Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 31-November 01/2023
As a Christian, how can I empathize with the Palestinian cause after it has been Islamized and embraced by Jihadist countries and organizations?/Elias Bejjani/October 30/2023
Iran's Destructive, Expansionist, Fundamentalist and Jihadist Schemes, and the Spread of its Armed Proxies Threaten Moderate Arab Countries and their Societies/Elias Bejjani/October 29/2023
Lebanon accuses Israel of white phosphorus attacks
Israel-Hezbollah border skirmishes: Latest developments
'It's absurd': Jumblat says he's blackmailed into not extending Aoun's term
Report: Nasrallah to address US, Berri says Lebanon not ready for war
Israelis worried over Hezbollah as intel expert rules out escalation
Sami Gemayel calls for deploying army on border with Israel
MP Sami Gemayel: We demand a discussion of how to avoid war and not address its repercussions
LF bloc submits draft law for extending army chief's term
Jumblat fears 'unorganized' factions in south might drag Lebanon into all-out war
Hezbollah announces the targeting of an Israeli Merkava tank
Israeli army targets Lebanese army site in Wadi Honein with six artillery shells
Fares Souaid to LBCI: This war is long, West’s priority is not to let Israel break
Berri follows up on South Lebanon situation, meets Caretaker Defense Minister, former minister Aridi, South Governor
Kataeb Party: Government should prevent catastrophe instead of addressing its repercussions
Price of gasoline increases by 6000 LBP

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published  on October 31-November 01/2023
Hamas commander who led attacks on border communities killed, Israel says
Israeli ground forces attack Hamas targets in north as warplanes strike across Gaza
Israeli forces battle Hamas around Gaza City, as military says 800,000 have fled south
Israel’s ‘Teddy Bear’ armoured bulldozer is anything but cuddly
What China wants from Israel-Hamas war
Israel's UN delegates criticised for wearing yellow stars as 'symbol of pride'
No ceasefire in Gaza, no votes, Muslim Americans tell Biden
A UN envoy says the Israel-Hamas war is spilling into Syria, adding to growing instability there
Why Israel's push into Gaza is killing so many children
Hamas attack will inspire greatest US terror threat since ISIS - FBI director
US Senate confirms Lew to be ambassador to Israel
'Fierce battles' as Israeli army pushes deeper into Gaza
Yemen's Houthi rebels vow more attacks on Israel
Abu Obaida: We were able to destroy 22 military vehicles and eliminate a large number of enemy soldiers

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 31-November 01/2023
Israel’s 4 Bad Options in Gaza/Anna Gordon/Time/October 31 2023
A new wave of antisemitism threatens to rock an already unstable world/Stephanie Keith/CNN/October 31, 2023
Columnist In UAE Daily: Hamas, A Muslim Brotherhood Faction, Seeks To Topple Arab Countries And Revive The Caliphate; It Does Not Represent The Palestinians And Has No Right To Embroil Them In Wars/MEMRI/October 31, 2023
Signs That Iran Will Open A Front Against Israel From The Syrian Golan Heights/MEMRI/October 31, 2023
Who Is Really Trying to ‘Wage a Fight between the Cross and Crescent Again’?/Raymond Ibrahim./October 31, 2023
The Palestinian Authority's Responsibility for Hamas's October Massacre/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./October 31, 2023
Stop Promotion of Hate & Rage on Our Streets/Gregory Tomchyshyn started this petition to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau/October 31, 2023
What Happens to Gaza If Hamas Is Actually Defeated?/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/The Daily Beast/October 31, 2023
To Avoid Being Taken Hostage By ‘The Cause’ Once Again/Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al-Awsat/31 October 2023
Gaza: Questions Imposed by The Logic of Things/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-Awsat/31 October 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 31-November 01/2023
As a Christian, how can I empathize with the Palestinian cause after it has been Islamized and embraced by Jihadist countries and organizations?
Elias Bejjani/October 30/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123750/123750/
As a Lebanese Christian, and even Palestinian Christianو how can I empathize with and support those who call for the liberation of Palestine, including the throwing of Jews into the sea and the eradication of the state of Israel, especially when most countries, groups, and organizations that pursue this mission are Islamic Jihadists?
For example, Hezbollah’s name is the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, and Hamas is known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, and all the organizations claiming to be part of the resistance and aiming to liberate Palestine adhere to Jihadist concepts, cultures, and practices, as do states like the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The most dangerous curse that hit the Palestinian cause is its Islamization and the transformation of the conflict into a Jihadist war against Jews and the throwing of Israel into the sea.
Amid the current political and ideological debate about the Palestinian issue, and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as the destructive war and devastation in Gaza, important questions are raised: How can a Lebanese Christian, or anyone who is Christian, including Palestinian Christians, sympathize with and support those who call for the liberation of Palestine through Jihadist means, including actions such as throwing Jews into the sea, and the elimination of the state of Israel? Especially when most countries, led by Iran, and all groups and organizations opposing Israel embrace Islamic Jihadist concepts and goals?
Answers depend on personal values and beliefs, and may vary from one person to another. However, it is essential to carefully consider the deadly and destructive consequences that have arisen due to the transformation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a Jihadist war against Jews.
The Islamization of the Palestinian cause, and its transformation into a Jihadist Islamic war has largely been rejected by the majority of countries and people worldwide, causing it to lose sympathy and support from those who are not Jihadists, whether they are states or organizations.
To correct the course of the Palestinian dilemma and return it to a national cause, rather than a religious one, the following steps are required:
First, we must recognize that there is a significant difference between supporting the rights of Palestinians and working towards a peaceful and just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and promoting violence and Jihad against Jews. Aligning with groups that embrace Jihad can be dangerous for the people of the Middle East and regional security. In this context, we need to acknowledge the facts and understand that movements and states like Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Boko Haram, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and all their likes have brought destruction, chaos, and conflicts to many countries, (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria etc), exacerbating the problem rather than reaching a permanent and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue.
Second, everyone, particularly the Palestinian people, must contemplate the positive effects of mutual cooperation and constructive dialogue among religions and cultures, rather than supporting Jihad and violence. Christians, Muslims, Jews, and people of other faiths can work together to achieve peace, tolerance, and coexistence in the Middle East and specifically, address the Arab-Israeli conflict.
In conclusion, the Palestinian cause includes legitimate rights for the Palestinians, and there are peaceful, civilized, and national ways to reach a permanent solution. Islamizing it as it stands today will not lead to solutions, neither today nor any other day.
Cooperation, dialogue, and accepting others are the keys to its success and finding peaceful solutions, which is why local, regional, and international stakeholders must earnestly seek ways to support efforts aimed at peace and justice in the region, rather than endorsing Islamic and jihadist violence, destruction, death, and devastation.

Iran's Destructive, Expansionist, Fundamentalist and Jihadist Schemes, and the Spread of its Armed Proxies Threaten Moderate Arab Countries and their Societies.
Elias Bejjani/October 29/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123688/123688/
In the turbulent landscape of the Middle East, a sinister and destructive force has stealthily crept into the region, posing a severe threat to the very fabric of Arab moderation and stability. Iran, with its sponsorship of various Jihadist terrorist groups and proxy entities, has skillfully woven a web of influence that now stretches across several Arab nations, and its strategy bears serious implications for the entire region.
The Iranian Global Jihadist Agenda
Iran's nefarious influence in the region hinges on its persistent promotion of its Shiites' Jihadist expansionism and ideology of a satanic agenda. Through its sponsorship of extremist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and various militia factions, Iran actively fuels radicalism and terrorism. These Jihadist organizations, driven by an extremist ideology, undermine the stability of Arab nations, pushing them farther away from the path of moderation.
The Occupation of Lebanon
One of the most glaring examples of Iran's predatory agenda is its occupation of Lebanon through its terrorist and criminal proxy, Hezbollah that was once camouflaged as a resistance movement against Israeli occupation, has now exposed its deeply rooted affiliation to the Iranian scheme of expansionism and Jihadist  destructive strategy. Hezbollah, the most powerful Iranian terrorist and Jihadist proxy, has openly and boldly evolved into a well-armed and highly destabilizing force, acting as Iran's long arm in the region. Hezbollah's actions have plunged Lebanon into political turmoil, eroding its sovereignty, and sowing discord among its diverse communities. It is worth mentioning that, Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by several countries and international bodies, including the United States, Canada, the European Union, Israel, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Arab League, among others. It is considered a Shiite militant group based in Lebanon with close ties to Iran.
Iranian Schemes of Terrorism
Iran's involvement in orchestrating acts of terrorism across the Middle East, especially in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, Iraq and Yemen is well understated by analysts and reputable thinking tanks' entities. From supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Popular Mobilization Militias in Iraq,  to militarily supporting the Syrian dictator, Al-Assad regime, Iran has consistently employed terror as a means to achieve its geopolitical goals. This reckless approach only deepens the chaos and insecurity plaguing the region.
The Gaza Strip and Iran's Role
The ongoing war in the Gaza Strip serves as another distressing chapter in Iran's Jihadist-expansionism playbook. While the Palestinian issue is a legitimate and crucial concern for many in the Arab world, Iran's support for its proxy, the Jihadist Hamas, has exacerbated the conflict. Iran's provision of weaponry and financial support to Hamas fuels the flames of war, putting civilian lives at risk and exacerbating the suffering of the people of Gaza.
The Urgent Need for Resistance
To counter Iran's destructive strategy and the proliferation of its evil Jihadist ideologies, Arab nations must unite and strengthen their resolve. Cooperation is essential in facing the multifaceted threat that Iran represents, that not only endangers the Arab countries' stability. In this regard, initiatives should be taken to counter extremist narratives, promote moderation, and dismantle the support networks that prop up these Jihadist entities.
Conclusion:
Iran's destructive strategy, fueled by a Jihadist agenda and a web of proxy entities, has plunged the Middle East into a state of turmoil and instability. The Arab world must stand together to combat this threat, preserve their cultural heritage, and uphold the values of moderation, tolerance, and peace that have been at the core of their rich history. Only through unity and a resolute commitment to these principles can they hope to emerge from the shadow of Iran's destructive influence and secure a brighter, more stable future for their nations.

Lebanon accuses Israel of white phosphorus attacks
AFP/November 01, 2023
BEIRUT: Lebanon on Tuesday accused Israel of white phosphorus attacks that it said it would file a complaint to the UN over, with a minister alleging the incendiary weapon had burned 40,000 olive trees. Rights groups and Lebanese officials have repeatedly accused Israel of using the weapon, which can cause serious burns if it hits people — allegations Israel had previously denied. “I instructed the Lebanese mission to the UN to submit a new complaint to the Security Council to condemn Israel’s use of white phosphorus in repeated attacks on Lebanon,” Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said.
In a statement, Bou Habib also accused Israel of “deliberately burning Lebanese groves and forests.”Since Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, Lebanon’s southern border has seen tit-for-tat exchanges between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, a Hamas ally. The skirmishes have killed at least 62 people in Lebanon according to an AFP tally, mostly Hezbollah combatants but also four civilians, including a Reuters journalist. Israel said eight people were killed, including soldiers and civilians. Israeli attacks have also set olive groves and greenery ablaze in the border area, with at least one fire still raging in Lebanon’s south on Tuesday. Agriculture Minister Abbas Al Hajj Hassan said Israeli white phosphorus strikes burnt down 40,000 olive trees in Lebanon’s south. His ministry found in a preliminary survey that “128 fires resulted from the Israeli enemy’s phosphorus bombing of our regions,” he told AFP. Phosphorus, a substance that catches fire on contact with the air, is used to create smokescreens to hide troop movements, illuminate the battlefield or destroy buildings by fire.It falls under the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which restricts incendiary weapons without banning their use altogether. While the convention outlaws their use against civilians and non-military targets as well as their deployment against military targets near civilians, it does not cover deployment for smokescreening or battlefield illumination. Earlier Tuesday, Amnesty International released an investigation saying it had “evidence of Israel’s unlawful use of white phosphorus” in south Lebanon between October 10 and 16. “One attack on the town of Dhayra on 16 October must be investigated as a war crime because it was an indiscriminate attack that injured at least nine civilians... and was therefore unlawful,” the group added. Human Rights Watch also accused Israel of using white phosphorus in Gaza and Lebanon earlier this month — which Israel denied.

Israel-Hezbollah border skirmishes: Latest developments
Naharnet/October 31, 2023
Hezbollah targeted and destroyed Tuesday a Merkava tank in the Israeli Branit post and targeted the al-Marj Israeli post facing the southern border town of Markaba with guided missiles. It earlier fired guided missiles at an Israeli force that was setting up an ambush on a hill. Hezbollah said it inflicted casualties among the members of the Israeli force on the al-Khazzan hill near al-Assi post. Israeli drones fired four missiles on the "Iran Park" in Maroun al-Ras, and Israeli artillery shelled Markaba, the forest of Yaroun, the outskirts of Maroun al-Ras, and Blida’s outskirts after an Israeli post in Bayyad Blida was attacked. Israel also targeted Wadi al-Olleik between Merwahin and al-Bustan. Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli army shelled anew the outskirts of Ramia and al-Labbouneh, near the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura, after fighter jets struck the area overnight and again at dawn. The fighter jets also struck overnight the southern towns of Yater and Zibqine, and the outskirts of Tayr Harfa, Ramya, Dhayra and Baraashit. Israel's army said Tuesday that fighter jets have struck Hezbollah infrastructure including weapons, posts and sites in Lebanon. On Monday night, Israel fired flares at the border towns of Meis el-Jabal and Houla, after Hezbollah announced Monday having successfully targeted Israeli technical and espionage equipment in al-Metula, Ras al-Naqoura, Jal al-Alam, Branit, and al-Bayyad posts.Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon have exchanged fire with Israel almost daily since Hamas's October 7 assault on Israel, amid fears that if Hezbollah were to launch its own war with Israel, the conflict could spill over into the wider region. Nearly 29,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon due to the clashes, and more than 62 people have been killed. 48 of them are Hezbollah fighters, the others are members of the Resistance Brigades and Palestinian factions. Four civilians have been killed, including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah. More than 40,000 perennial olive trees have been burned in the south by Israeli white phosphorus bombing. Anis Abla, head of Lebanon's Civil Defense Centre in Marjayoun, near the Israeli border, said they were completely unprepared for war. "Our equipment is very primitive and there is a shortage of all tools, such as fire suits and extinguisher cylinders," he told AFP.

'It's absurd': Jumblat says he's blackmailed into not extending Aoun's term
Naharnet/October 31, 2023
Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has dubbed absurd Hezbollah and FPM chief Jebran Bassil's refusal to extend the term of Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun, ahead of his planned retirement in January. "For political reasons related to Hezbollah and Bassil, we are being blackmailed again into not extending Aoun's term," Jumblat told LBCI. "This is absurd." He added that it seems that Hezbollah agrees with Bassil, as Hezbollah is "cornered" and needs a Christian ally and Bassil knows this. "They have agreed on not extending the army chief's term, and are both imposing conditions," Jumblat said. Aoun's departure would add another gap to crisis-hit Lebanon's withering and paralyzed institutions. The tiny Mediterranean country has been without a president since Michel Aoun's term ended in October last year, while its government has been running in a limited caretaker capacity. Lebanon has also been without a top spy chief to head its General Security Directorate since March, and without a central bank governor since July. "The international efforts (to end the presidential crisis) were theoretically promising," Jumblat said. "But in practice they were fruitless."Jumblat said that Saudi Arabia has abandoned Lebanon as it has reservations about the nomination of Hezbollah's candidate Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh. "But aren't there candidates other than Franjieh and (former minister and opposition candidate Jihad) Azour?" Jumblat asked, urging Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Bassil to meet and agree on a candidate.

Report: Nasrallah to address US, Berri says Lebanon not ready for war
Naharnet/October 31, 2023
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s speech on Friday will include “a clear stance on the U.S. military reinforcements in the Eastern Mediterranean and on the direct intervention in the ongoing war in Gaza,” a media report said. “Nasrallah will also address several messages to the U.S. side and his stance will not be pacifying but rather escalatory,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported Tuesday, quoting unnamed sources.“He will speak on behalf of the entire axis, not only Hezbollah,” the daily added.
As for Speaker Nabih Berri, Nidaa al-Watan said that he has told his visitors that he “understands the threats of war, for which Lebanon is not ready.”

Israelis worried over Hezbollah as intel expert rules out escalation
Agence France Presse/October 31, 2023
Sarit Zehavi, founder and director of Alma, a research center in the upper Galilee region near Lebanon’s border, says she is worried about the safety of her family.  "I don't sleep anymore. I think non-stop about the fence around my home that I need to reinforce. About Hamas, we have seen what could happen to us," said Zehavi, a reserve lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army and mother of three children, including two teenagers. "The attacks from Lebanon are the doing of Hezbollah ... and we know today that there is no barrier that could prevent an infiltration," she added.
She then showed AFP a short Hezbollah film from 2014, in which its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, explains with a smile his group’s plan to "control Galilee" and lists Israel’s strategic points -- its factories, refineries, highways, shopping centers, airports, military bases and so on. The similarities with the attack that Hamas actually carried out are striking: massive salvos of rockets launched at northern Israel, a wave of Hezbollah commandos crossing the border and penetrating Israel, supported by drones and speed boats. "It is certain that Hezbollah has in mind to invade Galilee one day," Zehavi said.
The Israeli government is taking the threat seriously. It was concern about a possible war with Hezbollah that prompted the Israeli authorities to evacuate 22,000 residents from the nearby city of Kiryat Shmona. Only a few hundred remain, mainly the elderly or disabled -- people taken care of by the army who have had to relocate to a camp on the edge of the town. The same is true of all the kibbutz communities along the Lebanese border. Some, such as Hanita and Dafna, founded at the end of the 1930s, are now deserted.
'Determined'
A senior army officer deployed to defend the area told AFP: "We are being deployed here up north to defend our northern border against Hezbollah attack. We are ... ready to deter any attack."Every day is a combat day, every day there are multiple attacks from Hezbollah," added the officer, who did not wish to give his name. Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions have fired rockets and missiles across the border almost daily since October 7, drawing retaliatory Israeli artillery fire. At least 62 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally, mostly Hezbollah combatants but also four civilians including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah. Israeli officials have reported four deaths, including one civilian. In 2006, Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody conflict that left more than 1,200 people dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers. Veteran Israeli intelligence officer Avi Melamed said it was far from certain that Hezbollah would go to war against Israel this time. "The Iranians who control Hezbollah have a dilemma: do nothing and allow the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to continue. Or act and take the risk that Israel's response destroys Hamas and Hezbollah's ability to act," said Melamed. "That's why, at this stage, they have only launched limited attacks, so as to avoid escalation," he said.

