Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 15-16/2023
Lebanese Parliament votes to extend army chief's term by a year
Lebanon's parliament extends army commander term amid crises
Mikati postpones cabinet session as armed forces retirees protest salaries
Bassil slams Berri, Mikati and MPs over army chief file
US national security adviser says a negotiated outcome is the best way to end Lebanon-Israel tension
Israeli army spokesman: We will resort to the military option if diplomacy fails to remove Hezbollah from the border
Hezbollah: Our fighters targeted Jardah site with Burkan missiles and the Intelligence Battalion in the Metat Barracks
Gaza war: how Hezbollah has opened a second front inside Israel
Israel drops flyers warning Lebanese against helping Hezbollah
Israeli leaflets ‘intimidating civilians,’ Lebanese municipality says
France steps up Mideast effort with FM’s Lebanon trip
UK discusses border security, urges 'full implementation' of 1701
In Israel, top US official says 'diplomacy' best way to deal with Hezbollah
Hezbollah fires Burkan rockets on Israel as drone strikes house in Yarin
Macron to visit Lebanon Thursday, French team to meet UNIFIL
Global Refugee Forum highlights: Lebanon's complex refugee dynamics
Christians living at the Lebanon border see Israel-Hamas war igniting hostilities with Hezbollah/Melanie Lidman/Los Angeles Times/December 15, 2023
Video/Text/The Hamas-Israel War: End of the Beginning or Beginning of the End?/
by Assaf Orion, Hanin Ghaddar, Matthew Levitt, Robert Satloff/The Washington Institute/Dec 15, 2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 15-16/2023
Israeli special forces recover body of hostage in Gaza
Top US official says not 'right' for Israel to occupy Gaza long-term
Israel says war on Hamas will last months as US envoy discusses timetable
Ahead of meeting with US envoy, Herzog says now isn't time to discuss 2-state solution
Exile in Sinai not an option, hapless Gazan residents say
Israel reopens Gaza aid crossing as US pushes for restraint
Security videos show Israeli forces killing 2 Palestinians at close range. The army opens a probe
News Alert: Israeli military accidentally shoots and kills 3 Israelis held hostage in Gaza
Hungry, thirsty and humiliated: Israel’s mass arrest campaign sows fear in northern Gaza
Saudi Arabia, Iran commit to implementing Beijing Agreement
Maersk says its container vessel was targeted by a Houthi missile off Yemen, but the ship was not hit
Israel presses Gaza assault as top US official visits
Kremlin: Ukrainian and Moldovan entry could destabilize EU

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 15-16/2023
Question: “What does it mean that Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6)?/GotQuestions.org./December 15, 2023
Daily Jihad in France/Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute./December 15, 2023
Britain faces a catastrophic epidemic of Hamas-style Islamist terror/Camilla Tominey/The Telegraph/December 15, 2023
Ukraine can help the Global South beat hunger/Denys Shmyhal/Arab News/December 15, 2023
Turkiye, Saudi Arabia on diplomatic blitz for Gaza/Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/December 15, 2023
Senior US official: With ‘American blood on his hands,’ Sinwar’s ‘days are numbered’/MIKE WAGENHEIM/JNS/December 15, 2023
Can Biden’s cognitive dissonance let Israel win the war?/Jonathan S. Tobin/JNS/December 15, 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 15-16/2023
Lebanese Parliament votes to extend army chief's term by a year
Jamie Prentis/The National/December 15/2023
The term of Lebanon's army commander Gen Joseph Aoun has been extended by a year after a vote in parliament weeks before his tenure was set to expire. Gen Aoun was due to retire on January 10 next year but the law, backed by a majority of MPs, delays the retirement age of the heads of Lebanon's security services – including the army – by a year, meaning Gen Aoun is able to serve for another 12 months. In theory it ends fears of yet another potential vacuum at the top of a key Lebanese institution. The country has been without a president since October 2022, has a caretaker cabinet and acting heads of the central bank and General Security. Normally the army's chief of staff would step into the top job on an interim basis in the event of a vacuum but that position has also remained vacant for a year. The Council of Ministers seemed set to eventually discuss the issue – having dragged its feet for months – early on Friday afternoon but that meeting was scrapped until Tuesday afternoon when not enough ministers turned up. While the war in Gaza and the Israel-Hezbollah cross-border clashes in southern Lebanon have dominated the headlines since October, perhaps no recent issue has been more of a talking point in the country than the army commander. Some factions had been deeply opposed to extending the term of Gen Aoun, particularly the Free Patriotic Movement, one of the largest parliamentary parties. The FPM, founded by Lebanon's previous president Michel Aoun – not related to the general – has a significant number of ministers from or allied to the party, including Defence Minister Maurice Sleem. Supporters of extending Gen Aoun's term had warned of the risk of military instability if a solution was not found, particularly given the precarious security situation in which Lebanon finds itself.
Influential Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said as the vote was about to take place that “if we do not do this work today, we risk a vacuum” at the top of the army. In separate remarks on the country's ongoing economic crisis, he also pointed to the expected slowdown in business over the coming weeks as Christmas takes place.While the president is normally responsible for appointing the army commander, in his or her absence, head of state powers fall to the cabinet. But the latter is severely stripped of its powers given its caretaker status, with some politicians arguing it should not be meeting at all.

Lebanon's parliament extends army commander term amid crises
BEIRUT (Reuters)/December 15, 2023
Lebanon's parliament extended on Friday by one-year the term of army commander Joseph Aoun, avoiding a vacuum in leadership in an institution seen as vital to keeping peace inside the country amid crises that include a border conflict with Israel. Parliament approved the extension as hostilities raged on the frontier between the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah, a political group and heavily armed militia, is widely seen as militarily more powerful than the army. Aoun had been due to leave office next month, with no agreement among Lebanon's deeply divided sectarian factions on who should fill the role reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system. The patriarch of the Maronite church had said the post must not be left vacant and said the army's stability was at stake. The army, which recruits from across the sectarian spectrum, was rebuilt after Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war and many Lebanese see it as the country's most trusted security institution. Lebanon has been in deep economic and political crisis since the financial system collapsed in 2019, destroying the currency, driving up poverty and paralysing much of the state. The United States, which supports the army with training and equipment, has provided cash stipends to soldiers and members of the internal security forces to support them. The parliament also voted to extend the term of the head of Lebanon's internal security forces, a Sunni Muslim. Factional rivalries have exacerbated Lebanon's problems, leaving senior Lebanese state posts vacant, including the presidency, which has been empty since Michel Aoun left the role more than a year ago.Several former army commanders become head of state. Maronite Christian politician Gebran Bassil, Michel Aoun's son-in-law, has presidential aspirations and opposed extending the term of Joseph Aoun, mainly because he argued it was for the president to approve any extension. The two Aouns are not related. Lawmakers who voted on Friday for the extension included those from Hezbollah's Shi'ite ally Amal, the Progressive Socialist Party led by the Druze Jumblatt family and the Christian Lebanese Forces. Hezbollah lawmakers left the chamber during the vote in solidarity with their ally Bassil.

Mikati postpones cabinet session as armed forces retirees protest salaries
Naharnet/December 15, 2023
Retired members of the armed forces protested Friday their low salaries at Beirut's Riad al-Solh Square, blocking the road leading to the Grand Serail ahead of a cabinet session at the Serail in downtown Beirut. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati postponed the session to Tuesday due to a lack of quorum, as some ministers couldn't reach the Grand Serail and the Free Patriotic Movement ministers boycotted the session. FPM chief Jebran Bassil accused Mikati on Friday of seeking to violate the constitution and the law and MPs of seeking to "legislate in favor of a single person." Cabinet will likely discuss, from outside its agenda, extending the term of Army chief General Joseph Aoun, ahead of his planned retirement in January. Parliament is also meeting on Friday and might also discuss Aoun's term as Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan said that Parliament will still discuss Aoun's term extension regardless of what the government decides in its session today. The retirees protested their salaries that have become too low to cover basic expenses. All public sector employees, including the members of the armed forces, get paid in Lebanese pounds, while grocery stores and other businesses are now pricing their goods in dollars. The Lebanese pound has lost more than 98 percent of its pre-crisis value against the greenback since the start of the economic crisis in 2019.

Bassil slams Berri, Mikati and MPs over army chief file
Naharnet/December 15, 2023
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Friday accused caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati of seeking to violate the constitution and the law and MPs of seeking to “legislate in favor of a single person,” in reference to efforts to extend the term of Army chief Joseph Aoun. “I’m watching them and smiling: one of them is focused on irritating me and one of them wants to satisfy me. Someone knows that I’m right but that I should not win and someone knows that I should not lose but that I should not win this much,” Bassil said in a post on the X platform. “I have won anyway, and at least I’ve won myself! Can you think of the country and its interest and forget about me?? Can you work with your conscience instead of being controlled by your grudges?” Bassil added. Addressing ministers, he wondered how they can “accept that the premier bypass both the constitution and the law and usurp the jurisdiction of a minister,” referring to the defense minister and the argument that his signature is needed for any decision related to the army chief. Accusing Mikati to trying to “deal a fatal blow to the Taif Accord,” Bassil warned MPs against “legislating for the sake of a single person.” As for Speaker Nabih Berri, Bassil asked him how he could “accept such legislation” while knowing that “it falls under the government’s jurisdiction” and would represent “a major blow to the separation of powers.”“You all know that under any circumstances, there will be no vacuum in the army and no fear for its unity and that only a Christian will be at its helm. The problem is not here, the problem is the spite against domestic parties and the subservience to foreign forces,” Bassil added. “I forgive those who want to irritate me and I liberate those who want to satisfy me. Do whatever you want but work according to your conscience and your country’s interest! Let no one try to blackmail, tempt or threaten me; I only act according to my beliefs and conscience,” Bassil went on to say.

US national security adviser says a negotiated outcome is the best way to end Lebanon-Israel tension
BASSEM MROUE/AP/December 15, 2023
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday that he has discussed with Israeli officials the volatile situation along the Lebanon-Israel border, adding that a “negotiated outcome” is the best way to reassure residents of northern Israel. Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Sullivan said that Washington won't tolerate threats by Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group, which has been attacking Israeli military posts along the border since a day after the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7. Over the past two months, Israel has evacuated more than 20,000 of its citizens from towns and villages along the border with Lebanon, some of whom have expressed concerns that they have no plans to return home as long as Hezbollah fighters are deployed on the Lebanese side of the border. “We need to send a clear message that we will not tolerate the kinds of threats and terrorist activity that we have seen from Hezbollah and from the territory of Lebanon,” Sullivan told reporters in Jerusalem. “The best way to do this is to come up with a negotiated outcome,” Sullivan said, adding that such an outcome will ensure that “those Israeli citizens in those communities up on the northern border can know that they are not going to be subject to an attack that will take their lives or destroy their communities.” Sullivan said: “That threat can be dealt with through diplomacy and does not require the launching of a new war.” Still, the U.S. official said that such a step requires not just diplomacy, but deterrence as well.
Israel and Hezbollah are bitter enemies that fought a war in the summer of 2006. Israel considers the Iran-backed Shiite militant group its most serious immediate threat, estimating that Hezbollah has around 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel. Since the end of the 34-day war in 2006, thousands of U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops were deployed along the border. The border had been mostly quiet over the years apart from sporadic violations, but it all changed since the Israel-Hamas war started. Since Oct. 8, Hezbollah fighters have carried out scores of attacks — mostly targeting Israeli military posts along the border. Israeli artillery and warplanes have also been attacking areas on the Lebanese side of the border. On Friday, an Israeli drone dropped leaflets on a border village, warning its residents that Hezbollah is endangering their lives by using the area to launch attacks against Israel.
Lebanon's state news agency reported that an Israeli drone struck a house Friday in the southern village of Yarin, wounding several people. It gave no further details.
On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Markaba killed a Hezbollah fighter, raising to 101 the total number of the group’s members who have been killed since the latest round of fighting began. Hezbollah official Ali Daamoush was defiant in his Friday prayers sermon, vowing that the group won't stop attacks along the border and also has no plans to move away from the frontier. “The Israeli-American brutality can only be stopped by the resistance that can inflict losses on the enemy,” Daamoush said. “Intimidation and threats will not change the stance of the resistance and its presence on every inch of the south” of Lebanon. With tensions high along the southern border, a four-year historic economic crisis and the presidential post vacant since October 2022 amid divisions between rival groups, Lebanon's parliament held a meeting in Beirut Friday during which legislators voted on a draft law extending the term of army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun and police commander Maj. Gen. Imad Osman by one year. Aoun, commander of the U.S.-backed Lebanese Armed Forces, will reach retirement age next month but with the adoption of the the law, the general can remain at his post until January 2025.
“We are passing through an extraordinary situation so it was necessary to take the decision that comes in Lebanon's interest,” legislator Waddah Sadek told reporters after the meeting.

Israeli army spokesman: We will resort to the military option if diplomacy fails to remove Hezbollah from the border
LBCI/December 15, 2023
On Friday, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari noted that military intervention remains a viable option should diplomatic efforts prove ineffective in removing Hezbollah forces from the border. He reiterated that the war against Hamas is going to take a lot of time and effort.

Hezbollah: Our fighters targeted Jardah site with Burkan missiles and the Intelligence Battalion in the Metat Barracks
LBCI/December 15, 2023
On Friday, Hezbollah announced that its fighters targeted the Jardah site with Burkan missiles, resulting in a 'direct hit.'Additionally, Hezbollah said that its members targeted 'an Israeli force as it entered the headquarters of the Intelligence Battalion in the Metat Barracks, using appropriate weapons, leading to casualties among the Israeli personnel.'

