevent any repeat of the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. Hamas and other Palestinian militants stormed into southern Israel that day, allegedly killing some 1,200 people and capturing some 240, over 100 of whom were released during a weeklong cease-fire late last month. In response to the attack, Israel launched a devastating air and ground war that has killed thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, and forced some 1.9 million people to flee their homes, according to U.N. agencies. With only a trickle of aid allowed in, and delivery rendered impossible in much of the territory, Palestinians face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods. Israeli forces continue to face heavy resistance, even in northern Gaza, where entire neighborhoods have been flattened by air strikes and where troops have been operating for over six weeks. In Khan Younis, where ground forces moved in earlier this month, residents said they heard constant gunfire and explosions through the night as warplanes bombarded areas in and around the southern city, Gaza's second largest. "It doesn't stop," said Radwa Abu Frayeh, who lives close to the European Hospital in Khan Younis. "There's bombing, and then the ambulances head out to bring back victims."
DETENTIONS IN THE NORTH
Israel ordered the evacuation of the northern third of the territory, including Gaza City, early in the war, but tens of thousands of people are believed to have remained there, fearing that the south would be no safer or that they would never be allowed to return to their homes. In recent days, videos and photos have emerged showing the detention of dozens of men who were stripped to their underwear, bound and blindfolded. The Israeli military says it is detaining people as it searches for remaining pockets of Hamas fighters. Israel's Channel 13 TV broadcast footage showing dozens of detainees stripped to their underwear with their hands in the air. Several held assault rifles above their heads, and one man could be seen slowly walking forward and placing a gun on the ground before returning to the group. Israeli media pointed to such scenes as evidence that Hamas was collapsing in the north. Men from a separate group of detainees who were released on Saturday told The Associated Press they had been beaten and denied food and water. Osama Oula said Israeli troops had ordered him and others out of a building in Gaza City before bounding their hands with zip ties, beating them for several days and giving them little water to drink. Ahmad Nimr Salman showed his hands, marked and swollen from the zip ties. He said the troops asked if they were with Hamas. "We say 'no,' then they would slap us or kick us." He said his 17-year-old son Amjad is still held by the troops. The group was released after five days and told to walk south. Ten freed detainees arrived at a hospital in Deir al-Balah on Saturday after flagging down an ambulance. The Israeli military had no comment when asked about the alleged abuse.
NO SAFE PLACES
With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,700, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, saying it uses civilians as human shields in dense residential areas. The military says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive. Palestinians militants have also continued firing rockets into Israel. Israel says it has provided detailed instructions for civilians to evacuate to safer areas, even as it continues to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of the territory. Thousands have fled to the southern town of Rafah and other areas along the border with Egypt in recent days — one of the last areas where aid agencies are able to deliver food and water. Israel has designated a narrow patch of barren southern coastline, Muwasi, as a safe zone. But Palestinians described desperately overcrowded conditions with scant shelter and no toilets. They faced an overnight temperature of around 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit). "I am sleeping on the sand. It's freezing," said Soad Qarmoot, who described herself as a cancer patient forced to leave her home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. As she spoke, her children huddled around a fire.

Is ‘demilitarization’ of Gaza a euphemism for total destruction?
Arab News/December 10, 2023
LONDON: Israel’s endgame for Gaza appears now firmly set on the enclave’s demilitarization, but some experts say that goal and “total destruction” in this conflict have become indistinguishable. Even as the fighting between Israel and Hamas militants entered its third month on Dec. 7, precisely who would govern war-devastated Gaza after the dismantling of the Palestinian militant group remained unclear. Talk about the West Bank-based Palestine government taking charge of postwar Gaza’s governance has been doing the rounds, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has poured cold water on the idea, saying “the Palestinian Authority is not the solution.”So, what do experts make of Netanyahu’s statement that the Israel Defense Forces will move to demilitarize Gaza, which is still regarded by the UN as occupied territory? Tobias Borck, a senior research fellow for Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute, believes the latest remarks represent no change in Israeli policy. “Those comments were simply meant to justify what the Israeli military was already doing in Gaza. It is little more than a rhetorical switch, a new way of saying ‘destroy Hamas.’ But it is not one offering a clearer, more tangible image of what that looks like,” he told Arab News. “So, when they say ‘demilitarization,’ this is nothing new, the Israeli argument across almost the entire political spectrum has been that even were there to be an independent Palestinian state, it would have to be demilitarized.”
On Dec. 6, Netanyahu said the IDF alone would be responsible for demilitarizing Gaza, claiming that international forces would be incapable of achieving success. Speaking in Hebrew, he said: “Gaza must be demilitarized, only the IDF can take care of this. No international force can. We saw what happened elsewhere when international forces tried this. I am not willing to close my eyes and accept any other arrangement.” Borck rejected the notion that Netanyahu was warning external actors to stay away, since neighboring Arab states have already called Gaza a mess of Israel’s own making and therefore one it alone would be required to clear up. As it stands, that “mess” amounts to over 17,700 civilians killed in the two-month assault, a further 7,800 still unaccounted for, more than 46,000 injured, and Gaza’s Hamas-run health authorities alleging that the “war on hospitals and the enclave’s medical facilities is ongoing and does not stop.”In the midst of such destruction, Palestinian author and journalist Ramzy Baroud said he saw little likelihood of Israeli success in efforts to demilitarize Gaza, noting that for Netanyahu to achieve this would first require him to have control over it. “To do so, he would have to defeat the resistance. Even if Netanyahu’s army penetrates parts of Gaza, from the north, center or south, subduing Palestinians in one of the most rebellious regions on earth is not only a difficult task but it is virtually impossible,” he told Arab News. “This isn’t just about firepower, it is about the collective mood among Gazans, in fact, all Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.”

UN General Assembly likely to vote Tuesday on Gaza cease-fire demand — diplomats
Reuters/December 11, 2023
NEW YORK: The 193-member United Nations General Assembly is likely to vote Tuesday on a draft resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip, diplomats said on Sunday. The move comes after the US vetoed on Friday a UN Security Council demand for immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. The General Assembly in October adopted a resolution — 121 votes in favor, 14 against and 44 abstentions — calling for “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.”

Blinken says Palestinian civilian safety imperative, envisions durable peace
Reuters/December 10, 2023
The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, said on Sunday it is "imperative" that Israeli military operations in Gaza protect Palestinian civilians, adding that the fighting should be followed by a durable peace leading to a Palestinian state.