Sami Gemayel calls for deploying army on border with Israel
Naharnet/October 31, 2023
Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel on Tuesday said that “Lebanon can still avoid being dragged into war through fully deploying the Lebanese Army on the Lebanese border.”“The Lebanese do not want war,” Gemayel said during a Joint Parliamentary Committees session aimed at discussing the government’s emergency plan for tackling the repercussions of the military developments in Gaza and south Lebanon. “Discussions in parliament should be focused on how to avoid the disaster instead of addressing its repercussions,” Gemayel added.

MP Sami Gemayel: We demand a discussion of how to avoid war and not address its repercussions
LBCI/October 31, 2023
Kataeb Party leader, MP Sami Gemayel, emphasized during a joint parliamentary committee session to discuss the government's emergency plan that Lebanon still has the potential to avoid being drawn into war. He proposed a comprehensive deployment of the Lebanese Army along the Lebanese borders to prevent any attempts to drag Lebanon into a war unwanted by its people. He called for discussions in the Parliament to focus on avoiding a catastrophe rather than addressing its consequences. Gemayel expressed his gratitude to the government for its plan, believing that having a plan is better than having none. However, he stressed that the primary goal should be to prevent a catastrophe, stressing that the ongoing war on Lebanon's borders is neither a natural disaster nor beyond Lebanon's control. He urged a shift from merely managing the war's aftermath to preventing it from the outset. He pointed out that the military reality falls within the scope of Lebanon's sovereign state authority. Gemayel hoped for the presence of the Prime Minister at the session and for a government member to brief them on the progress and expected measures to avoid such a catastrophe. While the government's plan addresses facing and managing the consequences of war, he mentioned focusing on preventing it first rather than discussing how to deal with the consequences and declaring our inability to do so.

LF bloc submits draft law for extending army chief's term
Naharnet/October 31, 2023
The Strong Republic bloc of the Lebanese Forces on Tuesday submitted a draft law aimed at extending the term of Army Commander General Joseph Aoun. “The national interest requires acting in an emergency manner, that’s why the Strong Republic bloc has submitted a draft law for extending the term of the Commander General rank to allow for continuity in the army chief post, because any flaw in the military institution would jeopardize Lebanon’s national security,” LF deputy chief MP George Adwan said. “Our proposal should directly reach a plenary session as a single item on its agenda, in order to preserve the higher national interest,” Adwan added, calling for a legislative session in the coming days. “We hope there will be an imminent session to vote on the proposal so that the people can be reassured about civil peace and the general situation,” the lawmaker went on to say.

Jumblat fears 'unorganized' factions in south might drag Lebanon into all-out war
Naharnet/October 31, 2023
Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has warned against the interference of some factions in the south, where Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging daily cross-border fire. "I prefer for the war and peace decision to remain only in the hands of Hezbollah," Jubmlat said in an interview with LBCI, as he feared that some "unorganized" organizations might drag Lebanon into an all-out war against its will. Jumblat added that French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna has warned caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker Nabih Berri that nowhere will be safe in Lebanon, in case it entered the war with Israel. "Mikati told me that no region would be spared, according to Colonna," Jumblat said.

Hezbollah announces the targeting of an Israeli Merkava tank
LBCI/October 31, 2023
Hezbollah announced in a statement on Tuesday that it had targeted an Israeli Merkava tank with guided missiles as it was moving in the vicinity of the Braniat barracks.
The attack resulted in the destruction of the tank and casualties among its crew, with one killed and another injured.

Israeli army targets Lebanese army site in Wadi Honein with six artillery shells
LBCI/October 31, 2023
The Israeli army launched an attack on a Lebanese army site in Wadi Honein with six artillery shells. In addition, the Israeli army attacked another Lebanese army position in Markaba with no casualties reported.

Fares Souaid to LBCI: This war is long, West’s priority is not to let Israel break
LBCI/October 31, 2023
Former MP Fares Souaid said on Tuesday that "the situation is not confined to Palestine and Israel; there is significant Western polarization and clear support from Western decision-making countries with Israel, and a clear distance from Arab countries."Speaking on the "Naharkom Said" TV show on LBCI, he said that “the deployment of US fleets in the high seas sends a message to anyone trying to get involved in the region by saying, 'I am here, and you can deal with me, not with Netanyahu.' He added that "this war is long, and the priorities in it for the West are not to let Israel break."He pointed out that "Hezbollah is forced to say that it is in solidarity with Gaza and carries out calculated operations so that no one asks it, 'Where were you when they needed you in the region?' And to say, 'I am keen on Lebanon's peace and did not involve it in this war.'He also noted that Iran's claim to protect the Palestinian cause and stand by the Palestinian people "is over" and it has become clear that the Palestinian people are alone, and everyone has bargained on the blood of this people. He revealed that "Nasrallah will say on Friday to Gaza, 'I stood by your side, and 50 of my fighters were martyred, and for Lebanon, he will say, 'I am Lebanese and not Palestinian because I protected Lebanon from entering the war.' He considered that "in this war, the rearrangement of the region is being done.”“I fear that this rearrangement will happen without the presence of Christians in it,” he concluded by saying.

Berri follows up on South Lebanon situation, meets Caretaker Defense Minister, former minister Aridi, South Governor
NNA/October 31, 2023
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Tuesday received at the Second Presidency in Ain El-Tineh Caretaker Minister of National Defense, Maurice Sleem, with whom he broached the general situation and the latest political and field developments, in light of the escalating Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and the Lebanese border areas with occupied Palestine. Speaker Berri also met former Minister Ghazi Aridi, over the current developments. Among Speaker Berri's itinerant visitors for today had been South Lebanon Governor, Anwar Daou, who briefed the Speaker on the situation in the south and the extent of preparedness to deal with the repercussions resulting from the escalating Israeli attacks targeting border villages and towns.

Kataeb Party: Government should prevent catastrophe instead of addressing its repercussions
NNA/October 31, 2023
During its weekly meeting, chaired by Kataeb Leader MP Samy Gemayel, the Kataeb Political Bureau discussed the latest developments in Gaza.The Kataeb Political Bureau also reviewed a number of reports concerning this matter, taking into consideration the escalation in southern Lebanon. After the meeting, the following statement was issued
1-The Kataeb Political Bureau considers that the violations that have occurred in the past few weeks against the people of Gaza, which contradict all international laws, as war crimes against humanity, saying that the most vulnerable civilians, including children and the elderly are the ones who are paying the heaviest price for these crimes. It calls on the international community to assume its responsibilities in putting an end to all these transgressions, under the risk of undermining the legitimacy of the United Nations in resolving global crises. The Kataeb Political Bureau believes that the continuation of conflict in the region as bargaining chip used by Iran and Hezbollah, allowing them to hide behind the pretext of defending the Palestinian cause while maintaining their power and using their weapons as pressure tool to achieve multifaceted gains in negotiations led by Tehran. It also believes that this strategy aims to establish itself as a key player in the region and a major player in the world, at the expense of the peoples of the region and their future. The Kataeb Political Bureau affirms that time has come to reach a final solution to the conflict that has been ongoing for more than 75 years, indicating that Palestinians have the right to live in a viable state of their own, and they should not remain a scattered people in various countries around the world. It also emphasizes the necessity of compelling all parties to implement international resolutions, starting with the two-state solution that was initiated in Beirut. 2-The Kataeb Political Bureau rejects Lebanon’s fate being determined by the agenda of an armed party or a foreign country's foreign minister, stressing that the Lebanese government and the prime minister are responsible for taking the necessary measures to prevent Lebanon from being dragged into the ongoing war and instruct the legitimate forces to put an end to calls for arming, weapon deployment, and legitimizing missile launches led by armed factions. The Kataeb Party also urges the immediate deployment of the Lebanese army along the borders to protect the country, in accordance with Resolution 1701, in coordination with peacekeeping forces. The Kataeb Political Bureau calls on the Parliament Speaker to convene a session to discuss a Lebanese plan that safeguards the country and upholds the state's right to decide on war and peace, protecting it from any slide into an inevitable catastrophe. This call is made instead of holding sub-sessions that discuss the aftermath of a war that the Lebanese did not decide on and will only bring more tragedies and collapse to the Lebanese people.-- Kataeb.org

Price of gasoline increases by 6000 LBP
LBCI
On Tuesday, October 31st 2023, the price of 95-octane and 98-octane gasoline increased by 6000 Lebanese pounds, while the price of diesel increased by 2000 Lebanese pounds. On the other hand, the price of gas decreased by 8000 Lebanese pounds.
The prices are now as follows:
-95-octane gasoline: 1,586,000 Lebanese pounds
-98-octane gasoline: 1,626,000 Lebanese pounds
-Diesel: 1,681,000 Lebanese pounds
-Gas: 960,000 Lebanese pounds

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 31-November 01/2023
Hamas commander who led attacks on border communities killed, Israel says
John Bacon, USA TODAY/October 31, 2023
Israeli fighter jets killed the Hamas commander who directed the deadly attacks on the border communities of Kibbutz Erez and Moshav Netiv HaAsara in the first hours of the war, Israeli authorities announced Tuesday.
Nasim Abu Ajina, commander of the Beit Lahia Battalion of Hamas' Northern Brigade, previously led Hamas' Aerial Array, helping develop drone and paraglider warfare for the militants, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. "His elimination significantly harms the efforts of the Hamas terrorist organization to disrupt the IDF's ground activities," the statement said. About 20 residents of Netiv HaAsara were killed when Hamas militants raced through the village on the Gaza border, shooting residents, burning homes and taking hostages during the stunning Hamas attack Oct. 7. A security team at the kibbutz repelled the militant attack there, but one member was killed. More than 1,300 Israelis were killed that day, and the total number of deaths has risen to about 1,400, Israeli authorities say. The Health Ministry in Gaza has put the Palestinian death toll at more than 8,000.
The IDF also said its combat forces struck approximately 300 targets Monday, including anti-tank missiles and military compounds inside underground Hamas tunnels. Israeli soldiers killed militants and directed air force strikes on targets and terror infrastructure, the IDF said.
Netanyahu says no cease-fire: Rejection comes as incursion into Gaza intensifies
More than 3,450 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war and the number is rising every day, UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder said Tuesday. The threat goes beyond Israel bombs. More than 1 million children of Gaza also are facing an acute water crisis, he said, calling infant and child deaths from dehydration a growing threat. And he said the psychological trauma the youths in Gaza are facing is creating a long-term cost to communities for generations to come.
“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children," Elder said, adding that the territory is "a living hell for everyone else."
Jews around the world dealing with fear
A mob stormed a Russian airport over the weekend trying to stop a plane from arriving from Tel Aviv. Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters in Barcelona last week occupied a hotel owned by an Israeli businessman. And in Berlin, vandals hurled Molotov cocktails at a synagogue last week and scrawled the Star of David on the doors of homes and apartment buildings where Jews live. An alarming rise in antisemitic acts reported across Europe and the United States in the three weeks since Hamas and Israel went to war is bringing fear into the lives of Jewish people. “The dramatic rise in antisemitism has the Jewish communities very much on edge in every part of the world,” said Ted Deutch, chief executive officer of the American Jewish Committee, a Jewish advocacy group. Read more here.
− Michael Collins
Iran says it is working for release of non-Israeli hostages
Iran is in talks with Hamas aimed at freeing hostages who were not involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and do not have Israeli citizenship, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said. Britain-based Amwaj.media reported that Iran has been approached by several countries whose citizens have been abducted and seek help facilitating their release. About 240 people were seized and taking to Gaza. Iran has repeatedly denied any involvement in the Hamas attack on Israel.
“We have had talks with Hamas officials and received positive promises,” Kanani said, adding that Israel’s “constant attacks on and bombardments in Gaza” have made the talks difficult.
“Iran will continue its efforts," he said.
Biden adviser meets with Saudi defense minister
National security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud at the White House on Monday as the Biden administration continued efforts to keep the war from expanding. A readout released by the White House said the duo affirmed the urgent need to increase humanitarian assistance in Gaza. They also emphasized the importance of working toward a sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians "building on the work that was already underway between Saudi Arabia and the United States over recent months."The Hamas attack came as U.S. officials were working on a plan to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel − a plan opposed by Hamas leadership and their longtime pledge to destroy the state of Israel.
Gaza City focus of Israeli strikes
Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said ground operations in Gaza are focused on the north, including Gaza City, which he said was the “center of gravity of Hamas.”“But we also continue to strike in other parts of Gaza. We are hunting their commanders, we are attacking their infrastructure, and whenever there is an important target that is related to Hamas, we strike it,” he said.

