Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 09-10/2023
Thanks Giving Day: Pray & Be Grateful To Almighty God/Elias Bejjani/October 09/2023
The World Council for the Cedars Revolution (WCCR) Objects to Bassil Invitation to European Parliament Conference
Hezbollah fires on Israel after four members killed in shelling
Hezbollah strikes back after Israel kills ‘number of armed suspects’ who infiltrated from Lebanon
Reports: Diplomatic efforts to avoid Hezbollah involvement in war
Hamas attack: Is Iran involved and will Hezbollah enter the fray?
Report: Iran helped plot Hamas attack, gave final go-ahead last Monday in Beirut
Hezbollah retaliates after Israeli shelling kills 3 of its members following Palestinian infiltration attack
Some families flee southern border towns after Israeli shelling
FM: Lebanese govt. has guarantees Hezbollah won't join war
Mikati says 'border stability' is Lebanon's priority
Report: Qatar envoy presses Lebanese on president after Israel-Hamas war
250 dead at site of music festival attacked by Hamas
Factbox-What is Lebanon's Hezbollah?
Minor injury to Lebanese Army officer in Israeli shelling
Hezbollah issues statement on retaliatory attack following martyrdom of members
Al Jazeera: Israeli artillery shelling of the central sector of the border with Lebanon
Fatah Movement's statement on the attack in Ain al-Hilweh during Gaza solidarity march
Hezbollah mourns its third member, Ali Hassan Hodroj, due to Israeli aggression
Officially: Three Hezbollah martyrs due to Israeli shelling in South Lebanon
Hezbollah: From ‘Statelet’ to ‘State Outside the State’/Sam Menassa/Asharq Al-Awsat/09 October 2023

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 09-10/2023
Vidio link/Middle East Forum Round Table On The Hamas-Israel War
Vidio link/Middle East Forum Round Table On The Hamas-Israel War
Israel defense minister orders 'complete siege' on Gaza
Russia, Arab League will work to 'stop bloodshed' in Israel, Gaza
Trump blames Biden for dealing with Iran after Hamas' attack on Israel
Israel-Hamas conflict leaves 1,500 dead, including 11 U.S. citizens
11 US citizens dead in Israel conflict, Biden says
The US will likely 'go to war' in Israel with air and naval power if Syria or Iran become actively involved, retired 4-star general says
Hamas fooled Israel's advanced surveillance by doing all of its planning offline, retired US general says
Israel intensifies Gaza strikes and battles to repel Hamas, over 1,100 dead in fighting so far
Iran calls for emergency OIC meeting as Israel battles Hamas
Iran denies it had role in Hamas attack on Israel
U.S. rushing air defenses, munitions to Israel, defense official says
Israeli survivors recount terror at music festival, where Hamas militants killed at least 260
An Israeli woman held hostage in her home for 15 hours said she distracted Hamas militants with coffee and cookies until she was rescued
Demonstration in London in support of Palestinians in Gaza
Iran and Sudan agree to resume diplomatic relations
Turkish strike on Kurds in Syria kills 20: Monitor

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 09-10/2023
Another Palestinian Reverie/Raymond Ibrahim/October 9, 2023
Palestinians' War on Israel and US Senators' Delusional 'Two-State Solution'/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/October 9, 2023
The Ayatollah's Plan for Israel and Palestine/Amir Taheri/Gatestone Institute/Originally published on July 31, 2015
The roots and hidden meanings of ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’/Ramzy Baroud/Arab News/October 09/2023
Hamas and the American Left/Seth Barron/The American Mind/October 10/2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 09-10/2023
Thanks Giving Day: Pray & Be Grateful To Almighty God
Elias Bejjani/October 09/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/67920/elias-bejjani-thanks-giving-day-obligations-prayers-wishes-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b3-%d8%a8%d8%ac%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%b9%d9%8a%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b4%d9%83%d8%b1-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d9%83%d9%86/
Today while in Canada we are celebrating the Thanks Giving Day, gratitude and faith necessitates that each and every one of us with humility and faith thank Almighty God for all that we have no matter what.
To appreciate what we have it is a must to look wisely around and observe the millions and millions of people all over the world who are totally deprived from almost every thing that is basic and needed for securing a descent life.
Let us be grateful and thank Almighty God genuinely and with full reverence.
On this special day we have to focus on praying and combine both faith and acts together.
We need to train ourselves to witness for the truth and to be humble and generous in giving what we can to all those who are in need.
We must recognize and understand with no shed of doubt that the only weapons that a peaceful believer can use to fight hardships of all sorts are faith, honesty, self trust, righteousness and praying.
Let us all pray and ask Almighty God for what ever we are in need for ourselves, for others and for our beloved both countries, Canada and Lebanon.
Almighty God definitely will hear and respond in case we are genuine in our prayers and praying with confidence, faith and trust, but His responses shall be mostly beyond our understanding or grasping.
Let us Pray for on going peace and prosperity in the hospitable and great Canada that gave us a home when we needed it.
Let us pray for peace in our beloved original country, Lebanon and for freedom of its persecuted and impoverished people.
Let us pray for the souls of Lebanon's martyrs that fell on October 13/1990 while defending Lebanon's dignity and independence.
Let us pray that Jesus Christ shall grant, our mother country, Lebanon, the Land Of the Holy Cedars with faithful clergymen and brave political leaders who fear him and count for His Day Of Judgment.
Let us pray for peace and tranquility all over the world.

The World Council for the Cedars Revolution (WCCR) Objects to Bassil Invitation to European Parliament Conference
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123022/123022/
MEP Thierry Mariani
Assemblée Nationale
Paris, France 75355
October 9, 2023
Dear Mr. Mariani,
The World Council for the Cedars Revolution (WCCR) has learned that the leader of Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), Gebran Bassil, has been invited by you to address a conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on October 17.
WCCR strenuously objects to the inclusion of Mr. Bassil. As Mr. Bassil has served as a top advisor to his father-in-law, former Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, he must be seen as complicit with that government’s accommodation of the Iran-backed terrorist group, Hezbollah, which was allowed to expand, infiltrate the military and government, and to receive armaments from Iran shipped through Syria. Hezbollah has stationed Iran-supplied rockets and mortars along the south Lebanese border with Israel and are currently coordinating with the horrendous attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians.
Hezbollah has a long and violent history within Lebanon as well. In addition to being responsible for the Beirut Port explosion (which the Aoun government refused to prosecute), Hezbollah has engaged in murder and kidnapping of Christians within Lebanon and is currently engaged in provoking an Israeli response to its mortar attacks on Israel’s northern territory in solidarity with the Hamas brethren, putting all the Christians of Southern Lebanon at risk of being suddenly engulfed in a war the majority of Lebanese emphatically do not want.
Due to Mr. Bassil’s continuous support and cooperation with the terrorists of Hezbollah, and for “systemic corruption” as well, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Bassil under the Global Magnitsky Act in 2020.
In light of these facts, WCCR hopes that you will reconsider your invitation to Mr. Bassil. He should not be speaking for Lebanon or the issue of Syrian refugees or any other issue.
Yours sincerely,
Tom Harb, WCCR General Secretary
John Hajjar, WCCR National Director

Hezbollah fires on Israel after four members killed in shelling
BEIRUT (Reuters)/Laila Bassam, Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari /October 9, 2023
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired a salvo of rockets onto northern Israel on Monday in response to at least four of its members being killed in Israeli shelling on Lebanon, two security sources told Reuters. The exchange of fire marks a significant expansion of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants to the Israeli-Lebanese border further north. Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel fought a brutal month-long war in 2006.Hezbollah in a statement on Monday said it had fired rockets and mortars on two Israeli military posts in the Galilee. The Israeli military said it identified a number of "launches" from Lebanon into Israel, without any injuries. It said it was responding with artillery fire onto Lebanon. Hezbollah said in consecutive online statements that at least four of its members had been killed in Israel's "aggression" on southern Lebanon on Monday afternoon. Israel shelled southern Lebanon on Monday after a cross-border raid claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which has been fighting alongside Hamas since it launched its surprise attack on Israel on Saturday. The Israeli army said soldiers backed by helicopters killed at least two gunmen who crossed the frontier. A Hezbollah official said had earlier denied the group was involved in the cross-border raid. Two sources, both close to Hezbollah, had said Israel's deadly shelling of the Hezbollah observation post in southern Lebanon would draw a response from the group. Hezbollah and Israel have traded sporadic fire over the border since 2006 while avoiding a major conflict. They exchanged artillery and rocket fire on Sunday. Some residents of southern Lebanon said they were leaving homes along the border with Israel on Monday amid heavy shelling that had so far pounded the outskirts of towns and villages. The state news agency reported heavy traffic on main roads due to people fleeing the border area and schools in the area will remain closed on Tuesday.
UN URGES RESTRAINT
A series of incidents over the past months had already elevated the risk of escalation along the Lebanon-Israel border before the fighting erupted in Israel and Gaza. In a statement, the Israeli military said its soldiers "killed a number of armed suspects that infiltrated into Israeli territory from Lebanese territory". It did not elaborate on the number.Military helicopters "are currently striking in the area," the statement added. A security source in Lebanon and a source in Lebanon's border area said a group of men had approached the border, with one firing at an Israeli observation post. Israel's Army Radio gave the location as being near Adamit, across from the Lebanese border towns of Aalma El Chaeb and Zahajra. A spokesperson for the U.N.'s peacekeeping mission said its head Major General Lazaro was "in contact with the involved parties, urging them to exercise maximum restraint."Lebanon's army confirmed shelling had taken place in border areas and asked people to be cautious in their movements. Gabi Hage, a father of three with a house near the border described heavy shelling close to him. "Our house is really close to the border, so we're leaving and going down to the village. All my neighbours are doing the same," he said. The French consulate in Lebanon told its nationals to postpone any travel to southern Lebanon. Britain also said tensions were high and that the situation could escalate.

Hezbollah strikes back after Israel kills ‘number of armed suspects’ who infiltrated from Lebanon
Reuters/October 09, 2023
JERUSALEM: Three Hezbollah members were killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon Monday, the Iran-backed group said, as tensions surged after Palestinian militants tried to infiltrate into Israel from Lebanon. Israel’s army said its soldiers had “killed a number of armed suspects” who had crossed the frontier from Lebanon and that its helicopters were striking the area. The escalation on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon comes two days after Hamas militants launched a massive attack on Israel’s southern flank from the blockaded Gaza Strip. Hezbollah issued three separate statements confirming the death of its members, all of them “martyred as a result of the Zionist aggression on south Lebanon Monday afternoon,” the group said. A Hezbollah source had earlier told AFP a member was killed “in an Israeli strike on a watchtower in south Lebanon” near Aita Al-Shaab village, with a spokesperson for the group confirming the death.The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group’s armed wing, which claims to be fighting Israel alongside Hamas, said earlier it was behind a thwarted bid to infiltrate Israel from Lebanon. “The Al-Quds Brigades claim responsibility for the afternoon operation on the south Lebanon border,” the group said in a statement.The mayor of the Lebanese border village of Dhayra said Israel was shelling the area. “Fields on the outskirts of the village were subjected to intense Israeli artillery shelling, preceded by intermittent gunfire,” the mayor, Abdullah Al-Gharib, told AFP. Hezbollah, whose arch-foe is Israel, had earlier denied any involvement in the border clashes. An AFP photographer at the scene said he saw dozens of Lebanese and Syrian families fleeing as the outskirts of Aita Al-Shaab village came under heavy bombardment. The Lebanese army in a statement said the periphery of “Dhayra, Aita Al-Shaab and other border areas were subjected to air and artillery bombardment by the Israeli enemy.”It urged citizens “to take the utmost caution” and avoid border areas. Andrea Tenenti, the spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel, said UNIFIL commander Aroldo Lazaro was “in contact with the involved parties.” He said Lazaro had urged them to exercise “maximum restraint” to prevent “further escalation and loss of life.” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israel had expanded bombardment on the same border area with “enemy warplanes intensifying their flights and launching incendiary bombs.”The clash comes a day after Hezbollah said it had fired artillery shells and guided missiles at Israel, “in solidarity” with attacks launched from Gaza by its ally Hamas. Israel’s army said it hit back on Sunday with artillery into southern Lebanon. In 2006 Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war that left more than 1,200 dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers. The two countries remain technically at war. Israel has warned Hezbollah against involvement in the war with Gaza. At least 800 people in Israel and 560 in Gaza have been killed since the conflict erupted on Saturday, according to tolls from officials on both sides.

Reports: Diplomatic efforts to avoid Hezbollah involvement in war
Naharnet/October 09, 2023
Israel has exerted intensive diplomatic efforts to avoid Hezbollah’s involvement in the ongoing war with Hamas, media reports said. “The ambassadors of world powers informed Lebanese officials of the threats and repercussions that might result from dragging Lebanon into the current conflict, asking them to exert all the necessary pressures on Hezbollah so that it doesn’t take a decision to get involved in the ongoing fighting,” highly informed Lebanese political sources told ad-Diyar newspaper. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Washington wants to “prevent the emergence of a second front in this conflict, including with Hezbollah in Lebanon.” "One of the reasons why U.S. President Joe Biden said from the very first moment that no one should try to take advantage of the situation was precisely to prevent the emergence of a second front in this conflict, including with Hezbollah in Lebanon. We saw limited rocket attacks from Lebanon on Israel, the Israelis responded immediately, and it looks like everything has stopped for now. At the moment, the situation is calm, but we are following it very closely," he stressed. Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. for his part said that Israel has asked several nations to inform Lebanon’s government that it would be held responsible for any Hezbollah attack.