Gaza war: how Hezbollah has opened a second front inside Israel
Bashir Saade, Lecturer in Religion & Politics, University of Stirling/The Conversation/December 15/2023
While the attention of the world has focused on Israel’s assault on Gaza over the past two months, following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, one aspect of the Middle East conflict not getting a great deal of news coverage has been the continuing battle with Hezbollah in south Lebanon.
There have been daily reports of clashes between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Lebanese Hezbollah. On December 11, nine Hezbollah attacks on Israeli towns or military positions were recorded. The group, whose name means “Party of God” and which is largely funded by Iran while embedded in Lebanon, has lost more than 100 fighters since October 7.Hezbollah and Hamas are thought to collaborate as part of the broader “axis of resistance”, which also includes the Houthi rebels in Yemen and other groups in Syria, Iraq and Iran. While there is no evidence that Hezbollah was directly involved in the planning for the October 7, logistical training and coordination between Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards has been going on for years. One example of this cross-pollination of ideas is the “Gaza metro” – the extensive network of tunnels built by Hamas throughout Gaza. These are generally thought to have been masterminded by Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh and Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike on Baghdad in 2020.
Party of God
Hezbollah has its roots in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 when the IDF occupied all of south Lebanon as far as Beirut in its attempt to root out the Palestine Liberation Organisation. After Israel withdrew from Beirut, it continued to occupy large amounts of territory in the south of Lebanon. In 1985, Hezbollah announced itself with an open letter published in the Lebanese daily newspaper, al-Safir, stating its mission as a resistance movement against US imperialism and Israeli occupation. In the 1992 general election, Hezbollah’s political wing won eight seats, giving it the largest block in the Lebanese parliament and establishing the group as a major political force. In 2000, after repeated Hezbollah-led operations against the IDF, Israel withdrew its troops from most of southern Lebanon – up to what was called the blue line, a UN-designated “line of withdrawal” which delineates Israeli territory from Lebanon and the Golan Heights and is policed by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
It is at best a sticking-plaster solution, as Israel still occupies areas – such as the Shebaa Farms and seven other villages, that Lebanon considers to be part of its territory. In July 2006, after a brief military confrontation across the Lebanese border, Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers sparking a month-long war between Israel and Lebanon during which more than 1,000 Lebanese people were killed and 150 Israelis. Israel also conducted a massive campaign of airstrikes, including targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut, known as Dahiyah in Arabic.
The conflict eventually led to a prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah, yet it exemplified a new strategy by the IDF which became known as the “Dahiyah doctrine”. This held that the disproportionate use of airstrikes for which the destruction of military targets was not the main aim – the goal was to change a population’s hearts and minds. The doctrine was explained in 2008 by the then-commander of the IDF, General Gadi Eizenkot, who told an Israeli newspaper in 2008: “We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases. This isn’t a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorised.” Eizenkot is now a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet. He has lost both a son and a nephew in the current conflict in Gaza. To show the axis of resistance that it will stop at nothing to impose its will on Palestine, the IDF is using “disproportionate force” in Gaza as a key part of its strategy.
Balance of terror
The main point of difference between previous clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah is that most of the recent battles have taken place inside Israel. It’s a key development. The legacy of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah has been what has become known as the “balance of terror”.Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said publicly that had he known what the outcome of the 2006 raid in Israel that captured two Israeli soldiers and led to the second Lebanon war, he would not have approved it. Israel knows, too, that launching a ground war in Lebanon would also be disastrous.
From 2010 until today, clashes between Israel and Hezbollah have mainly been confined to the IDF targeting convoys of weaponry sent by Iran and its killing of Hezbollah members. Hezbollah announced in February 2022 that it had acquired the technology to build high-precision guided missiles that reach targets across the whole of Israel and could pose a threat to its Iron Dome defence system. Regionally, Hezbollah and Iran’s allies in the axis of resistance have concentrated their attacks on US bases through Iraq, Syria and Yemen. This is a deliberate strategy aimed at putting pressure on Washington to, in turn, pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire. In a speech delivered on November 3, Nasrallah articulated Hezbollah’s strategy. Attacks in northern Israel were aimed at dividing the focus of the IDF between defending Israel’s borders and its operation in Gaza. Meanwhile, he said, attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria would continue. Nasrallah gave another speech on November 11 calling on Arab nations to put pressure on Washington to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. Meanwhile Hezbollah, with help from allies in Iraq, Iran, Yemen and Syria would continue to launch attacks on Israel. “We will continue with this,” Nasrallah said. “We will increase the quantity, quality and depths of our operations. The people in Lebanon support the resistance … What happens on the battlefield is more important than words.”

Israel drops flyers warning Lebanese against helping Hezbollah
AFP/December 15, 2023
BEIRUT: The Israeli army dropped leaflets on parts of south Lebanon on Friday for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war began, warning residents not to help Hezbollah, inhabitants said. Since October 8, the day after the Israel-Hamas war started, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen deadly exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, which says it is acting in support of Hamas. “Early Friday morning, a drone dropped leaflets over the village that landed between the houses,” said a resident of Kfarshuba near the border, requesting anonymity due to security concerns. Another resident said leaflets were dropped twice after the wind blew many from the initial batch away. “To the residents of south Lebanon, we inform you that the terrorist Hezbollah is infiltrating into your homes and your lands,” read a copy of a leaflet seen by AFP. “You must stop this terrorism for your own security,” the text added, warning the population that assisting Hezbollah would expose them “to danger.”Residents along the Lebanese border have said the Israeli army has stepped up its bombardment of frontier villages in recent days.
Israel also dropped leaflets over parts of south Lebanon during a 2006 war with Hezbollah. Since the cross-border exchanges of fire began in October, more than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side of the frontier, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including a Lebanese soldier and 17 civilians, three of them journalists, according to an AFP tally. More than 64,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, mostly in the south, figures from the International Organization for Migration show. On the Israeli side, at least six soldiers and four civilians have been killed, authorities there have said. The Israel-Hamas war began after the Palestinian militant group launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. In response, Israel launched a massive military offensive that the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says has killed more than 18,700 people, mostly women and children.

Israeli leaflets ‘intimidating civilians,’ Lebanese municipality says
Arab News/December 15, 2023
BEIRUT: France’s Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna will travel to Lebanon on Saturday as part of diplomatic efforts to contain the Middle East conflict. “We must avoid a regional eruption,” ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said ahead of Colonna’s visit. The French minister is expected to call for “restraint” and “responsibility” in an effort to avoid a new front line on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Lemoine said. His comments came as daily exchanges of fire along the border added to fears of a widening war. Israeli officials have also stepped up their warnings to Hezbollah. During a visit to forces deployed along the border last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “If Hezbollah chooses to go into a full-scale war, Beirut and southern Lebanon — not far away from here — will turn it into Gaza and Khan Younis.”The Israeli military dropped leaflets in southern Lebanon on Friday, warning residents against assisting Hezbollah as the conflict between the group and Israeli forces entered its 69th day. Eyewitnesses in Kfarchouba and Kfarhamam saw a drone drop the leaflets in the morning, some taking photos and sharing them on social media. Hundreds of people, including women, children and the elderly, were forced to leave their homes near the border and head to safety at the beginning of the confrontation. In a statement, the Kfarchouba municipality described the Israeli leaflets as “a prelude to justify aggressive acts intended against our defenseless civilians, who are safe and peaceful in their homes, preserving their property, and clinging to their homeland and land.”The municipality said that there are “no weapons, armed individuals, or armed manifestations in the town, except the Lebanese army and UNIFIL.”Kfarchouba, which has a Sunni majority, is located in the Arqoub area of the Hasbaya district, 120 km from Beirut. The town is situated on the triangle of the Lebanese-Syrian-Israeli border, making it a strategic location. Although Israel withdrew from Kfarchouba under the Blue Line, vast agricultural areas, known as the Kfarchouba Heights and belonging to the town, remain under Israeli control. Four houses in the town have been destroyed by Israeli shelling since hostilities erupted on Oct. 8.
The municipality has asked UNIFIL and the Lebanese army to protect the town by defining a neutral area, preventing Israel from carrying out any hostile actions. Several people were hurt when an Israeli drone targeted a house in the Lebanese border town of Yarin on Friday. Ambulances took the wounded to hospitals in Tyre for treatment, according to media reports. Israeli shelling has escalated in recent days, shifting from targeting forests and valleys to striking civilian homes. Warning sirens sounded on Friday in Arab Al-Aramshe in western Galilee on the Israeli side as Hezbollah targeted the Israeli military outposts of Yaara and Arab Al-Aramshe. Sirens also sounded in the Hanita border settlement. Hezbollah said that it struck the Israeli Al-Jardah military outpost with Burkan missiles, and also targeted a group of Israeli soldiers entering the Intelligence Battalion headquarters in Mitat. The group also hit the Israeli Bayad Blida military outpost. Israel shelled the Labbouneh region on the outskirts of Naqoura using internationally prohibited phosphorus bombs. Israeli artillery shelling also targeted the outskirts of Alma Al-Shaab and Tallat Hamames in Sarda, as well as the Tayr Harfa and Yarin villages and the outskirts of Houla. It also hit Wadi Qatmun on the outskirts of the Rmaych village. Israeli shells struck Kfarkila village and Tallat Al-Awayda on the outskirts of the border village of Al-Tayba. Israeli artillery also targeted several houses in Ras Al-Dhaher and Al-Tarash in the Mays Al-Jabal village.

France steps up Mideast effort with FM’s Lebanon trip
AFP/December 15, 2023
PARIS: France’s foreign minister travels to Lebanon on Saturday as part of diplomatic efforts by President Emmanuel Macron’s government to help contain the Middle East conflict. Fears of a widening war have been growing, with Iran-backed groups targeting US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria, and daily exchanges of fire along Israel’s border with Lebanon. “We must avoid a regional eruption,” foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said ahead of Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna’s trip. Colonna will call for “restraint” and “responsibility” to avoid a new front line on the Israeli-Lebanese border, he said. There have been near-daily cross-border exchanges between Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Hamas ally in Lebanon, and Israel since the Palestinian group’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel that Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an unrelenting military offensive on Gaza that has left swathes of the besieged Palestinian territory in ruins. The health ministry in the Hamas-run strip says more than 18,700 people have been killed. Along the Israel-Lebanon border violence has remained relatively limited, with 128 killed in total, including 90 Hezbollah combatants and at least 11 Israelis. French officials are also seeking the release of the French hostages among the around 240 seized by Hamas militants, as the Israeli army announced Friday that it had recovered the body of French-Israeli hostage Elya Toledano, a 28-year-old seized at a desert rave party when the attack occurred. Hamas released dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a week-long truce last month, but several are still being held and others have been found dead. Colonna said her country was “deeply saddened to hear the Israeli armed forces announce the death of our compatriot Elya Toledano, a Hamas hostage whose body was found in Gaza.”“We share the grief of his family and loved ones. The release of all hostages is our priority,” she wrote on X.
But Israel has stepped up its shelling while issuing warnings to the Hezbollah leadership.
“If Hezbollah chooses to wage a full-fledged war on us, then it will transform, with its own hands, Beirut and South Lebanon into Gaza and Khan Yunis (a city in southern Gaza),” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week during a visit to troops along the Lebanese border.
Western governments, notably the United States and France, are stepping up behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to stop the situation from worsening. The risk of full-out war is “very real” if the Lebanese side underestimates Israel’s determination to protect its borders in the aftermath of the traumatic October attack, a French diplomatic source said. But French diplomats and security officials also believe that Israel needs to be reminded that any wider conflict would not guarantee regional security, the source said. Colonna will therefore “reiterate French appeals for responsibility and restraint,” Lemoine said.
The head of the French external intelligence service, Bernard Emie, gave a similar message when he met Lebanese officials in Beirut last week. Israel’s current objective is that Hezbollah forces move back from the border by 40 kilometers (25 miles), a Western diplomatic source in Beirut said.
In particular, they want Hezbollah’s elite Al-Radwan unit, equipped with heavy artillery, to back off, said the source, requesting anonymity. Hezbollah meanwhile says it has no visible presence in the border region. France maintains that the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 1701, which states that only the official Lebanese army and the UN’s UNIFIL force can be deployed in southern Lebanon, is a promising basis for discussions. This stance is shared by Israel, but Hezbollah’s second-in-command Naim Qassem said this week that “we won’t discuss any deployment in southern Lebanon with anybody while the attack on Gaza continues.”The Western diplomatic source said mediation efforts are focusing on settling an ongoing border dispute between both countries, by which Israel would withdraw from farms in the town of Chebaa and from the Lebanese part of the village of GHajjar. France is the biggest contributor to UNIFIL with 700 soldiers, to whom Colonna could pay a visit on Saturday. The UN force has been targeted by Israeli fire since the start of the violence, with France condemning “any violation of the safety” of the UN soldiers. Colonna is scheduled to travel to Israel and the occupied West Bank on Sunday.

UK discusses border security, urges 'full implementation' of 1701
Naharnet/December 15, 2023
During a meeting to discuss security on the Lebanese-Syrian border, British Ambassador to Lebanon Hamish Cowell expressed his condolences for the death of a Lebanese soldier in Lebanon last week and called for the restoration of calm on the Blue Line. Cowell, U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea and Canadian Ambassador Stefanie McCollum met the Commander in Chief of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) General Joseph Aoun during the High Level Steering Committee (HLSC) to discuss security on the Lebanese-Syrian border. The HLSC oversees internationally funded efforts to support the four Land Border Regiments to continue to deliver external security and reinforce the authority of the Lebanese state along its land border with Syria. Following the meeting, Ambassador Cowell said: “It was an honor to meet General Aoun to discuss positive progress on the border project. I was saddened to hear about the death of a LAF soldier in south Lebanon last week. I convey my deepest sympathies to his family and comrades." “With General Aoun I stressed the need for a cessation of hostilities across the Blue Line and for a renewed commitment to implementing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701," he added. “Ongoing hostilities in South Lebanon only serve to delay any long term solution for peace," Cowell warned. “I am, as ever, impressed by Lebanese Armed Forces’ outstanding work of its officers and soldiers during this challenging time. Since 2009, the UK has committed over £99 million to support optimization of LAF capabilities, including through development and modernization," Cowell added. "We are proud of our contribution to building the LAF’s reputation as a respected, professional armed forces able to defend Lebanon and provide security along its border with Syria," he said.

In Israel, top US official says 'diplomacy' best way to deal with Hezbollah
Naharnet/December 15, 2023
Diplomacy is the best way to deal with the threat Hezbollah poses to Israel from its northern border with Lebanon, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters in Tel Aviv on Friday. “We also believe that the threat can be dealt with through diplomacy and does not require the launching of a new war,” Sullivan said. He spoke during his second visit to Israel since the start of the Gaza war on October 7, which has been accompanied by cross-border hostilities between the Israeli army and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah. The Israelis who evacuated communities along Israel’s northern border “have to be able to return to their homes” with a “true sense of security,” Sullivan said. “The best way to do this is to come up with a negotiated outcome in which those Israeli citizens in those communities up on the northern border can know that they will not be subject to an attack that will take their lives and destroy their communities, we will continue to work on that I believe we can accomplish,” Sullivan added. Deterrence is an important element of that kind of diplomacy, Sullivan said. “We need to send a clear message that we will not tolerate the kinds of threats and terrorist activity that we have seen from Hezbollah,” he stressed. Following the eruption of the Hamas-Israel war on Oct. 7, Hezbollah has mounted near-daily rocket attacks on Israel while Israel has launched air and artillery strikes in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah fires Burkan rockets on Israel as drone strikes house in Yarin
Associated Press/December 15, 2023
Hezbollah fired Friday heavy-caliber Burkan rockets at the al-Jirdah Israeli post as Israeli shelling hit at least 10 southern Lebanese border towns. Hezbollah also targeted the Bayyad Blida Israeli post and Israeli forces at the Mattat and the Ramim barracks, "inflicting deaths and injuries."The Israeli artillery shelled several border towns including Tayr Harfa, Yarin, al-Majidiyyi, Kfarshouba, Kfarkila, al-Taybeh, al-Khiam, al-Dhaira, Houla, Mays al-Jabal, Blida, Mhaibib, Alma al-Shaab, Ramia, Aita al-Shaab, and al-Naqoura. Lebanon's state news agency reported that an Israeli drone struck a house in the southern village of Yarin, wounding several people. It gave no further details. Since Oct. 8, Hezbollah fighters have carried out scores of attacks — mostly targeting Israeli military posts along the border. Israeli artillery and warplanes have also been attacking areas on the Lebanese side of the border. An Israeli drone had dropped earlier on Friday leaflets on the border village of Kfarshouba, warning its residents that Hezbollah is endangering their lives by using the area to launch attacks against Israel. "The terrorist Hezbollah is taking advantage of the opportunity to infiltrate your homes and lands in order to act against the State of Israel. Hezbollah members hiding in civilian areas is the real danger! This is what will harm you!," the leaflet read. Since the cross-border exchanges of fire began in October, more than 120 people have been killed on the Lebanese side of the frontier, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including a Lebanese soldier and 17 civilians, three of them journalists, according to an AFP tally. More than 64,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, mostly in the south, figures from the International Organization for Migration show. On the Israeli side, at least six soldiers and four civilians have been killed, authorities there have said. On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Markaba killed a Hezbollah fighter, raising to 101 the total number of the group’s members who have been killed since the latest round of fighting began. Hezbollah official Ali Daamoush was defiant in his Friday prayers sermon, vowing that the group won't stop attacks along the border and also has no plans to move away from the frontier. “The Israeli-American brutality can only be stopped by the resistance that can inflict losses on the enemy,” Daamoush said. “Intimidation and threats will not change the stance of the resistance and its presence on every inch of the south” of Lebanon.

