Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 12-13/2023
Rising Violations by Hezbollah Against Journalists and Free Media in Lebanon/Elias Bejjani/November 10, 2023
Video Link of the Divine Mass that was presided over today, November 12, 2023, by Patriarch,Al Raei, in the Bkerke Church along with the text of his sermon.
Patriarch al-Rahi urges political resolution, refuses tying the presidential elections to specific groups
Bishop Aoudi: The courage does not lie in waging a destructive war, but rather in finding a just solution for peace: Is there a more dangerous circumstance than we are in for those concerned to elect a president?
Sunday thought of the Day: Giving : Pastor’s Act of Kindness Saves Three
Eblan Farris/Face Book/November 12/2023
Lebanon says seized 800 kilos of Kuwait-bound drugs
Israeli jets strike south Lebanon after Hezbollah attack wounds 10 'civilians'
Report says Israel 'preparing strike' against Hezbollah as Adraee addresses Mikati
Israel shells south Lebanon as rocket lands in Galilee
Gunfire hits peacekeeper in south Lebanon
Attacks by Lebanon's Hezbollah group wound 7 Israeli troops, 10 others along border with Israel
Israel warns Lebanon it could turn Beirut into Gaza
Hezbollah says it is introducing new weapons in ongoing battles with Israeli troops
What does Hezbollah's arsenal look like?
Two Brazilians allegedly tied to Hezbollah deny all charges

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 12-13/2023
Israeli jets strike in Syria in response to cross-border fire
US carries out air strikes in Syria against Iran-linked facilities
Syrian Regime Diverts Flights to Latakia Airport after Latest Israeli Strikes
Five US troops die in training air crash in eastern Mediterranean
‘Mysterious’ Attack Carried out on Iraqi Base, US Ruled out as Culprit
Potential Gaza hostage deal to include 80 women and children, official says
EU condemns Hamas's use of 'hospitals and civilians as human shields'
More Gaza hospitals suspend operations as Israel hunts Hamas
Heavy fighting rages near main Gaza hospital as Netanyahu dismisses calls for cease-fire
Gaza’s displaced residents tell of fear and abandonment
A Hamas leader pronounced dead in 2014 has been living in underground tunnels and masterminded the October 7 attacks, Israeli intel says
Biden, Qatari emir discuss Gaza, agree all hostages must be released
Israel kills Hamas commander who held 1,000 Gazans ‘hostage’ in hospital
Death toll from Israeli bombing in Gaza hits 11,180
Macron to Netanyahu: I did not intend to accuse Israel of intentionally harming civilians
Tony Blair touted by Israel as peacekeeper in Middle East

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 12-13/2023
Israel, Iran and the Biden Administration: If America Does Not Win, Its Enemies Do/Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute./November 12, 2023
The Occupied West Bank: Divided by Faith, United by Fear/Jeffrey Gettleman/The New York Times/November 12, 2023
Could exiled former Palestinian leader Mohammed Dahlan lead Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war?/Bahar MAKOOI/France 24/November 12/2023
A time for peace and a two-state solution/Ronald S. Lauder/Arab News/November 12, 2023
Do not set the PA up to fail in Gaza/Kerry Boyd Anderson/Arab News/November 12, 2023
Turkish opposition’s leadership change creates new challenge for AKP/Yasar Yakis/Arab News/November 12, 2023
Innocent victims of Sudan war are suffering horribly/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 12, 2023
If Israel Were to Win... if Hamas Were to Win/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 12/2023
The Labyrinth of the Lost/Dr. Abdelhak Azzouzi/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 12/2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 12-13/2023
Rising Violations by Hezbollah Against Journalists and Free Media in Lebanon
Elias Bejjani/November 10, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/124119/124119/
From Diaspora, free and loving peace Lebanese expatriates closely follow with bitterness and deep pain the continued practices of repression, threats, fabrication of legal cases, defamation, incitement, and intimidation that targets journalists and free media in Lebanon, at the hands of the terrorist Hezbollah, its propagandists, Trumpets, cymbals, mouthpieces and Trojans. Lebanese free expatiates vehemently condemn and denounce such despicable acts that aim to restrain press freedom and human rights in occupied Lebanon.
Hezbollah, the Jihadist, terrorist, and Iranian proxy, occupies Lebanon, holds sway over its decision-making process, and enslaves the majority of its officials and politicians. In this subjugation realm it uses most media outlets as tools for disseminating misinformation and promoting hatred, a culture of violence, and the demonization of those who oppose and reject its Iranian nasty occupation.
Hezbollah's mouthpieces and Trojans work tirelessly to impose by force their fundamentalism, Jihadism concepts, violent culture and the Iranian Mullahs agenda on the majority of Lebanese media outlets. They spare no effort to distort and fabricate facts, assassinate, utter bold death threats, make false accusations, vilify and defame every free and sovereign Lebanese voice, terrifying journalists, activists, intellectuals, and even ordinary sovereign and free citizens, in an evil bid to subjugate, terrorize and tame them.
Recent examples of such intimidating practices includes prominent journalists and media figures like Layal Al-Ikhtiyar, Nadim Qteish, Dima Sadek, Rami Naaim, Charles Jabbour, and many others. These journalists have been threatened, insulted, subjected to arbitrary actions, vilified, intimidated, and morally assassinated because of their honest and professional coverage of events.
From the Diaspora countries, and on behalf of every expatriate Lebanese who shares our concepts of sovereignty, freedom, and Lebanese identity, we strongly condemn and denounce, all Hezbollah's and its mercenaries atrocities against media, journalists, activists, and citizens in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, what is actually worrisome, alarming, and fearful is that, most the Lebanese state institutions, especially the judiciary and security apparatus, have become tools of oppression and terrorism serving Hezbollah's agenda. They now represent a real threat to journalists, media professionals, sovereign activists, and free individuals. This misuse of the state manipulation, abuse and enslaving must stop immediately, allowing journalists and sovereign media to perform their professional duties freely and safely.
We call on the international communities, free Western nations, human rights organizations, the United Nations, and the Vatican, to act swiftly and effectively to protect press freedom and human rights in Lebanon, and to ensure accountability for those responsible for these serious violations.
A free and democratic society cannot tolerate such grave violations of basic human rights.

Video Link of the Divine Mass that was presided over today, November 12, 2023, by Patriarch,Al Raei, in the Bkerke Church along with the text of his sermon.
LCCC/November 12, 2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archive
https://www.facebook.com/charityradiotv/videos/1323059831935087
Patriarch Al Raei Sermon
Patriarch Al-Rahi: We adopt the content of the Riyad Summit statement and refuse to make the election of the president conditional on a specific person, group, party, or project.
We repeatedly call on the Parliament to carry out its basic constitutional duty, which is to commit in successive sessions to electing a President of the Republic before any other work. Candidates are available and all of them are competent. On this basis, we refuse to make the election of the president dependent on a specific person, group, party, or project. We refuse to remain without a president, while the parts of the state are disintegrating, the constitutional and public institutions are collapsing, the people are poor and begging, our living forces are migrating to other countries, and the constitution is being violated.
We once again deplore and condemn the brutal genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, with the number of victims exceeding eleven thousand, nearly half of whom are children. We deplore and condemn the programmed destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, churches and mosques with the aim of expelling the Palestinians from their land and eliminating their cause after seventy-five years. This brutal, genocidal war devoid of any human spirit, and the siege that prevents access to water, food, and medicine for a million and a half displaced people without a roof, constitute a disgrace on the forehead of this generation and the leaders of this war. We once again declare our solidarity with the Palestinians and insist that the only solution, in the short and long term, is the establishment of two states. As we declare our closeness to them, we condole the families of the victims and pray for the recovery of the wounded. We call on the international community to impose an immediate and permanent ceasefire and war, and to initiate negotiations for a political solution. We also adopt the content of the statement of the Riyadh Summit held yesterday, hoping that the Arab and Islamic countries will work to implement its provisions, so that their rulers will be peacemakers with courage, committed to the decisions of the Arab Peace Initiative that was announced at the Beirut Summit in 2002, and which adopted the two-state solution, as an entry point to peace and stability in The Middle East. We pray to God to support those of good will in their endeavor to stop the Israeli war on Gaza and the Palestinian people, and to protect Lebanon from its spread to it. To Him be glory, thanks and praise, now and forever, Amen.

Patriarch al-Rahi urges political resolution, refuses tying the presidential elections to specific groups
LBCI/November 12/2023
The Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi presided over Sunday Mass in which he pointed out during his sermon, "refusal to subject the election of the president to a specific person, group, party, or project.”
He said: “ We refuse to remain without a president while the state disintegrates, constitutional and public institutions collapse, the people lack, and our living forces migrate to other lands, and the constitution is violated."In addition, Al-Rahi condemned the brutal genocide in Gaza, which has surpassed eleven thousand victims, with nearly half of them being children. He also denounced the programmed destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, churches, and mosques, intending to expel Palestinians from their land and eliminate their cause after seventy-five years.
He saw this inhumane and savage genocide, along with the blockade preventing water, food, and medicine from reaching a million and a half displaced people without shelter, as a shameful stain on the face of this generation and the leaders of this war. He stated, "We declare once again our solidarity with the Palestinians and insist that the only solution, in the near and distant future, is the establishment of two states." The Patriarch called on the international community to immediately and permanently impose a ceasefire and initiate negotiations for a political solution. He concluded, saying, "We endorse the content of the statement of the Riyadh Summit held yesterday, hoping that the Arab and Islamic countries will work to implement its provisions, with their leaders being peacemakers with courage, committed to the decision of the Arab Peace Initiative declared in the Beirut Summit in 2002, which adopted the two-state solution as a gateway to peace and stability in the Middle East."

Bishop Aoudi: The courage does not lie in waging a destructive war, but rather in finding a just solution for peace: Is there a more dangerous circumstance than we are in for those concerned to elect a president?
NNA/November 12/2023
The Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut and its dependencies, Bishop Elias Aoudi, presided over the Divine Liturgy service in St. George's Cathedral, in the presence of a crowd of believers.
After the Gospel, he delivered a sermon in which he said: “Loving God and loving one’s neighbor are the greatest commandments that God has given to His people, that is, to those who embrace His teachings and implement His commandments. This love is lacking in our world. Otherwise, how do we explain crimes, wars, and the killing of children and civilians? How do we explain the famines imposed on some peoples because of the plundering of their land’s resources? How do we explain hatred? And the killing and destruction that our region has been experiencing for more than a month, and we have not witnessed a real will to stop the massacre. What kind of victory is that built on the corpses of children? As if the fear of children has still existed since the dawn of Christianity, when King Herod killed fourteen thousand children in Bethlehem. May Jesus be And the new rulers are still killing children, and the mothers of bereaved children are still crying like Rachel “because their children are no longer there” (Matthew 2:18). What pride is there in killing innocent civilians? Is denying them water and food heroism? What is the benefit of a senseless war? A destructive force that only leads to more hatred and killing? As for the rulers of the world who are rushing to support the killers of children, including three girls from Lebanon at the age of roses, are they not ashamed of their conscience, of their country’s history, and of the slogans they raise in defense of human rights? Where are the human values? Where is justice? Courage does not lie in waging a destructive war or in winning it, but rather in finding a just solution to the problem so that peace prevails.”
He continued: “As for us in Lebanon, a year has passed since the presidency and other basic positions became vacant, as if nothing was strange or lacking, and as if life had become limited to running after the minimum necessities of living. Lebanon, which was a pioneer in its role, democracy and diplomacy, is missing out on the role.” The situation in these fateful circumstances: Critical moments of history require exceptional and courageous stances, and we are in a burning region whose flames may reach us. Is there a more dangerous circumstance than the one we are in for those concerned to resolve themselves and elect a president of the country with whom the process of forming and fortifying the state begins, and preventing adventure in Lebanon with our refusal? The blatant injustice and our constant standing on the side of truth, and with it begins a pioneering role for Lebanon that we hope for.”
He concluded: “Our hope is that the Lord God will look with compassion on this region and on our country, and spread His peace throughout the world, and that our officials will be wise and put Lebanon’s interest at the forefront, and spare it any calamity that may befall it. Our call is to read the Holy Bible, keep the Lord’s commandments, and not We must be literal in our preservation, but rather that we have fruits of love worthy of us as true children of God, who is love.”

Sunday thought of the Day: Giving : Pastor’s Act of Kindness Saves Three
Eblan Farris/Face Book/November 12/2023
The following story is told in more detail by Ilene Wright. Here is my abbreviated version: Years ago, Ilene”s preacher noticed the family standing in front of him at a New Orleans convenience store did not have enough money to pay for their few items. He tapped the man on the shoulder and said, “You don”t need to turn around, but please accept this money.” The man took the money without ever seeing the preacher. Nine years later, the pastor was invited to speak at a church in New Orleans. After the service, a man walked up to the preacher and shared this story about how he had come to faith in Christ: “Several years ago, my wife and our child were destitute. We had lost everything, had no jobs, no money and were living in our car. We also lost all hope, and agreed to a suicide pact, including our child. However, we decided to first give our son some food, so we drove to a convenience store to buy him some food and milk.”“While we were standing in line at the store, we realized that we did not have enough money to pay for these items, but a man behind us asked us to please take the money from his hand and not look at him. This man told us that ”˜Jesus loves you.””“We left the store, drove to our designated suicide site, and wept for hours. We couldn”t go through with it, so we drove away. As we drove, we noticed a church with a sign out front which said, ”˜Jesus love you.” We went to that church the very next Sunday, and both my wife and I were saved that day.”He then told the pastor, “When you began speaking this morning, I knew immediately that you were the man who gave us that money.” How did he know? The pastor was from South Africa and had a very distinct accent. He continued, “Your act of kindness was much more than a simple good deed. Three people are alive today because of it.”

Lebanon says seized 800 kilos of Kuwait-bound drugs
AFP/November 13, 2023
BEIRUT: Lebanon has seized more than half a ton of drugs destined for Kuwait, authorities said Sunday, as Beirut seeks to combat narcotics trafficking, particularly to Gulf countries. Authorities “seized around 800 kilogrammes (1,760 pounds) of drugs” bound for Kuwait via the Netherlands, the office of Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said in a statement carried by Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA). The drugs were “professionally” concealed in wooden figures inside a bulletproof box, the statement said, without specifying the type of narcotics seized. An individual allegedly involved in the trafficking operation was arrested, it added. The move came as part of “ongoing intensive security cooperation between the Kuwaiti and Lebanese interior ministries,” the statement said. Lebanese authorities have ramped up efforts to counter the production and trafficking of stimulant captagon after backlash from conservative Gulf nations. Most of the Middle East’s captagon is produced in Syria and Lebanon, and smuggled to its main consumer market in the Gulf.