Hamas attack: Is Iran involved and will Hezbollah enter the fray?
Agence France Presse/October 09, 2023
The surprise assault by Hamas against Israel was a meticulously planned offensive that the Palestinian militant group is capable of keeping up, with a risk of even greater escalation, analysts say. Hamas can count on a deep arsenal of rockets to use against Israel but key questions include how much support it has received from Iran, which has expressed its backing for the offensive, and whether Hezbollah will enter the fray. Iran on Monday rejected as unfounded allegations it had a role in the massive assault on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. "The accusations linked to an Iranian role... are based on political reasons," foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told reporters, adding that Palestinians had "the necessary capacity and will to defend their nation and recover their rights" without any help from Tehran. More than 700 Israelis have been killed in the country's worst losses since the 1973 Yom Kippur war -- when it was also caught flat-footed by a combined Egyptian and Syrian attack -- and over 400 Palestinians slain as Israel presses a relentless bombardment of Hamas' Gaza stronghold. "It was a huge failure on the Israeli side and a huge achievement for Hamas," said Kobi Michael, senior researcher at the Tel-Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). "In order to launch such an operation, you have to do a lot of preparation, planning, coordination and you have to have a very meaningful, significant, essential strategic prospect or objective that you are seeking to achieve," he added, emphasising that Hamas "knows the price of such an operation will be very high."
'Substantial arsenal' -
In May 2021, Hamas had already surprised Israel by sending thousands of rockets -- sometimes a hundred within a few minutes -- aimed at saturating its Iron Dome anti-missile defence system. Then, Hamas used 4,360 rockets in the space of 15 days while this time around 3,000 fell on Israel in two days, according to Elliot Chapman, analyst for the British security intelligence group Janes. "It is unclear if the militants will be able to sustain this volume of fire over the next few days. If so this would be the largest rocket attack on Israel so far," he told AFP. Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that Hamas should still have a "substantial arsenal of rockets" kept in reserve and it "seems likely they will be able to keep up the rocket fire for quite a while." Hamas has an arsenal that is difficult to quantify numerically but certainly ample.
Its arms come from an array of different sources, including Iran but also Syria, Libya after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi and other Middle Eastern countries -- not to mention weapons stolen or captured from Israel itself, said a Western expert on armaments who posts anonymously on X (formerly Twitter) under the handle Calibre Obscura. "It's an arsenal of stocks that had been built up for decades," said Calibre Obscura, with small arms and rifles stemming from sources in China, Russia and eastern Europe. For Chapman the "vast majority" of Hamas' rocket arsenal is however "domestically manufactured." "They require a basic workshop and materials and can be mass produced by Hamas and similar types," he said, describing them as "unguided missile systems" that "require no advanced technology to be launched."
'Long time to prepare'
What happens next will depend both on Israel's own decisions -- notably if it launches a ground invasion of Gaza after its 2005 pullout from the territory -- and what kind of backing Hamas itself received for the offensive. "We might see a few entirely new capabilities (from Hamas) emerge in case of a full ground invasion of the Gaza Strip," said Hinz. He warned that close combat in the densely-populated Gaza Strip would be "gruelling" and a scenario the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had tried hard to avoid over the last years. "Hamas had a long time to prepare for this kind of scenario, so even for a military as well-trained and equipped as the IDF it would be quite a challenge and probably come with heavy losses." Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has said Tehran supports what he described as the "legitimate defence" of the Palestinians but a White House official said it is "too early to say" whether Iran was "directly involved" even if there is "no doubt Hamas is funded, equipped and armed by Iran and others." Kobi Michael argued that "Hamas would not have dared to launch such an operation without having a very reliable and serious policy insurance and they got it from Hezbollah and Iran." The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing members of Hamas and Hezbollah, that Iran had helped to plan the assault with a final green light given at a meeting in Beirut last week. A nightmare scenario for Israel would be a multi-front war also involving Hezbollah activity on its northern border. The Lebanese group said Sunday it fired "large numbers of artillery shells and guided missiles" at Israeli positions in a contested border area "in solidarity" with the Palestinian attack. Israel responded with its own fire. Chapman of Janes said that the the risk of Hezbollah involvement "is elevated" while in addition "Palestinian militant groups are very active in the West Bank and have called on the public to join the fray."

Report: Iran helped plot Hamas attack, gave final go-ahead last Monday in Beirut
Agence France Presse/October 09, 2023
Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’ Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, the Wall Street Journal quoted “senior Hamas and Hezbollah members” as saying. Officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked with Hamas since August to devise the air, land and sea incursions -- the most significant breach of Israel’s borders since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the sources told WSJ. “Details of the operation were refined during several meetings in Beirut attended by IRGC officers and representatives of four Iran-backed militant groups, including Hamas, which holds power in Gaza, and Hezbollah,” the sources said. Iran on Monday rejected as unfounded allegations it had a role in the massive assault by Hamas. "The accusations linked to an Iranian role... are based on political reasons," foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told reporters, adding that Palestinians had "the necessary capacity and will to defend their nation and recover their rights" without any help from Tehran. U.S. officials meanwhile say they haven’t seen evidence of Tehran’s involvement. In an interview with CNN that aired Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We have not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack, but there is certainly a long relationship.”“We don’t have any information at this time to corroborate this account,” said a U.S. official of the alleged meetings. A European official and an adviser to the Syrian government, however, gave the same account of Iran’s involvement in the lead-up to the attack. Asked about the purported meetings, Mahmoud Mirdawi, a senior Hamas official, said the group planned the attacks on its own. “This is a Palestinian and Hamas decision,” he said. “The strike was intended to hit Israel while it appeared distracted by internal political divisions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. It was also aimed at disrupting accelerating U.S.-brokered talks to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel that Iran saw as threatening,” the alleged senior Hamas and Hezbollah members told WSJ. Building on peace deals with Egypt and Jordan, expanding Israeli ties with Gulf Arab states could create a chain of American allies linking three key choke points of global trade -- the Suez Canal, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Bab Al Mandeb -- connecting the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea, said Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “That’s very bad news for Iran,” Ibish said. “If they could do this, the strategic map changes dramatically to Iran’s detriment.”

Hezbollah retaliates after Israeli shelling kills 3 of its members following Palestinian infiltration attack
Agence France Presse/October 09, 2023
Israeli strikes on south Lebanon killed three Hezbollah members Monday, the Lebanese group said, as tensions surged after Palestinian militants tried to infiltrate into Israel from Lebanon. The escalation on Israel's northern border with Lebanon comes two days after Hamas militants launched a historic multi-pronged attack on Israel's southern flank from the blockaded Gaza Strip sparking a fierce war with Israel. Hezbollah issued three separate statements confirming the death of its members, all of them "martyred as a result of the Zionist aggression on south Lebanon Monday afternoon," the group said.
The group retaliated by striking two Israeli barracks, it later said. "Groups of the Islamic Resistance (Hezbollah), in an initial response, attacked" two Israeli barracks "using guided missiles and mortar shells that hit them directly," Hezbollah said in a statement. A Hezbollah source had earlier told AFP a member was killed "in an Israeli strike on a watchtower in south Lebanon" near Aita al-Shaab village. Israeli mortar shelling outside the border village of Rmeish "slightly wounded" a Lebanese officer, the Lebanese Army said in a statement Monday. Israel's army said its soldiers had "killed a number of armed suspects" who had crossed the frontier from Lebanon and that its helicopters were striking the area. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group's armed wing, which claims to be fighting Israel alongside Hamas, said earlier it was behind a thwarted bid to infiltrate Israel from Lebanon. "The Al-Quds Brigades claim responsibility for the afternoon operation on the south Lebanon border," the group said in a statement. The mayor of the Lebanese border village of Dhayra said Israel was shelling the area. "Fields on the outskirts of the village were subjected to intense Israeli artillery shelling, preceded by intermittent gunfire," the mayor, Abdullah al-Gharib, told AFP.
'Utmost caution'
Hezbollah, whose arch-foe is Israel, had earlier denied any involvement in the border clashes. An AFP photographer at the scene said he saw dozens of Lebanese and Syrian families fleeing as the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab village came under heavy bombardment.
The Lebanese Army in a statement said the periphery of "Dhayra, Aita al-Shaab and other border areas were subjected to air and artillery bombardment by the Israeli enemy." It urged citizens "to take the utmost caution" and avoid border areas. Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel, said UNIFIL commander Aroldo Lazaro was "in contact with the involved parties." He said Lazaro had urged them to exercise "maximum restraint" to prevent "further escalation and loss of life."Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said Israel had expanded bombardment on the same border area with "enemy warplanes intensifying their flights and launching incendiary bombs." The clashes come a day after Hezbollah said it had fired artillery shells and guided missiles at the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, "in solidarity" with attacks launched from Gaza by its ally Hamas. Israel's army said it hit back on Sunday with artillery into southern Lebanon. In 2006 Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war that left more than 1,200 dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers. The two countries remain technically at war. Israel has warned Hezbollah against involvement in the war with Gaza. At least 800 people in Israel and 560 in Gaza have been killed since the conflict erupted on Saturday, according to tolls from officials on both sides.

Some families flee southern border towns after Israeli shelling
Associated Press/October 09, 2023
Families in several border towns in southern Lebanon have started fleeing north as Israeli shelling continues in the area. An Associated Press team saw several cars packed with people and belongings departing Monday. “We tried to flee Aita el-Shaab to Rmeish, but they told us everyone has to stay in their area,” a man said as he and his family tried to flee. Israeli shelling intensified after four militants crossed over the border and clashed with Israeli troops on Monday. Several rockets were fired from near the Lebanese border earlier. A Hezbollah spokesperson denied the militant group’s involvement in the operation.

FM: Lebanese govt. has guarantees Hezbollah won't join war
Naharnet/October 09, 2023
The Lebanese government has been promised that Hezbollah will not intervene in the Hamas-Israel war, caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said. The minister told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, in remarks published Monday, that Hezbollah would only intervene if Israel started the war. The interview took place in Washington before Hezbollah carried out an attack Sunday "in solidarity" with Hamas, which launched a surprise assault on Israel the day before. Hezbollah fired on Israeli positions in the contested Shebaa Farms border area and Israel retaliated and warned Hezbollah against getting involved in the fight on its southern flank with Hamas. On Monday, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati stressed that the government's priority is to maintain security in south Lebanon. The PM met with Bou Habib and the latter said after the meeting that "we do not want Lebanon to join the fray and we are trying to avoid that." The Israeli army said Monday it has "killed a number of armed suspects" who crossed the border from Lebanon. "Additionally, Israeli helicopters are currently striking in the area," the army added. Media outlets said the infiltrators are Palestinians after prior reports claimed they were members of Hezbollah. Only minutes later, Hezbollah denied involvement. It said the resistance has neither clashed with the Israeli enemy nor attempted any infiltration into Israel.

Mikati says 'border stability' is Lebanon's priority
Naharnet/October 09, 2023
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati stressed Monday that the government's priority is to maintain security in south Lebanon, a day after Hezbollah and Israel exchanged fire. In an attack it said had been carried out "in solidarity" with Hamas, which launched a surprise assault on Israel the day before, Hezbollah fired Sunday on Israeli positions in the contested Shebaa Farms border area. Israel said it retaliated and warned Hezbollah against getting involved in the fight on its southern flank with Hamas. The Shebaa Farms had been captured by Israel during the 1967 Mideast War and are claimed by Lebanon. In a statement, Mikati said that "brotherly countries are keen on keeping Lebanon safe from the repercussions of the explosive situation in the Palestinian territories," adding that stability and calm are the government's priorities. Another priority is the withdrawal of Israel from the occupied Lebanese territories, Mikati said. A nightmare scenario for Israel would be a multi-front war also involving Hezbollah activity on its northern border and analysts have questioned whether Hezbollah will enter the fray. On Monday, the Kremlin said there was a "high risk" of a third party entering the conflict between Israel and Hamas, after the U.S. moved warships closer to its ally Israel. Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib had told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that Hezbollah has promised the Lebanese government that it will not intervene in the Hamas-Israel war. More than two days after Hamas launched an unprecedented incursion from Gaza, caughting Israel's vaunted military and intelligence apparatus completely off guard, Mikati dubbed the operation "an inevitable consequence of the Israeli approach against the Palestinian people and their rightful demands.""The solution to this open conflict begins with the international community assuming its responsibilities in pressuring Israel to go back to peace options," Mikati said.

Report: Qatar envoy presses Lebanese on president after Israel-Hamas war
Naharnet/October 09, 2023
Qatari envoy Jassem bin Fahed Al-Thani is continuing his meetings in Beirut on Lebanon’s presidential file, a media report said. “The developing situation in the region has become part of the envoy’s discussions,” al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday. “He stressed the need to continue the efforts to find a mechanism that would allow for going to sessions to elect a president, in order to enable Lebanon to confront the phase that will follow the confrontations in Gaza and the areas that border it between the Israeli army and the Palestinian resistance,” the daily added.

250 dead at site of music festival attacked by Hamas
Agence France Presse/October 09/2023
Hamas gunmen killed around 250 people who attended an outdoor music festival in an Israeli community near Gaza at the weekend, a volunteer who helped collect the bodies said on Monday. "In the area where the party took place, and at the party itself" it could be estimated that "there were 200-250 bodies," said Moti Bukjin, a spokesman for the humanitarian NGO Zaka, based on the number of trucks that ferried away the corpses. At least 700 people were killed in southern Israel when Hamas forces stormed across the border, shooting people in the communities and towns near Gaza before security forces began fighting back. "I've been a volunteer at Zaka for 28 years" and after working at a deadly stampede in Meron during a religious festival two years ago, "I thought I reached my end," Bukjin said. "I wanted to retire after seeing 45 bodies in one place, I thought it was the end of the world," he added. "Turns out things can be much, much worse," he told AFP in a phone call, as he prepared to return to the south to continue the work of his group, a religious NGO that specialises in collecting bodies in accordance with Jewish law. "They butchered people in cold blood in an inconceivable way," he said of what he saw near Kibbutz Reim, where the party took place overnight Saturday.