Macron to visit Lebanon Thursday, French team to meet UNIFIL
Naharnet/December 15, 2023
French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to arrive in Lebanon on Thursday to inspect French peacekeepers deployed in south Lebanon as part of the UNIFIL force, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday. The visit comes on the occasion of Christmas, the daily noted. French political and security officials will meanwhile visit UNIFIL’s command to discuss “means to implement a French scheme for establishing a buffer zone in the south Litani area and forcing Hezbollah to withdraw to the area north of the river,” al-Akhbar added.

Global Refugee Forum highlights: Lebanon's complex refugee dynamics
LBCI/December 15, 2023
It appears that United Nations institutions do not consider Lebanon's crisis solely humanitarian but rather an economic crisis for which the government is responsible. The focus is on the crisis of Syrian refugees, but this does not mean neglecting assistance to the Lebanese. According to 2022 figures, around 490,000 Lebanese benefited from financial aid. Civil society organizations or NGOs play a role in assisting refugees and host communities. They were present at the Global Refugee Forum, whereas questions about their transparency were raised in Lebanon.
The World Bank announced in this forum that it is conducting a census of refugees in Lebanon, considering that without accurate numbers, it is not possible to direct and control aid and reduce costs. The forum also addressed the issue of the "unregistered" or the undocumented, and there are a fair number of them in Lebanon, especially with the increase in Syrian births and the lack of these people's access to identification documents. Maha Mamo was born to Syrian parents in Lebanon before the Syrian war. She did not obtain Syrian documents because, as she claims, mixed-religion marriages are not recognized in Syria. She lived in Lebanon for 30 years without official papers until she found a solution. The repercussions of the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon will not "escape" the debates and political conflicts and will remain "volatile" as long as the country is internationally abandoned and its authorities are incapable of addressing the international community in a language it understands.

Christians living at the Lebanon border see Israel-Hamas war igniting hostilities with Hezbollah
Melanie Lidman/Los Angeles Times/December 15, 2023
Birds swoop across a valley separating Lebanon and Israel as olive and pomegranate trees rustle in the wind.
The flash of light from an opposing hillside looks small from a distance — until a boom cracks across the landscape, announcing another Hezbollah rocket launched toward Israel. Minutes later, more explosions peal through the air, as the Israeli military responds to the source of the fire.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza Strip, hostilities have spread north to these hills, where Lebanon-based Hezbollah fighters have launched hundreds of missiles toward Israeli border communities, and Israeli forces have shelled targets to the north.
“This is happening every day,” said Shadi Khaloul, a Christian Aramaean activist, as he stands in a pastoral orchard in the northern Israeli town of Jish.
Aramaeans are a community of native Christians who trace their lineage to the time of Jesus. Khaloul has been instrumental in reviving spoken Aramaic, believed to be the language of Jesus and one used in portions of the Bible.
A man is illuminate by a beam of light inside a church
Like many Aramaeans in Israel, Khaloul has distant family in Lebanon. “I am worried both for my Christian community here in Israel, and for our brothers across the border,” he said, looking over the valley toward the southern Lebanese village of Maroun el Ras.
For Maryam Younnes, the conflict is wrenchingly personal.
She was born in a small, rural Lebanese village called Debel. Her father was a commander in the Christian-dominated militia South Lebanon Army, which cooperated with the Israeli army during Israel’s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
Many in Lebanon viewed members of the SLA as traitors and collaborators for fighting alongside Israel and against Hezbollah. Human rights groups accused the SLA of systematic torture and abuse of Lebanese prisoners at a facility it controlled.
When Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, the SLA collapsed and many members and their relatives fled to Israel. Younnes and her family hoped to stay only a few days, until hostilities calmed down.
Twenty-three years later, her family is still there. The SLA members and their families were eventually offered and accepted full Israeli citizenship.
She said she has been completely cut off from her extended family in Lebanon, with no communication since they left.
“The fact that my family is on the other side of the border, it’s not easy, because I know that they will get hurt if a broader war will happen,” Younnes said. “The southern Lebanese never wanted this war .... And then when the war is over, we are the ones who pay the price.”
Younnes said the villagers in southern Lebanon — many of whom are Christians — have little choice when Hezbollah militants set up military infrastructure, including rocket launchers, on their property, which puts them at risk for retaliation from Israel.
She blames Iran-backed Hezbollah — the militant group and Islamist political party with representatives in Lebanon’s government — for forcing her to stay in Israel. “For me, and for many Lebanese, Hezbollah is occupying Lebanon."
Of the roughly 7,000 SLA members and their families who came to Israel, about 3,000 remain, Younnes said.
The others resettled in third countries or went back to Lebanon. Returning SLA officials faced prison sentences, though many family members were not prosecuted. They have struggled to reintegrate into Lebanese society.
In October, the Israeli government directed citizens living within 2½ miles of the Lebanese border to evacuate, including more than 30 towns and the city of Kiryat Shmona. At least 63,000 residents from the north are living in temporary accommodations in the center of the country, funded by the government at least until the end of the year. Nearly 70,000 additional Israelis were evacuated from their homes near the Gaza border.
Both Younnes and Khaloul live outside the evacuation zones and have stayed put. But the booms from the exchanges of fire shake their homes, providing a constant reminder of the threats in the north, even though the fighting in the south in Gaza captures most of the daily headlines.
Israel’s Iron Dome air-defense system intercepts most missiles from Lebanon, though they have killed 10 people in Israel in the last two months. In Lebanon, at least 100 civilians and Hezbollah militants have died due to Israeli artillery fire, according to media reports.
Khaloul said that people in northern Israel fear that Hezbollah will carry out a similar strike to the one on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants in Gaza burst through the border fence and attacked Israeli communities, army bases and a music festival, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages back to Gaza.
“If the [Hezbollah] terrorists will stay on the border with no solution, a lot of people will not return in the border line communities,” he said.
In Israel, the Aramaean Christian minority is concentrated in the north, in isolated, rural communities that often do not have adequate shelters from rocket fire. About 3,000 South Lebanon Army soldiers and their families live in Israel, many of whom are Aramaean Christians as well. They live mostly clustered along the northern towns, “as close to Lebanon as possible,” Younnes said. The Aramaean Christian community numbers just 15,000 in Israel; there are thought to be more than a million Aramaean Christians in Lebanon, and more than 15 million worldwide. Aramaeans such as Younnes and Khaloul struggle to find their place in the complex tapestry of identities that make up northern Israel. Younnes and Khaloul speak Arabic, but do not identify as Arab Israelis.
Khaloul led a long legal battle to recognize the community as a distinct official minority group, and in 2014 his son became the first to receive an Israeli identity card listing him as “Aramaean.”Still, many don’t feel fully accepted by the Jewish majority, despite speaking Hebrew and often attending Jewish schools.
“Minorities like the native Christians and Druze, especially Aramaic-speaking Christians ... have no one that can protect them,” Khaloul said. To foster greater acceptance in Israel, he has advocated for members of his community to serve in the Israeli army. Khaloul, who works at the Alma Research and Education Center think tank, helped start a preparatory program that brings together young Christians and Jews for a year of study and leadership training ahead of their conscription into the military.
Serving in the army helps his community integrate into Israeli society and connect them with better economic and educational opportunities, Khaloul said.
Many worry that the tit-for-tat hostilities on the northern front will expand into a major regional war, roping in Iran, Syria, Lebanon and possibly the U.S. and other international powers. “People are asking me all the time if we will be in a wider war, and what we’re saying is that right now we are below the threshold of war,” said Orna Mizrahi, a researcher with the Israel-based Institute for National Security Studies who served for 12 years with the National Security Council of the prime minister’s office. So far, Hezbollah is showing its presence with rockets aimed at targets very close to the border, but not utilizing the organization’s full arsenal by sending missiles deeper into Israel. Hezbollah is believed to have an arsenal of at least 150,000 rockets with high-precision capabilities that can target the entirety of Israel. During Israel's weeklong cease-fire with Hamas in November, when 110 hostages were freed, Hezbollah mostly honored the truce, renewing rocket attacks only after the deal collapsed. “Neither Hezbollah nor Iran are interested in a wider war," Mizrahi said. For its part, the Israeli army is “ready at any moment to go on the offensive in the north,” Israeli army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said during a Dec. 5 news conference. Halevi added that Israel was exploring both diplomatic and military options to deal with the Hezbollah threat.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah boasted in a November speech that its attacks in the north have forced Israel to divert a large amount of its army, navy, and air force resources away from Gaza, which has helped the Palestinians there. The group has also sought to pressure the international community into intervening in the Gaza conflict by demonstrating how violence could spread into a regional war. People raise their hands during a church service. Both Mizrahi and Khaloul said that for Israelis to regain their sense of security in the north, Hezbollah fighters must be pushed back from their footholds along the border, creating a buffer zone controlled by United Nations forces and the Lebanese army.Evacuated families from the north have railed against the Israeli government, fearful they will be forced to return to a reality where they are living just a couple of miles from a militant group that is better funded, better organized and better armed than Hamas. Mizrahi cited the Litani River, whose western branch runs parallel to the border about 13 miles north, as a psychological boundary for Israelis. If Hezbollah were contained north of the Litani River, that would restore some feeling of safety for Israelis, she said. This is also the boundary that was agreed upon in United Nations Resolution 1701, which helped end the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon. But Resolution 1701 has been mostly ignored as Hezbollah has crept closer to the border in recent years. Militants now operate so close to the border that Israelis can see them with their bare eyes. Hezbollah "is just one mile from our homes, maybe two miles from our homes," Khaloul said. "We don't need another Oct. 7 to happen here."
**Lidman is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Nabih Bulos in Beirut contributed to this report.