Israeli jets strike south Lebanon after Hezbollah attack wounds 10 'civilians'
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/November 12/2023
Israeli fighter jets pounded suspected Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon with air strikes on Sunday, after an incoming anti-tank missile wounded 10 Israeli civilians near the border, the Israeli army said. The Israeli army said "a number of civilians were wounded" in the anti-tank missile strike near the village of Dovev, just half 800 meters from the frontier with Lebanon. In response, "fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah terror targets" including "military infrastructure used by Hezbollah to direct its terrorist activity," the army said. The Israel Electric Corporation said that the missile from Lebanon had "hit employees" who were in Dovev to repair power lines downed by earlier strikes. Hezbollah claimed responsibility and said it had fired on an Israeli team installing "eavesdropping and spying devices" near the border. Hezbollah said it hit an Israeli military bulldozer in a separate strike. The Israeli military said in a statement that "seven IDF soldiers were lightly injured as a result of the mortar shell launches in the area of Manara in northern Israel earlier today.” Hezbollah later announced attacks on Israeli military gatherings and barracks in border areas Birket Risha and Zarit.
Since the October 7 Hamas attacks which triggered Israel's war in Gaza, Israel has also traded fire with militant groups in southern Lebanon on a near-daily basis. In addition to Hezbollah, Hamas' Lebanese branch has launched attacks into southern Israel in recent weeks. On Sunday, Hamas said it fired 15 rockets from south Lebanon at Israel's Nahariya, Shlomi and northern Haifa. The Israeli army said four of the missiles were intercepted as the others fell in open areas. The Israeli army also said it had struck "a terrorist cell embedded in a civilian area in Lebanon that intended to open fire toward Israeli territory."Overnight, a drone also hit another group in Lebanon that the army said was attempting to launch an anti-tank missile towards Israel. Israel has evacuated tens of thousands of residents from communities in the north since the October 7 attacks.
Cross-border militant attacks from Lebanon have killed at least six Israeli soldiers and two civilians, according to the army and paramedics. Israeli leaders have warned Hezbollah against launching a full-scale attack on Israel, saying it could suffer a similar fate to besieged Gaza if it enters the war. Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.

Report says Israel 'preparing strike' against Hezbollah as Adraee addresses Mikati
Naharnet/November 12/2023
The Israeli army is preparing to deal a “strong blow” to Hezbollah in response to the escalation of its attacks today, Israeli right-wing newspaper Maariv said on Sunday. An Israeli army spokesman later said that a fighter jet and other aircraft attacked several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including "a military compound containing a warehouse of weapons and military infrastructure."Israeli army Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee meanwhile addressed a message to caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati. “At a time the Lebanese premier has said that he is reassured over the rationality of Hezbollah’s actions, the saboteurs of the terrorist party fired ant-tank shells at Israeli civilians from the electricity company, wounding several of them,” Adraee said. “This is a terrorist, irrational attack that targeted civilians and is risking Lebanon as a state. I believe that the Lebanese premier should not be reassured over the rationality of Hezbollah’s actions,” Adraee added.

Israel shells south Lebanon as rocket lands in Galilee
Naharnet /November 12/2023
Israeli artillery shelling on Sunday targeting the outskirts of the southern Lebanese border towns of Shihin, Umm al-Tout, Halta and Kfarshouba. The Israeli army radio meanwhile said a rocket fired from south Lebanon landed in an open area in the Western Galilee in northern Israel. Since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon's southern border has seen intensifying tit-for-tat exchanges, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian group, stoking fears of a broader conflagration. Israeli fire has killed at least 69 Hezbollah fighters since last month as well as at least 11 civilians and 12 other combatants. At least six soldiers and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

Gunfire hits peacekeeper in south Lebanon
Agence France Presse/November 12/2023
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon said gunfire from an unidentified source hit a member of its contingent early Sunday, adding that the peacekeeper was in a stable condition. The statement from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) did not indicate whether the incident was linked to ongoing exchanges of fire on the Lebanese border, mainly between Hezbollah and Israel, since a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 triggered war. "Shortly after midnight last night, peacekeepers in a UNIFIL position near Al-Qawzah reported hearing gunfire nearby," force spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said in a statement. "One peacekeeper was hit by a bullet and underwent surgery. He is recovering and currently stable," the statement said, adding that the origin of the fire was unknown and the force had launched an investigation.
Late last month, shelling lightly wounded a U.N. peacekeeper near the border village of Houla, just hours after UNIFIL said a shell hit its headquarters in Naqoura near the Israel-Lebanon border. "Attacks against civilians or U.N. personnel are violations of international law that may amount to war crimes," the UNIFIL statement said. "We continue to urge all parties involved to cease their fire," it added. On Sunday morning, Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli aircraft and drones had carried out raids on border areas and also reported artillery shelling after midnight targeting sites including near Al-Qawzah, where the peacekeeper was wounded. It said an Israeli drone strike targeted near a restaurant in the Tal Nahas area, without reporting casualties. Since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon's southern border has seen intensifying tit-for-tat exchanges, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian group, stoking fears of a broader conflagration. Israeli fire, some on targets in Syria, has killed at least 70 Hezbollah fighters since hostilities broke out, according to an AFP tally based on statements from the group. At least 12 other combatants have also been killed, as well as 11 civilians in Lebanon including a Reuters journalist. At least six soldiers and two civilians have been killed on the Israeli side.

Attacks by Lebanon's Hezbollah group wound 7 Israeli troops, 10 others along border with Israel
JERUSALEM (AP)/November 12, 2023
Attacks by Lebanon's Hezbollah group Sunday wounded seven Israeli troops and 10 other people, Israel's military and rescue services said. The clashes came as skirmishes between the Iran-backed group and Israeli military continue to intensify along the Lebanon-Israel border, threatening to escalate into another front in the Mideast’s latest war. The assault was the most serious incident involving civilians along the Lebanon-Israel border since an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon on Nov. 5 killed a woman and three children. The Israeli army’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the Hezbollah attack on Israeli civilians was “very serious.” He said Israel is focused on its war in Gaza but it also remains at a “very high level of preparedness in the north” and ready to take further action. The Israeli military “has operational plans to change the security status in the north,” he told reporters. “The security status will not remain such that the civilians of the north do not feel safe returning to their homes.” The Israeli military said in a statement that "seven IDF soldiers were lightly injured as a result of the mortar shell launches in the area of Manara in northern Israel earlier today.” Israeli rescue services did not identify the location or provide information about the 10 others wounded by rocket blasts and shrapnel, but said two of them were in critical condition. The Israeli military said they identified 15 launches from Lebanon over the past hour and their defense systems intercepted four of them. The rest fell into open areas.
Hamas’ military wing, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for shelling the northern Haifa and the Israeli border towns of Na’ura and Shlomi from southern Lebanon without giving any further details. Hezbollah first fired antitank missiles at an Israeli community just over the border on Sunday, Israeli officials said, badly wounding utility workers. The Israeli military said it was striking the origin of the launch with artillery fire. The Israel Electric Corp. said workers in the rural community of Dovev were wounded while repairing lines damaged in a previous attack. Israeli media reported that six people were wounded, including one critically.Israel struck several southern Lebanese towns, including Yaroun, Mays el-Jabal, and Alma al-Shaab. The Israeli military Sunday night shared an aerial video showing strikes on what it said was Hezbollah militant infrastructure including a “military compound with a warehouse of weapons and military infrastructure." It did not give any additional details. Hezbollah said it launched guided missiles against a “logistical force belonging to the occupation army that was about to install transmission poles and eavesdropping and spying devices near the Dovev barracks.” It said it hit an Israeli military bulldozer in a separate strike. Shortly after the attack, air raid sirens were heard in northern Israel. Army Radio reported that another antitank missile had been fired from Lebanon. Hezbollah later announced attacks on Israeli military gatherings and barracks in border areas Birket Riche and Zareit, as clashes continue to intensify. Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants and their allies have been clashing along the border since the Israel-Hamas war started five weeks ago with a bloody incursion into southern Israel by Hezbollah ally Hamas. While largely contained, clashes have increased in intensity as Israel conducts a ground offensive in Gaza against Hamas. Also Sunday, the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, UNIFIL, said one of its peacekeepers had been wounded by gunfire overnight near the Lebanese town of al-Qawza. It was not immediately clear where the shooting had come from or whether the peacekeepers were targeted or caught in crossfire. UNIFIL said it was investigating.

Israel warns Lebanon it could turn Beirut into Gaza
Reuters/November 12, 2023
STORY: Explosions thundered and massive plumes of smoke billowed after the Israeli military said it struck militant positions along the border with Lebanon on Sunday. Israel's military said the strikes were retaliation after Lebanese-based fighters fired anti-tank missiles, injuring a number of Israeli civilians. The conflict in Gaza has ignited renewed clashes along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, which has seen the worst fighting since 2006. Israel's military on Sunday released footage of what it said were strikes on buildings it says were Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Sunday's exchanges of fire come a day after Israel's defense minister, Yoav Gallant, warned Hezbollah against "dragging Lebanon into a war." He said, "what we are doing in Gaza, we can do in Beirut."Israeli forces have been battling Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip for the past month, after the Hamas Islamist group launched a surprise attack on Israeli communities that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel responded with devastating airstrikes on the Gaza Strip that the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says have killed more than 11,000 people, around 40% of them children. The bloodshed has raised fears of a second front between Israel and Hezbollah. In an address on Saturday, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah boasted about the groups weaponry, and pledged that the front in the south against its sworn enemy would remain active.

Hezbollah says it is introducing new weapons in ongoing battles with Israeli troops
BEIRUT (AP)/November 12/ 2023
The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said Saturday his fighters have introduced new weapons, including a missile with a heavy warhead in the ongoing fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border, adding that they will keep using the tense frontier to pressure Israel. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also blasted the United States over the Israel-Hamas war, saying it is the only country that can stop Israel’s wide offensive on the Gaza Strip but doesn’t do so. He said attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, that Washington says have reached more than 40 rockets and suicide drone attacks, will continue until the war in Gaza comes to an end. Nasrallah’s comments came as the situation along Lebanon’s southern border continues to escalate. Hezbollah on Friday attacked northern Israel with three suicide drones after an Israeli strike in central Syria killed seven Hezbollah fighters.
Nasrallah did not claim responsibility for a suicide drone attack that hit the Israeli Red Sea town of Eilat on Thursday but called it “a great achievement.”
Hezbollah and Israeli troops have been exchanging fire along the Lebanon-Israel border since Oct. 8, a day after Hamas' deadly assault in southern Israel that left at least 1,200 Israeli civilians and troops dead and more than 200 taken hostages.
Hezbollah officials say that by attacking Israeli posts along the border, the Iran-backed group is keeping three Israeli army divisions busy at a time when Israeli troops are pushing into the Gaza Strip where more than 11,000 people have been killed over the past five weeks, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. “The side that can stop this aggression, is the side that is managing this aggression. It is America,” Nasrallah said, referring to the United States, a main supporter of Israel.
Nasrallah said that the fighting along Lebanon’s southern border has witnessed changes in recent days, including the weapons used and the depth of the strikes inside Israel. He said that Hezbollah has been sending unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance drones into northern Israel some of which were shot down while others returned to base with information. On Saturday Hezbollah said its fighters attacked at least three Israeli posts as well as an infantry unit on the Israeli side of the border, claiming to have scored direct hits. An Israeli drone strike killed a fighter and wounded two others who are members of the Shiite Muslim Amal group of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, according to a statement released by the group that is allied with Hezbollah. Ali Daoud became the first Amal fighter to be killed in action since the fighting began, while Hezbollah has lost nearly 70 fighters during the past five weeks. Nasrallah said the group on Saturday used one Burkan rocket against an Israeli military post along the border. He said the rocket can carry a warhead the weights between 300 kilograms (661 pounds) and 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds). “You can imagine (what happens) when half a ton of explosives fall on Israeli posts,” Nasrallah said. The Israeli military said its aircraft struck a series of Hezbollah targets in response to attacks from Lebanon. The military said the targets include infrastructure, military posts, weapons depots and intelligence infrastructure. On Friday, Israel’s air force attacked a truck in the coastal town of Zahrani, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the border, the deepest strike so far since the latest round of fighting began, according to Lebanese media outlets. Speaking about the Muslim and Arab summit hosted by Saudi Arabia with the aim of devising their own cohesive strategy on Gaza, Nasrallah said the leaders of 57 countries “should stand united and scream in the face of Americans and ask them to stop this aggression, war and crimes” in Gaza.

What does Hezbollah's arsenal look like?
Agence France Presse/November 12, 2023
Hezbollah has been trading daily cross-border fire with its sworn enemy Israel as war rages in Gaza, with the Iran-backed Lebanese group deploying a large weapons arsenal amassed over decades. Below is a look at the group's firepower and how it has expanded since it fought a war with Israel in 2006.
Armed and dangerous
Hezbollah is the only Lebanese faction to have retained its weapons after the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, and is now considered to have a more powerful stockpile than the national army. It is also the most powerful group in the Axis of Resistance -- an alliance of Tehran-supported groups mainly in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian territories. The 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, largely soldiers. Since then, "Hezbollah has robustly expanded the quantity and the quality of its arsenal," said Dina Arakji from Control Risks consultancy. "The group in 2006 reportedly had about 15,000 rockets, while estimates over the past couple of years suggest that this number has multiplied by almost 10 times," she said. The group has also gained significant combat experience after years of fighting on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil war.
Skirmishes on the Lebanon-Israel border began on October 8, one day after Hamas attacks against Israel sparked war, but so far Hezbollah has largely limited itself to targeting sites near the Israeli border. Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly said his group holds advanced weaponry capable of striking deep into Israeli territory.
Fighters and tunnels
In 2021, Nasrallah said his group had some 100,000 "trained" and "armed" fighters.
But Arakji said the number was "likely to be inflated."The group's fighters include an elite force known as the Radwan Unit, which "could be described as the group's special forces," Arakji added. Since the 2006 conflict ended, the group has not had a visible military presence on Lebanon's southern border, which is patrolled by United Nations peacekeepers. But Hezbollah has maintained large influence in Lebanon's south, where it has reportedly built hideouts and tunnels. Israel has accused Hezbollah of building cross-border tunnels and has claimed to have destroyed several. The tunnel network "is likely to be extensive," said Arakji, adding that "there is no indication... that Hezbollah has stopped constructing them."
Precision guided missiles
In September 2018, Nasrallah said his group had acquired "precision missiles" despite Israeli efforts to prevent it from doing so. Arakji said precision guided missiles could allow the group to "strike targets with a higher level of accuracy and lower margins of error."In February 2022, Nasrallah said Hezbollah had "the capacity to transform our missiles into precision missiles." In August this year, he said it would take just "a few high-precision missiles" for the group to destroy Israeli targets including "civilian and military airports, airbases, power stations" and the Dimona nuclear facility.
Guided missiles
Hezbollah has been using guided missiles extensively in the latest cross-border clashes, particularly against Israeli tanks. In August, the group announced it had a weapon dubbed "God's Revenge", designed to fire Russian Kornet anti-tank missiles.
The double launcher is capable of "accurately hitting targets simultaneously and destroying them," according to Hezbollah's official media.
Unguided missiles
Hezbollah holds unguided surface-to-surface rockets, which formed the bulk of its arsenal during the 2006 war, including Katyushas. On Saturday, Nasrallah said that for the first time, the group was using Burkan missiles, adding that they could carry "a payload of 300-500 kilograms."
Anti-aircraft
Hezbollah holds surface-to-air missiles, with the group claiming to have downed Israeli drones in the latest round of fighting. A Hezbollah video released in 2019 showed shoulder-held surface-to-air weaponry as the group threatened to target Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles.
Anti-ship
Hezbollah first used anti-ship weaponry in 2006 against an Israeli naval vessel, the INS Hanit, stationed off Beirut. In 2019, the group published video footage showcasing Chinese-made C-802 and C-704 anti-ship missiles. In 2022, before Lebanon and Israel reached a U.S.-mediated maritime border deal, Hezbollah threatened to strike Israeli off-shore gas platforms.
Drones
Hezbollah has unmanned aerial vehicles including surveillance and attack drones, some of which it put on show in May during a display of military might. Nasrallah said Saturday that the group has been using attack drones "for the first time" and has been flying "reconnaissance drones" deep into Israel daily.

