Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 05-06/2023
There is no difference between who calls for throwing Israel into the sea and chants death to Israel and America, and who advocates for dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza./Elias Bejjani/November 05/2023
Unmasking Nasrallah's Theatrical and Deceptive Hollywood-Style Speech/Elias Bejjani/November 03/2023
Condemnation of the Killing of Children and Innocents should include all peoples and races, or it becomes akin to crocodile tears shed for the sake of pretense or self-pity./Etienne Saqr – Abu Arz/November 04/2023
War Dynamics and Stalemated Politics/Charles Elias Chartouni/Face Book/November 05/2023
Former Lebanese MP Fares Souaid: Nasrallah Spoke Like Pontius Pilate, Washed His Hands Of The War In Gaza; His Main Goal – Exonerating Iran From Involvement In The October 7 Attack
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!/Claude A Hillar HajjarFace Book/November 05/2023
Lebanon says Israeli strike kills reporter’s 4 relatives
3 children and woman killed in Israeli strike on car in south Lebanon
LBCI's sources: Israel targets civilian car in Southern Lebanon, killing three children and a woman
4 paramedics wounded as Israel bombs ambulance in south Lebanon
Hezbollah says it targeted an Israeli military vehicle
Hezbollah: We will never tolerate any aggression against civilians, and our response will be resolute and powerful
Hezbollah fires rockets at Kiryat Shmona in response to killing of civilians
Israeli warplanes strike Lebanese border areas after Hezbollah attacks
Gallant warns Nasrallah against committing same 'mistake' as Sinwar
Mikati, al-Sisi urge efforts to contain situation, relaunch peace talks
Blinken thanks Mikati for his 'leadership'
Mikati: This horrendous crime will not go unpunished as an urgent complaint will be filed against the Israeli enemy with the UN Security Council
Hezbollah's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah set to speak next Saturday at 3 PM on the occasion of Martyr's Day
Nabih Berri: What the Israeli occupation is doing from Gaza to southern Lebanon is part of one context
Where do Hamas and Hezbollah Sit in Iran's New Regional and International Positioning?/Raghida Dergham/The National/November 05/2023
[Legal Note: Hezbollah is an entity on US Terror lists. Removing this news item is against US laws and the US Constitution]/Dr. Walid Phares/Face Book/November 05/2023
Sunday Thought of the Day: The Bishop's Gift/Eblan Farris/Face Book/November 05/2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 05-06/2023
Hamas reports 'intense' Israeli bombing around Gaza hospitals
Israel army announces 'significant' strikes, says Gaza Strip cut in two
Biden confirms progress on humanitarian pause in Gaza war
Iranian state media confirm meeting between Khamenei, Hamas' Haniyeh in Tehran
Arabs push for Israel-Hamas truce now, US says that could be counterproductive
Thousands of Israeli protesters demand Netanyahu resignation
Warplanes strike Gaza refugee camp as Israel rejects US push for a pause in fighting
The Israeli army announces major ongoing strikes on Gaza
Live updates | Israeli warplanes hit refugee camps in Gaza Strip, killing scores
US troops came home feeling 'cursed' and seeing ghosts after intense artillery battles with the Islamic State
Obama says the war in Gaza is killing people 'who have nothing to do with what Hamas did'
Israeli minister swiftly punished after suggesting dropping a nuke on Gaza
Israeli government yields on key judicial overhaul, citing war
Qatar says Gaza hostage releases need 'period of calm'
Gunpoint ultimatum adds to long-standing harassment of villagers in Israeli-occupied West Bank
Jordan king confirms air-drop of urgent medical aid on Gaza
Blinken makes unannounced visit to Iraq
Russian forces strike drone warehouse in Syria's Idlib - Interfax agency

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 05-06/2023
The Elephant in the Room': The Real Source of Jew-Hatred in the Middle East/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 05/2023
Clock Ticks for Israel on Hostages, Hamas, and Diplomatic Grace/Jonathan Spyer/The Australian/November 05/2023
Egyptian Journalists: Hamas Is A Terror Organization Bent On Destroying Israel And The Jews; Its October 7 Attack Involved ISIS-Like War Crimes/MEMRI/November 05/2023
Iran's Oil Funds Genocide/Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./November 5, 2023
Gaza war exposes an EU devoid of unity and values/Talmiz Ahmad/Arab News/November 05, 2023
Israel has succeeded in turning the world against it/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/November 06, 2023
How to tackle sub-Saharan Africa’s water crisis/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 05, 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 05-06/2023
There is no difference between who calls for throwing Israel into the sea and chants death to Israel and America, and who advocates for dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza.
Elias Bejjani/November 05/2023
It is essential and a moral duty to condemn the bizarre statement of the Israeli Minister of Heritage, Amihai Eliyahu, in which he called for dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza. This unethical and criminal statement raises significant and serious concerns due to the dangerous ideas and kind of hostile culture it represents and advocates for, as well as its negative impact on peace, stability, and the acceptance of the different other in the Middle East region.
Meanwhile, we must focus on this provocative and blind hostile rhetoric from its cultural and ethical aspects, and everything related to human dignity and the right to a free and dignified life for each and every person all over the world
First, it must be pointed out that the use of nuclear weapons is an inhumane and criminal option and is irresponsible, with potentially dire consequences for civilians and the environment, and because it direly violates human values and principles. This makes it imperative that security and defense strategies in all countries of the world be cautious, moderate, and far from such an option, which necessitates a continuous search for diplomatic and peaceful solutions in a bid to resolve conflicts, especially the complex Arab-Israeli conflict.
Second, the elements of fanaticism, recklessness, hatred, and the desire to kill the different other are qualities that do not foster the necessary constructive components of dialogue and understanding required to resolve conflicts in the Middle East countries. Therefore, it is necessary for leaders and officials in Arab countries, Israel, and the rest of the free world to work on achieving communication and opening channels of dialogue with all relevant parties to avoid wars, violence, and to promote peace and stability.
Third, it is vital not to view any such atrocity with one eye, and focus solely on criticizing the inhumane statement of the Israeli minister, which, in practice and reality, is not significantly different from the barbarism, hostility, and fundamentalism of those who adopt and promote slogans calling for “death to America and Israel”, and openly call for the annihilating of Israel and throwing it into the sea, as is evident in the discourse and culture of the Iranian regime and its proxy armed-terrorist militias in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Gaza, Iraq, and many other third-world countries. As well as the fundamentalist, Jihadist, and political Islamic groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Boko Haram, and dozens of alike terrorist organizations that share the same Jihadist Iranian-Mullahs’ culture and agenda.
In conclusion, there is no credibility in any criticism of the extremist and fundamentalist statement of the Israeli minister, while ignoring the culture and depravity of those who call for throwing Israel into the sea, view America and Israel as demons, and openly expressing their hatred and hostility towards them.
It is worth mentioning, that the language of violence and killing the different other does not serve the interests of any party, and does not help in resolving conflicts, in a civilized, peaceful, and constructive manner, whether large or small.

Unmasking Nasrallah's Theatrical and Deceptive Hollywood-Style Speech
Elias Bejjani/November 03/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123886/123886/
Hassan Nasrallah's speech delivered today in Beirut, has unveiled a host of hypocritical aspects shrouding the so-called slogans of resistance and liberation. In a Hollywood-style, delusional, and deceptive manner, Nasrallah's address was nothing short of a scandal, attracting significant attention. His appearance, filled with feigned piety, false claims, and empty rhetoric, exposed a vast chasm between the image that he and Iran attempt to project about their alliance as forces of resistance and opposition to American hegemony and the feeble, cartoonish reality that the content of his speech revealed.
Not a shred of credibility, seriousness, or realism could be found in Nasrallah's remarks, nor did he exhibit even a modicum of respect for the slogans and fanaticism of liberating Palestine and eliminating the State of Israel within seven minutes, as has been falsely claimed by Iran's military, religious, and civilian leaders.
His overt focus on the "Great Satan," the United States, and his attribution of all the consequences of supporting and protecting Israel to it, despite his portrayal of Israel as fragile as a spider's web, reveals a deceptive and evasive approach to avoiding commitments tied to the enormous military capabilities proclaimed by Iran's axis.The narrative, content, heresies, justifications, and allegations in his speech blatantly confirmed that Nasrallah, despite the aura surrounding him, is nothing more than a foot soldier in Iran's terrorist army, a mere mouthpiece, and a puppet. He possesses no independent decision-making ability and merely obeys Iran's orders without question.What Nasrallah demonstrated through his speech is that the Persian state is not, as some suggest, a genuine force of resistance, liberation, and principles; rather, it is an avaricious and immoral merchant, driven solely by selfish local, international, regional, and self-interested objectives, even at the expense of Arab countries, their people, and their wealth in general, and at the expense of the Palestinian cause and blood in particular.
Nasrallah's deceptive and delusional speech once again sheds light on Iran's sinister attempts to sow strife, division, and religious sectarianism among Arab peoples, and exploit the Palestinian people's suffering. The Arab world must remain vigilant against the openly declared Iranian schemes.
To thwart Iranian plots, Arab nations must strive for peace in the region, adopt moderate positions, and confront foreign Iranian interventions that threaten regional stability, peace, and security.
In conclusion, Nasrallah's speech was a staged farce, exposing the deficiencies of the satanic axis of resistance and revealing the true goals of Iran's mullahs. It is important to remember that Hassan Nasrallah, despite his arrogance and inflated media image, is a mere pawn in Iran's army, a mere mouthpiece, trumpet, and cymbal in everything he utters. Today, not tomorrow, it is imperative for Arab countries, particularly the Palestinians, to openly declare Iran as an enemy, boycott it, and dismantle all its armed terrorist and militia proxies.

Condemnation of the Killing of Children and Innocents should include all peoples and races, or it becomes akin to crocodile tears shed for the sake of pretense or self-pity.
Etienne Saqr – Abu Arz/November 04/2023
Crocodile Tears
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123913/123913/
President Putin said that any normal person would be angered by seeing images of children stained with blood in Gaza, and we agree with him. However, we ask him:
When the Syrian regime’s artillery and rocket launchers were pounding Lebanese homes and targeting sleeping children in their beds or shelters, we didn’t hear a single statement of condemnation from Moscow for the monstrous massacres committed by “Assad” that spilled the blood of our people for three continuous decades!!!
What about the citizens of Ukraine and their children who are pursued by supersonic Russian rockets, killing them every day???
And what about the children of Syria who were chased by Sukhoi fighters and explosive barrels, with thousands of them killed and buried under the rubble of their homes???
The condemnation of the killing of children and innocents should include all peoples and races, or it becomes akin to crocodile tears shed for the sake of pretense or self-pity.
The butcher reveals his true nature when he lectures on humanity.
Long Live Lebanon
Etienne Saqr – Abu Arz
(Free translation from Arabic by: Elias Bejjani)

War Dynamics and Stalemated Politics
Charles Elias Chartouni/Face Book/November 05/2023
The ultimate achievement of the Iranian destabilization strategy is the ongoing open-ended state of conflict, its ripple effects at both the regional and international levels, and the strident polarization it elicited all along various political spectrums. The planners of this minutely orchestrated strategic breakdown, with its macabre pogrom and the inevitable psychological and military outcomes it impelled, are no hazards: the sequences were preordained, carefully pondered and account for the current conflict dynamics. The intentional savagery which framed the massacres in Southern Israel, was supposed to spark off the highly destructive urban warfare scenarios and their chain of effects: Israel has no other choice but destroy Hamas military infrastructures, remodel the strategic landscape and square off with Iran’s existential threats, while Hamas is instrumentalizing the human shields, to advance its political agenda and set the footprints of Iranian power politics. The dilemmatic nature of this war dynamic is what accounts for the military and humanitarian imbroglios, and their tragic fallouts on the civilian population in Gaza.
How can you conduct military operations under the unmanageable constraints of urban warfare doubled by egregious demographic density, militarization of the oppidan underground, and harnessed civilian infrastructures (hospitals, schools, religious sites…,.). The tragic of this war lies in its topography, surrogate nature and exploitation by various power politics and their attending ramifications. The cynical plotting of this conflict dynamic is manifestly correlated to the stalled peace process, its repeated sabotaging by extremists, on both sides of the conflict, and manipulation by sundry actors all along a continuum, whereby the crosscutting of regional and international discords undermine the chances of arbitration and conflict resolution. Unfortunately, peace plans have no congenial political environment that favors negotiations, political moderation and constructive engagement.
The long winded expatiation of Hassan Nasrallah epitomizes the stalemates of withering international and regional orders, the malevolence of the prevailing ideological and strategic subtexts, and the absence of overarching civic, democratic and ethical discourses. Otherwise, Iran’s calculations are predicated on deferring major military conflicts as long as their martial nuclear program is not yet ready. There are no chances for peace negotiations, when there is no common political framework which enables conflicting parties to engage each other on a rational and ethical basis. If we compare the scenarios of the erstwhile Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, this latest features the glaring deficiency of a common grammar and the dearth of accommodating political elites. The failure to understand the current dynamics, underpins the inability to come to terms with their scope, and steer them progressively towards conflict management.
The serious crises of international governance as displayed in the latest conflicts in Georgia, Ukraine, Artsakh, the Syrian-Lebanese- Iraqi-Palestinian interfaces, and their domestic correlates account for the ongoing impasses and their tragic consequences. The sturdy illusions nurtured by radicals on every side, need to be thwarted if we were to contain the Iranian strategy of systemic destabilization, extricate Palestinian politics from the travails of radicalism generated by the political stalemate and Islamization of the political discourse, and the Israeli political landscape from the delusions of political messianism and its impasses. The unleashing violence has no chances terminating unless the Abraham accords culminate with a resumption of negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis based on moral reciprocity, and the search for a mutually consented political framework. Extremists feed on perpetuating conflicts, murderous ideologies and nihilism, and unraveling international civility swaying the prospects of formal and alternative diplomacy.

