Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 13-14/2023
Elias Bejjani/Summary of the war situation in Gaza
The martyrs of October 13, 1990 and the betrayal of merchant and Iscariot leaders/Elias Bejjani/October 13/2023
The Pogrom in South Israel, the destruction of Hamas, and the Aftermath/Charles Elias Chartouni/October 13, 2023
Lebanese must reject any involvement in war with Israel/Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/October 13, 2023
One journalist killed and three injured in an Israeli bombing of their car in Alma al Shaab
Iran's foreign minister meets Hezbollah leader in Lebanon on Israel-Hamas war
In Beirut, Iran's foreign minister warns war could spread if Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues
Possible Israel-Hezbollah war hinges on Gaza ground offensive
As Israel battles Hamas, all eyes are on Hezbollah
In Beirut, Iranian FM says US must 'control' Israel to avert regional war
Israeli shelling on Lebanon border kills Reuters journalist, wounds 6 others
Israel shells south Lebanon after Palestinian inflitration bid, Hezbollah retaliates
Report: TotalEnergies finds no gas in Block 9's drilling site
Hezbollah says 'prepared' for action against Israel when time comes
Protestors rally across Lebanon in support of Gaza
Qatar announces that it is committed to the US-Iran prisoners exchange agreement
LBCI reports two Israeli missiles targeting Green Without Borders center in Tell en Nhas - Kfarkela
Hezbollah MP says deterrence with Israel maintained despite clashes
Jumblat: If fleets come to us, we might go to war
Renewed shelling in Odaisseh
Israeli Army: Drone strikes Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
UN Chief calls on Israel to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza
Meta boosts content oversight on its platforms amid Israel-Hamas war
Reuters' statement: Reuters videographer killed in southern Lebanon
LBCI reports two Israeli missiles targeting Green Without Borders center in Tell en Nhas - Kfarkela
Biden slams Trump for calling Hezbollah 'smart'

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 13-14/2023
Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders 1 million to evacuate as ground attack looms
RCMP aware of social media threats to Jewish community, calls for vigilance
Mélanie Joly visiting Israel to reaffirm support, push for humanitarian aid passage
A 'Zionist in my heart': Biden's devotion to Israel faces a new test
The White House is walking back Biden's statement that he saw photographic evidence of beheaded children
Egypt fears mass exodus of refugees into its territory after evacuation warning
Blinken seeks Arab pressure on Hamas as Israel readies Gaza move
Tens of thousands protest across Mideast over Israel’s attacks on Gaza
Gazans flee as army evacuation warning sparks condemnation
Global Knife Attack Frenzy as Hamas ‘Day of Rage’ Gets Underway
Israeli Embassy employee stabbed in China
A teacher is dead and 2 people are wounded after a France stabbing attack that echoes 2020 killing
On his first foreign trip this year, Putin calls for ex-Soviet states to expand influence
UK Speculates Why Russia Hasn't Conducted A Strike Against Ukraine In 3 Weeks
North Korea on track to overpower US nuclear defences

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 13-14/2023
‘I don’t really have any other choice’: Young Israelis around the world return home after Hamas attacks/Lianne Kolirin and Issy Ronald/CNN/CNN/October 13, 2023
Schumer says he's leading a bipartisan group of senators to Israel to show 'unwavering' US support/MARY CLARE JALONICK/WASHINGTON (AP)/October 13, 2023
False hope and fracture kept Israel from seeing Hamas’ evil plan/Jonathan Schanzer/New York Post/October 13/2023
Iran wanted Saudi Arabia to drop Israel — but failed miserably/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/New York Post/October 13/2023
Was Biden’s Speech as Pro-Israel as You Think?..No. Because it was missing the only word that matters. which is Iran/Tony Badran/The Tablet/October 13/2023
The Miscalculation of Hamas/Emanuele Ottolenghi/The Messenger/October 13/2023
Canada must secure the release of hostages without funding Hamas/Tzvi Kahn/National Post/October 13/2023
The death of Netanyahu’s myth of peace without peacemaking?/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/October 13, 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 13-14/2023
Elias Bejjani/Summary of the war situation in Gaza
LCCC/October 14, 2023
The bloody and destructive war continues in the Gaza Strip, while Israel is determined to completely uproot the Hamas organization and kill or arrest its leaders. Therefore, its ground entry into the Strip has become imminent. Meanwhile, the deaths numbered in the hundreds, the wounded in the thousands, and the destruction devastating. On the other hand, it is becoming clear day after day that Iran and its terrorist proxies, in particulat the Hezbollah, are carrying out Iran’s orders, which does not care about Palestine or the Palestinians, but rather its own interests. Here lies the disaster, as the decision on war and peace in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen is in its hands of Iran and not in the hands of the leaders of these countries.

The martyrs of October 13, 1990 and the betrayal of merchant and Iscariot leaders
Elias Bejjani/October 13/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/112651/elias-bejjani-in-remembrance-of-the-october-13-1990-massacre/
For our fallen heroes who gave themselves in sacrifice at the altar of Lebanon on October 13/1990, we pray and make the pledge of living with our heads high, so that Lebanon remains the homeland of dignity and pride, the message of truth, the cradle of civility and giving, and the crucible of culture and civilizations. There is no shed of doubt, as we learn from our deeply rooted history, that the Patriotic and faithful Lebanese who has God by his side, whose weapon is the truth, and whose faith is like the rock, shall never be vanquished.
On October 13, 1990, the Barbarian Syrian Army, jointly with evil local armed mercenaries savagely attacked and occupied the Lebanese presidential palace, savagely invaded the last remaining free regions of Lebanon, killed and mutilated hundreds of Lebanese soldiers and innocent citizens in cold blooded murder, kidnapped tens of soldiers, officers, clergymen, politicians and citizens, and erected a subservient and puppet regime fully controlled by its security intelligence headquarters in Damascus.
It is worth mentioning that in year 2005 the Syrian Army was forced to withdraw from Lebanon in accordance with the UNSC Resolution 1559, but sadly since that date, the Iranian proxy, the terrorist Hezbollah armed militia has been occupying Lebanon, and by force controlling fully it governing decision making process.
The terrorist Hezbollah, by crime, wars, terrorism, impoverishment, dismantling all government and private institutions is hindering the Lebanese people from reclaiming their independence, freedom, sovereignty, and turning Lebanon into an Iranian battle field for Iranian evil schemes and wars.. The Terrorist Hezbollah Militia is the Syrian-Iranian spearhead of the axis of evil.
We must never forget that on October 13/1990 the Lebanese presidential Palace in Baabda and all the free regions were desecrated by the horde of Syrian Baathist gangs, Mafiosi, militias, and other corrupt mercenaries of Tamerlane invaders vintage.
The soldiers of our valiant army were tortured and butchered in the cities and villages of Bsous, Aley, Kahale, and other bastions of resistance. Lebanese most precious of possessions, their freedom, was raped in broad daylight, while the free world, and all the Arab countries at that time watched in silence.
Remembering the Massacre won’t pass without wiping the tears of sorrow and pain for those beloved ones, who left this world, and others who emigrated to its far-flung corners. Lifetime of hard work of many citizens was wiped out overnight, villages and towns were destroyed, factories closed, fields made lay fallow and dry and children lost their innocence.
Yet we, the patriotic and faithful Lebanese are a tough and hopeful people, and no matter the sacrifices and the pain, we are today even more determined with our strong faith to redeem our freedom, and bring to justice all those who accepted to be the dirty tools of the conspiracy that has been destroying, humiliating, and tormenting our country since 1976.
Meanwhile the lessons of October 13/1990, are many and they are all glorious. The free of our people, civilians and military, ordinary citizens and leaders, all stood tall and strong in turning back the aggression of the barbarians at the gate. They resisted valiantly and courageously, writing with their own blood long epics that will not be soon forgotten by their children and grandchildren, and other students of history. They refused to sign on an agreement of surrender and oppression, and spoke up against the shame of capitulation.
Today on the commemoration of the Syrian invasion to Lebanon’s free regions, we shall pray for the souls of all those Lebanese comrades who fell in the battles of confrontation, for all our citizens who are still arbitrarily detained in Syria’s notorious jails, for the safe and dignified return of our refugees from Israel, for the return of peace to the homeland, and for the repentance of Lebanon’s leaders and politicians who for personal gains have turned against their own people, negated their declared convictions, downtrodden their freedom and liberation slogans, sided with the Axis of evil (Syria, Iran) and forged an alliance with Hezbollah whose ultimate aim is to replicate the Iranian Mullahs’ regime in Lebanon.
But in spite of the Syrian military withdrawal from Lebanon in year 2005, old and new Syrian-made Lebanese puppets continue to trade demagogy and spread incitement, profiting from people’s economic needs and the absence of the state’s law and order. Thanks to the Iranian petro dollars, their consciences are numbed, and their bank accounts and pockets inflated. Sadly, among those is General Michele Aoun who after his return from exile to Lebanon in 2005 has bizarrely transformed from a staunched patriotic Lebanese leader and advocate for freedom and peace, into a Syrian-Iranian allay, and a loud mouthpiece for their axis of evil schemes and conspiracies.
General Aoun like the rest of the pro-Syrian-Iranian Lebanese politicians and leaders care only for his position, family members, personal interests, and greed.
In the eyes of the patriotic Lebanese, Aoun and the rest of those conscienceless creatures are nothing but robots and dirty instruments bent on Lebanon’s destabilization, blocking the return of peace and order to the country, aborting the mission of the international forces, and the UN security council (UNSC) resolutions, in particular resolutions 1559 and 1701.
They are hired by the axis of evil nations and organizations to keep our homeland, the land of the Holy Cedars, an arena and a backyard for “The Wars of the Others”, a base for chaos and a breeding culture for hatred, terrorism, hostility and fundamentalism.
Our martyrs, the living and dead alike, must be rolling in anger in their graves and in the Syrian Baath dungeons, as they witness these leaders today, especially General Michele Aoun, upon whom they laid their hope, fall into the gutter of cheap politics.
General Aoun reversed all his theses and slogans and joined the same powers that invaded the free Lebanon region on October 13, 1990. He selectively had forgotten who he is, and who his people are, and negated everything he advocated and lobbied for.
In this year’s commemoration, we proudly hail and remember the passing and disappearance of hundreds of our people, civilian, military, and religious personnel who gladly sacrificed themselves on Lebanon’s altar in defense of freedom, dignity and identity … We raise our prayers for the rest of their souls, and for the safe return of all our prisoners held arbitrarily in the dungeons of the Syrian Baath.
We ask for consolation to all their families, hoping that their grand sacrifices were not in vain, now that prominent leaders and politicians of that era changed sides and joined the killers after the liberation of the country. Those Pharisees were in positions of responsibility to safeguard the nation and its dignity, and were entrusted to defend the identity, the homeland and the beliefs.
What truly saddens us is the continuing suffering of our refugees in Israel since 2000, despite all the recent developments. This is due to the stark servitude of those Lebanese Leaders and politicians on whom we held our hopes for a courageous resolution to this humane problem. Instead, they shed their responsibilities and voided the cause from its humane content, and furthermore, in order to satisfy their alliances with fundamentalists and radicals, they betrayed their own people and the cause of Lebanon by agreeing to label our heroic southern refugees as criminals.
Our refugees in Israel are the ultimate Lebanese patriots who did no wrong, but who simply suffered for 30 years trying to defend their land, their homes, their children and their dignity against Syria and the hordes of Islamic fundamentalists, outlaw Palestinian militias, and even renegade battalions of the Lebanese Army itself that seceded from the government to fight alongside the outlaw organizations and militias against Lebanon, the Lebanese State and the Lebanese people.
God Bless the Souls Of Our Martyrs
Long Live Lebanon