Israeli ground forces attack Hamas targets in north as warplanes strike across Gaza
The Associated Press/October 31, 2023
Israeli ground forces are attacking Hamas militants and infrastructure in northern Gaza as warplanes strike across the sealed-off territory. Buoyed by the first successful rescue of a captive held by Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls for a cease-fire and again vowed to crush the militant group’s ability to govern Gaza or threaten Israel. More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have fled their homes, with hundreds of thousands sheltering in packed U.N.-run schools-turned-shelters or in hospitals alongside thousands of wounded patients. The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 8,525, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 122 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them civilians slain in the initial Hamas rampage that started the fighting Oct. 7. In addition, 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group. One of the captives, a female Israeli soldier, was rescued in a special forces operation.
Currently:
Here’s what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
GAZA'S HAMAS-RUN INTERIOR MINISTRY SAYS ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES KILLED OR INJURED ABOUT 400 PEOPLE
CAIRO — Gaza's Hamas-run Interior Ministry said a number of Israeli airstrikes hit apartment blocks in a residential area of Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, leaving around 400 people either dead or injured. Ministry spokesperson Ayed al-Bazm said at a news conference that six bombs hit the residential area on Tuesday.
CYPRUS PROPOSES A SEA CORRIDOR TO DELIVER AID TO GAZA
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus is working out logistics with partners in the European Union and the Middle East to establish a sea corridor to deliver a stream of vital humanitarian aid to Gaza from the island’s main port of Limassol once the situation on the ground permits it, authorities said Tuesday. A senior government official — who spoke on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to publicly discuss details of the proposal — said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “wasn’t opposed” to the idea pitched by Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides last week.
Gaza’s humanitarian needs have escalated after the Israel-Hamas war erupted following the Palestinian militant group’s surprise Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, which left nearly 1,400 Israelis dead and at least 240 taken hostage. Israel retaliated with a military operation that has so far left over 8,300 Palestinians dead. The underlying premise of Cyprus’ proposal is to have a constant flow of large quantities of assistance delivered by sea during what the official called “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting to enable aid to reach those in need.
NATO CHIEF WARNS AGAINST ESCALATION OF MIDEAST TENSIONS
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said that Iran, Hezbollah and other groups must not abuse the current situation and escalate the tensions in the Middle East. “It is also important that this war does not escalate into a major regional conflict,” Stoltenberg said in Oslo, where he attended the annual meeting of the Nordic Council. “The suffering we have seen in recent weeks reminds us once again that we must not give up the work for a lasting, peaceful political solution to the conflict.” The eight-member regional grouping includes Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, as well as the autonomous areas of the Aland islands, the Faeroe Islands and Greenland.
WAR RAISES FEARS FOR ISRAEL'S FARMING FUTURE
ASHKELON, Israel — The soldiers guarding Avi Chivivian’s organic vegetable farm in southern Israel must first scour every corner of his fields for militants before they give him the all clear: He has six hours to work.
It’s potato planting season for the farms of southern Israel, a region near the Gaza border that the Agriculture Ministry calls the country’s “vegetable barn” because it supplies at least a third of Israel’s vegetables. But Chivivian — one of the few remaining farmers in the area since the brutal Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas militants — no longer lives by the harvest cycle. He’s on the military’s timetable.
The Israel-Hamas war has plunged Israel’s agricultural heartlands, located around the Gaza Strip and in the north near the Lebanese and Syrian borders, into crisis. Israeli airstrikes, ground operations and a siege have also upendedall manner of lifein Gaza.
Near Gaza, the military has banned all farming within 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) of the border fence and tightly monitors farmers whose lands lie just outside the no-go zone.
In the north, entire communities have been evacuated because of rocket fire from Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group. As foreign laborers flee and farming towns have emptied out, the country has begun importing more vegetables. The few remaining farmers fret for the future of Israeli agriculture.
HOUTHI REBELS SAY THEY FIRED BALLISTIC MISSILES AND DRONES AT ISRAEL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen issued a video statement on Tuesday claiming to have fired ballistic missiles and drones at Israel, saying it was the third such operation. They threatened to carry out more strikes “until the Israeli aggression stops.”The claims by the Houthis draw Iran closer into the ongoing Israel-Hamas war as Tehran remains a main sponsor. Earlier this month, a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Red Sea intercepted three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by the Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, including its capital, Sanaa. Mysterious projectiles have also struck inside Egypt, near the Israeli border.
Iran has long denied arming the Houthis even as it has been transferring rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, missiles and other weaponry to the Yemeni militia using sea routes. Independent experts, Western nations and United Nations experts have traced components seized aboard other detained vessels back to Iran.
A U.N. arms embargo has prohibited weapons transfers to the Houthis since 2014, when Yemen’s civil war erupted. There also has been at least one attack that the Houthis claimed where suspicion later fell fully on Iran. In 2019, cruise missiles and drones successfully penetrated Saudi Arabia and struck the heart of its oil industry in Abqaiq. That attack temporarily halved the kingdom’s production and spiked global energy prices by the biggest percentage since the 1991 Gulf War.
While the Houthis claimed the Abqaiq attack, the U.S., Saudi Arabia and analysts blamed Iran. U.N. experts similarly said it was “unlikely” the Houthis carried out the assault, though Tehran denied being involved.
WHO SAYS SERVICES AT HOSPITAL SEVERELY REDUCED DUE TO LACK OF POWER, SUPPLIES
CAIRO — The World Health Organization said services have been “severely reduced” at the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the main facility treating cancer patients in Gaza, due to a lack of power and dwindling supplies.
Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, the agency said reports of airstrikes in the hospital’s vicinity over the past two days were “extremely concerning.”
“Services have been severely reduced because of cut-off of electricity and restricted entry of medicines, other medical supplies, fuel and water,” the agency said.
HEZBOLLAH SAYS IT FIRED ANTI-TANK MISSILES AT ISRAELI FORCES
BEIRUT -- Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group says its fighters have fired anti-tank missiles toward an Israeli force along the border of the two countries.
Hezbollah said its fighters scored direct hits Tuesday on the Israeli force that was laying an ambush along the border.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been exchanging fire along the border following the Oct. 7 attack by the militant Hamas group on southern Israel.
GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY SAYS 219 PEOPLE DIED IN THE PAST DAY, BRINGING TOTAL TO 8,525
CAIRO — The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said Tuesday it registered the deaths of at least 219 people in the past day, bringing the death toll to 8,525 since the war began. Spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said in a televised news conference that the fatalities include 3,542 children and 2,187 women.
He said the main power generator in the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, north of Gaza, has stopped working due to a lack of fuel.
He warned that more hospitals could go out of service in the coming days if fuel isn’t allowed into the besieged territory.
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL HEAD DERIDES AMBASSADOR FOR WEARING YELLOW STAR OF DAVID
JERUSALEM -- The chairman of Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, derided Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations for putting on a yellow Star of David patch during his address to the Security Council on Monday, saying it “belittles both the victims of the Holocaust and the State of Israel.”
“The yellow patch symbolizes the helplessness of the Jewish people when it was at the mercy of others,” Dayan posted on X, formerly called Twitter. “Today we have an independent state and a strong army. We are masters of our fate. Today we put on our lapels the blue and white flag (of Israel), not a yellow patch.”
Nazis forced Jews to wear yellow six-pointed Star of David patches during the Holocaust. Ambassador Gilad Erdan donned the patch during a council meeting on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where more than 8,300 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, hundreds of thousands have been displaced, and food and basic supplies have dwindled sharply since Israel went to war against the Palestinian territory’s Hamas rulers.
Erdan told the Security Council that he would wear the patch, inscribed with the words “Never Again,” until the council condemns Hamas’s bloody Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel, which touched off the war. More than 1,400 people were killed and about 240 taken hostage during the attack.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION URGES IMMEDIATE AID FOR ISRAEL AND UKRAINE
WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make the case Tuesday that the United States should immediately send aid to Israel and Ukraine, testifying at a Senate hearing as the administration’s massive $105 billion emergency aid request for conflicts in those countries and others has already hit roadblocks in the divided Congress.
President Joe Biden’s Cabinet secretaries will be advocating for the foreign aid to a mostly friendly audience in the Senate, where majority Democrats and many Republicans support tying aid for the two countries together. But it faces much deeper problems in the Republican-led House, where new Speaker Mike Johnson has proposed cutting out the Ukraine aid and focusing on Israel alone, and cutting money for the Internal Revenue Service to pay for it.
The drastically narrowed House proposal, which would cost more than $14 billion, faced immediate resistance among Senate Democrats -- and put pressure on Senate Republicans who support the Ukraine aid but are conscious of growing concerns about it within their party. The differing approaches signal problems ahead for the aid as both countries engage in long-simmering, defining conflicts that Biden and many U.S. lawmakers say could have fundamental ramifications for the rest of the world.
UNRWA HEAD SAYS CIVIL ORDER BREAKDOWN ENDANGERS AGENCY'S OPERATIONS
UNITED NATIONS — The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees is warning that “an immediate humanitarian cease-fire has become a matter of life and death for millions,” stressing that “the present and future of Palestinians and Israelis depend on it.”Philippe Lazzarini warned during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday that a further breakdown of civil order, following the recent break-ins at the agency's warehouses by panicked Palestinians searching for food and other aid, will make it extremely difficult for the largest U.N. agency in Gaza to continue operating.He said in a virtual briefing that he is worried about a spillover of the conflict and urged all 193 U.N. member nations “to change the trajectory of this crisis."
The commissioner-general of the agency known as UNRWA, also said 64 of its staff have been killed in just over three weeks — the latest only two hours prior when UNRWA’s head of security in mid-Gaza was killed with his wife and eight children.
Lazzarini said most Palestinians in Gaza “feel trapped in a war they have nothing to do with” and “they feel the world is equating all of them to Hamas.” He stressed that the Oct. 7 Hamas atrocities in Israel don’t absolve Israel from its obligations under international humanitarian law, starting with the protection of civilians.

Israeli forces battle Hamas around Gaza City, as military says 800,000 have fled south
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)/October 31, 2023
— Israeli troops battled Hamas militants and attacked underground compounds on Tuesday with a focus on northern Gaza, from which an estimated 800,000 Palestinians have fled south despite continued Israeli bombardment across the besieged enclave.
Buoyed by the first successful rescue of a captive held by Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls for a cease-fire and again vowed to crush Hamas' ability to govern Gaza or threaten Israel following its bloody Oct. 7 rampage, which ignited the war.
More than half the territory's 2.3 million Palestinians have fled their homes, with hundreds of thousands sheltering in packed U.N.-run schools-turned-shelters or in hospitals alongside thousands of wounded patients. Israeli strikes have hit closer to several northern hospitals in recent days, alarming medics.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, says nearly 672,000 Palestinians are sheltering in its schools and other facilities — four times their capacity. Thousands of people broke into its aid warehouses over the weekend to take food, as supplies of basic goods have dwindled because of the Israeli siege. There has been no central electricity in Gaza for weeks, and Israel has barred the entry of fuel needed to power emergency generators for hospitals and homes. UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini accused Israel of “collective punishment” of the Palestinians, and of forcing their displacement from northern Gaza to the south, where they are still not safe. The agency, which hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza rely on for basic services even in normal times, says 64 of its staff have been killed since the start of the war, including a man killed alongside his wife and eight children in a strike late Monday.
“This is the highest number ever of U.N. aid workers killed in any conflict around the world in such a short time,” spokesperson Juliette Touma told The Associated Press. “UNRWA will never be the same without these colleagues.”
The war has also threatened to ignite even heavier fighting on other fronts. Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group have traded fire on a daily basis along the border, and Israel and the U.S. have struck targets in Syria linked to Iran, which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups in the region.
The military said it shot down what appeared to be a drone near the southernmost city of Eilat and intercepted a missile over the Red Sea on Tuesday, neither of which entered Israeli airspace. It did not say who launched them, but earlier this month, a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Red Sea intercepted three cruise missiles and several drones launched toward Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
In the occupied West Bank, where Israeli-Palestinian violence has also surged, the army demolished the family home of Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official exiled over a decade ago. Ali Kaseeb, head of the local council in the village of Aroura, said the home had been vacant for 15 years. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said ground operations in Gaza are focused on the north, including Gaza City, which he said was the “center of gravity of Hamas." “But we also continue to strike in other parts of Gaza. We are hunting their commanders, we are attacking their infrastructure, and whenever there is an important target that is related to Hamas, we strike it," he said. The military said it struck some 300 militant targets over the past day, including compounds inside tunnels, and that troops had engaged in several battles with Palestinian militants armed with antitank missiles and machine guns.
Hamas released its own video showing what it said was a battle in northern Gaza on Sunday. A fighter wearing a GoPro-style camera emerged from a tunnel with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and ran across sand dunes and shrubs with other militants amid the clatter of gunfire. It was not possible to independently confirm the reports.
Larger ground operations have been launched both north and east of Gaza City, which before the war was home to over 650,000 people.
Video footage released by the military showed soldiers walking across an open area as heavy gunfire echoes in the background and setting up a position in the ruins of a heavily damaged building. Conricus said some 800,000 people have heeded the Israeli military's orders to flee from the northern part of the strip to the south. But tens of thousands of people remain in and around Gaza City, and casualties are expected to mount on both sides as the battle moves into dense, residential neighborhoods.
The window to flee south may be closing, as Israeli forces reached Gaza's main north-south highway this week. Video circulating Monday showed a tank opening fire on a car that had approached a sand berm but was turning around. Gaza's Health Ministry said three people were killed. Zaki Abdel-Hay, a Palestinian man living a few minutes' walk from the road south of Gaza City, said people are afraid to use it. “People are very scared. The Israeli tanks are still close,” he said over the phone, adding that “constant artillery fire” could be heard near the road.
In a news conference late Monday, Netanyahu rejected calls for a cease-fire to facilitate the release of captives or end the war, which he has said will be long and difficult. “Calls for a cease-fire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas,” he told a news conference. "That will not happen.” Netanyahu, who faces mounting anger over Israel's failure to prevent the worst surprise attack on the country in a half century, also said he had no plans to resign. More than 8,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war, mostly women and minors, the Gaza Health Ministry said Monday. The figure is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas' initial attack, also an unprecedented figure. Palestinian militants have continued firing rockets into Israel.
The military said Monday that special forces rescued one of the estimated 240 captives seized by Palestinian militants during the wide-ranging assault. It said Pvt. Ori Megidish, 19, was “doing well” and had been reunited with her family.
Hamas has released four hostages, and has said it would let the others go in return for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, which has dismissed the offer. Hamas released a short video Monday showing three other female captives.
Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, meanwhile, continues to worsen. The World Health Organization said two hospitals have been damaged and an ambulance destroyed in Gaza over the last two days. It said all 13 hospitals operating in the north have received Israeli evacuation orders in recent days. Medics have refused such orders, saying it would be a death sentence for patients on life support. Israel says it targets Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate among civilians, putting them in danger. Israel has allowed more than 150 trucks loaded with food and medicine to enter Gaza from Egypt over the past several days, but aid workers say it's not enough to meet rapidly growing needs. Israel says it has reopened two main water lines in Gaza, but the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs said one of them had stopped working after operating for two weeks and that the other one was in need of repairs.

Israel’s ‘Teddy Bear’ armoured bulldozer is anything but cuddly
Andrew Buncombe/The Telegraph/October 31, 2023
The armoured bulldozer the Israeli military is using to spearhead its land invasion of Gaza may be nicknamed the “Teddy Bear” but it has a reputation for being anything but cuddly. Weighing in at some 60 tons, the “D9R” machine is 13ft tall and almost 15ft wide. It is equipped with armour, a large front dozer blade and a bullet-proof cockpit where a two-person crew is protected against sniper fire. In 2015, the Israel Defense Force (IDF), which started using the US-made bulldozers in 1967, upgraded the machine with so-called “slat armour”to better protect them against RPGs, or rocket-propelled grenades. In recent days, as Israel has commenced its ground assault on Gaza, three weeks after Hamas terrorists killed 1,400 Israelis in an attack that jolted the nation, the bulldozers have been pictured operating both in the enclave and in the West Bank. Reports suggest that as many as 100 of the machines, which cost up $1 millon each, could be used in the assault. Hamas’s Al Qassam brigades on Tuesday claimed they had targeted two Israeli tanks and bulldozers in north-west Gaza. It is likely the machines will be used to protect troops and destroy any booby traps that have been set by Hamas. The machines, which are produced by Texas-based Caterpillar, have a controversial history. They were used in the 2008-09 Gaza war known as Operation Cast Lead, which left up to 1,400 dead. In March 2003, Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist, was crushed to death by a D9R bulldozer as she tried to protect homes in southern Gaza that are once again coming under attack by Israeli bombs. The Israeli military said its driver had not seen the 23-year-old activist from Olympia, Washington, and claimed it was an accident. Her parents, Craig and Cindy, fought a long legal battle and persuaded some of the activists who had been with her to testify, but in 2012 an Israeli court found against the couple. They were also prevented by court from suing Caterpillar in the US, because the bulldozers were sold to Israel as part of a policy of the US government. Rachel’s parents dedicated themselves to trying to raise awareness about the conflict and working for peace. They established a foundation in their daughter’s name. In the aftermath of the Oct 7 attacks by Hamas, it issued a statement that said: “There is no conceivable justification for the atrocities and war crimes committed by Hamas that claimed the lives of so many Israeli civilians and impacted so many more.” It also said it was “deeply disturbed” by the Israeli reprisals that had killed thousands of Palestinians.. Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father, told The Telegraph it was difficult to watch the news about what was happening in Gaza, 20 years after his daughter was killed there as she sought to work for peace. He said he had heard people talking about the “Teddy Bear” or Doobi, as it is referred to in Hebrew, for 20 years. Caterpillar was founded in 1925 and its products first used in combat during the Second World War. Its bulldozers were also used by US forces during the Vietnam War to clear forests. Israel has made use of bulldozers in several conflicts. Caterpillar did not respond to qrequests for comment. Mr Corrie, 76, said he was horrified by the sight of buildings being destroyed by Israel’s bomb attacks. The Hamas-controlled health ministry claims that as many as 8,000 Palestinians have been killed.
“I see the damage that is happening with the bombing, the wholesale bombing, and knowing it’s crushing people underneath those buildings,” he said. “And in some cases, people are still alive. They can’t be dug out. Because there’s no power.”
‘War machines’
Asked about the bulldozers being used, he said they were “war machines”.
“You can put those things in low [gear] and just go through all of these concrete reinforced buildings,” he said. “[If they run over people] they will be crushed.” Mr Corrie said the only solution was for an immediate ceasefire, something Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has rejected. He also said there needed to be a wholesale solution to the Israel-Palestine dilemma. “We need to work out a long term solution,” he said. “We can’t go back to the status quo, because that was crushing a whole people. And sooner or later, it was going to explode.”

What China wants from Israel-Hamas war
Tessa Wong - Asia Digital Reporter, BBC News/October 31, 2023
As the conflict between Israel and Hamas intensifies, an unlikely development has emerged - China playing the part of peace broker. But there are limits to what it can achieve. China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, discussed the conflict with officials in Washington at the weekend amid fears of a bigger regional war. The US has pledged it would work with China on trying to find a resolution. Mr Wang has also spoken to his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts after China's Middle East special envoy Zhai Jun flew to the region to meet Arab leaders. It has also been one of the most vocal proponents of a ceasefire in UN meetings. There are hopes China could tap into its close relationship with Iran, which backs Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, to de-escalate the situation. US officials apparently pressed Mr Wang to "urge calm" with the Iranians, reported the Financial Times. China is Iran's biggest trade partner, and earlier this year Beijing brokered a rare détente between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Tehran says it "stands ready to strengthen communication with China" on resolving the situation in Gaza. As the Chinese government has had a relatively balanced relationship with all actors in the conflict, they could be perceived as an honest broker, said Dawn Murphy, an associate professor who studies Chinese foreign policy at the National War College under the US Department of Defense. In particular, China has positive relations with the Palestinians, Arabs, Turkey and Iran, she said. "Together with the US which has good relations with Israel, they could bring all of the players to the table."
But other observers point out that China remains a minor player in Middle East politics.
"China is not a serious actor on this issue. Talking to people around the region, nobody expects China to contribute to the solution," said Jonathan Fulton, a non-resident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council who specialises in China's relations with the Middle East. China's first statement on the conflict angered Israel which expressed "deep disappointment" that China did not condemn Hamas nor mention Israel's right to defend itself. Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented assault on Israel from the Gaza Strip on 7 October, killing more than 1,400 people and taking at least 239 hostages.
Since then, Israel has been carrying out retaliatory strikes on Gaza, in which more than 8,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel has now also sent troops and tanks into the territory. After the furore over its first statement, Mr Wang later told Israel that "all countries have the right to self-defence" - but he also said elsewhere that Israel's actions have gone "beyond the scope of self-defence".China faces a difficult balancing act because it has long openly sympathised with the Palestinian cause. It stretches back to Chinese Communist Party founder Mao Zedong, who sent weapons to Palestinians in support for so-called "national liberation" movements around the world. Mao even compared Israel to Taiwan - both backed by the US - as bases of Western imperialism.
China has in the past sided with the Palestinian cause
In later decades China opened up economically and normalised relations with Israel, with whom it now has a billion-dollar trade relationship. But China has made it clear it continues to support the Palestinians. In their remarks on the latest conflict, Chinese officials and even President Xi Jinping have stressed the need for an independent Palestinian state. One side effect is an uptick in antisemitism online, fanned by nationalist bloggers. Some on Chinese social media have equated Israel's actions to Nazism by accusing them of carrying out a genocide on Palestinians, prompting a rebuke from the German embassy in Beijing. The stabbing of a family member of an Israeli embassy employee in Beijing has also added to the unease. All this may not be a good look for China when it's trying to engage the Israeli government.
Given the uncertainties, why is China getting involved?
One reason is its economic interests in the Middle East, which would be endangered if the conflict widens. Beijing is now heavily dependent on foreign imports for oil, and analysts estimate about half of that comes from the Gulf. Middle Eastern countries have increasingly become important players in China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a cornerstone of its foreign and economic policy. China believes that "standing up for the Palestinians resonates with Arab countries, Muslim-majority countries and large portions of the Global South", pointed out Dr Murphy. The war has erupted at a time when China is presenting itself as a better suitor for the world than the US. Since the start of the year, it has promoted a vision of a Chinese-led world order while criticising what it sees as the failures of US "hegemonic" leadership. Officially, China has refrained from attacking the US for its support of Israel. But at the same time state media is "ginning up the nationalist response… tying what's happening in the Middle East with the US support of Israel," noted Dr Murphy. Chinese military newspaper PLA Daily accused the US of "adding fuel to the fire" - the same rhetoric Beijing has used to criticise Washington for helping Kyiv in the Ukraine war. The state-run, English language newspaper The Global Times published a cartoon of Uncle Sam with bloodstained hands. One view among observers is that Beijing is contrasting its position against the US so it can lower its Western rival's global standing. But by not explicitly condemning Hamas, China also risks undermining its own position. There are challenges China faces in its long-term ambitions. One is how it can square its diplomatic position with its own track record. While it expresses solidarity with Muslim-majority nations and opposes Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, Beijing remains accused of committing rights abuses and genocide of the Uyghur Muslim minority, as well as forced assimilation in Tibet. Observers say that this would probably not be an issue for the Arab world, given the strong relations China has built with them. The bigger problem is Beijing risks being seen as superficial in its engagement, or even worse, capitalising on the Israel-Hamas conflict to advance its own interests. China assumes that "by saying you support Palestine you'll score points with Arab countries, and that is a cookie-cutter approach," said Dr Fulton, noting there is not some unified voice among Arab states on the highly divisive issue. Mr Wang has claimed China only seeks peace for the Middle East and has "no selfish interests on the Palestinian question". The challenge will be to convince the world this is true.