Former Lebanese MP Fares Souaid: Nasrallah Spoke Like Pontius Pilate, Washed His Hands Of The War In Gaza; His Main Goal – Exonerating Iran From Involvement In The October 7 Attack
MEMRI/November 05/2023
Former Lebanese MP Fares Souaid said in a November 3, 2023 interview that aired on MTV (Lebanon) that the speech delivered by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah earlier that day was like a "Pontius Pilate version of Nasrallah." He said that in the speech Nasrallah "has washed his hands of what is happening in Gaza and of October 7" because he is concerned first and foremost about the U.S. Navy forces deployed in the region. Souaid said that Nasrallah was certain to clarify that Iran does not want to join the war. He said that Nasrallah does not care about Lebanon and that he only cares about Iran and its interests. Souaid emphasized that Nasrallah does not speak for the Arabs and Arab interests, but rather as the leader of an Iranian faction. The interview was aired on MTV, but it was not posted on any of the channel's social media platforms. Fares Souaid shared the interview on his personal Facebook account.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!
Claude A Hillar HajjarFace Book/November 05/2023
Whoever really feels "human" compassion for the children of Gaza who were killed under the bombs of the Israeli armed forces, should also feel compassion for the 40 babies and young children of Israel, at a kibbutz near the Gaza border, who were beheaded/slaughtered along with their mothers and some elderly, cut into pieces, and sent back to Israel! Don't politicize your support, just keep it human or don't lie to yourself and others! If you don't know the whole truth, don't post and spread half of it!
Just tell the whole truth and the truth will set you free: John 8:31-32
The truth will set you free/31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed Him, "If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
The Cedars of God-The Homeland of Saint Virgin Mary

Lebanon says Israeli strike kills reporter’s 4 relatives
AFP/November 06, 2023
BEIRUT: Four relatives of a journalist were killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, the official Lebanese news agency said, adding that the journalist was also wounded. o countries has seen regular exchanges of fire, in particular between Iran-backed group Hezbollah and Israel, since the start of the Israel-Hamas war triggered by the Palestinian group’s October 7 attacks. Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said the four victims are the sister of radio correspondent Samir Ayoub and her three grandchildren, aged 10, 12 and 14.
They were following the journalist’s car in another vehicle when they were killed. Ayoub later appeared on the local television channel Al-Jadeed, wearing a bloodstained shirt, and described pulling his niece from the car, the sole survivor of the five people inside it. Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced the attack as an “abhorrent crime committed by the Israeli enemy,” and saying the cars had been targeted by drones. On X, formerly Twitter, the foreign ministry cited Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib as saying he would bring the matter to the attention of the UN Security Council on Monday. Shortly after the incident, Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement said it fired Katyusha rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona in response to this “heinous crime.” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said late Sunday “Hezbollah targets were attacked in the north in response to an anti-tank missile attack that killed an Israeli civilian,” without specifying where the civilian died. Hagari added that among the targets hit by Israel were “vehicles” and that aircraft destroyed the launch site for a long-range missile.
Earlier Sunday, four rescue workers were injured in an Israeli bombing in southern Lebanon that hit two ambulances, according to the association that owned the vehicles and state media. NNA said an Israeli strike targeted two ambulances belonging to the Risala Scout association, which operates rescue teams and is affiliated with the Shiite Amal movement, a Hezbollah ally. The association said “a drone from the Israeli occupation forces deliberately targeted... the two vehicles, causing moderate injuries to four paramedics.”It said the attack took place at dawn when the two ambulances were called to evacuate wounded in the village of Tayr Harfa, some three kilometers (two miles) from the border with Israel. The Israeli army said it had used a drone to target a “terrorist cell that attempted to fire from Lebanon toward the area of Rosh Hanikra in northern Israel.” It said troops had observed “two suspicious vehicles” in the area, but said “the strike was directed at the terrorist cell and not at the vehicles.”Since October 7, at least 81 people have been killed on the Lebanese side in cross-border skirmishes, according to an AFP tally, including 59 Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah said three of its fighters were killed on Sunday. Six soldiers and two civilians have been killed on the Israeli side. On October 13, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed and six other journalists, including two from AFP, were wounded while covering the cross-border fighting in southern Lebanon. Lebanese authorities have accused Israel of being behind the strikes. Rising tensions on the border have raised concerns that the Israel’s war to destroy Hamas in Gaza could become a wider conflagration. In his first speech since the fighting erupted between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday accused the United States of being “entirely responsible” for the war. He also warned Israel against the “folly” of an attack on Lebanon, adding that halting its “aggression against Gaza” would prevent a regional conflict.

3 children and woman killed in Israeli strike on car in south Lebanon
Agence France Presse/November 5, 2023
Four relatives of a journalist were killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, the official Lebanese news agency said, adding that the journalist was also wounded. The border area between Lebanon and Israel has seen multiple exchanges of fire, in particular between Hezbollah and Israel, since the start of the Israel-Hamas war triggered by the Palestinian group's October 7 attacks. The National News Agency (NNA) said the four victims are the sister of radio correspondent Samir Ayoub and her three grandchildren, aged 10, 12 and 14.
They were following the journalist's car in another vehicle when they were killed. Earlier Sunday, four rescue workers were injured in an Israeli bombing in southern Lebanon that hit two ambulances, according to the association that owned the vehicles and state media. NNA said an Israeli strike targeted two ambulances belonging to the Risala Scout association, which operates rescue teams and is affiliated with the Amal movement, a Hezbollah ally. The association said "a drone from the Israeli occupation forces deliberately targeted... the two vehicles, causing moderate injuries to four paramedics."It said the attack took place at dawn when the two ambulances were called to evacuate wounded in the village of Tayr Harfa, some three kilometers (two miles) from the border with Israel. The Israeli army said it had used a drone to target a "terrorist cell that attempted to fire from Lebanon toward the area of Rosh Hanikra in northern Israel."It said troops had observed "two suspicious vehicles" in the area, but said "the strike was directed at the terrorist cell and not at the vehicles."Lebanon's health ministry condemned "a cowardly and barbaric attack." Since October 7, at least 81 people have been killed on the Lebanese side in cross-border skirmishes, according to an AFP tally, including 59 Hezbollah fighters. Six soldiers and two civilians have been killed on the Israeli side. On October 13, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed and six other journalists, including two from AFP, were wounded while covering the cross-border fighting in southern Lebanon. Lebanese authorities have accused Israel of being behind the strikes. Hezbollah said two more of its fighters were killed on Sunday morning. Rising tensions on the border have raised concerns that the Israel's war to destroy Hamas in Gaza could become a wider conflagration. In his first speech since the fighting erupted between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday accused the United States of being "entirely responsible" for the war. He also warned Israel against the "folly" of an attack on Lebanon, adding that halting its "aggression against Gaza" would prevent a regional conflict.

LBCI's sources: Israel targets civilian car in Southern Lebanon, killing three children and a woman
LBCI/November 5, 2023
On Sunday evening, the Israeli army targeted a civilian car in the Ghadmatha area between the towns of Aitaroun and Ainata, according to LBCI's sources. Two cars were traveling on the road. The first car belonged to Samir Abdel-Hussein Ayoub (a journalist from Ainata), and the second car, driven by Hoda Abdel-Nabi Hijazi (Samir's niece from Blida, married to Mahmoud Shour living abroad from Aitaroun), was following closely with her mother and children. Sources confirmed to LBCI that the attack resulted in injuries to Samir and Hoda and tragically led to the death of Hoda's mother and her three children.
Her mother:
-Samira Abdel-Hussein Ayoub
Children:
-Rimas Mahmoud Shour, 14 years old
-Taline Mahmoud Shour, 12 years old
-Lian Mahmoud Shour, 10 years old

4 paramedics wounded as Israel bombs ambulance in south Lebanon
Naharnet/November 5, 2023
Four paramedics were wounded when an Israeli drone bombed an ambulance for the Amal Movement-affiliated Islamic Risala Scout Association on the outskirts of the south Lebanon town of Tayr Harfa. The National News Agency said the injuries ranged from light to moderate. TV networks said the paramedics were trying to evacuate the bodies of two Hezbollah fighters killed on a motorbike by Israeli fire as well as people who were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house. Israeli reports meanwhile said that an Iron Dome missile was fired at a suspicious target over the border with Lebanon. Lebanese reports said no rockets were fired from Lebanon. Israeli artillery had in the morning shelled the outskirts of the southern towns of Marwahin, Dhayra, Talbsin, Alma al-Shaab, Naqoua and al-Labbouneh. Overnight, Hezbollah said that it targeted Israeli troops inside a house in the Metulla settlement, inflicting “certain casualties,” in response to “the killing of a number of civilians over the past days.”

Hezbollah says it targeted an Israeli military vehicle
Associated Press/November 5, 2023
Hezbollah said Sunday that it targeted an Israeli military vehicle across the border with guided missiles, killing and wounding its crew members. The Israeli military confirmed in a statement that an antitank missile was launched from Lebanon at Yiftah in northern Israel, and said it was striking the sources of fire. It did not confirm whether there were casualties. Hezbollah announced several other missile launches Sunday and said it had destroyed Israeli equipment along the border. The Israeli military said Israel’s Iron Dome defense system had intercepted a drone flying toward Israel from Lebanon.

Hezbollah: We will never tolerate any aggression against civilians, and our response will be resolute and powerful
LBCI/November 5, 2023
Hezbollah declared that "In response to the heinous crime committed by the Zionist enemy on Sunday, which targeted a civilian car on the road between Al-Maasara, Ainata, and Aitaroun, resulting in the martyrdom of a woman and three of her grandchildren, the Islamic resistance fighters took action at 7:20 PM on Sunday, November 5, 2023, by launching several Grad (Katyusha) rockets towards the Qiryat Shemona settlement."Hezbollah emphasized that it will never tolerate any harm or aggression against civilians, and its response will be resolute and powerful.

Hezbollah fires rockets at Kiryat Shmona in response to killing of civilians
Naharnet/November 5, 2023
Hezbollah on Sunday said it fired rockets at Israel’s north in response to the killing of Lebanese civilians in an Israeli drone strike earlier in the day. “In response to the brutal and ugly crime that the Zionist enemy committed this afternoon by targeting a civilian car on the al-Maaysra road between Ainata and Aitaroun, which resulted in the martyrdom of a woman and her three toddler grandchildren, the jihadi fighters of the Islamic Resistance shelled the Kiryat Shmona settlement with several Katyusha rockets,” Hezbollah said in a statement. It added that it “will never tolerate attacks against civilians” and that its responses will be “firm and powerful.” Israeli retaliated by firing four shells at the Hounin Valley. Earlier in the day, an Israeli army spokesman had said that an "Israeli citizen" had been killed by Hezbollah missile fire Sunday.

Israeli warplanes strike Lebanese border areas after Hezbollah attacks
Associated Press/November 5, 2023
Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes along the border with Lebanon Saturday after Hezbollah attacked several Israeli army posts. The escalation came a day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his powerful group is already engaged in unprecedented fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border. He threatened a further escalation as Israel's war in Gaza with Hamas, Hezbollah's ally, nears the one-month mark. Hezbollah is prepared for all options, Nasrallah declared, "and we can resort to them at any time." Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters attacked at least six Israeli posts along the border, saying "suitable rockets and weapons" were used. It added that "direct hits were scored and technical equipment was destroyed."Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV reported that fighters shot down a spy balloon that Israel's military posted over the northern settlement of Misgav Am.
On the outskirts of the village of Rmeish, in a rugged area along the border, an Israeli airstrike caused thick gray smoke. Artillery shelling could be heard from a distance. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported airstrikes around several other border villages, including Labbouneh and Hibarriyeh.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Israeli warplanes, tanks and artillery fired toward the source of fire on the Lebanese side of the border and also targeted some Hezbollah arms depots, infrastructure and posts used by the Lebanese group.
Exchange of gunfire has been on the rise along the Lebanon-Israel border following the Oct. 7, attack by the Palestinian militant Hamas group that allegedly killed more than 1,400 civilians and troops in southern Israel. Israel has since launched a wide aerial and ground attack on Gaza that has left more than 9,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian health officials. Hezbollah started attacking Israeli positions on Oct. 8, in the disputed Shebaa Farms area along Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and within days the attacks spread to cover the whole border area.
On Saturday Hezbollah said one of its fighters was killed along the border raising the total death toll for the group since the fighting began to 56. Ten civilians, including a Reuters journalist, were killed as well as several Palestinian fighters.

Israeli Channel 12: An Israeli citizen killed by anti-tank fire from Lebanon
LBCI/November 5, 2023
An Israeli citizen died on Sunday as a result of an anti-tank fire originating from Lebanon, according to reports by Israeli Channel 12.

Gallant warns Nasrallah against committing same 'mistake' as Sinwar
Agence France Presse/November 5, 2023
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has visited troops on Israel's northern border with Israel and reiterated that Israel had no interest in engaging in a war there. "But we are prepared for every mission," Gallant said in a statement. "Yahya Sinwar made a mistake and sealed Hamas' fate in Gaza and of Gaza," he said of the militant group's chief in Gaza. He said that if Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah makes "a mistake, he will determine Lebanon's fate."The Lebanon-Israel border has seen regular cross-border shelling over the past month, with firing between the Israeli military on one side and the powerful Hezbollah and its allies on the other. In his first speech since the Israel-Hamas war broke out four weeks ago, Nasrallah warned Friday that "all options" were open for an expansion of the conflict to Lebanon as he blamed the United States for the war in Gaza.

Mikati, al-Sisi urge efforts to contain situation, relaunch peace talks
Associated Press/November 5, 2023
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have urged the international community to intensify efforts to "contain the situation" between Israel and the Palestinians and avert expanding the scope of violence."
Mikati flew to Cairo on Saturday for talks with al-Sisi after his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Jordanian capital of Amman. According to a statement from al-Sisi’s office, they also affirmed the necessity of “relaunching the peace track and implementing the two-state solution principle to achieve justice, security and stability to the region’s peoples.”

Blinken thanks Mikati for his 'leadership'
Associated Press/November 5, 2023
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati during their meeting in Jordan for his leadership “in preventing Lebanon from being pulled into a war that the Lebanese people do not want,” the U.S. State Department said. Mikati for his part stressed “the priority of working for a ceasefire in Gaza to halt the continuous Israeli aggression there, and also working on stopping the Israeli aggression against south Lebanon,” Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

Mikati: This horrendous crime will not go unpunished as an urgent complaint will be filed against the Israeli enemy with the UN Security Council
LBCI/November 5, 2023
The caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, strongly condemned the Israeli enemy's targeting of civilians in its aggression against Lebanon. He expressed his grief over the loss of four lives, including three children, in the south of Lebanon tonight, as well as the injuries sustained by others due to the fire from drones. Mikati described this act as a horrendous crime, adding to the list of the occupier's offenses. In a statement, Mikati underlined that this crime should be attributed to those who call for calm and disregard the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against Lebanon. He emphasized that this heinous crime serves as another stain on the conscience of the world that disregards the actions of the Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon and Gaza. Mikati stated, "This despicable crime will not go unpunished and will be closely monitored by the government through international contacts. An urgent complaint will also be filed against the Israeli enemy with the United Nations Security Council in light of this incident."He emphasized that the nations holding power within the Security Council should return to the application of United Nations law and take action to halt the aggressions, preserving whatever remains of humanity and justice so that these complaints do not end up as mere ink on paper.

Hezbollah's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah set to speak next Saturday at 3 PM on the occasion of Martyr's Day
LBCI/November 5, 2023
Hezbollah's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to address the public next Saturday at 3 PM, marking Martyr's Day. This speech is expected to be a continuation of his recent one about Lebanon, the war in Gaza, and especially martyrs.

Nabih Berri: What the Israeli occupation is doing from Gaza to southern Lebanon is part of one context
LBCI/November 5, 2023
The Parliament Speaker, Nabih Berri, condemned the targeting of civilians and paramedics by Israeli occupation forces on Sunday while they were carrying out their humanitarian duties. He stated, "The latest in a series of Israeli occupation's criminal acts, such as the incident that occurred on the road between Aitaroun and Ainata, leading to the killing of a woman and three of her grandchildren, leaves no room for doubt that Israel, at all its levels, including its military and political aspects, and exemplified by one of its figures, the Minister of Heritage who called for the use of nuclear weapons against the Palestinian people in Gaza, represents a model of state-sponsored terrorism. What Israel is perpetrating, from Gaza to southern Lebanon, is part of one context."