Factbox-What is Lebanon's Hezbollah?
BEIRUT (Reuters)October 09/2023
Lebanon's Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli military positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms on Sunday, saying it was acting "in solidarity" with the Palestinian people after an unprecedented attack by Hamas gunmen from Gaza into Israel. Israel responded with barrages of artillery into southern Lebanon. No casualties have been reported. Backed by Iran, the Shi'ite group has risen from a shadowy faction established during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war to a heavily armed force with big sway over the Lebanese state. Governments including the United States deem it a terrorist organisation.
ORIGINS
Iran's Revolutionary Guards founded Hezbollah in 1982 to export its Islamic Revolution and fight Israeli forces that had invaded Lebanon. Sharing Tehran's Shi'ite Islamist ideology, Hezbollah recruited among Lebanese Shi'ite Muslims.
MILITARY POWER
Hezbollah kept its weapons at the end of the civil war to fight Israeli forces occupying the predominantly Shi'ite south. Years of guerrilla warfare led Israel to withdraw in 2000.
Hezbollah demonstrated its military advances in 2006 during a five-week war with Israel, which erupted after it crossed into Israel, kidnapping two soldiers and killing others. The war killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers. Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into Israel. Its military power grew after deploying into Syria in 2012 to help President Bashar al-Assad fight mostly Sunni rebels.
Hezbollah boasts precision rockets and says it can hit all parts of Israel. In 2021, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group had 100,000 fighters.
Iran gives Hezbollah weapons and money. The United States estimates Iran has allocated it hundreds of millions of dollars annually in recent years.
REGIONAL SWAY
Hezbollah has deep ties to other Iran-backed groups around the region, including the Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad. As Saturday's attack unfolded, Hezbollah said it was in "direct contact with the leadership of the Palestinian resistance".
Hezbollah has trained Iran-backed groups in Iraq and takes part in fighting there. Saudi Arabia says Hezbollah has also fought in support of the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen. Hezbollah denies this.
ROLE IN LEBANON
Hezbollah's sway in Lebanon is underpinned by its arsenal and the support of many Shi'ites who say the group defends Lebanon from Israel. Lebanese parties opposed to Hezbollah say the group has undermined the state and accuse it of unilaterally leading Lebanon into conflicts. The group has ministers in government and lawmakers in parliament. In 2008, a power struggle with Lebanese adversaries backed by the West and Saudi Arabia spiralled into a brief conflict. Hezbollah fighters took over parts of Beirut after the government vowed to take action against the group's military communications network. Hezbollah entered politics more prominently in 2005 after ally Syria withdrew from Lebanon following the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who symbolised Saudi influence in Lebanon. A U.N.-backed court later convicted three Hezbollah members in absentia over the assassination. Hezbollah denies any role, describing the court as a tool of its enemies. In 2016, the Hezbollah-allied Christian politician Michel Aoun became president. Two years later, Hezbollah and its allies won a parliamentary majority. This majority was lost in 2022, but the group continued to exercise a big sway. It campaigned against a judge investigating the 2020 Beirut port explosion after he sought to question its allies. The standoff prompted deadly clashes in Beirut in 2021.
ACCUSED IN ATTACKS ON WESTERN TARGETS
Groups that Lebanese security officials and Western intelligence have said were linked to Hezbollah launched suicide attacks on Western embassies and targets and kidnapped Westerners in the 1980s. One group, Islamic Jihad, was thought to be led by Imad Moughniyah, a top Hezbollah commander who was killed in a car bomb in Syria in 2008.
The United States holds Hezbollah responsible for a suicide bombing that destroyed U.S. Marine headquarters in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 servicemen, and a suicide bombing the same year on the U.S. embassy. A suicide bombing also hit a French barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 58 French paratroopers. Referring to those attacks and hostage-taking, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah said in a 2022 interview they were carried out by small groups not linked to Hezbollah.
TERRORIST DESIGNATIONS
Western countries including the United States designate Hezbollah a terrorist organisation. So do U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states including Saudi Arabia. The European Union classifies Hezbollah's military wing as a terrorist group, but not its political wing.
Argentina blames Hezbollah and Iran for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in which 85 people were killed, and for a 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people. Both deny responsibility.

Minor injury to Lebanese Army officer in Israeli shelling
LBCI/October 09/2023
The Lebanese Army announced in a statement that border areas in the south were subjected to shelling by the Israeli enemy. It added that several mortar shells fell in the courtyard of a Lebanese Army center on the outskirts of the town of Rmeish, resulting in a minor injury to an officer.

Hezbollah issues statement on retaliatory attack following martyrdom of members
LBCI/October 09/2023
Hezbollah issues statement on retaliatory attack following martyrdom of members. Hezbollah issued a statement in which it announced that "after the martyrdom of three of our jihadist brothers this [Monday] afternoon as a result of Israeli attacks on Lebanese towns and villages, groups from the Islamic Resistance launched an initial response by attacking the Branit base, which is the command center of the Galilee Brigade, and the Afifim base, which is the command center of a Katbiya affiliated with the Western Brigade, using guided missiles and mortar shells, inflicting direct hits."

Al Jazeera: Israeli artillery shelling of the central sector of the border with Lebanon
LBCI/October 09/2023
Al Jazeera: Israeli artillery shelling of the central sector of the border with Lebanon.Al Jazeera reports that Israeli artillery initiated shelling in the central sector along the border with Lebanon.

Fatah Movement's statement on the attack in Ain al-Hilweh during Gaza solidarity march
LBCI/October 09/2023
In a statement released by the Fatah Movement, it was reported that during a demonstration in support of the Gaza Strip's resistance fighters in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, gunfire was directed at the march as it reached the At Tiri neighborhood.
The shots were fired from the direction of the Safsaf and Al-Ras al-Ahmar neighborhoods. National Security forces and Fatah Movement members were present in the area and had facilitated the march, welcoming it. Unfortunately, they were also subjected to direct gunfire, injuring one of their members. The Fatah Movement strongly condemns this act by Zionist forces and rejects the baseless accusations that our forces were responsible for the gunfire.

Hezbollah mourns its third member, Ali Hassan Hodroj, due to Israeli aggression
LBCI/October 09/2023
Hezbollah released a statement regarding the death of one of its members on the border: "With utmost pride and honor, the Islamic Resistance mourns the martyr, the mujahid Ali Hassan Hodroj, known as Fidaa,' from Beirut (resident of the southern town of Hanouiyeh)." "He sacrificed his life due to the Zionist enemy's aggression on southern Lebanon this afternoon, Monday, October 9, 2023," it concluded.

Officially: Three Hezbollah martyrs due to Israeli shelling in South Lebanon
LBCIOctober 09/2023
Three martyrs from Hezbollah have fallen during the Israeli shelling in South Lebanon on Monday afternoon. The martyrs that have fallen due to the Israeli aggression on South Lebanon are:
- Ali Raef Ftouni, "Haydar," from the town of Zqaq al-Blat, Beirut;
- Houssam Mohammad Ibrahim, "Houssam Aitroun," from the southern town of Aitroun;
- Ali Hassan Hodroj, "Fidaa," from the city of Beirut (resident of the southern town of Hanouiyeh).

Hezbollah: From ‘Statelet’ to ‘State Outside the State’
Sam Menassa/Asharq Al-Awsat/09 October 2023
A conversation with a senior figure who has occupied several high-ranking positions pushed me to write this article. Our discussion revolved around political powers that have become part of the system despite operating outside of it.
Lebanon has undergone several major crises since its establishment. All of them were precipitated by mobilizations against the legitimacy of the state. The first of these crises erupted with the 1958 clashes between the Nasserists advocating Arab unity and President Camille Chamoun, after the latter refused to sever diplomatic ties with the Western countries that attacked Egypt during the Suez Crisis and aligned with the countries of the Baghdad Pact, which Nasser saw as a threat to the Arab world. An armed Islamic rebellion broke out, the first insurgency against state legitimacy. Chamoun sought American assistance, paving the way for Fouad Chehab to ascend to the presidency.
The second major juncture came in the aftermath of the crushing 1967 defeat to Israel, which gave rise to the Palestinian resistance. In 1969, Lebanon signed the Cairo Agreement, which allowed the influence of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Lebanese political life to grow, with the clear backing of Sunnis and leftists. The country witnessed armed conflicts with the Palestinians, governmental crises, and mass demonstrations.
This gave rise to what was then known as the "Fakahani State" — a Palestinian state within Lebanon, introducing the "state within a state" fiasco that Lebanon would continue to suffer from for a long time, though those in charge of it would change.
The third juncture was a result of the expansion of the Palestinians’ influence. The civil war broke out in 1975, dividing the country in two: one half was controlled by Christian parties and militias, which developed its own military and administration, and the other was controlled by the PLO and the leftist and Islamic parties and forces allied under the umbrella of the Lebanese National Movement.
While the seeds of the "statehood within a state" had been sowed following the Cairo Agreement, they were cemented through this conflict with the rise of Bashir Gemayel, who eliminated the other Christian factions under the pretext of unifying the Christian front. What happened at the time was essentially the first attempt to break away from or overthrow the Lebanese political system.
However, Gemayel soon changed course and backed the regime, demanding the liberation of all 10,452 square kilometers, or the entirety of Lebanon. He ran for the presidency, and parliament elected him after the Israeli invasion of 1982.
The fourth juncture was the coup General Michel Aoun launched after being appointed prime minister by the country’s outgoing president at the time, Amin Gemayel. Aoun launched an insurgency against the regime and dissolved the parliament, becoming a popular figure who rallied people around his ambitious slogans, though his strategy and objectives were obscure. He then continued his fight against the political system by opposing the Taif Agreement and refusing to hand power over to the president whom parliament had elected, Rene Mouawad.
Aoun was then defeated after Syria and the US came to an agreement - Syrian forces entered Christian-controlled regions, eventually taking over the Ministry of Defense and the Presidential Palace. The Syrian regime then used the Taif Accord to legitimize its hegemony and control over the country, which did not end until 2005.
Bashir Gemayel and Aoun were the first two figures to make genuine attempts to break with the system; the former walked back on this stance, and the latter was thwarted by an international and regional consensus and Syria being put in charge of Lebanon.
We are currently at the fifth juncture. It is the most dangerous of them all, as the actor seeking to break with the system is both local and foreign. Its narrative is that it was born of a marginalized and deprived Lebanese community, but it was actually created by Iran, which established Hezbollah to execute Iran’s expansionist project in the region, what Iran calls "exporting the revolution". Thus, it is a Lebanese party seeking to fulfill the aspirations of a non-Lebanese actor that contradict the aspirations of most Lebanese people.
Hezbollah entered political life through the parliamentary elections of 1992, in which it won 12 seats. It then reinforced its political position by taking part in every Lebanese government formed since 2005, after having rejected the Taif Accord framework. At the same time, however, it developed mechanisms that allowed it to remain within and without the political system at the same time. Thus, Hezbollah has always refused to do anything to reform Lebanon’s weak and ineffective system of governance, as this regime facilitated its hegemony.
To be fair, the country’s other political parties were also not serious about political reform either. However, there is a fundamental distinction between them and Hezbollah. The latter exploits the regime for ideological reasons, while others exploit it to further narrow personal interests.
Hezbollah broadened the role of its illegitimate arms, from liberation to protection and defense, turning its arsenal into a permanent, never-ending feature of the state.
It came to control all of Lebanon’s state institutions (the presidency, parliament, and government) through a series of coups that succeeded thanks to its amassing military power under the pretext of "protecting and defending the country,” its success in pushing the narrative of its "Lebanization", its unique representation of a core component of the country, its exploitation of sectarian consocialism and the elimination of President Rafik Hariri, who was trying to create a Christian-Sunni counterbalance to the party, and its subsequent success in obtaining Christian cover through its understanding with the Free Patriotic Movement. The institutions it couldn't totally dominate, like the judiciary, the security apparatuses, and the army, were undermined or marginalized. It has come to be called a "statelet within a state".
Hezbollah's greatest success in breaking with the Lebanese political system is that it has made society more sectarian: Christians have retreated into their shell, with calls for a break the regime, through "federalism" or partition growing louder. The Sunnis have gone from being aligned with the state to becoming a sect. Meanwhile, the Shiites have been taken hostage outside the borders and been made into a component of Iranian Wilayat al-Faqih regime.
In 2011, Hezbollah threw what had remained of the state's official foreign policy against the wall, disregarding the national interest. It intervened in regional conflicts and bolstered its foreign intelligence activities across the globe, exacerbating the state's disintegration and failure.
The party exploited the recent financial and economic crisis to establish parallel economic, financial, social, and health networks with greater capacities and better administration than those of the state. All of this turned it from "statelet within a state" to a "state outside the state" that is part of the system and besieges it to keep it weak but operates outside of it.
The foundations of the regime system are the hardest knot to tie. They favor the dominant party, and the others do not have the capacity to resist from outside the system, because of Hezbollah’s ties to regional axes and its military superiority to both the legitimate and illegitimate armed forces available to the other Lebanese parties. The only, but challenging, solution is finding a way out that allows all political actors to reach common grounds about Lebanon’s identity, and its regional and international role. After that, questions of the political system would become technical, a "midsummer night's dream," so to speak.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 09-10/2023
Vidio link/Middle East Forum Round Table On The Hamas-Israel War
October 10/2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGyPfA8kXYw&t=185s
Hamas managed to pull off a surprise attack on Israel, leading to many casualties and political consequences. What does this mean for Israel’s domestic debate? For the rapprochement with Saudi Arabia? For the Palestinian Authority? Will it lead to fundamental changes in Israel’s security establishment? Will Hamas survive? How will Hezbollah respond? And what about Israel's Muslim citizens?

Vidio link/Middle East Forum Round Table On The Hamas-Israel War
October 10/2023
Gregg Roman on Bloomberg discussing the war in the Middle East
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20avCcq_SqQ
Hamas must be removed from power in Gaza. But also the states that support them – Qatar, Turkey and Iran – must be held accountable. The terrorists they give sanctuary to must be turned over to face justice. Israel will defeat Hamas terrorism.

Israel defense minister orders 'complete siege' on Gaza
Agence France Presse/October 9, 2023
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant Monday ordered a "complete siege" on the Gaza Strip as the military pounded the Palestinian enclave with air strikes. "We are putting a complete siege on Gaza... No electricity, no food, no water, no gas -- it's all closed," Gallant said in a video statement, referring to the crowded enclave home to 2.3 people.

Russia, Arab League will work to 'stop bloodshed' in Israel, Gaza
Agence France Presse/October 9, 2023
Moscow and the Arab League will work to "stop the bloodshed" in Israel and Gaza, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday as he met the group's chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Russia. "I am sure that Russia and the Arab League (will cooperate) above all else to stop the bloodshed," Lavrov said. Aboul Gheit said the Arab League "condemns violence, but from all sides."