Israel ready to act against Houthi rebels if international community fails to, national security adviser says
Tamar Michaelis and Heather Chen, CNN/December 10, 2023
Israel is prepared to act against efforts by Houthi rebels in Yemen to disrupt shipping in the Red Sea if the international community fails to do so, Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said Saturday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had spoken with US President Joe Biden as well as European leaders about Houthis targeting merchant ships with alleged Israeli links, Hanegbi told Israel’s Channel 12. “Israel is giving the world some time to organize in order to prevent this but if there isn’t to be a global arrangement, because it is a global issue, we will act in order to remove this naval siege,” Hanegbi said. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are a Shia political and military organization that have been fighting a civil war against a Saudi Arabia-backed coalition since 2014. There has been an uptick in their maritime activities since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. US warships have already been protecting shipping in the region. Last week a US warship shot down multiple unmanned aerial vehicles that came from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in the southern Red Sea, according to US military officials. One of the incidents came during a series of attacks on three commercial vessels. US military officials have said they are considering beefing up protections for commercial ships around a vital Red Sea shipping route amid a series of recent missile attacks by Houthi militants operating out of Yemen. The US has discussed ways to increase security in the area with members of the Combined Maritime Forces, a multi-national naval task force charged with protecting commercial shipping in the Red Sea. US officials have said publicly that discussions have centered on the possibility of escorting ships operating in the Red Sea and through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait into the Gulf of Aden — the narrow channel that separates Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Hanegbi also discussed developments on the ground in Gaza, saying that the US had not given Israel any deadline to complete military operations in the enclave.
“They understand that they are not in a position to tell the IDF how long it needs in order to achieve the goals,” he said. “The good thing is that they share the same goals… It is correct to assume that we cannot measure this in weeks and I’m not certain that it could be measured in months.”
CNN has previously reported that US officials expect Israel’s operation targeting the southern end of the strip to last several weeks before it transitions, possibly by January, to a lower-intensity, hyper-localized strategy that narrowly targets specific Hamas militants and leaders, according to multiple senior administration officials. The White House is deeply concerned about how Israel’s operations will unfold over the next several weeks, a senior US administration official said.
The US has warned Israel firmly in “hard” and “direct” conversations, the official said, that the Israel Defense Forces cannot replicate the kind of devastating tactics it used in the north and must do more to limit civilian casualties. Hanegbi said he did not think the Hamas leadership had expected the scope of Israel’s response to the assault against southern Israel on October 7, in which some 1,200 people were killed. “I do not think that Yahya Sinwar (Hamas’ leader in Gaza) realized that the IDF will actually reach any point they want inside Gaza and kill over 7,000 terrorists,” Hanegbi said. “This is the minimal estimate, it could be higher since we don’t know everything,” he added. “We are getting very close to the control and command centers of Hamas in Jabalia and Shejaiya, the strongholds of persistent resistance in the northern Gaza Strip. And in the south we’re operating fiercely. When asked about the possibility of Israel having to choose between killing Sinwar and saving the hostages if they were in the same place, Hanegbi said: “We could be facing such a situation, it is a heart-breaking dilemma for any decision maker, but that would mean that (we) have reached him.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.

Yemen rebels threaten Israel-bound Red Sea ships
Agence France Presse/December 10, 2023
Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have threatened to attack any vessels heading to Israeli ports unless food and medicine were allowed into the besieged Gaza Strip. The latest warning comes amid heightened tensions in the Red Sea and surrounding waters following a series of maritime attacks by Houthi rebels since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7. In a statement posted on social media, the Houthis said they "will prevent the passage of ships heading to the Zionist entity" if humanitarian aid is not allowed into Hamas-ruled Gaza. The Huthis have recently attacked ships they claim have direct links to Israel, but their latest threat expands the scope of their targets. Regardless of which flag ships sail under or the nationality of their owners or operators, Israel-bound vessels "will become a legitimate target for our armed forces," the statement said. Hamas welcomed the rebels' "courageous and bold" decision.
"We call on Arab and Muslim countries to use all their capabilities, based on their historical responsibilities and in the spirit of chivalry, to lift the siege of Gaza," it added in a statement sent to AFP. Israel's national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said his country would not accept the "naval siege," noting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked U.S. President Joe Biden and European leaders to take measures to address the situation. "If the world will not take care of it," Hanegbi warned on Israel's Channel 12 television, "we will take action to remove the naval siege."
The French military said Sunday that one of its frigates shot down two drones in the Red Sea that were heading towards it from Yemen's coast. "The interception and destruction of these two identified threats" were carried out late Saturday by the frigate Languedoc, which operates in the Red Sea, the general staff said in a press release. The interceptions occurred at 2030 GMT and 2230 GMT, it added, and were 110 km (68 miles) from the Yemeni coast. Last week, the Houthis attacked two ships off the Yemeni coast, including a Bahamas-flagged vessel, claiming they were Israeli-owned. And last month, the rebel forces seized the Galaxy Leader, an Israeli-linked cargo vessel. "We warn all ships and companies against dealing with Israeli ports," the latest Houthi statement said. It added that all "ships linked to Israel or that will transport goods to Israeli ports" are not welcome in the Red Sea, a vital channel for global trade linked to the Suez Canal. Beyond maritime attacks, the Houthis have launched a series of drone and missile strikes targeting Israel since the deadly attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas triggered all-out war. The militants poured over the border into Israel on October 7, allegedly killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240 others, according to Israeli officials. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, and launched a military offensive in Gaza that has killed at least 17,700 people, mostly women and children. The spike in maritime incidents prompted G7 foreign ministers at a meeting earlier this month to urge the rebels to cease threats to international shipping and to release the Galaxy Leader.

Jordan says Israel aims to expel Palestinians from Gaza
DOHA/Reuters/December 10, 2023
Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, on Sunday said that Israel was implementing a policy of pushing Palestinians out of Gaza through a war that he said meets the "legal definition of genocide".Safadi, whose country borders the West Bank and absorbed the bulk of Palestinians after the creation of Israel in 1948, also said that Israel had created hatred that would haunt the region and define generations to come. "What we are seeing in Gaza is not just simply the killing of innocent people and the destruction of their livelihoods (by Israel) but a systematic effort to empty Gaza of its people," Safadi said at a conference in Doha. "We have not seen the world yet come to the place we should come to ... an unequivocal demand for ending this war; a war that is within the legal definition of genocide."The extent of destruction and indiscriminate bombing of thousands of civilians belies Israel's avowed goal of seeking to wipe out Hamas, Safadi added. Safadi also said that major differences had surfaced in talks between a delegation of Arab ministers and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington last Friday over the U.S. administration's military support for Israel and its refusal to call for a ceasefire.

Iran-backed militias target Americans 11 times in one day
JNS/December 10, 2023
The Iran-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah militia claimed responsibility for the shelling of the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad, stating that the attacks would continue until all coalition forces withdraw from the country. The U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad was struck with seven mortar rounds on Friday, and U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria were targeted at least five more times with rockets and drones. Separate bases in Syria were attacked three times and the Ain al-Asad airbase west of Baghdad was targeted twice. It was the highest number of attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East region in a single day since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7. It was also the first time in more than a year that the U.S. embassy in Baghdad was targeted. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq took responsibility for the attacks in a statement. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is an umbrella term for Iranian-backed radical Shi’ite militias in Iraq—Kata’ib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah al Nujaba and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhadaa. Kata’ib Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the U.S. embassy compound attack. The terror group’s spokesman Abu Ali Alaskri declared that the rules of engagement against U.S. forces had changed, adding that the terror operations would continue until a full withdrawal of coalition forces. The statement also called the U.S. embassy compound a “station for espionage and intelligence.”Iranian-backed militia groups began attacking U.S. interests in the region after Washington gave backing to Israel’s war against Hamas in the wake of the terror group’s Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel.U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin condemned Friday’s attacks during a call with Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. “The United States reserves the right to respond decisively against those groups,” Austin told Sudani, according to a Pentagon readout of the call, referring to Kata’ib Hezbollah and Harakat Hezbollah al Nujaba.