Two Brazilians allegedly tied to Hezbollah deny all charges
Agence France Presse/November 12, 2023
Two people arrested in Brazil for allegedly planning attacks in the country on behalf of Lebanon-based Hezbollah have denied any such involvement, according to images seen on the G1 news site. During an audience with a judge conducted by videoconference, the suspects -- both Brazilian nationals in their 30s arrested earlier this week by federal police -- categorically denied all charges, calling them "absurd." "I'm being treated like a criminal, like a terrorist, but I'm neither of those," said one suspect, a resident of Santa Catarina state. The suspects' names were not provided.
The operation Wednesday, which included raids elsewhere in Brazil, aimed to disrupt "the preparation of terrorist attacks and secure evidence on the possible recruitment of Brazilians to carry out extremist acts in the country," the police said.
The Israeli intelligence service Mossad said in a statement it had worked with Brazilian security services and international agencies to "foil a terrorist attack in Brazil," which it said was "planned by the Hezbollah terrorist organization, directed and financed by the Iranian regime."It said the plan aimed at "Israeli and Jewish targets in Brazil."Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed movement, is allied with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group locked in a bloody conflict with Israel. The first suspect told the judge it was "absurd" to suggest he was a member of either Hezbollah or Hamas.
The second suspect, a Brasilia resident arrested at a Sao Paulo airport after returning from Lebanon, also denied any connection to the militant groups. Several Brazilian officials have expressed discontent with the Mossad statement about the operation. Justice Minister Flavio Dino accused the Israeli service of wanting to "anticipate the result of an active investigation... for reasons of political propaganda."Since Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7 -- allegedly killing 1,200 and prompting retaliatory attacks by Israel that Gaza authorities say have killed some 11,000 -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has condemned the "terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas" while also deploring the killing by Israeli forces of "innocents" in Gaza. U.S. authorities say Hezbollah has used parts of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay -- a region home to large numbers of Lebanese expats -- to raise funds and launder money, while also allegedly selling arms to local crime groups. Officials in those countries say Washington has not provided proof of militant connections. Prosecutors in Argentina -- which like Brazil has a sizable Jewish population -- accused Hezbollah of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center that killed 85 people.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 12-13/2023
Israeli jets strike in Syria in response to cross-border fire
Agence France Presse/November 12, 2023
Israeli fighter jets carried out strikes against "terror infrastructure" targets inside Syria in response to cross-border fire directed at the Golan Heights, the Israeli military said on Sunday. "A short while ago, in response to the attack toward the Golan Heights yesterday (Saturday), IDF (Israel Defense Forces) fighter jets struck terror infrastructure sites in Syria," the army said on Telegram. On Saturday, the army said that two projectiles fired from Syria had landed in uninhabited parts of the Golan Heights and that rocket alert sirens had sounded in the region. Israel also struck targets in Syria on Friday after a drone launched from there crashed into a school in the southern town of Eilat. Israel occupied much of the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six Day War, and later annexed it in a move that was never recognized by the United Nations. Exchanges of cross-border fire have also taken place regularly along the frontier with Lebanon, as Israel continues to press its offensive against Hamas.

US carries out air strikes in Syria against Iran-linked facilities
Reuters/November 12, 2023
The United States carried out two air strikes in Syria against Iran and its aligned groups on Sunday, the Pentagon said, in the latest response to a series of attacks against American forces in Syria and in Iraq. In a statement, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes targeted a training facility near the city of Albu Kamal and a safe house near the city of Mayadeen. He said President Joe Biden ordered the strikes. "The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed today’s action to make clear that the United States will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests," Austin said in a statement. Local sources also said the strikes targeted a camp run by pro-Iranian militias in an area west of Albu Kamal, in Deir al Zor province. The other strike was near a bridge close to the city of Mayadeen, near the Iraqi border and stronghold of pro-Iranian militias, the sources said. The strike is the third since Oct. 26 as the United States attempts to quell wave after wave of drone and rocket attacks against American troops in Syria and Iraq, triggered by the Israel-Hamas war. Iran and its supporters say the United States shares responsibility for Israel's declared war against Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is also backed by Iran. U.S. and coalition troops have been attacked at least 40 times in Iraq and Syria by Iran-backed forces in recent weeks. The United States has 900 troops in Syria, and 2,500 more in neighboring Iraq, on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of both countries but was later defeated. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strikes took place within the past several of hours and added that a U.S. review was underway to determine whether the they killed or wounded anyone.

Syrian Regime Diverts Flights to Latakia Airport after Latest Israeli Strikes
Damascus: Asharq Al Awsat/12 November 2023
Flights to and from the Syrian government-ruled areas have been diverted to Latakia International Airport since the latest Israeli airstrikes that hit airports in Damascus and Aleppo. Reliable sources in Damascus said the government has most likely completed repairing the two airports but doesn’t want to resume operations so that Israel won’t strike them again. In the past and after previous strikes on airports, authorities were quick to announce that operations were resuming there in just a matter of days. Now, weeks have past since the attacks and the authorities have yet to announce the resumption of services there. A local source in Damascus told Asharq Al-Awsat that people are traveling through Latakia International Airport because the two airports in Damascus and Aleppo are out of service. Another source confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that he returned from a foreign country two days ago through the airport in Latakia.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Oct. 10 that Israel continues to attack targets in Syria under the pretext of countering Iranian expansion and Iranian-backed militias in the country. Between October 10 and November 10, the SOHR documented 17 attacks: 11 airstrikes and six rocket attacks by ground forces.  Four airstrikes hit Aleppo International Airport, putting it out of service on four occasions. Two airstrikes hit Damascus International Airport, putting it out of service on two occasions. After the Israeli attack, Syria’s Ministry of Transport announced that it was diverting scheduled flights to Latakia airport. Sources said that the Syrian government believes that operating Latakia airport was a safer bet given the deployment of Russian forces at the nearby Hmeimim airport. It is unlikely for Israel to target regions in Syria that are held by Russia, they added. SOHR confirmed that no military shipments have been delivered to Iranian-backed militias through the Damascus and Aleppo airports after the latest Israeli strikes. The Damascus Voice website said that a plane from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards-linked Mahan Air flew in from Tehran and landed at the Latakia airport on November 2. The plane had no passengers and was unloaded under Russian-Iranian military protection, the website quoted “private” sources as saying.  Russia has granted Iran the “green light” to use the Latakia airport, part of which is controlled by Russian forces, according to the sources. The website added that an Ilyushin Iranian cargo plane landed at the Hmeimim base two days ago. IRGC generals were present for the unloading of the plane. The cargo was transferred to an unknown location held by Russian forces. The same aircraft had been used over the years to deliver weapons and ammunition to pro-Iranian militias in Syria.

Five US troops die in training air crash in eastern Mediterranean
BBC/November 12, 2023
Five American service members have died in a helicopter crash in the eastern Mediterranean, the US military says. It says the aircraft suffered a mishap while refuelling as part of a routine training exercise. The US has increased its operations in the region since the outbreak of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. President Joe Biden paid tribute to the victims, saying service members were putting "their lives on the line for our country every day". "We pray for the families of all our fallen warriors today and every day," he added. The military statement did not specify where the aircraft was flying from or where the crash happened. But the US has moved two aircraft carriers, as well as ships and jets, to the eastern Mediterranean over the past month. The deployment reflects American concerns that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could draw in other parts of the region. In particular, the US is eager to prevent Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement from joining the conflict. It is backed by Iran, which also funds and arms Hamas.

‘Mysterious’ Attack Carried out on Iraqi Base, US Ruled out as Culprit
Baghdad: Asharq Al Awsat/12 November 2023
The attackers of the Saqr base south of Baghdad remained unknown amid speculation that the authorities were trying to stop news about the development from spreading. It is believed that the assault was American retaliation to attacks by pro-Iran factions on American troops in Iraq. The sources also said the attack may have been carried out by Israel. Tensions have been high in Iraq amid the ongoing attacks on American bases. The latest targeted the Harir base north of Erbil, capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, on Saturday. Iraqi officials have so far refused to comment on the Saqr base attack, but a senior officer spoke of blasts being heard and fires breaking out at the facility. Iraqi federal forces assumed control of the base from American troops in 2010. It has since become the base of some police units and members of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). It has come under rocket and drone attacks in the past. The most intense was reported in July 2021. The senior officer told Asharq Al-Awsat that the attack on Saqr didn’t bare the hallmarks of an American assault. He believes that the American forces are following clear rules of engagement in Iraq.
Asharq Al-Awsat previously reported that American responses to assaults on its troops may not be limited to strikes on pro-Iran factions. Sources from the Iran-aligned Coordination Framework said the US may retaliate by striking military bases, used by the official authorities, that the factions may use to launch attacks against the American troops. The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Americans won’t be the only sides retaliating to the attacks by the armed factions, meaning another party may get involved. Meanwhile, differences between Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and the pro-Iran groups appear to be deepening after contacts between them failed in deterring the latter from stopping their attacks on American forces. A political aide revealed that Sudani informed his partners of the “worrying” outcomes of the escalation shortly after he held talks in Tehran with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and following his talks in Baghdad with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week. Sunni and Kurdish MPs believe that Sudani is trying to distance his government from the actions of the armed groups even if some of them are represented in the cabinet. A leading Coordination Framework member said the factions and Iranians informed Sudani that the attacks will not stop in spite of the government’s concern.

Potential Gaza hostage deal to include 80 women and children, official says
Itamar Eichner/Ynertnews/November 12/2023
US official confirms discussions underway for potential deal involving release of Palestinian women and youths from Israeli prisons; Egyptian officials claim battles near Gaza's Shifa Hospital hamper talks
After a senior Israeli official approved the framework for a potential hostage release deal, a government source in the Biden administration stated Sunday that the release of 80 women and children held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip is imminent.
The U.S. official confirmed to NBC that discussions are ongoing, and in exchange for the release of the hostages, Palestinian women and youths from Israeli prisons could be freed in a possible deal. According to the official, Washington is also exploring alternative options. However, the U.S. official clarified that there is no certainty that a deal will be reached. Hours after NBC's report, a separate article in The Wall Street Journal cited two senior Egyptian officials who stated that talks on the hostage deal were suspended due to the current clashes near hospitals in Gaza. According to Egyptian sources, the main reason for the suspension of talks is the battles near Shifa Hospital, which according to Israel is used for a Hamas base, and has several tunnels situated beneath it. Senior officials in Cairo, speaking to The Wall Street Journal, noted that high-ranking members of Hamas have conveyed to both Egypt and Qatar—the two main mediators in indirect talks between the terror organization and Israel—that the conduct of the IDF in recent battles seemingly indicates Israel is not interested in any deal. The American newspaper reports that negotiations for the release of hostages have been halted twice in the past.
Before the apparent suspension of talks, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, the outlined framework resembled that reported by NBC: the release of up to 100 women and children from captivity in Gaza, in exchange for Israel releasing approximately 100 women and minors from Israeli prisons. Additionally, a limited amount of fuel would be transferred to hospitals in the Gaza Strip, and there would be humanitarian gestures amid the war.

EU condemns Hamas's use of 'hospitals and civilians as human shields'
Yoav Zitun, Lior Ben Ari, Einav Halabi, Daniel Edelson, Reuters, AFP/Ynertnews/November 12/2023
One reportedly killed in US strikes on Iranian militias in Syria; IDF says has plans to change situation on northern border as skirmishes on Lebanon border intensify
The European Union on Sunday condemned Hamas's use of "hospitals and civilians as human shields" in the Gaza Strip while calling on Israel for "maximum restraint" in order to protect civilians in the ongoing war.
“The European Union is seriously concerned by the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” said Josep Borrell, the EU’s head of diplomacy, in a statement. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based opposition war monitor, reported that U.S. airstrikes on targets belonging to Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria killed one and injured three.
The airstrikes came in response to a series of attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in Syria and Iraq since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
The IDF has "action plans to change the security situation" on Israel’s northern frontier, IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in his daily briefing in reference to the frequent exchanges of fire on the border with Lebanon.
He added that the military will not allow a security situation where residents of the area are afraid to return to their homes. "We will not leave the northern border in a state where the citizens of the north do not feel safe to return," he said. Hagari reported that the IDF struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in retaliation for Hamas's rocket attacks toward the Krayot region. He also confirmed that the cell responsible for launching an anti-tank missile at Moshav Dovev, an attack that seriously and critically injured several Electric Company workers, was eliminated.
"We are in a very high state of readiness in the north. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government are responsible for all fire coming from Lebanon. The citizens of Lebanon will pay the price for Hezbollah's decision to act as a shield for ISIS," he said.
This marks the second time in less than a week, and overall since the war began, that the densely populated coastal region has been targeted by rocket fire. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said that fifteen rocket launches from Lebanon toward Israeli territory were detected, four of which were intercepted by air defense systems and the rest fell in unpopulated areas. The IDF responded with artillery fire toward the sources of the rockets on Lebanese soil.
Hagari also added that IDF forces from Brigade 36, along with naval fighters, raided the marina in Gaza City as part of the encirclement of the city.
Some 80 foreigners and several injured Palestinians crossed into Egypt on Sunday, in the first evacuations since Friday, four Egyptian security sources said. Poland said 18 of them were Polish citizens.
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Sunday received his Danish counterpart Lars Rasmussen, who expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself. Cohen emphasized to his colleague the need for international cooperation in order to put pressure on Hamas and bring about the speedy release of the hostages in Gaza. Cohen and the Danish foreign minister met with representatives of the families of the hostages, who requested that the minister and his government assist in the release of all those being held in Gaza. Cohen said: "Among the many hostages in Gaza is a Danish citizen, and the concern for the fate of our citizens is shared by all."
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in an interview with the CBS network that the United States "does not want to see battles in the hospitals" in Gaza, against the backdrop of the IDF's activity around the medical centers in the Strip, where the leaders of Hamas are hiding. Sullivan added that Washington is involved in the negotiations over a compromise between Israel and Qatar regarding the hostages and that the administration in Gaza after the war "will not look like it did on October 6." According to him, "it is up to the Palestinian people to decide what their future administration will look like."
A man used black spray paint to deface posters bearing the photos of women who are being held hostage in Gaza hung in the predominately haredi city of Bnei Brak. Residents said: "This is an extremist person who does not represent any of the city's residents." Israel Police said they are searching for the vandal.
Terrorists launched anti-tank missiles at Moshav Dovev in the Upper Galilee early Sunday afternoon. One person was critically hurt and 5 seriously injured in the anti-tank missile attack earlier on Metula on the Israel-Lebanon border. IDF forces attacked the sources of the shooting with artillery.
Earlier, IDF forces attacked a launch squad that planned to fire from a civilian area in Lebanese territory. During the night, an IDF remotely piloted aircraft attacked a terrorist squad that was trying to launch anti-tank missiles toward Israeli territory near Metula.
President Isaac Herzog revealed in an interview with the British BBC network Sunday that IDF forces found Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" in a children's room in a civilian home that served as a terrorist base for Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Inside the home, the troops found weapons and explosives laboratories. Herzog presented this finding as further proof of the activity of Hamas from the heart of the civilian population in Gaza. "The terrorist wrote notes, marked the sections, and studied again and again Adolf Hitler's ideology of hating the Jews, killing the Jews, burning and slaughtering Jews wherever they are. This is the real war we are facing," Herzog said.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit reported Sunday that the military has opened a road to allow civilians in Gaza inside the Shifa, Rantisi and Nasser hospitals to evacuate safely to the southern part of the Strip. In addition, IDF announces that the humanitarian corridor will be available for residents of the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, wishing to evacuate south between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked terrorist infrastructures in Syria overnight Sunday in response to Saturday night's launches toward the Golan Heights. Before that, the IDF spokesman reported that two launches from Syrian territory toward Israel were detected, which fell in an open area in the Golan area. In response to this, the IDF also attacked the sources of the shooting earlier.
An Egyptian source told the Qatari television network Al-Araby that an Israeli security delegation will arrive in Cairo to discuss the details of the agreement for the release of the hostages held by Hamas. Earlier, a political official detailed the outline for a possible deal for the release of hostages, which is still under discussion. According to the source, there is an agreement on the table under which dozens of children and civilians will be released out of the 239 abductees held by Hamas. In return, there will be a few days of respite, fuel will be introduced into the Strip for civilians and Palestinian prisoners – youths and women - will be released.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) issued a statement late on Saturday, condemning French President Emmanuel Macron for his criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza. "The President’s comments lent credence to an anti-Israel narrative of “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” promoted by Hamas’ ideological kin around the world, and in France in particular, many of whom have a history of targeting and even murdering Jews," the statement read adding a call for Macron to reconsider his comments.
The World Health Organization said it has lost communication with its contacts in Al Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, and expressed "grave concerns" for the safety of everyone trapped there by the fighting while calling for an immediate cease-fire.
After an alert was raised about a fear of aircraft infiltration from the northern Gaza Strip, a UAV was intercepted in the surrounding area. "A suspicious aerial target was identified that crossed into Israel, and the Iron Dome system successfully intercepted it," said an IDF spokesman.
In response to the attack toward the Golan Heights on Saturday, IDF fighter jets struck terror infrastructure sites in Syria. Earlier in the day the IDF said two launches were identified from Syria toward Israeli territory that fell in open areas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the progress of the war in the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening in a nationally broadcast news conference, saying "The war against Hamas-Islamic State is advancing at full force, with one goal: victory. There is no substitute for winning.
Appearing before reporters alongside Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Knesset Member and part of the war cabinet Benny Gantz, all three criticized French President Emmanuel Macron's criticism of Israel in which he said that Israel must stop killing “these babies, these ladies, these old people.”
Netanyahu also spoke about the day after the war saying "Gaza will be demilitarized, and there will be no more threat from the Gaza Strip to Israel. To ensure such a threat is eradicated, whenever necessary, the IDF will maintain security-wise control in the Gaza Strip to prevent terrorism from emanating. The tragedy on October 7 finally proved that wherever there is no Israeli security control, terrorism returns and takes root, ultimately striking us. This has been evident in West Bank as well, and therefore, I will not compromise on security control under any circumstances."
"Security control includes the ability to enter whenever needed to eliminate terrorists who may resurface," clarified Netanyahu later. "There will be no Hamas; there will be no civil authority there indoctrinating their children to hate Israel, to kill civilians, and to destroy the State of Israel."
Netanyahu addressed allegations of international pressure for a cease-fire: "Occasionally, there are voices seeking concessions because, in some countries, there are individuals exerting pressure on leaders. I say to them, 'Do not yield to pressure. Our war is your war as well. We must win for our sake and yours.' No international pressure, no false accusations against IDF soldiers and our state will change our belief in the justice of our cause and our duty to defend ourselves."
The IDF announced on Saturday the death of five soldiers who died during the battles in the Gaza Strip a day earlier.
The soldiers are: Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidyah Leiter, 39, a company commander in the 551st Brigade’s 697th Battalion, from Ein Tzurim, Sgt. Maj. (res.) Yossi Hershkovitz, 44, a soldier in the 551st Brigade’s 697th Battalion, from Gevaot, Master Sgt. (res.) Matan Meir, 38, a soldier in the 551st Brigade’s 697th Battalion, from Odem, Master Sgt. (res.) Sergey Shmerkin, 32, a soldier in the 551st Brigade’s 697th Battalion, from Kiryat Shmona, Master Sgt. (res.) Netanel (Nati) Harush, 34, a soldier in the Givati Brigade’s logistics unit, from Jerusalem.
The soldiers from the 697th Battalion were killed by a blast originating from a booby-trapped tunnel shaft in the Beit Hanoun area. The troops were not inside the tunnel at the time of the incident.