The Pogrom in South Israel, the destruction of Hamas, and the Aftermath
Charles Elias Chartouni/October 13, 2023
The latest tragic developments in the Israeli South are a watershed in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it’s quite inconceivable to overlook the abyss they brutally unveiled. it’s quite disturbing to reckon with the facts of a ruthless regression which killed a legacy of diplomatic mediations, peace agreements, and working relationships that took place throughout the last three decades. The genocidal nature of the latest attacks reveal the inveterate hatred and its ideological complexion, the cumulative chasms, the deepening misunderstandings, and the political breakdowns which succeeded the faltering peace dynamics, and their instrumentalization by the Iranian regime and Islamist terrorism. The eclipse of peace dynamics have pursued a linear and irreversible course that questions the very possibility of sustainable reconciliation politics.
The security blunders await investigative reports to establish explicative facts, highlight the shortcomings of the stymied Abraham’s accords, the instrumentalization of Palestinian power rivalries, the state of diplomatic deadlocks, and the takeover of radicals piloted by Iranian power politics and the religious right extremists in Israel. This genocidal savagery reflects the psychotic nature of political indoctrination, the pathological features of the political narrative: the sturdy legacy of Jewish hatred amongst Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims nurtured over time, and the stalemated negotiation process. The Iranian regime has taken control of the Palestinian vagrant political platform and harnessed it to its hegemonic political agenda. The endemic crisis of political legitimacy and functional statehood in the Arab world, the demise of Sunnite terrorism, and the effective control of four countries in the Near East (Lebanon, Syria, Irak, Gaza Strip), enabled Iran to position itself as a major power broker which engages other regional power players (Saudi Arabia, Turkey), while obliquely challenging them in a cynical game of mutual undermining. The subversive power politics in Iran are part of the ideological and strategic playbooks, the functional equivalent of a decaying legitimacy, and the Achilles’ heel of a floundering religious dystopia.
The war in Gaza is inevitable on account of the existential threats displayed in the killing fields of South Israel, and the impossibility to restrain the scope of military engagement, and narrow its strategic radius: the annihilation of Hamas. The annihilation of Hamas implies the destruction of its infrastructures and the targeting of its leadership. Far from being a circumscribed surgical operation to neutralize a terrorist group, the annihilation of Hamas is a pre-requisite if we were to oversee a rejuvenating peace dynamic in the region. The destruction of Hamas is a sequence in a broader scheme, and the entry gate to contain Iranian power politics, neutralize its regional orbits (Hezbollah,Syrian regime, Iraqi power turfs, Houthi allies…), and deflect the pressure on Iranian civil society, the veritable nemesis of this bloody dictatorship. The protean nature of the war in Gaza, accounts for the massive support it mustered within Western democracies, and the ambiguous, reserved, or frontal opposition it elicited in Russia, China, among Arab and Muslim dictatorships and rogue States. The firm stand of the US and Western democracies locates on a continuum with their engagement in Ukraine, and emphasizes the need to solidify the demarcation lines of the New Cold War and set its coordinates.
However treacherous the Gaza military landscape, morally constraining and dramatic the plight of the hostages, and the one of the Palestinian civilians (used as human shields by Hamas and the militant groups) in such a restricted operational realm. This battle is mandated, in every respect, if we were to curb the arc of terror and the strategic overstretching of the neo-totalitarian power players and their regional accomplices, reopen the channels of diplomacy and negotiations, and resuscitate the peace agreements. This tragic turn of events is likely to jump start the political dynamics all along, in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, with the rehabilitation of moderates on each side, the neutralization of extremists and the ultimate defeat of hate ideologies. Hamas morbidity is ultimately eradicated, when a comprehensive peace plan based, on mutual recognition, separate statehood and working relationships relay, once for all, the poisoned environment of open-ended conflicts and institutionalized hatred.