Trump blames Biden for dealing with Iran after Hamas' attack on Israel
Associated Press/October 9, 2023
Former President Donald Trump and other GOP contenders tried to lay blame on the Biden administration after Hamas militants launched the deadliest attack on Israel in decades, citing a $6 billion transfer to Iran that administration officials insisted Saturday had yet to be spent. Hamas' surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday marks a new foreign policy front in a presidential election that has already been unusually dominated by foreign affairs. Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine has divided the Republican field, with some like Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis questioning the U.S.'s continued involvement, while others like former Vice President Mike Pence insist that supporting the Ukrainian military is vital to U.S. national security interests. On Saturday, the candidates appeared united, standing with Israel. "The Hamas terrorist invasion of Israeli territory and the murder of Israeli soldiers today and the brutal murder of citizens is an act of savagery that must and will be crushed," Trump said at an appearance in Waterloo, Iowa. Trump, like others, directly blamed the $6 billion — "American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks," he said in an earlier statement — and argued that, under Biden, the U.S. is perceived as being "weak and ineffective" on the global stage, opening the door to hostility. "They didn't have that level of aggression with me. They didn't have it. This would have never happened with me either," Trump claimed, adding later in Cedar Rapids that Biden had "betrayed Israel" with the deal. Biden on Saturday decried the "unconscionable" assault and pledged to ensure Israel has "what it needs to defend itself" after the attack. Much of the Republican criticism focused on a complex deal announced by the Biden administration in September to release five U.S. citizens detained in Iran. As part of the deal, roughly $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets that were being held in South Korea were transferred to an account in Doha, Qatar.
Although Hamas is a Sunni Muslim group, it has a militant wing that has long nurtured close ties with Iran, a source of funding and a Shiite powerhouse. Hamas and Iran are brought together by a shared enmity toward Israel.
Administration officials said Saturday that no money in the Doha account so far has been spent. The $6 billion figure is not U.S. taxpayer money, senior Biden administration officials stressed at the time of the deal, but rather payments made by South Korea to Iran to buy oil in recent years. The funds had been stuck in South Korea due to U.S. sanctions. That money is now held in a restricted account in Doha, and is meant to be used for solely humanitarian purposes — such as food and medicine for Iranians — and handled by what the administration described as vetted non-Iranian vendors. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has said his country would spend the money "wherever we need it," although the U.S. has said in response that it would exercise rigorous oversight over how the funds are disbursed and that it could freeze the assets again if needed. DeSantis, in a video statement, accused Biden of "policies that have gone easy on Iran" and have "helped to fill their coffers. Israel is now paying the price for those policies. We're going to stand with the State of Israel, they need to root out Hamas and we need to stand up to Iran." And South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott alleged the attack was "the Biden $6 billion ransom payment at work." "We didn't just invite this aggression, we paid for it," he said in a statement. Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said she could not directly address Republican criticism due to federal restrictions. "But I can clarify the facts: Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people," she said Saturday in a statement. "These funds have absolutely nothing to do with the horrific attacks today and this is not the time to spread disinformation."Brian Nelson, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at Treasury, also stressed that "these restricted funds cannot go to Iran" and that "any suggestion to the contrary is false and misleading."Pence also blamed Biden, saying the current administration "projects weakness on the world stage" and "kowtows to the mullahs in Iran." But in an appearance in Iowa, Pence also turned the focus on his GOP rivals who have been advocating more isolationist policies, particularly on Ukraine, calling the attack a "testament to the fact that we need new leadership in the White House, but we also need leadership in the Republican Party that understands the stakes, that understands we achieve peace through strength." "I call on Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ron DeSantis," he said, "to abandon the language of appeasement — to say that we will stand strong with Israel, we will stand strong with Ukraine, we will stand as the leader of the free world."

Israel-Hamas conflict leaves 1,500 dead, including 11 U.S. citizens
Yahoo News Staff/October 9, 2023
Israel formally declared war on Hamas Sunday following unprecedented attacks by the Palestinian militant group that left hundreds dead, including at least 11 U.S. citizens. “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday. “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”More than 2 million Palestinians live within the area, which is roughly the size of Washington, D.C., and have little ability to move due to a blockade that’s been in place since 2007. In a joint statement issued Monday evening, President Biden, along with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, expressed “united support to the State of Israel” and “unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and its appalling acts of terrorism.” “We make clear that the terrorist actions of Hamas have no justification, no legitimacy, and must be universally condemned. There is never any justification for terrorism,” read the joint statement. The leaders went on to pledge to “support Israel in its efforts to defend itself and its people against such atrocities.”

11 US citizens dead in Israel conflict, Biden says
Arlette Saenz, Betsy Klein, MJ Lee and Kayla Tausche, CNN/ October 9, 2023
Eleven US citizens have died in the conflict in Israel, President Joe Biden said Monday, and an unknown number remain missing.“As we continue to account for the horrors of the appalling terrorist assault against Israel this weekend and the hundreds of innocent civilians who were murdered, we are seeing the immense scale and reach of this tragedy,” Biden said in a statement. “Sadly, we now know that at least 11 American citizens were among those killed—many of whom made a second home in Israel.”It is “likely,” Biden said, that American citizens may be among those being held hostage by Hamas, and his administration is working with Israeli officials on “every aspect of the hostage crisis.” There are also American citizens whose whereabouts remain unaccounted for, according to the president. “This is not some distant tragedy. The ties between Israel and the United States run deep,” he said. “It is personal for so many American families who are feeling the pain of this attack as well as the scars inflicted through millennia of antisemitism and persecution of Jewish people.”Biden will deliver remarks on Israel at 1 p.m. Tuesday, a White House official said.
The US government is not “actively considering” emergency evacuation of US citizens in Israel, a spokesperson for the National Security Council told CNN Monday evening.
Biden, in his statement, said the State Department is providing consular assistance and updated security alerts to keep Americans apprised of the situation as it evolves, but that Americans would need to arrange their own travel plans to leave the country. “For those who desire to leave, commercial flights and ground options are still available,” he said. State Department spokesman Matt Miller told CNN’s Phil Mattingly on Monday that US authorities are in close contact with Israel’s government and the families of those affected by the attack. US authorities have been scrambling to establish how many Americans have been killed or taken hostage in the conflict. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” Sunday that the US was “working overtime” to verify reports of missing and dead Americans, and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer said Americans are among the “scores” of hostages being held in Gaza. The US is offering Israel special operations planning and intelligence support as part of the effort to rescue hostages taken by Hamas, a US defense official told CNN.
The support would not entail US troops on the ground in Israel. Instead, the assistance would come in the form of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. It would include help from US Central Command and US Special Operations Command, the official said, as well as Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which is the command within the military that develops special operations tactics and plans.
Qatar has been in talks with Hamas about the hostages the terror group is holding inside Gaza, and the US has been coordinating with the Qataris as they play a key mediating role with Hamas, a senior US official and another person familiar with the discussions told CNN. US officials at the White House and State Department, including Blinken and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, have remained in touch with the Qataris throughout the weekend as they communicate with Hamas. CNN has reached out to the governments of Qatar and Israel for comment.
The US has also pledged to provide additional military support in the coming days, though domestic political dysfunction could hamper the response. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced on Sunday that he has ordered the US Navy’s Ford carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean, near Israel. The USS Gerald Ford is the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier and it is being deployed to the area, along with a guided missile cruiser and four destroyers, as a deterrence measure, Austin said. But the current commander of the US Navy’s 5th fleet, which is responsible for US naval operations in the Middle East region including the Red Sea and Gulf of Oman, is still awaiting promotion to deputy commander of US Central Command, which oversees US forces and operations in the region following a hold by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville over military confirmations. Meanwhile, as the Biden administration looks to provide additional assistance to Israel, officials were unsure over the weekend about what could be accomplished without a sitting House speaker. Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry has little power outside of recessing, adjourning or recognizing speaker nominations, and it’s unclear whether he can participate in intelligence briefings on the crisis. Administration officials said they will look to the current $100 million in Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows the rapid dispatch of weapons from existing stocks, to send more aid immediately, according to a person familiar with the discussion. The drawdown will likely need additional funds from Congress, the officials told lawmakers.

The US will likely 'go to war' in Israel with air and naval power if Syria or Iran become actively involved, retired 4-star general says
Matthew Loh/Business Insider/October 9, 2023
The US will probably go to war in Israel if other countries get involved, a retired general said.
Ret. Gen. Barry McCaffrey said the US was keeping a close eye on countries such as Iran and Syria.
The US on Sunday said it was sending an aircraft-carrier strike group to patrol waters near Israel.
The US is likely to directly intervene with air and naval strikes if Israel's existence is threatened, Ret. Gen. Barry McCaffrey said.
Speaking on Sunday on MSNBC's "Weekends With Alex Witt," the retired four-star US Army general said such an escalation would likely occur only if Israel's Middle Eastern neighbors became heavily involved. "The other shoe we're waiting to see if it drops is, will Hezbollah intervene out of Lebanon with their 100,000 some odd rockets? Will the West Bank ignite? And what will the Syrians and the Egyptians do?" McCaffrey said.
"I would suggest to you our support of Israel will be absolute, and if we see Syrian military intervention, active Iranian military intervention, we'll go to war," McCaffrey added. Hamas militants launched a series of surprise attacks and rocket barrages against Israel on Saturday, killing hundreds and capturing dozens of hostages along the border of the Gaza Strip. Israel has declared war in response. The Israel Defense Forces says 700 Israelis have been confirmed dead, while another 1,500 were wounded. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry said at least 400 Palestinians had been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes, Reuters reported. The US announced Sunday that it's sending an aircraft-carrier strike group, including F-35s and F-16s, to patrol the Eastern Mediterranean and deter all-out war involving Israel's neighbors. "They're there for more than a show of force or a potential noncombatant evacuation," McCaffrey, who served in the Gulf War and led the US Southern Command from 1994 to 1996, told MSNBC.
McCaffrey added that this was his own assessment of the conflict and that there "is absolutely no way" that any US official would concur publicly that America could go to war in Israel. "What I am saying is that if the existence of the state of Israel is at stake, if the Syrian military intervene, if Hezbollah started overwhelming the Israelis, in my judgment, at that point, we would consider actively intervening with air power and naval power," he said. It's unlikely that the US would send troops into Israel, given the Israel Defense Forces' ground capabilities, McCaffrey added. When asked whether other US and Israel allies would also step in, McCaffrey said it was too early to discuss such a question with just Hamas directly involved. "I think the deterrence factor is what the Biden administration is after right now. They want to make sure that the Syrian military and Hezbollah don't enter this fray," he said. "If they do, it's going to be a lethal threat to the existence of Israel." The US State Department and Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours. Hezbollah, a militant group in Lebanon, said Sunday that it had fired rockets into the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed from Syria in 1981. The shelling was in solidarity with the "Palestinian resistance," the group said. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Iranian officials had partnered with Hamas since August to prepare for the incursions into Israel, citing people within both Hamas and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. US State Secretary Antony Blinken said US officials "have not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack" but noted the long-standing relationship between Hamas and Iran, the Journal reported. Meanwhile, Egypt's Foreign Affairs Ministry on Saturday warned Israel of "grave consequences" and "serious repercussions" from escalating tensions with the Palestinians. It called for both sides to exercise restraint and avoid civilian casualties, Reuters reported.

Hamas fooled Israel's advanced surveillance by doing all of its planning offline, retired US general says
Sinéad Baker/Business Insider/October 9, 2023
Hamas launched a major attack on Israel on Saturday, seemingly catching it off guard. A retired US general called it a "classic failure of technology," given Israel's surveillance apparatus. He said Hamas likely used no modern technology to communicate, and Israel missed the signs. The latest attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas was a failure of Israel's huge surveillance and defense systems, a retired US general told CNN. Retired US Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton called the deadly attacks a ''classic failure of technology," given the strength of Israel's defenses. Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Leighton highlighted the surveillance techniques that Israel uses in Gaza, including cameras and monitoring radio and telephone communications. But Leighton said Hamas found ways around those systems. "What Hamas did, what their leadership did, was apparently they moved off of the normal modern communications links that we take for granted every day, and went back to what you did in the 19th century: face-to-face meetings, they went and used couriers instead of going in and using the telephone or the cell phone," he said. Israel also uses surveillance drones and an intelligence network in Gaza, and has some of the world's most advanced defense systems, like its Iron Dome anti-missile system. But Leighton said that Hamas launched missiles with a short, lower trajectory, making them harder for Israel to shoot down. In a separate CNN interview, Leighton said it doesn't make sense that this attack could happen, given Israel's vast intelligence apparatus. "I can understand that it would be possible to miss the fact that they are getting together, a specific group at specific a time, and perhaps who those people are, as a specific piece of intelligence," he said. "But every time there is a meeting of people like Hamas would have had to have had — they would be talking to people, they would be movements in the streets, there would be certain things that would be going on, even if they are not broadcast or not talked about on a cell phone or on a radio or something like that," he added. Even so, he said it's possible that there was "a failure to connect the dots like we so famously had with 9/11."Another possible reason, he said, is that Israel likely had a lot of "false alarms" before, and sometimes false alarms "breed a degree of complacency and that complacency, of course, can be fatal, as we're seeing right now."Another retired US military official, Lt Col. Alexander Vindman, said it was "kind of shocking" that Israel missed the planning of the attacks, while the former head of the Israeli Navy, Eli Maron, called it a "colossal" intelligence failure. A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said Israel was busy fighting, but "I'm sure there will be a lot of discussions about the intelligence down the road."