More Gaza hospitals suspend operations as Israel hunts Hamas
Reuters/November 12, 2023
GAZA/JERUSALEM: Two more major hospitals in Gaza closed to new patients on Sunday, with staff saying that Israeli bombardment plus lack of fuel and medicine meant more babies and others could die. Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside, medical staff said. Israel says it is homing in on Hamas militants in the area and the hospitals should be evacuated. Gaza’s largest and second largest hospitals, Al Shifa and Al-Quds, said they were suspending operations. With more people killed and wounded daily but half of the territory’s hospitals now out of action, there are ever fewer places for the injured. “My son was injured and there was not a single hospital I could take him to so he could get stitches,” said Ahmed Al-Kahlout, who was fleeing south in accordance with Israeli advice while fearing that nowhere in Gaza was safe.
A plastic surgeon in Shifa said bombing of the building housing incubators had forced them to line up premature babies on ordinary beds, using the little power available to turn the air conditioning to warm. “We are expecting to lose more of them day by day,” said Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati.
Israel says Hamas has placed command centers under and near the hospitals and it needs to get at them to free around 200 hostages the militants took in Israel in an attack just over a month ago. Hamas has denied using hospitals in this way. On Sunday, a Palestinian official briefed on talks over the release of hostages said Hamas had suspended the negotiations because of the way Israel had handled Shifa hospital.
There was no immediate comment from either Hamas or Israel.
’NO ONE IS ALLOWED IN, NOBODY IS ALLOWED OUT’
Israel’s military said it had offered to evacuate newborn babies and had placed 300 liters of fuel at Shifa’s entrance on Saturday night, but that both gestures had been blocked by Hamas. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of Shifa, said reports of refusing to leave the diesel were “lies and slander.” Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, said that of 45 babies in incubators at Shifa, three had already died. Shifa was out of reach for the newly wounded, said Mohammad Qandil, a doctor at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in south Gaza, who is in touch with colleagues there.
“Shifa hospital now isn’t working, no one is allowed in, nobody is allowed out,” he said. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Al-Quds hospital was also out of service, with staff struggling to care for those already there with little medicine, food and water. “Al Quds hospital has been cut off from the world in the last 6-7 days. No way in, no way out,” said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Three UN agencies expressed horror at the situation in the hospitals, saying it had in 36 days registered at least 137 attacks on health care facilities, resulting in 521 deaths and 686 injuries — including 16 dead and 38 wounded medics. “The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair,” it said, saying half of Gaza’s hospitals were now closed. With the humanitarian situation across Gaza worsening, 80 foreigners and several injured Palestinians crossed into Egypt in the first evacuations since Friday, four Egyptian security sources said. Poland said 18 of them were its citizens, and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS News American citizens would be moved out of Gaza during Sunday.
AID DELIVERIES BY TRUCK AND PARACHUTE
At least 80 aid trucks had also moved from Egypt into Gaza by Sunday afternoon, two of the sources said. Jordan said earlier it had air-dropped a second batch into a field hospital. Very little aid has entered Gaza since Israel declared war on Hamas more than a month ago after militants rampaged through southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages, according to Israeli officials. Palestinian officials said on Friday that 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since then, around 40 percent of them children. Disease is spreading among evacuees packed into schools and other shelters and surviving on tiny amounts of food and water, international aid agencies say. Speaking from inside Gaza City, Jamila, 54, said she and her family could hear the roar of tanks nearby. “During the day, people try to look for essential items such as bread and water, and at night people try to stay alive,” she said. “We hear explosions throughout the night, sometimes we can tell that some of these explosions are exchanges of fire between the resistance fighters and the Israeli forces.” Palestinian health officials said 13 people had been killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Sunday. Residents reported increased fighting around Al-Shati refugee camp, by the coast in northern Gaza. The Israeli military said it had killed a number of militants there and called on civilians to use a four-hour pause to evacuate south. The Gaza fighting has reignited conflict on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, which has seen the worst cross-border clashes since 2006. Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, which like Hamas is backed by Iran, said it attacked Israeli army troops near the Dovev Barracks on Sunday, inflicting casualties. The Israeli military said earlier that anti-tank missiles fired by militants had hit a number of civilians, adding that it was retaliating with artillery fire. The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said one of its members near the town of Al-Qawzah in southern Lebanon had been wounded by a bullet overnight.

Heavy fighting rages near main Gaza hospital as Netanyahu dismisses calls for cease-fire
Associated Press/November 12, 2023
Israeli strikes pounded Gaza City overnight and into Sunday as ground forces battled Hamas militants near the territory's largest hospital, where health officials say thousands of medics, patients and displaced people are trapped with no electricity and dwindling supplies. In a televised address on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected growing international calls for a cease-fire unless it includes the release of all 239 hostages captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war, saying Israel was bringing its "full force" to the battle. Israel has vowed to end Hamas' 16-year rule in Gaza and crush its military capabilities, while blaming the militants for the war's heavy toll on the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the besieged territory. Israel has come under mounting international pressure, even from its closest ally, the United States, as the war enters a sixth week. A 57-nation gathering of Muslim and Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for the war to end, and an estimated 300,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched peacefully through London — the biggest demonstration in the city since the war began. In Gaza City, residents reported heavy airstrikes and shelling overnight, including in the area around Shifa Hospital. Israel, without providing evidence, has accused Hamas of concealing a command post inside and under the hospital compound, allegations denied by Hamas and hospital staff. "We spent the night in panic waiting for their arrival," said Ahmed al-Boursh, a resident taking shelter in the hospital. "They are outside, not far from the gates." The hospital's last generator ran out of fuel on Saturday, causing the death of a premature baby, another child in an incubator and four other patients, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. "Medical devices stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die," hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said by phone over the sound of gunfire and explosions. He said Israeli troops were "shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital" and prevented movement between buildings.
The World Health Organization said it lost communication with its contacts at Shifa.
Israel's military confirmed clashes outside the hospital, but Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman, denied Shifa was under siege. He said troops will assist Sunday in moving babies treated there and said "we are speaking directly and regularly" with hospital staff. The Health Ministry says there are still 1,500 patients at Shifa, along with 1,500 medical personnel and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter. Thousands have fled Shifa and other hospitals that have come under attack, but physicians said it's impossible for everyone to get out. The "unbearably desperate situation" at Shifa must stop now, the International Committee of the Red Cross director general, Robert Mardini, said on social media. Elsewhere, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli tanks were 20 meters (65 feet) from al-Quds hospital in Gaza City, causing "extreme panic and fear" among the 14,000 displaced people sheltering there. Netanyahu has said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas. Israel has long accused the group, which operates in dense residential neighborhoods, of using civilians as human shields. On Saturday, Netanyahu began to outline Israel's postwar plans for Gaza, which contrast sharply with the vision put forth by the United States. Netanyahu said Gaza would be demilitarized and that Israel would retain security control, with the ability to enter Gaza freely to hunt down militants. He also rejected the idea that the Palestinian Authority, which currently administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would at some stage control Gaza. Hamas drove the PA's forces out of Gaza in a week of street battles in 2007.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the U.S. opposes an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza and envisions a unified Palestinian government in both Gaza and the West Bank as a step toward Palestinian statehood. Even before the war, Netanyahu's government was staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood.
In another sign of international frustration with Israel, Saudi Arabia welcomed Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday in the first such visit since the two countries mended ties this year. Israel views Iran as its main enemy and had sought to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia before the outbreak of the war.
Israel's allies have defended its right to protect itself after the Hamas attack, which allegedly killed at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians. But now into the second month of war, there are growing differences over how Israel should conduct its fight.
The U.S. has pushed for temporary pauses that would allow for wider distribution of badly needed aid to civilians in the besieged territory where conditions are increasingly dire. However, Israel has only agreed to brief daily periods during which civilians can flee the area of ground combat in northern Gaza and head south on foot along two main north-south roads. Since these evacuation windows were first announced a week ago, tens of thousands of civilians have fled the north. But Israel is striking what it says are militant targets across central and southern Gaza as well, often killing women and children.
The war has displaced over two-thirds of Gaza's population, with most fleeing south. Egypt has allowed hundreds of foreign passport holders and medical patients to exit through its Rafah crossing. It has also allowed hundreds of trucks loaded with food and medicine — but no fuel — to enter, but aid workers say it's nowhere near enough to meet the mounting needs.More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. About 2,700 people have been reported missing and are thought to be trapped or dead under the rubble.
Forty-six Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began, and Palestinians have continued firing rockets into Israel. Hamas is still holding scores of captives — men, women and children — after releasing four women last month. A fifth captive was allegedly rescued by Israeli forces. Late Saturday, thousands of Israelis participated in a rally in Tel Aviv, calling for the return of hostages. In Caesarea, hundreds of protesters gathered near Netanyahu's home, calling for his removal. About 250,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from communities near Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have traded fire repeatedly.

Gaza’s displaced residents tell of fear and abandonment
Reuters/November 12, 2023
GAZA: On foot, by horse-drawn cart and clinging to the sides of overcrowded trucks, Palestinians on Sunday fled southwards through Gaza to escape Israeli airstrikes, telling of their fear, despair and bitter sense of abandonment. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza. My son was injured and there was not a single hospital I could take him to so he could get stitches,” said displaced Palestinian Ahmed Al-Kahlout. “There is no water, there isn’t even salt water we can wash our hands with.”He had been forced to leave his home to search for basic necessities for his family while “bodies are filling Gaza’s streets.”
There are still people hoping the conflict will be solved soon, he said. “But only God knows if it’ll be solved. The whole world has let us down; the progressive world that boasts about human rights has let us down.” Also heading south, a Palestinian woman, Mariam Al-Borno, said death, displacement, and hunger had forced her and her children to leave home “to flee for our lives.”

A Hamas leader pronounced dead in 2014 has been living in underground tunnels and masterminded the October 7 attacks, Israeli intel says
Alia Shoaib/Business Insider/November 12, 2023T
Mohammed Sinwar, a Hamas leader, was claimed to have died in 2014. However, Israeli spies now believe he is alive and that he helped mastermind the October 7 attacks. They believe he has spent years living in Hamas' labyrinth of tunnels under the Gaza Strip. A Hamas leader who was pronounced dead years ago is now believed to be alive and to have helped mastermind the October 7 attacks, Israeli intelligence says, The Telegraph reported. Mohammed Sinwar, the younger brother of Hamas' leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, was pronounced dead by the militant group in 2014, with the group even releasing an image of him lying in a blood-soaked bed. However, Israeli spies are now said to believe that his death was faked and that he had been living in Hamas' "spider's web" of tunnels under Gaza for years, sources close to Israeli intelligence said. "He was 100 per cent one of the core team who planned October 7," a former Mossad counter-terror chief told The Telegraph. Hamas' surprise terror attack on Israel saw militants attack by air, land, and sea, leading to the deaths of around 1,200 people in Israel and the taking of around 240 hostages. "In the military leadership he's very important," the former Mossad chief said about the younger Sinwar. "He's around number seven on the wanted list, alongside the likes of Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa and Tawfiq Abu Naim. He's an important figure and he's still alive for sure."The younger Sinwar specializes in helping secure the release of Palestinians who are in Israeli prisons through border infiltration and kidnappings, Ronen Solomon, an independent intelligence analyst, told The Telegraph. Solomon said that Sinwar survived six assassination attempts over the last two decades and that he had limited his movements to protect himself. He has never been seen in public since he was pronounced dead, and Gazan residents would likely not even recognize him now, he added. The IDF hinted in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it was once again targeting Mohammed Sinwar, writing that soldiers had searched an office linked to him and found "military doctrine documents." Mohammed Sinwar was one of the earliest members of the military arm of Hamas, having previously worked in administrative roles, per The Telegraph. The ex-Mossad chief said that Sinwar also played a key role in securing his older brother's release from an Israeli prison in a 2011 prisoner exchange. Yahya Sinwar is Israel's most wanted target. Israel's defense minister Yoav Gallant said earlier this week that the older Sinwar, who was once saved by Israeli doctors when he was in prison in Israel, was surrounded in a bunker. Officials have described him as a "dead man walking." Yahya became the leader of Hamas in Gaza and a member of its political bureau in 2017, according to the think tank the European Council on Foreign Relations. He is believed to be one of the key figures linking Hamas' political bureau with its military faction, the think tank added.