Where do Hamas and Hezbollah Sit in Iran's New Regional and International Positioning?
Raghida Dergham/The National/November 05/2023
It is too early to talk about the restructuring of the Middle East and permanent solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Indeed, this phase is still about formulating agreements and transitional arrangements based on the dealings of and lessons learned by the Israeli government, Hamas, and Iran and its proxies. What can be said now is, firstly, that there is a serious opportunity for de-escalation and provisional solutions, against the possibility of uncalculated escalation resulting from blunders or machinations of actors outside the circle of major players. Secondly, Israel will not regain any prestige or military, political, or moral strength it once claimed to have until it radically and seriously reinvents itself: It will never be secure again until it realizes that it must reach a solution with the Palestinians; or face a repetition of what happened on October 7th. Thirdly, despite Hamas’s euphoria with its unexpected ‘success’ and its ability to shatter Israel's military prestige, it has emerged from this confrontation weaker and in need of rescue, amid allegations it uses civilians for its authoritarian purposes and its Iranian and Israeli calculations. Fourthly, the painful Gaza war may hold the key to a new regional-international deal and coexistence, not only between Arabs and Israelis but also between Iran and Israel through security and deconfliction mechanisms. Fifthly, the main players who will be developing a "sustainable peace" plan, as stated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in the next chapter are the United States primarily and essential Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, which have the tools to pressure Israel if it genuinely seeks peace with the Arabs, not just normalization in its previous form.
It has long been said that a "grand bargain" traditionally results from a major event that changes the equation. October 7th indeed changed the equation because it revealed structural weaknesses in the Israeli military and intelligence establishment. Then, Israel's retaliatory actions against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, in violation of international law and humanitarian law, changed the global perception of Israel and triggered protests and condemnations against it. This came despite initial regional and international sympathy with Israel following Hamas’s actions and the condemnation of its massacre against Israeli civilians.
Hamas will not be part of any grand bargain. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be part of the grand bargain or any new regional security system either. Both have removed themselves from the equation, even though both are part of "the event" that could precipitate the grand bargain. Both have previously served each other’s interests in an accomplice-like relationship that emerged since the rise of Hamas as a challenge to the Fatah movement and the Palestinian Authority, with Israeli blessing. Today, both Netanyahu and Hamas are weaker, and both are obstacles to achieving a "lasting peace". However, at this transitional phase, they are necessary to complete a prisoner and hostage exchange deal. Therefore, they will be able to buy time until further notice.
But a necessary distinction exists between the fate of Benjamin Netanyahu and the fate of Hamas, although they are both difficult to eliminate from the current equation. The Israeli people - and the United States - will decide the fate of Netanyahu. As for Hamas, its fate is in the hands of Iran not the Palestinian people. Iran has pocketed a number of gains because it imposed itself as a player in the October 7th event without bearing responsibility for it. It managed to play the Hamas card without burning its own hands, and the Hezbollah card without incurring more than "limited" losses, represented by the killing of over 50 Hezbollah members in clashes between the Shia party and Israel so far within their so-called "rules of engagement."
Hezbollah and Hamas are now figuring out how to sustain their old positions in the new Iranian context. In other words, both realize that Iran is a party to behind-the-scenes talks, primarily with the United States and with the regional countries with a view to establish a new security system in which Tehran has a strong voice. These are major issues among states, not among movements and parties subordinate to states. Hezbollah and Hamas are contemplating how to renew their future and their tactics, in order to keep themselves viable in the new regional-strategic situation, within the context of the grand bargain.
Iran is the winner, but Hezbollah and Hamas are not losers in the sense that their days are over. Iran does not want to dispense away with either of them. Rather, it opposes the elimination of Hamas and will prevent such scenario using its own means. As for Hezbollah, it remains an essential tool in Iran's strategy as well as in its new positioning. Thus, Hezbollah remains highly significant, and Iran is eager to ensure it continues to operate according to the pattern it desires.
The Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has masterfully navigated between war and warning, making it seem as if he holds the initiative. The party has paid a price with the death of its fighters, after it entered a war with Israel but still within the boundaries of the rules of engagement, based on consultations and instructions from Tehran, and not in coordination with the Lebanese government. In fact, Hezbollah violated the sovereignty of the state, undermined the security of Lebanese citizens, and put it at the mercy of Hassan Nasrallah's agenda and timing, between his calculated absences and appearances, which frayed people's nerves. Worse still, Hezbollah opened the Lebanese-Israeli border to Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and various other Palestinian armed factions in the name of unifying the fronts of resistance, in a complete violation of not only sovereignty but also the will of the Lebanese people, who refuse to be dragged into the "resistance" war to serve as a bargaining chip.
If Hassan Nasrallah is indeed seeking to revitalize his party in light of Iran's move towards a new regional security system that safeguards its interests, now is the time to present his party as a Lebanese political entity first and foremost. The regional peace is not ready to accommodate it as an armed entity serving the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Instead, it is time for Hezbollah to reconsider its position.
This is the time for the leadership of Hezbollah to consider the Lebanese popular base, which rejects the idea of hosting Hamas leaders and its military wing in Lebanon, especially as the Palestinian refugee camps have turned into armed camps.
Israel is negotiating with Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and other countries regarding hosting Hamas leaders, whose continued presence in Gaza, Israel now rejects. These are sovereign states that decide the boundaries of the presence of Hamas leaders on their territories. As for Lebanon, it lacks state sovereignty, and Hezbollah is the one determining the boundaries of sovereignty and the presence of Palestinian leaders and armed factions on its soil.
It is not enough for the Secretary-General of Hezbollah to respond to the Lebanese people's wishes and entreaties to him not to drag Lebanon into a destructive war that would lead to its demise, and to refrain from declaring war on Israel. What the situation and the geopolitical landscape demand is for Hezbollah's leadership to redefine its position in the Lebanese internal scene, in line with the people's demands, allowing the party to have a role in the country's political future. They must also scrutinize Hezbollah’s usefulness for Iran in the upcoming regional landscape where there could no longer be a need for the party if states agree on a new regional security system.
Hamas has chosen the path to save itself through concessions over the path of self-destruction. Before Hassan Nasrallah's speech on Friday, Hamas had moved towards a compromise, expressing its willingness to accept less than its previous demand of Israel releasing all Hamas prisoners. It informed intermediaries that it is ready to agree to Israel releasing half of the prisoners in exchange for the hostages it is holding. In return, it requested a ceasefire, and for Israel to halt its military operation and political suppression of the movement, which had been successful despite its high human cost.
The timing of Hamas's efforts to save itself by showing flexibility sends a signal to Hezbollah to reduce the escalation. At the time of writing, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah has not yet delivered his anticipated speech despite a media campaign focusing on teasing shots of his threatening finger and his ring finger. It was not clear whether he would threaten war but refrain from announcing the expansion of the war, in line with Hamas's need to save its skin or with Iran's instructions, especially on the eve of the arrival of the U.S. Secretary of State in the region.
Iran is securing its place at the table for the restructuring of the Middle East, both in terms of security and politics. Iran acknowledges that there is no place for Hezbollah or Hamas in major negotiations for permanent solutions. Blinken hinted at having a project for lasting peace, but his trip now is focusing on transitional arrangements, particularly those related to the release of hostages, even if it involves accepting compromises sought by Hamas. This, in addition to restraining Israel from destroying the civilian infrastructure in Gaza with actions that can be documented as war crimes, similar to the crimes committed by Hamas. What Blinken also aims to do is envisioning the post-Gaza war scenario – who will govern it in the absence of Hamas? Is it possible to place it under temporary international-Arab administration until a clear roadmap for a lasting peace emerges?
Hamas has been an obstacle to the two-state solution, which Israel also rejected and obstructed. If the Biden administration succeeds in pushing post-Netanyahu and post-October 7 Israel to finally accept a two-state Solution, in one way or another, it will be able to pave the way for a historic breakthrough in the Middle East and achieve a lasting peace with most Arab countries, with minor exceptions. Moreover, Iran might surprise everyone by participating in the grand bargain that secures its interests in exchange for renouncing its commitment to destroying the "Zionist entity."
All of this may seem premature today, and developments, whether intentional or unintentional, may shatter any notion of lasting peace. However, practical indicators and political pressures suggest that Arab countries involved in normalizing relations with Israel are willing to assist the Biden administration in finding the necessary formula for this peace. Iran might not be too far from the dynamics of the "grand bargain." It all depends on the determination of the United States to convince Israel that the time has indeed come to choose lasting peace. Otherwise, more October surprises will continue to haunt Israel and, thus, bring about more self-destruction.

[Legal Note: Hezbollah is an entity on US Terror lists. Removing this news item is against US laws and the US Constitution]
Dr. Walid Phares/Face Book/November 05/2023
The Hezbollah threats
#HassanNasrallah, secretary general of #Hezbollah spent one hour in a speech to try to convince his listeners and the world, that "#IranRegime has NOTHING TO DO with the terror operation in the #Negev." This indicates clearly that the #Ayatollahs are afraid of a US led, Israeli backed counter strike."
One can project that the #IranLobby, as they advise the #IranRegime (we've seen the evidence few weeks ago), have asked the regime to order #Hezbollah to "distance itself and Hamas" from any regime "responsibility." Remember early reaction in DC & the West: "We don't have evidence that #Tehran has a hand in the attack on Israel.  Most likely Nasrallah was asked to clear the #IslamicRepublic from any responsibility of having given an order. While in reality it was the opposite. It is clear that for years #Hezbollah's leaders have insisted that they are "part of the "#IranRegime." Thus they are part of the decision making. But #Nasrallah & #Khamenei are afraid of an allied counter offensive that would crumble the "axis" from #Tehran, to #Baghdad, Southern suburb of #Beirut, and #Sanaa. "Iran has nothing to do with #Hamas terror" is a slogan to save the axis from a counter offensive, at the advice of their lobbies. #UberTaqiyya of deception.  Nasrallah also legitimized attacks by the Pro #IranRegime militias in #Iraq, against US presence. And hailed those who are demonstrating in support of Hamas around the world, and in America. "The battle of Gaza is fundamental, #Hamas must win." Thus the first goal is to..."stop the war, via a ceasefire." Nasrallah praised again the shelling of US forces by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and hailed the #Houthi militias in #Yemen, and announced that their missiles will eventually hit their targets in Israel. Nasrallah adds that his militia in Lebanon has deterred Israel from any operation and threatened IDF from advancing towards Hezbollah. Besides he claimed that by "engaging in skirmishes with the Israelis from south Lebanon, Hezb pinned down one third of the Israeli army, forced the Israeli population to run away from the Galilee." Last, he threatened the United States Navy that he has surprises for its fleets. "Remember your catastrophic retreat from Afghanistan in 2021, and your defeat in Lebanon in the 1983. He asked the US to stop the Israeli advance on Gaza or else. Then threatened that US interests, ships and bases will be hit if the conflict widens in the region.

Sunday Thought of the Day: The Bishop's Gift
Eblan Farris/Face Book/November 05/2023
Once a church had fallen upon hard times. Only five members were left: the pastor and four others, all over 60 years old. In the mountains near the church there lived a retired Bishop. It occurred to the pastor to ask the Bishop if he could offer any advice that might save the church. The pastor and the Bishop spoke at length, but when asked for advice, the Bishop simply responded by saying, "I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you."The pastor, returning to the church, told the church members what the Bishop had said. In the months that followed, the old church members pondered the words of the Bishop. "The Messiah is one of us?" they each asked themselves. As they thought about this possibility, they all began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off, off chance that each member himself might be the Messiah, they also began to treat themselves with extraordinary care. As time went by, people visiting the church noticed the aura of respect and gentle kindness that surrounded the five old members of the small church. Hardly knowing why, more people began to come back to the church. They began to bring their friends, and their friends brought more friends. Within a few years, the small church had once again become a thriving church, thanks to the Bishop's gift.
by: Author Unknown, Source Unknown

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 05-06/2023
Hamas reports 'intense' Israeli bombing around Gaza hospitals
Agence France Presse/November 5, 2023
Gaza's Hamas government said the Israeli army carried out "intense bombings" on Sunday evening around several hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip, shortly after telecommunications were cut. "For more than an hour, intense bombings have been taking place around hospitals," said Salama Marouf, the head of the Hamas government's media office. The vicinity of the Palestinian territory's largest hospital, al-Shifa, saw particularly heavy strikes, according to Marouf. The bombing came after the Israeli military once again accused Hamas of using hospitals in their military campaign against Israel. "Hamas places forces and weapons inside, under and around schools, mosques, homes and U.N. facilities," Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters on Sunday. "Among the worst of Hamas war crimes is the use of hospitals to hide their terror infrastructure," he said. Hamas has repeatedly rejected the charge. Israel has relentlessly pounded the besieged Gaza Strip in its battle to destroy Hamas, levelling entire city blocks and killing more than 9,700 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The attack on Gaza came after Hamas militants stormed across the border on October 7 and killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, Israeli authorities say.

Israel army announces 'significant' strikes, says Gaza Strip cut in two
Agence France Presse/November 5, 2023
The Israeli army said its land assault on the Gaza Strip had on Sunday split the Palestinian territory in two, with "significant" strikes continuing in its war against Hamas. Israeli forces "have encircled Gaza City... Now there exists a south Gaza and a north Gaza," said army spokesman Daniel Hagari.

Biden confirms progress on humanitarian pause in Gaza war
Agence France Presse/November 5, 2023
U.S. President Joe Biden said that progress had been made on securing a so-called "humanitarian pause" in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, as his secretary of state worked on the same issue in the Middle East. When asked if any progress had been made on the issue, Biden replied "yes" as he left a church in Delaware and offered a thumbs up before getting into his vehicle. He did not give any further details. Earlier Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Amman that a humanitarian pause in the fighting would help protect civilians and get more aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.

Iranian state media confirm meeting between Khamenei, Hamas' Haniyeh in Tehran
DUBAI (Reuters)/November 5, 2023
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has met with the leader of Tehran-backed Palestinian group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, Iranian state media reported on Sunday, a day after a Hamas official said they held a meeting in recent days. Iranian state media said Haniyeh, who has resided between Qatar and Turkey since 2019, "briefed Khamenei on the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza, as well as the developments in the West Bank". The Islamic Republic says it supports Hamas but did not play any role in the militants' surprise attack on Israel last month. "Ayatollah Khamenei praised the steadfastness and resilience of the people of Gaza and expressed strong regret over the crimes of the Zionist regime, supported directly by Washington and some Western countries," Iran's state TV said.
Without elaborating when the meeting took place, Iran's Tasnim news agency said the country's top authority Khamenei "emphasized Tehran's consistent policy of supporting the Palestinian resistance forces against the Zionist occupiers". Iran's clerical establishment has warned Israel, which it refuses to recognise, of "harsh consequences" if attacks continue on the Gaza Strip.