Israel intensifies Gaza strikes and battles to repel Hamas, over 1,100 dead in fighting so far
AP/October 09, 2023
Israel declares war and vows to destroy the ‘military and governing capabilities’ of Hamas
Israeli military fighting Hamas in ‘seven to eight’ places in south of country
JERUSALEM: Israel intensified its bombardments of the Gaza Strip on Monday after declaring war and vowing to destroy the “military and governing capabilities” of the enclave’s Hamas rulers, as Israeli soldiers fought to dislodge Gaza gunmen from areas of southern Israel. At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel — a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades — and more than 400 have been killed in Gaza. Palestinian militant groups claimed to be holding over 130 captives from the Israeli side. More than two days after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion out of Gaza, Israeli forces were still battling with militants holed up in several locations. As Monday began, the military said it was fighting Hamas in “seven to eight” places in southern Israel. Military spokesperson Richard Hecht said it was taking longer than expected to repel the incursion because there were still multiple breaches in the border, which Hamas could be using to bring in more fighters and weapons. “We thought this morning we’d be in a better place,” Hecht said. Meanwhile, Israel hit more than 1,000 targets in Gaza, its military said, including airstrikes that leveled much of the town of Beit Hanoun in the enclave’s northeast corner. Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters Hamas was using the town as a staging ground for attacks. There was no immediate word on casualties, and most of the community’s population of tens of thousands likely fled beforehand.
“We will continue to attack in this way, with this force, continuously, on all gathering (places) and routes” used by Hamas, Hagari said.
The declaration of war portended greater fighting ahead, and a major question was whether Israel would launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties. An Israeli military spokesperson said that the army had called up around 100,000 reservists and said in a statement that Israel would aim to end Hamas’ rule of Gaza. “Our task is to make sure that Hamas will no longer have any military capabilities to threaten Israel with this,” said spokesperson Jonathan Conricus in a video tweeted by Israel’s military. “And in addition to that, we will make sure that Hamas is no longer able to govern the Gaza Strip.”After breaking through Israeli barriers with explosives at daybreak Saturday, the Hamas gunmen rampaged for hours, gunning down civilians and snatching people in towns, along highways and at a techno music festival attended by thousands in the desert. The rescue service Zaka said it removed about 260 bodies from the festival, and that number was expected to rise. It was not clear how many of those bodies were already included in Israel’s overall toll.
The Israeli military estimated 1,000 Hamas fighters took part in Saturday’s initial incursion. The high figure underscored the extent of planning by the militant group ruling Gaza, which has said it launched the attack in response to mounting Palestinian suffering under Israel’s occupation and blockade of Gaza.
Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group claimed to have taken captive more than 130 people from inside Israel and brought them into Gaza, saying they would be traded for the release of thousands of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The announcement, though unconfirmed, was the first sign of the scope of abductions. The captives are known to include soldiers and civilians, including women, children and older adults, mostly Israelis but also some people of other nationalities. The Israeli military said only that the number of captives is “significant.”Civilians on both sides were already paying a high price. The Israeli military was evacuating at least five towns close to Gaza, while the UN more than 123,000 Gazans were displaced by the fighting. Mayyan Zin, a divorced mother of two, said she learned that her two daughters had been abducted when a relative sent her photos from a Telegram group showing them sitting on mattresses in captivity. She then found online videos of a chilling scene in her ex-husband’s home in the town of Nahal Oz: Gunmen who had broken in speak to him, his leg bleeding, in the living room near the two terrified, weeping daughters, Dafna, 15, and Ella, 8. Another video showed the father being taken across the border into Gaza.
“Just bring my daughters home and to their family. All the people,” Zin said.
In Gaza, a tiny enclave of 2.3 million people sealed off by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade for 16 years since the Hamas takeover, residents feared further escalation. As of late Sunday, Israeli airstrikes had destroyed 159 housing units across Gaza and severely damaged 1,210 others, the UN said. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said a school sheltering more than 225 people took a direct hit. It did not say where the fire came from. In the Palestinian city of Rafah in southern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike early Monday killed 19 people, including women and children, said Talat Barhoum, a doctor at the local Al-Najjar Hospital. Barhoum said aircraft hit the home of the Abu Hilal family, and that one of those killed was Rafaat Abu Hilal, a leader of a local armed group. The strike caused damage to surrounding homes. Over the weekend, another airstrike on a home in Rafah killed 19 members of the Abu Outa family, including women and children, when they were huddling on the ground floor in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, survivors said. Several Israeli media outlets, citing rescue service officials, said at least 700 people have been killed in Israel, including 44 soldiers. The Gaza Health Ministry said 413 people, including 78 children and 41 women, were killed in the territory. Some 2,000 people have been wounded on each side. An Israeli official said security forces have killed 400 militants and captured dozens more.
Over the weekend, the Israeli Security Cabinet declared war and approved “significant military steps” in response to the Hamas attack. The steps were not defined, but the declaration appears to give the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a wide mandate. In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said the aim will be the destruction of Hamas’ “military and governing capabilities” to an extent that prevents it from threatening Israelis “for many years.” The declaration of war was largely symbolic, said Yohanan Plesner, the head of the Israel Democracy Institute, a think tank, but it “demonstrates that the government thinks we are entering a more lengthy, intense and significant period of war.”US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday he has ordered the Ford carrier strike group to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel after the attack by Hamas that has left more than 1,000 dead on both sides. Americans were reported to be among those killed and missing. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, and its approximately 5,000 sailors and deck of warplanes will be accompanied by cruisers and destroyers in a show of force that is meant to be ready to respond to anything, from possibly interdicting additional weapons from reaching Hamas and conducting surveillance.
The large deployment reflects a US desire to deter any regional expansion of the conflict.
Israel has carried out major military campaigns over the past four decades in Lebanon and Gaza that it portrayed as wars, but without a formal declaration. The presence of hostages in Gaza complicates Israel’s response. Israel has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges to bring captive Israelis home.
An Egyptian official said Israel sought help from Cairo to ensure the safety of the hostages. Egypt also spoke with both sides about a potential cease-fire, but Israel was not open to a truce “at this stage,” according to the official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to brief media.
In northern Israel, a brief exchange of strikes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group fanned fears that the fighting could expand into a wider regional war. Hezbollah fired rockets and shells Sunday at Israeli positions in a disputed area along the border, and Israel fired back using armed drones. The Israeli military said the situation was calm after the exchange. Elsewhere, six Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers Sunday around the West Bank. Over the past year, Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around the Al-Aqsa mosque, a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

Iran calls for emergency OIC meeting as Israel battles Hamas
Reuters/October 09, 2023
DUBAI: Iran has called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces raged following a weekend assault on Israel, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday. “Tehran has called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss regional developments,” spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said. Iran said it was not involved in the attacks in which 700 Israelis were killed and dozens more abducted by the militant group Hamas. More than 400 Palestinians have also been killed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was no evidence Iran was behind the latest attacks on Israel but he said there are long standing ties between Tehran and Hamas. “Anyone who threatens the Islamic Republic of Iran should know that any foolish action will be met with a devastating response,” Kanaani said. Iran’s backing for Palestinian groups is part of a broader network of militias and armed groups it supports across the Middle East, giving Tehran a powerful presence in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, as well as Gaza. The Hamas assault, the biggest incursion into Israel in decades, coincides with US-backed moves to push Saudi Arabia toward normalizing ties with Israel in return for a defense deal between Washington and Riyadh. Such a move would slam the brakes on Saudi Arabia’s recent rapprochement with Tehran.

Iran denies it had role in Hamas attack on Israel
AFP/October 09, 2023
TEHRAN: Iran on Monday rejected as unfounded allegations it had a role in the massive assault on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. “The accusations linked to an Iranian role... are based on political reasons,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told reporters.
The Islamic republic, he said, does not intervene “in the decision-making of other countries, including Palestine.”Palestinian militants from the Iran-backed Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, penetrated Israel at dawn on Saturday under the cover of a massive rocket barrage.
More than 1,100 people have been killed in the conflict so far, with Israel reporting over 700 dead and the Palestinians putting their toll at 430. Iran, which does not recognize Israel and has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, was one of the first countries to hail the Hamas assault. The Palestinians had “the necessary capacity and will to defend their nation and recover their rights” without any help from Tehran, Kanani said. “Talking about an Iranian role aims at turning public opinion (away from the facts) and at justifying the potential future actions” of Israel, the spokesman added. Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations also denied allegations the Islamic republic had any role in the Hamas attack, in a statement issued overnight. It came after the Wall Street Journal reported that “Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday,” citing senior members of Hamas and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. On Sunday President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran supported the Palestinians’ right to self-defense and warned Israel must be held accountable for endangering the region. Raisi — who has spoken with the leaders of Hamas and the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad group since the Hamas attack — also urged Muslim governments to “support the Palestinian nation.”A US official said Sunday it was too soon to say if Iran was “directly” involved in the Hamas attack, adding however that there was little doubt that Hamas was “financed, equipped and armed” by countries including Iran.

U.S. rushing air defenses, munitions to Israel, defense official says
Phil Stewart and Kanishka Singh/WASHINGTON (Reuters) Mon, October 9, 2023
The U.S. military is "surging" fresh supplies of air defenses, munitions and other security assistance to Israel to help it respond to an unprecedented weekend attack by Hamas, a senior U.S. defense official said on Monday. "Planes have already taken off," the U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to Pentagon reporters. "We are surging support to Israel... We remain in constant ongoing contact with our counterparts in Israel to determine and then support their most urgent requirements." The United States has not yet detailed the extent of Israel's requests for security assistance. But the U.S. defense official said Washington was contacting the defense industry to expedite pending Israeli orders, and looking at the U.S. military's own stockpiles to help fill Israeli gaps. The official also appeared to dismiss concerns that the United States might struggle to supply Israel at the same time that it funnels weaponry to Ukraine. "We are able to continue our support both to Ukraine, to Israel, and maintain our own global readiness," the official said.Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, killing hundreds of Israelis and seizing dozens of hostages. The attack led Israel to declare war, and the spiraling violence threatens to start a major new war in the Middle East. The senior U.S. official compared the attack by Hamas to "ISIS-level savagery," a characterization echoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also said on Monday that Hamas' attack mirrored those carried out by the jihadist group Islamic State.U.S. President Joe Biden said at least 11 American citizens were among those killed in Israel and added U.S. citizens were likely among the Hamas hostages. "I have directed my team to work with their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence," Biden said in a statement released by the White House. The senior U.S. defense official said there was not yet any evidence seen by the United States of Iran being behind the attack in Israel, following a report by the Wall Street Journal alleging Iranian security officials helped plan it. "Of course, Iran is in the picture. Iran has provided support for years to the Hamas and Hezbollah. But we have no information corroborating the specifics of the Wall Street Journal story at this time," the official said.

Israeli survivors recount terror at music festival, where Hamas militants killed at least 260
JERUSALEM (AP/Mon, October 9, 2023
The night was a getaway. Thousands of young men and women gathered at a vast field in southern Israel near the Gaza border to dance without a care. Old and new friends jumped up and down, reveling in the swirl of the bass-heavy beats.
Maya Alper was standing toward the back of the bar with teams of environmentally conscious volunteers, picking up trash and passing out free vodka shots to party-goers who reused their cups. Just after 6.a.m., as a light-blue dawn broke and the headliner D.J. took the stage, air raid sirens cut through the ethereal trap music. Rockets streaked overhead.Alper, 25, jumped into her car and raced to the main road. But at the intersection she encountered crowds of stricken festival attendees, shouting at drivers to turn around. Then, a noise. Firecrackers? Panicked men and women staggering down the road just in front of her fell to the ground in pools of blood. Gunshots. The open-air Tribe of Nova music festival will go down in Israeli history as the worst civilian massacre in the country's history, with at least 260 dead and a still undetermined number taken hostage. Dozens of Hamas militants who had blown through Israel’s heavily fortified separation fence and crossed into the country from Gaza opened fire on about 3,500 young Israelis who had come together for a joyous night of electronic music to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Some attendees were drunk or high on drugs, magnifying their confusion and terror.
The Associated Press reviewed more than dozen videos taken during the massacre and interviewed survivors to reconstruct how the deadly attack unfolded. The party was held in a dusty field outside of Kibbutz Re’im, about 3.3 miles (5.3 kilometers) from the wall that separates Gaza from southern Israel.
“We were hiding and running, hiding and running, in an open field — the worst place you could possibly be in that situation,” said Arik Nani from Tel Aviv, who had gone to the party to celebrate his 26th birthday. “For a country where everyone in these circles knows everyone, this is a trauma like I could never imagine.”While rockets rained down, revelers said, militants converged on the festival site while others waited near bomb shelters, gunning down people who were seeking refuge. Many of the militants, who arrived in trucks and on motorcycles, were wearing body armor and brandishing AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Videos compiled by Israeli first responders and posted to the social media site Telegram show armed men plunging into the panicked crowd, mowing down fleeing revelers with bursts of automatic fire. Many victims were shot in the back as they ran.
Israeli communities on either side of the festival grounds also came under attack, with Hamas gunmen abducting dozens of men, women and children — including elderly and disabled people — and killing scores of others in Saturday's unprecedented surprise attack. The staggering toll from the festival was becoming clear Monday, as Israel's rescue service Zaka said paramedics had recovered at least 260 bodies. Festival organizers said they were helping Israeli security forces locate attendees who were still missing. The death toll could rise as teams continue to clear the area.
As the carnage unfolded before her, Alper pulled a few disoriented-looking revelers into her car from the street and accelerated in the opposite direction. One of them said he had lost his wife in the chaos and Alper had to stop him from breaking out of the car to find her. Another said she had just seen Hamas gunmen shoot and kill her best friend. Another rocked in his seat, murmuring over and over, “We are going to die." In the rear-view mirror, Alper watched the dance floor where she had spent the past ecstatic hours transform into a giant cloud of black smoke.
Festival-goers who managed to make it to the road and parking lot where their vehicles were parked found themselves trapped in a traffic jam, with militants stalking the cars and spraying those inside with gunfire. Drone footage of the scene taken after the attack and reviewed by the AP show chaotic lines of cars where drivers had attempted to flee. Some burned-out vehicles were flipped onto their sides, while others had bullet holes visible in shattered windows. Nowhere was safe, Alper said. The roar of explosions, hysterical screams and automatic gunfire felt closer the further she drove. When a man just meters away shouted “God is great!", Alper and her new companions sprung out of the car and sprinted through open fields toward a mass of bushes.
Alper felt a bullet whiz past her left ear. Aware the gunmen would outrun her, she plunged into a tangle of shrubs. Peering through thorns, she said she saw one of her passengers, the girl who had lost her friend, shriek and collapse as a gunman stood over her limp body, grinning. “I can't even explain the energy they (the militants) had. It was so clear they didn't see us as human beings,” she said. “They looked at us with pure, pure hate.”
Videos show the gunmen executed some of the wounded at point-blank range as they crouched on the ground. Some of the militants even rifled through the vehicles of their victims, grabbing purses and backpacks. An unknown number of people from the festival were taken hostage. A video posted to social media by militants and verified by the AP shows an Israeli couple, Noa Argamani and her partner Avinatan Or, being dragged away by their captors. Argamani, her face contorted in panic, shouts “No, no!” in Hebrew while being forced onto a motorbike, sandwiched between two gunmen. She reaches out for Or, whose hands are bound behind his back as a group of militants march him forward. Their whereabouts are now unknown. But it is believed that Hamas is now holding more than 100 Israelis as hostages. On Monday, the group threatened to begin systematically killing captives if the Israeli military bombs Palestinian areas without warning. For over six hours, Alper and thousands of other concert attendees hid without help from the Israeli army as Hamas militants sprayed automatic gunfire and threw grenades. Her limbs were so contorted into a tangled mess in the bush that she couldn't wiggle her toes. At different points, she heard militants speak in Arabic just beside her. A yoga devotee who practices meditation, Alper said she focused on her breath — “breathing and praying in every way I knew possible.”“Every time I thought of anger, or fear or revenge, I breathed it out,” she said. “I tried to think of what I was grateful for — the bush that hid me so well that even birds landed on it, the birds that were still singing, the sky that was so blue.” A tank instructor in the Israeli army, Alper knew she was safe when she heard a different kind of explosion — the sound of an Israeli army tank round. She shouted for help and soon soldiers were lifting her out of the bush. Around her lay the lifeless body of one of her friends. The girl from her car she had seen collapse was nowhere to be found; she believes that Hamas militants took her into Gaza. Alper said the Israeli army, on its way to fight Hamas militants in the hard-hit kibbutz of Be’eri near the Gaza border, was at a loss as to know what to do with her.At that moment, a pick-up truck full of Palestinian citizens of Israel pulled up. The men from the Bedouin city of Rahat were scouring the area to help rescue Israeli survivors. Helping Alper into their car, they drove her to the police station, where she collapsed, crying, into her father's arms. “This is not just war. This is hell," Alper said. “But in that hell I still feel that somehow, we can choose to act out of love, and not just fear.”