Two Iranians arrested in Cyprus for targeting Israelis
JNS/December 10, 2023
Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday confirmed a Cypriot newspaper’s report of an Iranian plot to target Israeli citizens on the island nation. Cypriot security authorities, in partnership with the Mossad, thwarted the Iranian scheme. Thanks to their counter-terrorist activity, information was gathered leading to the exposure of the threat, its method of operation and targets, and other Iranian plans to kill innocent people in Cyprus and other arenas. Israel’s National Security Council said that since the outbreak of the war against Hamas on Oct. 7, many Israelis have temporarily moved to Cyprus, making the Iranian presence in northern Cyprus for terrorist purposes particularly troubling. According to Cyprus’s Kathimerini newspaper on Sunday, two Iranians, who arrived on the island as asylum seekers, gathered information about Israeli targets and citizens. They were in contact with a representative of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. This would not be the first time that Iranian agents have infiltrated Cyprus, which is a popular vacation spot for Israelis and also serves as a business base for Israeli entrepreneurs. In June, the Mossad intelligence agency exposed a secret Iranian operation to target Israelis in Cyprus. The head of the Iranian hit squad, Yusef Shahabazi Abbasalilu, was captured by Mossad agents in Iran. He admitted in the investigation that he was sent to Cyprus to harm Israeli businessmen. The Mossad passed the information along to Cypriot authorities, whose intelligence services prevented the attack. Similarly, in 2021, an Azeri national working for Iran was arrested in a plot to target Israeli business tycoon Teddy Sagi. The founder of gambling software company Playtech and owner of London’s Camden Market splits his time between the U.K., Cyprus and Israel. At the time of the suspect’s arrest, he had a handgun with a silencer and was said to be casing the office building where Sagi’s operations are headquartered on the island. In October, four Syrians were arrested in Cyprus after an explosive device was thrown 30 meters away from Israel’s embassy in Nicosia. The “homemade bomb” exploded around 1:30 a.m. Following the blast, two people walking near the Israeli mission were detained, as were two others in a car. Police found two knives and a hammer inside the vehicle.

Iran and Saudi Arabia to negotiate on direct scheduled flights - ILNA
DUBAI (Reuters)/December 10, 2023
Iran and Saudi Arabia will start formal talks next week to resume direct‮ ‬scheduled flights between Tehran and Riyadh and other cities, an Iranian official told the state-affiliated news agency ILNA on Sunday. Regular flights would be another step towards restoring ties between the two Middle Eastern rivals. A Chinese-mediated agreement in March restored diplomatic relations after years of tension that threatened the security of the entire region and fuelled conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. "There are no restrictions regarding the launch of direct flights from Tehran to Riyadh, or other cities," Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Mohammadibakhsh said, according to ILNA. "A bilateral working group will start final negotiations next week to have non-haj flights between the two countries," he said, referring to the annual Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Shi'ite-dominated Iran and Sunni Gulf monarchy Saudi Arabia cut ties in 2016 over Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric and the subsequent storming of Riyadh's embassy in Tehran. There have been no regular direct flights between the two countries for years. Currently, only occasional direct flights take off from Iran carrying haj pilgrims. Mohammadibakhsh said a resumption of flights would include travel for pilgrims of the year-round Umrah - which can be undertaken at any time year - and also non-religious travel. Iran had already presented a list of airline companies which might operate flights, he said, but did not specify any. The Saudi Arabian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran bans Mahsa Amini's family from traveling to receive the European Union’s top human rights prize
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/December 10, 2023
Iranian authorities banned members of the late Mahsa Amini's family from traveling to receive the European Union’s top human rights prize on her behalf, a civil rights monitor reported. Amini's death while in police custody in 2022 sparked nationwide protests that rocked the Islamic Republic. The U.S.-based HRANA said late Saturday that authorities have refused to allow Amini's father, Amjad, and two of her brothers to fly out to Strasbourg, France, to receive the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Reports said only the family's lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, would be able to travel to receive the award on their behalf. The EU award, named for Soviet dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honor individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is “the highest tribute paid by the European Union to human rights work,” as per the EU Parliament website. Earlier in September, Mahsa Amini was granted the prize. The 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranin woman died after Iran's morality police arrested her for allegedly violating the country’s strict headscarf law that forced women to cover their hair and entire body. Her death led to massive protests that quickly escalated into calls to overthrow Iran’s clerical rulers. Iranian women, furious over Amini's death, played a pivotal role in the protests, with some opting to go without their mandatory headscarves. Authorities immediately launched a heavy crackdown, in which over 500 people were killed and nearly 20,000 arrested, according to human rights activists in Iran. Authorities have said many of those detained were released or given reduced sentences. The protests largely died down earlier this year. A total of eight people were executed in Iran in connection with the protests, after being charged with attacking security forces. Human rights activists have accused authorities of convicting them in secret proceedings after they were denied the right to defend themselves. Iran has denied the charges. In 2012, Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi jointly won the same prize.

Swedish EU diplomat jailed in Iran faces charges of spying for Israel
France 24 France/ December 10, 2023
Iranian authorities have accused a Swedish EU diplomat, held in a Tehran prison for more than 600 days, of conspiring with Iran’s arch-enemy Israel to harm the Islamic Republic, the judiciary said Sunday. “Johan Floderus is accused of extensive measures against the security of the country, extensive intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime and corruption on earth,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency said. Corruption on earth is one of Iran’s most serious offences which carries a maximum penalty of death. “The defendant has been active against the Islamic Republic of Iran in the field of gathering information for the benefit of the Zionist regime in the form of subversive projects,” Mizan quoted the prosecution as saying. Earlier Sunday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for the immediate release of the Swedish diplomat, arguing “there are absolutely no grounds for keeping Johan Floderus in detention.” Floderus, 33, works for the European Union diplomatic service. He was arrested on April 17, 2022, at Tehran airport as he was returning from a trip abroad, and is being held in Tehran’s Evin prison.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Saturday the trial had begun in Iran. “There is no basis whatsoever for keeping Johan Floderus in detention, let alone bringing him to trial,” Billstrom said.