Video/Text/The Hamas-Israel War: End of the Beginning or Beginning of the End?
by Assaf Orion, Hanin Ghaddar, Matthew Levitt, Robert Satloff
The Washington Institute/Dec 15, 2023
https://youtu.be/01LkaroWMm0
Experts discuss the military and political situation at what appears to be a decisive moment in the war, offering insights on Israel’s calculations, the effects of growing foreign pressure, and the need for further international action to address attacks by Iran’s other regional partners.
On December 14, The Washington Institute held a virtual Policy Forum with Brig. Gen. Assaf Orion (Israel Defense Forces, Res.), Hanin Ghaddar, and Matthew Levitt, moderated by Robert Satloff. Orion is the Institute’s Rueven International Fellow and former head of the IDF Strategic Planning Division. Ghaddar is the Institute’s Friedmann Senior Fellow and co-creator of its interactive map tracking clashes along the Israel-Lebanon border. Levitt is the Institute’s Fromer-Wexler Fellow and director of its Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. Satloff is the Institute’s Segal Executive Director and Howard P. Berkowitz Chair in U.S. Middle East Policy. The following is a rapporteur’s summary of their remarks.
Assaf Orion
Two months into the war, Israel is more or less progressing toward its objectives of degrading Hamas’s military capabilities and freeing hostages. That said, it will need many more months to achieve its long-term goal of eliminating Hamas’s ability to control Gaza and threaten Israel.
Previous phases of the war focused on securing the southern border and uprooting Hamas’s command and control in urban north Gaza—a battlefield that Hamas purposely chose so that it could use the dense population as cover. Following a humanitarian pause and the release of 113 hostages, Israel has moved into its current, more intense phase, expanding operations into south Gaza in order to weaken Hamas’s military capabilities and target its leadership. The IDF estimates that over 7,000 Hamas fighters have been killed so far, including several commanders. Most Hamas units that have engaged directly with the IDF are no longer able to operate as cohesive units. Over the next few weeks, Israel expects to continue the current intensive phase in the south in parallel with renewed diplomatic and military efforts to rescue the remaining 135 hostages. Yet the end of this phase will not necessarily signal the end of the war. Eliminating Hamas’s ability to threaten Israel is an ambitious goal that will likely require additional months of lower-intensity, smaller-scale operations. The war’s longer timeline also holds implications for Israeli domestic politics. The atmosphere of national unity post-October 7 has largely distracted the public from controversies such as the mass protests over judicial reform, allowing the government to postpone domestic tensions during the war. The longer the Gaza conflict continues, the more time the government will have to avoid these difficult political questions.
Another complication is the disparity between the war’s overarching purpose and the public expectations of its scope and duration—not just internationally, but within Israel as well. These expectations are conditioned by previous experiences in shorter Israeli wars. Yet the current conflict is fundamentally different in its aims and domestic context, so observers at home and abroad should compare it to longer-term campaigns when evaluating its progress. The war must also be understood in its multifront, regional context. To the north, Hezbollah has been attacking Israel’s border multiple times per day. To the south, Yemen’s Houthis have launched numerous ballistic and cruise missiles in Israel’s direction and attacked shipping lanes in the Red Sea. These actions have international implications and thus require broad multilateral solutions. It is not up to Israel alone to eliminate the threat of Iranian proxies in the region.
Matthew Levitt
The October 7 attack proved to Israel that deterrence alone cannot guarantee its security. The strategy of “conflict management” failed to contain Hamas, and Israelis have decided that the era of living with a gun to their head is over. The repercussions of this transformed national security doctrine extend to the northern border as well, lowering Israel’s tolerance for the threat posed by Hezbollah’s looming military presence. In the near term, the government is determined to remove any Hezbollah fighters and weapons within eight to ten kilometers of the Blue Line so that evacuated Israeli civilians can return home safely, free from the risk of being attacked or kidnapped by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces or targeted by Kornet antitank guided missiles. In the longer term—within the next one to five years—officials fear they may need to launch a campaign to neutralize the threat of Hezbollah’s precision-guided missiles, which are capable of striking targets throughout Israel. For Hamas, the decision to attack was apparently based on several costly miscalculations. First, the group did not expect such a high degree of U.S. involvement and support, including the deployment of two carrier groups into the region; to the contrary, it expected Washington to rein in Israel’s response. Second, Hamas wrongly assumed that Iran and its regional proxies would intervene militarily, preventing Israel from committing to a ground invasion. Third, the group hoped that Palestinians in the West Bank and Arab Israelis would rise up, which has largely not come to pass. These miscalculations have begun to foster disagreement between Hamas leaders as they consider next steps. In Israel, current perceptions of the war differ sharply from international views, largely because the population is still dealing with the national trauma of October 7. In their view, this war was forced on Israel by the savagery of an assault that shattered its deterrence concept and left it with no choice but to dismantle the Hamas governance project in Gaza. Israelis are upset about the suffering of noncombatant Palestinians, but they are also frustrated that the international community has harshly criticized them and imposed a ticking clock. The IDF is taking steps to minimize civilian casualties, and these steps have necessarily slowed its military operations. Ultimately, Israelis are more focused on freeing hostages and defeating Hamas than winning hearts and minds abroad, while the military is intent on restoring the public’s sense of security and returning evacuated civilians to their homes. Yet because many officials remain consumed with the day-to-day operations of the war, the political leadership has yet to decide what comes next in Gaza after Hamas. In this sense there is a clear disconnect with the military leadership, as politics are preventing officials from presenting a clear vision for the future of the Strip.
Hanin Ghaddar
The recent escalation on the Israel-Lebanon border has three potential outcomes: a local military conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, a regional military conflict with the wider Iran threat network, or a diplomatic solution that precludes the need for a military response. The latter option would hinge on reinstituting UN Security Council Resolution 1701, especially the provisions that call on Hezbollah to withdraw any presence it has south of the Litani River. Although Resolution 1701 looks good on paper, it has not worked on the ground because it was formulated as a border-control and risk-mitigation arrangement. In other words, it completely ignores Hezbollah's other problematic activities, not to mention Iran’s destabilizing role throughout the Middle East. Hezbollah essentially operates as a unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—whenever the group needs to make important security decisions, Tehran calls the shots. Hence, any diplomatic solution that ignores Iran’s overriding influence will inevitably fail to affect Hezbollah’s activities. Resolution 1701 has fundamental enforcement problems as well. There is no body capable of enforcing its terms—the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has failed to prevent Hezbollah from infiltrating the south, while the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) have been unable to control the group’s activities. Even if Hezbollah agreed to respect the terms of a deal based on 1701, it has a long history of asking other armed groups to carry out provocations on the border, providing it with plausible deniability. Despite its recent stream of threatening comments, however, Hezbollah does not want a full-scale war with Israel at this time. Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s statements make clear that the group intends to stop its cross-border attacks once Israel stops its intensive military operations inside Gaza. In the longer term, the outcome of the Hamas war will influence Hezbollah’s future actions. If Hamas is able to retain even some of its capabilities in Gaza and convincingly declare “victory,” Nasrallah might conclude that attacking Israel is worth the costs. Even in that scenario, however, Hezbollah is unlikely to carry out a large-scale attack anytime soon. More likely, it will use diplomacy to stall for time and rebuild the capabilities it has lost during the current border conflict. Hezbollah leaders understand that Israel is intent on changing the post-2006 status quo, so they will likely prioritize beefing up their forces for a future war.
Robert Satloff
Recent media coverage of the crisis has focused on President Biden’s statements criticizing the Israeli government, speculating on the implications this might hold for the bilateral relationship. Yet headlines claiming that a significant rift has formed do not capture the entirety of Biden’s remarks, which clearly articulate his deep and abiding support for what he perceives to be Israel’s just war against Hamas. The president’s critique focused on the composition of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, especially the extreme members who are not part of the war cabinet. Moreover, his remarks were delivered in response to Netanyahu’s previous public disagreement with him on aspects of postwar planning. Ultimately, it is in both leaders’ interests to keep these disagreements out of the public eye for the sake of presenting a united wartime alliance, especially amid growing global pressure to impose a ceasefire. Both Israel and the United States reject this option because it would prevent Israel from achieving its war aims and allow Hamas to remain in control of Gaza, thereby undermining the possibility of any meaningful postwar peace diplomacy.
This summary was prepared by Frances McDonough and Ilana Winter. The Policy Forum series is made possible through the generosity of the Florence and Robert Kaufman Family.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 15-16/2023
Israeli special forces recover body of hostage in Gaza
Reuters/December 15, 2023
JERUSALEM: Israeli special forces have recovered the body of 28-year-old hostage Elia Toledano who was held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas since its Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel, the military said in a statement on Friday. The military said that an “identification procedure” had been carried out by medical officials, military rabbis and forensic experts. Toledano was taken by Hamas from an outdoor music festival that had turned into a massacre, Israeli media reported. Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Friday that France is in ‘immense pain’ over Toledano’s death. “We share the grief of his family and loved ones,” Colonna said in a post on social network X, after Israeli authorities had confirmed Toledano’s identity. More than 130 hostages remain in Gaza. Some have been declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities.

Top US official says not 'right' for Israel to occupy Gaza long-term
Agence France Presse/December 15, 2023
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Friday it is not appropriate for Israel to occupy Gaza in the long-term, as speculation mounts over the post-war future of the territory. "We do not believe that it makes sense for Israel, or is right for Israel, to occupy Gaza, reoccupy Gaza over the long term," Sullivan told journalists in Tel Aviv. Sullivan added that Yemen's Houthi rebels are a "threat to freedom of navigation to commercial shipping", after the Iran-backed group claimed a series of attacks. "The United States is working with the international community, with partners from the region and from all over the world to deal with this threat," he told journalists. "While the Houthis are pulling the trigger, so to speak, they're being handed the gun by Iran," he added.

Israel says war on Hamas will last months as US envoy discusses timetable
Associated Press/December 15, 2023
Israel's defense minister said it will take months to destroy Hamas, predicting a drawn-out war even as his country and its top ally, the United States, face increasing international isolation and alarm over the devastation from the campaign in Gaza.
Yoav Gallant's comments came as U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Israeli leaders to discuss a timetable for winding down major combat in Gaza. Israeli leaders repeated their determination to pursue the military assault until they crush the militant group for its Oct. 7 attack.
The exchange seemed to continue a dynamic the two allies have been locked in for weeks. President Joe Biden's administration has shown unease over Israel's failure to reduce civilian casualties and its plans for the future of Gaza, but the White House continues to offer wholehearted support for Israel with weapons shipments and diplomatic backing. "I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives," Biden said Thursday when asked if he wants Israel to scale down its operations by the end of the month. "Not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful."
Meanwhile, aside from small adjustments, Israel has changed little in what has been one of the 21st century's most devastating military campaigns, with a mounting death toll. The prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Shtayyeh, said it's time for the United States to deal more firmly with Israel, particularly on Washington's calls for postwar negotiations for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Now that the United States has talked the talk, we want Washington to walk the walk," Shtayyeh said in an interview with The Associated Press a day before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to meet with Sullivan in Ramallah. The encounter is expected to focus, among other things, on Palestinian security forces and on revitalizing the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority, an autonomous government that administers pockets of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said a senior Biden administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
The U.S. is exploring having security personnel associated with the Palestinian Authority help restore public safety in Gaza if Israel is successful in removing Hamas from control, the official said. Sullivan and other officials have discussed the prospect of having people associated with the Palestinian Authority security forces before Hamas took over the territory in 2007 serve as the "nucleus" of postwar peacekeeping in Gaza, the official said, adding that this was one idea of many being considered. A deadly Hamas ambush on Israeli troops in Gaza City this week showed the group's resilience and called into question whether Israel can defeat it without wiping out the entire territory. The campaign has flattened much of northern Gaza and driven 80% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million from their homes. Displaced people have squeezed into shelters mainly in the south in a spiraling humanitarian crisis. Gallant said Hamas has been building military infrastructure in Gaza for more than a decade, "and it is not easy to destroy them. It will require a period of time.""It will last more than several months, but we will win, and we will destroy them," he said. After talks with Sullivan in Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he told Israel's "American friends" that the country was "more determined than ever to continue fighting until Hamas is eliminated — until complete victory."White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Sullivan talked with Netanyahu about moving to "lower intensity operations" sometime "in the near future.""But I don't want to put a time stamp on it," he said. Earlier this week, Biden said Israel was losing international support because of its "indiscriminate bombing." U.S. officials have been telling Israel for several weeks that the country's window is closing for concluding major combat operations in Gaza without losing even more support internationally.
ARRESTS IN THE NORTH
The Palestinian telecommunications provider Paltel said Thursday that all communication services across Gaza were cut off due to ongoing fighting, severing the besieged territory from the outside world. Heavy fighting has raged for days in areas around eastern Gaza City that were encircled earlier in the war. Tens of thousands of people remain in the north despite repeated evacuation orders, saying they don't feel safe anywhere in Gaza or fear they may never be allowed to return to their homes if they leave. The military released footage Thursday showing Israeli troops leading a line of dozens of men with their hands above their heads out of a damaged building it said was the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahia. Men brought out four assault rifles and set them on the street along with several ammunition magazines. In the video, a commander said militants had fired on troops from the hospital and that troops were evacuating those inside while detaining suspected militants. Earlier in the week, a Gaza Health Ministry official said weapons inside belong to the hospital's guards. Neither side's claims could be independently verified. Israeli troops have held the hospital since Tuesday, according to the Health Ministry and U.N. During that time, 70 medical workers and patients were detained, including the hospital director, they said. Several thousand displaced people sheltering there were evacuated after the raid, and the remaining patients — including 12 children in intensive care — will be taken to Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, the Health Ministry said. Israel says it is rounding up men in northern Gaza as it searches for Hamas fighters, and recent videos have shown dozens of detained men stripped to their underwear, bound and blindfolded in the streets. Some released detainees have said they were beaten and denied food and water.
A HEAVY CIVILIAN TOLL
Israel's air and ground assault, launched in response to Hamas' unprecedented attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Its latest count did not specify how many were women and minors, but they have consistently made up around two-thirds of the dead in previous tallies. Thousands more are missing and feared dead beneath the rubble. Multiple strikes hit Thursday in the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, residents reported. After an early morning strike in Rafah, an Associated Press reporter saw 27 bodies brought into a local hospital Thursday. One woman burst into tears after recognizing the body of her child. "They were young people, children, displaced, all sitting at home," Mervat Ashour said. "There were no resistance fighters, rockets or anything." New evacuation orders issued as troops pushed into Khan Younis earlier this month have pushed U.N.-run shelters to the breaking point and forced people to set up tent camps in even less hospitable areas. Heavy rain and cold in recent days have compounded their misery, swamping tents and forcing families to crowd around fires to keep warm. Israel has sealed Gaza off to all but a trickle of humanitarian aid, and U.N. agencies have struggled to distribute it since the offensive expanded to the south because of fighting and road closures.
RISING SUPPORT FOR HAMAS
Israel might have hoped that the war and its hardships would turn Palestinians against Hamas, hastening its demise. But a poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found 44% of respondents in the occupied West Bank said they supported Hamas, up from 12% in September. In Gaza, the militants enjoyed 42% support, up from 38% three months ago. That's still a minority in both territories. But even many Palestinians who do not share Hamas' commitment to destroying Israel and oppose its attacks on civilians see it as resisting Israel's decades-old occupation of lands they want for a future state. Israelis, meanwhile, remain strongly supportive of the war and see it as necessary to prevent a repeat of Oct. 7, when Palestinian militants attacked communities across southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 240 hostage. A total of 116 soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive, which began Oct. 27. Around half the hostages, mostly women and children, were released last month during a weeklong cease-fire in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Ahead of meeting with US envoy, Herzog says now isn't time to discuss 2-state solution
Associated Press/December 15, 2023
Israel's president has joined the ranks of high-ranking Israeli officials to speak out against a two-state solution after the war in Gaza. In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Isaac Herzog said it is not the time to be talking about establishing an independent Palestinian state when the country's pain from Hamas' Oct. 7 attack is still fresh. "What I want to urge is against just saying two-state solution. Why? Because there is an emotional chapter here that must be dealt with. My nation is bereaving. My nation is in trauma," said Herzog. "In order to get back to the idea of dividing the land, of negotiating peace or talking to the Palestinians, etc., one has to deal first and foremost with the emotional trauma that we are going through and the need and demand for full sense of security for all people," he said. Herzog spoke a day before a meeting with the White House's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. The Biden administration has said that after the war, efforts must be renewed to restart negotiations aimed at establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel under the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. Herzog, whose position is largely ceremonial, is a former leader of Israel's Labor Party, which advocates a two-state solution with the Palestinians. But in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered Israel's war in Gaza, Israeli leaders have spoken out against attempts to restart peace talks after the war and ruled out any role for the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. Some 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7 attack and 240 others were taken hostage. Israel immediately declared war, carrying out weeks of airstrikes and a ground offensive in which over 18,000 Palestinians have died, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. With the U.S. pushing for a timetable from Israel, Herzog predicted the Israeli campaign in hard-hit northern Gaza could wrap up within weeks. But he declined to say when the war would end. Israel has ducked international calls for a ceasefire, saying it will press ahead until it dismantles Hamas' military and political capabilities. "I think one can see that in the northern part of Gaza, one can see the horizon," Herzog said. "We can see the end of that campaign, not far away in the next few weeks." He added that the end of the campaign in the south would only come when Hamas was "completely eradicated."Herzog also spoke in favor of an emerging U.S.-led coalition to protect the Red Sea from the Yemen's Houthi rebels. The Iranian-backed Houthis have carried out a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and also launched drones and missiles targeting Israel. In recent days, they have threatened to attack any vessel they believe is either going to or coming from Israel. The coalition, set to be formally announced next week, is composed of U.S. and European allies, and aims to protect international shipping from the Houthi attacks. Israel will not be contributing its own ships to the coalition, Israeli officials told The Associated Press, preferring to allow the international community to target the issue and focus on the war in Gaza. "I demand and I call upon all nations who understand this to join the coalition, which is led by the United States of America, to fight against the Houthis and make it clear that this is unacceptable and won't be repeated again," said Herzog.