An Israeli woman held hostage in her home for 15 hours said she distracted Hamas militants with coffee and cookies until she was rescued
Talia Lakritz,Alisa Shodiyev Kaff/Business Insider/October 9, 2023
Rachel and David Adari said they were held captive by Hamas militants in their home in Israel. Rachel Adari told Israel's Channel 12 that she offered the militants coffee and cookies to buy time. The couple was eventually rescued after 15 hours. Over 800 Israelis died in the surprise attacks. On Saturday, five armed Hamas gunmen invaded Rachel and David Adari's home in the southern Israel town of Ofakim, the couple said, as part of large-scale surprise attacks that killed at least 800 people and resulted in hundreds of civilians and military personnel taken captive. David Adari told Israel's Channel 12 News that the gunmen forced the couple upstairs and threatened to kill them. "I said to my husband, if we will die, we will die together," Rachel Adari told the outlet in Hebrew. She said she tried to buy some time in the hope that her son, a police officer, would help Israel's YAMAM counterterrorism force rescue them.
"I saw they were mad, and I asked them if they were hungry," she said. "I made them coffee and gave them cookies. They started singing [Israeli singer] Lior Narkis songs to me. I distracted them. I knew my son was helping the YAMAM and that they would come rescue me." Israeli special forces killed the Hamas militants and freed Rachel and David Adari after they had been held for 15 hours. "At 2:30 a.m., a grenade landed next to us, and I jumped on top of my wife," David Adari said. "Bullets flew over our heads. I have no idea how we survived." Amid gruesome videos and accounts from survivors of the carnage, Rachel Adari has become a national hero for her unconventional tactics, spawning memes celebrating her courage — and her cookies. "On Google Maps they already rated "Rachel's Cafe" in Ofakim: great service, awesome coffee. Hot and fresh cakes. Nice and warm woman. 10/10," X user @Amimezzz posted on Sunday. After sustaining the most devastating attack on the country for decades, Israel has retaliated with missile strikes in Gaza that have killed more than 550 people as of Monday, the Gaza Ministry of Health said.

Demonstration in London in support of Palestinians in Gaza
Arab News/October 09, 2023
LONDON: A large demonstration in support of Palestinians in Gaza was held in London on Monday night. Protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in the capital to demand an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. The event was organized by several UK groups, including Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Muslim Association of Britain, and the Palestinian Forum in Britain. Dr. Ismail Patel, founder of FOA, said: “We have gathered here in London to say Palestinians must be free, Israel must end the occupation, (and) we will stand with the Palestinians until they are free. “European governments and the British government must stop supporting Israel’s racist xenophobia against Palestinians.”Israel intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Monday, vowing to destroy the “military and governing capabilities” of the enclave’s Hamas rulers, as Israeli soldiers fought to dislodge Gaza gunmen from areas of southern Israel. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that “no electricity, no food, no water, no gas” would be allowed to enter Gaza.

Iran and Sudan agree to resume diplomatic relations
Reuters/October 09, 2023
CAIRO: Iran and Sudan agreed on Monday to restore diplomatic relations, both said in a joint statement, seven years after they were severed and three months after a meeting between their foreign ministers. Sudan, currently in the midst of a devastating war, cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016 following the storming of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran. Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to resume ties in March under a deal negotiated by China. “The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Sudan decided to resume their diplomatic relations ...the two sides also agreed to take the necessary measures to open their embassies in the near future and to exchange official delegations,” the statement said. The decision “came after a number of high-level communications between the two countries and will serve their mutual interests,” the Sudanese foreign ministry said.

Turkish strike on Kurds in Syria kills 20: Monitor
AFP/October 09, 2023
QAMISHLI, Syria: A Turkish air strike on Monday killed 20 Kurdish security personnel and wounded dozens at a training center for police in Kurdish-held northeast Syria, a war monitor said. Turkiye has been bombing sites in the area since Thursday, hitting civilian and military targets and infrastructure and causing casualties, according to Kurdish authorities. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said that 20 people had been killed and around 50 wounded after a Turkish war plane targeted a training center belonging to Kurdish internal security forces, known as the Asayish, on the outskirts of Al-Malikiyah. The Kurdish force acknowledged the strike, saying that “a number of our forces were killed and others wounded.” AFP correspondents said that authorities in the area have called for blood donations, while witnesses said that hospitals were full of casualties.
Amid the chaos of Syria’s long-running civil conflict, Syria’s Kurds have carved out a semi-autonomous area in the country’s northeast. Turkiye’s defense ministry said on Friday that it had launched the new wave of air strikes in retaliation for an attack in Ankara earlier this month that wounded two security personnel. A branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies — claimed responsibility for the first bombing to hit the Turkish capital since 2016. Turkiye launched strikes on PKK positions in northern Iraq hours after the October 1 attack, with foreign minister Hakan Fidan saying days later that the assailants “came from Syria and were trained there.”The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces spearheaded the battle to dislodge Daesh group fighters from their last scraps of territory in Syria in 2019. Turkiye views the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) that dominate the SDF as an offshoot of the PKK. The SDF, the Kurds’ de facto army in the northeast, denied that those behind the Ankara attack had passed through the area. Turkish bombings had mostly subsided over the weekend after strikes hit energy infrastructure, including power stations and oil facilities on Thursday and Friday, killing at least 15 security personnel and civilians, according to the Kurdish authorities. Since 2016, Turkiye has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from border areas of northern Syria, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened a new incursion. Turkiye supported early rebel efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, and maintains a military presence in northern stretches of the war-torn country which angers Damascus. In November last year, Turkiye launched air strikes on Kurdish-held areas of Syria and Iraq in response to a bombing in Istanbul that killed six people. The conflict in Syria has killed more than half a million people since it began in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, spiraling into a devastating war involving foreign armies, militia and militants.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 09-10/2023
Another Palestinian Reverie
Raymond Ibrahim/October 9, 2023
On August 29, 2023, Sheikh Issam Amira, a prominent member of the Palestinian Hizb al-Tahrir party, argued that the “liberation” of Palestine is nothing compared to the potentially great conquests that Islam has in store for the rest of the non-Muslim world — including the United States:
What is the Palestinian cause compared to the conquest of Rome, for example? Or the conquest of Latin America in its entirety? Or the conquest of North America? Amira went on to say that he personally knows that Australians are “dying of fear” from the nearby Muslim nations of Malaysia and Indonesia, “because they know that one of these days the Muslim armies will come from Indonesia and bring Islam to Australia, like it or not.” What crime did these non-Muslim cities, nations, and continents commit against Muslims to deserve being targeted for violent conquest?
As Amira explained in the same sermon, Islam commands Muslims to hate, fight, humiliate and, ideally, conquer any and all non-Muslims — including family members — simply because they are non-Muslims. He cited the Koran:
You will not find a people who believe in Allāh and the Last Day having affection for those who oppose Allāh and His Messenger, even if they were their fathers or their sons or their brothers or their kindred. (Koran 58:22)
Amira said this was the proof text that Muslims must never befriend or ally with non-Muslims, as they are Satan’s minions. “The Party of Satan,” he stressed, “is America, Europe, Russia and all Western nations, and all infidel [non-Muslim] nations everywhere.” He also quoted:
They were stricken with disgrace and misery, and they invited the displeasure of Allah for rejecting Allah’s signs and unjustly killing the prophets. (Koran 2:61)
After saying that this verse was about the Jews, he went on to broaden it to apply to all non-Muslims:
Everyone who opposes Allah and his prophet is to be stricken with disgrace and misery. Not just that, they are to be broken in the here, and sent to the fire in the hereafter. Why? — because they are the party of Satan!
Amira is certainly not the only Palestinian to harbor such hostility for the non-Muslim world. One need look no further than to his political party, Hizb al-Tahrir. Although its name means the “party of liberation,” and although it pretends its sole interest is “liberating” Palestinians from Israel, when its members get together there seems to be an additional plan, not just for Jews. Hizb al-Tahrir, for instance, in 2020, held a large, outdoor event near al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem to commemorate the anniversary of the Islamic conquest of Constantinople (May 29, 1453). There, as he had done before, Palestinian cleric Nidhal Siam made clear that, from an Islamic perspective, for Christians as well, liberation and conquest are one and the same.
After all the takbirs (chants of “Allahu Akbar” [“Allah is greatest”]) had subsided, Siam preached:
Oh Muslims, the anniversary of the conquest [fath/فتح, literally, “opening”] of Constantinople brings tidings of things to come. It brings tidings that Rome will be conquered in the near future, Allah willing.
Like Amira, Siam went on to pray for the day when “Islam will throw its neighbors to the ground, and that its reach will span across the east and the west of this Earth. This is Allah’s promise, and Allah does not renege on his promises.”
Those assembled and he then chanted, “By means of the Caliphate and the consolidation of power, Muhammad the Conqueror vanquished Constantinople!” and “Your conquest, oh Rome, is a matter of certainty!”
Consider for a moment the significance of these assertions—coming as they are from Palestinians, who, when speaking to and seeking sympathy from the international community, often present themselves as an oppressed people whose land is unjustly occupied.
First of all, the Islamic conquest of Constantinople was just that—a brutal and savage conquest the sole legitimacy of which was the might of arms. As other Muslims had done for centuries earlier in North Africa and the Middle East, the Turks invaded and conquered “New Rome”—not because it had committed some injustice, but because Islam commands the subjugation of non-Muslims.
The same goes for Rome: what does it have to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict that it too deserves to be conquered? Absolutely nothing—except that, since the conquest of Constantinople, Islam has seen Rome as the symbolic head of the Christian world, and therefore in urgent need of subjugating. Or, in the words of the Islamic State, “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah… [We will cast] fear into the hearts of the cross-worshipers.”
Even outside the Hizb al-Tahrir party, leading Palestinians continue to praise and find inspiration in Offensive Jihad—jihad not to repulse or defend against an enemy, but to conquer non-Muslim territories. Speaking on the first day of Ramadan, April 1, 2022, Mahmoud al-Habbash, the Supreme Sharia Judge of the Palestinian Authority, extolled the jihads waged by Muhammad:
How was this month [of Ramadan] in the life of Prophet [Muhammad]? … Did the Prophet spend Ramadan in calmness, serenity, laziness, and sleepiness? Far be it from him… The Prophet entered the great Battle of Badr [624] during Ramadan… Also in the month of Ramadan, in the 8th year of the Hijra [629-630], the Prophet and the Muslims conquered Mecca…. Ramadan is … a month of Jihad, conquest, and victory. Similarly, on April 16, 2021, Al Jazeera published an article by ‘Adnan Abu ‘Amar, “head of the Political Science Department at the University of the Ummah in Gaza,” explaining how Palestinians find “inspiration” in various jihads throughout Islamic history, “prominent among them the raid of Badr, the conquest of Mecca, the conquest of al-Andalus [Spain], and the battle of the pavement of martyrs [the Battle of Tours].”
In every one of these military engagements, Muslims were the aggressors: they invaded non-Muslim territory, butchered and enslaved its inhabitants, and appropriated their lands—and for no other reason than that they were “infidels,” non-Muslims.
The battle of Badr was occasioned by Muhammad’s raids on non-Muslim caravans; the conquest of Mecca was simply that, the conquest of a non-Muslim city; the conquest of al-Andalus is a reference to the years 711-716, when Muslims invaded and slaughtered countless thousands of Christians in Spain and torched their churches; and the battle of Tours is, of course, where the Muslim invasions into Western Europe were finally halted in 732.
If anything, shouldn’t the Palestinians be sympathizing with, say, the Christians of Spain, whose land was occupied, and they themselves brutalized by the occupiers, namely, the invaders from North Africa?
Similarly, if, as they claim, the Palestinians are an oppressed people whose land was stolen, shouldn’t they sympathize with the Christians of Constantinople, rather than Sultan Muhammad II, who invaded and conquered the ancient Christian city, while subjecting its indigenous inhabitants to all sorts of unspeakable atrocities? Many Palestinians, seemingly without seeing the irony, present themselves as a conquered and oppressed people whose land was stolen, while, in the same breath, they praise former conquests and wish for future ones, replete with oppression and land-grabbing from other peoples, only because they are not Muslim. Perhaps the lesson, when all is said and done, is that Islamic notions of “justice” are based on a simple dichotomy: Whenever Muslims conquer, slaughter, subjugate or steal land, that is “just;” whenever they encounter the authority of “infidels,” that is “unjust.”
Hence the hatred for Israel, Rome, Europe, or wherever “infidels” still govern.