Lebanese must reject any involvement in war with Israel
Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/October 13, 2023
As the horrors of war unfold in Gaza following Hamas’ terror attack on Israeli civilians, the north of Israel and its border with Lebanon should not be forgotten. The main question here remains: will Iran’s proxy Hezbollah join the attack? No one has the answer on how this conflict will evolve. But there is a single certainty: Hezbollah will never play as second in command under Hamas. It will not get fully into this war unless it has leadership for operations on the ground and is the sole “negotiator.” This is the only symbolic status Hezbollah will accept, while it actually represents the mullahs’ interests.
In short — and while we all ignore the probability and the real determining factors that could lead to this line of events — this means that Hezbollah would need to be the voice of the so-called resistance. This would also mean a broader engagement, if not a direct one, for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It would be more than a two-front war this time. This would certainly wreak havoc to Lebanon once again.
When looking at the world today, whether the war in Ukraine, the situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan or the north of Syria, we notice shifting geopolitical sand and volatile situations. And so, any action by Hezbollah to enter the conflict would make the 2006 war look like a dress rehearsal. Until now, the rocket launches from Hezbollah have been a sign of support to Hamas without any real intention of getting into the conflict. Most analysts expect this to continue until Israel goes into Gaza, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated to US President Joe Biden. Then, there will be greater opportunities for Hezbollah to open a second front.
Any action by Hezbollah to enter the conflict would make the 2006 war look like a dress rehearsal
If this changes, then we have the 2006 war as a case study for how the situation would unfold. At that time, Hassan Nasrallah clearly positioned himself and Hezbollah as the unified commander of the two fronts in Gaza and Lebanon — the one who speaks and the one to contact for the negotiations regarding hostages. This positioning prompted the Israeli response that destroyed Lebanon. Indeed, Israel refused to let one party take over these two files, especially not Iran. And so, until this day, Lebanon is paying the price for these actions.
For now, the war in Gaza is only having a direct impact on Lebanese domestic politics. Indeed, a few days ago, Hezbollah’s motorcycles went roaming into well-known Christian neighborhoods and everyone understood the message. These motorcycle convoys come as a warning to the many voices that are clearly stating that Hezbollah should not drag Lebanon into this conflict, just as they dragged Lebanon into the Syrian conflict. These voices are echoed throughout Lebanon and this is a big difference from 2006. Hezbollah has lost a lot of its local support.
The Lebanese do not want to be dragged into regional conflict, they want to live. More precisely, they just want to survive. Most Lebanese believe that the Arab Peace Initiative should have been the way forward and that this could have brought stability to the region. This is why they do not want to act as a proxy in this war. If Hezbollah opened a second front, it would definitely give the negotiating cards to Tehran, meaning Hezbollah would act in the interests of Iran, not Lebanon. But the price of the devastation of war would be paid by all the Lebanese. Today, it is the people of the Levant that pay the highest price for these proxy wars.
Will Lebanon be dragged into this war? Will the Lebanese suffer once again? This time, the Lebanese are not accepting it and are making their voices heard loud and clear. But this does not mean they do not feel compassion for the situation. In all transparency, Lebanese citizens should firmly reject serving as proxies in any foreign conflict, particularly on behalf of Iran, considering the profound historical context and current delicate geopolitical landscape. For too long, Lebanon has paid a heavy price.
Destruction is the only result achieved when we allow the country to be used as a proxy for foreign powers
Lebanon’s history has been marked by foreign interference and this has led to devastating wars in the interests of others. Without going back too far, the Lebanese Civil War had disastrous consequences. It is high time we stopped allowing any force to undermine the nation’s sovereignty and independence. Destruction is the only result achieved when we allow the country to be used as a proxy for foreign powers. There is no freedom fighting. There is no honor. There is only death and destruction. Iran knows it and Hezbollah does too.
Hence, the Lebanese must absolutely stand against such involvement, as we have suffered enough for others and paid the price in sectarian massacres, the crippling economic situation and horrifying humanitarian costs. We have barely healed our wounds. In fact, the wounds are still wide open. We need to clearly say “no” to Hezbollah engaging an entire nation in war.
It is time to put an end to the proxy game in this small country, as it is a clear and pressing danger to the future of Lebanon. Beyond dragging the country into conflict, Hezbollah has deepened sectarian divisions and hindered national unity. This is why the Lebanese should unite and reject any proxy group to safeguard the country’s security, sovereignty and economic stability.
• Khaled Abou Zahr is the founder of Barbicane, a space-focused investment syndication platform. He is CEO of EurabiaMedia and editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi.

One journalist killed and three injured in an Israeli bombing of their car in Alma al Shaab
LBCI/October 13, 2023
One journalist killed and three injured in an Israeli bombing of their car in Alma al Shaab
It has been reported that a journalist has been killed and three others sustained injuries when Israeli forces bombed their car in Alma al Shaab.

Iran's foreign minister meets Hezbollah leader in Lebanon on Israel-Hamas war
BEIRUT (Reuters)/Fri, October 13, 2023
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Friday discussed Israel's war against Hamas with the head of the powerful Tehran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which has launched its own cross-border attacks on Israel. Amirabdollahian, who arrived in Beirut late on Thursday, said he had met Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as well as Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib. Local media outlet Al-Mayadeen said the Iranian minister and Nasrallah had discussed Hamas' attack on Israel. Iran also supports Hamas, and has lauded the group's attack on Israel but has denied any involvement. Hezbollah has exchange fire with Israel across the border this week, and Israel has responded by striking an observation post belonging to the group as well as Lebanese villages, in the most serious escalation since the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. Amirabdollahian told reporters on Friday that Israel was committing "war crimes" in Gaza, adding that Iran had asked Egypt, which borders Gaza, the United Nations and aid groups to allow it to send humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. On Thursday, Amirabdollahian said Israel's actions against the Palestinians would receive a response from Iran's allies and that Israel would have to bear the consequences. Israel's military on Friday called on all civilians in Gaza City - more than one million people - to relocate south within 24 hours as it amassed tanks in preparation for an expected ground invasion. Amirabdollahian is due in Syria later on Friday, a day after Israeli air strikes put the airports of Damascus and Aleppo out of service.

In Beirut, Iran's foreign minister warns war could spread if Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues
BEIRUT (AP)/October 13, 2023
Iran’s foreign minister warned Friday that if Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip don’t stop immediately, the violence could spread to other parts of the Middle East.
Hossein Amirabdollahian is on a tour that took him to Baghdad before Beirut, and later in the day he is scheduled to travel to the Syrian capital, Damascus. Iran heads the so-called “axis of resistance” that includes powerful militant groups in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq. Amirabdollahian spoke to reporters in Beirut after a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart, during which the two officials called for an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza. He also met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, as well as caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the speaker of parliament. There have been concerns that the war could spread to Lebanon’s border where Hezbollah fighters have been on alert following Hamas' attack on southern Israel on Saturday that left hundreds of people dead. On Thursday, Israel’s military struck two of Syria's main international airports, in Damascus and Aleppo, putting them out of service. Flights were diverted to an airport in the coastal province of Latakia. The strikes came after shells were fired from Syria into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Sporadic acts of violence along the Lebanon-Israel border over the past days left three Hezbollah fighters dead on Monday. Israel’s military said one Israeli soldier was killed in an anti-tank missile attack on Wednesday. U.S. President Joe Biden has warned other players in the Middle East not to join the conflict, sending American warships to the region and vowing full support for Israel.
“What is funny is that at a time when America is calling on parties for self restraint, it is allowing the criminals in the fake Zionist entity to kill women, children and civilians in Gaza,” Amirabdollahian said. He warned that “if these organized war crimes that are committed by the Zionist entity don’t stop immediately, then we can imagine any possibility.” He did not elaborate but it was an apparent hint that Iran-backed groups could join the war. Senior Hamas official Ali Barakeh told The Associated Press this week in Beirut that allies like Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah “will join the battle if Gaza is subjected to a war of annihilation.” Amirabdollahian said: “America cannot send weapons and bombs to kill women, children and civilians in Gaza and at the same time calls on all sides for self-restraint.” Amirabdollahian called on the foreign ministers and the leader of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a grouping of 57 countries with important Muslim populations, to hold a meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza. After meeting Mikati, Amirabdollahian said the aim of his visit to Beirut is to preserve security in Lebanon amid regional tensions. “What is important for us is security in Lebanon and how to preserve calm,” Amirabdollahian said. He added that what Hamas did over the weekend was in response to the policies of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Possible Israel-Hezbollah war hinges on Gaza ground offensive
Agence France Presse/October 13, 2023
The chance of Hezbollah scaling up involvement in the war against Israel could hinge on any Israeli ground invasion of Gaza after a bloody attack by Hamas on southern Israeli communities, analysts said. Militants from the Palestinian group Hamas stormed over Gaza's border on October 7, killing more than 1,200 people in Israel mostly civilians, and taking 150 hostages, in the deadliest attack on the country since its founding 75 years ago. Some 1,300 Palestinians have been killed in six days of Israeli retaliatory bombings of Gaza. Israel has also traded cross-border fire with Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon since Sunday, raising the temperature at the border but so far avoiding an all-out confrontation. Hezbollah and Hamas have long been part of a "joint operations room" that includes the Quds Force -- the foreign operations arm of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- a source close to the Hezbollah told AFP on condition of anonymity. The groups are part of the so-called "axis of resistance" -- Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and other Iran-backed armed opposition to Israel. "A decisive attack against one of the components of this alliance" would prompt "the intervention of other components," said Mohanad Hage Ali from the Carnegie Middle East Center. "Hezbollah could find itself forced to participate in the war" against Israel if a ground offensive on the Gaza Strip takes off, the analyst told AFP. The Israeli army said Thursday it was preparing for a "ground manoeuvre" in Gaza but that nothing "has yet been decided," as Hamas and Israel traded heavy fire for a sixth day.
'Real risk'
Tit-for-tat attacks at the Lebanon-Israel border have so far been limited, adhering to "tacit rules of engagement" on the tense frontier, a Western diplomatic source in Beirut told AFP. In 2006, Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody conflict which left more than 1,200 dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers. Since then, a delicate balancing act has allowed for a relative calm at the border, including during other conflicts between Israel and Gaza militants. But "there is a real risk that the situation will degenerate in the event of a trigger, such as a ground offensive in Gaza or civilian deaths on either side" of the Lebanon-Israel frontier, said the diplomatic source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media. Hezbollah and Hamas, both designated as "terrorist" groups by Israel, as well as the United States, the EU and much of the West, mended fences after briefly ending up on opposing sides of the Syrian conflict. Hezbollah, founded in the 1980s to fight Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon, has grown into Iran's main regional proxy with operatives in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. The only Lebanese faction to have kept its weapons after the 1975-1990 civil war, Hezbollah now has an arsenal more powerful than the Lebanese national army. Israel and Hezbollah's simmering rivalry has played out mostly in war-ravaged Syria, where Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on the group and other pro-Iran fighters and assets. On Tuesday, Israel exchanged fire with militants in Syria after the Israeli army said munitions were fired towards the occupied Golan Heights, while on Thursday, state media said Israeli strikes knocked out Syria's two main airports in Damascus and Aleppo.
'Back to the stone age' -
"Hezbollah's posture since 2006 has been one centred on deterring rather than confronting Israel militarily," said Aram Nerguizian, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But "should Israel be threatened in ways that change the regional balance of power, Hezbollah and its allies are likely to quickly find themselves (drawn) into a far wider and far more punitive regional war." In August, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said it would take just "a few high-precision missiles" for his group to destroy Israel targets including "civilian and military airports, airbases, power stations" and the Dimona nuclear facility. If a future conflict pulls in "the resistance axis... there will be no such thing called Israel anymore", Nasrallah warned. The warning came after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant threatened to send Lebanon "back to the stone age" should Hezbollah escalate tensions at the border. In May, Hezbollah simulated cross-border raids into Israel in a show of its military might, using live ammunition and an attack drone and demonstrating moves that Hamas used in its weekend assault on Israel. Analyst Nerguizian said Lebanon, mired in an unprecedented economic crisis, was ill-equipped for any spillover, especially amid "political and sectarian polarization" among its myriad sectarian communities. "Hezbollah's Shiite constituents will not be welcomed by their Christian, Druze and other compatriots as they attempt to flee the fighting" if war breaks out, Nerguizian added.