Advocates look to stem radicalization as anger mounts over Israel-Hamas war
The Canadian Press/December 10, 2023
CALGARY — An Alberta woman whose son was killed while fighting with Islamic extremists in Syria is worried anger over the conflict between Israel and Hamas could lead to an increase in radicalization. Chris Boudreau says she expects extremist groups are going to seize on the conflict. "That's what they use to engage — the anger, that burning desire on the inside," she said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press. "Helplessness is a powerful thing. Fear is a powerful thing. And unfortunately, as human beings, emotions tend to prevail over logic."Boudreau's son, 22-year-old Damian Clairmont, converted to Islam as a teen and died in heavy fighting in the city of Aleppo in 2014 as a member of the Islamic State militant group. Boudreau, who now lives in France, has spoken out for years about the dangers of youth becoming isolated and radicalized. "I think about him every day. It doesn't go away. He was very intelligent and empathetic and felt other people's pain and his biggest frustration was the political system itself," she said. "That's what started it."Boudreau said she worries rising anger makes young people more vulnerable. "It's a free-for-all right now. If you look at the weakened state of everybody mentally, the resilience is not there and people are really struggling. So, it's a gold mine," she said. "You can pick and choose (new recruits) right now because it's so easy to get people fired up and fuelled up and joining your cause."On Oct. 7, Hamas and other militants launched a surprise attack in southern Israel that left about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, dead. Some 240 men, women and children were taken hostage. Israel launched a swift and sustained retaliatory war in the Gaza Strip. The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said as of Friday the death toll had surpassed 17,000, with more than 46,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70 per cent were women and children. Amarnath Amarasingam, an assistant professor in religion and political studies at Queen’s University in Ontario, said anger is a legitimate response to what's happening and it's difficult to determine how to respond. "I think this conflict in particular has a bizarre ability to short-circuit people's usual commitment to human rights," said Amarasingam, who has researched terrorism, radicalization and extremism.
"Hardliners on both sides tend to waffle, hedge and discount what 'their side' is doing in a way I've never seen them do with other conflicts."He said there's been an uptick in hate speech and hate crimes on both sides."The Palestinian cause has always been a key component of the many grievances that jihadist groups discuss in their propaganda," he said. "That part hasn't changed. But there's definitely an increase in the propaganda output by groups like ISIS and (al-Qaida) to try and use the most recent conflict to recruit."Imam Syed Soharwardy, founder of Muslims Against Terrorism and the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, has been counselling Muslim youth for years in order to combat radicalization. He said the current situation is different than when the Islamic State group was attempting to lure disenfranchised youth several years ago. Soharwardy said he has spent the past few weeks telling young people not to follow the path of violence and to express themselves in positive ways, such as writing letters to newspapers and contacting politicians. "It is very hard to satisfy them that you need to control yourself. They listen to me, but I can read their faces that they are not satisfied with my answers," Soharwardy said.
"I have never seen our youth so angry this time, even after 9/11. It is worse than what ISIS used to do with the brainwashing. At least with ISIS they knew that these people were a bunch of thugs."Soharwardy condemns the Hamas attack but said he's disappointed western and European leaders haven't criticized Israel's response strongly enough. He said anger from the younger generation is also directed at Muslim governments. "Our Muslim youth are more angry at Muslim governments than the western governments. Even this time, Iran did not support Hamas as openly as they used to do. Pakistan did not speak at all … and that is a very dangerous thing."Soharwardy said Canada-wide protests have been peaceful for the most part and they allow those who are angry to have an outlet. "If they stop these rallies, it's going to put everything under the table or under the ground, which is very, very dangerous. This is very important they should blow off steam in this peaceful way."

Egyptians vote for president, with al-Sisi certain to win
Associated Press./December 10, 2023
Egyptians began voting Sunday in a presidential election in which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi faces no serious challenger and is certain to win another term, keeping him in power until 2030. The election has been overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Almost all Egyptians' attention has been on the war on their country's eastern borders and the suffering of Palestinian civilians in the coastal enclave. The three-day vote, beginning Sunday, is also taking place amid a staggering economic crisis in Egypt, a country of 105 million people in which nearly a third live in poverty, according to official figures. The crisis stems from mismanagement of the economy but also from the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine, which rattled the global economy. Al-Sisi faces three other candidates: Farid Zahran, head of the opposition Social Democratic Party; Abdel-Sanad Yamama, chairman of Wafd Party; and Hazem Omar, head of the Republican People's Party. An ambitious young presidential hopeful, Ahmed Altantawy, dropped out of the race after he failed to secure the required signatures from residents to secure his candidacy. He blamed his failure on what he said was harassment by security agencies of his campaign staff and supporters. Al-Sisi voted at a polling center in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis as soon as the polls opened at 9 a.m. He made no comment before leaving the center. Other candidates, including Hazem Omar, also cast their ballots Sunday morning. The vote runs for three days, starting Sunday, with a runoff scheduled for Jan. 8-10 if no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote, according to the National Election Authority, a judicial-chaired body that runs the electoral process. Egyptian expatriates cast their ballots on Dec. 1-3. Ahead of the vote, the interior ministry, which oversees police forces, deployed thousands of troops across the country to secure the election. More than 67 million people are eligible to vote, and authorities are hoping for a high turnout to give the election legitimacy. A career military officer, al-Sisi was first elected as president in mid-2014, a year after he, as defense minister, led the military overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president amid widespread street protests against his one-year rule. Al-Sisi was reelected in 2018 for a second, four-year term. He faced only one challenger, a little-known politician who joined the race at the last minute to spare the government the embarrassment of a one-candidate election after several hopefuls were forced out or arrested. In 2019, constitutional amendments, passed in a general referendum, added two years to al-Sisi's second term, and allowed him to run for a third, six-year term. Under his watch, authorities have launched a major crackdown on dissent. Thousands of government critics have been silenced or jailed, mainly Islamists but also prominent secular activists, including many of those behind the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The economy has become a headache for al-Sisi's government which initiated an ambitious reform program in 2016. The program, supported by the International Monetary Fund, has aimed to reverse longstanding distortions in the country's battered economy. It included painful authority measures like subsidy cuts and the flotation of the local currency. In return, Egypt received a series of loans from the IMF, and recognition from the west. However, such austerity measures sent prices soaring, exacting a heavy toll on ordinary Egyptians. The war in Ukraine has added to the burdens as the Middle Eastern nation has run low on foreign currency needed to buy essentials like fuel and grain. Egypt is the world's largest wheat importer and has traditionally imported most of its grain from Ukraine and Russia.

White House to intensify push for Ukraine aid and border security deal
Reuters/December 10, 2023
The White House will step up its engagement with US lawmakers trying to strike a bipartisan deal that would provide military aid for Ukraine and Israel while tightening US border security, a Democratic senator said on Sunday.