Exile in Sinai not an option, hapless Gazan residents say
Reuters/December 15, 2023
CAIRO: With Israeli bombs pounding the length of the Gaza Strip, Gazans have been squeezed up against the border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula at the town of Rafah and say they have practically nowhere left to flee. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes, and as the bombardment comes closer again, many fear the only option to keep them alive is exile to Sinai. But they don’t want that. They say if that happened, they might never come back. “There’s no safe place anymore. Now the Israeli ground offensive might expand to here,” said Umm Osama, a 55-year-old woman from Gaza City in the north who has sought shelter in Rafah.“Where should we go after Rafah?” Umm Osama and many other displaced Gazans rejected the idea of fleeing across the border, should it become possible.
BACKGROUND
Palestinians and officials in neighboring Arab countries alike are nervous at the prospect of a mass, long-term displacement of Gazans. “We refuse displacement to Sinai, and we want to return to our homes, even if they are in ruins,” she said. The traumatic exile of their forebears haunts her and other Gazans: Many of Gaza’s residents are descendants of Palestinians forced to flee their homes after the creation of Israel in 1948. “If they make me choose between living under bombardment or leaving, I’ll stay. I’ll go back even if tanks are there. I’ll go back to Gaza City and will endure anything,” said Umm Imad, a 73-year-old woman also sheltering in Rafah. Facing weeks of Israeli aerial assault, close-range tank fire, and the guns of troops on the ground, which Israel said is aimed at hunting down Hamas fighters, some 85 percent of 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza have been forced toward the south of the besieged enclave.
Israel has told Gaza residents wishing to avoid being caught up in their assault against Hamas that they should head south. Its military bombs southern areas where people have fled. Northern Gaza was the initial focus of Israel’s assault on the Hamas-controlled territory. Southern Rafah, strategically important because it holds the only currently functioning crossing into Gaza — one not controlled by Israel and where aid is being delivered — is the latest area to come under intense bombardment. Strikes in the Al-Shaboura neighborhood of Rafah leveled an entire street late on Thursday. On Friday, men and boys picked through the rubble and stared blankly at caved-in houses and their ruined possessions that could not be retrieved. The strikes left a heap of rubble and twisted metal dotted with blankets and bags, gouged mattresses and sofas spilling out tufts of cotton and polyester, children’s bicycles, and kitchenware. “Nowhere in Gaza is safe,” said Jehad Al-Eid, a resident of the area. Palestinians and officials in neighboring Arab countries alike are nervous at the prospect of a mass, long-term displacement of Gazans. A mass influx into Egypt is currently unlikely. The exit of Gaza residents has been slow with the choked border crossing struggling to cope with the entry even of aid trucks, which the UN says are not nearly enough to cope with a population that has lacked enough medical supplies for weeks and is beginning to go hungry. Violence continues to kill people in the south of the strip. In Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, a father mourned his two sons, aged 17 and 18, whom he said were killed in Israeli shelling yesterday. The tearful father followed their bodies until they were wrapped in shrouds and sent to the morgue. “They were outside the door when a shell hit the neighbor’s house. They went to help, and a second shell hit them,” the father, Majdi Shurrab, said. Shurrab said the bodies were left on the ground because it was difficult for ambulances to reach them to take them to the hospital. The destruction from air strikes has made travel along roads difficult, and there are severe fuel shortages across Gaza. Rescue workers had to carry Shurrab’s sons to hospital by donkey-drawn cart.

Israel reopens Gaza aid crossing as US pushes for restraint
AFP/December 16, 2023
GAZA STRIP: Israel reopened an aid crossing into Gaza on Friday as staunch ally the United States urged more restraint in its all-out offensive against Hamas. Under pressure to do more to spare civilians, Israel approved a “temporary measure” allowing aid to be delivered directly to Gaza through its Kerem Shalom border crossing, the prime minister’s office said. Israel had faced weeks of pressure from aid agencies and Western allies to reopen Kerem Shalom as Egypt’s Rafah crossing struggled to cope with the scale of need inside Gaza, where 1.9 million of the 2.4 million population have been displaced, according to UN figures. The war began after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Vowing to destroy Hamas and bring home an estimated 250 hostages abducted by militants to Gaza, Israel launched a massive offensive that has left much of the besieged territory in ruins. The Hamas government says the war has killed at least 18,800 people, mostly women and children. Fierce fighting continued on Friday, with Hamas claiming they had blown up a house containing Israeli soldiers in the southern city of Khan Yunis. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who was wrapping up a trip to Israel and the West Bank, called the decision a “significant step.”
“President (Joe) Biden raised this issue in recent phone calls with Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu, and it was an important topic of discussion during my visit to Israel over the past two days,” he said. The United States hopes “this new opening will ease congestion and help facilitate the delivery of life-saving assistance,” Sullivan added. A World Health Organization representative said the announcement was “very good news.” Aid distribution had largely stopped in most of Gaza, except on a limited basis in the Rafah area, according to the UN. In Khan Yunis, satellite news channel Al Jazeera reported that one of its journalists had been killed and another wounded by “shrapnel from an Israeli missile attack.”
More than 60 journalists and media staff have died since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The US, which provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, has strongly backed its response to Hamas’s attacks, but has voiced increasing concern over civilian casualties and the long-term plan for Gaza. “We do not believe that it makes sense for Israel, or is right for Israel, to... reoccupy Gaza over the long term,” Sullivan said after meeting Israeli leaders.
In Washington, Biden reiterated calls for greater care for Gazan civilians. “I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives — not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful,” said Biden. Sullivan also traveled to the West Bank to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who said Gaza must remain an “integral part” of the Palestinian state. Abbas’s Palestinian Authority has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but is deeply unpopular with Palestinians and has been further weakened by the war. However, Washington still hopes that in a revived form it can resume control of Gaza as part of a renewed push for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Multiple Western governments issued a joint statement demanding that Israel “take concrete steps to halt unprecedented violence by Israeli settlers” in the West Bank. Attacks by extremist settlers since early October have killed eight Palestinians and wounded 83, they said. Israel’s police force said it had suspended several officer after they severely assaulted a journalist for Turkish news agency Anadolu as he was trying to take photos of Palestinians praying in annexed east Jerusalem. Further south in Rafah near the Egyptian border, crowds of Palestinians used flashlights to search the rubble of buildings for survivors following Israeli strikes. “This is a residential neighborhood, women and children live here, as you can see,” said resident Abu Omar. “Three missiles on a residential neighborhood that has nothing to do with any militant activities.”

Security videos show Israeli forces killing 2 Palestinians at close range. The army opens a probe
JERUSALEM (AP)/December 15, 2023
Israel on Friday said it was opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group posted videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men — one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed — during a military raid in a West Bank refugee camp.The B’Tselem human rights group accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions.”The security camera videos show two Israeli military vehicles pursuing a group of Palestinians in the Faraa refugee camp in the northern West Bank. One man, who appears to be holding a red canister, is gunned down by soldiers. B'Tselem identified the man as 25 year-old Rami Jundob. The military jeep then approaches Jundob as he lies bleeding on the ground and fires multiple shots at him until he is still. Soldiers then approach a man identified by B'Tselem as 36-year-old Thaar Shahin as he cowers underneath the hood of a car. They shoot at him from close range. Btselem said that Shahin was killed instantly and Jundob died of his wounds the next day. Israel's military said its military police unit opened an investigation into the Dec. 8 shootings “on the suspicion that during the incident, shots were fired not in accordance with the law.” It said that the findings would be referred to a military prosecutor, an indication that criminal charges could be filed. Israel rarely prosecutes such cases, and human rights groups say soldiers rarely receive serious punishments even if wrongdoing is found. In a high-profile case, an Israeli soldier was convicted of manslaughter and served a reduced nine-month sentence in jail after shooting a badly wounded Palestinian who was lying on the ground in 2016.The army recently opened an investigation into a soldier who shot and killed an Israeli man who had just killed a pair of Palestinian attackers at a Jerusalem bus stop. The soldier apparently suspected the Israeli was also an assailant — despite kneeling on the ground, raising his hands and opening his shirt to show he wasn't a threat. The shooting underscored what critics say is an epidemic of excessive force by Israeli soldiers, police and armed citizens against suspected Palestinian attackers.In a separate incident Friday, police said they had suspended officers caught on video beating up a Palestinian photojournalist in east Jerusalem. The photojournalist was identified on social media as Mustafa Haruf, who works for the Turkish news agency Anadolu. In the video, one officer approaches Haruf and strikes him with the butt of his gun while another officer pushes him against a car. One points his gun at Haruf and another pulls him to the ground in a headlock. An officer kneels on Haruf's body, the other officer kicking Haruf repeatedly in the head as he screams in pain.
Other officers stand by, watching and pushing back shocked onlookers. “The Border Police Command views the conduct of these officers as inconsistent with the values of the force,” the police said in a statement as it announced the suspensions of the officers and an investigation. Both incidents come as tensions in the West Bank and east Jerusalem have been inflamed by the war between Israel and Hamas, with Israelis on edge and bracing for further attacks. Palestinians and human rights groups have long accused Israeli forces of using excessive force and skirting accountability. Since the outbreak of war, violence in the West Bank from Israeli forces and settlers has reached record levels. Since Oct. 7, 287 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. That's the deadliest year on record in the West Bank in 18 years, it said.

News Alert: Israeli military accidentally shoots and kills 3 Israelis held hostage in Gaza
CNN/December 15/2023
The Israel Defense Forces says that three Israeli hostages in Gaza were mistakenly identified as a threat and shot dead.“During combat in Shejaiya (in northern Gaza), the IDF mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat. As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at a briefing Friday.

Hungry, thirsty and humiliated: Israel’s mass arrest campaign sows fear in northern Gaza
AP/December 15, 2023
DEIR AL-BALAH: The Israeli military has rounded up hundreds of Palestinians across the northern Gaza Strip, separating families and forcing men to strip to their underwear before trucking some to a detention camp on the beach, where they spent hours, in some cases days, subjected to hunger and cold, according to human rights activists, distraught relatives and released detainees themselves. Palestinians detained in the shattered town of Beit Lahiya, the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya, and neighborhoods of Gaza City said they were bound, blindfolded, and bundled into the backs of trucks. Some said they were taken to the camp at an undisclosed location, nearly naked and with little water. “We were treated like cattle. They even wrote numbers on our hands,” said Ibrahim Lubbad, a 30-year-old computer engineer arrested in Beit Lahiya on Dec. 7 with a dozen other family members and held overnight. “We could feel their hatred.”The roundups have laid bare an emerging tactic in Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza, experts say, as the military seeks to solidify control in evacuated areas in the north and collect intelligence about Hamas operations nearly 10 weeks after the group’s deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Photos and videos showing Palestinian men kneeling in the streets, heads bowed and hands bound behind their backs sparked outrage after spreading on social media.
• Released detainees said they were exposed to the chill of night and repeatedly questioned about Hamas activities.
• Soldiers kicked sand in their faces and beat those who spoke out of turn.
In response to questions about alleged mistreatment, the Israeli military said that detainees were “treated according to protocol” and were given enough food and water. The army spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, claimed that the men are questioned and then told to dress and that in cases where this did not happen, the military would ensure it does not occur again. Those believed to have ties to Hamas are taken away for further interrogation, and dozens of Hamas members have been arrested so far, he claimed.
Photos and videos showing Palestinian men kneeling in the streets, heads bowed, and hands bound behind their backs sparked outrage after spreading on social media. To Palestinians, it is a stinging indignity. Among those rounded up were boys as young as 12 and men as old as 70, and they included civilians who lived ordinary lives before the war, according to interviews with 15 families of detainees.
“My only crime is not having enough money to flee to the south,” said Abu Adnan Al-Kahlout, an unemployed 45-year-old with diabetes and high blood pressure in Beit Lahiya. He was detained Dec. 8 and released after several hours when soldiers saw he was too faint and nauseated to be interrogated. Israeli forces have detained at least 900 Palestinians in northern Gaza, estimated Ramy Abdu, founder of the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which has worked to document the arrests. Based on testimony it collected, the group presumes Israel is holding most detainees from Gaza at the Zikim military base just north of the enclave. Palestinians cowered with their families for days as Israel poured heavy machine-gun fire into Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya, the firefights with Hamas militants stranding families in their homes. without electricity, running water, fuel or communications, and internet service. “There are corpses all over the place, left out for three, four weeks because no one can reach them to bury them before the dogs eat them,” said Raji Sourani, a lawyer with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza. He said he saw dozens of dead bodies as he made his way from Gaza City to the southern border with Egypt last week. Palestinians recounted soldiers going door to door with dogs, using loudspeakers to call on families to come outside. Women and children are often told to walk away to find shelter. Some released detainees described enduring humiliating stretches of near-nudity as Israeli troops took the photos that later went viral. Some guessed they were driven several kilometers before being dumped in cold sand. Released detainees said they were exposed to the chill of night and repeatedly questioned about Hamas activities that most could not answer.
Soldiers kicked sand in their faces and beat those who spoke out of turn.
Several Palestinians held for 24 hours or less said they had no food and were forced to share three 1.5-liter bottles with some 300 fellow detainees. Darwish Al-Ghabrawi, a 58-year-old principal at a UN school, fainted from dehydration. Mahmoud Al-Madhoun, a 33-year-old shopkeeper, said the only moment that gave him hope was when soldiers released his son, realizing he was just 12. Returning home brought its horrors. Israeli soldiers dropped detainees off after midnight without their clothes, phones, or IDs near what appeared to be Gaza’s northern border with Israel, those released said, ordering them to walk through a landscape of destruction, tanks stationed along the road and snipers perched on roofs. “It was a death sentence,” said Hassan Abu Shadkh, whose brothers, 43-year-old Ramadan and 18-year-old Bashar, and his 38-year-old cousin, Naseem Abu Shadkh, walked shoeless over jagged mounds of debris until their feet bled. Naseem, a farmer in Beit Lahiya, was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper as they made their way to a UN school in Beit Lahiya, Abu Shadkh said. His brothers were forced to leave their cousin’s body in the middle of the road. Israeli officials say they have reason to be suspicious of Palestinians remaining in northern Gaza, given that places like Jabaliya and Shijaiyah, in eastern Gaza City, are well-known Hamas bastions. Human rights groups say mass arrests should be investigated. “Civilians must only be arrested for necessary and imperative reasons for security. It’s a very high threshold,” said Human Rights Watch’s regional director Omar Shakir.

Saudi Arabia, Iran commit to implementing Beijing Agreement
Arab News/December 15, 2023
JEDDAH: The first meeting of the Saudi-Chinese-Iranian Tripartite Joint Committee concluded in Beijing on Friday with the Saudi and Iranian delegations pledging their commitment to implementing the Beijing Agreement.
Wang Yi — a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office, and minister of foreign affairs — chaired a group meeting with the heads of the Saudi and Iranian delegations, the deputy ministers of foreign affairs Waleed bin Abdulkarim Al-Khuraiji and Ali Bagheri Kani, respectively. The talks revolved around the improved relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran following the Beijing agreement reached between both countries under Chinese auspices in March, the reopening of the embassies of both countries in Riyadh and Tehran, and the meetings and mutual visits of both nations’ foreign ministers. The Saudi and Iranian delegations praised China for its important role in hosting the meeting and pledged their commitment to implementing the terms of the Beijing Agreement. The three parties discussed aspects of tripartite cooperation in various fields, while raising concerns over the ongoing situation in Gaza — which they said posed a threat to regional and global peace and security — and calling for an immediate cessation of military operations in the Strip. They also expressed the need for a sustainable system of civilian aid and slammed the forced displacement of Palestinians. Any decision regarding Palestine’s future must reflect the will of the Palestinian people, the trio added, and uphold the right for them to establish their own state and determine their own destiny. It was agreed that the next meeting of the tripartite would be held in Saudi Arabia in June. Saudi Arabia and Iran both thanked China for hosting the meeting and for its role in mediating between Riyadh and Tehran. The three sides also expressed concern over the situation in Gaza and said that any solution to the conflict must adhere to the will of the Palestinian people.