As Israel battles Hamas, all eyes are on Hezbollah
Associated Press/October 13, 2023
Will Lebanon's heavily armed Hezbollah join the Israel-Hamas war? The answer could well determine the direction of a battle that is bound to reshape the Middle East. Hezbollah, which like Hamas is supported by Iran, has so far been on the fence about joining the fighting between Israel and the Gaza Strip's Islamic militant rulers. For the past six days, Israel has besieged Gaza and hammered the enclave of 2.3 million Palestinians with hundreds of airstrikes in response to a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel. Israel, which has vowed to crush Hamas, is now preparing for a possible ground offensive. While the country's political and military leaders weigh the next move, they are nervously watching Hezbollah on Israel's northern border and have sent troop reinforcements to the area. Hezbollah, with an arsenal of tens of thousands of rockets and missiles capable of hitting virtually anywhere in Israel, is viewed as a far more formidable foe than Hamas. Israel is anxious that opening a new front in the country's north could change the tide of the war, with Hezbollah's military caliber far superior to that of Hamas. But the fighting could be equally devastating for Hezbollah and Lebanon. The possibility of a new front in Lebanon also brings back bitter memories of a vicious monthlong war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 that ended in a stalemate and a tense detente between the two sides. Lebanon is in the fourth year of a crippling economic crisis and is bitterly divided between Hezbollah and its allies and opponents, paralyzing the political system. Israel is especially worried about Hezbollah's precision-guided missiles, which are believed to be aimed at strategic targets like natural gas rigs and power stations. Hezbollah is also battle-hardened from years of fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's troops in neighboring Syria. At the same time, Hamas and Hezbollah have grown closer as Hamas leaders have moved to Beirut in recent years. While Hezbollah has largely remained on the sidelines, people close to the group say an Israeli ground offensive could be a possible trigger for it to fully enter the conflict with devastating consequences.
Qassim Qassir, a Lebanese analyst close to the group, said Hezbollah "will not allow Hamas' destruction and won't leave Gaza alone to face a ground incursion." "When the situation requires further escalation, then Hezbollah will do so," he told The Associated Press. An official with a Lebanese group familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Hezbollah fighters have been placed on full alert. Hezbollah and Israel have targeted military outposts and positions in brief rocket and shelling exchanges on the border since the outbreak of the Gaza war. Three Hezbollah fighters were killed Monday, while Israeli officials said one Israeli soldier was killed in an anti-tank missile attack two days later.
Three Israeli soldiers were killed and five were wounded in a skirmish with Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants who crossed the southern Lebanese border into Israel. Hamas also claimed responsibility for firing several rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon.
Anthony Elghossain, a senior analyst with the Washington-based New Lines Institute, said that while neither Israel nor Hezbollah appears to want to enter "significant and sustained armed conflict," there is a risk of escalation — even without a ground invasion of Gaza — if either side makes a miscalculation and oversteps the usual rules of engagement. With an eye toward Hezbollah, U.S. President Joe Biden has warned other players in the Middle East not to join the conflict, sending American warships to the region and vowing full support for Israel. "He's backed up that warning with the deployment of our largest carrier group, the Gerald R. Ford, as well as again making sure that Israel has what it needs and that we also have appropriate assets in place," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday during a stop in Israel. While Hezbollah officials and legislators have threatened escalation, their leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has remained silent since Hamas' surprise weekend attack. The group in its public statements has said that they are continuing to monitor the situation. A spokesperson for Hezbollah did not respond to requests for comment. An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said in a video briefing posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the situation is "relatively stable on the northern front.""We are monitoring the situation so that it doesn't change," he said. "We are deployed in significant numbers, strength and capabilities … and we are very vigilant to any attempt by Hezbollah to escalate the situation." A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said international governments have urged Lebanese authorities to keep the crisis-hit country away from a new war. Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called Thursday on all Lebanese groups to exercise self restraint and not to be pulled into "Israel's plans," an apparent message to Hezbollah. He said Lebanon condemns "criminal acts committed by Israel" saying that it is "wiping out children and civilians" and called on the international community to work on ending hostilities. Israeli leaders have repeatedly warned that they would unleash vast destruction in southern Lebanon if war breaks out with Lebanon. Israel in 2006 flattened large parts of villages, towns and cities in southern Lebanon and entire blocks in Beirut's southern suburbs. Following the war, Lebanon received an influx of international funding, including from wealthy Gulf countries, for reconstruction. However, as Hezbollah has gained power, Lebanon's ties with Gulf monarchies have soured and the international community has grown frustrated with rampant corruption and mismanagement. On top of that, Lebanon's government institutions are cash-strapped and dysfunctional. "If war were to start now, we would be looking at a much slower and more complicated reconstruction," said Mona Fawaz, a professor of urban studies and planning at the American University of Beirut.