Israel's UN delegates criticised for wearing yellow stars as 'symbol of pride'
(Reuters)/October 31, 2023
The chairman of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center on Tuesday criticised the country's delegation to the United Nations for putting on yellow stars, a symbol of Nazi persecution of Jews, during a meeting of the Security Council. The Nazis forced Jews in Germany and some European countries it occupied during World War Two to wear yellow stars on their clothing as part of a programme of persecution that culminated in the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered. Memories of the Holocaust have been close to the surface in Israel and beyond since Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters killed some 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel -- the worst loss of Jewish life in a day since the Nazi genocide. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders have drawn direct comparisons between the Hamas attack and the Nazi persecution of the Jews but the spat over the use of the yellow star symbol underlines how sensitive comparisons with the Holocaust remain for many. Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan, and fellow delegates put yellow stars with the words "Never Again" written on them on their jackets during a debate on Monday about the subsequent war on Hamas launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip. Erdan said the stars were "a symbol of pride, a reminder that we swore to fight back to defend ourselves", adding that antisemites had been empowered and hatred of Jews was growing in many countries. But Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, which is recognised around the world as an authoritative source of Holocaust scholarship and place of remembrance, said the act dishonoured victims of the genocide as well as the State of Israel. "The yellow patch symbolises the helplessness of the Jewish people and being at the mercy of others," he said on social media platform X. "Today we have an independent country and a strong army. We are masters of our destiny. Today we put a blue-white flag on the lapel, not a yellow patch."

No ceasefire in Gaza, no votes, Muslim Americans tell Biden
WASHINGTON (Reuters) /October 31, 2023
Muslim Americans and some Democratic Party activists say they will work to mobilize millions of Muslim voters to withhold donations and votes towards President Joe Biden's 2024 reelection unless he takes immediate steps to secure a Gaza ceasefire. The National Muslim Democratic Council, which includes Democratic Party leaders from hotly contested states likely to decide the election, such as Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, called on Biden to use his influence with Israel to broker a ceasefire by 5 p.m. ET (2100 GMT) on Tuesday. In an open letter entitled "2023 Ceasefire Ultimatum," the Muslim leaders pledged to mobilize Muslim voters to "withhold endorsement, support, or votes for any candidate who endorses the Israeli offensive against the Palestinian people." "Your administration's unconditional support, encompassing funding and armaments, has played a significant role in perpetuating the violence that is causing civilian casualties and has eroded trust in voters who previously put their faith in you," the council wrote. Former U.S. Representative Keith Ellison, Minnesota's attorney general and the first Muslim elected to Congress, and Representative Andre Carson of Indiana are the organization's founding co-chairs.
The letter is the latest sign of growing anger and frustration in Arab and Muslim American communities about Biden's failure to condemn Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip after an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants from Gaza that Israeli officials say killed 1,400 people and took 239 hostages.
Medical authorities in Gaza on Monday said 8,306 people, including 3,457 children, had been killed in Israel's three-week-old air and ground onslaught. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he would not agree to any cessation of the attacks on Gaza. U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby said, "Hamas is the only one that would gain from that right now." Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American lawmaker from Minnesota, on Monday released a 90-second video on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, decrying Biden's support of what she called "Israel's genocidal campaign in Palestine," adding "Don't count on our vote in 2024." Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento Valley Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said Muslim votes could be crucial for Biden in his 2024 bid for a second term, noting that Michigan's 16 electoral votes were won by a narrow margin of just 2.6% in 2020. Muslim Americans in Minnesota, where Biden plans to visit on Wednesday, last week issued a similar ceasefire ultimatum, with a noon Tuesday deadline. They said they planned a protest on Wednesday when the president visits their state.
Biden's reelection campaign had no immediate comment. Biden hosted a meeting last Thursday with a handful of Muslim leaders, a White House official said, adding that administration officials continue to meet with Arab and Muslim community members concerned by Biden's handling of the crisis.
Although a self-described Zionist president, Biden has appointed more Arab Americans and Muslims to political posts than any predecessor, as well as the first two Muslim federal judges. Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR in Minnesota, said Muslim American leaders in other contested states that are crucial to Biden's 2024 reelection will make similar demands. "We expect Wisconsin, Ohio and other states to do the same this week," said Hussein. Hussein said he had no option but to vote against Biden in 2024 unless he called for fighting to stop. He said he was speaking as an individual, not on behalf of CAIR.Around 70% of Muslim Americans backed Biden in 2020, Hussein said. Muslim American community leaders in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ahmet Tekelioglu, executive director of CAIR in Philadelphia, said Muslim Americans in the state were calling for an immediate ceasefire but he was not aware of plans to set a deadline.

A UN envoy says the Israel-Hamas war is spilling into Syria, adding to growing instability there
UNITED NATIONS (AP)/October 31, 2023
The Israel-Hamas war is spilling into Syria, fueled by growing instability, violence and a lack of progress toward a political solution to its 12-year conflict, the United Nations special envoy for the country said Monday. Geir Pedersen told the Security Council that, on top of violence from the Syrian conflict, the Syrian people now face “a terrifying prospect of a potential wider escalation” following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the ongoing retaliatory military action. “Spillover into Syria is not just a risk; it has already begun,” the U.N. envoy for Syria said. Pedersen pointed to airstrikes attributed to Israel hitting Syria's airports in Aleppo and Damascus several times, and retaliation by the United States against what it said were multiple attacks on its forces “by groups that it claims are backed by Iran, including on Syrian territory.”With the region “at its most dangerous and tense,” he said, “fuel is being added to a tinderbox that was already beginning to ignite” in Syria, which was seeing a surge in violence even before Oct. 7. Pedersen said the number of Syrians killed, injured and displaced is at its highest since 2020, citing a significant intensification of attacks in government-controlled areas, including an unclaimed attack on a graduation ceremony at a military academy in Homs, which the government attributes to terrorist organizations. He also reported government rocket attacks throughout October on Hayat Tahrir al Sham — the insurgent group that rules much of rebel-held northwest Syria — as well as a major escalation of Turkish strikes in the northeast following an attack on Turkish government facilities in Ankara. The Turkish strikes have killed dozens, damaged health facilities, schools and camps, and displaced more than 120,000 civilians, he said. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused “terrorist groups,” some backed by Syria and Iran, of threating to expand the Gaza conflict “by using Syrian territory to plot and launch attacks against Israel.” She also accused Syria of allowing Iran and terrorist groups to use its international airports for military purposes. “We call on the regime to curb the activities of Iran-backed militias in Syria, stop the flow of foreign arms and fighters through its territory, and cease escalatory actions in the Golan Heights,” she said. “The United States has warned all actors not to take advantage of the situation in Gaza to widen or deepen the conflict,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “And we’ve made clear that we will respond to attacks on our own personnel and facilities in Syria or against U.S. interests, and where appropriate exercise our right to self-defense forcefully, proportionately and in a manner that minimizes civilian harm.” Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia of Russia, Syria’s closest ally, accused Israeli forces of striking sites in Syria, including civilian airports, and called U.S. attacks in the country “illegitimate actions” and “a gross violation of Syria’s sovereignty.” He also claimed U.S. economic interests and involvement “in contraband with Syrian grain and oil” have prevailed over political interests. Nebenzia said there is a sharp increase in tensions around the Israel-Hamas conflict and attacks like the ones by the U.S. might provoke spillover to the entire region. “This must not be deemed acceptable," he said. Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Iravani refuted all U.S. claims, saying his country is in Syria at Damascus' request to fight terrorism. He accused Washington of attempting “to shift the blame from the culprit to the victim.”Iravani told the council the United States’ “unwavering support” for Israel “has rendered it part of the problem.” He said the U.S. and some Western countries were attempting to give Israel an unjust right to self-defense while ignoring the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, and equating the Palestinian resistance with terrorism. “Iran’s primary objective is to avoid any escalation in the region,” the ambassador stressed, which is why it has endorsed international calls for an immediate cease-fire and humanitarian aid for people in Gaza. However, Iravani said Iran will respond to any threat, attack or aggression endangering its security.

Why Israel's push into Gaza is killing so many children
Lila Hassan,Mattathias Schwartz/Business Insider/October 31, 2023
Israel-Hamas violence has killed more than 3,000 children. Almost all are Palestinians hit by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Children account for a startlingly high share of Palestinians killed in Gaza — roughly 41%. Gaza's demography, geography, and IDF military tactics have contributed to the high death toll.
The Israel-Hamas conflict is killing children at a rate faster than almost every other armed conflict in decades, and it is not yet one month old. The overwhelming majority of the children — a reported 3,542 as of October 30, as compared to more than 30 children reportedly killed on the Israeli side — have been Palestinians living in Gaza. The only comprehensive statistics for civilian casualties in Gaza come from the Palestinian Health Ministry, an agency of Gaza's Hamas-run government whose credibility has come under fire after it blamed an explosion at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza on Israeli forces — a claim disputed by a number of open-source researchers and the assessment of the US intelligence community. After President Joe Biden publicly doubted the accuracy of its casualty statistics, the Health Ministry released a list containing the names, ID numbers, and ages of every individual killed by Israeli airstrikes. Insider was unable to verify the list, which has been endorsed by officials from the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
Out of every ten people listed as killed by the Health Ministry, four were children. That proportion of child deaths exceeds all other recent armed conflicts, including Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Israeli warplanes have relentlessly bombarded the 25-mile-long strip after Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attacks, which killed an estimated 1,400 Israelis. More than 200 Israelis were taken hostage, including an estimated 30 children. Many were tortured. On Sunday, international humanitarian organization Save The Children said that the number of children killed in Gaza in three weeks surpasses the total number of children killed in all global conflict zones since 2019. To find a comparable death toll, one would have to go back to the Syrian civil war, which killed 27,126 children over a period of more than ten years, or the ongoing Yemeni civil war, in which 3,774 children have died in seven years of fighting, according to the UN.
The Israel-Hamas conflict, by comparison, is less than a month old and continues to intensify as Israel begins ground operations in Gaza. Neither Syria nor Yemen saw children accounting for such a large share of civilian deaths.
Geography, demography — and a relentless air assault
Several factors contribute to the elevated death toll among children, experts told Insider. Demographics and geography play a role — nearly half of Gaza's population of 2.1 million are 18 or younger. In addition to being one of the most densely packed areas in the world, Gaza's terrain is mostly flat, increasing the effective range of bombs and explosives. And Hamas, which sparked this most recent round of violence with the brutal and indiscriminate October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians, operates beside and beneath an urban environment from which it is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for residents to escape. But the Israeli strategy of assailing Gaza with wave after wave of airstrikes is also to blame, according to Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. Sheltering in UN-operated refugee camps, schools and hospitals creates risks for more civilian casualties because people are congregated in areas under attack, Shakir said. "The intensity of the bombardment they've carried out carries a foreseeable risk to civilian harm," Shakir said. "We're seeing that at a different degree of intensity. The significant death toll is in line with the intense type of bombardment."
"The 6,000 bombs that Israel said it dropped on Gaza during the first week is an incredible number," said Brian Finucane, a former State Department adviser on the law of war, now at the International Crisis Group. "That's more than the US coalition against ISIS would drop in an entire month."
And, Finucane added, there are reasons to doubt whether Israel has an accurate picture of exactly who those bombs are falling on. "Israel's failure to anticipate the atrocities of October 7 call into question the quality of intelligence about any pre-planned targets," he said. "Whether or not they remain lawful military objectives, and whether Israeli intelligence regarding collateral civilian harm is up to date."
'A growing stain on our collective conscience'
Children constitute 41% of the 8,525 Palestinians killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry. On the Israeli side, more than 30 children were killed in Hamas' attack, according to the United Nations. Neither the Israeli nor Gaza statistics have been independently verified. The UN has historically found the reporting of civil authorities in Gaza to be reliable. UNICEF, which has called for an immediate ceasefire days before Israel expanded its ground invasion operations in Gaza, said the "staggering" death toll of children is "a growing stain on our collective conscience."
Shortly after Biden's comments casting doubt on Palestinian casualty figures, HuffPost reported that 20 State Department "situation reports" cited the Health Ministry's numbers internally. In one of those reports on October 21, an official wrote that the numbers are "likely much higher," attributing the discrepancy to the UN and NGOs on the ground. On October 13, Israel issued an evacuation order to 1.1 million residents of Northern Gaza, asking them to move south. But those Palestinians who followed the instructions of the Israeli government and relocated to the south did not escape the threat of Israeli airstrikes. Some Israeli planes continued to target southern Gaza after the evacuation order. Among the victims were the son and grandson of Al Jazeera Arabic's Gaza bureau chief, who died in an Israeli airstrike on October 25. Gaza is already crowded, and Israel's evacuation orders have packed the civilian population into even smaller areas. Much of the disproportionate effect on children has to do with the scale of the offense in this shrinking, overcrowded space, according to Shakir, HRW's Israel and Palestine director.
Israel says its attacks are highly regulated and reviewed by lawyers
In a statement to Insider, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said they are adhering to the Law of Armed Conflict, which requires combatants to balance military necessity against the protection of civilian life. The IDF has "a highly-regulated, multi-tiered process for approving pre-planned attacks against military objectives," the spokesperson wrote. Military lawyers "are on hand at all levels of command to ensure that strikes comply with international legal obligations, including proportionality."The IDF's professed adherence to international law stands in contrast to statements made during the conflict by Israel's political leaders, who have promised to deliver no-holds-barred vengeance for the Hamas attacks. "We will cripple them mercilessly and avenge this black day they have brought upon Israel and its citizens," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Residents of Gaza, get out now. We will be everywhere and with all our might."Yoav Gallant, Israel's Minister of Defense, said he was removing "all restraints" from Israel's response and characterized his targets as "human animals.""It is an entire nation out there that is responsible," said Israeli President Isaac Herzog. "It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It's absolutely not true."Herzog later said he did not mean to imply that Palestinian civilians were legitimate targets. Nevertheless, a spokesperson for the IDF reportedly said airstrikes on Gaza would prioritize "damage, not accuracy."
In a follow-up email, Insider asked the IDF spokesperson whether Israel had imposed any special measures to protect the lives of children. The spokesperson said that Israel was operating "in stark contrast" to "Hamas' barbaric attacks." "The IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm," they wrote, without providing specifics.
The International Criminal Court has been investigating Israel for war crimes since 2019
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan said on Sunday that Israel, by impeding aid, could be investigated for war crimes. Collective punishment and starving civilians are both banned by the laws of war.
"It's alarming to see the bodies of young children that could be our own children being dragged, baked in dust, still, silent, motionless because they're dead — or with injuries and blood — being rushed to medical facilities that may not have the means to fix them and give them a chance to breathe the air and see the sun of tomorrow," Khan said in Cairo. Khan's remarks appeared to suggest that Hamas as well as Israel could potentially find themselves prosecuted by the ICC. Since 2019, the court has had an open investigation into potential Israeli war crimes.
The high death toll, disabling injuries, and "undignified" ways in which children's families, friends, and neighbors have been killed in Israeli airstrikes will also cause surviving children deep psychological trauma and physical pain, according to senior Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group, Tahani Mustafa.
"They are seeing their entire world get destroyed," Mustafa said. Given the blockade imposed by Israel, which for a time completely stopped the flow of food and water, and continues to cut off fuel from entering into Gaza, children are also witnessing the way they have had to store bodies, including in ice cream trucks. This kind of trauma and violence, Mustafa said, "does nothing for political inclination for these young people."
Historically, many Palestinians who have taken up arms against Israelis "have been victims of these sorts of violence," Mustafa said. "Never mind the deep psychological trauma and physical pain. Politically, this serves neither side."
Abandoning 'roof knocks'
During past Gaza offensives, Israel sometimes warned civilians inside targeted buildings with phone calls, leaflets, or by deploying low-yield munitions on buildings in advance of a major strike, a practice known as "roof knocking." An IDF officer told the New York Times that the Israeli Air Force was too busy dropping bombs on targets to use the tactic this time. Instead of roof knocks, Israel is issuing mass evacuation orders and flyers stating that "anyone who is near Hamas fighters will put their lives in danger."
The volume of the current bombing campaign, combined with the lack of specific warnings, has killed far more children and at a much faster rate than previous Israeli offensives in Gaza. During Operation Protective Edge, in 2014, 521 out of the 1,483 civilians killed were children — 35 percent — according to the United Nations. That campaign went on for 50 days. Already, operating on the same terrain, the current Israeli offensive has killed more than six times the number of children in roughly half the time.
*Lila Hassan is a freelance investigative reporter covering extremism and immigration. She can be reached at Lila@lila-hassan.com
*Mattathias Schwartz is chief national security correspondent at Insider. He can be reached at schwartz79@protonmail.com.