Arabs push for Israel-Hamas truce now, US says that could be counterproductive
Associated Press/November 5, 2023
Arab leaders decrying the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Israel-Hamas war pushed for an immediate cease-fire Saturday even as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that such a move would be counterproductive and could encourage more violence by the militant group.
After an afternoon of talks with Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi, Qatari and Emirati diplomats and a senior Palestinian official, Blinken stood side by side at a line of podiums with his counterparts from Jordan and Egypt to discuss what he said was their shared desire to protect civilians in Gaza and improve aid flows to the besieged territory. The dissonance in the messages was evident. Nonetheless, the joint news conference between ministers from the Arab world and the top diplomat from Israel's closest ally and numerous photo opportunities contrasted with Blinken's time in Tel Aviv on Friday, when Blinken met alone with reporters after closed-door talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Arab ministers repeatedly called for the fighting to stop now and condemned Israel's war tactics. "We cannot accept the justification as considered as the right of self-defense, collective punishment" of Palestinians in Gaza, Egypt's Sameh Shoukry said. "This cannot be a legitimate self-defense at all."Blinken held firm to the U.S. position that a cease-fire would harm Israel's right and obligation to defend its citizens after the surprise attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 across southern Israel. He said the Biden administration's commitment to Israel's right to self-defense remains unwavering. "It is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did," Blinken said. He said the U.S. supports "humanitarian pauses" in Israel's operations to allow for improved aid flows — an appeal Netanyahu pointedly rejected the day before — and increased transit of foreign nationals out of Gaza and into Egypt. Blinken's colleagues from Jordan and Egypt did not think that went far enough.
President Joe Biden in a brief exchange with reporters as he left St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Saturday suggested there has been some forward movement in the U.S efforts to persuade Israel to agree to a humanitarian pause. Asked if there was progress, he responded, "Yes." In another direct contrast, Arab officials said it was far too soon to discuss one of Blinken's main agenda items, Gaza's postwar future. Stopping the killing and restoring steady humanitarian aid are immediate that must be addressed first, they said. "What happens next? How can we even entertain what will happen next?" said Jordan's Ayman al-Safadi. "We don't have all the variables to even start thinking about that." He added, "We need to get our priorities straight."
But as they appeared before news cameras and reporters, the three men lent at least an appearance of solidarity. Blinken acknowledged Arab concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza and underscored the risk that the war poses to Israel's standing in neighboring countries with whom it has had diplomatic relations for decades. Shoukry and al-Safadi said they agreed to keep working with Blinken and others toward the ultimate goal of ending the war, restoring some sense of normalcy to Gaza and giving the Palestinian people reason to hope for an eventual independent state of their own.
From Beirut, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told reporters that Blinken "should stop the aggression and should not come up with ideas that cannot be implemented." Hamdan said the future of Gaza will be decided by the Palestinians and that Arab foreign ministers should tell the American diplomat that "he cannot build an Arab coalition that is against the Palestinian people." Blinken's first meeting in Jordan was with Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, whose economically and politically ravaged country is home to Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed force that is hostile to Israel. The United States has grave concerns that Hezbollah, which has stepped up rocket and cross-border attacks on northern Israel, will take a more active role in the Israel-Hamas war. Hezbollah's chief, Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday gave his first major speech since the Hamas attacks, but did not forecast his group's greater involvement even as he professed that Hezbollah was unperturbed by U.S. attempts to deter it. Blinken thanked Mikati for his leadership "in preventing Lebanon from being pulled into a war that the Lebanese people do not want," the U.S. State Department said.
Blinken then met with the foreign minister of Qatar, whose country has emerged as the most influential interlocutor with Hamas. Qatar has been key to negotiating the limited release of hostages held by Hamas as well as persuading Hamas to allow foreign citizens to leave Gaza and cross into Egypt.
Blinken also held talks with the head of the U.N. agency in charge of assisting Palestinian refugees, thanking Phillipe Lazzarini for his group's "extraordinary work every single day as a lifeline to Palestinians in Gaza and a great, a great cost." The agency has seen about 70 staffers killed in the war so far and is running critically low on necessary supplies such as food, medicine and fuel. While in Amman, Blinken will see Jordan's King Abdullah II, whose country has recalled its ambassador to Israel and told Israel's envoy not to return to Jordan until the Gaza crisis was over. On Sunday, Blinken will travel Turkey meetings with President Recep Tayyep Erdogan and other top officials on Monday, the State Department said. Turkey on Saturday followed Jordan's lead and announced it had recalled its ambassador to Israel. Arab states are resisting American suggestions that they play a larger role in the Mideast crisis, expressing outrage at the civilian toll of the Israeli military operations but believing Gaza to be a problem largely of Israel's own making. But U.S. officials believe Arab backing, no matter how modest, will be critical to efforts to ease the worsening conditions in Gaza and lay the groundwork for what would replace Hamas as the territory's governing authority, if and when Israel succeeds in eradicating the group. Still ideas on Gaza's future governance are few and far between. Blinken and other U.S. officials are offering a vague outline that it might include a combination of a revitalized Palestinian Authority, which has not been a factor in Gaza since 2007, with international organizations and potentially a peacekeeping force. U.S. officials acknowledge these ideas have been met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

Thousands of Israeli protesters demand Netanyahu resignation
Associated Press/November 5, 2023
Thousands of Israelis protested outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in central Jerusalem, calling on the Israeli leader to resign in the wake of the bloody Oct. 7 Hamas rampage that sparked the latest Israel-Hamas war. Netanyahu has so far refused to take responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack, in which hundreds of Hamas militants burst into Israel and allegedly killed over 1,400 people and took some 240 hostages back to Gaza. He says officials, including himself, will have to give answers to the public, but only after the war. Israel has carried out weeks of airstrikes and launched a ground offensive in Gaza, with Palestinian health officials saying over 9,000 people were killed in the fighting. During Saturday night’s protest, demonstrators called on Netanyahu to step down and called for the return of the hostages. They also held a moment of silence for victims of the attack and those in captivity. “Where were you in Kfar Azza,” chanted the protesters, referring to one of the Israeli border communities that was overrun by Hamas. “I came here to rescue the country,” said Nava Hefetz, a rabbi and human rights activist, who attended the protest.

Warplanes strike Gaza refugee camp as Israel rejects US push for a pause in fighting
Associated Press/November 5, 2023
Israeli warplanes struck a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, killing at least 33 people and wounding dozens, health officials said. The strike came as Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush the territory's Hamas rulers, despite U.S. appeals for a pause to get aid to desperate civilians. The soaring death toll in Gaza has sparked growing international anger, with tens of thousands from Washington to Berlin taking to the streets Saturday to demand an immediate cease-fire. Israel has rejected the idea of halting its offensive, even for brief humanitarian pauses proposed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his current tour of the region. Instead, it said that the besieged enclave's Hamas rulers were "encountering the full force" of its troops. "Anyone in Gaza City is risking their life," Israel's Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said. Large columns of smoke rose as Israel's military said it had encircled Gaza City, the initial target of its offensive against Hamas. Gaza's Health Ministry has said more than 9,400 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, and that number is likely to rise as the assault continues. Early Sunday, airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 33 people and wounding 42, said Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Health Ministry. He said first responders, aided by residents, were still searching the rubble for dead or possible survivors. The camp, a built-up residential area, is located in the evacuation zone where Israel's military had urged Palestinian civilians in Gaza to seek refuge as it focuses its military offensive in the northern areas. Despite such appeals, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets everywhere. It has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
Critics say Israel's strikes are often disproportionate, considering the large number of women and children killed in such attacks. Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan on Saturday after talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released. Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Arab countries want an immediate cease-fire, saying "the whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come." Blinken, however, said "it is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7," when the group launched a wide-ranging attack from Gaza into southern Israel, triggering the war.
He said humanitarian pauses can be critical in protecting civilians, getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out, "while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas."Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told reporters in Beirut that Blinken "should stop the aggression and should not come up with ideas that cannot be implemented." The spokesman of the Hamas military wing, who goes by Abu Obeida, said in a speech that fighters had destroyed 24 Israeli vehicles and inflicted casualties in the past two days. Egyptian officials said they and Qatar were proposing humanitarian pauses for six to 12 hours daily to allow aid in and casualties to be evacuated. They were also asking for Israel to release a number of women and elderly prisoners in exchange for hostages, suggestions Israel seemed unlikely to accept. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press on the discussions. Israel has repeatedly demanded that northern Gaza's 1.1 million residents flee south, and on Saturday it offered a three-hour window for residents to do so. An Associated Press journalist on the road, however, saw nobody coming. The head of the government media office in Gaza, Salama Maarouf, said no one went south because the Israeli military had damaged the road. Israel asserted that Hamas "exploited" the window to move south and attack its forces. There was no immediate Hamas comment on that claim, which was impossible to verify. Some Palestinians said they didn't flee because they feared Israeli bombardment. "We don't trust them," said Mohamed Abed, who sheltered with his wife and children on the grounds of al-Shifa hospital, one of thousands of Palestinians seeking safety at medical centers in the north.
Swaths of residential neighborhoods in northern Gaza have been leveled in airstrikes. U.N. monitors say more than half of northern Gaza's remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, are sheltering in U.N.-run facilities. But deadly Israeli strikes have also repeatedly hit and damaged those shelters. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has said it has lost contact with many in the north. An Israeli airstrike overnight struck a water well in Tal al-Zatar in northern Gaza, cutting off water for tens of thousands of people in the area, the Hamas-run municipality in the town of Beit Lahia said in a statement early Sunday.
At least 1,115 Palestinian dual nationals and wounded have exited Gaza into Egypt, but on Saturday authorities in Gaza didn't allow foreign passport holders to leave because Israel was preventing the evacuation of Palestinian patients for treatment in Egypt, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority.
The U.N. said about 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes. Food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities is running out. Thousands of Israelis protested outside Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem, urging him to resign and calling for the return of roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas. Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that allegedly killed more than 1,400 soldiers and civilians. "I find it difficult to understand why trucks with humanitarian aid are going to monsters," said Ella Ben Ami, whose parents were abducted. She called for aid to be halted until the hostages are released. Air raid sirens sounded Saturday evening in southern Israel as Hamas launched rockets into Ashkelon. Rocket fire has continued in the area throughout the conflict, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. Among the Palestinians killed in Gaza are more than 3,900 Palestinian children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown of civilians and fighters. The Israeli military said four more soldiers have died during the Gaza ground operation, bringing the confirmed death toll to 28.

The Israeli army announces major ongoing strikes on Gaza
AFP/November 5, 2023
The Israeli army announced on Sunday that it is conducting "significant strikes that will continue in the upcoming days" in the Gaza Strip, revealing that it has divided the besieged sector into two parts. The Army's spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, stated, "Significant strikes are currently being carried out, and will continue tonight and in the days to come." He also confirmed that Israeli forces conducting ground operations in the sector have split it into two segments: "southern Gaza and northern Gaza."

Live updates | Israeli warplanes hit refugee camps in Gaza Strip, killing scores
The Canadian Press/November 5, 2023
Israeli airstrikes hit two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing scores of people, health officials said. The strikes came as the U.S. keeps urging Israel to take a humanitarian pause from its relentless bombardment of Gaza and rising civilian deaths. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Ramallah in the West Bank for a previously unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Blinken on Saturday met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan, after holding talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released. President Joe Biden suggested that progress was being made on the humanitarian pause.
The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war reached 9,700, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group. Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.
Currently: Here’s what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
NEW US AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL SAYS RELEASE OF HOSTAGES IS A TOP PRIORITY
JERUSALEM — Israel’s president received the diplomatic credentials of the newly minted U.S. ambassador to Israel on Sunday, with both men expressing the strong bond between the two countries during wartime. Ambassador Jacob Lew said he had met with the families of those held hostage in Gaza during his visit, and that the release of the hostages was a top priority for the U.S. He reiterated U.S. support for Israel in the war effort. “As President Biden has said so passionately, Israel has a right and indeed a responsibility to defend this nation and its people in a manner that reflects the values that we share,” said Lew. President Isaac Herzog thanked Lew and said he was “speaking for all Israelis when I say: never has American friendship been more evident or more valued than it is right now.”
ISRAELI TROOPS FIND WEAPONS CACHE IN GAZA
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Sunday that it discovered an extensive stash of weapons in a home in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip as it searched the area. It found rifles, grenades, explosives, suicide drones and missiles in the residence, bringing some of the weapons back to Israel to inspect them. The military said that forces had also destroyed a nearby explosives lab.
U.S. FORCES SHOOT DOWN ATTACK DRONE NEAR BASE IN SYRIA
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. forces shot down another one-way attack drone Sunday that was targeting American and coalition troops near their base in Tel Baider, Syria, a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the strike. There was no information immediately available on the origin of the attack drone, but it marked at least the 32nd attack on U.S. and coalition military facilities in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17. To date there have been at least 17 attacks in Iraq and 15 in Syria. At least 21 servicemembers have been injured by the attacks but all have returned to duty, the Pentagon said.
RELATIVES OF SCOTLAND'S FIRST MINISTER RETURN HOME FROM GAZA
LONDON — Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf says his in-laws have returned home after being allowed to leave the Gaza Strip. The parents of his wife, Nadia El-Nakla, were were visiting relatives when the conflict erupted on Oct. 7, trapping them in Gaza. Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla were among about 100 British nationals permitted to pass through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt on Friday. But they had to leave behind Maged El-Nakla’s mother, son and grandchildren.
“We are, of course, elated. But my father-in-law said, ‘My heart is broken in two,’” Yousaf said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “He then broke down telling me how hard it was saying goodbye to them.”Yousaf has regularly shared updates on his in-laws’ plight including that they had to drink sea water. He said his brother-in-law is a doctor treating the wounded in Gaza. The past four weeks had been “a living nightmare for our family,” Yousaf said on Friday. He said he and wife will continue to call for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict. “Although we feel a sense of deep personal relief, we are heartbroken at the continued suffering of the people of Gaza,” the couple said in a statement on Friday.
PROTESTERS IN TURKEY MARCH TO THE US EMBASSY
ISTANBUL – Supporters of an Islamist group marched to the U.S. Embassy in Ankara on Sunday, hours ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s expected arrival in the Turkish capital. Several hundred protestors chanted “God is Great” and held their index fingers skywards as they approached the compound in the city’s Cukurambar neighborhood. Riot police lined up in front of the U.S. complex as the crowd, many carrying black and white flags with Arabic script, called for Turkish soldiers to be sent to Gaza. The demonstration was organized by Radical Change, which says it promotes the “living of authentic Islamic ideas” and “the intellectual and political aspects of Islam.” The demonstration was the latest in Turkey to highlight the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Israel’s operations in Gaza. “We, as Muslims, gathered to state that we will speak out against this genocide and that we will not accept it, that our armies and our nation are against Israel and on the side of the people of Gaza,” protester Ebru Petek told The Associated Press.
NETANYAHU REITERATES NO CEASE-FIRE UNTIL HOSTAGES ARE FREED
RAMON AIR FORCE BASE, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Ramon Air Force base in southern Israel on Sunday and reiterated his opposition to a cease-fire in Gaza. Addressing pilots, Netanyahu said, “There will be no cease-fire without the return of our hostages.”“We say this to both our enemies and our friends. We will continue until we beat them,” he added.
ISRAELI JETS HIT A HOUSE NEAR A SCHOOL, KILLING AT LEAST 13
BUREIJ REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip — Israeli jets struck a house near a school at the crowded Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday. At least 13 people were killed, hospital workers said. Dozens of residents scrambled to remove the wounded and dead trapped under the rubble. Young men rushed carrying the wounded to ambulances near the school, which took them to Al-Aqsa Hospital. Hospital workers told The Associated Press that at least 13 people died. The Bureij refugee camp is home to an estimated 46,000 people. Many Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza have stayed in refugee camps and schools as temporary shelters.
SOME PALESTINIANS HEED ISRAEL'S ORDERS AND HEAD SOUTH ON FOOT
BUREIJ, Gaza Strip — Some Palestinians appear to have heeded Israeli orders to head to the southern part of the Gaza Strip during a four-hour window Sunday as intense bombardment rages on in the northern part of the territory.
Crowds of people, including women and children, were seen walking down Gaza’s main north-south highway with only what they could carry in their arms. Others were seen leading donkey carts on the road. One man said they had to walk 500 meters (yards) with their hands raised while passing Israeli troops and tanks on the road. Another described seeing dead bodies in damaged cars along the road linking northern Gaza to the southern part. “We saw tanks, we saw bodies lying around ... the children saw tanks for the first time. Oh world, have mercy on us, have mercy on us,” said one Palestinian, who declined to give his name. Israeli planes earlier once again dropped leaflets urging people to head south as its forces advance in the outskirts of Gaza City.
POLICE IN TURKEY PREVENT PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS FROM APPROACHING US BASE
ISTANBUL – Police fired tear gas and water cannon as thousands of pro-Palestine protesters converged on a U.S. air base in southern Turkey on Sunday, Turkish media reported. The intervention came as demonstrators tried to cross fields to enter the base, according to the Karar newspaper and other outlets.
The protest at Incirlik, home to the U.S. Air Force 39th Air Base Wing, was the culmination of a convoy that set off on a 940-kilometer (585-mile) journey from Istanbul on Friday. Hundreds of vehicles arrived in Incirlik Sunday afternoon and a large crowd gathered near the base to listen to speeches. Many waved placards and Turkish and Palestinian flags. The convoy and demonstration was organized by the IHH aid group, which Israel has accused of links to Hamas. In 2010, the group organized an aid flotilla that sought to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Ten Turkish citizens were killed after Israeli commandos stormed one of the vessels, the Mavi Marmara. The Incirlik protest came hours before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to arrive in Turkey for talks with Turkish officials over Gaza.
HEZBOLLAH SAYS IT TARGETED AN ISRAELI MILITARY VEHICLE
BEIRUT — The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli military vehicle across the border with guided missiles Sunday, killing and wounding its crew members. The Israeli military confirmed in a statement that an antitank missile was launched from Lebanon at Yiftah in northern Israel, and said it was striking the sources of fire. It did not confirm whether there were casualties. Hezbollah announced several other missile launches Sunday and said it had destroyed Israeli equipment along the border. The Israeli military said Israel’s Iron Dome defense system had intercepted a drone flying toward Israel from Lebanon.
ABBAS SAYS PA WOULD TAKE OVER GAZA ONLY AS PART OF COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTION
CAIRO — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority would only assume power in Gaza as part of a “comprehensive political solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the official WAFA news agency. Abbas condemned Israel’s bombardment of Gaza as a “genocidal war,” urging Blinken “to immediately stop them from committing such crimes,” WAFA reported.
He also called for an immediate delivery of humanitarian aid and fuel, and the restoration of water and electricity in Gaza. The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, headed by Abbas, has not been a factor in Gaza since Hamas took it over by force in 2007. Abbas said that security and peace would be achieved only through ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 Mideast war borders with east Jerusalem its capital.
FRANCE REITERATES CALL FOR A CEASE-FIRE, URGENT AID
PARIS — France is repeating its call for a cease-fire in Gaza and urgent aid for civilians caught in the Israel-Hamas war. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna voiced “the need for an immediate truce” in a tweet Sunday after meeting with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. She said they shared the view that lasting humanitarian aid for Gaza civilians and a cease-fire are needed and added: “We are working on it together.”France is looking to Qatar for help as it seeks the release of French-Israeli citizens held hostage by Hamas since its Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel that ignited the war. France has confirmed the deaths of 39 of its citizens in the attack and lists nine other French citizens as missing, including some confirmed hostages.
BLINKEN MAKES A STOPOVER IN CYPRUS
LARNACA, Cyprus — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is making a short detour on his urgent Mideast diplomacy tour, stopping in Cyprus where he’s meeting the nation’s leader. The State Department said Blinken was meeting briefly on Sunday with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos mainly to thank them for Cyprus’ role in temporarily hosting some American citizens who fled from Israel in the first weeks of the Gaza war. The U.S chartered at least one cruise liner that took Americans from the Israeli port of Haifa to Larnaca as Israel’s military operations against Hamas intensified and the group accelerated rocket attacks on Israel following its Oct. 7 surprise attack. Christodoulides detailed to Blinken his proposal for a sea corridor from Cyprus to Gaza intended to deliver by ship a constant flow of humanitarian aid to the enclave, a statement from his office said.
Blinken is on his way to Turkey to meet senior officials on Monday.