In Beirut, Iranian FM says US must 'control' Israel to avert regional war
Agence France Presse/October 13, 2023
Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who had arrived Thursday in the Lebanese capital Beirut, met Friday with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Abdollahian was received by Hezbollah and Hamas among other pro-Iran groups. He is scheduled to meet Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh before heading to Damascus. Speaking from Beirut's airport, the top diplomat said that Iran's regional allies, known as the "axis of resistance", could respond if Israel's Gaza offensive escalates."The continuation of war crimes against Palestinians and Gaza will receive a response from the rest of the axes," he told reporters. Abdollahian discussed with Nasrallah Friday "potential outcomes" and the "positions that must be taken" in light of the latest developments, according to a Hezbollah statement. At least 1,200 Israelis, foreigners and dual citizens were killed by Hamas militants during its attack on Saturday. In Gaza, health officials reported 1,417 Palestinians killed by Israel's retaliatory barrages against the coastal enclave. After meeting Mikati on Friday, Abdollahian warned of new fronts being opened against Israel if it continues its destructive war on Gaza.
He said the United States must rein in Israel to avert a regional spillover of the war with Hamas, adding that Tehran is seeking to safeguard Lebanon's security and that maintaining calm in Lebanon is one of the goals of his visit. "America wants to give Israel a chance to destroy Gaza, and this is... a grave mistake," he charged, adding, "if the Americans want to prevent the war in the region from developing, they must control Israel." The West has been cautious about Iran since Saturday, but its leaders have warned Tehran in no uncertain terms against intervening in the war.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he had "made it clear to the Iranians: Be careful".In a call with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday appealed to "all the Islamic and Arab countries" to "reach serious convergence and cooperation on the path of stopping the crimes of the Zionist regime against the oppressed Palestinian nation". Although Tehran has been a long-term backer of Hamas, Iranian officials have been adamant that the country had no involvement in the militants' attack against its arch enemy Israel on Saturday.
Nevertheless, the United States fears the opening of a second front on Israel's northern border with Lebanon if Hezbollah were to intervene. Iran's foreign minister said that opening a "new front" against Israel would depend on Israel's actions in Gaza. "Officials of some countries contact us and ask about the possibility of a new front (against Israel) being opened in the region," said Abdollahian during a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. "We tell them that our clear answer regarding future possibilities is that everything depends on the actions of the Zionist regime in Gaza," he said, according to a statement from the Iranian foreign ministry. "Even now, Israel's crimes continue and no one in the region asks us for permission to open new fronts." After meeting with Abdollahian, Lebanese caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib warned that Israeli escalation could "ignite the region" and threaten security and peace. "Lebanon has never wanted war," he said. "But there will be no stability in the region without a fair and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian people." For his part, Abdollahian did not completely rule out the chance of an escalation. During a news conference with his Lebanese counterpart, he said: "If the systemic war crimes of the Zionist regime do not stop immediately, any possibility is conceivable."Tehran was working to host an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which has 57 member states, he added. "In this regard, the initial coordination has been carried out with the secretary general of the OIC," the minister told reporters.

Israeli shelling on Lebanon border kills Reuters journalist, wounds 6 others
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/October 13, 2023
A Reuters journalist of the Lebanese nationality was killed when an Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon on Friday. Six other journalists were wounded. "We are deeply saddened to learn that our videographer, Issam Abdallah, has been killed," Reuters said, adding that, he "was part of a Reuters crew in southern Lebanon." Some of the wounded journalists were rushed to hospitals in ambulances, The Associated Press' correspondent said. Images from the scene showed a burning press vehicle. Reuters said that two of its journalists, Thaer al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, were wounded in the shelling in the border area. Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV, said two of its employees, Elie Brakhya and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, also were among the wounded. “We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region, and supporting Issam’s family and colleagues,” Reuters said. “Our deepest condolences go out to those affected, and our thoughts are with their families at this terrible time.”The shelling occurred during an exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel border between Israeli troops and members of Hezbollah. The Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing sporadic acts of violence since Saturday’s attack by the militant Palestinian group Hamas on southern Israel. Journalists from around the world have been coming to Lebanon out of concern that war might break out between Hezbollah and Israel.

Israel shells south Lebanon after Palestinian inflitration bid, Hezbollah retaliates
Agence France Presse/October 13, 2023
Israel shelled a border region in southern Lebanon on Friday, two Lebanese security sources said, after a blast occurred on the border fence, according to the Israeli army. One of the security sources said the shelling followed an infiltration attempt from the Lebanese side of the border, while the Israeli army said it was responding to a blast that caused "light damage" to the border barrier. Lebanese media reports said the failed infiltration attempt was carried out by a Palestinian group. "IDF (Israeli army) forces are currently responding with artillery fire towards Lebanese territory," the Israeli military said in a statement. The Israeli shelling targeted the villages of Dhayra and Alma al-Shaab, AFP correspondents in the area said. It struck a Lebanese army post in Dhayra, said the second security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. Hezbollah later said it targeted four Israeli military posts on the border in response to the Israeli shelling. Media reports said Hezbollah used machineguns in the attack. Israel later announced that one of its drones was bombing Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. The flare-up is the latest in a series of incidents at the Israel-Lebanon border after a weekend onslaught by Hamas on Israel triggered fierce fighting, and as Hamas and Israel traded heavy fire for a seventh day. On Monday, Hezbollah said Israeli strikes killed three of its members, while Palestinian fighters claimed a thwarted infiltration bid. On Tuesday, Israel said it hit Hezbollah observation posts, while Hamas' armed wing claimed rocket fire. On Wednesday, Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli position near the Lebanese village of Dhayra. Retaliatory Israeli fire wounded three people.

Report: TotalEnergies finds no gas in Block 9's drilling site
Naharnet/October 13, 2023
French oil giant TotalEnergies has informed Lebanon’s Energy Ministry and the Lebanese Petroleum Administration that no gas was found in the first well that was drilled in Lebanon’s offshore Block 9, a media report said. “Drilling in the well in Block 9 ended after only water was found at a depth of 3,900 meters, and accordingly there is no use from continuing the drilling to a depth of 4,200 meters,” LBCI television reported. “The Energy Minister and representatives of TotalEnergies are preparing to head to the drilling platform and TotalEnergies is expected to issue a statement about the preliminary results,” LBCI added. According to experts, other wells can be drilled in the same block to explore the presence of gas in it.

Hezbollah says 'prepared' for action against Israel when time comes
Agence France Presse/October 13, 2023
Hezbollah on Friday said it would be "fully prepared" to join the Palestinians in the war against Israel when the time is right. “We in Hezbollah are contributing to the confrontation and we’ll contribute to it within our vision and plan,” Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem told a pro-Palestinian rally in Beirut's southern suburbs. “We are following up on the enemy’s step, we are maintaining full readiness and when the time comes for any action we will do it,” Qassem added. The official, whose remarks coincided with a visit by Iran's foreign minister to Beirut, rebuffed calls for Hezbollah to stay out of the war. An outreach by "major countries, Arab countries, and envoys from the United Nations, directly and indirectly, asking us not to interfere in the battle, will not affect us," he said, adding that "Hezbollah knows its duties." Israel has traded fire with Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon in recent days, although the tit-for-tat attacks have remained limited. On Monday, Hezbollah said Israeli strikes killed three of its members, while Palestinian fighters claimed a thwarted infiltration bid. Israel said it hit Hezbollah observation posts on Tuesday, while Hamas' armed wing claimed rocket fire. On Wednesday, Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli position near the village of Dhayra. Israeli retaliatory fire shortly after wounded three people and turned Dhayra into a ghost town.

Protestors rally across Lebanon in support of Gaza
Associated Press/October 13, 2023
Protests were staged after Friday prayers in Muslim communities around the world — including Lebanon, Tehran, Baghdad, and Jordan — condemning Israel’s attacks on Gaza and showing support for Palestinians in the wake of the deadly surprise attack launched in southern Israel by the militant group Hamas on Oct. 7. Lebanese and Palestinians protested across Lebanon, in Beirut's downtown and in its southern suburb, in Tyre, Sidon, Tripoli and Bekaa, following afternoon prayers Friday, in support of Palestine. In Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, more than 1,000 Hezbollah supporters rallied carrying Palestinian flags and banners that read: "May God protect you". "Nasrallah, strike Tel Aviv," they chanted, addressing the leader of Hezbollah. Najwa Ali, a Palestinian refugee born in Beirut 57 years ago, was among those taking part in the solidarity rally. "I have never seen Palestine, but when I go back one day, it will be with my head held high, without an Israeli soldier telling me where to go or what to do," she told AFP. As supporters of Hezbollah rallied in support of the Palestinians, Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said Hezbollah would be "fully prepared" to join its ally Hamas in the war against Israel when the time is right. The protests come as Israel appears to be gearing up for a ground offensive in Gaza. Israel’s military delivered sweeping evacuation orders for almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people Friday, according to U.N. agencies. Hamas had called earlier this week for protests across the Muslim world on Friday.

Qatar announces that it is committed to the US-Iran prisoners exchange agreement
AFP/October 13, 2023
On Friday, Qatar declared its commitment to an agreement within the framework of a prisoner exchange deal between the United States and Iran to manage six billion dollars of unfrozen Iranian funds. This announcement comes as there are indications that Washington may slow down the implementation of the agreement due to Hamas' attack on Israel. Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, made this statement during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, asserting that "the State of Qatar is committed to any agreement it is a party to, and no step is taken without consulting the relevant parties."