Zelensky to meet with Biden, Republicans as war funding dries up
AFP/December 11, 2023
WASHINGTON: Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Washington Tuesday to meet President Joe Biden and plead his case before Republicans balking at sending more money for his fight against Russia, amid warnings aid will run out in weeks. In a flurry of diplomatic activity after the White House announced Zelensky’s visit, an aide for Mike Johnson said the new Republican speaker for the House of Representatives — who has been trying to tie Ukraine aid to funding for US border security — will also meet with the Ukrainian leader Tuesday. And a Senate official said Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer and Republican leader Mitch McConnell likewise invited Zelensky to speak at an all-Senators meeting Tuesday morning — one week after several Republicans angrily walked out of a classified Ukraine briefing that he had been due to address via video. Biden and Zelensky “will discuss Ukraine’s urgent needs” as it fights off a Russian invasion, and “the vital importance of the United States’ continued support at this critical moment,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. The Ukrainian presidency said the meeting will focus on key issues such as “joint projects on the production of weapons and air defense systems, as well as the coordination of efforts between our countries in the coming year.” Republican senators last week blocked $106 billion in emergency aid primarily for Ukraine and Israel after conservatives balked at the exclusion of immigration reforms they had demanded as part of the package. It was a setback for Biden, who had urged lawmakers to approve the funds, warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not stop with victory in Ukraine and could even attack a NATO nation. Shalanda Young, head of the White House Office of Management and Budget reiterated that fear on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, warning that “our national security is also influenced” by Ukraine’s fate.
“What happens if Putin marches through Ukraine, what’s next? NATO countries, our sons and daughters, are at risk of being a part of a larger conflict,” she said. But Republicans remained skeptical, with Senator JD Vance, a close ally of former US president Donald Trump, dismissing the idea of Putin putting NATO countries in the region at risk “preposterous.”He told CNN on Sunday that he opposes a “blank check” for Ukraine. “You need to articulate what the ambition is. What is $61 billion going to accomplish that $100 billion hasn’t?” Vance said. “What’s in America’s best interest is to accept Ukraine is going to have to cede some territory to the Russians and we need to bring the war to a close.”The funding row underscores signs that Western support for Ukraine is fraying just as Kyiv’s counteroffensive falters and Putin’s forces push for new gains.
Ukraine’s offensive has employed billions of dollars’ worth of Western weapons — but the front lines have barely shifted in more than a year and Russian attacks along the front have intensified. The White House said Biden’s meeting will come at a vital moment, “as Russia ramps up its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine.”At the start of December, Putin signed a decree to boost Russian forces by 15 percent, increasing the army by some 170,000 people. Moscow has recently given signs about a possible peace deal, although one involving a shrunken, neutral Ukraine that would be impossible to swallow for Zelensky. The US State Department announced a stopgap $175 million tranche of new aid for Ukraine on Wednesday, including prized HIMARS rockets, shells, missiles and ammunition. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted on Sunday that “Ukraine has done an extraordinary job” defending itself.
“The choice is very clear,” he said on ABC. “If we do this and help Ukraine sustain the achievements that it’s made, help ensure that Russia continues to suffer a strategic failure in in Ukraine. That’s one route to go.“The other route to go is to do something that the only people who are rooting for it are in Moscow, and maybe in Tehran and Beijing, which is not to provide this assistance,” he said.

Asked about peace talks, Russia's Lavrov says: Ask Ukraine
Reuters/December 10, 2023 
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that the West was trying to exhaust Russia in Ukraine and that if peace talks were to take place then Kyiv would have to change its own presidential decree. "It is up to the Ukrainians to recognize how deep they are in the hole where the Americans put them," Lavrov said of the war.

Russia calls for international monitoring mission in Gaza
Reuters/December 10, 2023 
Russia on Sunday called for an international monitoring mission to go to Gaza to assess the humanitarian situation, and said it was unacceptable for Israel to use Hamas' Oct. 7 attack as justification for punishing the Palestinian people.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 10-11/2023
How to End Hamas's War on Israel This Week
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./December 10, 2023
Iran largely funded and helped plan the savage invasion of Israel by an estimated 3,000 Gazans under the direction of Iran's proxy, the terrorist group Hamas, on October 7.
Iran's militia groups have initiated more than 82 attacks -- just since October 17 -- on US forces and assets in Syria and Iraq. The latest, on the US Embassy in Baghdad, is an attack on US sovereign territory. During Biden's presidency, Iran has initiated 151 attacks against the US. Forty-six US service members have so far been wounded, 19 seriously, with traumatic brain injury.
These strikes do not include Iran's having largely funded and helped plan a savage invasion of Israel by an estimated 3,000 Gazans under the direction of Iran's proxy, the terrorist group Hamas, on October 7. Once there, they murdered 1,200 people; raped and tortured an untold number, and kidnapped around 240, about 100 of whom -- women and children -- have been released. Several hostages have reportedly been murdered (here, here and here).
The Biden administration has thankfully been supportive of Israel defending itself and trying to rescue those hostages who remain. The Biden administration immediately sent naval ships and fighter jets to the region to prevent the war from spreading to Lebanon and other countries nearby; and on December 8, vetoed an attempt by the United Nations Security Council to force Israel to submit prematurely to a ceasefire.
Before October 7, there was a ceasefire. Regrettably, Hamas broke it. A few weeks later, there was another humanitarian ceasefire to which Israel agreed. Hamas broke that one, too. Hamas refused to release the list of people who were to be delivered on the ceasefire's last day, possibly because Hamas was afraid of what they might say about how they had been treated in captivity. This week, when Israel created a safe zone in the southern Gaza Strip for Gazans, Hamas used that humanitarian zone to fire rockets into Israel.
The US could stop these assaults tomorrow. So far, the Biden administration has appeared unwilling even to entertain the thought of addressing Hamas's patron, Iran. Here are a few possible ways:
Incapacitate the port from which Iran exports its oil to China and other customers.
Incapacitate Iran's four major oil refineries, as Senator Lindsay Graham has suggested. Alternatively, incapacitate just one and mention that others might follow.
Send each of Iran's theocratic leaders and those in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a photo of his house. It worked magnificently after the US eliminated IRGC Commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020, as a warning against retaliation. Iran stopped its aggression effectively that minute.
Enforce or reimpose sanctions on Iran, as well as restrictions on international banking. Also impose secondary sanctions: Whoever is doing business with Iran may not do business with the US.
Warn the mullahs that for each of the hostage seized -- not just the Americans, all hostages -- an Iranian target has been selected; for each hostage that is harmed, one site will be taken out.
Target the IRGC training center and key IRGC bases, as advocated by US General Jack Keane.
All it would take is political will.
*Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the *Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