Hamas attack will inspire greatest US terror threat since ISIS - FBI director
WASHINGTON (Reuters)/October 31, 2023
The attack by Hamas on Israel will inspire the most significant terror threat to the United States since the rise of ISIS nearly a decade ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a congressional hearing on Tuesday. Wray said that since the start of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza earlier this month, multiple foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West, raising the threat posed by homegrown U.S. violent extremists. "The actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven't seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate several years ago," Wray said. The remarks came during a hearing before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee focused on threats to the United States. The U.S. government has seen an increase in threats against Jews, Muslims and Arab Americans since fighting broke out in Gaza, officials have said. The number of attacks on U.S. military bases overseas by Iran-backed militia groups have risen this month, Wray said. Cyber attacks against the United States by Iran and non-state actors will likely worsen if the conflict expands, he said. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. During the hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that hate directed at Jewish students in the United States following the start of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza had added to an increase in antisemitism. The White House expressed alarm this week at reports of anti-Jewish incidents at U.S. universities as tensions have prompted university officials to tighten security. Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican, grilled Mayorkas about why a U.S. asylum officer who reportedly made anti-Israel social media posts had been placed on leave but not fired, saying the employee was "celebrating genocide." Mayorkas said it was "despicable" to suggest the posts reflected the view of U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees, noting that his own mother was a Holocaust survivor. At a ransomware summit organized by the White House on Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he had directed the Justice Department to assist Israeli investigators probing financial flows to Hamas, including those involving cryptocurrency.

US Senate confirms Lew to be ambassador to Israel
WASHINGTON (Reuters)/October 31, 2023
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday backed President Joe Biden's nominee, former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, despite Republican objections over his past dealings with Iran. The Senate voted 53 to 43, largely along party lines, with Biden's fellow Democrats backing Lew and most Republicans opposing him. Lew needed only a simple majority in the 100-member Senate to win confirmation. Democrats had pushed to fill the vacancy at the embassy in Israel quickly in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel from Gaza by Iran-backed Hamas militants.
Republicans sharply criticized Lew over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal sealed during former Democratic President Barack Obama's administration. They criticized Lew's work while in Obama's cabinet to implement the agreement with a country that is a sworn enemy of Israel. Supporting Lew, Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who chairs the foreign relations panel, noted Lew's qualifications and said Israel had welcomed his nomination. "I would hope my colleagues would vote for his confirmation recognizing that we could not have a more qualified individual representing America as our ambassador to Israel," Cardin said. Urging "no" votes, Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he wanted to support Israel but felt Lew had mishandled dealings with Iran by giving it access to U.S. financial markets. He called Lew's selection "very disappointing."Republicans - and some Democrats - objected to the international nuclear pact, in which Iran agreed to halt its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Republican former President Donald Trump, who took office in 2017, pulled Washington out of the pact in 2018. Washington has not had an ambassador to Israel since July, when Tom Nides left the post. Biden nominated Lew in September.

'Fierce battles' as Israeli army pushes deeper into Gaza
Agence France Presse/October 31, 2023
Israeli forces were engaged in "fierce battles" with Hamas militants inside the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the army said, as it continued to pummel the Palestinian territory with air and artillery strikes. Israeli forces are "engaged in fierce battles with Hamas terrorists deep inside the Gaza Strip," the army said in a statement, adding that dozens of militants had been killed in the past few hours. Israeli troops drove tanks and armoured bulldozers through the rubble of shattered buildings, scouring for Hamas militants who carried out the worst attack in the country's history. As Israel stepped up its relentless bombing of Gaza, desperate Palestinian families scrabbled through debris searching for survivors and mourned over the bodies of some of the thousands killed, draped in white shrouds. Israeli army footage showed soldiers, who are also seeking to free at least 240 hostages, advancing through a bomb-scarred landscape, with buildings reduced to a mangled mess of stone and twisted metal by weeks of withering air and artillery strikes. Israel said it had struck 300 targets during the fourth night of land operations in Gaza, where troops came under Hamas anti-tank and machine-gun fire, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed mounting international calls for a ceasefire. AFPTV footage over Gaza showed a huge plume of smoke billowing up from another Israeli strike. The bombing campaign has killed 8,525 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, many of them children. The humanitarian toll has sparked a global backlash, with aid groups and the United Nations saying time is running out for many of the territory's 2.4 million people denied access to food, water, fuel and medicine. Surgeons are conducting amputations on hospital floors without anaesthetic, and children are forced to drink salty water, said Jean-Francois Corty, vice-president of Medecins Sans Frontieres, which has 20 staff on the ground. Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals as military headquarters and civilians as "human shields", charges the Islamist militants dismiss as "baseless" propaganda. "We want to live like any other people in this world, to live quietly," said Ahmed al-Kahlout, a Gaza resident living near an Orthodox Cultural Centre destroyed in a strike. "We don't know what to do. The least they can do is give us a truce, give us three hours, a temporary truce or a ceasefire," Kahlout told AFP. Netanyahu has said pausing operations now would be a "surrender" to the Palestinian militant group responsible for brutal raids on Israeli homes, farms and villages that killed an estimated 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials.
-'It's extremely slow'-
As even Israel's staunchest allies voiced concern about the dire humanitarian crisis in southern Gaza, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA said there was not nearly enough aid to meet the "unprecedented" needs. "When an eight-year-old tells you that she doesn't want to die, it's hard not to feel helpless," said U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths. Hisham Adwan, Gaza director of the Rafah crossing with Egypt where some aid has been allowed in, said 36 trucks had been waiting there since the previous day. "I feel that it's extremely slow and there's disruption to UNRWA's work, and we don't know why," he said. Israel said it is inspecting cargo to make sure weapons are not being smuggled in, and is monitoring to guarantee supplies are not seized by Hamas. Meanwhile, fears are mounting the violence could spiral into a broader regional war, with the White House warning Israel's enemies -- in particular Iran-allied groups -- not to get involved. In a sign of the broadening conflict, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired drones towards Israel, a senior official from the group told AFP. Israel's army also said it had intercepted a "missile" fired from the Red Sea region. Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati has told AFP it was his "duty to prevent Lebanon from entering the war". Israel's military has struck targets in Syria and traded cross-border fire with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, insisting Israel has a duty to defend civilians. Anis Abla, head of Lebanon's Civil Defense Centre in Marjayoun, near the Israeli border, said they were completely unprepared for war. "Our equipment is very primitive and there is a shortage of all tools, such as fire suits and extinguisher cylinders," he told AFP.

Yemen's Houthi rebels vow more attacks on Israel
Agence France Presse/October 31, 2023
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels Tuesday pledged more attacks against Israel if its war on Hamas in Gaza continues, saying it had already fired drones and ballistic missiles in three separate operations. "The Yemeni Armed Forces... confirm that they will continue to carry out qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops," said a Houthi military statement aired on the rebels' Al-Masirah TV. The Israeli military said on Tuesday it has intercepted a missile fired from the Red Sea region and shot down a drone outside Israeli airspace near the Red Sea city of Eilat in southern Israel. "A surface-to-surface missile was fired toward Israeli territory from the area of the Red Sea and was successfully intercepted by the 'Arrow' aerial defense system," the military said in a statement. Prime minister of the Houthi government Abdelaziz bin Habtour said "these drones belong to the state of Yemen," when asked about the drones launched towards Eilat.

Abu Obaida: We were able to destroy 22 military vehicles and eliminate a large number of enemy soldiers
LBCI/October 31, 2023
The military spokesperson of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obaida, stated, "We have successfully engaged with enemy forces at all advance points and destroyed 22 military vehicles using Yasin anti-tank missiles."He added, "During the clashes, we managed to eliminate many enemy soldiers and inflict wounds. Our artillery units remain responsive, along with continued missile operations."

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published  on October 31-November 01/2023
Israel’s 4 Bad Options in Gaza
Anna Gordon/Time/October 31 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123772/123772/
Israeli forces carried out a second ground raid into Gaza this week, backed by fighter jets and drones, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday. The move comes a day after Israel announced on Thursday that it had conducted an overnight military raid into northern Gaza against several militant targets in order to "prepare the battlefield." Hours later that day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised statement that Israel is readying a ground invasion but declined to offer details around timing or the operation.
Israel’s stated goal is to wipe out Hamas as both a militant group and political force in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army has already carried out thousands of airstrikes in the densely-populated Gaza Strip that has left at least 7,000 people dead, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that left 1,400 people dead in Israel.
But experts say Israeli officials are not thinking strategically enough about long term plans for Gaza as they weigh up what is expected to be a costly ground offensive in the Strip.
“We call for the collapse of the Hamas regime, but these are slogans,” says Michael Milshtein, a professor of Palestinian affairs at Reichman University in Israel. “As Israelis, we need to really drill down and understand what are the implications of this move.”
TIME has outlined Israel's four possible approaches to Gaza based on conversations with experts, each of which they say has their own severe challenges. “All of them are bad, there is no good alternative,” Milshtein says.
Option 1: Israel does not launch a ground offensive
Israel has dropped approximately 12,000 tons of explosives on Gaza so far and has reportedly killed multiple senior Hamas commanders, but the majority of the casualties have been women and children. Israel says it has struck hundreds of Hamas’ rocket launchers, but that many remain stored in the vast underground tunnel networks spanning hundreds of miles.
A ground offensive will result in even more deaths for both sides. Israel’s military will face a type of urban warfare that it has not seen in nine years since the last ground invasion in 2014, which spanned 50 days and left 72 Israelis and 2,251 Palestinians dead. This time, the presence of approximately 220 hostages may complicate things even further.
“The hostages are likely dispersed,” wrote Alex Plitsas for the Atlantic Council think-tank. “Given the lack of medical evacuation support or the ability to easily insert quick reaction forces to back up operators on the ground without the presence of a larger ground force, it would be difficult to conduct simultaneous clandestine rescue missions for hostages in multiple locations across Gaza.”
Experts disagree on both the likelihood of Israel launching a ground invasion and its prospect for success. Milshtein believes that Israel would become even more vulnerable to future attacks from Hamas, Iran, and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah if it’s called off. “It will make Israel’s image so weak. Any player in the area will understand that from now on, you can do any kind of military move against Israel and Israel has no capability, even no willingness to respond.”
Khaled Elgindy, director of the program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian affairs at the Middle East Institute, disagrees. He says that in the long run, the more violence that is inflicted on the Palestinian population, the worse Israel’s security will be because Palestinians will be more willing to support groups like Hamas. “Nobody's thinking about the long-term repercussions of the generational trauma that is being created,” Elgindy says. “If this doesn't end soon, we're paving the way for another generation of more instability and violence and bloodshed.”
Option 2: Reoccupy Gaza
In this scenario, Israel would reoccupy the Gaza Strip and become responsible for governing the Palestinian territory. Israel withdrew its troops and dismantled all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005. In 2007, Hamas won elections in Gaza, which Israel declared to be a hostile entity. Together with Egypt, both countries instituted a blockade of Gaza in 2007, severely restricting imports and preventing virtually all Gazans from traveling in and out of the Strip.
Milshtein says this would be among the worst possible options for Israel. U.S. President Joe Biden has also warned in an interview on 60 Minutes that “it would be a mistake” for Israel to reoccupy the territory, exposing Israeli troops to violent resistance.
Ongoing airstrikes have hardened Palestinian attitudes to Israel in ways that could further complicate a prolonged occupation. “There's nobody in Gaza who is blaming Hamas for Israel bombing their apartment building. They're not blaming Hamas for that. They're blaming the people who pulled the trigger—Israel,” Elgindy says.
Option 3: Eliminate Hamas and leave Gaza
In this scenario, Israel would seek to destroy Hamas but refrain from getting involved with the messy business of governing Gaza. Milshtein warns that in this situation, the Strip could easily devolve into even further chaos and violent conflict as different groups vie to fill the power vacuum caused by Hamas’ absence.
“It could look like the new order America tried to establish in Iraq after the fall of the Ba’ath regime in 2003,” Milshtein says. He says that many of these groups—like Islamic Jihad—will likely be even more extreme than Hamas, which despite engaging in brutal violence against civilians, has expressed support for a two state solution along 1967 borders in its 2017 charter. “You might find militant groups from North Africa, Syria, and Iraq. It would be like a little Mogadishu on the border of Israel.”
But there are major doubts as to whether Israel would be capable of even destroying Hamas. Hamas claims to have built over 300 miles of underground tunnels and urban warfare in the densely-populated Strip would pose major military challenges.
Hamas is also more popular than ever, says Elgindy. Even if Israel militarily destroys much of Hamas’ infrastructure, the group's ideology will likely live on. Following Israel’s airstrikes, Elgindy adds, “There's no question that Hamas has gained public support in both Gaza and the West Bank.”
Option 4: Bring in a new player to rule Gaza
In this situation, Israel may seek other local factions within Gaza and try to partner with them to create a new ruling party. “It could mean heads of tribes, NGOs, or mayors, or even senior figures in Fatah, the political party that controls the Palestinian Authority,” Milshtein says.
Anas Iqtait, who teaches political economy of the Middle East at Australia National University, says that if this does happen, Israel would be likely to involve the Palestinian Authority.
“I don’t think it’s viable for Israel to completely remove Hamas from power in Gaza, but if they do, then the Palestinian Authority would be the most suitable or the most logical option based on what we have seen in the past,” Iqtait says.
The Palestinian Authority administered Gaza before losing elections in 2006. Violent clashes between Hamas and Fatah led to the Palestinian Authority’s complete retreat from the Gaza Strip in 2007. The enclave has been ruled by Hamas ever since.
But Fatah and the Palestinian Authority have become extremely unpopular among Palestinians in recent years. In the occupied West Bank, which falls under the PA’s leadership, Palestinians increasingly see them as subcontractors of Israel’s military occupation. “If they are seen as corrupt political and business elites without any political vision, then many people will be drawn and driven and supportive of the alternative narrative that provides legitimacy towards resisting the occupation through other means,” Iqtait says.