LBCI reports two Israeli missiles targeting Green Without Borders center in Tell en Nhas - Kfarkela
LBCI/October 13, 2023
According to sources from LBCI, Israel has reportedly targeted the Green Without Borders center in Tell en Nhas, Kfarkela, using two missiles. The details and extent of the damage are yet to be confirmed.

Hezbollah MP says deterrence with Israel maintained despite clashes
Associated Press/October 13, 2023
Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah said Friday that the deterrence between his group and Israel has been maintained since a monthlong war in 2006, despite clashes over the past week. Fadlallah’s comments came minutes after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held separate meetings with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and key ally Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makari said the Lebanese government is committed to supporting the Palestinians in Gaza but maintaining calm along the southern border with Israel to avoid a new war. “At the same time, the government will study the possibility of being ready for — God forbid — a deterioration of the situation,” Makari said. Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged shelling since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel almost one week ago, but the clashes have remained limited and contained thus far.

Jumblat: If fleets come to us, we might go to war
Naharnet/October 13, 2023
Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said Friday he did not rule out the possibility of a new Lebanese front, although he hopes that Hezbollah would not be dragged into war. "I stand with every Lebanese citizen against any aggression," Jumblat told MTV. Jumblat who had called on Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah not to be dragged into the Palestinian conflict, said that after all Lebanon might be forced to go to war. "If we see fleets coming to us, we might go to war,” Jumblat said.

Renewed shelling in Odaisseh
LBCI/October 13, 2023
In the South, Odaisseh experienced renewed shelling recently, further escalating tensions in the area.

Israeli Army: Drone strikes Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
LBCI/October 13, 2023
The Israeli army has reported the deployment of a drone strike on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

UN Chief calls on Israel to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza
AFP/October 13, 2023
On Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel to "avoid a humanitarian catastrophe" after the Israeli military called on over a million Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza. His spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, informed reporters that "the Secretary-General and his team are making phone calls. He is in constant contact with Israeli authorities, urging them to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe."

Meta boosts content oversight on its platforms amid Israel-Hamas war
AFP/October 13, 2023
Meta, the parent company overseeing platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Thread, announced on Friday that it has significantly enhanced content oversight, particularly on Facebook. This move led to the removal of hundreds of thousands of posts since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas. The company established a dedicated unit comprising individuals proficient in both Arabic and Hebrew to monitor content effectively. In a statement released on its website, Meta said, "This allows us to remove violative content more quickly and provides an additional layer of defense against misinformation."The restrictions imposed by the company pertain to content that is violent, shocking, or promotes hatred. In the three days following the surprise attack launched by Hamas on Israeli territory last Saturday, Meta reported that it had deleted or covered approximately 795,000 posts in both Arabic and Hebrew languages. This number is seven times the volume typically monitored daily in the previous two months.

Reuters' statement: Reuters videographer killed in southern Lebanon
LBCI/October 13, 2023
A Reuters news videographer has been killed while working in southern Lebanon, Reuters said in a statement on Friday. "We are deeply saddened to learn that our videographer, Issam Abdallah, has been killed," the statement said. Issam was part of a Reuters crew in southern Lebanon who was providing a live video signal. "We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region, and supporting Issam’s family and colleagues," Reuters said.

LBCI reports two Israeli missiles targeting Green Without Borders center in Tell en Nhas - Kfarkela
LBCI/October 13, 2023
According to sources from LBCI, Israel has reportedly targeted the Green Without Borders center in Tell en Nhas, Kfarkela, using two missiles. The details and extent of the damage are yet to be confirmed.

Biden slams Trump for calling Hezbollah 'smart'
Agence France Presse/October 13, 2023
U.S. President Joe Biden has condemned Donald Trump for describing Hezbollah as "very smart" even as the Lebanese militant group exchanges fire with Israel following the Hamas attack on the U.S. ally. During a campaign speech in Florida, Trump also falsely accused the Biden administration of bankrolling the Hamas assault as a result of a prisoner exchange deal with Iran, which has historically funded Hamas and Hezbollah. Biden said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that "our nation's support for Israel is resolute and unwavering. And the right time to praise the terrorists who seek to destroy them is never." Trump had made his remarks to supporters in West Palm Beach as he was criticizing the White House. "You know, Hezbollah is very smart. They're all very smart,'" Trump said. White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said Trump's remarks were "dangerous and unhinged." Israel also reacted angrily, with Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi in a TV interview saying Trump could "obviously" not be trusted. "It is shameful that such a person, a former president of the United States, aid propaganda and spreads comments that harm the spirit of IDF (army) fighters and the spirit of Israeli residents," Karhi said. "We don't need to deal with him or with the nonsense he says."Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people in Israel and took about 150 hostages in their surprise onslaught from Gaza Saturday. Israel has retaliated by raining air and artillery strikes on Gaza for six days, claiming over 1,350 lives. Israel's defense has been complicated by clashes in the north with Hezbollah in recent days, including cross-border rockets and shelling.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running in a distant second place behind Trump in the race for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, also took aim at his rival. "It is absurd that anyone, much less someone running for President, would choose now to attack our friend and ally, Israel, much less praise Hezbollah terrorists as 'very smart,'" he posted on X. In a statement Thursday evening, Trump did not address his comment on Hezbollah but said Israel had "no better friend or ally... than President Donald J. Trump." Biden's "weakness and incompetence has empowered and emboldened our enemies all over the World, and now, many lives have been so needlessly lost," the statement said.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 13-14/2023
Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders 1 million to evacuate as ground attack looms
JERUSALEM (AP)/October 13, 2023
Palestinians fled in a mass exodus Friday from northern Gaza after Israel’s military told some 1 million people to evacuate to the southern part of the besieged territory ahead of an expected ground invasion in retaliation for the surprise attack by the ruling Hamas militant group nearly a week ago. The U.N. warned that ordering almost half the Gaza population to flee en masse would be calamitous, and it urged Israel to reverse the unprecedented directive. As airstrikes hammered the territory throughout the day, families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with possessions streamed down a main road out of Gaza City.
Hamas’ media office said warplanes struck cars fleeing south, killing more than 70 people. The Israeli military said its troops had conducted temporary raids into Gaza to battle militants and hunted for traces of some 150 people abducted in the Hamas attack.
Hamas told people to ignore the evacuation order, and families in Gaza faced what they feared was a no-win decision to leave or stay, with no safe ground anywhere. Hospital staff said they couldn’t abandon patients. Unrelenting Israeli strikes over the past week have leveled large swaths of neighborhoods, magnifying the suffering of Gaza, which has also been sealed off from food, water and medical supplies, and under a virtual total power blackout. “Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if you’ll make it, if you’re going to live,” said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, as she broke into heaving sobs.
In the week-old war, the Gaza Health Ministry said Friday that roughly 1,900 people have been killed in the territory — more than half of them under the age of 18, or women. The Hamas assault last Saturday killed more than 1,300 Israelis, most of whom were civilians, and roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed during the fighting, the Israeli government said.
ISRAELI TROOPS MAKE FORAY INTO GAZA
Israel's raid was the first word of troops entering Gaza since Israel launched its round-the-clock bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’ massacre of hundreds of people in southern Israel. A military spokesman said Israeli ground troops left after conducting the raids. The troop movements did not appear to be the beginning of an expected ground invasion.
The evacuation order was taken as a further signal of an expected Israeli ground offensive, although no such decision has been announced. Israel has been massing troops along the Gaza border. An assault into densely populated and impoverished Gaza would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.
“We will destroy Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Friday night in a speech, adding, “This is only the beginning.” Hamas said Israel’s airstrikes killed 13 of the hostages in the past day. It said the dead included foreigners but did not give their nationalities. Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari denied the claim. In Israel, the public remained in shock over the Hamas rampage and frightened by continual rocket fire out of Gaza. The public is overwhelmingly in favor of the military offensive, and Israeli TV stations have set up special broadcasts with slogans like “together we will win” and “strong together.” Their reports focus heavily on the aftermath of the Hamas attack, stories of heroism and national unity, and they make scant mention of the unfolding crisis in Gaza.
ISRAEL URGES MASS EVACUATION OF GAZA CIVILIANS
The U.N. said the Israeli military's call for civilians to move south affects 1.1 million people. If carried out, that would mean the territory’s entire population would have to cram into the southern half of the 40-kilometer (25-mile) strip. Israel said it needed to target Hamas’ military infrastructure, much of which is buried deep underground. An Israeli spokesperson, Jonathan Conricus, said the military would take “extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians” and that residents would be allowed to return when the war is over. Israel has long accused Hamas of using Palestinians as human shields. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel wanted to separate Hamas militants from the civilian population. “So those who want to save their life, please go south,” he said at a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it would be impossible to stage such an evacuation without “devastating humanitarian consequences.” He called on Israel to rescind any such orders.
PALESTINIANS IN GAZA GRAPPLE WITH WHERE TO GO
Hamas’ media office said airstrikes hit cars in three locations as they headed south from Gaza City, killing 70 people. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike. Two witnesses reported a strike on fleeing cars near the town of Deir el-Balah, south of the evacuation zone and in the area Israel told people to flee to. Fayza Hamoudi said she and her family were driving from their home in the north when the strike hit some distance ahead on the road and two vehicles burst into flames. A witness from another car on the road gave a similar account. “Why should we trust that they’re trying to keep us safe?” Hamoudi said, her voice choking. “They are sick.”
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the strike.
Hamas called the evacuation order “psychological warfare” aimed at breaking Palestinian solidarity and urged people to stay. But there was no sign of it preventing the flight.
Gaza City resident Khaled Abu Sultan at first didn’t believe the evacuation order was real, and now isn’t sure whether to move his family to the south. “We don’t know if there are safe areas there,” he said. “We don’t know anything.”
Many expressed concern they would not be able to return or be gradually displaced to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. More than half of the Palestinians in Gaza are the descendants of refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, when hundreds of thousands fled or were expelled from what is now Israel. For many, the mass evacuation order dredged up fears of a second expulsion. Already, at least 423,000 people — nearly 1 in 5 Gazans — have been forced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes, the U.N. said Thursday.
“Where is the sense of security in Gaza? Is this what Hamas is offering us?” said one resident, Tarek Mraish, standing by an avenue as vehicles flowed by. “What has Hamas done to us? It brought us catastrophe,” he said, using the same Arabic word “nakba” used for the 1948 displacement.
HOSPITALS STRUGGLE WITH PATIENTS
Gaza’s Health Ministry said it was impossible to evacuate the many wounded from hospitals, which are already struggling with high numbers of dead and injured. “We cannot evacuate hospitals and leave the wounded and sick to die,” spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said. Farsakh, of the Palestinian Red Crescent, said some medics were refusing to abandon patients and were instead calling colleagues to say goodbye.
“We have wounded, we have elderly, we have children who are in hospitals,” she said.
Al Awda Hospital was struggling to evacuate dozens of patients and staff after the military contacted it and told it do so by Friday night, said the aid group Doctors Without Borders, known as MSF, which supports the facility. The military extended the deadline to Saturday morning, it said. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it would not evacuate its schools, where hundreds of thousands have taken shelter. But it relocated its headquarters to southern Gaza, according to spokesperson Juliette Touma.
“The scale and speed of the unfolding humanitarian crisis is bone-chilling. Gaza is fast becoming a hellhole and is on the brink of collapse,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general. Pressed by reporters on whether the army would protect hospitals, U.N. shelters and other civilian locations, Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said the military would keep civilians safe “as much as we can.” But he warned: “It’s a war zone.”
*Shurafa reported from Gaza City, Gaza Strip and Lederer from Chicago. Associated Press writers Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem, Samya Kullab in Baghdad, Samy Magdy in Cairo, and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