Maersk says its container vessel was targeted by a Houthi missile off Yemen, but the ship was not hit
Reuters/December 15, 2023
COPENHAGEN/DUBAI: Danish shipping company Maersk on Friday denied a claim by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement that the militia carried out a drone strike on a Maersk vessel sailing toward Israel. The Houthis earlier claimed it carried out a military operation against a Maersk container vessel, directly hitting it with a drone. The Houthis, who made the claim in a statement, did not release any evidence. Maersk on Thursday said ship Maersk Gibraltar was targeted by a missile while traveling from Salalah, Oman, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and that the crew and vessel were reported safe. “The vessel was not hit,” a Maersk spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement following the Houthi claim. The incident took place near the Bab Al-Mandab Strait linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, where Yemen’s Houthis on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a missile attack on a Norwegian chemical tanker.
“The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Bad Al-Mandab Strait are extremely concerning. The current situation puts seafarer lives at risk and is unsustainable for global trade,” Maersk said earlier. Houthi military spokesperson Yehia Sareea late on Thursday said the militia had hit the Maersk container vessel with a drone after it refused to respond the Yemeni group’s warnings. A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Houthis shot at the Maersk vessel but missed and were unsuccessful in forcing the ship to stop. The official added that US forces were not in area at the time of the incident. Later on Thursday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that the attack, which it said was carried out by a ballistic missile, did not cause any injuries or damages. “The M/V Maersk Gibraltar was hailed by the Houthis, who threatened further missile attacks,” CENTCOM said on social media platform X. “While this incident did not involve US Forces, we continue to closely monitor the situation.”The Iran-aligned Houthis have attacked vessels in Red Sea shipping lanes and fired drones and missiles at Israel since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza over two months ago, heightening fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East. The group which rules much of Yemen says its attacks are a show of support for the Palestinians and has vowed they will continue until Israel stops its offensive on the Gaza Strip.

Israel presses Gaza assault as top US official visits
AFP/December 15, 2023
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Israel pressed its offensive in Gaza on Friday despite mounting international calls for restraint, with key backer the United States saying the war to crush Hamas must not lead to a long-term Israeli occupation of the territory. The war began after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Vowing to destroy Hamas and bring home an estimated 250 hostages taken by militants into Gaza, Israel launched a massive military offensive that has left much of the besieged territory in ruins. The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says the war has killed more than 18,700 people, mostly women and children. Late Thursday in the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border, crowds of Palestinians used flashlights to search under the rubble of buildings for survivors following an Israeli strike. “This is a residential neighborhood, women and children live here, as you can see,” said resident Abu Omar. “Three missiles on a residential neighborhood that has nothing to do with any militant activities.”Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops were engaged in fighting with militants in two districts of Gaza City late Thursday. “There will be more tough battles in the days to come,” he said.
The Israeli army said Friday that 117 troops had died in Gaza since the start of the ground offensive. It said the body of a French-Israeli hostage kidnapped on October 7, Elia Toledano, was recovered and returned to Israel. “We are working together with security agencies, and with all intelligence and operational means in order to return all of the hostages home,” the army said. The United States, which provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, has strongly backed its response to Hamas’s attacks, but has voiced increasing concern over civilian casualties and the long-term plan for Gaza.
“We do not believe that it makes sense for Israel, or is right for Israel, to... reoccupy Gaza over the long term,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv. Gallant warned that Israel’s fight with Hamas “will require a period of time — it will last more than several months, but we will win and we will destroy them.”In Washington, US President Joe Biden urged Israel to take more care to protect civilians in Gaza. “I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives — not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful,” said Biden.
But Netanyahu vowed to carry on “until victory,” and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said the war would continue “with or without international support.”
Sullivan headed to the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday for talks with its Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders, who have lost even more public support since the war in Gaza. The West Bank, where the PA exercises limited control, has seen a surge in violence since October 7. There, the Palestinian health ministry said 11 people had been killed since the Israeli military launched a raid in the city of Jenin and its refugee camp earlier this week. The war in Gaza has led to increased popular support for Hamas in the West Bank, further weakening the internationally recognized PA. This week, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly supported a non-binding resolution for a cease-fire in Gaza, with Washington voting against it. The UN estimates 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced, and the head of its agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, warned of a “breakdown of civil order.”“Everywhere you go, people are desperate, hungry and terrified,” said Lazzarini, who recently returned from Gaza. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA says more than a third of households have reported severe hunger, while more than 90 percent are “going to bed hungry.”
Adding to the desperation, mobile and Internet communications were cut Thursday and yet to return the following day, with operator Paltel blaming “the cut off of main fiber routes from the Israeli side.”“Gaza is... blacked out again,” PalTel said, with global network monitor Netblocks confirming the blackout.
Hamas’s media office described it as a “premeditated crime that deepens the humanitarian crisis” by making it harder for rescuers to reach injured people. Aid distribution has largely stopped in most of Gaza, except on a limited basis in the Rafah area, according to the UN. COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said the military “is enabling tactical pauses for humanitarian purposes.”Fears of a wider regional conflagration persist, and Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck a cargo ship in the Red Sea on Friday, causing a fire on deck in the latest of a near-daily series of attacks in the commercially vital waterway. The Iran-backed Houthis, who control much of Yemen but are not recognized internationally, say they’re targeting shipping to pressure Israel during its war with Hamas. “While the Houthis are pulling the trigger, so to speak, they’re being handed the gun by Iran,” said Sullivan.

Kremlin: Ukrainian and Moldovan entry could destabilize EU
Reuters/December 15, 2023 
Russia said on Friday that the European Union's decision to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova was a politicized decision that could destabilize the bloc, and praised Hungary for objecting to the move."Negotiations to join the EU can last for years or decades. The EU has always had strict criteria for accession and it is obvious that at the moment neither Ukraine nor Moldova meets these criteria," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 15-16/2023
Question: “What does it mean that Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6)?”
GotQuestions.org./December 15, 2023
Answer: When Isaiah wrote his prediction of the coming of the “Wonderful Counselor” (Isaiah 9:6), he was spurring Israel to remember their Messiah was indeed coming to establish His Kingdom (Isaiah 9:7). Isaiah was writing nearly 800 years before Christ. This period of history was tumultuous as the Assyrians were on the march, taking people into captivity by droves. Isaiah’s prophecy gave the people of God a hope they so desperately needed: a Child would be born to fulfill the Davidic Covenant, and He would bear the titles “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” The Child was Christ; the prophecy will reach its consummation at Christ’s second coming.
That Isaiah calls the Messiah the “Wonderful Counselor” indicates the kind of character this coming King has. The word wonderful in this passage literally means “incomprehensible.” The Messiah will cause us to be “full of wonder.” The word is much weightier than the way it’s used in normal conversation today—we say things are “wonderful” if they are pleasant, lovely, or the least bit likable. Jesus is wonderful in a way that is boggling to the mind. The same word for “wonderful” is used in Judges 13:18 when Manoah, Samson’s father, asked the LORD (in a theophany) what His name was. The angel of the LORD responded, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” In other words, “Why do you ask my name, since it is beyond your understanding?”
Jesus demonstrated His wonderfulness in various ways when He was on the earth, beginning with His conception in the womb of a virgin (Matthew 1:23). He showed He is the “wonderful” One in His power to heal (Matthew 4:23), His amazing teaching (Mark 1:22), His perfect life (Hebrews 4:15), and His resurrection from the dead (Mark 16:6). Jesus taught many wonderful things that are counterintuitive to the human mind: “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matthew 5:4). “Rejoice and be glad” in persecution (Matthew 5:11–12). “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). Jesus’ kind of wonderful is awe-inspiring and superior to any other kind, for He is perfect in every way (Matthew 5:48).
The second part of the Messiah’s title is the word counselor. In ancient Israel, a counselor was portrayed as a wise king, such as Solomon, giving guidance to his people (1 Kings 4:34; Micah 4:9). Isaiah uses this word again in 28:29 to describe the LORD: “This also comes from the LORD of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.” Jesus is a wise counselor. “He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person” (John 2:25). He is able to advise His people thoroughly because He is qualified in ways no human counselor is. In Christ is “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3), including the knowledge of all human nature (Psalm 139:1–2). Jesus always knows what we are going through, and He always knows the right course of action (Hebrews 4:15–16).
Christ’s position as our Wonderful Counselor means we can trust Him to listen to our problems and guide us in the right direction (Proverbs 3:6). We can be sure He is listening because He told us to pray to Him about our worries (Philippians 4:6; James 1:5). We can be certain He has our best interests at heart because He loves us (1 John 4:19). And His love is so wide and deep (and wonderful) that we cannot fully understand it (Romans 5:8).

Daily Jihad in France
Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute./December 15, 2023
From the murder of Sébastien Sellam in 2003 to that of Mireille Knoll in 2018, all murders of Jews in France have been committed by radicalized Muslims.
Shouting "we are coming to kill white people", they attacked, murdering Thomas Perotto, aged 17, who had his throat slit. Seventeen other people were wounded, some seriously. Criminologist Xavier Raufer, asked about the attack, replied that raids like that take place throughout the country every week.
Although the prosecutor in charge of the case received multiple testimonies that the attackers said they were "coming to kill white people," authorities maintain that the motive for the attack is "unknown".
74% of Muslims between the ages of 18 and 25 in France say they place Islamic sharia law above the laws of the French Republic.
Television journalist Christian Malard, who had access to the results of confidential inquiries carried out for the French Ministry of the Interior, said they show that more than half of the imams in France proclaim the superiority of Islam over Western culture and the need to Islamize France, even if that means using force.
The anti-Jewish atrocities by Hamas on October 7 reinforced a distrust of Islam, and for the first time in years, a majority of French people support Israel's fight in the ongoing war.
An Islamist shouting "Allahu Akbar" on December 2 stabbed a German tourist to death near the Eiffel Tower. The murderer, again shouting, "Allahu Akbar!", then attacked two more people, seriously wounding them.
Paris, December 2, 2023. 9 pm. A man shouting "Allahu Akbar!" ("Allah is the greatest!") stabbed a German tourist walking along the Seine near the Eiffel Tower, an area considered safe. On the way to the hospital, the victim died. The murderer, again shouting, "Allahu Akbar!", attacked two more people, seriously wounding them, before the police arrested him. A government press release quickly mentioned that the killer was a French citizen, born in France, with the exceedingly French first name of Armand.
Then reality struck. Armand was indeed born in France in 1997, but his original first name was Iman (full name: Iman Rajabpour-Miyandoab) -- until 2003, when his Iranian parents, who had fled the Islamic Republic, became French citizens and changed his name to Armand. In 2015-2016, he proclaimed his allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) and made contact on social networks with many Islamists who had perpetrated terror attacks in France in that time period, and he planned a terrorist attack in Paris.
Before he could execute his plan, in 2016, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released after four years, and placed on the state's list of particularly dangerous individuals. On the afternoon of December 2, 2023, he filmed a video in which he announced that he wanted to "avenge the Muslims" and kill infidels – exactly what he did a few hours later. Commenting on the attack, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin insisted that the murderer had been under "close monitoring" and "psychiatric treatment" and spoke of a "psychiatric failure".
The murder was widely reported. Many journalists noted that the murder of a tourist in Paris by an Islamist ex-convict could create panic among foreign visitors, and the fact that an Islamic extremist considered dangerous by the authorities was walking about free could cause even more concern, especially with the mention of "psychiatric treatment". Similarly, Kobili Traoré, who murdered Sarah Halimi in 2017 and was sent to a mental hospital, was recently declared not responsible for his actions and will soon be free.
What should cause concern in France, however, is the widespread rise in Islamic violence. Official statistics show that every day in France, there are on average 120 knife attacks, many of which result in death.
Although acts filled with Islamic hatred against non-Muslims are becoming more and more numerous, most are passed over in silence. Some, however, are so disgusting that the mainstream media cannot ignore them. The murder in Marseille, for instance, of Laura Paumier and Mauranne Harel, two young students slaughtered and disemboweled with a butcher's knife by an illegal immigrant, Ahmed Hanachi, in front of a horrified crowd in 2017, delivered a particular shock. Similarly, again in Marseille, Mohamed L., a radicalized drug dealer, in 2022 slit the throat of Alban Gervaise, a military doctor, in front of his two young children while he was picking them up from school. Butchering a father in front of his children seemed particularly shocking and barbaric. On both occasions, the murderers were proudly shouting "Allahu Akbar".
Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and Jessica Schneider, two police officers, were tortured and slaughtered in front of their young son at their home near Paris in 2016, by Larossi Abballa, an Islamist.
The murder of Fabienne Broly Verhaeghe, a 68-year-old nurse, in Lille on October 18, 2023, also reached a level of savagery difficult to imagine: Mohamed B., a 17-year-old illegal immigrant born in the Ivory Coast, broke into her apartment, then raped, scalped and disemboweled her, and cut off her hands.
On October 16, 2020, the beheading of Samuel Paty near the high school where he taught, by Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee, led President Emmanuel Macron to promise actions that would allow teachers to work in complete safety. Nothing was done. Another teacher, Dominique Bernard, had his throat slit where he taught, in Arras, on October 13, 2023. The murderer, Mohammed Mogouchkov was a 20 years old Ingush refugee subject to an expulsion procedure.
Anti-Semitic attacks in France are also becoming ever more frequent, and have exploded since the atrocious attacks in Israel on October 7 by the terrorist group Hamas. In 2022, there were 436 anti-Semitic acts officially recorded in France. In the few weeks between October 7 and December 1, 2023, there were 1,518 anti-Semitic acts recorded, many of them physical assaults. From examining the police reports, done by the French National Bureau for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, BNVCA, it is sadly clear that all of them apparently came from Islamic anti-Semites. From the murder of Sébastien Sellam in 2003 to that of Mireille Knoll in 2018, all murders of Jews in France have been committed by radicalized Muslims.
Jews throughout France can no longer wear skullcaps or a Star of David on the street. They remove their names from their mailboxes. "For the first time since 1945," said French author Elisabeth Badinter, "many French Jews are afraid to the point of hiding."
Ethnic Muslim gangs raid shopping centers and parties in rural villages. Most of these assaults are also never mentioned in the media. One, however, recently attracted attention: at a party on November 19 in the town hall of Crépol, a village of five hundred people, members of a Muslim gang armed with long butcher knives came from the neighboring town, Romans-sur-Isère. Shouting "we are coming to kill white people", they attacked, murdering Thomas Perotto, aged 17, who had his throat slit. Seventeen other people were wounded, some seriously. Criminologist Xavier Raufer, asked about the attack, replied that raids like that take place throughout the country every week.
The government concealed the names of the attackers and clearly did everything it could to hide what had happened. A conservative journalist, Damien Rieu, obtained and disclosed them. Although the prosecutor in charge of the case received multiple testimonies that the attackers said they were "coming to kill white people," authorities maintain that the motive for the attack is "unknown".
On November 25, a group of young "right-wing" French people who had planned to demonstrate in Romans-sur-Isère were arrested by the police upon their arrival and taken before a judge. He accused them of an "intentional racist attack" and immediately sentenced them to six-to-ten months in prison. They had not attacked anyone. The banner they brought said only: "Justice for Thomas". The sole victim of violence on that day was one of the French demonstrators who managed to elude the police. He was chased down in the town and later found naked and unconscious, his body lacerated, in the lobby of a building.
On November 29, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne proclaimed that the young people sent to prison deserved it and that they had embodied a "serious threat to democracy" in France: the "ultra-right". The "ultra-right," she added, cryptically, was even more dangerous than the "extreme right." Not a word, however, about Islamic violence.
The French government is clearly aware that Islamic "no-go zones" are growing and that riots can break out at any moment. In June 2023, a police traffic stop gone wrong led to the death of Nahel Merzouk, a 17 year old Muslim criminal, and resulted in three weeks of riots and destruction that spread to many towns. Although French authorities banned pro-Hamas demonstrations planned for October and November, they took place anyway, complete with anti-Jewish and anti-French chants. The police were ordered not to intervene.
The French mainstream media has spoken extensively about the "extreme danger posed by the ultra-right." Again, not a word about Islamic violence.
Some commentators and political leaders, have spoken out all the same. Columnist Ivan Rioufol wrote:
"The racial outbreak which, in France, accompanied the satanic carnage of Hamas against Israeli civilians, revealed the state of tearing of the nation, close to rupture. Two irreconcilable Frances are already confronting each other in broad daylight: French France and Islamized France."
Éric Zemmour, president of the Reconquest Party, wrote:
"Two peoples live in France, one of whom must constantly flee the attacks of an increasingly violent faction of the other, not only the attacks perpetrated with shouts of Allah Akbar, but this real daily jihad that the French suffer."
Marine Le Pen, president of the National Rally, said:
"[M]any French people now feel it: no one is safe anywhere anymore. A new threshold has been crossed. We are witnessing organized attacks emanating from a certain number of criminogenic suburbs in which there are armed 'militias' carrying out raids."
While the influence of fundamentalist Islam is less marked among older Muslims, 74% of Muslims between the ages of 18 and 25 in France say they place Islamic sharia law above the laws of the French Republic.
Television journalist Christian Malard, who had access to the results of confidential inquiries carried out for the French Ministry of the Interior, said they show that more than half of the imams in France proclaim the superiority of Islam over Western culture and the need to Islamize France, even if that means using force. Malard added that the main French Muslim organization, "Muslims of France," which is the French branch of the Muslim Brotherhood -- a movement banned in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Egypt -- has a monopoly on training imams in France and has been infiltrating French universities, sports clubs and political parties.
"Left-wing" politicians and journalists, who try to demonize "far-right" parties by accusing them of anti-Semitism, are having trouble making the label stick. Zemmour is a Jew who strongly supports Israel. Le Pen's party also supports Israel and denounces anti-Semitism without the slightest ambiguity. Accusing the Reconquest and the National Rally parties of "Islamophobia" no longer has any impact; Islamic violence spreading in France has convinced an increasing number of French people that it is legitimate to be afraid of Islam.
According to recent surveys, 78% of French people think that Islamism constitutes a mortal threat to France. 91% say they are worried or very worried about the sharp rise in violence in the country. The anti-Jewish atrocities by Hamas on October 7 reinforced a distrust of Islam, and for the first time in years, a majority of French people support Israel's fight in the ongoing war.
The main anti-Semitic party in France now is a leftist one, Rebellious France. Its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has accused Israel -- not Hamas -- of genocide, and has claimed that Hamas is a "resistance" movement. He concluded one of his recent meetings with, "Long live Gaza" and "Eternal glory to those who resist". If a presidential election were to take place in France today, Zemmour would receive more votes than he did in 2022, and Le Pen would top the first round of voting, receiving between 31% -33% of the votes, far more than in 2022. Whoever her opponent would be in the second round, she would easily win it. An election victory for Le Pen would confirm that a huge change could still take shape within Europe. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni won the Italian legislative elections on September 25, 2022 by denouncing the Islamization of Europe, and became prime minister. On November 22, in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders' party won the most seats in legislative elections.
Security expert Éric Delbecque, whose recent book, Permanent Insecurity , details the growing violence plaguing France, recently stated: "The French seem to understand that their country could die. They are beginning to react."
*Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.