Palestinians' War on Israel and US Senators' Delusional 'Two-State Solution'
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/October 9, 2023
Less than 48 hours after 20 US Democratic Senators urged President Joe Biden to push for the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Iran's Palestinian terror proxies launched a massive attack on Israel, killing more than 700 Israeli men, women and children, and wounding thousands more. An unknown number of Israelis (estimated at more than 100), including infants, toddlers and an elderly Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair, have also been kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip.
This war, as noted by the Wall Street Journal, was caused directly by Iran, which funds and directs Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and by the appeasement of the Iranian regime by the Biden administration and its allies.
The two groups [Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad] do not recognize the Oslo Accords that were signed between the PLO and Israel in 1993-1995, and they are opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state only in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The only solution they believe in is one that would see Israel replaced with an Islamic state.
If the Democratic senators have it their way, the future Palestinian state will also be controlled by Hamas and PIJ.
Instead of condemning the Palestinians for transforming the Gaza Strip into a base for Jihad against Israel, the Senators who signed the letter are asking the Biden Administration to give the Palestinians another state in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Like the Gaza Strip, the new Palestinian state will also be quickly transformed into an Iran-backed terror entity and a base for pursuing the Jihad against Israel.
In the past two years, Hamas and PIJ have increased their terror activities in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, has done nothing to stop terror attacks against Israelis. Abbas knows that the day he orders his security forces to crack down on the terrorists, his people will condemn him as a traitor and collaborator with Israel.
Instead of denouncing the terrorists, Abbas continues to reward them with monthly stipends through what is known as a "Pay-for-Slay" program. In 2021, the Palestinian Authority spent no less than 841 million shekels ($270.75 million) paying rewards to terrorists. 600 million shekels ($193.16 million) were paid to imprisoned terrorists and released terrorists and another 241 million shekels ($77.59 million), at least, were paid to wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists. That totals, in just one year, $541.5 million (nearly 1.7 billion shekels).
In their letter, [the Senators] make no mention of the tens of thousands of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel over the past two decades -- into a country roughly the size of New Jersey (22,000 km2), or the thousands of rockets that are raining down on Israel since October 7. Imagine thousands of rockets fired into New Jersey.
The Senators also failed to mention the wave of Palestinian terrorism that Israel has been facing over the past two years in the West Bank. Hardly a day passes without Israelis being targeted with shootings, stabbings, and car-rammings.
The Senators further ignore Abbas's "Pay-for-Slay" program that rewards terrorists and their families, as well as the Palestinians' ongoing campaign of incitement to violence... The Senators want to give a state to a Palestinian president who pays salaries to terrorists and goads them to murder on a regular basis.
The Senators calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state also ignored the fact that the Palestinians have never abandoned the Palestine Liberation Organization's 1974 "Ten Point Plan" (also known as the "phased plan") for the "comprehensive liberation" of all the land stretching "from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea" -- a euphemism for the destruction of Israel.
The Palestinians [in 2005] were given, with no conditions, the entire Gaza Strip. They replied by launching tens of thousands of rockets into Israel. These are inconvenient facts that the 20 Democratic Senators, who appear to be shockingly uninformed, do not want to acknowledge.
It now remains to be seen whether the same Senators who are pushing for the establishment of a Palestinian terror state will speak out against this latest grisly massacre of Jews.
It now remains to be seen whether the same US Democratic Senators who are pushing for the establishment of a Palestinian terror state will speak out against this latest grisly massacre of Jews.
Less than 48 hours after 20 US Democratic Senators urged President Joe Biden to push for the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Iran's Palestinian terror proxies launched a massive attack on Israel, killing more than 700 Israeli men, women and children, and wounding thousands more. An unknown number of Israelis (estimated at more than 100), including infants, toddlers and an elderly Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair, have also been kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip.
This war, as reported on October 8 by the Wall Street Journal, was caused directly by Iran, which has made no secret of its desire to "eradicate" Israel -- and America -- and which funds and directs Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and by the appeasement of the Iranian regime by the Biden administration and its allies.
The large-scale Palestinian attack on Israel on October 7 may have surprised Israel, but not those who have been closely following the recurring threats by Hamas and PIJ to murder Jews and eliminate Israel.
On October 4, the same day the Senators wrote a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to promote the idea of establishing a Palestinian state, Hamas and PIJ officials and affirmed their commitment to pursue the Jihad (holy war) against Israel.
In the letter to Biden, the Senators wrote that a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia "should include meaningful, clearly defined and enforceable provisions to achieve your stated objective of preserving the option of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
The letter coincided with the 36th anniversary of the founding of the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization, the second-largest terror group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas. PIJ leaders used the occasion to repeat their threats to kill Jews and eliminate Israel. PIJ leaders also seized the opportunity to warn Saudi Arabia and other Arab states against normalizing their relations with Israel.
The latest Palestinian terror attack on Israel is also part of an effort by Iran and its Palestinian proxies to foil a possible normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
On October 5, PIJ leader Mohammed al-Hindi said in an interview on the occasion of his group's 36th anniversary that the "resistance" against Israel will continue. He also warned the Arab states not to normalize their relations with Israel.
"The Palestinian people say that the only path is resistance, regardless of the sacrifices," al-Hindi said. "Palestinian Islamic Jihad will continue to resist the Zionist enemy until we meet God and He is satisfied with us."
Referring to a possible normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the PIJ leader said that the Palestinians will rise against this "conspiracy."
Khaled al-Batsh, another PIJ leader, also said that his group will continue to carry out terror attacks against Israel. He thanked Iran for its support for the Palestinian terrorist groups. "We are continuing in the path of resistance and Jihad without hesitation," al-Batsh remarked.
Like Hamas, PIJ believes in the idea of ​​"liberating Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea" and an armed Jihad against Israel.
The two groups do not recognize the Oslo Accords that were signed between the PLO and Israel in 1993-1995, and they are opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state only in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The only solution they believe in is one that would see Israel replaced with an Islamic state.
Since 2007, Hamas has been ruling the Gaza Strip, home to some two million Palestinians. The Palestinian terror groups have since turned the Gaza Strip into a launching pad for countless forms of terror attacks against Israel, including suicide bombings, and firing tens of thousands of rockets into Israeli cities and towns. If the Democratic Senators have it their way, the future Palestinian state will also be controlled by Hamas and PIJ.
Instead of condemning the Palestinians for transforming the Gaza Strip into a base for Jihad against Israel, the Senators who signed the letter are asking the Biden Administration to give the Palestinians another state in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Like the Gaza Strip, the new Palestinian state will also be quickly transformed into an Iran-backed terror entity and a base for pursuing the Jihad against Israel.
The scenes of Israeli civilians, including women and children, being butchered in their homes in Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip are likely to be repeated in the Palestinian state the Senators want to create in the West Bank.
In the past two years, Hamas and PIJ have increased their terror activities in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, has done nothing to stop terror attacks against Israelis. Abbas knows that the day he orders his security forces to crack down on the terrorists, his people will condemn him as a traitor and collaborator with Israel. That is why he has not condemned the Palestinian terror attack on Israeli towns and cities near the border with the Gaza Strip.
Instead of denouncing the terrorists, Abbas continues to reward them with monthly stipends through what is known as a "Pay-for-Slay" program. In 2021, the Palestinian Authority spent no less than 841 million shekels ($270.75 million) paying rewards to terrorists. 600 million shekels ($193.16 million) were paid to imprisoned terrorists and released terrorists and another 241 million shekels ($77.59 million), at least, were paid to wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists. That totals, in just one year, $541.5 million (nearly 1.7 billion shekels).
On October 5, Abbas honored the terrorists held in Israeli prisons by providing them with grants that would enable them to enroll in programs for doctoral degrees through Palestinian universities. Instead of distancing himself from terrorists, Abbas is investing money to turn them into holders of PhD degrees and professors. Abbas is sending a message to Palestinian terrorists that if they kill or wound Israelis, he will not only pay them a monthly salary, but also fund their remote learning in Palestinian universities for a future career in higher education.
The US Senators completely ignore that the Palestinians already have an independent and sovereign Iran-backed terror state in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has no military or civilian presence. In their letter, they make no mention of the tens of thousands of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel over the past two decades -- into a country roughly the size of New Jersey (22,000 km2), or the thousands of rockets that are raining down on Israel since October 7. Imagine thousands of rockets fired into New Jersey.
The Senators also failed to mention the wave of Palestinian terrorism that Israel has been facing over the past two years in the West Bank. Hardly a day passes without Israelis being targeted with shootings, stabbings, and car-rammings.
The Senators further ignore Abbas's "Pay-for-Slay" program that rewards terrorists and their families, as well as the Palestinians' ongoing campaign of incitement to violence and antisemitic propaganda against Israel and Jews. The Senators want to give a state to a Palestinian president who pays salaries to terrorists and goads them to murder on a regular basis.
Recently, Abbas tried to claim to Palestinian leaders that the Holocaust was not driven by antisemitism, but by frustration over the financial activities of European Jews. "Jews who moved to east and west Europe were facing a massacre every 10 or 15 years from a different country," Abbas told leaders of his ruling Fatah faction. "The hatred towards the Jews is not because of their religion but because of their social roles related to taxes and banks."
Abbas also re-aired a discredited theory that Ashkenazi Jews hail from Khazaria, a medieval empire located in what is modern-day Kazakhstan, western Russia and Crimea, rather than the biblical Holy Land. "Khazar was a kingdom with no religion, then they became Jews and left the kingdom and spread all over Europe," Abbas elaborated. "And those are Ashkenazi Jews, which means they are not Semitic and have no relation to Semitism and have nothing to do with the prophets Abraham or Jacob." Historians and academics have debunked what they call the Khazar myth claims.
The Senators calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state also ignored the fact that the Palestinians have never abandoned the Palestine Liberation Organization's 1974 "Ten Point Plan" (also known as the "phased plan") for the "comprehensive liberation" of all the land stretching "from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea" -- a euphemism for the destruction of Israel.
The plan in brief:
Through the "armed struggle" (i.e. terrorism), to establish an "independent combatant national authority" over any territory that is "liberated" from Israeli rule. (Point 2)
To continue the struggle against Israel, using the territory of the national authority as a base of operations. (Point 4)
To provoke an all-out war in which Israel's Arab neighbors destroy it entirely ("the liberation of all Palestinian territory"). (Point 8)
The Palestinians could have had a state of their own many years ago. However, they chose over the past two decades to reject every peace offer ever made, without so much as a counter-offer. Instead of peaceful negotiations with Israel, the Palestinians chose terrorism. In 2000, the Palestinians were offered most of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. They responded with a massive wave of suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism. Five years later, after Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians were given, with no conditions, all of Gaza.
The Palestinians replied by launching tens of thousands of rockets into Israel. These are inconvenient facts that the 20 Democratic Senators, who appear to be shockingly uninformed, do not want to acknowledge.
It now remains to be seen whether the same Senators who are pushing for the establishment of a Palestinian terror state will speak out against this latest grisly massacre of Jews.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The Ayatollah's Plan for Israel and Palestine
Amir Taheri/Gatestone Institute/Originally published on July 31, 2015
The book has received approval from Khamenei's office and is thus the most authoritative document regarding his position on the issue.
Khamenei makes his position clear from the start: Israel has no right to exist as a state. He claims his strategy for the destruction of Israel is not based on anti-Semitism, which he describes as a European phenomenon. His position is based on "well-established Islamic principles."
According to Khamenei, Israel, which he labels an "enemy" and "foe," is a special case for three reasons. The first is that it is a loyal "ally of the American Great Satan" and a key element in its "evil scheme" to dominate "the heartland of the Ummah."
Khamenei describes Israel as "a cancerous tumor" whose elimination would mean that "the West's hegemony and threats will be discredited" in the Middle East. In its place, he boasts, "the hegemony of Iran will be promoted."
Khamenei's tears for "the sufferings of Palestinian Muslims" are also unconvincing. To start with, not all Palestinians are Muslims. And, if it were only Muslim sufferers who deserved sympathy, why doesn't he beat his chest about the Burmese Rohingya and the Chechens massacred and enchained by Vladimir Putin, not to mention Muslims daily killed by fellow-Muslims across the globe?
In the early days of his mission, the Prophet Muhammad toyed with the idea of making Jerusalem the focal point of prayers for Islam. He soon abandoned the idea and adopted his hometown of Mecca. For that reason, some classical Muslim writers refer to Jerusalem as "the discarded one," like a first wife who is replaced by a new favorite. In the 11th century the Shiite Fatimid Caliph, Al-Hakim even ordered the destruction of Jerusalem.
Dozens of maps circulate in the Muslim world, showing the extent of Muslim territories lost to the infidel that must be recovered. These include large parts of Russia and Europe, almost a third of China, the whole of India and parts of the Philippines and Thailand.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei describes Israel as "a cancerous tumor" whose elimination would mean that "the West's hegemony and threats will be discredited" in the Middle East. (Image source: khamenei.ir)
Originally published on July 31, 2015.
"The flagbearer of Jihad to liberate Jerusalem."
This is how the blurb of "Palestine," a new book, published by Islamic Revolution Editions last week in Tehran, identifies the author.
The author is "Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Husseini Khamenei," the "Supreme Guide" of the Islamic Republic in Iran, a man whose fatwa has been recognized by U.S. President Barack Obama as having the force of law.
Edited by Saeed Solh-Mirzai, the 416-page book has received approval from Khamenei's office and is thus the most authoritative document regarding his position on the issue.
Khamenei makes his position clear from the start: Israel has no right to exist as a state.
He uses three words. One is "nabudi" which means "annihilation". The other is "imha" which means "fading out," and, finally, there is "zaval" meaning "effacement."
Khamenei claims that his strategy for the destruction of Israel is not based on anti-Semitism, which he describes as a European phenomenon.
His position is based on "well-established Islamic principles", he claims.
One such is that a land that falls under Muslim rule, even briefly, can never again be ceded to non-Muslims. What matters in Islam is control of a land's government, even if the majority of inhabitants are non-Muslims. Khomeinists are not alone in this belief.
Dozens of maps circulate in the Muslim world, showing the extent of Muslim territories lost to the infidel that must be recovered. These include large parts of Russia and Europe, almost a third of China, the whole of India and parts of the Philippines and Thailand.
However, according to Khamenei, Israel, which he labels as "adou" and "doshman," meaning "enemy" and "foe," is a special case for three reasons. The first is that it is a loyal "ally of the American Great Satan" and a key element in its "evil scheme" to dominate "the heartland of the Ummah."
The second reason is that Israel has waged war on Muslims on a number of occasions, thus becoming a "hostile infidel" ("kaffir al-harbi").
Finally, Israel is a special case because it occupies Jerusalem, which Khamenei describes as "Islam's third Holy City." He intimates that one of his "most cherished wishes" is to one day pray in Jerusalem.
Khamenei insist that he is not recommending "classical wars" to wipe Israel off the map. Nor does he want to "massacre the Jews." What he recommends is a long period of low-intensity warfare designed to make life unpleasant if not impossible for a majority of Israeli Jews so that they leave the country.
His calculation is based on the assumption that large numbers of Israelis have dual-nationality and would prefer emigration to the United States or Europe to daily threats of death.
Khamenei makes no reference to Iran's nuclear program. But the subtext is that a nuclear-armed Iran would make Israel think twice before trying to counter Khamenei's strategy by taking military action against the Islamic Republic.
In Khamenei's analysis, once the cost of staying in Israel has become too high for many Jews, Western powers, notably the U.S., which has supported the Jewish state for decades, might decide that the cost of doing so is higher than possible benefits.
Thanks to President Obama, the U.S. has already distanced itself from Israel to a degree unimaginable a decade ago.
Khamenei counts on what he sees as "Israel fatigue." The international community would start looking for what he calls "a practical and logical mechanism" to end the old conflict.
Khamenei's "practical and logical mechanism" excludes the two-state formula in any form.
"The solution is a one-state formula," he declares. That state, to be called Palestine, would be under Muslim rule but would allow non-Muslims, including some Israeli Jews who could prove "genuine roots" in the region, to stay as "protected minorities."
Under Khamenei's scheme, Israel plus the West Bank and Gaza would revert to the United Nations' mandate for a brief period during which a referendum would be held to create the new state of Palestine.
All Palestinians and their descendants, wherever they are, would be able to vote, while Jews "who have come from other places" would be excluded.
Khamenei does not mention any figures for possible voters in his dream referendum. But studies by the Foreign Ministry in Tehran suggest that at least eight million Palestinians across the globe would be able to vote, against 2.2 million Jews "acceptable" as future second-class citizens of the new Palestine. Thus, the "Supreme Guide" is certain of the results of his proposed referendum.
He does not make clear whether the Kingdom of Jordan, which is located in 80 percent of historic Palestine, would be included in his one-state scheme. However, a majority of Jordanians, who are of Palestinian extraction, would be able to vote in the referendum and, logically, become citizens of the new Palestine.
Khamenei boasts about the success of his plans to make life impossible for Israelis through terror attacks from Lebanon and Gaza. His latest scheme is to recruit "fighters" in the West Bank to set-up Hezbollah-style units.
"We have intervened in anti-Israel matters, and it brought victory in the 33-day war by Hezbollah against Israel in 2006 and in the 22-day war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip," he boasts.
Khamenei describes Israel as "a cancerous tumor" whose elimination would mean that "the West's hegemony and threats will be discredited" in the Middle East. In its place, he boasts, "the hegemony of Iran will be promoted."
Khamenei's book also deals with the Holocaust, which he regards either as "a propaganda ploy" or a disputed claim. "If there was such a thing," he writes, "we don't know why it happened and how."
Khamenei has been in contact with professional Holocaust deniers since the 1990s. In 2000, he invited Swiss Holocaust-denier Jürgen Graf to Tehran and received him in private audiences. French Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy, a Stalinist who converted to Islam, was also feted in Tehran as "Europe's' greatest living philosopher."
It was with Khamenei's support that former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad set up a "Holocaust-research center" led by Muhammad-Ali Ramin, an Iranian functionary with links to German neo-Nazis who also organized annual "End of Israel" seminars.
Despite efforts to disguise his hatred of Israel in Islamic terms, the book makes it clear that Khamenei is more influenced by Western-style anti-Semitism than by classical Islam's checkered relations with Jews.
His argument about territories becoming "irrevocably Islamic" does not wash, if only because of its inconsistency. He has nothing to say about vast chunks of former Islamic territory, including some that belonged to Iran for millennia, now under Russian rule.
Nor is he ready to embark on Jihad to drive the Chinese out of Xinjiang, a Muslim khanate until the late 1940s.
Israel, which in terms of territory accounts for one per cent of Saudi Arabia, is a very small fry.
Khamenei's shedding of tears for "the sufferings of Palestinian Muslims" are also unconvincing. To start with, not all Palestinians are Muslims. And, if it were only Muslim sufferers who deserved sympathy, why doesn't the "Supreme Guide" beat his chest about the Burmese Rohingya and the Chechens massacred and enchained by Vladimir Putin, not to mention Muslims daily killed by fellow-Muslims across the globe?
At no point in these 416 pages does Khamenei even mention the need to take into account the views of either Israelis or Palestinians regarding his miracle recipe. What if Palestinians and Israelis wanted a two-state solution?
What if they chose to sort out their problems through negotiation and compromise rather than the "wiping-off-the-map" scheme of he proposes?
Khamenei reveals his ignorance of Islamic traditions when he designates Jerusalem as "our holy city." As a student of Islamic theology, he should know that "holy city" and "holy land" are Christian concepts that have no place in Islam.
In Islam, the adjective "holy" is reserved only for Allah and cannot apply to anything or anyone else. The Koran itself is labeled "al-Majid" (Glorious) and is not a holy book as is the Bible for the Christians.
The "Supreme Guide" should know that Mecca is designated as "al-Mukarramah" (the Generous) and Medina as "al-Munawwarah" (the Enlightened). Even the Shi'ite shrine cities of Iraq are not labeled "muqqaddas" (holy). Najaf is designated as "al-Ashraf" (the Most Noble) and Karbala as "al-Mualla" (the Sublime).
In the early days of his mission, the Prophet Muhammad toyed with the idea of making Jerusalem the focal point of prayers for Islam. He soon abandoned the idea and adopted his hometown of Mecca, where the black cube (kaabah) had been a magnet for pilgrims for centuries before Islam. For that reason, some classical Muslim writers refer to Jerusalem as "the discarded one" (al-yarmiyah) like a first wife who is replaced by a new favorite. In the 11th century, the Shiite Fatimid Caliph, Al-Hakim, even ordered the destruction of "discarded" Jerusalem.
The Israel-Palestine issue is not a religious one. It is a political conflict about territory, borders, sharing of water resources and security. Those who, like Khamenei, try to inject a dose of religious enmity into this already complex cocktail deserve little sympathy.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The roots and hidden meanings of ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’
Ramzy Baroud/Arab News/October 09/2023
Regardless of the precise strategy of Hamas, or any other Palestinian movement for that matter, the daring military campaign deep inside Israel that began on Saturday was only possible because Palestinians are simply fed up.
Sixteen years ago, Israel imposed a hermetic siege on the Gaza Strip. The story of the siege is often presented through two starkly different interpretations: For some, it is an inhumane act of collective punishment; for others, it is a necessary evil so that Israel may protect itself from so-called Palestinian terrorism.
Largely missing from the story, however, is that 16 years is enough time for a whole generation to grow up under siege, to enlist in the resistance and to fight for its freedom.
According to Save The Children, nearly half of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza today are children. This fact is often used to delineate the suffering of a population that has never stepped outside the tiny, impoverished Strip of 365 sq. km. But numbers, though may seem precise, are often employed to tell only a small part of a complex story.
This Gaza generation, which either grew up or was born after the imposition of the siege, has experienced at least five major, devastating wars, in which children, like them, along with their mothers, fathers and siblings, were the main targets and victims.
“If you surround your enemy completely, give them no chance to escape, offer them no quarter, then they will fight to the last,” wrote Sun Tzu in “The Art of War.” Yet, year after year, this is precisely what Israel has done. This strategy has proved to be a major strategic miscalculation.
Any attempt at merely protesting the injustice of the siege, by gathering in large numbers at the fence that separates besieged Gaza from Israel, was not permitted. The mass protests of 2018-2019, known as the Great March of Return, were answered with Israeli sniper bullets. Scenes of youngsters carrying other bleeding youths and shouting “God is great” became a regular scene at the fence. However, as the casualty count increased, media interest in the story simply faded with time.
The hundreds of fighters who crossed into Israel through various entry points at dawn on Saturday were the same young Palestinians who have known nothing but war, siege and the need to protect one another. They have also learned how to survive, despite the lack of everything in Gaza, including clean water and proper medical care. This is where the story of this generation intersects with that of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad or any other Palestinian group.
Yes, Hamas chose the timing and the nature of its military campaign to fit into a very precise strategy. This strategy, however, would not have been possible if Israel did not leave these young Palestinians with no option but to fight back.
Videos circulating on social media showed Palestinian fighters yelling in Arabic, with that distinct, often harsh, Gaza accent, “this is for my brother,” “this is for my son.” They shouted these and many other angry statements as they fired on panic-stricken Israeli settlers and soldiers. The latter had, on many occasions, abandoned their positions and run away.
The psychological impact of this war will most certainly exceed that of October 1973, when Arab armies made quick gains against Israel, also following a surprise attack. This time, the devastating impact on the collective Israeli thinking will prove to be a game-changer, since the “war” involves a single Palestinian group, not a whole army, or three.
The October 2023 surprise attack is directly linked to that of 1973. By choosing the 50th anniversary of what Arabs consider to be a great triumph against Israel, the Palestinian resistance wanted to send a clear message: the cause of Palestine remains the cause of all Arabs. In fact, all statements made by top Hamas military commanders and political leaders were loaded with such symbolism and other references to Arab countries and peoples.
This pan-Arab discourse was not haphazard and was delineated in statements made by Al-Qassam Brigades Commander Mohammed Deif, the group’s founding commander Saleh Al-Arouri, Hamas’ Political Bureau head Ismail Haniyeh and Abu Obeida, the Brigades’ famous masked spokesman. They all urged unity and insisted that Palestine is a component of a larger Arab and Islamic struggle for justice, dignity and collective honor.
The group called its campaign “Al-Aqsa Flood,” thus again recentering Palestinian, Arab and Muslim unity on Al-Quds — Jerusalem — and all its holy places.
Everyone seemed shocked, including Israel itself, not by the Hamas attack per se, but by the great coordination and daring of the massive, never-seen-before, operation. Instead of attacking at night, the resistance attacked at dawn. Instead of striking at Israel using the many tunnels under Gaza, they simply drove there, parachuted in, arrived by sea or, in many cases, walked across the border.
Hamas’ strategy would not have been possible if Israel did not leave these young Palestinians with no option but to fight back.
The element of surprise became even more baffling when Palestinian fighters challenged the very fundamentals of guerrilla warfare: Instead of fighting a “war of maneuver,” they, however temporarily, fought a “war of position,” thus holding the areas they gained inside Israel for many hours.
Indeed, for the Gazan groups, the psychological warfare was as critical as the physical fighting. Hundreds of videos and images were beamed through every social media channel, as if hoping to redefine the relationship between Palestinians, the usual victim, and Israel, the military occupier.
Regardless of how many Palestinians Israel kills in retaliation, although tragic, it will hardly salvage the tattered image of an undisciplined army, a divided society and a political leadership that is solely focused on its own survival.
It is too early to reach sweeping conclusions regarding the outcomes of this unprecedented war, but what is crystal clear is that the fundamental relationship between the Israeli occupation and occupied Palestinians is likely to be altered, and permanently so, as a result of what took place on Oct. 7, 2023.
**Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for more than 20 years. He is an internationally syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books, and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. X: @RamzyBaroud