RCMP aware of social media threats to Jewish community, calls for vigilance
The Canadian Press/October 13, 2023
OTTAWA — The RCMP says it's aware of social media posts threatening the Jewish community in Canada, calling it a time for "increased vigilance."The statement comes as several Canadian polices forces, including in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver, say they have upped patrols in response to the Israel-Hamas war but have not identified any specific local threats. A spokesperson for the Mounties declined to answer further questions about the social media threats, including whether the force was investigating. The statement says any threats are taken seriously and investigated as warranted. The Ontario Provincial Police issued a statement Friday morning saying it was aware of "global online threats of violence regarding the situation in the Middle East."Hamas' deadly rampage through southern Israel last Saturday and the ensuing Israeli bombardment in Gaza has killed more than 2,800 people.

Mélanie Joly visiting Israel to reaffirm support, push for humanitarian aid passage
OTTAWA/The Canadian Press/October 13, 2023
Canada's foreign affairs minister has arrived in Tel Aviv as she visits Israel and Jordan to hold talks on the impacts of Hamas' attack on Israel and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. Global Affairs Canada says in a statement that Minister Mélanie Joly travelled to the Middle East through Greece, the destination of the first two airlifts of Canadians out of Israel. The statement says Joly will "reaffirm Canada's support for Israel and its right to defend itself in accordance with international law," while pushing forward collective efforts to ensure the swift passage of humanitarian aid and the protection of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians. It says she will engage with Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. The three-day trip comes after Hamas militants staged a deadly massacre in Israel last Saturday, with ensuing Israeli bombardments killing hundreds in besieged Gaza. Israel's military told about one million Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza on Friday and head to the southern part of the sealed-off coastal enclave ahead of an expected ground invasion, an order that the U.N. warned would be impossible and potentially calamitous on a 24-hour deadline.