A new wave of antisemitism threatens to rock an already unstable world
Stephanie Keith/CNN/October 31, 2023
History is flashing warnings to the world.
Outbursts of antisemitism have often been harbingers of societies in deep trouble and omens that extremism and violence are imminent.
So the wave of global hatred directed against Jews – intensified by Israel’s indiscriminate response in Gaza to horrific Hamas terrorist murders of Israeli civilians on October 7 – should not just be seen as a reaction to the Middle East yet again slumping into war. It is also a reflection of destructive forces tearing at American and western European societies, where stability and democracy are already under pressure.
The Hamas attacks – a pogrom against Jews that killed 1,400, mostly civilians – have initiated a sequence of events that have left Jewish people around the world feeling threatened. And now that the Israeli government has sought retribution through air strikes and operations in Gaza targeting Hamas, the scenes of carnage in Palestinian communities threaten to further drain public sympathy for Israel abroad and, in some cases, contribute to an atmosphere that risks worsening harassment of Jewish people.
In the United States there is a climate of growing fear.
Jewish day schools have canceled classes. Synagogues have been locked. Social media has pulsated with hatred against Jews, leaving a community that can never escape its historic trauma yet again wondering where and when it can ever be safe.
Rising hate is tangible. The idea that Jewish Americans studying at Cornell University could so fear for their lives on their Ivy League campus in rural New York that they couldn’t even eat together in 2023 seems almost impossible to believe. Yet it’s the case after death threats were posted online. Tensions were already high after a Cornell professor said he was initially “exhilarated” over the Hamas attacks at a pro-Palestinian event because the group had changed the balance of power. He later apologized for his choice of words. Police Monday stepped up patrols and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, traveled to campus to vow that “we will not tolerate threats, or hatred or antisemitism.” But a feeling of fear pervades Cornell, said Molly Goldstein, co-president of the Cornell Center for Jewish Living. “Jewish students on campus right now are unbelievably terrified for their lives,” she told CNN. “I never would have expected this to happen on my university campus.”
The frightening online threats at Cornell, which are just part of the spate of antisemitism exacerbated by the fallout of the Gaza war, has many Jews wondering if their safety can be guaranteed in the United States — let alone in Israel where the attacks shattered illusion of security for the Jewish people. Pro-Palestinian protests at some universities have crossed over the line into antisemitism and prompted Republicans and some Democrats to warn campuses are in the grip of far-left radicalism.
Elsewhere, in one of many other incidents, a Beverly Hills home of a Holocaust survivor was daubed with antisemitic graffiti reading “F— Jews.” There have also been multiple cases of antisemitism in Europe, which was often criticized by US officials in years past for doing too little to crack down even as the scourge was metastasizing in America. In one of the most shocking scenes, a crowd of people stormed an airport in Russia’s mostly Muslim region of Dagestan, where a flight from Israel arrived on Sunday, chanting, “There is no place for child-killers in Dagestan.” These are scenes with chilling echoes of the 1940s – a decade of destruction and carnage that has already been evoked in the last 18 months by Russia’s onslaught against civilians in Ukraine.
Nearly a century after the rise of Nazism and the beginning of the Holocaust, which killed at least 6 million European Jews, descendants of the dead are yet again being threatened because of who they are, their history and how they worship. Nations that often vowed “Never Again” at Holocaust memorial events now face a responsibility to tackle antisemitism at home, just as they were forced to mobilize against anti-Muslim rhetoric, violence and prejudice after the September 11 terror attacks in 2001 by al Qaeda – which is also still a threat today, as President Joe Biden noted in his Oval Office address on October 20, after returning from a trip to Israel. “We reject all forms of hate, whether against Muslims, Jews, or anyone. That’s what great nations do, and we are great nation,” he said.
Biden on Monday unveiled new measures to tackle antisemitism on college campuses and senior officials underscored the need to combat anti-Jewish hate. “It’s dangerous, it’s unacceptable –- anywhere in the world, certainly here in the United States of America,” John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, said on “CNN This Morning.”
But efforts to combat the situation with added security may struggle while the horror in the Middle East continues to unfold. In an ideal world, criticism of Israel’s military response would center only on its government and not rebound against Jews around the world – many of whom oppose the country’s hardline government.
But in practice, antisemitism could grow more pervasive in the coming weeks.
A widening problem in the United States
In recent years, antisemitism has often been driven in the United States by far-right groups. The hate of White Nationalism was encapsulated by the haunting chant by marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 of, “Jews will not replace us.” Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, played into an antisemitic trope by suggesting that American Jews were plagued by dual loyalties to the US and Israel and that they should be more grateful to him for his policies on the Jewish state. But reaction to the deepening crisis in Israel and Gaza has shown that antisemitism is also boiling on the far-left. Some pro-Palestinian protesters in the US, for instance, appeared to embrace Hamas, a Palestinian militant group categorized by the United States as a terrorist organization that itself has imposed repression on Palestinians in Gaza and perpetrated the Israeli massacres.
Academic studies have shown that antisemitism often spikes amid crisis points in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This suggests that it is a latent force below the surface in US society and only needs the spur of an event to erupt. The Anti-Defamation League, for example, has catalogued a 400% increase in antisemitic incidents in the US since October 7. That said, organizations like the ADL also charted rising hate toward American Jews in recent years during a comparative period of calm in the Middle East, suggesting that domestic forces and the rise of extreme rhetoric and violence-fueled hate are also driving the problem. The organization detailed 3,697 antisemitic incidents in the US in 2022, up 36% year-on-year and the highest on record.
Still, the increasingly fraught and divided politics in Western nations already rocked by extremism makes the nuanced handling of the Israeli-Palestinian issue nearly impossible. Toxic dialogue on social media and a flood of inaccurate information makes the problem worse while partisans predisposed to support Israel or Palestinians often equate the actions of Hamas and the Israeli government with civilians who have no control over them. Alongside the threats and harassment experienced by Jews in recent weeks, Americans were also traumatized by the shocking fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Chicago boy of Palestinian descent, allegedly by his family’s landlord, which is being investigated by the Department of Justice as a hate crime. The senseless killing was a reminder of the murderous reach of historic antagonisms in the Middle East and underscored the magnitude of the region’s massive human tragedy in which civilians — Israelis and Arabs — are often caught up in horrific events in which they have no role or responsibility.
Middle East history is a moral maze
The Israeli-Palestinian question is one of such historic, geographic and political complexity that it is easy for domestic politicians in the West to latch onto any one aspect of the conflict as they seek to advance their own political ends. Each murder, war, massacre or conflict sows the seeds of its successors in the region.
That reality is being reflected in the domestic politics spawned by the conflict in the US and Europe.
Since the attacks in Israel, protesters who back Palestinian rights and worry about civilian casualties in the packed urban areas and refugee camps in Gaza have often been accused in conservative media of supporting terrorists. In the past, Israel’s most committed supporters have often and inaccurately tried to paint any criticism of Israel by politicians or journalists as antisemitism. Some on the left, in calling for an immediate ceasefire in recent days, have appeared to question Israel’s right to defend itself at all after the appalling civilian carnage.
Antisemitic threats, meanwhile, often arise out of a conceit that all Jews, by definition, must somehow share responsibility for what is seen as the denial of Palestinian statehood or hardline settlement building policies on Palestinian land in the West Bank that have been pursued under successive Israeli governments.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday tried to pinpoint the moment at which opposition to Israeli policies crosses into antisemitism. “I’m sickened and frightened by the news that has come out of Cornell University,” the New York Democrat said, warning that the threats were “utterly revolting” but not isolated. “We must condemn all forms of hate. Nobody denies that people of goodwill can have disagreements about the conflict in the Middle East, but the red line is crossed when these disagreements lead to violence or threats of violence.”
One lesson Americans learned in recent years is their country is not immune from political turmoil and hatred that many thought had no place in the 21st century in a modern, democratic, developed country. After all, the United States recently suffered a mob attack on Congress fueled by false claims of a stolen election.
Antisemitism is no exception.
“Many of us did not expect to see these events unfolding right here America – but the fact of the matter is that it could happen here,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, told Kasie Hunt on “State of the Race” on CNN Max on Monday.
“A mob tearing through an airport in Russia searching for Jews to lynch is terrifying, but it is equally terrifying for a student from Cornell to find on the general message boards these posts to ‘slit the throat of Jews.’”
“This is antisemitism, this is threatening Jews worldwide.”
History does not end. It merely slumbers, then repeats itself.

Columnist In UAE Daily: Hamas, A Muslim Brotherhood Faction, Seeks To Topple Arab Countries And Revive The Caliphate; It Does Not Represent The Palestinians And Has No Right To Embroil Them In Wars
MEMRI/October 31, 2023
Palestine, United Arab Emirates | Special Dispatch No. 10919
https://www.memri.org/reports/columnist-uae-daily-hamas-muslim-brotherhood-faction-seeks-topple-arab-countries-and-revive
Following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Yemeni journalist Hani Salem Mashour wrote in his October 17, 2023 column in the London-based UAE Al-Arab daily, titled "Hamas Is Not Palestine," that the aim of Hamas, like that of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) movement to which it belongs and of the other extremist organizations with which it is linked, is to topple the Arab regimes and establish an Islamic Caliphate. He stressed that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have no right to claim to represent the Palestinian people and to embroil them in pointless wars, just as none of the other political Islamic organizations have such a right. He then urged the Arab and Islamic world to wake up and recognize this reality, and decide "to disengage from the legacies exploited by the extremist organizations in order to destroy all of mankind."
Hani Salem Mashour's column "Hamas Is Not Palestine" in Al-Arab, London, October 17, 2023
The following are translated excerpts from Mashour's October 17, 2023 column in the UAE Al-Arab daily:
"We have before us another opportunity to direct the attention of the public, since the current situation of blood and killing demands that we address the unchanging behavior of the political Islam organizations. Since its establishment in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood [MB] has believed that it represents the Muslims. This is a doctrine that is fixed and that has not changed. Although decades, and events, have passed, and the organization has branched out into more than one armed organization, the MB has adhered to this [principle]: It is the sole representative of the people. This can be deduced from the ongoing clashes between the political Islam organizations and the Arab nation-state, after it was established during the Free Officers Movement's revolution in Egypt in 1952.
"In the [October 1954] Manshiyya incident in Alexandria, the nation-state clashed with the religious organization. [This] assassination attempt against President Gamal Abdel Nasser was a conceptual clash between two rivals who cannot coexist because of the inherent contradiction [between them]. At that moment, the MB believed that if it could remove the leader of the nation-state, it could gain control of the government in Egypt. That is what it thought. Moreover, it thought that if its attempt to assassinate [Nasser] succeeded, it would bring an end to the Arab national liberation project [in the different Arab nation-states]. Thus, the fact that Nasser survived symbolized the rescue of the Arab national liberation project in nation[-states with their own distinct national identities]
"Even the defeat [of Egypt] in 1967 [i.e. the Six-Day War] was in essence a clash between the nation-state [with its own distinct national identity] and the religious movement. After that defeat, there was a discourse of incitement [led by political Islam] that was imbued with schadenfreude [at the defeat of] the Egyptian regime as a regime with its [its own distinct] national identity... The terrible waves of hatred [buffeting] the political regime, from every direction, were unprecedented, and created a chasm between the peoples and the political regimes in the Arab world. All this occurred because the regimes of the different [Arab] nation-states had not grasped the essence of the religious dimension in which the MB operated freely within the framework of the state.
"The MB exploited the conflict between the republics and the monarchies and with the help of the propaganda of the Arab Left succeeded in expanding the discourse of hatred against the regimes of the [Arab] nation-states [that have their own distinct national identities]. The October 1973 war was the only means that could be used to boost the Arab nationalist regime, with the Egyptian army's accomplishment when it seized the Bar Lev line. [However,] even this extremely valuable and historic victory could not close the large and growing gap between the Arab regimes and their peoples – [the latter of which] had gone back to heeding the propaganda of the anti-state religious groups after the1979 Camp David Egypt-Israel peace accords that led to the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
"Lebanon's civil war was essentially an ugly exploitation of the religious and sectarian conflict in the Middle East. The Arab countries did not realize that this war deepened the conflict, shattering the Lebanese nation-state. The Lebanon war led to [a situation in which] the extremist groups, for the first time, acquired weapons from outside the state framework. Hizbullah was born from the Shi'ite Amal Movement, with the intensification of the religious revolutionary discourse; this was after Iran's Islamic Revolution successfully brought down the Shah's secular regime and established an extensive religious state under [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini, the jurisprudent and ruler...
"The Arab political system continued to disregard the consequences, even as these regimes followed with concern the takeover by Juhayman Al-Otaybi and his group of the Great Mosque of Mecca.[1] The Arab regimes – which did not foresee the long-term [results] of sending fighters to Afghanistan as the Cold War escalated between the U.S. and the Soviet Union – were not aware that they were heeding an extremist religious stream that had succeeded in infiltrating the institutions of the Arab nation-states and was capable of directing them in accordance with its multinational Islamic worldview [which does not recognize nation-states with their own distinct national identities].
"With the 1991 convening of the Arab Islamic conference in Khartoum, the MB and its Shi'ite allies consummated their control. Therefore, the emergence of the Al-Qaeda organization in the Arabian Peninsula was just a matter of time, once the international MB organization disseminated the idea that the 1994 invasion of South Yemen constituted a holy war against the communists and Marxists. This was preparation for a larger event – [that is,] when Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden carried out terror attacks against the U.S. on September 11, [2001,] – and by doing so took the Arab and Muslim will hostage. What Al-Qaeda did led to the American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.
"This historical narrative is essential in order to understand that the primary goal of the extremist Islamic organizations... is still to crush the nation-state. Thus, the Houthis [i.e. the Houthi Ansar Allah movement in Yemen] emerged, claiming to represent Yemen; Hizbullah [claimed it] represented Lebanon, and Al-Hashd Al-Sha'abi [Popular Mobilization Units, aka PMU][2] and its allies [claimed] to represent Iraq. These organizations engage in taking peoples and countries hostage and entangling them in wars and conflicts that have no clear objectives besides a desire to abolish the political borders of the Arab nation-state. This is the goal pursued by the religious organizations, in order to establish... what they describe as 'the Caliphate State.'
"The Hamas and PIJ movements have no right to claim that they represent the will of the Palestinian people in order to entangle it a pointless war – just as none of the religious organizations have the right to do so. In light of the siege on the Gaza Strip, and following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, it would be appropriate for the wisdom of the Arab collective to awaken [and recognize] the truth as it is. It is inconceivable for the nation-state to be replaced by a caliphate state... [This is because] such a state cannot exist in the [current] political reality. Although today's reality is drenched in blood, it may indeed turn into an opportunity for an awakening, for reexamination, and for deciding to disengage from the legacies exploited by the extremist organizations in order to destroy all of mankind."[3]
[1] Juhayman Al-Otaybi was a Saudi Arabian rebel who led the takeover of the Great Mosque of Mecca on November 20, 1979, and held the worshipers inside hostage for three days. He and his devotees were captured following a clash with security forces and subsequently executed by the regime.
[2] Al-Hashd Al-Sha'abi (Popular Mobilization Units, PMU) is an umbrella organization supported by the Iraqi government which comprises about 40 Shi’ite militias, but also includes Sunni, Christian and Yazidi organizations. PMU forces participated in almost every significant battle against the Islamic State (ISIS). The organization also includes pro-Iranian Shi’ite militias which are subordinate to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and were involved in military operations against the U.S. and Israel.
[3] Al-Arab (London), October 17, 2023.