Hamas and the American Left
Seth Barron/The American Mind/October 10/2023
US-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-PROTEST
They don't hate Israel because it's Jewish; they hate it because it's white.
New Yorkers were taken aback when the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America approvingly tweeted—or X’d—a notice about a Palestinian solidarity rally planned for October 8 in Times Square, just one day after Hamas stormed through southern Israel, murdering hundreds of civilians. “In solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to resist 75 years of occupation and apartheid,” the NYC-DSA announced. “FREE PALESTINE!”
The DSA has been a rising force in local Democrat politics in New York City since the 2018 election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Congress. Since then, about a dozen other socialists have been elected to city council and the state legislature, and one other—fire alarmist Jamaal Bowman—joined AOC in Congress in 2020. NYC Comptroller Brad Lander has been a self-identified DSA ally since he was a teenager. All these politicians were elected as Democrats, however; the DSA does not have a line on the ballot.
The DSA has punched significantly above its weight, however, by threatening to primary “mainstream” Democrats whom they perceive as insufficiently pure ideologically. For instance, otherwise liberal Democrats who don’t want to defund the NYPD, decriminalize “sex work,” seize and socialize vacant apartments, or limit the amount of time that illegal aliens are permitted to occupy hotel rooms at taxpayer expense, risk being labeled MAGA extremists.
The effect of this pressure has been to drive politics in New York City rapidly left. Two-party primary politics tends to impose a moderating force on extremism, because nominees know they have to face moderate voters in the general election. But when one party is guaranteed to win the election, as is the case in 90 percent of New York City, there is no countervailing force to prevent extreme leftists from winning low-turnout Democratic primaries.
As a result, marginal organizations like the DSA have managed rapidly to achieve outsize influence in a number of districts. They are abetted by Soros- and taxpayer-funded “community organizations” such as Make the Road, VOCAL NY, and the New York Immigration Coalition; leftist unions like the United Auto Workers and the Communications Workers of America; and dubious political groups like the perversely named “Jewish Vote,” which almost exclusively backs non-Jewish candidates who vow support for the Palestinian cause. DSA sympathizers work extensively in staffing and campaign positions, in the press, and in the quasi-academic NGO world that establishes the tenor of public policy in New York City.
It is a rule of Leftist discourse to bring the margins to the center. So noisy factions that claim to speak for the historically disenfranchised get priority and their views are given top billing. And this dynamic works its way down the chain. So groups like the DSA are permitted, despite their minority status, to dominate the Democrat Party, and noisy factions within the DSA that support a maximalist anti-Israel perspective are permitted to dominate the DSA. We thus wind up with a political system where it’s not just that the tail wags the dog, but the fleas on the tail wag the dog.
So it was no surprise that, one day after the savage Hamas attack on the softest of soft targets—families, old people, children, hippies—the DSA would announce its rabid support for a Times Square celebration of the perpetrators. No surprise, that is, to observant critics of Left politics. But mainstream moderate Democrats were flummoxed, and have raced to denounce the DSA, which clearly failed to read the room, electorally speaking. Few New Yorkers, even those broadly sympathetic to the Socialist program, were ready to ululate and cheer the naked slaughter of innocent civilians.
Nevertheless, the hard Left across America will continue to press its main point, which is that Israel is a settler state that has practiced apartheid since its inception, and which is entirely illegitimate, even though it was admitted as a full member of the United Nations in 1949, well before Ireland, Hungary, Finland, Jordan, and dozens of other countries.
What normal Americans need to understand about Israel and the Left’s persistent antipathy towards it is that the Left isn’t lying when they say that anti-Zionism isn’t (necessarily) antisemitism. They don’t hate Israel because it’s a Jewish country; they hate it because it’s a white country. Despite the fact that the Israeli Jewish population includes Jews of all skin tones, the Zionist project is classed by the Left as a racist colonial state built on stolen land that must be radically “decolonized.” Israel is a synecdoche for white supremacy.
That’s why the Left calls it an apartheid state, even though Israel bears no resemblance to apartheid South Africa—(the Jews are the majority in Israel, for starters). But don’t forget that the Left calls America an apartheid state, too, and will do so increasingly as the white population of America shrinks beneath 50 percent. America, Britain, Canada, Europe—none of these countries is permitted to exercise control of their borders, because to do so would be racist. Ending majority-white populations is the major project of the global Left, and Israel tops the list. When the Left—in Times Square or at Harvard—holds signs saying “Decolonization is not a Metaphor,” they are telling us that Hamas is right, both in theory and in practice.
It may be tempting to write off the Israel-Hamas war as a tribal conflict rooted in centuries of mutual hate. But Westerners should be aware that the stakes for themselves are massive. The decolonizers are coming after you, too.
*Seth Barron is managing editor of The American Mind. His latest book is "The Last Days of New York."