Biden, Qatari emir discuss Gaza, agree all hostages must be released
Reuters/November 13, 2023
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani about developments in Gaza and “urgent ongoing efforts” to secure the release of hostages being held by the Hamas militant group, the White House said. Biden “unequivocally” condemned the holding of hostages by Hamas, including many young children, one of whom is a 3-year old American citizen whose parents were killed by the group on October 7th, the White House said in a statement. “The two leaders agreed that all hostages must be released without further delay,” the statement said. Hamas fighters surged across the border from Gaza into Israel on Oct.7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages, according to Israeli officials. Only four hostages have been released to date. The Israeli bombardment of Gaza has since killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, around 40 percent of them children, according to counts by health officials in the Hamas-ruled territory. Reuters last week reported that Qatar, where several political leaders of Hamas are based, has been leading mediation efforts between Hamas and Israeli officials over the hostages. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told CNN’s “State of the Union” earlier on Sunday that “active, intensive negotiations” were underway involving Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the United States on securing the release of more hostages, but it was not clear if all were alive. “The goal here is to do what is necessary at the negotiating table to ensure that we get the safe return of all of the hostages, including the Americans,” Sullivan told CNN, noting that nine Americans were missing, along with one person with permanent resident status in the United States. “We don’t know the status, whether they are alive or whether they have passed away, but we are looking to get the safe recovery of all of those individuals,” he said. Sullivan said he would meet with the families of the American hostages this week. A US official said Brett McGurk, Biden’s senior Middle East adviser, will visit Israel on Tuesday and meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with further visits planned in Brussels, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar. Qatar’s government earlier said Al Thani had stressed the need for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the permanent opening of the Rafah crossing into Egypt in the call with Biden. Washington has rejected calls from Arab leaders and others for it to insist that Israel halt its assault on the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip. The White House statement made no mention of any discussion of a cease-fire, saying only that the leaders talked about the need “to protect innocent civilians and ongoing efforts to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”
Biden also affirmed his vision for a future Palestinian state “where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side with equal measures of stability and dignity,” the White House said, adding that Hamas had long been an impediment to that. It said the two leaders agreed to continue their efforts to advance a shared vision for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous, and stable Middle East region.

Israel kills Hamas commander who held 1,000 Gazans ‘hostage’ in hospital
Colin Freeman/The Telegraph/November 12, 2023
Israeli forces on Saturday night claimed to have killed a Hamas commander who held 1,000 Gazans “hostage” in a hospital as human shields. The Israel Defense Forces said that Ahmed Siam, a leader in Hamas’s al-Furqan Brigade, had blocked civilians from evacuating the Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City earlier this week. Israeli troops have been urging civilians to flee to southern Gaza to avoid them getting caught in crossfire. The IDF said that Siam and several other terrorists were killed while hiding out at a school building in Gaza, following a joint operation with Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency. “Ahmed Siam demonstrates once again that Hamas uses the civilians of the Gaza Strip as human shields for terror purposes,” the IDF added. The operation came as clashes intensified around the largest hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa, which Israeli forces claim houses a subterranean Hamas command and control centre. Fighting was said to be taking place less than 500 metres away, with the hospital saying it had run out of fuel and electricity. Officials from the Hamas-run health ministry and hospital medics claimed that Israeli snipers had their sights trained on the buildings and were shooting at anyone who came or went. They said the power shortages had caused at least two deaths – including that of a newborn baby - and that nearly 40 more infants were at risk. The Israeli military said on Saturday night that it would help to evacuate babies from Al-Shifa. “The staff of the Al-Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow, we will help the babies in the paediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was “shocked and appalled by the images & reports coming from Al-Shifa hospital”. Israel accuses Hamas fighters of “cynically” using Gazan hospitals full of civilians as citadels, and says Hamas leaders use ambulances as cover to travel in. On Saturday, IDF commanders said that at one point three days ago, they deliberately allowed Hamas fighters to join an evacuation of al-Rantisi hospital to reduce the risk of civilian casualties. “We opened the corridor and let the Hamas terrorists leave with the civilians because we didn’t want to risk the civilians in that whole situation,” said an IDF spokesman. “It worked for them, we’ll get to them later.”Meanwhile, Israel’s Foreign Ministry revised the death toll from last month’s Hamas attacks from 1,400 to around 1,200, according to the Times of Israel. The reasons for the revised figures were not specified, but appear to be related to reassessments of burned corpses initially identified as those of Israeli civilians. The IDF also said that four soldiers had been wounded during missile attacks on Israel’s northern border launched by Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. In a speech on Saturday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that global demonstrations against Israel’s incursion into Gaza were putting pressure on its Western allies. “We see thousands of people in Washington, New York, London and Paris protesting against Israel,” he said, noting growing international calls for a ceasefire. “The only voice that stands out is the US and its ‘follower’ the UK.”Meanwhile, in a meeting in Saudi Arabia hosted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Middle Eastern leaders condemned the war. Among those present were President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, on his first trip to Saudi Arabia since the two countries mended ties in March. Mr Raisi claimed Islamic countries should designate the Israeli army a “terrorist organisation” for its conduct in Gaza.

Death toll from Israeli bombing in Gaza hits 11,180
LBCI/November 12, 2023
The Hamas government announced that 11,180 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the war on the seventh of October. It also clarified that among the casualties counted so far are 4,609 children and 3,100 women, in addition to 28,200 people being injured.