Britain faces a catastrophic epidemic of Hamas-style Islamist terror
Camilla Tominey/The Telegraph/December 15, 2023
If you want to see what brainwashing really looks like, it’s worth checking out the videos currently circulating on social media of Gazan parents dressing up their babies in Hamas “merch”.In one, a father is holding a toddler in his arms dressed in a green Hamas overall and matching headband.
The young dad is asked: “If you will lose your beloved, cute daughter, if she decides she wants to be a suicide bomber, will you be happy about that?” He replies: “Yes, I will help her and encourage her,” adding: “We are all Hamas.”
Then there’s the mother who describes her 17-month-old daughter as “Hamas from birth,” adding: “Her blood is green.”
Another woman is asked: “Do you think we will see more Farj-5 rockets hitting Tel Aviv?” to which she replies: “I wish, in the name of Allah.”
As with the radicalisation that took place during the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, it is all too easy to dismiss terrorist sympathisers and glorifiers as a danger only to themselves and their children. But news of a Hamas plot to kill Jews in Europe brings the threat much closer to home.
Seven suspected Hamas operatives were arrested in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, with the Danish prime minister describing the plot as “as serious as it gets”. According to German prosecutors, the Hamas operatives were under orders to bring a cache of weapons from an undisclosed location in Europe to Berlin to attack Jewish institutions.
The suspects were allegedly planning attacks across Europe, officials said, without giving further details. Israeli officials have suggested the arrests are linked to a single, cross-border European terror plot.
While there was no immediate suggestion of a British link to this Hamas plot, the threat to British Jews is very real. It extends beyond the placards and anti-Semitic slogans we have witnessed on our streets already, and puts us all in danger.
Historically, Hamas hasn’t shown much of an interest in carrying out terrorist attacks outside of Israel. But if this position is now changing, how many sympathisers in Europe, and indeed Britain, would act on its call to arms?
The Community Security Trust (CST) provides security advice and protection to synagogues, Jewish schools and other sites in Britain. As its spokesman pointed out, such a shift in policy to “carry out attacks on Jewish communities outside the region, in line with Iran and Hezbollah ... would be extremely concerning. It represents a significant shift in the threat posed to Jewish communities. There is a big concern if Hamas HQ is ordering Hamas people in Europe to carry out an attack.”
If recent protests are anything to go by, then we may be uniquely vulnerable to this terrorist threat. If calls for “jihad” are taken literally, with young men believing they should fight a holy war on our streets, then we may face the worst terrorist threat since al-Qaeda or Isis.
Sir Alex Younger, the former head of MI6, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday that the intelligence community will be fearful of a glidepath towards radicalisation in the UK. “It is a dangerous moment but let me be clear, the danger is within,” he said. “The world’s always been a dangerous place, the thing that keeps us safe is faith in our alliances, faith in our values, faith in the things that make our country strong. “Where we wobble on that, yes it puts us in serious danger.”
Admitting the West had approached recent years with a degree of hubris, he added: “Speaking domestically, my understanding is while we don’t see a serious uptick now, what really worries my former colleagues is a scale of radicalisation as a result of what is happening in the Middle East which is pretty unparalleled.”
In the past, we saw radicalisation as something that happened in the shadows. Now, however, it appears to be taking place before our very eyes on mainstream social media and, as we have witnessed since the October 7 attacks, on the streets of our capital. While I am not for one minute suggesting that all pro-Palestinian marchers are wannabe terrorists, or even Hamas supporters, we simply cannot turn a blind eye to the Jew hate being spouted by the anti-Semites in their midst. If you ever needed proof that such fundamentalists have no respect for Western values, just look at the brazen way in which they wear their celebration of medieval hate like a badge of honour. They are seemingly so beguiled by the murderers, rapists and hostage takers of Hamas that they actually consider them freedom fighters. It hasn’t once crossed their hoodwinked minds that the people the Palestinians really need to be freed from is their terrorist, Jew-hating overlords – not Israel. And that makes them very dangerous indeed.
They may be the extreme end of the wedge but also consider the frightening ease with which so-called “peaceful” protesters have been willing to chant “from the river to the sea”, without actually knowing which river or sea they are referring to or how offensive that phrase is to Jews.
The slur that Israel is a “genocidal” state has been repeated so often that it has become normalised. Indeed, we have now reached the abhorrent point of casualised anti-Semitism that primary school children have been happily declaring that they “hate all Jews” in playground rows, according to the CST. Amanda Bomsztyk, its northern regional director, said other young people were being “abused on the streets” including with “Nazi salutes” in harassment that is “the worst we’ve ever seen”.Even among highly educated university staff and students, Jew hate appears to have become second nature. Institutions like University College London, the first in Britain to admit Jews in the 19th century, have felt the need to write letters of support for Jewish students. Elsewhere, we have witnessed young adults tearing down the posters of Hamas victims.
Combined with this heady mix of virtue-signalling ignorance are the useful idiots on social media, unwittingly egging on Hamas, taking their propaganda as gospel. It is all a recipe for disaster.
If we cannot do anything to stop imams preaching in Britain’s mosques from a Hamas-sympathetic script, and if we cannot ban Islamist groups who chant for jihad, then how on earth are we going to blunt the threat of radicalisation leading to violence on our streets?

Ukraine can help the Global South beat hunger
Denys Shmyhal/Arab News/December 15, 2023
The large-scale war that Russia unleashed against Ukraine in February 2022 has extensively gone beyond the borders of our country and Europe.
Russian aggression has not only caused enormous human suffering and thousands of deaths, but it has also had a significant negative impact on global food security. It affects every country. It endangers everyone.
Ukraine has historically been recognized as a key player in terms of global food security. Our fertile soil, hardworking farmers, investments and technologies allowed us to become one of the world’s leading exporters of grain, sunflower oil, corn and other agricultural products.
We have forged fruitful and mutually beneficial relationships with many countries in the Global South. About 400 million people around the world, including many on the African continent, depend on our food exports.
Between 2016 and the start of the Russian aggression in 2022, Ukraine exported 92 percent of its wheat to Asia and Africa.
Nowadays, Russia tries destroying our agricultural potential and our ports, thus jeopardizing the world’s food security.
Over the past 100 years, Ukraine has experienced more than one famine. At least 4 million Ukrainians perished during the Holodomor of 1932-33. This was an artificial famine orchestrated by the policies of the Kremlin. The communist totalitarian regime forcibly confiscated food from Ukrainian farmers. This is a deep wound in the history of our country that continues to hurt each of us.
These days, Russia is again playing “hunger games,” but this time with all countries of the world.
Russia has arranged a blockade of Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, through which Ukraine has traditionally exported more than 90 percent of its agricultural products. Russia attacks Ukraine’s port infrastructure with missiles and kamikaze drones, leading to huge damage. Russia destroys grain warehouses containing Ukrainian harvests that our farmers produced from the fields, some of which are mined by the Russian army.
This summer, Russia broke off the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which had allowed the export of nearly 33 million tons of agricultural products to 45 countries, 60 percent of which was delivered to Africa and Asia. In particular, the goods went to Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
We tell the countries of Africa, the Middle East and Asia: Let us not build alliances against anyone — let us build alliances for a better cause.
Thanks to Ukrainian agricultural exports, food prices have dropped by 25 percent compared to the spike in prices caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Now, the Kremlin is deliberately jeopardizing the entire world. Russians clearly understand the role and importance of Ukraine in the global food security chain. But this does not stop them.
The latest report by UN agencies says there are 18 “hot spots” of hunger in 22 countries or territories in the world. Russia wants to take advantage of this. The Kremlin’s strategy consists of the following: The more crises it can create, the faster — it believes — it can destroy us.
Ukraine seeks peace. But it is about a just and lasting peace. This is only possible on the basis of the “Peace Formula” presented by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Food security is one of the 10 elements of the Peace Formula. It states: “The issue of food security must be de-weaponized. Any actions that negatively impact food production and supply generate global risks.”
It calls for free, full and safe navigation in the Black Sea and Azov Sea to be safeguarded.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative and the Ukrainian humanitarian initiative known as “Grain from Ukraine” must work. They should not be threatened with attacks by missiles and kamikaze drones.
We tell the countries of Africa, the Middle East and Asia: Let us not build alliances against anyone — let us build alliances for a better cause.
For the sake of overcoming hunger. To make the world more secure. So that everyone in the world can provide food for their families.
More than 30 countries and international organizations have already joined Ukraine’s humanitarian initiative. Ukraine has delivered 170,000 tons of its grain to Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen and Kenya. In the near future, we plan to send another 25,000 tons of grain to Nigeria.
Even when facing this war, Ukraine has huge potential for developing agricultural exports. We are talking about almost 80 million tons of harvest. For domestic needs, 25 percent of the harvested grain is enough, while the rest can be exported, thus helping reduce food prices for everyone.
I am confident that Ukraine and the countries of the Global South will be able to restore the supply chain of grain and other agricultural products together. We will deprive Russia of its traditional weapon — hunger, which it provoked in the 20th century and which it keeps provoking now.
Ukraine believes that we can build a better world if we help each other. If we stand together against the injustice that threatens everyone. If we are united to ensure that no country in the world suffers from hunger anymore.
• Denys Shmyhal is the prime minister of Ukraine. X: @Denys_Shmyhal