New approach needed on Libyan disarmament
Hafed Al Ghwell/Arab News/December 10, 2023
As the UN approaches the end of another year of trying to resolve the problems in the complex political landscape of Libya, it is apparent that the road to stability does not, and never did, follow a straight path leading to national elections.
Rather, it has always been a complex, winding route through an intricate web spun by a confluence of domestic and foreign interests, energized by armed groups in the country. The persistent post-2011 governance vacuum has spawned a mosaic of hybrid actors, all jostling for power and influence while remaining deeply embedded within local communities, creating a rather unique dynamic. These factions have progressively carved out their own fiefdoms, stifling the formation of the unified, civilian-led security institutions that are a critical component for long-term stability and effective governance. Their representatives are scattered throughout Libya’s military, security apparatus and civilian government. Simultaneously wielding considerable power over critical appointments and the allocation of state resources, these groups are easily capable of placing private gain above the national interest.
Such a potent blend has left an indelible mark on the sociopolitical fabric and security landscape of the country, with the principal casualty being the prospect of holding national elections by the end of this year. It is highly unlikely that Libya’s apparent “Balkanization” will be resolved in the next few weeks and all the promises and endeavors in the world do not change the fact that the political impasse endures. A faux calm might have descended over the nation but this year, like the previous 11, has been one of multiple failed transitions that have taken their toll on Libyans.
Instead, there continues to be an entwining of internal divisions and external meddling that complicates any efforts to establish a unified, secure and stable Libyan state. Naturally, the local actors working to achieve such aspirations are now cynical patrons, drifting from one so-called peace plan to the next, while watching the international community chide the exclusive, self-appointed elites who have no intention of making good on the delivery of local security and better governance.
Curiously, though, with elections unlikely to materialize, the focus now appears to be shifting back toward the previously abandoned process of demobilization, disarmament and reintegration, as part of broader security sector reform. However, a monolithic demobilization, disarmament and reintegration approach could do more harm than good in a nation where political power is not only divided but also deeply stratified. But a tailored, context-specific form of demobilization, disarmament and reintegration that offers flexibility and local adaptability might well prove to be an innovative, perhaps even revolutionary, approach to achieving a sustainable peace in Libya and even beyond. The unique nature of the armed groups in the country, specifically their deep integration with local communities, necessitates the adoption of such specially tailored approaches that take into account local security dynamics. Armed groups in Misrata, Zawiya and Zintan, for example, offer a clear example of this complexity. Their evolution and influence are intertwined with community engagement and any attempts to dismantle said groups must recognize and work with these ties.
For any demobilization, disarmament and reintegration efforts to succeed, government actors and citizens must be empowered to shape a strategic, inclusive and sustainable action plan. This requires support for efforts to develop the necessary resources, skills and mechanisms needed to spearhead such a comprehensive initiative.
The UN should prioritize the fostering of civic engagement and promote a culture of political participation.
The UN will be key to ensuring that such a shift in focus can succeed, but the fundamental approach to demobilization, disarmament and reintegration and reform of the security sector needs to be recalibrated, from a generic strategy to one that is more flexible and adaptable to the demands of particular local contexts. This is not just a matter of expediency. It is also about laying the groundwork for a sustainable peace that can be replicated and expanded, not only within Libya’s borders but potentially in other conflict-ridden states.
However, there is a material disconnect between the renewed interest in seeking unification of the military forces in the country as part of broader security sector reforms and the realities on the ground, which create unique challenges.
Given the politicization of armed units and the unrealistic expectation that state control might be established over private armies, the mere act of uniting them under a single command structure will not be effective. On the contrary, resolve is likely to increase among key actors to maintain their firepower so that they can secure and potentially expand their political influence, even as relationships with rivals become less hostile and more pragmatic. Recognition of these complexities at a national level, and the influence of local communities on armed groups, mean that building effective demobilization, disarmament and reintegration strategies should emphasize local implementation efforts, in which crucial elements such as peace-building, governance and dialogue are integrated. As most armed actors operate within their own communities, the trust of the local population must be gained and increased to persuade those communities and other stakeholders to be more receptive to new demobilization, disarmament and reintegration programs. In addition, addressing the proliferation of hybrid and nonstate armed groups in Libya requires the creation of spaces for local governance, while overcoming the capacity and knowledge shortfalls that are inhibiting the state’s ability to respond to local needs and priorities. Key areas of focus must include the establishment of robust administrative structures, the delivery of services and revenue generation.
Moreover, increased coordination between national, subnational and local governments will be a crucial factor in reaching remote areas and solidifying the state presence there.
If the focus of UN engagement shifts, rightly, to demobilization, disarmament and reintegration, it should also prioritize the fostering of civic engagement and promote a culture of political participation. After all, dialogue among citizens serves as a powerful tool for building trust.
Locally led negotiations with armed groups have demonstrated their potential to positively influence their behavior, reduce the incentives for violence, encourage moderation and lay the groundwork for defection and disengagement.
By embracing a strategy of localization within the implementation of demobilization, disarmament and reintegration and security sector reform in Libya, the UN could navigate the complex balance of power while building sustainable peace and stability, in pursuit of the even grander ambition of eventually holding free and fair national elections. It might be premature to try to predict what the UN will do next, having missed the self-imposed goal of elections by the end of this year. However, even absent a political resolution to end Libya’s woes, an opportunity remains to reenergize demobilization, disarmament and reintegration efforts that acknowledge the complexities of local security dynamics and weave them into a credible, participative action plan. Previous efforts fell short as a result of fragmented approaches, political malaise, conflict and a lack of inclusive platforms for diverse Libyan interest groups. If there is to be lasting stability and any tangible hope of staging national elections at some point, Libya will require effective governance institutions. Security sector reform and demobilization, disarmament and reintegration will be indispensable factors in making that happen.
• Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.
X: @HafedAlGhwell