US troops came home feeling 'cursed' and seeing ghosts after intense artillery battles with the Islamic State
Charles R. Davis/Business Insider/November 05/2023
US soldiers who took part in the fight against ISIS are now struggling with their mental health. The New York Times reported that some troops returned seeing ghosts and feeling "cursed." The Times pointed to the soldiers' own intense artillery fire as a possible cause. When the United States intervened in Iraq and Syria to destroy the Islamic State, it relied on local militias to do most of the actual on-the-ground fighting, largely sparing US soldiers from the worst of it. But many of those troops have nonetheless come back with debilitating psychological issues, The New York Times reported Sunday, an apparent product of that US strategy. At issue, it seems, is the sheer number of times US soldiers fired artillery rounds at Islamic State targets. Tens of thousands of explosive shells were fired during the course of the fighting, each soldier firing more rounds than at any point since the war in Vietnam, the Times noted.
"The cannon blasts were strong enough to hurl a 100-pound round 15 miles, and each unleashed a shock wave that shot through the crew members' bodies, vibrating bone, punching lungs and hearts, and whipping at cruise-missile speeds through the most delicate organ of all, the brain," the Times reported. The constant exposure to the blasts appears to have contributed to more than half the Marines in one artillery unit being diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries. In interviews, veterans said those injuries have manifested themselves in frightening and bizarre ways. One man came back seeing "the ghost of a dead girl" in his kitchen, an apparition he believed was an Islamic State hex. Others began hearing voices. Some reported becoming overcome with intense, sudden emotions. Indeed, many of those deployed in artillery units "came home feeling cursed," The Times reported. Although the science is not settled, a former Army researcher, Gary Kamimori, suggested that repeated exposure to blasts could be the culprit, the shock waves causing cerebral scarring. "Think of it like a rubber band," Kamimori told the newspaper. "Stretch a rubber band a hundred times, and it bounces back, but there are micro-tears forming. The hundred-and-first time, it breaks."

Obama says the war in Gaza is killing people 'who have nothing to do with what Hamas did'
Charles R. Davis/Business Insider/November 5/2023
Former President Barack Obama said, "What's happening to Palestinians is unbearable." The comment came in an interview with Pod Save America, an excerpt of which was published Saturday. Obama also spoke about the "madness of antisemitism" and how "TikTok activism" harms discourse. Hamas's October 7 killing spree in southern Israel was "horrific" and unjustifiable, but what is "also true is that the occupation and what's happening to Palestinians is unbearable," former President Barack Obama said in comments published Saturday. The remarks come after Obama earlier warned that an Israeli ground operation in Gaza could "backfire," arguing that while Israel had the right to defend itself, any civilian death would increase support for extremism and harm the country's long-term security. In his latest intervention, the former president argued for all sides of the debate over Israel and Palestine to acknowledge the "complexity" of the conflict and all parties' valid grievances. "There is a history of the Jewish people that may be dismissed unless your grandparents or your great grandparents or your uncle or your aunt tell you stories about the madness of antisemitism," Obama said. "And what is true is that there are people right now who are dying who have nothing to do with what Hamas did."The comments came in an interview with Pod Save America, a podcast hosted by several of Obama's former White House aides, an excerpt of which was published Saturday. They are the latest indication of discomfort among current and former US officials with the mounting death toll from Israel's military operations in Gaza, which is nearing 10,000, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
'TikTok activism'
Even as he acknowledged the death of innocent Palestinians, Obama cautioned against embracing what he derided as one-sided narratives online that favor slogans over nuance."The problem with the social media and trying to TikTok activism — and trying to debate this on that — is you can't speak the truth," Obama said. "You can pretend to speak the truth. You can speak one side of the truth, and in some cases, you can try to maintain your moral innocence. But that won't solve the problem." If you want to solve the problem, Obama continued, "then you have to take in the whole truth and you then have to admit nobody's hands are clean — that all of us are complicit to some degree." 'Was there something else I could have done?' In office, Obama supported peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority aimed at securing a two-state solution. In a 2013 speech, he also urged Israelis to consider the perspective of Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank. "Put yourself in their shoes — look at the world through their eyes," Obama said at the time. "It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day."But Obama also supported Israeli military actions in Gaza, including "Operation Protective Edge," a bombardment that killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them civilians. And, like every other US president, he failed to secure a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. In the interview published Saturday, Obama reflected on his time in office in light of this latest flare-up in the Middle East. "I look at this and I think back, 'What could I have done during my presidency to move this forward?' As hard as I tried — I've got the scars to prove it — but there's a part of me that's still saying, 'Well, was there something else I could have done?' That's the conversation we should be having, not just looking backwards, but looking forward."

Israeli minister swiftly punished after suggesting dropping a nuke on Gaza
Alia Shoaib/Business Insider/November 5, 2023
An Israeli minister suggested that a nuclear weapon could be dropped on Gaza.
Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly distanced himself from the remark by Amichai Eliyahu, a heritage minister. Netanyahu also suspended Eliyahu from meetings of Israel's cabinet. An Israeli minister on Sunday suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza, and was swiftly suspended from part of his role.
Amichai Eliyahu, Israel's heritage minister, made the remark in a radio interview, in which he also said he believed "there are no non-combatants in Gaza," Israel's Haaretz news site reported. Eliyahu is part of Israel's far-right Otzma Yehudit party, itself part of the fragile coalition forming Israel's government as it wages war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. When asked by the interview whether a nuclear weapon could be used on Gaza, Eliyahu responded: "That's one way." Eliyahu also advocated for Israel taking control of the strip's territory and expelling Palestinians, who he suggested could go "to Ireland or deserts," per The Times of Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded within a few hours. His office released a statement that Eliyahu's nuclear weapon comment was "not based in reality." It said Israel's military was operating in "accordance with the highest standards of international law to avoid harming innocents" — a claim heavily disputed by observers and advocates in Gaza. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also criticized Eliyahu's comments, and noted that Eliyahu was not directly involved in carrying out the war. "It's a good thing that people like this are not in charge of Israel's security," Gallant said. Netanyahu suspended Eliyahu from Cabinet meetings until further notice, the Associated Press reported. The outlet noted that the move had "no practical effect."Eliyahu later tried to walk back his comments, AP reported, saying: "Anyone reasonable would understand that the comment was metaphorical. But we definitely need to respond powerfully and disproportionately to terrorism." Following the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that killed some 1,400 people, Israel has been bombarding Gaza with air strikes and executing a ground invasion.
Some 9,000 people have been killed in Gaza, its authorities said, many of them children.

Israeli government yields on key judicial overhaul, citing war
JERUSALEM (Reuters)/November 5, 2023
Israel's justice minister said on Sunday that he would convene a committee for selecting judges, after having refused to do so for months as the political opposition charged at his bid to give the governing coalition more clout within the panel. The proposed shake-up of the Judicial Appointments Committee was among the battles sparked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pursuit of reforms that he said redressed court overreach but critics saw as curbing independence of the courts. The shock Hamas cross-border attacks of Oct. 7, and Israel's ensuing declaration of war against the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, have prompted several members of Netanyahu's government to describe the judicial overhaul as scrapped. In a letter from his lawyer to the Supreme Court, Justice Minister Yariv Levin pledged to convene the Judicial Appointments Committee within 15 days. The court had been scheduled to hear challenges to his hold-ups, which have resulted in backlogs in filling vacated bench positions. "The justice minister believes there is no justification for being preoccupied with disputes during a war," the letter said.

Qatar says Gaza hostage releases need 'period of calm'
DOHA (Reuters)/November 5, 2023
Qatar's foreign ministry said on Sunday that without a "period of calm" in Gaza its mediators would not be able to secure the release of Israeli hostages held there. "Any hostage release has to be linked to a period of calm that allows for the hostage release to work, which is something we have not seen for a while," Majed Al Ansari, Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday rejected U.S. calls for a temporary stop to Israel's offensive against Hamas to facilitate work to free more than 240 hostages seized by the Palestinian Islamist group.Israel would not pause its attacks unless the hostages held by the militants are freed first, Netanyahu said. The Gulf state of Qatar has, in coordination with the U.S., led mediation talks with Hamas and Israeli officials over the release of hostages since the militant group led a rampage into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people and bundling more than 240 others into Gaza. Since then, Israel has steadily escalated its assault on Gaza and its 2.3 million residents and overnight on Saturday struck by air, sea, and ground. Gaza health officials said on Sunday that more than 9,700 Palestinians, including 4,008 children have been killed in the war.
Qatar's Prime Minister said on Sunday that the negotiations were at risk of failing because of Israel's attacks and misinformation circulating about the talks. "The process of this mediation is at risk in light of the spread of false reports and leaks about the negotiations, in addition to the complexity of the field situation due to the practices of the Israeli occupation army," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who also serves as foreign minister, said at a press conference with his French counterpart in Doha. Qatar, which has faced criticism over its hosting of top Hamas officials and a political office, said the group's presence in Doha serves as a "channel for peace". "It is a channel that is used for the mediation of the release of hostages, the exit of the foreign nationals and in various aspects of the mediation that is taking place. So I don't foresee any reason to close that channel now," Al Ansari said.

Gunpoint ultimatum adds to long-standing harassment of villagers in Israeli-occupied West Bank
Ben Farmer/The Telegraph/November 5, 2023
The settlers who arrived at the village of Zanuta pointed rifles to make their threat completely plain, recalls Abdul Hadi Al-Til. His village had long complained of harassment in their pastures from their unwelcome new neighbours, but the armed men had now come to their homes to deliver an ultimatum. Some were in civilian clothes and some were in uniform, though it was unclear if these were members of the military or not. As they made their warning, they pointed guns at the heads of men in the village, Mr Al-Til said. “They told us either you move from here, or you will die.”
Generations of his family have lived in this ridge-top village near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, scraping a hard existence from herding sheep in the arid hills. Yet last week he and his brothers were loading all they had onto the backs of tractors and trailers. “The soldiers and the settlers have made our lives impossible. They have threatened people and damaged property,” he told the Telegraph as he piled up his possessions. “Life here is impossible and we are alone facing these things. We don’t have any kind of support. “The last month after the attacks has been the worst.”
Some 250 people in 27 families left Zanuta last week, after what they said was a campaign of intimidation and harassment from nearby Israeli settlers determined to force them off their land. The United Nations says violence from settlers in the West Bank has been increasing in recent years, but has leapt sharply in the four weeks since Hamas gunmen stormed out of the Gaza Strip into southern Israel and killed 1,400 people. Israel has since bombed and invaded Gaza, killing more than 9,000 Palestinians. The UN has logged an average of seven settler attacks each day since Hamas’ rampage, up from less than half that earlier in the year. Vigilante-style settler attacks have already killed 29 people this year according to the UN’s humanitarian affairs office. At least eight of those were since Oct 7. While the world’s eyes have been on Israel’s military offensive, the UN says nearly 850 people in 15 communities have been forced off their land amid settler violence in the West Bank, which is a patchwork of hillside cities, Israeli settlements and army checkpoints that split Palestinian communities. Activists and campaign groups monitoring the violence say the transfer of Israeli forces from the West Bank to Gaza, and their replacement by local settler reservists, has given extremists free rein to step up their attacks. The increase in violence has alarmed Washington, which fears the attacks will further fuel Palestinian resentment that could erupt into more armed action. Joe Biden, US president, late last month said the attacks were akin to “pouring gasoline on fire”. “They’re attacking Palestinians in places they’re entitled to be. They have to be held accountable. It has to stop now,” he said. The European Union last week denounced “settler terrorism”.
“The situation could get out of control and is causing unspeakable suffering to local communities,” Brussels warned. The violence in Zanuta followed what activists say is a familiar pattern. Settlers build an outpost on land and then proceed to harass their Palestinian neighbours until they can take no more. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who are supposed to keep the peace are accused of turning a blind eye, or siding with the settlers. Yehuda Shaul, director of the Israeli Center for Public Affairs think tank, said: “The story is not just settlers who are violent, the story is an entire Israeli system that does almost nothing to enforce the law on settlers, basically granting them complete impunity.”Settlers also appear to have been emboldened by Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition which includes ultra religious and ultra nationalist parties and is widely seen as the most Right-wing in Israeli history.
Mr Netanyahu’s government has advanced plans for thousands of new settlement housing units, and transferred key powers over civilian life in the territory to Bezalel Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist settler himself. Under the call-up of Israel’s reservists after the Oct 7 attacks, settlers have been mobilised to protect their own communities.
Mr Shaul said: “It’s not any more that the army is on their side, or that the army is supporting them, they are the army.” He added that in the recent increase in attacks, Palestinians had reported it was increasingly difficult to tell who were the IDF and who were settlers. Faiz Al-Til, the local mayor, said the violence had not started with the current war, but it had escalated sharply. In recent years, villagers have had clashes with settlers in the fields, roads have been blocked, herds harried and chased with drones and water supplies blocked or sabotaged in a grinding campaign of attrition. Mr Al-Til said after Oct 7 the settlers had taken their campaign in Zanuta to a new level, coming to Palestinian houses with weapons, making threats and beating up the men. At first he advised residents to stand together. But when they asked him whether he would take responsibility if one of their sons died, he did not have an answer. As the inhabitants of Zanuta were driving off last week, they left behind an empty school built partly with UK aid. A plaque listing the donors said it was humanitarian support for “Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer in the West Bank”. A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “The reports of Palestinian civilians being murdered by settlers in Occupied Palestinian Territories are appalling. “Israel must work to prevent these acts of violence, and to hold those responsible accountable.”The settler attacks are part of a surge in violence in the West Bank that had already made this year the bloodiest in the territory for at least 15 years, with some 200 Palestinians and 26 Israelis killed. But just in the four weeks since the Oct 7 attack, at least another 121 West Bank Palestinians have been killed, mostly in clashes with the army. Israel’s Shin Bet security service, its equivalent of MI5, has reportedly warned the government it is worried of an eruption of violence in the West Bank. The violence and the attacks by settlers are also a headache for US diplomats who hope that after the horrors of the Hamas attacks and the Gaza war they can revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said on his Friday visit to Tel Aviv that the settler violence was “an acute concern right now”. Mr Al-Til and the rest of his family will meanwhile try to start again in another village. He said: “We tried to be steadfast, we tried to stay, but it was impossible.”