Turkiye, Saudi Arabia on diplomatic blitz for Gaza
Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/December 15, 2023
Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, both active members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, have been working on the diplomatic front for Gaza. Their strategy involves internationalizing the war as much as possible, while seeking the deeper involvement of non-Western powers such as China and Russia.
As OIC member states, they cooperate on a number of issues, ranging from Palestine to Kashmir and from Myanmar to the plight of the Uighurs. The Palestine issue was not only instrumental in their cooperation, but it was also an important issue in Turkiye’s membership of the OIC, which came in response to a 1969 arson attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
The process that resulted in Turkiye joining the OIC, which is based in Saudi Arabia, was very controversial. Turkiye began as a preliminary member, as it did not approve the OIC Charter because it was found to be incompatible with the secularist principle of the Turkish constitution. The leftist Republican People’s Party opposed Turkiye’s participation in Islamic forums and organizations.
However, the Turkish government under the leadership of Suleyman Demirel, who had a conservative worldview, tried to use the country’s participation in the OIC to erase the misunderstandings of the past between Turkiye and the Middle Eastern states. Both domestic and external political developments pushed Demirel to send Turkiye’s foreign minister to the first meeting of the OIC in Rabat in 1969. However, while keen to approach the Arab world, Turkiye was also trying to keep its relations with Israel on track.
The Palestinian cause played a key role in Turkiye’s membership of the OIC and in mending its ties with Middle Eastern states.
Turkiye had remained neutral during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. After its conclusion, Ankara became one of the first countries to recognize Israel. From 1949 until the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Turkiye remained the only Muslim-majority country to have diplomatic ties with Israel.
However, this approach was not welcomed by the OIC’s member states. At the second summit held in 1974, Turkiye was asked to break its ties with Israel. Although Ankara approved some of the decisions taken at the summit, it did not agree to sever its relations with Tel Aviv and so was denied funding from the Islamic Development Bank. Turkiye reacted to this move by increasing its level of representation at the organization.
Ankara also asked Rauf Denktas, the president of northern Cyprus, to make a speech at the summit and for a representative from the community to attend all OIC meetings. Turkiye’s requests were accepted and it was also allowed to host an OIC meeting in Istanbul. Denktas delivered his speech at the seventh Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers held in the Ataturk Cultural Center in Istanbul in May 1976. It was agreed that representatives of the Turkish Muslim community of Cyprus be invited to attend future meetings of the OIC.
It was at this conference that Turkiye agreed to allow the Palestine Liberation Organization to open an office in Ankara without any conditions. Thus, the Palestinian cause played a key role in Turkiye’s membership of the OIC and in mending its ties with Middle Eastern states. This is also the case at present.
Over the last three weeks, the Turkish and Saudi foreign ministers, along with their counterparts from other OIC states, have undertaken a globetrotting mission seeking international action to stop the war in Gaza and to push for humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Strip. The delegation has held meetings in Beijing, Moscow, London, Paris, Barcelona, the US and Canada. In a photo taken on the last leg of their trip, the Saudi, Turkish and Palestinian foreign ministers were all present.
The OIC serves as a significant platform for these states to showcase their involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
For decades, the question of Palestine has maintained a prominent place in the official Saudi and Turkish positions. In particular, Gaza has remained central due to the unjust blockade imposed by Israel. Palestinian self-determination still holds importance in the minds of their populations.
The OIC serves as a significant platform for these states to showcase their involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although the OIC has the potential to play a pivotal role in advocating for peace and justice in the conflict, it is imperative that its members should take more steps to get involved in the process to ensure that the suffering of the Palestinian people comes to an end.
The divisions among the OIC’s members on forging a cohesive and robust response to the Gaza crisis showcase the complex geopolitical realities of the region. Whether they can overcome their differences and play an effective role in the shaping of the war’s trajectory remains to be seen. Turkiye and Saudi Arabia can act as two heavyweights in overcoming these differences. Member states’ future actions will not only influence the conflict's resolution but also define the broader Middle Eastern order.
As key OIC members, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia are deeply concerned about the potential for regional destabilization, if not a Middle East war. The cooperation that Ankara and Riyadh are pursuing during the Gaza war — even at just the level of a diplomatic front — is likely to consolidate and deepen the normalization of relations between these two states and strengthen the future role and status of the OIC.
*Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkiye’s relations with the Middle East. X: @SinemCngz

Senior US official: With ‘American blood on his hands,’ Sinwar’s ‘days are numbered’
MIKE WAGENHEIM/JNS/December 15, 2023
The official added that former Palestinian Authority security force members could help secure a post-Hamas Gaza, as Biden’s national security advisor visited the region. Hamas senior leader Yahya Sinwar’s days “are numbered,” a senior Biden administration official said on Thursday, pledging that “justice will be served.”Coinciding with a visit to the region by U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the official, who spoke to reporters for 35 minutes from a car in Tel Aviv, said: “I think it’s safe to say his days are numbered,” of Sinwar. “He has American blood on his hands.”The official spoke on “background” and could not be named. Sinwar, who runs the Hamas terror operation in the Gaza Strip, is part of a group of Hamas higher-ups that planned the terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
Sullivan visited Israel on Thursday, meeting twice with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a meeting with Israel’s full War Cabinet sandwiched between the two. He also met individually with Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and War Cabinet member and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz. Sullivan’s meeting with Mossad director David Barnea stretched from one hour to two, focusing on the hostage situation in Gaza. Sullivan’s trip to Israel comes amid vocal frustration from Biden and others about the growing civilian death toll in Gaza amid Israel’s operation to root out Hamas terrorists. The latter hide and operate among civilians, as well as below ground. The senior official said that the second meeting between Sullivan and Netanyahu focused on expectations “as we move through the course of the coming weeks or towards the end of the year, and into the early part of January.”Overall, the two talked about the humanitarian situation, military campaign strategy and threats from Iran’s other regional proxies, including the Houthis and Hezbollah, the official said. The official disputed the accuracy of multiple media reports that the Biden administration is instructing Israel to wind down its operation in Gaza in the coming weeks. The official said the White House is more concerned with the intensity of the assaults of the Israel Defense Forces and less so with particular timeframes.
“I know there’s been some reporting on timeframes, and I just have to say that it’s just not entirely accurate,” the official said. “The Israelis have briefed us on kind of its thinking of potential timeframes, and Jake had a very good discussion about the kind of conditions that, obviously, we all hope to be set.”
U.S. and Israeli officials are focusing on a shift from high-intensity operations to high-value targets in a lower-intensity environment, the official emphasized.
“Heavy discussions” were held on Israel’s need to protect Gazan civilians; the humanitarian situation in Gaza was a focal point. ‘Had quite constructive conversations’ The Biden administration has been pushing Israel to focus more on the future of Gaza and what will happen there once Hamas is no longer in power. The White House’s stated preference is for a “revamped, revitalized” Palestinian Authority to resume the control it lost to Hamas in 2007. Netanyahu is insistent that the P.A. will play no part in a post-Hamas leadership role in Gaza.
The senior official on Thursday dodged a question about what exactly would define a revitalized P.A., which is largely seen as broken and corrupt. Sullivan is set to meet on Friday with P.A. officials, focusing on maintaining a measure of stability in Judea and Samaria. The official insisted there is a role for the P.A. in a future Gaza. “There are a number of security personnel linked to the Palestinian Authority, which we think might be able to provide some sort of a nucleus in the many months that follow the overall military campaign,” the official said. “But this is something we’re discussing with the Palestinians, and with the Israelis and with regional partners. It very much remains a work in progress.”Regardless of the exact security structure, the Israeli government is adamant that the Biden administration’s insistence on revving up a pathway to a two-state solution, especially in light of the atrocities that occurred on Oct. 7, is a non-starter. The U.S. official said on Thursday that conversations in Jerusalem have touched on what might be a potential alternative in the Israelis’ minds. “I think we’ve actually had quite constructive conversations about where this heads,” said the official.

Can Biden’s cognitive dissonance let Israel win the war?
Jonathan S. Tobin/JNS/December 15, 2023
The president’s rhetoric continues to turn against the Jewish state, but as long as the military aid keeps flowing, his appeasement of anti-Israel Democrats won’t save Hamas. What is exactly the Biden administration’s policy towards Israel? Is it one that deprecates Israel’s just war against the Hamas terrorist organization? Does it wrongly focus on the “indiscriminate bombing” of Palestinian civilians and insist that it should be soon brought to an end? Or is it one of ardent backing for Zionism, strong support for the war on the Islamist terrorists that will end when Jerusalem, and not Washington, decides it is concluded? The answer may depend on which day you ask the question. But as upsetting as the evidence of Biden’s cognitive dissonance on the Middle East can be, it may not affect the outcome of the war.
The wildly contradictory stances of Biden and his foreign-policy team present a real problem for Israel. They may also be fueling rather than helping to oppose the surge in antisemitism rooted in lies about Israel. But as long as American arms continue to flow to Israel, and the president and his aides stop short of a clear ultimatum to Jerusalem to halt the offensive against Hamas, the war can continue to a successful end. It would be preferable for the administration to speak in a clear and consistent manner that would give full support to Israel’s just war, as well as shoot down the false accusations about the Israel Defense Forces’ conduct of the conflict. Yet Israel can live with the current situation, even if that involves constant sniping and posturing from Washington if it means that the IDF won’t be prevented from achieving its objectives to eliminate Hamas. That is why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to act as if the U.S.-Israel relationship is rock solid amid daily evidence that Biden is feeling the pressure from his left-wing critics who want him to hammer the Jewish state. With, among others, Vice President Kamala Harris urging him to be more sympathetic to the Palestinians, even if that helps Hamas, the civil war inside the administration about support for Israel continues to rage.
Divided Democrats
The trends are running against Israel inside a Democratic Party that remains deeply divided about Israel. A generation of younger Democrats has been indoctrinated by critical race theory and intersectional myths into thinking that Israel is a “colonial” and “white” oppressor state. But that’s a worry for another day. Despite Biden appearing to appease the activist wing of his party that is soft on antisemitism, if he takes no action that prevents an Israeli victory over Hamas, for now, that will be enough for Netanyahu. To say that the administration is all over the place about both Israel and the war is an understatement.
The president did speak of himself as a “Zionist” this week at the White House Chanukah party and has often spoken of his heartfelt support for Israel and its security in the two months since the Oct. 7 Hamas atrocities that launched the current conflagration. And the veto the United States cast at the U.N. Security Council last week that killed a resolution demanding an immediate and complete ceasefire in Gaza sent a signal to the world that America continues to have Israel’s back.
But Biden has also bitterly criticized Israel’s government, such as in his speech to a group of Democratic donors this week when he demanded that it must “change.” In it, he denounced Netanyahu and his Cabinet colleagues in the most critical terms, falsely accusing them of conducting “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, as well as starting a tumult over what will happen after the fighting stops.
The same contradictions involve Biden’s senior deputies.
Last weekend, Secretary of State Antony Blinken denied that the United States was trying to dictate to Israel how to conduct the war against Hamas or that it was demanding that it end. He stated bluntly that while the United States has discussed these issues with Jerusalem, “these are Israel’s decisions to make.”
Yet Blinken has also been gesturing toward Israel’s critics by asserting that there is a “gap” between its desire not to harm civilians and facts on the ground. And National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan contradicted Blinken’s promise to let Israel make its own decisions by seeming to announce a timetable of sorts for its operations in Gaza. He said this week that Israel needed to “transition to the next lower intensity phase in a matter of weeks, not months,” a signal that the administration wants to end the effort to defeat Hamas and remove it completely from the Strip, whether or not that objective has been achieved.
Reinforcing a false narrative
Adding up all these statements, there’s no question that they indicate a growing distance between the two countries on the conduct of the war, as well as on what is to follow with the United States demanding a return to a dead-end “two-state solution” proposal Israel says is a non-starter.
The rhetorical attacks on Jerusalem from Washington, coupled with the administration’s validation of the false narrative put forward by Hamas and its Western apologists about Israel conducting a campaign against Palestinian civilians, aren’t just troubling. They encourage Israel’s foes and undermine Biden’s rhetorical opposition to the surge in antisemitism in the United States in which Hamas supporters chanting for Israel’s destruction justify their stand by falsely claiming that Israel is waging a genocidal war.
Some inside the Biden bubble have been fairly consistent. For example, National Security Council spokesperson Adm. John Kirby has at times been eloquent in defending Israel and denouncing Hamas. While those statements infuriate White House interns and a host of lower-level staffers and officials, as well as party activists, the criticisms of Israel have undermined the sense of moral clarity about the conflict that was put forward in the days after Oct. 7 by Biden. It’s fair to say that the Israel-bashing coming from administration officials about the war is not only undermining the alliance but could also cost the lives of Israeli soldiers who are endangered by pressure to conduct the war in a way that gives Hamas a tactical advantage.
It’s equally true that Biden is gearing up for a postwar confrontation with Netanyahu or whoever will be running Israel in the future. The reflexive talk about long-discredited two-state solutions shows how out-of-touch the president is with the realities of the Middle East, as well as his refusal to draw conclusions from what happened when a Palestinian state in all-but-name was tolerated in Gaza since 2007. His opposition to Israeli security control of Gaza—the only measure that could prevent Hamas from reconstituting itself and a repeat of the Oct. 7 atrocities—is equally unrealistic.
But right now, the only thing Israel and its supporters should be focused on is winning the war against Hamas. As much as it would be preferable, that doesn’t require Biden to act as Israel’s faithful ally in terms of his rhetoric. The fact that he, Blinken and Sullivan have played the role of carping critics constantly engaging in unhelpful and misinformed second-guessing of Jerusalem’s military strategies is an unfortunate aspect of the situation.
What Israel needs to win
Yet the minimum Israel needs from Washington is to not disrupt the flow of arms resupply as the war continues. And that—as the Israel-haters inside the administration and among rank-and-file Democrats have noted—is more important than whether the president employs rhetoric that seeks to appease those who want to cut off that flow. Biden talking out of both sides of his mouth on Israel is problematic. This is an administration that was already dedicated to promoting the woke diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) catechism that grants a permission slip to antisemitism. So, when it doesn’t fully oppose the big lies about Israeli “genocide” or when it panders to advocates of a ceasefire that would essentially let Hamas get away with mass murder, it becomes part of the problem, not a solution to the wave of Jew-hatred emanating from the left.
It’s also true that Biden’s rhetoric will make it harder to revive an expansion of the Abraham Accords and continue the process by which Israel normalizes relations with the Arab world.
Yet as bad as that is, if Biden doesn’t call a halt to the movement of American armaments to Israel needed for the continuation of the war, then Israel is prepared to live with his failings.
That doesn’t mean Biden shouldn’t be criticized for allowing so much “daylight” between the two allies in the style of former President Barack Obama. But nothing is more important right now than defeating Hamas and a conclusion to the fighting that will leave Israel in complete control of every inch of the coastal enclave. From the start of the war, friends of the Jewish state have watched Biden waver on the question of allowing the IDF a free hand to wipe out Hamas so as to guarantee that its citizens can return to their homes in southern Israel secure in the knowledge that the terrorists are beaten. In addition to his attempts to appease Hamas’s Iranian backers having set in motion the events that led to Oct. 7, Bien may have been responsible in no small measure for the long delay in the start of the ground offensive into Gaza. American pressure may have also assisted Hamas in the hostage negotiations. Yet for all of Biden’s policy mistakes and oratorical failings, not to mention the troubling consequences of his efforts to please the intersectional wing of his party, he has not yet taken the sort of overt steps to force the end of the war that many have feared.
Perhaps Biden knows that despite his political weakness, Netanyahu will have no choice but to say “no” to an American diktat to prematurely end the war. The president may be more worried about a dustup with Jerusalem that will remind the world of his weakness and will have no impact on the conduct of the war. It’s also possible that he wants Israel to beat Hamas but is too afraid of his leftist critics and their ability to compromise his re-election chances to adhere to a more consistent and coherent policy.
The pro-Israel community will have its work cut out for it once the shooting stops. In particular, it’s by no means clear whether some of the legacy Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League that have supported Israel since Oct. 7 will back Biden’s plans to press for a postwar return to failed policies that will undermine its security. For now, the one thing to watch is whether Biden takes steps on aid to Israel that will save Hamas from complete defeat. If at least he avoids doing that, Israelis will worry about future diplomatic battles when they occur, so long as they can fight them having already wiped out the criminal Islamist regime responsible for Oct. 7.
*Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him: @jonathans_tobin.