Signs That Iran Will Open A Front Against Israel From The Syrian Golan Heights
MEMRI/October 31, 2023
Iran, Syria, Palestine | Special Dispatch No. 10920
https://www.memri.org/reports/signs-iran-will-open-front-against-israel-syrian-golan-heights
Since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, signs that Iran seeks to open another front against Israel from Syria are emerging. Along with reports of three incidents of rocket fire into Israel from areas of Syria under Syrian regime control, where Hizbullah and other Iran-backed militias are known to have a significant presence,[1]there are also indications of a possible widescale operation against Israel from Syria by the Iran-backed militias under the command of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
These indications include reports of the reinforcement of forces in areas bordering Israel, with an emphasis on Quneitra and the Daraa region; the Syrian army's heightened alert level; threats by the Shi'ite militias to open a Golan front; reports of frequent and secret visits to Syria by IRGC Qods Force commander Esmail Qa'ani; and also visits by senior leaders of Iran-backed Shi'ite militias in Iraq to areas bordering Israel and the establishment of a joint operations room comprising Iran, Hizbullah, Iran-backed militias, and the Palestinian factions.
The extent to which the Syrian regime is a partner to Iran's desire to open a new front on Syrian soil is not clear. According to several Arab media reports, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has told Iran, the UAE, Egypt, and Hizbullah, that he does not want this because of his country's unstable situation due to the civil war, now in its 13th year.[2]At the same time, it is reasonable to assume that the regime will not be able to withstand the dictates of the ally who has significantly contributed to its survival. Likewise, the possibility that this is an attempt by the regime to prevent a preemptive attack by Israel cannot be ruled out.
The following are details about the indications that a new front in the current war may be opened against Israel from Syria:
Militias On Elevated Alert, Hundreds Of Fighters Throng To Southern Syria, Mobilization Of Operatives
Shortly after the war broke out on October 7, 2023, there were reports that Iran had ordered its men in Syria to raise the alert level and to redeploy in the Syria-Israel border area.[3] For example, it was reported that hundreds of fighters from the Iran-backed militias in the Deir Al-Zour, Homs, and Aleppo regions had been transferred as reinforcements for the forces stationed in southern Syria,[4] primarily in the Quneitra region on the border with Israel, in northern Daraa, and adjacent to the city of Nawa situated between Quneitra and Daraa. It was also reported that thousands more operatives had arrived at the border with Israel from Iraq, but no details were given as to whether it was Israel's border with Lebanon or with Syria.[5]
According to these reports, some of the forces are from Hizbullah's elite Radwan Force, and from Iran-backed Shi'ite Iraqi and Afghan militias. These forces are equipped with drones and advanced weaponry.[6] It should be noted that according to Arabicpost.net, this reinforcement has Russia's approval, and is a violation of the 2018 Russia-Israel-Jordan understandings that Russia will not permit the presence of militias in the border region.[7]
Northern Daraa: According to reports, reinforcements arrived in the region of Al-Sahealiyah village (Radwan Forces), Tal Al-Za'atar (Imam Hussein Brigade), Al-Sheikh Maskin (Hizbullah), and Tal Al-Qaad. The operatives, armed with Ababil drones, antitank missiles, and heavy artillery, began to strengthen the fortifications, and near Al-Sheikh Maskin a drone landing pad was also built.[8]
Nawa City: There is a concentration of militias in the Tal Al-Jabiyya and Tal Al-Jumu'a area, west of Nawa, about 10 kilometers from the border where the Syrian army's 61st> Brigade is deployed. Tal-Al-Jabiyya is fortified and equipped with electronic warfare equipment, suicide drones, and intelligence-gathering drones, as well as rockets mounted on vehicles, and advanced missiles. Two squads, one from each of these locations, fired rockets at Israel, on October 10 and October 14.[9]
Quneitra: Opposition websites reported that hundreds of operatives have been transferred to this area.[10] According to one report, there are concentrations of militias in the area of Tal Al-Sha'er and Tal Krum. The militias are armed with drones, missiles, and advanced weaponry.[11] Additionally, there are forces at a Syrian army base near Al-Bakkar village, and there are drones there as well.
Map showing the locations of Daraa, Nawa, and Quneitra
Recruiting New Operatives For The Militias
In addition to sending relatively veteran forces, it was reported that the Iran-backed militias stationed in Syria had begun recruiting new operatives from among the local population, particularly the Shi'ite population. The London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily reported on October 9, that the militias had begun fundraising and mobilizing volunteers in advance of a war on the Syria-Israel border.[12] Several days later, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the militias had opened recruitment offices in the Deir Al-Zour area, with the aim of recruiting 1,000 new members. According to this report, the age range of potential recruits was 14 to 30. The recruits underwent about a month of military training as well as courses in Shi'ite religious law.[13]
Elevated Alert And Suspension Of Leave In Syrian Regime Army And Forces
Since the war began, there have been reports that the Syrian army has elevated the alert level for its forces and ordered all leave suspended. As early as October 10, the day of the Hamas attack, an opposition website reported that the Syrian Defense Ministry and general staff were suspending leave for all military personnel until further notice. At the same time, the army elevated its alert level across the country, particularly around Damascus and in southern Syria.[14] There were similar reports concerning officers and noncommissioned officers at military airports and facilities,[15] and in the security and intelligence apparatuses.[16] Even if the Syrian regime is not interested in entering the fray itself, as noted above, the fact that it made this decision, if indeed it has, indicates that it realizes that there is a reasonable likelihood that the war will expand to its soil.
Iraqi Shi'ite Militias Declare Their Readiness To Open A Front In The Golan
Since the outbreak of the war, senior officials in the Shi'ite militias have warned that they will respond decisively if Israel undertakes ground action in Gaza. In a phone conversation with Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, Al-Nujaba Secretary-General Akram Al-Ka'abi said that his organization supports the Palestinian resistance with "our weapons, our equipment, and our men" and that it is willing to provide any aid necessary.[17]
In addition, the Al-Nujaba and IRGC Telegram channels published videos hinting at the activation of the Brigade to Liberate the Golan, which was established in 2017.[18]
Iran and its allies are not settling for mere declarations; according to various reports, they have begun to make moves on the ground in order to achieve these goals.
A Series Of Visits To Syria And Lebanon By IRGC Qods Force Commander Esmail Qaani And By Iraqi Shi’ite Militia Leaders
Unsurprisingly, the individual responsible for managing this front is IRGC Qods Force Commander Esmail Qaani. According to a report on Arabic.post, Qaani visited Syria on October 9, two days after the Hamas invasion of southern Israel, and again on October 15, in order to pressure Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to permit operations to be carried out from Syrian territory. According to the report, Iran prefers to open the Syrian front rather than the Lebanese front in order to protect Hizbullah and its forces. It also said that the plan is ready and that it "will begin from the Golan with a ground operation that will be initially limited in scope."[19]
In addition, officials from Iraqi militias visited Syria and Lebanon in order to prepare the ground operationally. The Saudi Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily reported on October 14 that delegations of Iraqi Shi'ite militias visited militia positions in Syria and Lebanon.[20]
The Establishment Of A Joint Operations Room For Coordination Between Iran, Hizbullah, Iran-Backed Militias, And Hamas; Gathering Of Intelligence Ahead Of An Attack
According to several reports, Iran has established and is running a joint operations room shared by it, Hizbullah, Iran-backed Shi'ite militias, and the Palestinian factions, with the goal of gathering intelligence and coordinating attacks against Israel and U.S. forces in the region.[21] Sayyed Al-Shuhada Brigades leader Abu Alaa Al-Wala'i has confirmed that such an operations room exists "within and outside of Iraq."[22]
Several sources have reported that as part of the preparations for the opening of the Syrian front, Iran and its militias have been gathering intelligence about targets inside Israel. Al-Sharq Al-Awsat has reported that one of the goals of the militia officials' visits to Syria and Lebanon was to gather intelligence, "to learn more about the details in the field," and to coordinate with local militias "ahead of any possible operation."[23]
In addition, it was reported that militias deployed in southern Syria along the border with Israel have been operating drones for intelligence-gathering purposes.[24]
[1] According to the Syrian opposition-affiliated Syriahr.com, factions that "work with Hizbullah" fired rockets at Israel on October 10 and 14. On October 29, three rockets were fired at Israel from a "Syrian military position" (Source: Facebook.com/damascusv001, October 30, 2023.)
[2] The Syrian regime has told Iran, Russia, the UAE, Egypt, and Hizbullah that it does not want to participate in the war due to the instability that has racked the country for more than 12 years of civil war. Sources: Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), October 28, 2023; Arabicpost.net, October 18, 2023.
[3] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), October 9, 2023.
[4] Syriahr.com, October 17, 2023.
[5] On October 18, 2023, the leader of the Iran-backed Iraqi Faylaq Al-Wa'd Al-Sadeq militia, Muhammad Al-Tamimi, announced that 5,000 fighters from his group and from other militias including the Iraqi Al-Nujaba Movement, the Sayyid Al-Shuhada Brigades, and the Imam Ali Brigades have been deployed on the border with Israel. He also said that 10,000 additional fighters are "waiting to join their brothers." Al-Tamimi did not specify whether the border in question was the Lebanese or Syrian border with Israel. See MEMRI JTTM report Iran-Backed Militia Leader In Iraq Says Five Thousand Iraqi Fighters Are On Israeli Border Awaiting 'Zero Hour' To Invade Israel, October 19, 2023.
[6] Euphratespost.net, October 17, 2023; Syriahr.com, October 18, 2023; Syria.tv, October 19, 2023. See also MEMRI JTTM reports: Arab And Syrian Opposition-Affiliated Media Outlets: Hizbullah, Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Additional Iran-Backed Militias In Syria, All Bolstering Forces In Southern Syria In Event That Fighting Between Israel And Palestinian Factions Spreads To Syrian Arena, October 10, 2023; Syrian Opposition Website: Elite Forces From Iran-Backed Militias Deploy Along Syrian Border With Israel On Golan Heights Under Hizbullah Supervision, With No Coordination With Syrian Regime, October 23, 2023; Syrian Opposition Websites: Iran-Backed Militias Enhance, Entrench Presence Along Syria's Borders With Iraq, Israel, October 26, 2023.
[7] Arabpost.net, October 18, 2023.
[8] Syria.tv, October 12, 2023; Arabi21.com, October 13, 2023. See also MEMRI JTTM Report: Arab And Syrian Opposition-Affiliated Media Outlets: Hizbullah, Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Additional Iran-Backed Militias In Syria, All Bolstering Forces In Southern Syria In Event That Fighting Between Israel And Palestinian Factions Spreads To Syrian Arena, October 10, 2023.
[9] See MEMRI JTTM Report: Syrian Opposition Websites: Iran-Backed Militias Enhance, Entrench Presence Along Syria's Borders With Iraq, Israel, October 26, 2023.
[10] Euphratespost.net, October 17, 2023; Syriahr.com, October 17, 2023. See also MEMRI JTTM Report Arab And Syrian Opposition-Affiliated Media Outlets: Hizbullah, Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Additional Iran-Backed Militias In Syria, All Bolstering Forces In Southern Syria In Event That Fighting Between Israel And Palestinian Factions Spreads To Syrian Arena October 10, 2023.
[11] Arabi21.com, October 13, 2023.
[12] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), October 9, 2023.
[13] See MEMRI JTTM Report Arab And Syrian Opposition-Affiliated Media Outlets: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) And Iran-Backed Militias In Eastern Syria Recruiting Operatives To Send To Lebanon And 'Palestine' To Join Fighting Against Israel, October 12, 2023.
[14] Damascusv.com, October 7, 2023.
[15] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), October 9, 2023.
[16] See MEMRI JTTM Report Syrian Opposition Website: Assad Regime Bans Vacations For Security, Intelligence Officers, Military Personnel As Part Of Increased Alert Due To Israel-Hamas War, October 18, 2023.
[17] Telegram.me/NOON_media, October 16, 2023.
[18] Telegram.me/Al_Nojaba, Telegram.me/iran_military_capabilities, October 19, 2023. For more information about the establishment of the Brigade to Liberate the Golan, see MEMRI Report, Spokesman For Iran-Backed Iraqi Shi'ite Militia In Syria: 'We Have Established The Golan Liberation Army', April 5, 2017.
[19] Arabicpost.net, October 18, 2023.
[20] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10874, Saudi Daily: Shi'ite Militia Commanders Have Arrived In Lebanon And Syria Ahead Of Possible Involvement In Conflict With Israel, October 16, 2023.
[21] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), October 16, 2023; Arabicpost.net, October 18, 2023.
[22] See MEMRI JTTM report Iran-backed Iraqi Kata'ib Sayyid Al-Shuhada' Milita: The U.S. Forces In The Region Will Be Legitimate Targets If America Intervenes, October 11, 2023.
[23]See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10874, Saudi Daily: Shi'ite Militia Commanders Have Arrived In Lebanon And Syria Ahead Of Possible Involvement In Conflict With Israel, October 16, 2023.
[24] See MEMRI JTTM Report Syrian Opposition Websites: Iran-Backed Militias Enhance, Entrench Presence Along Syria's Borders With Iraq, Israel, October 26, 202

Who Is Really Trying to ‘Wage a Fight between the Cross and Crescent Again’?
Raymond Ibrahim./October 31, 2023
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan engaged in a bit of wild projection—a longtime favorite tactic of Muslims—over the weekend. According to one report,
Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted party staged a massive pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul on Saturday that the Turkish leader said had drawn a crowd of 1.5 million.
He unleashed a scathing attack at Israel and its Western supporters after taking the stage with a microphone in his hand.
And he accused Israel’s allies of creating a “crusade war atmosphere” pitting Christians against Muslims.
At one point during his demagoguery, Erdogan tried to blame Israel for everything by accusing it of being a foreign occupier in the region: “Hey Israel, how did you come here? How did you get in here? You’re an occupier!”
Now this is rich. After all, one can ask the very same questions of Turkey: “Hey Turkey, how did you come here?”
(Honest) answer: “We Turks came from the East, and brutally conquered Asia Minor, once an ancient Christian peninsula, littered with churches and monasteries. We slaughtered and enslaved millions of Christian infidels over the centuries (not an exaggeration), and destroyed tens of thousands of churches. Our handiest work came on May 29, 1453, when we sacked the ancient Christian city of Constantinople, where we committed unspeakable atrocities. Far from being remorseful, we—including our sultan, Erdogan—celebrate May 29 every year. Nor is our work over. We continue to persecute Christians—including in Cyprus, which we are illegally occupying, and the Armenians, our ancient genocide victims of old, through our Azerbaijani proxy.”
This, then, is the true history of the nation whose president is currently accusing Israel of being an “occupier.”
Erdogan’s hypocrisy does not end there. He also said:
The main culprit behind the massacre unfolding in Gaza is the West… The West, I am talking to you. Do you want to wage a fight between the Cross and the Crescent again? If you are making such an effort, know that this nation is not dead. Know that this nation is standing tall.
This is ridiculous. Whatever goals “the West” may be accused of having in the region, trying to start a “fight”—a crusade—to uplift the Cross over the Crescent is certainly not one of them. The West’s leadership class hates Christianity, and in every other context supports Muslims over Christians—including by flooding historically Christian lands in Europe with cross-hating Muslims. This is true even from a historical point of view: whereas Muslims like Erdogan are fond of reminiscing over the savage jihads of history, the West, as a rule, categorically denounces the crusades of history.
In short, here, too, Erdogan projects—for it is only he (and millions of other Muslims) who would love “to wage a fight between the Cross and the Crescent again,” though now is not the right time: Muslims are still, for now, militarily and economically weaker than the West.

The Palestinian Authority's Responsibility for Hamas's October Massacre
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./October 31, 2023
There is absolutely no difference between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas when it comes to spreading hate against Israel and inciting the murder of Jews. It has also been proven that each time Israel cedes land or makes gestures to the PA or Hamas, they respond by increasing terror attacks against Jews.
Make no mistake. Inflammatory statements such as these drive Palestinians to carry out terrorist attacks against Jews.
The terrorists in Gaza must have said to themselves: If terrorism is working in the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority is not doing anything to stop us from murdering Jews, why not launch an attack to murder Jews from the Gaza Strip?
This month alone, the Palestinian Authority will pay the families of the Hamas terrorists who were killed this month at least 11.1 million shekels ($2.7 million) "Pay-for-Slay" reward for perpetrating the atrocities against Israeli civilians.
[I]t is not enough to condemn Hamas for the atrocities. The Biden administration and the international community must understand that the hands of Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority also drip with the Hamas victims' blood.
There is absolutely no difference between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas when it comes to spreading hate against Israel and inciting the murder of Jews. Pictured: PA President Mahmoud Abbas said in 2015 that the Palestinians will not allow Jews "with their filthy feet to defile our Al-Aqsa Mosque," and "We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah..." (Image source: Palestinian Media Watch video screenshot)
While many have condemned the Iran-backed Hamas terror group for the October 7 massacre that killed 1,400 Israelis and wounded at least 5,400 others, the fact is that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its leaders also bear responsibility for the carnage. The PA's rhetoric and actions actively paved the way for the hell that Hamas unleashed on Israel.
There is absolutely no difference between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas when it comes to spreading hate against Israel and inciting the murder of Jews. It has also been proven that each time Israel cedes land or makes gestures to the PA or Hamas, they respond by increasing terror attacks against Jews. The areas controlled by the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip have become havens for countless terror groups.
It is no coincidence that Hamas has named its bloody attack on Israel as "The Al-Aqsa Flood." Al-Aqsa refers to the mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. According to arch-terrorist Mohammed Def, the commander of Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin al-Qassam, the attack came "in response to Israeli violations at the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem]." Def accused the Israeli "enemy of defiling the Al-Aqsa Mosque."
So, Hamas decided to brutally murder, rape and decapitate Israeli women, children and the elderly because of Israeli "violations" against a mosque in Jerusalem?
What are these purported "violations" and who has been calling on Palestinians to sacrifice their lives to defend the holy Islamic site?
First, the alleged "violations" refer to ordinary and peaceful visits by Jews to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism where the First and Second Temples, which were destroyed in ancient times, once stood. Jews have been visiting the Temple Mount since 1967, when Israel liberated east Jerusalem from Jordanian occupation. The visits were halted when the Palestinians launched a massive campaign of terrorism against Israel during the so-called Second Intifada in 2000. A few years ago, Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, a compound that measures 37 acres (15 hectares), resumed. It is worth noting that Jews who tour the holy site do not set foot inside any mosque or disrupt Muslims' access to the site.
Who was the first Palestinian leader to come out against the Jews' right to visit their holy site? Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. In 2015, Abbas stated:
"The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are ours. They are all ours, and they [Jews] have no right to defile them with their filthy feet. We shall not allow them [Jews] to do so, and we shall do whatever we can to protect Jerusalem. We salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. Every martyr will be placed in Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by God."
Notably, the Hamas mass murderer, Mohammed Def, repeated the same lie as Abbas when he, too, accused Israel of "defiling" the mosque. Def and his Hamas terrorists picked up the word "defile" straight from Abbas's mouth. When the Hamas terrorists set out on their mission to slaughter Jews on October 7, they undoubtedly had in mind the pledge made by Abbas, namely that those who murder Jews will become "martyrs" and end up in Paradise.
Since then, Abbas and many of his senior aides in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians, never cease looking for opportunities to repeat the blood libel that Jews are desecrating the Al-Aqsa Mosque by peacefully touring the Temple Mount. Palestinian Authority officials and media outlets have consistently described the Jewish visits as "incursions by Jewish extremists" and spread lies that Jews are planning to demolish the mosque. The Palestinian Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, is one of the officials who have been making these false accusations: "Israel is planning to demolish the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. It wants to replace the mosque with a synagogue."
Three weeks before the October 7 massacre, Mahmoud al-Habbash, a senior adviser to the Palestinian Authority president, also made similar charges against Israel. Habbash warned that Israel was planning to "impose a new reality on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque by increasing the incursions during Jewish holidays." He also accused, falsely, "racist [Jewish] extremists of holding Jewish rituals and prayers inside the mosque," adding:
"The desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the attack on its sanctity is tantamount to a religious war against Muslims."
Make no mistake. Inflammatory statements such as these drive Palestinians to carry out terrorist attacks against Jews. Shortly after Abbas accused Jews of "defiling with their filthy feet" the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Palestinians launched the "Knife Intifada." Between October 2015 and March 2016, there were 211 stabbings or attempted stabbings of Israelis by Palestinians, 83 shootings and 42 car-ramming attacks, killing 30 Israelis and two Americans.
The Palestinian Authority, whose representatives have been warmly embraced by the Biden Administration and many Western leaders, cannot escape responsibility for Hamas's October 7 massacre. Not only have PA leaders used the Jewish visits to the Temple Mount as an excuse to incite their people to murder Jews, but they have also been making other false accusations, including the one that Israel is carrying out "ethnic cleansing."
Abbas and his Palestinian Authority have also been working hard to legitimize Hamas and transform it into an acceptable player in the Palestinian arena. In July, Abbas met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh under the auspices of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A few weeks later, Abbas and Haniyeh met again, this time under the auspices of Egypt, to discuss ways of achieving reconciliation and unity between their parties.
At the meeting in Cairo, the Hamas leader called on all Palestinians to "adopt the option of comprehensive resistance [meaning terrorism] against Israel." Abbas did not walk out of the meeting when he heard the Hamas leader call for more terrorist attacks against Israel. Instead of denouncing Hamas and calling them out for their recurring terrorist attacks against Israel, Abbas has over the past decade been seeking ways to embrace Hamas and form a unity government with its leaders.
Besides its anti-Israel rhetoric, the Palestinian Authority's refusal to rein in terror groups in the West Bank emboldened Hamas. Many of these terror groups, which are responsible for dozens of armed attacks against Jews over the past two years, are affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both Iranian proxies. The success of these groups in murdering dozens of Jews through shootings and car-ramming attacks increased the appetite of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip to attack Israel. The terrorists in Gaza must have said to themselves: If terrorism is working in the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority is not doing anything to stop us from murdering Jews, why not launch an attack to murder Jews from the Gaza Strip?
Abbas's "Pay-for-Slay" program, which financially rewards terrorists who murder Jews to the tune of more than $340 million a year, also must have incentivized the Hamas terrorists. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has revealed that the Palestinian Authority may now be obliged to pay stipends to the families of the Hamas terrorists who were killed during the October 7 invasion and salaries to those who were captured and are now being held by Israel. "The Palestinian Authority pays salaries to every single terrorist and to anyone who is arrested fighting Israel," said PMW director Itamar Marcus.
Under Palestinian Authority law, every terrorist who is killed while attacking Israelis is defined as a "martyr," whose family is immediately rewarded with a 6,000 shekel ($1,500) grant, plus an ongoing 1,400 shekels ($350) a month. This means each family of the 1,500 dead Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel will receive roughly 7,400 shekels ($1,800) for the first month. Families of those terrorists who were married and had children will receive even more. In addition, captured terrorists will receive monthly salaries starting at 1,400 shekels ($350), which will eventually rise to nearly 12,000 shekels ($3,000).
This month alone, the Palestinian Authority will pay the families of the Hamas terrorists who were killed this month at least 11.1 million shekels ($2.7 million) "Pay-for-Slay" reward for perpetrating the atrocities against Israeli civilians.
Abbas and the PA leadership refuse to condemn Hamas for the atrocities it committed on October 7. They have good reason not to do so. How can they denounce Hamas when they know that it is their own words and actions that have encouraged the terrorists to carry out the deadliest massacre against Jews since the Holocaust?
For the rest of the world, it is not enough to condemn Hamas for the atrocities. The Biden administration and the international community must understand that the hands of Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority also drip with the Hamas victims' blood.
Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Stop Promotion of Hate & Rage on Our Streets
Gregory Tomchyshyn started this petition to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau//October 31, 2023
Protests have erupted across Canada, openly supporting Hamas' horrific attacks against innocent civilians.
Local businesses, places of worship, and even a Jewish kindergarten in Toronto have been targeted by these hate-filled protests.
This isn't just a disagreement about politics - these protests are rooted in rage and aimed at inciting violence against all Canadians, not just Jews and Muslims.
The former leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, called for a global "Day of Rage" on social media, and his followers have obliged.
This isn't just a random coincidence - it's a calculated attack on our peaceful society.
The Gaza conflict between Israel and Hamas is not just happening in the Middle East - it's happening right here in Canada.
These protests are coming from a place of hatred and rage. When protests are rooted in these negative reactions and destruction, sparking emotions, it is clear there is no desire for peace or justice.
Anyone calling for a "Day of Rage" clearly indicates the intent behind these protests.
And the fact that they're targeting businesses and kindergartens that have no direct connections to the conflict on-going in the Gaza area proves that they're out to hurt innocent Canadians.
Hamas is recognized by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) as a terrorist organization, and their protest actions fall under the definition of Politically Motivated Violent Extremism (PMVE) and Religiously Motivated Violent Extremism (RMVE).
These protests also violate Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada, which condemns public incitement of hatred, wilful promotion of hatred, and promotion of antisemitism.
This is a matter of public safety for all Canadians. We must voice our opposition to these dangerous protests and demand our politicians and law enforcement agencies address the severe security threat they pose to Canada.
We can't let our streets become the battleground for a foreign conflict, resulting in riots and violence that endangers everyone living here in Canada.
Demand Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Pierre Poilievre, Jagmeet Singh, and Yves-Francois Blanchet condemn and end these rage-fueled protests supporting Hamas’ terrorist attacks.
Sources:
Canada Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Public Report 2020, The Threat Environment:
https://www.canada.ca/en/security-intelligence-service/corporate/publications/2020-public-report/the-threat-environment.html#toc6
Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada (CCC): Public Incitement of Hate:
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-319.html
Toronto Kindergarten Targeted by Pro-Terrorism Protest:
https://twitter.com/ezralevant/status/1715404947288703162
The Independent via Yahoo News: Who is to blame for Gaza hospital bomb - we scrutinise the evidence:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blame-gaza-hospital-bomb-scrutinise-204332333.html
BBC: What is Hamas, and what’s happening in Israel and Gaza?:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67039975
National Post: Trudeau admits Liberal caucus divide over Israel-Hamas war. Says differences are 'source of strength':
https://nationalpost.com/news/justin-trudeau-israel-hamas-war
Rebel News: Hamas call for 'Day of Rage' sends some of Vancouver's Jewish community into hiding:
https://www.rebelnews.com/hamas_call_for_day_of_rage_sends_some_of_vancouvers_jewish_community_into_hiding
CTV News: Canada's defence minister says Hamas a threat to world, must be 'eliminated':
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-s-defence-minister-says-hamas-a-threat-to-world-must-be-eliminated-1.6614595