Jordan king confirms air-drop of urgent medical aid on Gaza
Arab News/November 06, 2023
RIYADH: Jordan air-dropped medical supplies urgently required by the kingdom's field hospital in besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday midnight, according to the Jordanian king and state media. "Our fearless air force personnel air-dropped at midnight urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza. This is our duty to aid our brothers and sisters injured in the war on Gaza. We will always be there for our Palestinian brethren," King Abdullah II said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "A royal air force plane dropped urgent medical aid using parachutes to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza whose supplies were about to run out due to the delay of delivering aid through Rafah crossing,” Jordan’s state news agency Petra reported, citing a military source in the General Command of the Jordanian Armed Forces. Last week, Jordan recalled its ambassador to Israel and told the Israeli ambassador to stay away in protest at the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, saying the attacks had killed innocents and caused a humanitarian catastrophe. Fighting raged in Gaza on Sunday for the 30th day since Hamas militants stormed across the Israeli border and, according to Israeli officials, killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and abducted over 240 others. Since then, Israel has relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip and sent in ground troops, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory saying 9,770 people have been killed, around two-thirds of them women and children.
Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Sunday that the military had encircled Gaza City to the north of the strip, effectively splitting the Palestinian territory in two.“Now there exists a south Gaza and a north Gaza,” he said. (With Agencies)

Blinken makes unannounced visit to Iraq
Jennifer Hansler, CNN/November 5, 2023
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday – a significant stop on his whirlwind trip through the region. Blinken met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Baghdad for more than an hour. He also visited the US Embassy, where he received a security briefing on the threat to US facilities.US officials have warned against other parties becoming involved in the Israel-Hamas war. In the wake of Hamas’ October 7 attack, Iranian-backed proxy groups have scaled up attacks aimed at US troops in Iraq and Syria. Last month, the US intercepted three drones in Iraq targeting US forces. One attack resulted in minor injuries to coalition forces. Attacks on US forces in Iraq have become increasingly rare since the US ended its combat mission there and transitioned to an advise-and-assist role to the Iraqi military. Blinken told reporters his meeting with the prime minister was “good” and “productive,” and said he made clear that attacks by Iranian-backed militias against US personnel are unacceptable. Blinken said he reiterated that the US will “do what’s necessary to protect our personnel and military facilities.”
He added that the US and Iraq have a “shared purpose and commitment” in trying to prevent Iranian-backed militia attacks. He commended al-Sudani’s “important statement condemning these attacks” against US personnel.“He’s working with his own security forces and others to take necessary action … to seek to prevent them,” Blinken said at a news conference. The two leaders also discussed ensuring the conflict in Gaza does not spread into the wider region and the US’ commitment to coordinating with Iraq and other partners in the Middle East to ensure access to humanitarian aid, according to a statement by State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. They also touched on “the need to ensure that Palestinians are not forcibly displaced outside of Gaza,” Miller said. Ahead of his stop in Iraq, Blinken on Sunday also met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah amid escalating Israeli settler violence in the West Bank. During his trip to the region, Blinken made stops in Israel, Jordan and Cyprus. From Iraq he will travel to Turkey. Before Blinken’s visit to Iraq, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was the highest-ranking Biden administration official to travel to the country, when he made an unannounced trip to Baghdad in March.

Russian forces strike drone warehouse in Syria's Idlib - Interfax agency
Reuters/ November 5, 2023
Russian military forces carried out air strikes on a drone warehouse in Syria's Idlib governorate, the Russian Interfax news agency reported, citing Rear Admiral Vadim Kulit, deputy head of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, on Sunday.
"The Russian Aerospace Forces launched an air strike ... against a warehouse of unmanned aerial vehicles of militants involved in shelling the positions of Syrian government troops," Kulit was quoted as saying. No information about the scale of the damage or potential casualties was available.The Syrian army has blamed rebels, who it says are Islamist jihadists, for attacks on government-held areas in Idlib and Aleppo provinces and denies indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas in areas under rebel control. Opposition officials say both Moscow and Damascus are taking advantage of the world's preoccupation with the Gaza conflict to escalate pounding of a region where over three million inhabitants refuse to live under the authoritarian rule of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. (Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Richard Chang)

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 05-06/2023
The Elephant in the Room': The Real Source of Jew-Hatred in the Middle East
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 05/2023
For [many Muslims], the Koran, every word of it, is the dictated word of Allah (God) as told by the Angel Jibril (Gabriel) to Allah's prophet Muhammad....
Ten years ago, U.S. soldiers being deployed to the Middle East who flew to Qatar or Kuwait on the United Arab Emirates airline, before the UAE's supreme leadership in spearheading the Abraham Accords, reported that on maps in flight brochures, a country named Israel did not exist. Many seem to be working now to make that a reality, not just on a map.
The "elephant in the room," which few commentators have had the courage to explore, is that for many Muslims, "Jew-hatred" is dogma. The 114 sura (chapters) of the Koran are replete with passages of Jew-hatred
"We are not sub-humans. Let me repeat: We are not sub-humans," said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian Authority's representative to the United Nations, after the sub-human atrocities inflicted on innocent civilians in Israel by his fellow Palestinian Arabs. He felt the need to repeat the claim twice last month at an emergency session of the of the UN General Assembly, possibly to try to convince anyone he could. Hamas and Iran reportedly masterminded the murderous invasion. Hamas and Islamic Jihad continue to hold at least 240 Israeli hostages in Gaza.
It was not long before media commentators, after the October 7 mass murder in Israeli towns and villages near Gaza, began to air pro-Hamas demonstrators on college campuses and in the streets of US cities. Many of these demonstrators openly rationalized and even defended the actions of Hamas.
Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi gave a supposed history lesson about Israel's 1948 War of Independence during which, he claimed, Jews ethnically cleansed Palestinian Arabs from their land. In reality, five Arab armies attacked Israel a few hours after its birth on May 15 1948, and then lost. Some of the Arabs who lived in the area that became Israel left of their own volition during the war, at the request of Arab leader that they "get out of the way" of the invading Arab armies. Israel did not allow them to return after the war, stating that they had not been loyal. Thus the "Palestinians" were born – between 472,000 and 650,000 people who found themselves stateless when the country they had refused to defend refused to let them back. Approximately 160,000 Arabs remained in Israel through the war and were granted full citizenship in the new state.
The Palestinians' rich Arab "brothers" would not grant them citizenship in their countries and instead dumped them into often squalid refugee camps – for which they blamed Israel.
By contrast, nearly 1 million Jews were expelled or forced to flee from Arab and Muslim countries beginning in 1948, and they were welcomed into tiny, impoverished Israel and granted citizenship.
Arabs have since referred to a war that they started and lost as the nakba (catastrophe), and continue to blame Israel for not cooperating in its own elimination. Perhaps they should have thought of that before starting the war.
Gazans are now apparently calling their situation of being bombarded by Israel a "new nakba." Left unmentioned is that this new so-called nakba is a direct response to the October 7 Arab invasion and murder of 1,400 Jews in a single day, including babies beheaded and burned alive. Other commentators referred to the 16 year blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt to justify their current anger – again "forgetting" the sickening assault on October 7. The Arabs are also "forgetting" that the blockade was established because the Gazans were smuggling in vast quantities of weapons and ammunition with which to murder Jews. Why won't those irritating Jews just let themselves be killed?
The "elephant in the room," which few commentators have had the courage to explore, is that for many Muslims, "Jew-hatred" is dogma. For them, the Koran, every word of it, is the dictated word of Allah (God) as told by the Angel Jibril (Gabriel) to Allah's prophet Muhammad. The Koran does not, like much of the Bible, consist of descriptive stories that can be believed or not as the reader wished. It is more proscriptive, like the Ten Commandments. One cannot say, "Oh, He didn't really mean the one about adultery."
Like it or not, this "divine" word of Allah, compiled in the 114 sura (chapters) of the Koran, is replete with passages of Jew-hatred, such as the verse:
"So when you meet those who disbelieve [in battle], strike [their] necks until, when you have inflicted slaughter upon them, then secure their bonds, and either [confer] favor afterwards or ransom [them] until the war lays down its burdens. That [is the command]." — Koran 47:4, Sahih International translation
Beheading "infidels" is a centuries-long tradition in Islam, and still used today: a teacher, Samuel Paty, in France who showed his students "controversial" Mohammad cartoons ; a British soldier, Lee Rigby, in the United Kingdom, and, this month, babies in Israel (here and here).
Hamas includes this command in its original charter -- in particular Article 7 -- which advocates not only destroying Israel but killing Jews worldwide. In 2014 Hamas had planned a similar assault on the villages and towns near the border with Gaza. Hamas terrorists, at least 200 of them, had planned to invade through their Gaza-based tunnel system around the Jewish New Year holiday of Rosh Hashanah (that year, September 24). Israeli security services noted that Hamas had plans to kidnap Israeli citizens in this earlier plan as well.
In the Koran, Allah has cursed the Jews for the unseemly manner in which the Koran described the Hebrews treating and disobeying the prophets of God. This "divine" curse includes scattering the Jews throughout the globe, forever exiling them from their ancient homeland.
Some "true believer" Muslims therefore feel they have the right to murder Jews anywhere at any time. They believe there is no credence in the historically reality of a biblical Israel, no legitimacy in the geopolitical areas of Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank). Those they call "Zionists" (meaning Israelis and Jews), despite having lived in the land continuously for nearly 4,000 years, are falsely labelled "occupiers" and "colonialists" who must be made to disappear. There is to be no "Jewish National Home" as guaranteed by post-World War II international agreements and the UN.
The real dispute from that brand of Islamic Jew-hatred is not about land, or "refugees" or a "two-state solution." It is about the refusal by many Muslims to co-exist with Jews. The anti-Israel chant of pro-Palestinian protestors is: "From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, Palestine will be free" -- meaning "free" of Jews. This hoped-for Islamist outcome is reinforced in Arab school textbooks, maps that omit Israel, and even crossword puzzles. Ten years ago, U.S. soldiers being deployed to the Middle East who flew to Qatar or Kuwait on the United Arab Emirates airline, before the UAE's supreme leadership in spearheading the Abraham Accords, reported that on maps in flight brochures, a country named Israel did not exist. Many seem to be working now to make that a reality, not just on a map.
*Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
© 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.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20097/jew-hatred-middle-east