Companies, individuals must protect themselves from cyberattacks
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/December 10, 2023
This year has seen a significant rise in the number of cyberattacks launched worldwide, making this threat one of the top-rated risks that the public and private sectors, as well as individuals, face on a daily basis. Data breaches so far in 2023 have exposed nearly 4.5 billion records. Some of the major cyberattacks launched this year include: the hacking of the US State Department’s emails by a threat actor dubbed Storm-0558; a data extortion group called Scattered Spider carrying out cyberattacks against MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment; the passport records of nearly 34 million Indonesian citizens being stolen from the Indonesian Immigration Directorate General; and the genetic testing company 23andMe having the data of millions of its members leaked. In addition, T-Mobile has disclosed two data breaches this year, the first of which affected about 37 million customers. Similarly, AT&T faced a data breach that exposed about 9 million customers’ personal details. A hacker also targeted X, leaking more than 220 million users’ email addresses. The UK Electoral Commission announced in August that its database had been breached, exposing the personal information of about 40 million people, and a group known as Cyber Av3ngers last week gained control of at least one device at the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.
One of the major problems associated with cyberattacks is the cost, as the motivation for most of them is mainly financial. Businesses often have to pay millions of dollars for every breach. Nevertheless, it is critical to point out that paying a ransom does not necessarily guarantee that stolen data will be returned, since only 8 percent of businesses that paid ransoms in 2021 received all their data back. The average ransomware payout in 2023 has been almost double what it was in 2022. The average cost of a data breach is now reportedly $4.45 million. While the US ranks first when it comes to the highest average total cost of a data breach ($9.48 million), the Middle East comes a close second ($8.07 million)It is predicted that cybercrime will cost the global economy about $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, which reportedly represents “the greatest transfer of economic wealth in history, risks the incentives for innovation and investment, is exponentially larger than the damage inflicted from natural disasters in a year, and will be more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined.”
In addition to targeting companies and individuals, some cyberattacks could have consequences as severe as military action. For example, cyberattacks can lead to rogue actors taking control of or disrupting an entire nation’s infrastructure, including public services, hospitals, transport systems, the internet, municipal or governmental institutions and the energy sector. They can steal people’s private information or take control of a country’s missiles and drones, and even its military’s intelligence, command, control and communications.
One of the major problems associated with cyberattacks is the cost, as the motivation is mainly financial.
So, what should companies and individuals do to protect themselves from this dramatic rise in cyberattacks? First of all, it is important for every company to set up a cybersecurity policy and then regularly conduct special training for employees in order to educate them about the key security practices and guidelines. Some large companies have their own cybersecurity teams to protect the business from cyberattacks. But even smaller businesses can take steps, such as making sure to have the most up-to-date versions of all software, computer operating systems and internet browsers. Having firewall security for their internet connection is important as well. It is also important for companies to have additional copies of their important data, to limit access to their critical data and require multifactor authentication or additional information for logging on and gaining entry to their system.
To protect themselves, companies and individuals ought to regularly learn about the latest tactics used by hackers and cybercriminals. Attackers use various tactics, such as malware attacks and social engineering scams. Social engineering scams are one of the most widespread methods used by cybercriminals.
It is important to point out that 74 percent of all breaches involve a human element. Instead of manipulating technology, cybercriminals and hackers often rely on exploiting human error, as well as psychologically manipulating or tricking someone into directly or indirectly revealing sensitive personal information.
Scareware is another tactic, as it scares a person into acting fast in order to get rid of a computer virus. Other tactics include phishing attempts or domain name system spoofs, where server data is tampered with in order to redirect users to fake websites. Some attackers may also disguise themselves as a friend, relative or business in an attempt to have a targeted individual click on an infected link or share personal information. Companies and individuals should also be aware of the exposure they might have to third-party contractors. Cybercriminals can get access to information through third parties that might have less protection for their security systems. For instance, in 2021, the personal records of millions of users on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn were breached due to a misconfigured database run by a third-party contractor, the Chinese social media management company SocialArks.
In a nutshell, 2023 has seen a dramatic rise in the number of cyberattacks on businesses, governmental and nongovernmental organizations and individuals. To protect themselves from cyberattacks, it is important for companies and individuals to regularly update themselves about the latest cybersecurity practices and policies.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.
X: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Desertification crisis demands world’s attention
Ranvir S. Nayar/Arab News/December 10, 2023
As the COP28 climate change summit progresses in Dubai, one can only hope that negotiators from various parts of the world have taken note of a report released at the beginning of the conference warning the world about the rapid rise in desertification caused by human activities.
Calling it a global emergency, the report, prepared by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, is explicit about the severity of the problem in terms of the rate of rise in desertification, as well as how widespread the problem has become. The UN is right to raise the alarm over desertification, as few, if any, hazards claim more lives, cause more economic loss or affect more sectors of society than drought and desertification. Moreover, unlike a flash flood or rise in pollution, which are clearly visible and their impact is felt rapidly by the affected people, desertification and drought are silent killers. They advance slowly and without any dramatic effect in the beginning, but ultimately lead to severe and prolonged damage, from which countries or regions can take years to recover. The report highlights the urgency of the crisis and the need to address this challenge immediately and at a global level. As per the report, the entire world seems threatened by drought and desertification. As much as 20 percent of the Chinese population will face more frequent moderate to severe droughts this century, while by the year 2100 there is likely to be an 80 percent increase in drought intensity in China. Meanwhile, 630,000 sq. km of Europe was hit by drought last year, as was about 5 percent of contiguous land in the US, while the La Plata basin in Brazil and Argentina experienced its worst drought in 78 years.
The report includes data from all other parts of the world, which should be more than enough to convince any skeptics of the scale of the problem. It is also very clear about the cause of the problem. Most, if not all, of the increase in droughts and desertification is due to human activity.
The first issue is the cutting down of forests and trees. The destruction of green cover not only makes areas drier and dustier, but also has a dramatic impact on rainfall. The second biggest reason is the inordinately large rise in water consumption and wastage. With humans sucking a rapidly increasing amount of water from natural bodies like rivers and lakes, there has been a significant drop in availability. Global freshwater usage rose about 33 percent from just over 3 trillion cubic meters in 1980 to about 4.07 trillion cubic meters in 2010.
Large chunks of this have been drawn from groundwater, leading to a dramatic fall in groundwater tables in many nations. The situation is particularly disturbing in India, China, southern Europe and the western US.
The situation has been exacerbated by irregular rainfall, which is largely due to global warming, once again caused by human activity.
Businesses need to take steps to curtail their water usage and increase the amount of water they reuse.
Irrespective of where they live, few will have failed to notice the drop in water availability or, in extreme cases, seen the rivers and lakes in their neighborhoods dry up. As it may no longer be possible to undo the damage done to nature by human greed, the world has to look at ways to adapt to the changed situation. Many of the solutions are well known. First is to stop water wastage and cut our consumption of freshwater, irrespective of whether it is being used in homes, factories or on farms.
Second is to look at enhancing the quantum of used water that is reused. Currently, few countries bother to recycle significant amounts of water, even though there are several options. For instance, in the US, less than 0.3 percent of used water is reused, showing the apathy of ordinary citizens as well as municipal officials and businesses. The situation is not much different in most other nations. Another mitigation and adaptation method that is well within the reach of all of us is to harvest rainwater, which in most cases is lost to evaporation or simply goes into the ground. Harvesting rainwater and renewing water bodies by cleaning and desilting them will not only increase the amount of water that is available, but will also prevent desertification from spreading as it will make the ground more humid and resistant to desertification. Beyond that, depending on the sector of economic activity, businesses need to take steps to curtail their water usage and increase the amount of water they reuse. In agriculture, farmers should plant drought-resistant crops, as well as those that consume less water. The construction and manufacturing industries also need to curb water wastage and enhance their recycling.
While the developed world may be able to manage the economic resources needed to partly overcome drought-like situations, the situation for poorer nations, notably in Africa and Asia, will certainly require the raising of more money so that they can minimize the impact of desertification and drought.
• Ranvir S. Nayar is the managing editor of Media India Group and founder-director of EIFE.