Macron to Netanyahu: I did not intend to accuse Israel of intentionally harming civilians
LBCI/November 12, 2023
The Israeli Presidency announced that French President Emmanuel Macron, in a call with his Israeli counterpart, stated that he "did not accuse Israel of intentionally harming innocent civilians" in Gaza, referring to statements made during an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Tony Blair touted by Israel as peacekeeper in Middle East
Genevieve Holl-Allen/The Telegraph/November 12, 2023
Israel is said to be keen to appoint Tony Blair as a “humanitarian coordinator” for Gaza in order to temper concerns over its war efforts there. Benjamin Netenyahu, the Israeli prime minister, believes that Mr Blair’s experience as a lead diplomat in the region could be leveraged to reduce international pressure as the number of civilian deaths spirals past 11,000, Israel’s Ynet news reported. Mr Blair was the lead diplomat for the Middle East Quartet, which consists of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia, and aims to bring about peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Citing unnamed senior officials, the Times of Israel said the former British prime minister had been contacted over the matter and that talks had been taking place in recent weeks. A spokesman for Mr Blair told The Telegraph that no role had been “offered or taken”, but did not rule out Mr Blair accepting such a position.
The report, also carried by The Times of Israel, claimed that the exact scope and authority of the proposed role had not yet been set out, but that there would be an emphasis on “providing medical treatment and medicines, and on the possibility of evacuating the wounded and sick from the Strip.”Since Israel carried out its blockade and bombardment of Gaza hundreds of thousands of people in countries across the world have protested against its use of force . Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry estimates that more than 11,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Strip.Emmanuel Macron on Friday urged Israel to stop bombing Gaza and enter ceasefire negotiations, telling the BBC: “De facto, today, civilians are bombed, de facto.”Mr Blair issued a statement on Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on Israel four days afterwards, saying that diplomacy in the region would require a new approach. The statement, released through the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, said: “As the full nature of the barbarity and disgusting savagery of Hamas’ attack on Israel becomes clear, which the perpetrators know full well will result not only in grief and tragedy for Israelis but also for the people of Gaza, it becomes clear also that decades of conventional western diplomacy around the Israeli/Palestinian issue will need to be fundamentally re-thought.”
Middle East envoy
Serving as the envoy for the Middle East Quartet from 2007 to 2015, Mr Blair was handed the task of helping develop the Palestinian economic development, and his time in the role overlapped with Mr Netanyahu’s second term. The Quartet was established in1 2002, with a mandate to help mediate peace negotiations between Israel and Gaza and to support Palestinian efforts in “institution-building in preparation for eventual statehood,” according to the UN. Mr Blair was also a member of Labour Friends of Israel for decades when in Parliament. The report also claimed that humanitarian efforts in Gaza were being coordinated by Israel’s health and defence ministries, with the health ministry involved in assisting international efforts to set up field hospitals in Egypt and a hospital ship to arrive from France. A spokesman for Mr Blair said: “Mr Blair has an office in Israel and has continued to work on issues regarding Israel and the Palestinians. “He is discussing the situation, obviously with a number of people in the region, and elsewhere to see what can be done. But there is no ‘role’ offered or taken.”Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 12-13/2023
Israel, Iran and the Biden Administration: If America Does Not Win, Its Enemies Do
Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute./November 12, 2023
Above all, to speed up the release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, there must be as few "pauses" as possible, and no let-up by Israel in military pressure.
While the Israelis were urging the residents of northern Gaza to move south to avoid being caught in the cross-fire, Hamas leaders were ordering Gazans not to move to safety, and shooting at them as they tried to flee -- presumably so that Hamas could have more dead bodies to show the television crews how evil the Israelis supposedly are. Unfortunately, Biden announced that the US will send $100 million in additional "humanitarian aid" to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, thereby freeing up funds to be used for further terrorist attacks. "Humanitarian aid" sounds virtuous, but actually violates UN Security Council Resolution 1373, which prohibits resupplying terrorists. Israel, regrettably, evidently under US pressure, has just agreed to four-hour "humanitarian pauses." To Hamas, any pause is a gift. It can restock, move its terrorists around, and keep re-hiding the hostages. What chance is there that a terrorist group that shoots its own citizens to keep them from fleeing to safety will hand out food, water and medicine to anyone but its own members?
In fairness, Biden immediately sent Israel munitions and deployed US Navy vessels to the eastern Mediterranean, including a nuclear submarine...
Biden has not failed to repeat his support for a"two-state solution", even though it is now clearer than ever that the creation of a genocidal Palestinian state on what is left of Israel's small borders must be unthinkable... In such a volatile region, what if Iran or Hamas or ISIS were to take over the new Palestinian state? While the Israelis were urging the residents of northern Gaza to move south to avoid being caught in the cross-fire, Hamas leaders were ordering Gazans not to move to safety, and shooting at them as they tried to flee -- presumably so that Hamas could have more dead bodies to show the television crews how evil the Israelis supposedly are.
In January 2021, Iran was on the verge of economic asphyxiation, barely able to continue financing Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The Abraham Accords outlined the prospect of regional peace, and Saudi Arabia was considering joining the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kosovo, Morocco and Sudan. Israel was a respected regional power.
Russia had not yet invaded Ukraine. Chinese President Xi Jinping was not threatening Taiwan.
Then came the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan; Russia's invasion of Ukraine; China's spy balloon, unstopped until it had finished collecting information over America's significant military sites for a week; the Biden administration's cancellation of the China Initiative that had been effectively combating Chinese espionage; failure to close illegal Chinese police stations throughout the US; no response to roughly 70,000 Americans each year killed by Chinese fentanyl; a US southern border overrun by seven million migrants, and reported a known 1.5 million "gotaways" who have presumably evaded announcing themselves for a reason; around 1,800 young Chinese men, in packs, with simialar clothes, haircuts and tattoos who pretend not to speak English, some of whom US border guards recognize as members of China's military; failure to prevent China buying American farmland, possibly either to grow their food or destroy America's -- especially near US military bases; a California laboratory with mice bio-engineered to carry at least 20 deadly pathogens ready to be released into the US; Confucius Institutes that had been closed down but were renamed and are now spreading from universities to high schools; China's subversion of America's children by a "Trojan Horse" named TikTok; financing Iran's nuclear weapons and terrorism programs by ignoring sanctions on Iran to enable it to profit by close to $60 billion, funding the Palestinian Authority to the tune of nearly $1 billion, unconditionally, despite its deadly pay-for-slay "jobs program," and last week, Secretary Janet Granholm inviting the Chinese and Russian officials to inspect a US nuclear testing facility.
All this has been watched by what must be a world that is stupefied. If the Free World is not alarmed, it should be. The idea of focusing only on the US and its southern border is basically abdicating its role as protector of the Free World, and abandoning the rest of the planet to the tender mercies of China, Russia and Iran, with North Korea at the back. How long do we think America would last after that?
Iran-backed Hamas's October 7 invasion of Israel and the brutalities committed there need to be viewed in that context.
Above all, to speed up the release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, there must be as few "pauses" as possible, and no let-up by Israel in military pressure.
On October 7, at dawn, Hamas terrorists attacked and breached the high-tech security barrier separating Israel from the Gaza Strip. Thousands of well-trained and heavily armed terrorists invaded Israel. They tortured, mutilated, raped and murdered. They beheaded babies, burned them alive and baked one in an oven. The Gazan terrorists, in a few hours, murdered more than 1,200 people, wounded thousands more, and abducted almost 250 Israelis, who are now held as hostages in Gaza. While that was going on, Hamas terrorists from Gaza launched thousands of rockets at Israel (20,770 sq.km), a country not quite as large as New Jersey. "This," said Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan," is Israel's 9/11." Proportional to population, the attack was worse -- as if the September 11 terrorists had killed not nearly 3,000 people but 50,000. The Hamas attack also was clearly genocidal. Hamas wanted to torture, mutilate, rape, injure, kill, and kidnap as many Jews as possible only because they were Jews. If Hamas had had the means, the number of victims would have been far higher.
The October massacre of Jews was the largest and most vicious since the Holocaust.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu within days formed an emergency government. "Israel's war," he wrote, " is your war.... This is a turning point for leaders and nations. It is a time for all of us to decide if we are willing to fight for a future of hope and promise or surrender to tyranny and terror. Rest assured, Israel will fight."European leaders also weighed in. "I strongly condemn the current terrorist attacks against Israel," French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X. "Germany condemns these attacks by Hamas and stands by Israel," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote. US President Joe Biden spoke of his "unwavering commitment to Israel's security". On October 9, Biden, Macron, Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak published a joint statement expressing support for Israel -- but, in a disingenuous attempt to put Israelis and Palestinians on an equal footing, carefully counterbalanced their support with backing for the so-called Palestinian cause:
"[A]ll of us, recognize the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and support equal measure of justice and freedom for Israeli and Palestinian alike... Hamas does not represent these aspirations".
Those words came two days after a horrific massacre, after millions of Palestinians and others in the Middle East had cheerfully celebrated the massacre. Worse, saying that Hamas "does not represent" the aspirations of the Palestinian Arabs is actually not quite the whole story: on October 7 in Gaza, crowds thronged the streets to cheer the terrorists, shout "Allahu Akbar" ["Allah is greatest"], spew hatred towards the hostages and obscenely exhibit and abuse corpses of victims brought back as trophies.
In West Bank, which is governed by the the Palestinian Authority (PA), the crowds were equally enthusiastic. Palestinian polls have shown for years that in any PA election, Hamas would win in a landslide. The PA leadership, significantly, did not condemn the massacre. Fatah, the dominant force in the PA, supported it.
The worst, however, was to come.
As the Israeli military started targeted strikes in the Gaza Strip to destroy rocket launchers and other weapons, Hamas broadcast images of destroyed buildings and injured Gaza residents, the Hamas leaders in Gaza began to present themselves as the "real victims".
"Forgetting" the atrocities that had just taken place in Israel, Western European leaders started to say that Israel's response must be "proportionate". None of them, however, explained what a "proportionate response" is. What proportionality is not, is that Israelis should be permitted to kill the same number of babies and rape the same number women as the Palestinians did. It simply means that any strike has to be proportionate to a legitimate target. It is not proportionate, for instance, to use a nuclear bomb to take out a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile.
While it is important to try to ensure that there will be as few civilian causalities as possible, it is a war crime to use civilians as "human shields". US Senator Tom Cotton remarked,
"If Hamas uses schools, and kindergartens, and mosques for military purposes, Israel has every right under the laws of war to strike back... It is Hamas that is committing war crimes by using those civilians to create the imagery to try to put pressure on the Biden administration."
It seems, however, that no matter how many hundreds of thousands of leaflets Israel air-drops in Gaza, or how many phone calls and notifications they send, to urge Arab civilians to get out of harm's way – Israel's is the only military to take such care -– in the eyes of most of Europe's leaders, Israel's responses are never "proportionate". While the Israelis were urging the residents of northern Gaza to move south to avoid being caught in the cross-fire, Hamas leaders were ordering Gazans not to move to safety, and shooting at them as they tried to flee -- presumably so that Hamas could have more dead bodies to show the television crews how evil the Israelis supposedly are.
Less than a week after the one of the most savage massacres in history, Israel had become transformed in the eyes of the public from a victim to a criminal.
Some Western European leaders began using the arrogant tone of the lesson-giver. French President Emmanuel Macron lectured:
"Israel, has the right to defend itself by eliminating terrorist groups, including Hamas, through targeted actions but by preserving civilian populations, because that is the duty of democracies."
Macron did not say, even though he perfectly well knows it, that Hamas use the civilian population as human shields; if he had said it, he would not have been able to do what he seemingly really wanted to do: incriminate Israel.
When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel, he announced the support of the United States but added:
"We democracies distinguish ourselves from terrorists by striving for a different standard – even when it's difficult – and holding ourselves to account when we fall short".
To Blinken's credit and that of the Biden administration, however, on November 5, he rebuffed the request of Egypt and Jordan for a ceasefire, saying that "such a halt right now would only allow Palestinian militant group Hamas to regroup and attack Israel again."
In reality, controls on humanitarian aid entering Gaza from Egypt are nearly non-existent; what is in the trucks could easily be weapons or other terrorists – and even if is food, water or medicine, Hamas -- which shoots its citizens if they try to flee to safety -- will in all likelihood give it to its terrorists or hoard it.
Unfortunately, Biden announced that the US will send $100 million in additional "humanitarian aid" to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, thereby freeing up funds to be used for further terrorist attacks. He said the money would be sent to the Palestinian people, not just the Hamas terrorists, but he omitted how that might possibly be accomplished. "Humanitarian aid" sounds virtuous, but actually violates UN Security Council Resolution 1373, which prohibits resupplying terrorists.
Israel, regrettably, evidently under US pressure, has just agreed to four-hour "humanitarian pauses." To Hamas, any pause is a gift. It can restock, move its terrorists around, and keep re-hiding the hostages. What chance is there that a terrorist group that shoots its own citizens to keep them from fleeing to safety will hand out food, water and medicine to anyone but its own members? In fairness, Biden immediately sent Israel munitions and deployed US Navy vessels to the eastern Mediterranean, including a nuclear submarine, but, depending on the day, Israelis may well be wondering if and when Biden will look at the staged, extravagantly-funded, anti-Israel demonstrations that have sprung up, and insist that Israel end its counter-offensive.
Biden has not failed to repeat his support for a"two-state solution", even though it is now clearer than ever that the creation of a genocidal Palestinian state on what is left of Israel's small borders must be unthinkable. How would New Jersey feel surrounded by 22 Arab state that for 70 years have vowed to destroy it? In such a volatile region, what if Iran or Hamas or ISIS were to take over the new Palestinian state?
Biden then drew a parallel between Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin:
"Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy — completely annihilate it".
Biden admitted that "Iran is supporting Russia in Ukraine, and it's supporting Hamas and other terrorist groups in the region.... And we'll continue to hold them accountable." All true, but saying that the Biden administration has held Hamas or anyone else accountable is false.
The Biden administration has held no one accountable: not Iran, not China, not Russia, not North Korea, not Hamas, not Palestinian Islamic Jihad, not Yemen's Houthis. The only people he has held accountable have been American parents, whom he has called "domestic terrorists" for wanting to know what their children are learning in public schools, and American Catholics, whom he called "violent extremists". Biden has carefully not said a word about Iran's involvement in the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7: Iranian weapons, planning, training and funding.
Iran's proxies have recently attacked American troops in the Middle East at least 48 times since October 17, according to Fox News, with 56 US troops wounded, some with severe traumatic brain injuries. Although the Biden administration has been issuing warnings and launched a few strikes at empty facilities, Iran, understandably, continues to escalate. If the US were to incapacitate the port Iran uses to ship oil to China, or take out a base of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- or at the very least, as retired US Army General Jack Keane has been advocating, the base Iran uses to train troops -- the war would likely be over in a minute. Biden has a sent an "urgent budget request" to Congress. Most of the funds Biden is asking for, however, are intended for Ukraine. The Ukraine is indeed a worthy US investment: if Russia can keep the Donbass and Crimea, China's leader Xi Jinping will be encouraged to take Taiwan, perhaps the Philippines, the sea lanes in the Indo-pacific, as well as further threaten Australia and Japan.
America and its allies need to win. If they do not win, their enemies do.
*Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
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The Occupied West Bank: Divided by Faith, United by Fear
Jeffrey Gettleman/The New York Times/November 12, 2023
TEKOA, West Bank — As Moish Feiglin pulls up to his settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, he points to an 8-foot-tall concrete slab blocking the middle of the road.“That’s new,” he says. He slowly drives around it and nods his head to more security barriers and heavily armed soldiers peering from behind the entrance gate. “And so is that and that and that.” In the past month, his settlement, Tekoa, has turned into “an army base,” he says, which goes against his personal code. “I don’t have rock-proof glass on my car windows,” he says. “I don’t want rock-proof glass.” “But you have to understand what people are preparing for,” he adds. “They are preparing for 200 terrorists to come in.”The West Bank, an area many times the size of the Gaza Strip and complicated in its own way, is once again a flashpoint, and all sides are clearly on edge.
While the world is increasingly critical of Israel for its bombardment of Gaza, deep concern is also rising about the actions of the Israeli military and Jewish settlers in the West Bank, a contested patchwork of Palestinian areas and Israeli settlements like Tekoa that most of the world considers illegal. Jewish settlers of all political stripes are arming themselves, and extremists among them have attacked Palestinians and driven hundreds off their land. At the same time, there have been more Israeli military raids, more violent protests, more arrests and more Palestinian attacks on Israelis this past month than there have been in any similar period in years.
The result is an increasingly combustible atmosphere where people are divided by faith and united by fear, and just about everyone’s humanity is being tested.
“I’m very confused inside,” says Abu Adam, a Palestinian tour guide who asked to be identified by his patronymic, afraid he could be “socially isolated” — or hurt — for expressing moderate views. “We’re suffering, they’re suffering. Everything has stopped.”
“And it’s only going to get worse,” he adds. The story of Moish Feiglin and Abu Adam, two professionals whose lives have been upended by the violence, reveals how deeply both sides are afraid even if the power dynamic between them is vastly unequal. As an Israeli, Feiglin can’t pry his mind away from the Oct. 7 attacks. The scale and horror in which Hamas terrorists slaughtered an estimated 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and some brutally, has led him, by his own admission, to “close off” part of his heart.
He doesn’t like carrying a Glock. But he is allowed to, and so he does. The Israeli army has been assigned to protect his community. Still, he warily scans the open hills separating his settlement from Arab areas and begins to question many of the fundamental things he once believed in.
“I’m struggling,” he says. “Six weeks ago, I was arguing for peace, I was sending my kids to an Israeli-Palestinian summer camp, I was shopping in the village at Arab stores and embracing the ideology that went with that. And now I’m like: ‘What’s next? Can we really go back to that? Was I, in the past, too naive?’”
Abu Adam used to participate in grassroots peace efforts and also wonders if his old attitude is now out of date. He embodies the day-to-day difficulties of a Palestinian living under an Israeli occupation that leaves him stateless, curtails his movements and makes it illegal for him or any other Palestinian civilian to carry a firearm. The Israeli bombing of Gaza, 60 miles away, has killed more than 11,000 people, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas. The images he sees on television of fellow Palestinians, bleeding and dying, mourning and overwhelmed with sorrow, he says, have hardened him. “We’ve lost everything,” he says. “And sometimes, you just want to escape. But there’s nowhere to go.”
The two men live within sight of each other, share similar thoughts, even do some of the same kind of work. But they’ve never met and in the occupied West Bank, they inhabit different worlds. On the morning of Oct. 7, Feiglin was praying in a synagogue in Tekoa, and Abu Adam was leading a tour in Jericho. He was guiding an American family around what may be the world’s oldest city when his phone started buzzing in his pocket.
“I looked down at my messages,” Abu Adam says. “All I saw was: Cancel, cancel, cancel, cancel.”His upcoming clients were backing out of trips booked for this fall, and the ones with him were so terrified by the news that they insisted on leaving Jericho immediately. When he got home that night and collapsed on the sofa, he was horrified by what he saw on television.
“It was terrible to see people killed like that,” he said. “Hamas made a mistake.”
But, he was quick to add, “too much pressure causes an explosion.”
Up the hill, Feiglin watched his community transform before his eyes. Anyone who had a gun grabbed it, and a civilian guard force instantly formed.
Tekoa is one of the 130 or so West Bank settlements, built on land Israel seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Many are like islands, plunked down in the middle of Arab areas. They are often criticized, even among many Israelis, as the biggest obstacle to peace. Roughly 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, alongside an estimated 2.7 million Palestinians. The settlements reflect a wide range of politics and lifestyles, from ultranationalist communities to more moderate ones focused on agriculture.
A half-hour south of Jerusalem and with 4,300 residents, Tekoa is somewhere in the middle of the settler political spectrum. Known by some as “the hippie settlement” for its sizable contingent of artists and peace activists, it’s also home to right-wing supporters who advocate taking more Palestinian land.
So far there’s been little violence around here, and Feiglin calls the recent settler attacks in other areas “reprehensible,” “against Jewish values” and “very, very fringe.” And such aggression, he says, clearly contrasts with the modicum of interdependence that Tekoa and neighboring Arab villages had maintained, out of necessity more than anything else.
Before Oct. 7, scores of Palestinian men worked on construction sites in the settlement, which, with its tract housing and squiggly streets, looks like an American subdivision. Some settlers, like Feiglin, ventured into Arab areas to buy hardware or get their cars fixed. Sometimes Jews and Arabs shared meals, played music together or gathered with their families at a campground near Bethlehem. None of this is happening now.
Feiglin is a therapist, musician and desert guide. He specializes in breath work and music therapy. But with tourists fleeing Israel, his tourism business, like Abu Adam’s, has dried up.Both are running short on cash. Both are worried about their children. Feiglin’s 10-year-old daughter was riding to school this spring, he says, when a group of Palestinians attacked her bus with rocks. She’s still shaken by it. As for Abu Adam, he worries that his kids will be the ones throwing rocks.
It was for his children’s sake, Abu Adam says, that he had joined local peace efforts in which Palestinians met with Israelis and discussed ways to live together. As a young man, he had been jailed for participating in violent protests against the expansion of Tekoa, which he and other Palestinians said was built illegally on their land.
“But the problem I faced in my life,” he says, “I didn’t want my kids to face.”
Feiglin, 39, is a bit of a contradiction. Australian-born, he moved to the West Bank eight years ago. He says he enjoys spending time with ordinary Palestinians and promoting peace and coexistence. But doesn’t the very existence of his settlement only complicate peace and coexistence? “It’s a question I’ve asked myself,” he says. “My presence in the settlement won’t change facts on the ground.”He chose to live in Tekoa, he says, for its sense of community and the intoxicating effects of living on the edge of a spectacular desert. He finds himself thinking about his Palestinian acquaintances like Ismail, a hardware store owner whom he used to see all the time and now hasn’t seen for weeks.
“All these micro-interactions,” he says, his voice trailing off during a conversation in his kitchen. “I don’t know how far this is going to rewind us.”
“But trusting would be a risk, right?” says his wife, Adena Firstman, sitting next to him. “We’re, like, in survival mode.”Feiglin cracks an almond between his teeth and answers, “We’re in Rambo mode.”No place may better demonstrate “Rambo mode” than a hilltop near Tekoa that Jewish settlers recently seized in clear violation of Israeli law.
Feiglin drives there along a bumpy road, past yawning canyons dotted with scrub brush and white stones. The Dead Sea shimmers in the distance. Beyond stand the red rock mountains of Jordan. The landscape feels ancient, but the road itself is freshly bulldozed. “At any other time,” Feiglin says, “the settlers who made this wouldn’t be able to get away with it.”
The hilltop is guarded by four young men with matted hair, filthy jeans and the sidelocks of the ultra-Orthodox.
Their gear: a few radios, an ammo box, pistol clips, a prayer book, long knives and hunks of half-eaten challah. A belt-fed machine gun sits on sandbags, trained on the craggy hills.
“We should just shoot them in the head,” says Meir Kinarty, one of the young men, speaking of Palestinian protesters. “Only a bullet in their brains will make them learn.”
A reservist soldier, Andrew Silberman, who grew up in suburban Chicago, is also stationed on the hilltop. “This is totally illegal,” he says of the outpost, but he also says it’s his duty to help protect the area.
Like those of many others, Silberman’s feelings are complicated. He seems turned off by the bloodthirsty bravado of the young men strutting around with their knives. He says he understands how all the violence coursing through the West Bank, which has been rocked by major uprisings before, can radicalize people on both sides.
“But I don’t agree that hate should be the response,” he says.
When his shift ends, Silberman takes the belt-fed machine gun with him, uneasy about leaving it with the young men.
Abu Adam, from the rooftop of the home he built with his tour guide earnings, can see, with a squint, this same hilltop.
He laughs when asked what’s the way forward.
“It’s not clear,” he says. “But we have to keep looking.”
c.2023 The New York Times Company