Clock Ticks for Israel on Hostages, Hamas, and Diplomatic Grace
Jonathan Spyer/The Australian/November 05/2023
A few days before the launch of the ground phase of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, I observed an exercise by soldiers of Israel's Southern Command. They were from the Givati Brigade, the main regular infantry force of that command, and they were practising fighting in built-up areas.
The exercise took place in central Israel, at a facility maintained by one of the country's largest defence companies. There was a series of concrete structures arranged to resemble the tightly packed houses and alleyways one would find in a densely populated Middle Eastern city.
The soldiers, all in their early 20s, practised methods they would use to cover each other as they moved into such an environment; moving in pairs, entering and exiting rooms, identifying targets. There was the curious mixture of youthful lightheartedness and deadly seriousness of purpose with which I associate such environments.
Some or all of the young men (and one young woman) we observed taking part in the Givati exercise are now inside the Gaza Strip, using the skills they polished that day, now in deadly earnest.
As we watched, I asked the young man from the Israel Defence Forces Spokesperson's Unit who accompanied us whether he thought there would be a major ground incursion into Gaza, given the delays and uncertainties, and the fear of what such an invasion might mean for the more than 230 Israeli hostages held in the Strip since October 7.
"The ground operation's coming," he said, with absolute certainty. "I don't know exactly when. But it's coming."
He was right. Some or all of the young men (and one young woman) we observed taking part in the Givati exercise are now inside the Gaza Strip, using the skills they polished that day, now in deadly earnest.
The third chapter of the war that began on October 7 between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gaza has started.
The first phase was the Hamas incursion and rampage of October 7, and the subsequent, belated efforts by the Israeli security forces to re-secure and seal the border. The second was the subsequent air campaign, designed to strike at Hamas infrastructure and facilities in the Strip, and accompanied in its final days by a series of raids and incursions.
These, it is now clear, were intended to probe vulnerabilities in Hamas's defences and test the responses of its forces.
Ground manoeuvre begins
The third phase, the ground manoeuvre, began on Friday, October 27, somewhat belatedly, three weeks into the war. The thousands of reservists mobilised after the Hamas massacre had settled into an uneasy routine on the dusty border, cleaning their equipment, dealing with the monotony of combat rations and the unseasonally hot days.
The IDF had maintained a shroud of secrecy over the timing of the ground operation. At first it wasn't clear that it had, in fact, begun. Raids and incursions had taken place in previous days. The moves on that Friday evening might have appeared at first to have been just a larger-scale raid of this type. But when Israeli forces were still present on Gaza's soil at dawn the following day, it was clear the new phase had begun.
Still, there has been no pouring of troops into Gaza, no thunder run by IDF armour to Gaza City, with the intent of a swift decapitation of the Hamas administration that has held power since 2007. Rather, the move so far has been slow and systematic. The IDF has made no announcement of intentions.
Israel's political leaders also have various, not entirely consistent, formulations regarding the strategic goal of the campaign. Sometimes, unambiguously, the objective described is to "bring down Hamas" in Gaza; that is, to end the government of the Islamist movement in the area. At other times, the stated objective is to destroy the military capabilities of Hamas. These do not mean the same thing.
Observation of the movement of forces since October 27 would appear to suggest the IDF is in this phase of the operation seeking to close in on Gaza City, the main urban area, from two directions and to cut the Gaza Strip into two.
Israeli forces entered the Gaza Strip from both the north and the east. They have now reached the Salah al-Din road, the main north-south thoroughfare in Gaza, and are operating in the outskirts of Gaza City. Israeli forces have begun to engage Hamas fighters in parts of the vast tunnel network built by the Islamist movement beneath the city.
Both sides are claiming initial tactical successes. The Telegram channel of Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades noted on Tuesday morning that "the mujaheddin of al-Qassam are now engaged in a clash with enemy forces invading northwest Gaza. Two vehicles were targeted with al-Yassin 105 shells, setting them on fire and killing one of the soldiers."
Battle has only just been engaged and it is too soon to draw any firm tactical conclusions. But at present Israel appears to be advancing methodically at its own chosen pace, taking and securing limited areas and then reinforcing these with larger numbers of troops. The claims by al-Qassam that it is defeating or foiling the IDF plan seem as of now to have little merit.
The most notable element of the Israeli ground manoeuvre so far visible is this slow and methodical tempo. Israeli officials have cautioned that the operation may take weeks, if not months.
Israel's dilemmas
What is the reason for this slow pace? Partly, this probably derives from a desire to limit casualties among Israel's troops and among the civilian population of the Strip. The Hamas authorities are claiming 8000 Gaza civilians have died since the Israeli counter-action began following the October 7 massacre. Figures emerging from the same terrorist body that ordered the massacre on October 7 should be treated with the appropriate caution. But undoubtedly civilians have died in Israel's air actions against the Hamas infrastructure in recent days in Gaza. This infrastructure is woven tightly into the civil population in the densely packed Strip, with the result that it is impossible to entirely avoid such casualties.
An all-out armoured and infantry assault on Gaza, with the intention of rapidly destroying Hamas rule, would almost certainly have the effect of ending these contacts and consigning the Israeli hos­tages to death, or a fate worse than death.
There is undoubtedly an additional calculus. Somewhere above 230 Israeli civilian hos­tages remain in captivity inside Gaza. Contacts between Israel and the Hamas rulers of Gaza, mediated by the emirate of Qatar, are taking place. An all-out armoured and infantry assault on Gaza, with the intention of rapidly destroying Hamas rule, would almost certainly have the effect of ending these contacts and consigning the Israeli hos­tages to death, or a fate worse than death.
Israel is not a society capable of such a decision. There are societies and leaders who it is quite easy to imagine pursuing such a path. Indeed, such examples are close to hand. Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk, for example, in a recent interview on Russia Today's Arabic channel, told an interviewer that his movement had not built bomb shelters in Gaza for its population because it was the job of the UN and the "occupation" – that is, Israel – to look after the civilians of the Strip. But in Israel, even the rescue of a single hostage, female soldier Ori Megidish, earlier this week led to nationwide rejoicing.
A couple of nights after the initial attacks, an Israeli colleague of mine, Naveh Dromi, knowing her society well, told me that while the talk at that time was all of a counter-strike, within a few days the fate of the hostages would become the central item of discussion in Israel. And so it has been. The message from the Israeli authorities appears to have been that the slow-moving offensive is intended to place pressure on the Hamas rulers of Gaza, inducing them towards greater flexibility in the hostage negotiations. It is a tidy formula but also a questionable one.
At present, it appears that Hamas regards the presence of the hostages as a tool by which it can itself place pressure on Israel to limit the scope and timing of the offensive.
The dilemma for Israel is that regarding the timing of the operation, there are three clocks ticking, and they are not in synch with one another. The first of these is the military clock, by which Israel will seek to continue its offensive deeper into Gaza, destroy the Hamas tunnel system, dismantle the central systems of Hamas rule in the Strip and then, presumably, remain in occupation until such time as it can hand over the area to a successor authority. This task, as Israeli leaders have made clear, may be a matter of weeks or months.
The second ticking clock is that of the hostages and the negotiations for their freedom. It makes no sense to think that Hamas will close an agreement to free the hostages while facing a threat to its own existence. Rather, the obvious objective of Hamas will be to string out the negotiations, knowing that its presence at that table is essential for their success, and to thus seek to frustrate the goals of the Israeli ground operation.
The obvious objective of Hamas will be to string out the negotiations, knowing that its presence at that table is essential for their success, and to thus seek to frustrate the goals of the Israeli ground operation.
For reasons explained above, Israel cannot make a hard choice in this regard. But that inability may impose a cost, of which policymakers should be aware.
The third ticking clock is that of diplomacy and the international stage. Recent history shows that Israel will not be afforded unlimited time for the achievement of its military goals. In the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, for example, the US bought Israel time to continue its campaign, but after a couple of weeks pressure for a ceasefire began to grow and the war ended with the inconclusive and unsatisfactory UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The resolution failed to resolve the underlying issue that had caused the war – namely, the capacity of the Iranian proxy militia Hezbollah to continue to arm itself on Israel's border and to maintain control of Lebanon.
There is a distinct possibility, with which Israeli decision-makers must surely contend, that the current tempo of military actions could result in a situation where the issue of the hostages prevents that gathering of speed on the ground that would be necessary for the destruction of the Hamas regime.
US and international pressure for a ceasefire, meanwhile, would increase, resulting in an unprecedented amount of damage being inflicted on Hamas without entirely destroying it, a deal of some kind or ongoing negotiations regarding the hostages, and a messy and unsatisfactory ceasefire agreement. An outcome of this kind is not inevitable. But Israel's obligation to operate simultaneously according to a number of contradictory timeframes makes it possible.
The regional dimension
As the offensive in Gaza grinds on, meanwhile, the regional dimension remains crucial and may yet transform the whole picture. In this regard, Hamas's status as a client of Iran is the crucial element.
Tehran and its various proxy militias across the Arabic-speaking world have moved into position to assist their Palestinian ally, but the starting gun has not yet been fired. Iran's proxies are not silent. Lebanese Hezbollah is continuing to carry out antitank guided missile, mortar and rocket attacks on Israeli targets along the border. These attacks have emptied out Israel's northern border communities. Israel has struck back and about 50 Hezbollah men have been killed.
In the West Bank, the Jenin Battalion, associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and armed by the Iranians with improvised explosive devices smuggled in from Syria via Jordan, is increasing its activities. In Yemen, the Ansar Allah or Houthis launched a medium-range ballistic missile attack on the southern Israeli city of Eilat on Tuesday. It was intercepted by Israeli air defences. This was the third attack on Israel by the Yemeni group since October 7.
Israeli and US deterrent power appear to be sufficient to keep Iran and its proxies from fully taking the plunge in support of their partners in Gaza. But it cannot be assumed that this will continue to hold.
In Iraq and Syria, Iran-supported militias are carrying out nearly daily attacks on US forces in Conoco, Tanf, the Ain al-Asad base and other locations.
Israeli and US deterrent power appear to be sufficient to keep Iran and its proxies from fully taking the plunge in support of their partners in Gaza. But it cannot be assumed that this will continue to hold.
Two days after the launch of the ground offensive into Gaza, a colleague and I drove down to the town of Sderot and made our way to the farthest point forward permitted to civilians before the Gaza border. Gazing into the darkness, we saw the red flashes of Israeli artillery landing on its targets, accompanied by a loud boom; then a few moments later the sudden illumination made by a flurry of Hamas rockets, launched at the town of Ashkelon. They were indications of fierce combat taking place inside the Strip.
The next day, inevitably, the first Israeli casualty figures began to come in. The names of the first two IDF soldiers to die in the ground manoeuvre were authorised for publication. They were sergeants Roi Wolf and Lavi Lifschitz, both 20 years old, both of the Givati Infantry Brigade. The war initiated by Hamas on October 7 is far from over and may well not yet have reached its height.
*Jonathan Spyer is director of research at the Middle East Forum and director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis. He is author of Days of the Fall: A Reporter's Journey in the Syria and Iraq Wars (2018).

Egyptian Journalists: Hamas Is A Terror Organization Bent On Destroying Israel And The Jews; Its October 7 Attack Involved ISIS-Like War Crimes
MEMRI/November 05/2023
Egypt, Palestine | Special Dispatch No. 10939
Since Hamas' October 7 terror attack on Israel, in which some 1,400 people were murdered and over 220 were kidnapped, the dominant tone in the Egyptian press, both the state and the independent press, has been one of hostility towards Israel, namely, of blaming Israel for the escalation and expressing support for Hamas' actions.[1] The expressions of hostility have in fact grown over time, and include harsh accusations against Israel and even antisemitism.
However, some Egyptian journalists have taken a different line, albeit a less conspicuous one, directing harsh criticism not at Israel but at Hamas and its terror attack. One article claimed that Hamas is a "terror organization par excellence" that aims to exterminate Israel and the Jews, and that it hides behind the slogan of liberating Palestine but is not really interested in a Palestinian nation-state but rather in establishing a caliphate, like its parent movement, the Muslim Brotherhood. Another article claimed that Hamas took the decision to attack Israel without considering the heavy cost to the Gazan civilians, and added that the movement's leaders, who live in luxury outside Gaza, do not care about the death and destruction there. A third writer stated that she felt ashamed seeing the hostages seized by Hamas, and accused this organization of war crimes and ISIS-like terrorism.
The following are translated excerpts from some of these articles:
Egyptian Journalist Sahar Al-Ga'ara: Hamas Perpetrated War Crimes And ISIS-Like Terrorism; I Was Ashamed When I Saw The Hostages It Had Taken
Journalist Sahar Al-Ga'ara came out strongly against Hamas, accusing it of war crimes and comparing it to ISIS. She warned against Palestinian refugees immigrating to Sinai and hinted that some of the ISIS operatives who have appeared in Sinai and Egypt in the recent years are Gazan Palestinians. She wrote: "…Every time Hamas has entered into a conflict with Israel, or vice versa, Egypt has been involved in the diplomatic efforts [to reach] a ceasefire and [extend] humanitarian aid, and in rebuilding Gaza after it had once again been destroyed over the heads of our [Palestinian] brothers.
"Hamas did not consult with the PA, or with Egypt, before launching Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Launching this attack under the slogan of legitimate resistance, it perpetrated every kind of war crime, thus exempting Israel from accountability for shedding Palestinian blood, and causing the U.S. and the West to greenlight all of Israel's criminal actions... such as cutting off Gaza's water and power supply and withholding humanitarian aid.
"The only thing we can do now is ask, what does Hamas seek to achieve with this regional war…? Is it trying to implement the Deal of the Century and
[establish] an alternative [Palestinian] state on Egyptian [soil, i.e., in Sinai] by having [the Gazans] collectively emigrate to our country? Or is this an act of collective suicide bereft of any benefit or definite goal?
"Last year, President Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi, the commander-in-chief of the [Egyptian] armed forces, said that 'the number of martyrs who have fallen in the conflict, from 2013 until today, has reached 3,288…' This is not the number of people who were martyred in the October 6, 1973 war for the liberation of Sinai. It is the number of those who have been martyred liberating Sinai from terror and from the ISIS operatives who riddled Egypt's [border with Gaza] with tunnels for smuggling terrorists and weapons. These are the ISIS operatives who forced the people of Al-'Arish to immigrate from their homes, and we all know who they are and where they came from. They spread chaos and took part in raiding the prisons on the margins of the January 25, [2011] revolution.[2] The black banner of terror will never fly over Sinai and it will not become a 'terrorist emirate'…
"Like many other Egyptians, I was raised from infancy to deeply love Palestine, defend it and feel for it. [But] I have never felt such shame as I felt when I saw Hamas' 'hostages': women, men, children and that disabled old woman!! What began as legitimate resistance ended in ISIS-like terror and in a similarity between the murderer and victim, since both perpetrate war crimes."[3]
Egyptian Writer Mouna Al-Hilmi: Hamas Is A Terror Organization That Seeks To Establish A Caliphate, Not Liberate Palestine
Sharp criticism of Hamas was also voiced by Egyptian author, poet and journalist Dr. Mouna Al-Hilmi, daughter of the renowned Egyptian feminist writer Nawal Al-Sa'dawi. She described Hamas as a terror organization par excellence that seeks to exterminate Israel and the Jews and whose leaders live in luxury hotels, caring nothing for the death and destruction in Gaza. She wrote: "Power is very seductive, a temptation that cannot be resisted, and causes people to do anything, possible or impossible… If all is fair in love and war, then the same goes for power, which does not recognize boundaries… Every kind and degree of immorality becomes 'moral' as long it shortens the path to power… That is why I hate the political game, which causes people to lose everything that is good and noble within them and their deepest human [instincts] in pursuit of power…
"These thoughts occurred to me [as I considered] the false political slogans that have been issued by the terrorist Hamas since its establishment in 1987, and which it still insists on today, after the events of October 7, 2023, as it increasingly tightens its grip on power using money and weapons provided by Iran and Qatar. "Whoever reads Hamas' charter will become convinced that it is a terror organization par excellence, which is why many countries have agreed to designate it as such. As stated in its charter, from 1988, Hamas explicitly seeks to destroy or dismantle Israel, while hiding behind [the slogan] of freeing Palestine, which it regards as 'Muslim' land. Ever since it won the elections to the legislature [in 2006], the power of the terrorist Hamas has grown, and since it is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, it takes part in the [Brotherhood's] jihad to establish a global Islamic caliphate.
"Egypt did the right thing when it refused to open its Rafah crossing and allow the Gazans to enter Sinai. Settling the Gazans in Sinia, or expelling them there, means destabilizing Egypt, strengthening the Muslim Brotherhood ideology and increasing terror… Even if Hamas has deceived some people it cannot deceive everyone. Hamas' leaders and their families live in ease and plenty in their palaces in Qatar, Britian and elsewhere, like kings. [Yet] they call on people to make donations and to [wage] jihad and war. The blood of the martyrs does not interest them, and the devastation, the destruction and the threat [posed by Israel] do not interests them as long as they are safe. They go to the gym, do sports, eat the best food and dress expensively.
"Hamas is not interested in liberating the Palestinian homeland, because, ultimately, it does not recognize the idea of the homeland [i.e., of the nation state] and regards Islam as the homeland. What really interests it is what it regards as the 'sacred religious duty' of every Muslim everywhere, namely, getting rid of the Jews and expelling them from every place, because [according to Hamas] the Jews hate Allah, killed their prophets and denied Allah's signs. Let us beware [this organization], since it is a cruel arm of the Muslim Brotherhood."[4]
Egyptian Journalist Abd Al-Latif Al-Menawy: Hamas Did Not Consider The Implications Of Its Attack
Senior Egyptian journalist Abd Al-Latif Al-Menawy, until recently the editor of the independent Egyptian daily Al-Masri Al-Yawm, directed his criticism at Hamas' leader abroad, Khaled Mash'al, who said in an interview on Al-Arabiya that the October 7 attack was "a calculated risk."
Al-Menawy wrote: "He looked cheerful and kind, a confident man with the makings of a leader, a senior politician who knows what to say and can maneuver a discussion or a debate. That has been my personal impression of Khaled Mash'al, aka Abu Walid. I met him several times, including when he was interviewed on Egyptian television, and the disagreements between us had no effect on our personal relationship…
"Mash'al made some statements, and it is worth examining them and [my] profound disagreement with some of them. One of the most important of them, perhaps, is his claim… that the [October 7] attack on Israel was a calculated risk. After saying this he added that 'we are well aware of the outcome of our operation on October 7,' and that the decision to launch this operation against Israel had been taken by Hamas [alone]. In this case I am bewildered by his statements and cannot accept them.
"My dear Abu Walid, do you really think that what Hamas did was a [take] a 'risk'? Who did it risk? And was it a calculated [risk]? The Palestinians are entitled to know what your calculations were. Did the number of martyrs, now nearing 4,000, come into it? Did 15,000 wounded come into it? I don’t know exactly how many buildings have been toppled, the scope of the damage to infrastructures, the number of people who have been displaced or will become refugees. I do not know, and I don't think the people of Palestine, the simple folk or [even] the commanders, know [either]. So could Hamas perhaps tell us its calculations and assessments regarding this 'calculated risk'?...
"I have already said that Hamas could have caused Israel pain [even] without carrying out this show of strength, and now I say that I agree with Abu Walid that this operation was indeed a risk. But I completely disagree with his claim that it was a 'calculated' one."[5]
[1] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10864 - Egyptian Media Blame Israel For Escalation, Express Support For Hamas Attack: 'This Is The Second October Victory' – October 13, 2023.
[2] In January 2011, during Egypt's Arab Spring revolution, prisons in the country were raided and incarcerated Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood operatives were smuggled out of them, including Muhammad Morsi, who would be elected and later deposed as Egypt's president. In 2013 an Egyptian court determined that Hamas and Hizbullah had been involved in the break-in, along with the Muslim Brotherhood.
[3] Al-Watan (Egypt), October 12, 2023.
[4] Al-Dustour (Egypt), October 21, 2023.
[5] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), October 21, 2023.