First split appears in Turkiye’s opposition front
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/December 10, 2023
Turkiye is going to hold local elections on March 31 next year. There was a slim hope that the main opposition Republican People’s Party, known as the CHP, and the smaller Good Party could win in certain municipalities if they were to form a coalition. This hope has now been shattered, as the Good Party decided last week not to form such a coalition.
Two points have come on to the agenda in the run-up to the local elections. One is the coalitions that might be formed before the elections. The second is the potential role of the Kurdish electorate.
At one stage, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Devlet Bahceli, his unofficial coalition partner and the chairman of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, stood distant from each other. This became clear when a militant in Bahceli’s party was convicted and jailed for several crimes. The Turkish media assesses the relations between Erdogan and Bahceli according to whether the former takes any steps that might annoy the latter. The court’s conviction of a member of Bahceli’s party was used as a reason to question whether something was going wrong between these two leaders.
Rumors claimed that Erdogan, because of this and other similar incidents, was looking for a way to get rid of his coalition partner. By distancing himself from Bahceli, Erdogan may have sought to attract the votes of the more moderate segments of the Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party. However, he eventually decided that the Kurdish votes would not be able to compensate for the loss of Bahceli’s support.
Meanwhile, there was hope that the opposition parties would find a way to establish coalitions before the local elections. The first test — of a linkup between the CHP and the Good Party — failed.
Good Party leader Meral Aksener had announced long before the run-up to the local elections that her party was going to run alone. Ozgur Ozel, the new chairman of the CHP, handled the process skillfully. He wanted to formalize the issue by either putting an end to this uncertain situation or by establishing a coalition with the Good Party. He did not promise that a coalition was taking shape. He said that his party did not have a plan B for the forthcoming elections. Instead, he said it had two plan As. One was to form a coalition with the Good Party, if it agreed. The second was that the CHP would determine its candidates and launch its own election campaign. Ozel said that whatever the Good Party decided would be received with due respect by the CHP.
On Dec. 3, a motion was voted on by the governing board of the Good Party. Fifteen members of the board voted in favor of forming a coalition with the CHP and 35 members voted against it. Aksener left the meeting hall when the vote was being taken as she wanted to show her neutrality.
On the side of the ruling Justice and Development Party, the contacts between Erdogan and Bahceli are now moving in a positive direction. The position of the splinter parties varies according to their place on the political scale.
There was hope that the opposition parties would find a way to establish coalitions before the local elections.
The recent change in the leadership of the CHP — with Ozel replacing long-time incumbent Kemal Kilicdaroglu — did not affect the political landscape in Turkiye. The CHP’s share of the vote has remained constant. The splinter parties shared the surplus among themselves.
The vote by the governing board of the Good Party was an indication that there is a tendency among party officials not to make a coalition with the CHP. However, this does not necessarily mean that the individual voters of the Good Party will act in the same way as the members of its governing board.
Erdogan has followed a grand strategy since he came to power in 2002. He has not allowed the right-wing parties to grow beyond a certain threshold and become a rival to the Justice and Development Party. He encouraged them to melt into his own rightist party. The only party that went beyond this limit was the Good Party.
Local elections in Turkiye have a different dynamic from general elections. Local politicians may find it convenient to cooperate with another local leader by making a trade-off. If they do not believe they are strong enough, they may agree to put forward their candidacy for a less important post in the local administration. The second important factor that has to be taken into consideration in these elections is the role that the Kurdish electorate will play. Kurds constitute 12 to 15 percent of Turkiye’s electorate and they are highly politicized. They are also active in the metropolitan agglomerations. In 2018, they played a crucial role in the election of Ekrem Imamoglu as the metropolitan mayor of Istanbul. Erdogan will probably do everything in his power to regain Istanbul. Regarding the elections, he used to say, “The one who gets Istanbul will get Turkiye.”
Another important factor that has to be kept in mind is the question of the future eligibility of Erdogan. According to the Turkish constitution, a president can only be elected twice. Therefore, Erdogan’s reign will come to an end on May 7, 2028. Thanks to a twisted interpretation of the constitution, he has already been elected three times. To justify this exceptional practice, he used the transition to a new form of governance in Turkiye, which now uses the presidential system. But if the game is played according to the rules, Erdogan will not be able to run again in the presidential election in 2028. This raises the question of who will succeed him. We have four more years to worry about this subject.
• Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkiye and founding member of the ruling AK Party. X: @yakis_yasar

The Issue is Bigger Than Hamas and Fatah
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper/December 10/2023
Palestinian division is no secret, nor is the rift between Fatah and Hamas, which has been entrenched since Hamas threw members of Fatah off the roof following their 2007 coup in Gaza. Today, however, this dispute is back at the forefront following the comments of Osama Hamdan, Hamas’s top official in Lebanon. "No one imagines that the Sinai Desert will swallow the Palestinians. On the contrary, the border region will be more of a robust base of resistance to the occupation.”He then added: "Those concerned about national security or the region's stability should strive not to end the assault on Gaza but to end the occupation." Fatah responded by calling these statements "reprehensible" and tantamount to approving the idea of mass displacement.
Hamas was also urged to realize that "the lives of Palestinian citizens are more important than partisan interests." Since 2007, however, Hamas has shown that it does not care about Palestinians, and it couldn't care less about the sovereignty of regional states, to say nothing about their national security.
This was evident during what was falsely labeled as the Arab Spring in Egypt, as prisons were opened and so on. Just a few days ago, Hamas announced the establishment of "The Al-Aqsa Flood Vanguards” in Lebanon, a move that was rejected by the Lebanese people, with the exception of the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Now, Osama Hamdan has made statements implying that Hamas is not opposed to the displacement of the people of Gaza to Sinai and beyond. His statements suggest that the Muslim Brotherhood has started thinking about using Sinai, Egyptian territory, as a base of operations for attacks against Israel.
Hamdan's talk about national security and regional security is nothing but a veiled threat to both Egypt and Jordan, whose tribes Khalid Meshaal has tried to sway. This tells us that Hamas is now looking for an alternative from which to continue the struggle, not solutions to end Israel’s aggression.
That's why they attempted to establish the Al-Aqsa Flood Vanguards in Lebanon and are now trying to blackmail Egypt. Hamas, and its parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, are not concerned with borders and the sovereignty of Arab states.
A Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahhar, once said in a leaked video, "A Palestinian state within the 1967 borders is a fundamental policy? Of course, when I hear such talk, I feel nauseous." He added, "For us, Palestine is like someone who uses a toothbrush just to clean their teeth, as our project is bigger than Palestine."He goes on to say, "Palestine is not on the map." Meanwhile, Hamdan is now talking about national security and regional stability! The truth is they are not concerned with saving the people of Gaza. Ismail Haniyeh previously said that all they need is "blood and souls."
All of this means that the region is now faced with two parties that are not concerned with security or saving lives: Hamas and Israel. Therefore, it is crucial that Arabs do not equivocate on the sovereignty of regional states, especially Egypt and Jordan, and reject any threat to them, even if that threat comes from Hamas and its ilk. The Arabs must also strive to bring the Palestinian Authority back to Gaza, but the Palestinian Authority must rebuild itself and change its leadership, today and not tomorrow.