What Happens to Gaza If Hamas Is Actually Defeated?
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/The Daily Beast/October 31, 2023
There could be a brighter future for the Palestinian enclave, but only if Arab and Western governments commit to helping to rebuild its cities and political leadership.
Judging by the disastrous aftermath of the regime-change wars in Iraq and Libya, it is never too early to plan for the day after Israel decimates Hamas in Gaza.
On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Gaza “can’t go back to the status quo with Hamas being in a position, in terms of its governance of Gaza, to repeat what it did.” The Israelis have “no intent, no desire, to be running Gaza themselves,” Blinken added. Therefore “something needs to be found, [and] there are different ideas, but all of that needs to be worked… even as Israel is dealing with the current threat.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday told the Knesset that his country has a three-phase plan for Gaza. In the first phase, airstrikes will be followed by a ground invasion “to defeat and destroy Hamas.” The second phase will be lower intensity fighting to “eliminate pockets of resistance,” and in the third, Israel will create a new security regime and relinquish “responsibility of day-to-day life.” Gallant did not mention who will take over this responsibility.
The primary candidate to govern Gaza is the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA). In 2007, Hamas killed over 300 PA civil and security officials and ejected the PA from the strip. Since then, the PA has grown even weaker. It has lost control over territory in the West Bank, which has become a hotbed of violent armed groups, such as the Lions’ Den and branches of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
The PA is also too corrupt, and therefore under-resourced, to fund Gaza’s reconstruction. That leaves a space for Arab governments, especially wealthy and efficient Gulf ones, such as those of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, to fill the void.
In 2020, Israel signed the Abraham Accords for peace with the UAE and Bahrain. That year, the UAE promised to fund upgrading of the Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank to automate them and make Palestinian movement seamless. The PA opposed the plan, claiming that making Palestinian lives easier was akin to “decorating a cage” and “entrenching the occupation.”
But now Saudi Arabia has joined governments that prioritize “easing of Palestinian life” over a final Palestinian-Israeli peace settlement, which has proven elusive since 1993. Through American mediation, Saudi Arabia initiated indirect talks with Israel for the normalization of ties between the two.
On Sept. 9, the White House announced a plan for the construction of an India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC) that will connect India to Europe, through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Israel. On Oct. 7, Iran’s Palestinian ally Hamas burst out of Gaza into Israel, killing 1,400 Israelis, and kidnapping 200 others. Iran is part of the competing Belt and Road corridor designed to connect China to the Mediterranean.
“One of the reasons Hamas moved on Israel… they knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” President Biden said. “The Saudis wanted to recognize Israel.”
Hamas’ plan to sabotage peace seemingly worked. Riyadh reportedly froze normalization talks with Israel. Arab governments issued a flurry of statements denouncing the death of Palestinians in Gaza, while anti-Israel protests erupted in many Arab and Muslim countries.
Two days after Hamas’ attack on Israel, leaders of the U.S., U.K, France, Germany and Italy held a conference call and issued a joint statement, which they reiterated over the weekend. The statement described Hamas as a terrorist organization, signaling their approval of the Israeli plan to decimate it, and added that Israel should “ultimately set the conditions for a peaceful and integrated Middle East.”
Setting the conditions for peace was exactly what Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler Muhammad Bin Salman, known by his initials MBS, told a bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators, on Saturday, arguing that “conditions should be set for stability and the resumption of the peace track.” That same day, Arab, European, and African leaders huddled in Egypt for the Cairo Peace Summit, which was denounced by pundits known for their proximity to the Tehran regime.
Both Iran and Hamas oppose any kind of peace with Israel, and argue that the only solution is the destruction of Israel and the establishment of Palestine “from the river to the sea.” But if Israel defeats anti-peace Hamas, conditions will be ripe for peace. Since the PA is too weak, other Palestinian personalities may step up. Muhammad Dahlan, a former Palestinian security chief whom Hamas ousted from Gaza, lives in exile in the UAE. With diplomatic support and Saudi and Emirati funding, Dahlan might be able to fill the void that the decimation of Hamas and the Israeli withdrawal will leave behind. Salam Fayyad, an academic who lives in Boston, was globally commended for his outstanding performance as PA prime minister between 2007 and 2013. He is another candidate to run Gaza, post-Hamas.
Western and Gulf governments can impress on Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas to appoint Dahlan or Fayyad as the governor in charge of reconstructing Gaza. Rebuilding the PA and Palestinian politics can follow.
With peace and foreign investments, Gaza can become a tourism and services hub. Its international airport, destroyed in 2001, can be reopened. Its planned port can be built. Gaza can be turned from a pocket of misery into an oasis of hope.
But first, Israel will have to win this war, and the Arabs will have to be ready to help out on the day that follows.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on X: @hahussain.

To Avoid Being Taken Hostage By ‘The Cause’ Once Again
Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al-Awsat/31 October 2023
The Gaza war will politicize an entire generation that had not previously been invested in the complexities of the “Palestinian cause.” However, this conflict is being seen through a distorted lens because of the unprecedented degree and form of violence that is unfolding. Those being introduced to the “cause” now are seeing a struggle between both sides’ most violent elements. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu is the most extreme in the history of Israel, and the Hamas movement goes against the foundations of the Palestinian national project, be in terms of what the PLO stands for, the meaning of the project and its lexicon, or their conception of the nature of the relationship with Israel in the present and the future.
Therefore, presenting this war, with all its viciousness, as representing the essence of the Palestinian struggle, and being the only alternative to the national project for sovereignty and political and human rights for the Palestinians, threatens to distort youths’ conception of the fundamental values and objective of the Palestinian struggle. This misconception would have serious consequences for the Palestinians and others across the region.
The complexities of the shift in the meanings of the conflict are being exacerbated by the Biblical and Quranic framing of developments by Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas. In a significant speech he gave last Saturday, Netanyahu went back to the 11th century BC and quoted a story about the Jews’ struggle with “the people of the Amalek” from the Book of Samuel. He used the cruelty of this text to justify the brutality of the Israeli military machine and the number of Palestinian casualties being left by its attacks. If a man heading a “secular” party, the Likud, “twisted” the narrative in this way, there are no limits to the willingness of Hamas to theologize all aspects of the conflict it is waging and the project it is leading.
The religious connotations are not concealed in the title that Hamas has chosen for this war, “Al-Aqsa Flood.” It links the Abrahamic mythology of “Noah’s Flood,” which an overwhelming divine force gave rise to with the aim of putting an end to injustice, to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is an Islamic religious symbol that “God promised” the believers would be liberated. This religious framing of the political conflict, linking it to supernatural narratives and turning it into an existential battle, is a horrifying proposition for Palestinians, Israelis, and the entire region. This course makes individuals and groups see things from a sacrosanct perspective to a terrifying degree, undermining the rational dynamics needed to shift towards practical solutions, making our political psyches more rigid and fanatical, and perpetuating conflict and suffering.
This battle over the psyche is what concerns us outside the military battlefield. This battle must be fought to liberate the youths currently being politicized from this trap of distorting their perception of the Palestinian question and the Arab-Israeli conflict more broadly. The essence of the Palestinian cause, which is a struggle for justice, statehood, and self-determination, is being threatened with extinction as the supernatural religious narrative becomes the vogue. The unprecedented degree of violence that Israel has unleashed in response to the unprecedented violence of Palestinian attack, is crushing what remains of the foundations for a political solution.
However, I believe that the war, with its horrific horrors on both sides, has rekindled the urgency of a two-state solution, which had appeared like a dead end and a forgotten project in recent years. Thus, a political solution can be extracted from the rubble of the ongoing conflict today if the stakeholders - the Palestinians, Israelis, Arabs, and Americans - can unite behind an initiative and move quickly to put us back on the track of peace.
This solution requires the defeat of Benjamin Netanyahu and his alliance, the most extreme in the history of Israel, and the defeat of Hamas, whose rule since 2006 has led the Palestinians to the hell they now find themselves in.
It is no secret that Netanyahu is finished. That is evident in every Israeli opinion poll. They all show that the people of Israel hold him responsible for the current state of affairs. He cannot escape the fates that had befallen more prominent Israeli precedes. Golda Meir left government and politics after the 1973 war, Yitzhak Shamir was gone after the First Intifada, and, before him, Menachem Begin was out after the 1982 Lebanon war.
As for Hamas, according to a poll conducted in Gaza and the West Bank by the Arab Barometer days before its war with Israel began, the residents of Gaza did not have much confidence in their Hamas-led government. When asked about their degree of trust in the Hamas authorities, 44 percent of respondents said that they do not have any confidence in these authorities at all, while 23 percent of them said that they “do not have much confidence.” It would not make sense for these results to have improved after the suffering inflicted on the Palestinians as a result of Hamas’ recent choices.
In this regard, we should note a large segment of Israeli public opinion leaders had the courage to hold Netanyahu and his policies responsible for the ongoing war, while no Palestinian voices have held Hamas accountable for its share of responsibility, not only for this war but also for its bad governance and linking the Palestinian question to Iranian geopolitical interests.
I understand the cruelty of what the Palestinians are experiencing today. However, adopting the Hamas narrative about resistance and the nature of the conflict, under the weight of fear or suffering, would not be wise. In times of crisis, societies need different kinds of leaders. Leaders with the capacity to chart a new course and revive hope among the people are needed. The Palestinians must be more vocal in distancing themselves from the choices that Hamas has imposed on them against their will. Now is the time for a new Palestinian voice that speaks to the aspirations of its people and takes a more realistic approach.
The war over minds is more consequential than the military battlefield. The narrative that will prevail has the potential either to leave us all trapped in a vicious cycle of perpetual hatred and violence or to put us on the path to peace and reconciliation.

Gaza: Questions Imposed by The Logic of Things
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-Awsat/31 October 2023
After over 20 days since the “2023 Gaza War” erupted, I can confidently assert that the balance on the battlefield in this asymmetric conflict seems to favor the Israeli forces. Indeed, we have the materialization of events and developments that many, including myself, had anticipated.
Among these developments is that the United States and most Western countries have fully endorsed the Israeli perspective and narrative.
Another is Washington's persistent push to “absolve” Iran and its regional allies of responsibility and “leave them out of it.” This seems to be a strategic move to isolate groups like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement. The aim seems not only to dismantle their military and security structures but also to diminish their demographic base in the Gaza Strip as they explicitly pursue a “transfer.”
Additionally, the coalition of countries opposed to Washington spearheaded by Moscow and Beijing seems incapable of “rein in” the US as it makes its strongest push since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This “restraint” now concerns how the objectives will be realized... against a backdrop of provocation, vilification, allegations of treachery, and a severe curtailment of civil liberties, both in the United States and major Western European nations.
Although hundreds of thousands of Americans and Europeans - who refuse to consider sympathy for the suffering of Gaza's civilians to be an expression of support for Hamas's policies and methods - have "defied" restrictions and ignored pressures... taking to the streets with their flags and raising their chants, the price for this courage has yet to be paid. If the developments that unfolded after 2003 are anything to go by, they will probably eventually pay the price for this brave “defiance” in one way or another, especially since we live in an era of electronic surveillance, phone tapping, and hacking of personal data... not to mention unbridled fanaticism.
I said that the US, the West, and Israel have the “advantage on the battlefield.” That is a patent fact attested to by the figures and the course of the current war. However, Hamas and those behind it have yet to lose politically. I do not think that the current Western approach to what happened on October 7 and what will happen after it... will leave one side “victorious” and another “vanquished” in the foreseeable future.
Rather, imagination can lead a commentator here and an analyst there to say that the mere fact of dividing the world into “two camps”... namely, “those with us” and “those against us” means there can be no talk of victor and vanquished.
Indeed, whether Hamas and those with it wanted to “divide” the world in this way or Israel and the forces supporting it wanted this outcome, the “split,” at least psychologically and politically, is now a matter of fact.
Yes, today we are faced with a psychological schism, as this war has given rise to immense disappointment and a total loss of confidence as the voices of reason, moderation, and consensus have faded in the West. Meanwhile, the tone of superiority, racist abolition, and selective and incendiary populist rhetoric have grown louder.
Many acquaintances we thought we knew... turned out to be very different from what we had thought they were.
The emerging rhetoric of Western military spokesmen and political commentators seems very different from what we had been accustomed to just a few months ago.
Sober capitals, respectable media outlets, and responsible leaders - or how they had seemed to be - have all terrifyingly justified any step or action... regardless of the immediate human cost and the long-term political cost.
Much of what we hear is disturbing, and most of the rhetoric disregards the dimensions of the words being uttered and the narratives being pushed. Moreover, it seems as though those making these statements do not want to think about what the coming days will bring as rivers of blood flow, hatred is stoked, opportunities for settlements collapse, and the political impasse hardens.
This is not to downplay the continuing Palestinian suffering and Israel’s perpetual defense from the front, but yes, what happened on October 7 was wrong: first, civilians were deliberately targeted, and second, because it was a gamble whose consequences had not been taken into account.
I say this because I do not personally rule out the possibility that some of the fanatics on the Israeli right were genuinely hoping for an attack of this kind that targets civilians and allows them to uproot the population and grant its “transfer” project local and international support, which would not have been easy to secure under any other circumstance.
On the other hand, reason compels us to assume that the planners of the October 7 attack must have taken the Israeli reaction into account. Thus, the question becomes whether they had been promised some kind of regional or international support... Or have they - without knowing it - embroiled themselves, their organization, and their people in a battle that appears, from the international mobilization that we see against them, to have been “predictable?” Indeed, without going too deeply into “conspiracy theories”, perhaps it was “sought” to redraw the maps of the region: liquidating the Palestinian question and dividing and sharing the Levant!
The exoneration of Iran and the silence of its proxies, who have launched nothing more than carefully calibrated attacks, is by no means a coincidence, and neither is the worsening disintegration of the countries around the occupied Palestinian territories or the insistence on exporting the crises to their territory.
But what of today? Particularly with the commencement of the ground offensive?
Indeed, it is sensible for the West to condition a ceasefire upon the release of civilian hostages. However, is this feasible? Can one realistically expect that a group that has taken hostages would willingly let them go, especially if a decision to eliminate them had already been made?
Isn't it in the best interest of all – without exception – to approach the situation with caution and composure? Reducing casualties should be the paramount concern. There's an urgent need to genuinely pursue a political solution founded on UN resolutions. This would alleviate tensions and pave the way for constructive solutions rather than ushering in chaos and devastation.