Iran's Oil Funds Genocide
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./November 5, 2023
Hamas and Hezbollah take their orders from the Iranian clerics who have never made any apologies for their repeated calls for the total and complete destruction of Israel. Pictured: Iran's "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right) greets Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on February 12, 2012.
The world may be currently focused on Gaza City but it's Tehran that is the heart of darkness.
Let there be no mistake.
Hamas and Hezbollah take their orders from the Iranian clerics who have never made any apologies for their repeated calls for the total and complete destruction of Israel. The fact that the Middle East was on the verge of a de facto peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia added urgency to the mullahs' green light for Hamas to launch their atrocities. They knew the resulting carnage would derail the peace process and remind the world that it is Iran that dictates what happens, when, how, and to whom in a Middle East they seek to dominate.
While all thanks must go to US President Joe Biden for so quickly and decisively sending two Iron Dome batteries to Israel and two aircraft carriers to the region as a warning to any country that might wish to interfere, and to him and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for calling for the release of all hostages held by Hamas and rejecting calls for a cease-fire that would just help Hamas to rearm and regroup, the idea that Biden could be a co-conspirator in Iran's role as a warlord would be absurd, even treasonous.
All the same, one might question the timing of Biden's decision to release between $60 and $80 billion in frozen Iranian assets just before the launch of the Hamas rampage, and the pledge of $100 million to Gaza, meaning to the terrorist group Hamas, after its sickening massacre. While an additional $6 billion in ransom for five hostages was eventually frozen, an observer has to wonder whether Iran took his initial actions as a sign of a befuddled president incapable of appreciating the realities of bloody geo-political forces at work.
It is time the White House understood the genuine nature of the threat and the various relationships among nation stations that view the United States as an aging, diminished superpower no longer capable of vigorous action. Consider: Iran's desperate need for hard cash is answered through their port facilities where oil tankers regularly depart for China. Currently, China has a fragile economy and Iranian oil is as vital to its recovery as blood itself. Were the United States to threaten Iranian seaports, at least two nations hostile to our interests would suddenly have to recalibrate their current belief that we are incapable of strong, affirmative action that protects our strategic interests.
This kind of bold, affirmative strategy that left no doubt as to our intent is what President John F. Kennedy deployed during the days of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. He let the world, and our enemies, know that here was a line that the United States would not allow to be crossed and it was left to the other side to judge the strength of our commitment to that declaration.
The unfortunate difference is, some 61 years later, Joe Biden is not JFK, and his actions to date – from his retreat from Kabul to his Iranian cash deal – have harmed America's ability to protect democracy here and freedom abroad. In the end, if we are to assist our allies and force evil to withdraw, it will be because of the inherent strength of our nation, the unity of its citizens, and our shared Judeo-Christian values of freedom for all.
*Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Gaza war exposes an EU devoid of unity and values
Talmiz Ahmad/Arab News/November 05, 2023
With the gruesome bloodletting in Gaza nearing the mark of 10,000 dead from Israeli attacks, the EU attempted to end the confusion and disarray within its ranks by organizing an in-person summit in Brussels that brought together its 27 members. It was a show of unity and a signal that the EU is an independent player in world affairs, as Josep Borrell, the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, has frequently asserted.
The principal outcome of the conclave was the EU call for “corridors and pauses” in the ongoing conflict to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza’s beleaguered residents. This was the result of compromise: some members, like Spain and Ireland, wanted a “pause,” but others, including Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, felt this word would be too close to a ceasefire, which Israel has categorically rejected and the US has not had the temerity to insist upon.
The “pauses” proposed would be short intervals in the fighting of a few hours, when aid — food, water, medicines and fuel — could be rushed to the needy. Few noted the irony that, after receiving the aid, the needy would soon be once again exposed to the virulent Israeli bombardment that has already taken the lives of several thousand of their neighbors. The Brussels conference merely papered over the divisions within the EU over the Gaza war. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had earlier rushed to Israel and expressed support for his host, saying: “Brutal terror. The execution of defenseless civilians. Murdered infants. Humiliated holocaust survivors.” While backing Israel’s right to defend itself, Scholz failed to see the horrific parallels in Israel’s own actions in Gaza.
Ireland would have none of this. Leader Leo Varadkar has described Israel’s actions as resembling “something more approaching revenge … I don’t think that’s how Israel will guarantee its future freedom and future security.” And Spanish Social Rights Minister Ione Belarra has accused Israel of “planned genocide” in Gaza and of “war crimes.”
Divisions within the EU go back to the early days of the Gaza war. Immediately after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi unilaterally announced that the EU would suspend all assistance to the Palestinians. Several states quickly rejected this, pointing out that, given Israel’s “complete siege” of Gaza, the need for humanitarian assistance was greater than ever. The assistance was restored.
The war has affirmed that the EU has little capacity to emerge as an independent player on the world stage.
This mishap was followed by the visit to Jerusalem by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, during which she expressed solidarity with Israel and sharply condemned Hamas’ “despicable actions.” She expressed full confidence that Israel would, in its response, “show that it is a democracy.”
But she failed to insist that, while defending itself, Israel must abide by international humanitarian law and she made no reference to the siege of Gaza. Borrell said that Israel was violating international law by enforcing its “complete siege” of Gaza. Later, Von der Leyen was sharply attacked in the European Parliament by Irish member Clare Daly, who described Israel’s bombings as “collective punishment,” “illegal” and “war crimes.”
Anger within the EU about the perceived pro-Israel stance of some of its senior officials was reflected in a joint letter to Von der Leyen that was signed by more than 800 staff members. The letter accused the European Commission of giving a “free hand to the acceleration and the legitimacy of a war crime.” It also noted that the commission, in its response to the massacre of civilians in Gaza, had been indifferent to the “values of the EU” and had exhibited “double standards” in describing the Russian blockade of Ukraine as an act of terror, while ignoring the identical actions of Israel against the Gazan people.
Despite these dissenting voices, the Gaza war has affirmed that the EU has little capacity to emerge as an independent player on the world stage. The EU as an institution and the leaders of its major member states remain closely aligned with the US in extending full support to Israel, as they have done in regard to Ukraine. They seem to be going along with President Joe Biden’s view, expressed on Oct. 19, that the Gaza war constitutes “an inflection point in history.” Biden had then linked the threat that Israel faces from Hamas with that faced by Ukraine from Russia on the specious basis that Ukraine and Israel confront foes that “want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy.”Obviously, for the US, NATO matters more than the EU. On Oct. 9, Biden rallied the major European states — France, Germany, Italy and the UK, all NATO members — and, in a joint statement, they affirmed that “we will remain united and coordinated, together as allies, and as common friends of Israel, to ensure that Israel is able to defend itself.”A practical expression of this oath of Western unity is the silence of these states as Israel mercilessly wreaks death and destruction in Gaza and is actively planning to depopulate the Strip. In the words of an Israeli strategic affairs commentator, Giora Eiland, Israel plans to create “conditions where life in Gaza becomes unsustainable” and it becomes “a place where no human being can exist.”
Thus, while the EU spins into disarray and sinks into strategic irrelevance, it is NATO, led by the US, that will uphold Western unity and interests.
• Talmiz Ahmad is a former Indian diplomat.

Israel has succeeded in turning the world against it
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/November 06, 2023
Israel feels it has sufficient mandate from the West to slaughter Palestinian civilians by the thousands, including 4,000 children. Immense 1,000kg bombs dropped on densely crowded refugee camps and airstrikes on ambulances, schools and hospitals amply demonstrate utter disregard for civilian casualties commensurate with that of Hamas. Israel appears to be doing everything in its power to discredit itself in the eyes of the civilized world. The Gaza massacre, preceded by the attempted sabotage of judicial institutions by Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabal of fascists and fundamentalists, makes a mockery of years of rhetoric by politicians on the AIPAC lobby group’s payroll about Israel being a democratic, morally superior beacon of progress.
In past decades, the only international voice that mattered was Washington’s, with European allies in lockstep. But in the multilateral 2020s, emerging powers throughout Asia, Latin America and Africa are queuing up to denounce Israel and downgrade diplomatic ties.
Huge pro-justice constituencies erupted in anger, even in the Western world. Along with electorally crucial demographics of Muslims, Arabs and progressive Jews, universities have become major crucibles for pro-Palestinian activism from newly politicized millennials. As millions pour on to the streets worldwide, right-wingers such as Britain’s interior minister have been furiously cracking down on civil freedoms to criminalize pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which she describes as “hate marches.”
The era when pro-Israel lobbies controlled the narrative is long-gone. Horrifying social media images afford real-time exposure to atrocities, while both sides simultaneously deluge us in disinformation and propaganda. All this further exacerbates communal tensions, with more than 1,000 antisemitic hate incidents reported to British police in the past month, along with an increase in Islamophobic attacks.
Elderly US politicians such as Joe Biden and Donald Trump represent a dying pro-Israel consensus, particularly with large Muslim, Arab and African-American communities in crucial swing states such as Michigan turning against Biden over his Israel policy. Obama warned his successors: “If you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth. And you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit.” He added: “Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire”. Following this current catastrophe Biden will have little choice but to urgently bring Middle East peacemaking back from the dead.
The Democratic Party is inexorably trending toward its pro-Palestinian progressive wing, backed by the vast demographics which today are protesting against the Gaza carnage. These progressives will one day have few qualms about vetoing Congress bills for vast sums of Israel military aid once they acquire sufficient legislative power.
Comparable tensions have been playing out throughout Europe: Ireland and Spain are outspokenly pro-Palestinian, while figures such as Ursula von der Leyen and Rishi Sunak outdo one another in pro-Israel hyperbole. States such as France and Germany with large Arab and Muslim populations have been compelled to moderate their political rhetoric. Israel fought so vigorously against international boycott movements because it comprehends how catastrophic global economic isolation would be for a state encircled by enemies.
The era when pro-Israel lobbies controlled the narrative is long-gone. Horrifying social media images afford real-time exposure to atrocities, while both sides simultaneously deluge us in disinformation and propaganda
Such trends are too long-term to offer solace to under-fire Gaza residents, but they dictate that in years to come the Palestine conflict will play out in a context of growing Israeli international isolation. The full spectrum of global bodies, including the International Bar Association, have vigorously advocated a ceasefire, while stressing Israel’s non-exemption from universal human rights obligations.
The Hamas attack on Oct. 7 was an incalculably large psychological shock for Israel, ultimately compelling recognition that it will continue to face existential threats as long as it rejects peace-making. In this tiny state, sizable populations have been moved out of large areas of southern and northern Israel and other vulnerable areas, some probably permanently, but large population centers are still within easy reach of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad rockets.
It is the symbiotic actions of rejectionists such as Hamas and Netanyahu that have made a return to the peace table inevitable. Within both Palestinian and Israeli societies there is a need for recultivation of the activist peace camps of the Oslo years who can campaign for justice, peace and reconciliation.
Israel’s thirst for vengeance has empowered the exterminationist camp, which contends that the Gaza military campaign offers the perfect smokescreen for purging Palestine of Arabs. The former head of Israel’s National Security Council, Giora Eiland, urged Israel to “create conditions where life in Gaza becomes unsustainable … a place where no human being can exist” so that “the entire population of Gaza will either move to Egypt, or move to the Gulf.” Netanyahu has been exerting pressure on Egypt to accept “temporary” evacuation of Gazans to the Sinai, while actively seeking to starve and crush a besieged population into non-existence.
All Palestinians seek is a more nuanced global understanding of their plight. Support for Palestine does not equal support for Hamas. Uncritical Western backing has enabled Israel to conceitedly perceive itself as untouchable, not only in committing crimes against humanity in the occupied territories, but also undermining countless UN resolutions and fundamental tenets of the global order. The 72 UN refugee agency staff in Gaza killed by Israel is a record for such a short period, while Israel simultaneously accused the UN secretary-general of “blood libel” and “justifying acts of terror.”
It had been a truism among Israelis that time was on their side. Arab states seemed to be losing interest, Palestinians sullenly acquiesced to year-on-year losses of territory, and once the 1947 and 1967 generations had died out wouldn’t nationalist sentiment likewise dissipate? Instead, the new Palestinian generation and their global supporters are in many ways more passionate, determined and politically engaged than those who came before. And justifiably so, because despite all hardships and bloodshed, inexorable global trends dictate that time, justice, demographics and ultimately history are on their side. The question thus becomes how soon far-sighted Israelis begin advocating the compromises necessary for peace, as strategic threats multiply and their state’s geopolitical strength ebbs away.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

How to tackle sub-Saharan Africa’s water crisis
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 05, 2023
Water should be considered a fundamental human right, to which all human beings are entitled, regardless of their background, ethnicity, nationality, religion or race.
But consider yourself fortunate if you do have access to clean water around the clock, because it is alarming to see that one in four people globally still do not have access to safe drinking water, while 1.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. One of the regions that has the highest percentage of people that lack access to safely managed drinking water is sub-Saharan Africa.
More than half of the people in Niger, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Chad lack access to basic water services, along with 48 percent in Eritrea, 44 percent in Somalia and Uganda, 43 percent in Angola and 37 percent in Mozambique.
It is important to examine the underlying reasons behind this humanitarian catastrophe in order to be able to efficiently chart a path that could address this critical concern.
First of all, poor infrastructure and governance, as well as a lack of investments and financing to set up and maintain reliable and basic water services, are some of the critical problems.
These deficiencies become even more noticeable in rural areas. Eisa Gouredou, a regional consultant for the World Bank, highlighted in March that rural areas are disproportionately impacted. She wrote: “180,000 children under the age of five die each year in sub-Saharan Africa from diarrheal diseases caused by lack of water, sanitation and hygiene services … 85 percent of those without water and 70 percent without sanitation live in rural areas.”
As a result of not having access to basic water services, people are forced to gather water from unsafe rivers, swamps, lakes or ponds.
Water and gender tend to be interconnected in such situations, with women and girls disproportionately affected.
Another important problem is that water and gender tend to be interconnected in such situations, with women and girls disproportionately affected by this crisis. It is women and girls who bear the burden when there is no access to clean water services, since they are often the ones who have to spend many hours each day fetching water and carrying heavy cans of unclean water in order to provide for their families. In other words, a lack of access to clean water services leads to greater gender inequality.
In addition, this crisis is adding extra risks to these women and girls when it comes to being subjected to sexual abuse, contracting diseases and dropping out of school. When they are trying to access clean water, they are often alone and are more vulnerable to gender-based violence. It is thought that at least 17 million girls and women in Africa collect water every day, often spending more than 30 minutes doing so. So, if there were easy access to clean water throughout sub-Saharan Africa, about 8.5 million hours every day — or 7 million working days every year — would be saved.
“Clean water gives women hope, health and opportunity. They have time to start businesses, invest in their families and take charge of their own futures. It means that girls are able to spend more time in school to further their education and aspirations. Clean water gives women a chance to make their dreams a reality,” said Julia Anderson of Charity: Water.
It is a step in the right direction that Goal Six of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 is ensuring the “availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Through this framework, governments around the world can work together to provide universal access to safely managed water services. However, while some progress has been made, much more still needs to be done in order to achieve the SDG target of providing water in Africa and a basic level of drinking water service.
Governments around the world can work together to provide universal access to safely managed water services.
This vital process can be accelerated if it includes initiatives such as carrying out water sector reforms, attracting more investments and financing, enhancing the management of water resources and service delivery, and improving governance in sub-Saharan African nations.
We should not forget that another important factor that is contributing to the lack of access to drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa is climate change. Long periods of drought in some areas are having a negative impact on water supply, as well as food production. This is subsequently affecting people’s health.
In the long term, if the damage caused by climate change, such as water scarcity and a lack of agricultural resources, continues to increase, freshwater resources will be depleted in some countries. This will have an impact on national security and political stability in the region. It is alarming that the UN estimated in 2016 that two-thirds of the world’s population could be living in areas facing water scarcity by 2025.
In other words, sub-Saharan Africa’s water crisis should not be viewed as solely Africa’s problem, but rather as a global problem that needs to be resolved through cooperation.
In a nutshell, water is life and access to it should be a fundamental right of every human being. However, people in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly women and girls, are significantly impacted by a lack of access to water. Providing more money to improve this region’s infrastructure, including carrying out water sector reforms, and tackling climate change are key steps to take.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.