Could exiled former Palestinian leader Mohammed Dahlan lead Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war?
Bahar MAKOOI/France 24/November 12/2023
The former leader of Fatah in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, has been living in exile in the United Arab Emirates for the past 10 years, where he has become a successful businessman. Born in the Palestinian coastal enclave, Dahlan is a powerful financial force in Gaza and an influential figure in the wider region – if Hamas fell, could he return to power?
Gaza’s former strongman Mohammed Dahlan has now spent more than a decade in exile in the UAE but rather than fade from the spotlight, he has amassed a new kind of power as a businessman and adviser to President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
Despite his long absence from the Palestinian Territories, Dahlan is still thought of as a potential leader in Gaza – if Hamas were removed from power.
“Mohammed Dahlan is from Gaza and is one of the heroes of the first intifada [the Palestinian uprising aimed at ending Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank in 1987 to 1993],” said FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Israel, Stéphane Amar.
“He has support from Israel and support from the United States – but the question is whether he will be able to impose his power. There are multiple options on the table if Israel were to succeed in ousting Hamas from the Gaza Strip.”
“Dahlan is compatible with Israel,” added Frédéric Encel, professor at Sciences Po in Paris and specialist in the geopolitics of the Middle East. “He was one of the first [Palestinian leaders] to accept the two-state solution and to stop calls for violence.”
Dahlan was involved in negotiating the Oslo Accords in 1993 – an aborted peace settlement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization – and attended talks with Israel while he held positions in the security services.
But his relationship with Israel did not please all Palestinians, Encel said, and the former leader never attained the popularity of figureheads such as Marwan Barghouti – dubbed “the Mandela of Palestine”.
Barghouti (ex-leader of Tanzim, the paramilitary faction of Fatah founded by Yasser Arafat in 1995) has been imprisoned in Israel for more than 20 years, serving several life sentences after being convicted of masterminding suicide bombings in Israel.
Allies and enemies
Dahlan also spent a large part of the 1980s in Israeli prisons, being arrested 11 times for his leading role in a Palestinian political party, Fatah. While in prison in Israel, he learned to speak fluent Hebrew, according to The Economist, which ran an interview with the former leader in October.
Even if Dahlan does not have the public profile of Barghouti, he possesses other tactical assets, notably his contacts on all sides of the conflict.
Born in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, he grew up alongside many current Hamas leaders before becoming a fierce opponent of the Palestinian Islamist movement. As head of Gaza’s preventive security force (1994-2002), he was accused of torturing Hamas members. He has a similarly complex relationship with Fatah. Dahlan was the Palestinian Authority’s security adviser when it lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas in 2007. Formerly a leading figure in the movement, he faced opposition from within the party, especially from the inner circle of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas ordered Dahlan into exile in 2011 after making various accusations against the Gazan politician including embezzlement and plotting an internal coup against Abbas, which Dahlan denied.
Dahlan was convicted in absentia on corruption charges by a Palestinian court in 2016.
An influential network
In exile in the United Arab Emirates, Dahlan reinvented himself as a successful businessman, building an impressive international network of friends in high places. He has found a role as the protégé of the ruler of Abu Dhabi, whom he has known since 1993, and who has presented Dahlan in public as his “brother”.
During his time in the UAE, Dahlan has also forged a relationship with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over a shared enemy: the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group of which Hamas is the outgrowth and Palestinian branch.
“The Emirates turned Dahlan into their sub-contractor in the fight against the Muslim Brotherhood,” an anonymous source told a Palestinian journalist for Le Monde in 2017. “Of all the second-generation Palestinian leaders, [Dahlan] is the one that has the most contacts in high places in the region. He has built a far-reaching network.”
The French newspaper revealed in its article that the Palestinian politician has become the holder of a Serbian passport gifted by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic for Dahlan’s “good services” after the UAE landed lucrative contracts in the Balkan country.
Le Monde suggested than Dahlan may also have played a role in the possible delivery of Emirati arms acquired in the Balkans for military strongman Khalifa Haftar, whose forces dominate eastern Libya.
$50 million per year for Gaza
Thanks to the patronage he has received in the UAE, Dahlan has also developed a business portfolio that allows him to distribute extensive aid within Gaza.
He claimed to have sent around $50 million annually from the UAE to Gaza in his interview with The Economist, and to have set up a support network for refugee camps in the West Bank. Dahlan's good relations with Egypt have enabled significant crossings at the Rafah border, such as in 2015 when Egyptian authorities allowed his wife Jalila to enter Gaza with suitcases filled with cash for a UAE-funded mass wedding for couples in financial need. In recent years, Dahlan has used UAE funds to distribute food, student loans and unemployment support in Gaza, as well as delivering thousands of Covid vaccines in 2021 – more than the Palestinian Authority itself.
New Palestinian leadership
Even though he lives overseas, Dahlan remains a powerful figure in Gaza. The UAE is also influential and will have a significant role to play when the time comes to rebuild Gaza, Encel said.
“If Hamas is defeated, it is not Qatar – which has close ties to the Islamist group – that will rebuild Gaza. Abu Dhabi holds one of the keys, and if Hamas is destroyed it will have a say in who the successor is,” Encel said.
Despite hinting in the past that he could run for Palestinian leadership, Dahlan denied he wanted the role when asked by The Economist in October.
Instead, he advised “a two-year transitional period with an administration run by technocrats in Gaza and the West Bank” to reunify Palestine, followed by parliamentary elections open to all parties including Hamas.
“Hamas will not disappear,” he said, adding that even after the war governance in Gaza would require working with the militant group.
A newly elected government could be supported by Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but would also need to be supported by the wider international community, including Israel, he said.
Dahlan remained optimistic such a solution was possible, saying the past month of fighting had reignited discussion around the Palestinian cause, ending a period of “zero hope”.
Even so, his vision for the Palestinian Territories clashes directly with that put forward by Israel. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told US network ABC on November 6 that Israel planned to maintain security responsibility in Gaza “for an indefinite period”.
“We’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it,” Netanyahu said. “When we don’t have that security responsibility what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.”
*This article is an adaptation of the original in French.
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20231112-could-exiled-former-palestinian-leader-mohammed-dahlan-lead-gaza-after-the-israel-hamas-war

A time for peace and a two-state solution
Ronald S. Lauder/Arab News/November 12, 2023
When I planned my trip to the Middle East last week with key representatives from Jewish communities in England, France, Switzerland and Germany, our plan was to try and help in the hostage situation, to promote a peace plan between Israelis and Palestinians and a two-state solution. Friends and colleagues of mine urged me not to go. They thought the very idea of peace between the Israelis and Palestinians seemed impossible at this time. But I disagreed.
I traveled to Jordan, where I met with King Abdullah and the crown prince. Afterwards, in Qatar, I met with Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani and then I sat down with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. We discussed the terrorist attacks by Hamas, as well as the hostage situation and the need to protect civilians on all sides. We also expressed our gratitude for Qatar’s efforts in finding a solution and freeing the hostages.
Though the topics and the timing were difficult and painful, we had open and honest exchanges on the basis of mutual respect and with the understanding that, in the end, we all want the same thing — a better future where Israelis and Palestinians live in peace side by side. A future where a “Marshall Plan” for the Palestinians, as I proposed in a previous article in Arab News, would offer an alternative to the brainwashing of Iran and terrorist organizations. It would be an important step toward long-term security and stability for all in the Middle East. A future where we can actually remember that we are the children of Abraham and should be able to live together as such.
I understand that the idea of talking about peace in the current atmosphere, as Hamas was able to create after the attacks on Oct. 7, could seem ludicrous. However, I believe history will back me up.
Fifty years ago, after the devastation of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, peace between Egypt and Israel seemed equally unattainable. But it was precisely that war that led late President Anwar Sadat to travel to Jerusalem to shake the hand of his Israeli counterpart. When President Sadat offered a real peace treaty, right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin gave the Sinai back to Egypt without hesitation. That peace has lasted now for almost half a century.
The idea of talking about peace in the current atmosphere could seem ludicrous. However, I believe history will back me up.
As a second example, in September 1993, I was among the invitees on the White House lawn when late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and late Chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands and manifested that they wanted to see a future of their people living in peace. Never will I forget the atmosphere of happiness and hope. People who had nothing to do with one another stood up together, applauded and we became friends that day.
Out of all the friendships created that day, I cherished mine with the late Dr. Saeb Erekat for many years. I would call him one of the voices of wisdom among the Palestinian leadership. Unfortunately, he passed away in November 2020, a huge loss for all those in the world who wanted to see a future with peace in the region and considered themselves to be bridge-builders.
We visited each other’s homes and I will never forget how his wife offered to teach me how to make maqluba. It became one of my favorite dishes after they graciously introduced me to it.
Saeb and I did not always agree on every topic, but we agreed on one thing: that only a two-state solution would guarantee Israelis and Palestinians a life in dignity, safety and with a better perspective on the economic situation, which would lead to a sustainable future. We also agreed that one of the biggest threats came from religious extremists on all sides, who would use violence against the voices of bridge-builders.
And let us be clear, in my opinion, a two-state solution would mean a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel.
True leaders stand strong in such difficult times and do not fall into the trap of hatred or labeling others.
We are missing the voices like Saeb’s today in this current situation. His wisdom, his ability to also raise his voice against the extremists on all sides and fight for a better future; I wish it would be the voices of reason — and I know they do exist on both sides — that would get the airtime in today’s media.
Sadly, for now, Hamas, with its attacks and per se declaration of war on Oct. 7, seems to have succeeded in polarizing the world. Not only that, but we also live in times where a minority of people allow extremists to intimidate, silence and cancel the majority.
I believe that was entirely their objective. With the strong possibility of other Arab countries joining the Abraham Accords, that would have left one player in the region completely out of the loop. That, obviously, is Iran.
Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps trained the Hamas fighters and gave them their weapons, just as they have trained other militias in the region, such as the Houthis, Hezbollah and the Shiite militias in Iraq. The one country that had the most to lose from more peace in the region was Iran.
This is not in the interest of anyone who stands for peace nor for anyone who is a bridge-builder. This is not the time to be indifferent.
I call upon anyone — leaders, politicians, business owners, journalists, students — who want to have a future in peace, to not give into the voices of extremism. In difficult times, like the ones we live in today, it is easy to fall into the trap of hatred, but true leadership is when we still hold on to the idea of peace. We must all understand that those who consider themselves bridge-builders will not give into the voices of extremists, who are trying to divide or cancel us.
True leaders — no matter if old or young — stand strong in such difficult times and do not fall into the trap of hatred or labeling others. It is the time where bridge-builders on all sides come together and urgently discuss the long-term solutions and what we all have in common, not what divides us.
I have always been a man of peace and I know there are many more out there who think the same way. We cannot give up on a better future for our children and grandchildren.
• Ronald S. Lauder is President of the World Jewish Congress.
X: @lauder_ronald

Do not set the PA up to fail in Gaza
Kerry Boyd Anderson/Arab News/November 12, 2023
Faced with increasing devastation in Gaza, there are growing questions in the international community about what will follow the current fighting. Some officials and commentators have suggested that the Palestinian Authority resume governance in the Gaza Strip, but that idea is neither just nor feasible.
On Oct. 31, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that, after Israel’s military operations are completed, it would “make the most sense … for an effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza.” He added that “temporary arrangements” involving international agencies might be necessary first. However, there are multiple reasons why the PA is likely to refuse to take on responsibility for Gaza and why those who support the PA should not set it up to fail.
Conditions in the Gaza Strip, which were desperate even before Oct. 7, will be catastrophic. More than 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza have died in the last month and that toll will increase. Others face injuries that will have lifelong consequences. So far, nearly half of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed, according to the UN. Much of the area’s critical infrastructure and road networks are damaged or destroyed. More than 1.5 million people are internally displaced and many will have no homes to return to. Schools and hospitals have been damaged. Water and sanitation systems are no longer functional. Given the intense crowding and lack of clean water and safe food, disease poses a major threat.
Anyone who takes on responsibility for daily governance in the Gaza Strip will face an intense crisis. Meeting basic needs for water, food, shelter and medical care will require massive amounts of effort and foreign aid. Rebuilding will demand even more external funds, as well as the ability to import significant amounts of materials, including cement and fuel. Given the experience of Israel’s blockade since 2007, it is unlikely that Israel will allow such imports in the necessary quantities. Furthermore, it is very likely that Israel will further shrink the already extremely crowded space where Palestinians in Gaza are allowed to live, creating more “no-go” zones and perhaps refusing to allow residents to return to northern Gaza.
Anyone who takes on responsibility for daily governance in the Gaza Strip will face an intense crisis.
Under such circumstances, whoever takes over responsibility for life in Gaza will face a nearly impossible task. They would be completely reliant on foreign aid for years, which is hardly a guaranteed source of ongoing support. Why would the PA accept such a role? Why would its supporters set it up to fail?
Furthermore, the PA already faces a major credibility problem. Even before Oct. 7, it had become deeply unpopular. In September, a poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 62 percent of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories “think the PA is now a burden on the Palestinian people,” while 78 percent wanted President Mahmoud Abbas to resign.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Oslo Accords, which created the PA, and a majority of Palestinians believe that the accords have failed. The PA lacks any true authority in the West Bank and has been unable to protect Palestinians from expanding Israeli settlements, violence from Israeli settlers or military forces and the destruction of Palestinian homes and fields. More broadly, the PA has failed to win a Palestinian state through negotiations and has not held parliamentary or presidential elections in years.
How can an authority viewed as ineffective and corrupt by most Palestinians govern a postwar hellscape in Gaza? PA leaders are aware that taking responsibility for Gaza in the aftermath of the war would destroy any credibility it has left among Palestinians. The PA is “not going to go to Gaza on an Israeli military tank,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh recently said, adding that the PA would only return to Gaza “as part of a solution that deals with the question of Palestine, that deals with occupation” in both Gaza and the West Bank.
How can an authority viewed as ineffective and corrupt by most Palestinians govern a postwar hellscape?
Additionally, the PA would likely meet violent resistance in Gaza. Even if Israel destroys Hamas, it cannot wipe out anger and despair. Whether through Hamas remnants or less organized groups, any new authority in Gaza will face violence. Furthermore, Israeli leaders have said that they intend to maintain “overall security responsibility” in Gaza, so a PA government there would have to contend with regular Israeli strikes and incursions. As PA leaders have stated, the only way that the authority might successfully govern Gaza would be in the context of a major peace deal that would provide the PA with true authority — and eventually sovereignty — over the West Bank and Gaza. However, 30 years after the Oslo Accords, a two-state solution is further out of reach than ever before. The international community should not dump responsibility for a devastated Gaza on the PA. It is true that there are no good options for governance in the Strip, but trying to force it on the PA would break the group. There is no feasible option for the PA — “revitalized” or not — to govern Gaza without a much broader peace deal, which has been elusive for decades.
Rather than seeking some way to fob off responsibility for Gaza onto the PA, international leaders need to accept the reality that the status quo among Israel and the Palestinians has failed and it is time for a fundamentally new approach. Part of that approach should include the opportunity for the Palestinian people to choose their own government.
• Kerry Boyd Anderson is a professional analyst of international security issues and Middle East political and business risk.
X: @KBAresearch

Turkish opposition’s leadership change creates new challenge for AKP
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/November 12, 2023
Turkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party, which is known as the CHP, last week achieved a major breakthrough by removing long-time leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. He had resisted for a long time, determined to maintain his position, because senior members of his party insisted that he should not give up. When it became clear that Kilicdaroglu was going to lose, he hesitated in conceding the race and letting Ozgur Ozel, 48, run for the CHP’s chairmanship unopposed. Such an attitude would have made him a hero, but apparently his entourage prevented him from taking such a reasonable course of action.
The party congress unfolded smoothly, with few exceptions. The two competing candidates for the leadership were seated in the congress hall next to each other, accompanied by their wives. There were two other candidates, but they were not able to gather a sufficient number of votes to be eligible for the presidency. During his 13-year tenure, Kilicdaroglu lost 14 elections, including municipal votes. He did not win any of the elections he participated in. Each time he had promised the public that he would guide the CHP’s boat to a safe harbor. Before last week’s election, he repeated that this time he would relinquish his post and retire, but he could not do it.
In his speech, he claimed that he was stabbed in his back, hinting at what Meral Aksener of the IYI Party had done by overthrowing the famous “Table of Six” before the general elections of May this year.
Unlike Kilicdaroglu, who spent an important part of his career as a bureaucrat, Ozel has always been active in politics.
The new chairman of the CHP is Ozel, a pharmacist by profession. He has spent most of his career involved in politics. Two years after his graduation from Ege University’s Faculty of Pharmaceuticals, he became the secretary-general of the Chamber of Pharmacists of his province and then the president of the chamber. He was also active in international professional organizations. In 2011, he became a member of parliament. In other words, unlike Kilicdaroglu, who spent an important part of his career as a bureaucrat, Ozel has always been active in politics.
During last week’s CHP congress, Ozel made an emphatic statement. We can expect that this statement may give a new lease of life to the party. He may even have slightly shaken President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP party. “Transformation in the party” is a slogan Ozel has been using since the early stages of his political career. This also applies to the transformation of the membership in various organs of the party.
The CHP congress unfolded smoothly thanks to Ozel’s due respect for his former boss and the skillful approach of Ekrem Imamoglu, the metropolitan mayor of Istanbul, who chaired the event. Tensions did not rise because of their tactful attitude. Everybody admitted that there was a need for change in the party.
The Turkish electorate has a habit of moving slowly. Ozel should therefore avoid rushing for a quick success. However, the atmosphere is suitable after 23 years of AKP rule. The forthcoming local elections, to be held on March 31 next year, will probably add new dynamism to Turkiye’s political life.
President Erdogan, with his wide experience in politics that goes back to the 1990s, is also preparing for the local elections. He must be aware of the implications of the leadership change in the main opposition party. He has greater means to distribute favors to the electorate.
Turkiye’s notorious Kurdish problem will arise again during the forthcoming elections. Because of Kilicdaroglu’s Alawite affiliation, Erdogan will probably use this question for electoral purposes. This is a sensitive issue that any political leader has to avoid. Ozel will probably not let Erdogan’s government further alienate the Kurdish electorate.
President Erdogan must be aware of the implications of the leadership change in the main opposition party.
Another important issue is the relationship between Ozel and Imamoglu. The interests of these two important political figures may collide at some stage. Their best bet would be a fair share between the two, with one aiming for the presidency and the other for the post of prime minister once it is reinstated.
The CHP electorate was disappointed with the result of the general elections held in May. They also hold Kilicdaroglu responsible for his failure last week. The party did not make a convincing self-criticism after the May elections. Most of the members of the various bodies of the party were people who were appointed by Kilicdaroglu. Therefore, they were not expected to unseat the leader that appointed them. This dilemma was resolved by the strong opposition of the other delegates who participated in the party congress.
Several members of the CHP’s core electorate turned away from the party because of the trauma they suffered as a result of Erdogan’s most recent victory. We may therefore expect that political life will become livelier in the run-up to the local elections.
As soon as the membership of the CHP’s various party organs takes shape, priority will be given to the amendments to be made to the party’s statutes. An amendment to the statutes was a promise made by Ozel several years ago. He said that the new statutes would be inspired by the best practices in the world. Instead of letting certain designated members of various party boards elect the chairman, he plans to let all members of the party directly elect the chairman. Such a practice might create several complications, but Ozel will probably design a process open to evolution.
Politics is a business full of opportunities and disappointments. Ozel’s performance will tell us to what extent he will be able to move ahead in Turkiye’s democracy.
• Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the ruling AK Party.
X: @yakis_yasar

Innocent victims of Sudan war are suffering horribly
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 12, 2023
The toll the devastating war in Sudan is taking on millions of ordinary people is tremendous and unimaginable. The many attempts to reach a ceasefire have so far all failed. If the international community cannot halt the war, it ought to immediately take action and at least ensure the safe passage of humanitarian assistance to millions of people. The war between troops loyal to Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces militia of Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo has been raging for more than six months, leaving more than 9,000 dead and forcing about 6 million people to flee their homes. On average, 1 million Sudanese have been displaced every month due to the violence. A total of 25 million people in Sudan are now dependent on humanitarian aid. The last few weeks have seen a spike in the number of people leaving the country as refugees.
Of the 6 million displaced so far, about 1.2 million have left the country to take refuge in neighboring nations. One of the countries to have received a large number of Sudanese refugees is Chad. Other refugee-receiving countries include South Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic and Libya. Those who make it to one of Sudan’s neighboring countries often have to go through harrowing and difficult journeys. Sudanese refugees are also facing many difficulties due to the fact that the countries they are fleeing to are struggling with their own poverty and socioeconomic crises. For example, Chad has its own multifaceted crisis and financial woes. It is one of the poorest countries in the world and it was already hosting more than half a million refugees from Sudan before this latest conflict erupted in April.
In civil wars, women and children tend to bear the brunt of the conflict. And Sudan is no different.
In civil wars, women and children, which are the most vulnerable groups, tend to bear the brunt of the conflict. And Sudan is no different, with cases of sexual violence, abductions of women and girls and rape on the rise. According to the UN, “more than 50 incidents of sexual violence linked to the hostilities have been reported to the (the UN assistance mission) office in Sudan, impacting at least 105 victims — 86 women, one man and 18 children. Twenty-three of the incidents involved rape, 26 were of gang rape and three were of attempted rape.”
The continuation of the war and the increased violence could provide a ripe environment for opportunistic terror groups to emerge, mobilize, recruit, gain power and launch attacks. The modus operandi of terrorist groups is generally anchored in efforts to further destabilize a country or region and create chaos, providing a good space that they can then exploit and prosper in. In addition, wars can attract mercenaries, who gain financially and advance the political agenda of their paymaster or a specific party. Reports indicate that fighters from other countries, including the Central African Republic, Libya and Chad, are already involved in the Sudan war. This could have severe repercussions for the whole region and beyond if the conflict continues to grow.
The top priority and most important action to take is to chart a path that ensures the safe passage of humanitarian aid, including corridors that allow medical assistance to enter the impacted areas.
The warring parties should also allow the evacuation of civilians from the conflict zone. This is currently the most significant issue in Sudan, as more than half of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance.
The most important action to take is to chart a path that ensures the safe passage of humanitarian aid.
In the renewed peace talks, which are being steered by Saudi Arabia, the US and the East African regional bloc known as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, representatives from the warring parties ought to be pressured to abide by international human rights and humanitarian laws, particularly when it comes to ensuring the protection of civilians. “At a time when so much hope is being placed on the Jeddah talks to achieve a sustainable ceasefire and facilitated humanitarian access, I call on all parties to refrain from escalating and expanding the conflict,” said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, deputy head of the UN mission in Sudan. There should be a cohesive plan to do so. The Jeddah talks are currently the most viable path to de-escalate and hopefully end the war in Sudan. The Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan is anchored in international human rights law and places an emphasis on making a distinction between civilians and combatants, ensuring the safe passage of civilians, protecting medical personnel, allowing humanitarian relief to reach the population, and preventing the recruitment of children as soldiers in the war. If the international community cannot find a permanent solution, a temporary cessation of hostilities should be the goal for now. That would provide the time needed to find a sustainable mechanism that can ultimately lead to a permanent solution. A temporary cessation of the war could accomplish some of the most urgent objectives, which include the opening of humanitarian corridors. In a nutshell, millions of Sudanese people, particularly women and children, are suffering horribly. The first action the international community needs to take is to ensure the safe passage of humanitarian and medical aid to people who are caught up in the war and are experiencing unimaginable physical and mental trauma.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.
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If Israel Were to Win... if Hamas Were to Win...
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 12/2023
Of course, neither of the two outcomes in the headline is inevitable. In fact, if one party were to emerge victorious, it would not attain a pure victory without partners and free of pressure exerted by third parties.
Nonetheless, the headline and extreme potential outcomes seek to establish the metrics and standards that reveal the choices available to the Arab Levant, all of which are miserable options that this deadly war has given rise to.
If Israel achieves victory, a horrifying notion would prevail: nothing but might is right, and blind technology overpowers human beings and takes precedence over them and their lives. As a result, a highly dangerous and far-reaching master-slave mindset would spread across the entire region; Arabs can only be addressed through intimidation and terror, as they must be made afraid because fear is the only language they understand.
This premise implies racist hierarchies, whereby an Israeli human is unequivocally more important than a Palestinian (and thus an Arab) human, and that an Israeli child is more precious than a Palestinian child. The latter could be killed for one reason or another, while the killing of the former should be banished even from dreams. The “civilizational war” sought by all the warring parties would morph into contempt for Arab culture and values, taking a form that does not bother to distinguish between Al-Maarri with Osama bin Laden, and it would likely be accompanied by a pattern of assaults against Arab groups and individuals here or there.
On the other hand, the illusory revenge of those defeated and frustrated by this Israeli victory would be to seek solace in antisemitic myths, which could also be accompanied by aggression against Jewish individuals or groups, resulting in a sort of identification between opposition to the Jewish state and antisemitism. Politically, despite the positive outlook shared by some optimists, political settlements in the region will probably freeze or break down, while any peace offer made to the Palestinians would be nothing more than an opportunity to unambiguously and explicitly capitulate. It can be assumed that, in this event, Jewish settlers in the West Bank would continue to confiscate and annex more land and expel and target the Palestinians who own it. Who would guarantee, in this region so conducive to parochial loyalties, that the East Bank, and perhaps parts of Lebanon and Syria, would not host another set of “fratricidal wars”? As for the process through which Benjamin Netanyahu would be held accountable for his policies and failures, it would almost certainly not encompass Israel’s aggressive approach, of which Netanyahu is only one figurehead. In fact, this process, coupled with the notion of a need for a safer and superior fortress, could reinforce Israel’s hubris and fortify its chauvinistic attitudes.
On the other hand, in the event of a Hamas victory, “national liberation” would be once more understood as a unilateral struggle against a foreign occupier. As for how Palestinians are governed, it would not draw anyone’s attention or concern. In everything from freedoms to education, darkness and repression would prevail, and they would be made uglier by poverty and misery, which the war has astronomically worsened.
In tandem with the two belligerents’ total lack of sensitivity towards civilians and their lives, and with both the resistor and the invader enjoying rights denied to others, sensitivity towards women is collapsing as well. In resistance circles, women are increasingly being seen as birth-giving machines used in “demographic Jihad.” Even before this Hamas victory, there were growing signs of McCarthyism. Those who do not replicate its rhetoric and actions are being slandered, and matters have gone as far as employing signs and symbols in a pagan process of adherence to Hamas terminology in describing “the enemy” and building a hierarchy in naming the dead. This can also be seen in the disruption of seminars and lectures of universities, which are supposed to be spaces for discussion, and the defamation of professors organizing them as “Zionists.”
With this arsenal that combines everything backward and regressive under the sun, Hamas and its increasing number of those drawn to the “progressiveness” of Abu Ubaida, would wage a “civilizational war” that isolates us further from the world and its achievements, under the pretext of the bias that foreign governments have shown in favor of Israel. And of course, they are not lacking in confidence that we will win this war!
The Arab Levant, where political settlements of any kind are barred, would become a region of perpetual conflicts on the borders and within all borders. Hatreds would proliferate and conflicts would be blended together into a stew that leaves Tehran alone rubbing its hands in joy and glee.
Moreover, a Hamas victory would potentially postpone everything liberal or progressive in the region. We should not fail to notice that, since the Al-Aqsa Flood, we have not heard anything about the repression in Iran, the killing in Syria, or the looting of the Lebanese, who have now nothing to wait except the speeches of a leader in which he tells them what they need to know about their lives and deaths...This is some of what Al-Aqsa Flood could bless us with when it is pushed to its ends, broadening a cruel racist right wing that excels at killing children, and fanatical populism that despises life, reason, and freedom.

The Labyrinth of the Lost
Dr. Abdelhak Azzouzi/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 12/2023
The latest book of Amin Maalouf, the Lebanese author and Permanent Secretary of the French Academy, which was recently published by the prestigious French publishing house, Edition Grasset, is a must-read. “The Labyrinth of the Lost: The West and Its Enemies” examines the current manifestation of the struggle between the West and its opponents throughout history. It goes over the courses taken by four great historical powers: the Meiji era of Japan, which has now blown the entire world away with its industrial development; Soviet Russia, which had posed a grave threat to the West for three-quarters of a century before it collapsed; China, which has become the primary challenger of the West’s supremacy in this 21st century through its developments, demographic weight, and rival ideology; and finally the United States of America, which has stood up to the opponents who challenged it and became the globe’s police force and planet Earth’s leading superpower.
In this context, Amin Maalouf is right to ask: “Is the West really in decline?” He answers this question at the outset: yes. This descent is real, and it sometimes takes the form of political and moral bankruptcy.
However, those fighting the West and challenging its supremacy, for good or bad reasons, are even more perilous facing failings. Neither the Westerners nor their rivals have the capacity, today, to lead humanity out of the labyrinth in which it finds itself. Thus, it is crucial that we rethink the frameworks and tracks governing and managing our world today, if we are to ensure a safe future, a world without cold or hot wars, and endless conflicts for hegemony.
Maalouf introduces and concludes his book with the claim that we are caught in a twisted monster. He explains that the notion that humanity must be led by a hegemonic power, a lesser evil that should not subjugate others, is misguided... No one deserves to occupy this position, not China, the US, Russia, India, England, Germany, France, or even a unified Europe. Any of these powers, without exception, would become arrogant, predatory, tyrannical, and despised if they found themselves capable of anything, regardless of the righteousness of their principles. This is the great lesson that history offers us, and accepting it would be the foundation for satisfactory solutions.
We all hope so. In my view, however, the problem is far bigger. The global order has, first of all, become marked by ambiguity, uncertainty, and unpredictability. Secondly, the number of influential actors is constantly rising. Looking into this question from the perspective of the sociology of international relations leads us to conclude that the logic of the old order resembled that of a complex three-dimensional chess game. On the upper board was the largely unipolar military power, and the US has maintained this superiority. To date, the US remains the only country that can send deterrent forces to various regions of the world. On the middle board, economic power was multipolar for over a decade, and the main players are the United States, Europe, Japan, and China, along with others of increasing importance. On the lower board, we find transnational relations; this encompasses non-state actors, such as bankers transferring money electronically, terrorists, hackers threatening cybersecurity, and global challenges like pandemics, climate change, and so on. Amin Maalouf's theory leads us to another idea he developed in a previous book “Adrift: How Our World Lost Its Way.” In his view, there are emerging or nascent nations now becoming powerful on the international scene, which has become shaped by an arms race, and they are imposing themselves on everyone; and we face collective climate, environmental, and health threats that loom over the planet. Thus, he explains, “we can only confront them through universal solidarity, which we must pursue because it is the only way to avoid the peril they would create.”
At the same time, the author reinforces his thesis by highlighting the major shift underway on the international stage and their profound implications for civilizations. The United States’ position on the international stage is changing radically, it is losing its moral legitimacy. In Europe, which had, in the past, boasted of its human and moral principles to its citizens, the author believes that policies antithetical to those principles are being adopted. Meanwhile, the Arab and Islamic world is caught in a deepening crisis.
Nonetheless, a deep dive into the history of international relations demonstrates that it has always had contradictions. Indeed, they were more pronounced at times. This leads us to conclude that civilizations will endure so long as economic resources, political systems, ethical traditions, and the pursuit of science and arts (the component parts of civilization) remain.
However, the struggle to shape the world order will remain heated, and the influence of the United States will decline relative to the past, as will its stature. Other countries like China and others will rise in prominence, but they will not become as hegemonic as the US has been for decades. Rather, these countries will become economically and industrially influential, and they will lead non-Western military alliances. These players have understood globalization, and they have astutely and successfully embraced its rules. For instance, they offer any country they deal with commercially that one nation's economic success does not necessarily imply the failure of the other. They have gone beyond the friend-enemy dichotomy and opted for a “win-win” framework.