A 'Zionist in my heart': Biden's devotion to Israel faces a new test
WASHINGTON (AP)/October 13/ 2023
Joe Biden had been to Dachau, the infamous concentration camp in Germany, several times before, but he sensed changes when he visited as vice president with a teenaged granddaughter. “It seemed as though things had been rearranged to make visitors less uncomfortable," he recalled in a memoir published two years after the 2015 visit. "They had softened the cruel edges over the years.” Unwilling to settle for what he believed was a more sanitized experience, Biden asked the guides to bring them to the gas chamber, where they “slammed the door behind us with a frightening clank.”
For Biden, it's a direct line from there to the Hamas attacks on Israel, which caused the largest loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust.In a searing speech from the White House, Biden said the bloodshed "brought to the surface painful memories and the scars left by a millennia of antisemitism and genocide of the Jewish people.” The massacres and kidnappings have sparked a crisis that threatens to engulf more of the Middle East. They've also resonated deeply for the U.S. president, whose devotion to Israel is rooted in a childhood that saw the birth of the Jewish state and in a political career that parallels repeated threats to destroy it. Biden's support has remained solid over the years even as some corners of his Democratic Party have urged a more critical approach to Israel and its decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory, which is widely viewed as illegal by the international community.
“He’s a politician of a generation that probably doesn’t exist anymore,” said Aaron David Miller, who has advised both Democratic and Republican administrations on the Middle East. Biden's commitment could be tested if Israel launches an incursion into Gaza, where Hamas is headquartered, in a military operation that would compound the suffering already experienced by Palestinians facing waves of retaliatory bombardment.
For now, Biden has offered only vague admonitions that Israel should follow the rules of war, which United Nations officials say are being violated by its siege tactics leading to dwindling supplies of food, medicine and electricity.
Instead, Biden's focus has been on demonstrating “unshakable” solidarity with Israel, including his remarks during a White House meeting Wednesday with Jewish leaders to talk about combating antisemitism.
“Were there no Israel, no Jew in the world would be ultimately safe," Biden said. "It’s the only ultimate guarantee.”During Biden's remarks, he recalled his visits to Dachau, saying some doubted whether it was appropriate to bring his grandchildren, and his children before them, to the concentration camp when they were young. It was important, he said, to demonstrate not only the cruelty of the Holocaust but the apathy that allowed it to take place.“I wanted them to see,” Biden said, his voice rising, his fist rapping on the lectern, “that you could not not know what was going on."
Amy Spitalnick, a leader of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs who attended the Wednesday meeting, said it's clear that Biden “feels it in his kishkes, as my grandmother would have said,” using a Yiddish word for gut.
“There was deep appreciation for the moral clarity that the president has had," she said.
It's a lesson that Biden traces to his father, who he describes as having a “preoccupation with the Holocaust." Biden was born in 1942, three years before the end of World War II and six years before Israel’s founding, coming of age at a time when the world was reckoning with genocide. At the dinner table, then-senator Biden recalled during a 1999 hearing on antisemitism in Russia, his father would often talk about “how the world stood silently by in the 1930s in the face of Hitler.” Biden added that he is “a Zionist in my heart.”
Biden has met every Israeli prime minister over more than five decades in elected office, starting with Golda Meir in 1973. It's a story he frequently retells, most recently on Tuesday. During Biden's first trip to the country after being elected senator, he said Meir sensed his concern about the country's future. As they were posing for a photo after their meeting, Biden recalled, she whispered to him that Israel had a “secret weapon” to protect them — "we have no place else to go.”
It was a remark that encapsulated Israel's back-against-the-wall perspective as a new nation surrounded by hostile Arab countries, some of which would invade only weeks later in the Yom Kippur War. But Biden also recognized another challenge, according to a classified Israeli document describing the meeting and obtained by Israel's Channel 13 in 2020. He told Meir that Israel should begin relinquishing Palestinian territory that had been seized during the Six-Day War of 1967.
Much of that land remains under Israeli control, and Biden acknowledged last year during a visit to Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, that there was little immediate hope of advancing the peace process. Biden also stopped in Jerusalem during the trip, and his remarks there were a window into how he has tried to balance Israel's imperiled beginnings and its current status as a regional power. He noted that his first stop after arriving in Israel was Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, so he could “renew our vow of never again.”
However, he said, “the Israel of today is not the Israel of 50 years ago,” with “new tools that keep Israel strong and secure,” not to mention “an ironclad commitment from the United States of America to Israel’s security.”Over the years, Biden has projected public support for Israel while also expressing private concerns about some of its actions.
Frank Jannuzi, who worked for Biden when he was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, remembered how the senator gave explicit guidance that any disagreements with Israel should be handled quietly.
“It was very important in public venues, whether that is before Congress or the media or on the international stage, for the United States to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel," Jannuzi recalled. Biden's reason, Jannuzi said, was that "if Israel felt insecure in the world, or isolated, because America had somehow distanced itself, then Israel would be less likely to listen to our advice.” Biden has made rare departures from that approach when dealing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a right-wing coalition government that includes ultranationalist leaders.
Netanyahu is pushing changes to his country's judicial system in a way that critics say would erode its democracy, and earlier this year Biden said the Israeli leader “cannot continue down this road.”
The issue resurfaced when the two leaders met last month. “We’re going to discuss some of the hard issues, that is upholding democratic values that lie at the heart of our partnership, including the checks and balances in our systems," Biden said at the time. The disagreements have not precluded Biden and Netanyahu from working together toward establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, an effort that could be derailed by the latest fighting. And since the Hamas attacks on Saturday, Biden and Netanyahu have spoken repeatedly, most recently on Wednesday. Israeli officials and commentators across the political spectrum have expressed gratitude for Biden's backing, undercutting Republican criticism of the White House's approach to the region. The U.S. president “just set a new standard of support for the Jewish state and the Jewish people in times of tragedy and war," Herb Keinon wrote in the Jerusalem Post. The U.S. has begun shipping munitions and military hardware to Israel, and an aircraft carrier strike group was deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean in a show of force intended to deter a wider conflict. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday. “We will make sure the Jewish and democratic State of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow, as we always have,” Biden said on Tuesday. “It’s as simple as that.”

The White House is walking back Biden's statement that he saw photographic evidence of beheaded children
Sarah Gray,Erin Snodgrass,Joshua Zitser/Business InsiderWed, October 11, 2023
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden said he saw "pictures of terrorists beheading children." Hours later, a National Security official walked back those comments. The official told NPR Biden was referring to media reports about the attack in Israel.
President Joe Biden addressed Jewish community leaders at a round table on Wednesday, where he referenced a gruesome claim made by the Israel Defense Forces. "It matters that Americans see what is happening," Biden said, according to Axios reporter Barak Ravid. "I have been doing this a long time — I never thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children." Later in the evening on Wednesday, a National Security official told NPR that Biden was referring to media reports when he made that remark. CNN reported Wednesday night that a White House official said that neither Biden nor the administration had seen these images and that Biden was referring to comments from Israeli officials and reports in the media. Insider reached out to the White House to clarify Biden's remarks. The White House did not immediately respond.
The gruesome claim about babies
A journalist with Israeli broadcaster i24News on Tuesday was the first to claim that babies had been killed in the Israeli kibbutz Kfar Aza, initially saying "40 babies, at least, were taken out on gurneys." The journalist, Nicole Zedeck, later clarified the statement, saying that "soldiers told me they believe 40 babies/children were killed." Later on Tuesday, IDF spokesman Major Nir Dinar told Insider that Israeli soldiers came across the bodies of babies, including some that had been decapitated, at the Kfar Aza kibbutz near the Israel-Gaza border. Dinar said the IDF "can not confirm any numbers," but described the situation at the kibbutz as a "massacre" in which children were "brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action." Insider has not been able to independently verify these claims. The claim sparked outrage and skepticism on social media. On Wednesday, after pressure to provide evidence of the grisly claim, Dinar told Insider the IDF would not further investigate the claims and that doing so would be "disrespectful for the dead." "We're not going to investigate the condition of bodies and even if we did we won't comment publicly about the condition of our civilians' bodies. And babies," he said.
Dinar said the claim of decapitated babies was made based on what soldiers on the ground had relayed to him and others in the military. "Let your readers know that a soldier who handled the bodies, that was his claim," he said. "I don't have an evidence and I'm not looking for one."On Saturday, the militant group Hamas launched coordinated attacks on Israel, attacking civilians in border communities and at a music festival, leaving at least 1,200 Israelis dead and taking an estimated 150 captive. Israel has since launched a punishing counterattack on Gaza, leveling neighborhoods and cutting off food, water, fuel, and electricity to the roughly 2.3 million people living in the 140-square-mile Gaza Strip. As of Wednesday afternoon, Palestinian authorities said 1,100 people in Gaza have been killed, including at least 260 children. Biden and Douglas Emhoff, the second gentleman of the US, who is Jewish, addressed Jewish community leaders on Wednesday to reaffirm US commitment to Israel and discuss combatting antisemitism. At least 14 Americans were killed during the attack, per US officials, and at least 20 are missing.

Egypt fears mass exodus of refugees into its territory after evacuation warning
Associated Press./October 13, 2023
Israel's call Friday for half of the Gaza Strip's population to evacuate south is hiking Egypt's fears of a massive influx of refugees across the heavily fortified border into its territory. Since Hamas' bloody attack on Israel sparked a massive retaliation in Gaza, Egypt's leadership has frantically tried to negotiate the entry of humanitarian aid through its crossing into the Palestinian territory — partially in hopes of averting an exodus into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Officials say its efforts have received no response from Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was expected to visit Cairo over the weekend and Egyptian officials are expected to discuss the entry of aid with him. Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip, stopping all entry of food, water, medicine and fuel to its 2.3 million people, while bombardment has leveled swaths of its cities. That has left Egypt's Rafah crossing as the sole access. But repeated Israeli airstrikes at the Palestinian side of the crossing have forced it to stop operating, Egypt's Foreign Ministry said, leaving trucks of aid stopped on the Egyptian side. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi called for access through Rafah in a speech Thursday. He also pushed back against letting in large numbers of Palestinians.
"The threat there is significant because it means the liquidation of this (Palestinian) cause," el-Sissi said at a military college graduation ceremony in Cairo. "It's important for its people to stay steadfast and exist on its land." He also pointed out that Egypt already hosts some 9 million refugees. That population swelled this year as 300,000 Sudanese fled their country's war into Egypt, already facing economic crisis. Khaled Gendy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said Egypt's primary concern is that hundreds of thousands of refugees will become a permanent reality. "What sort of guarantees are there going to be for their return?" he said. Palestinians and Arab nations are marked by the experience of the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation when Palestinians were expelled or fled to neighboring countries and have not been allowed to return since, a major sticking point in the long defunct peace process.
A senior State Department official traveling with Blinken from Jordan to Qatar said the U.S. is talking to Israel, U.N. agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross on creating safe zones within Gaza, where civilians can receive humanitarian aid. It was not clear if the aid would enter from Israel or Egypt. The official said there appears to be little desire on anyone's part to unfettered border crossings into Egypt, given the impact on the already restive Sinai and the economic burden, and they don't want Palestinians who are already refugees to become double refugees. The U.S. focus on Egypt has been on getting Palestinians with dual nationality out through Rafah if they wish. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private and ongoing diplomatic discussions.
Egyptian officials have long feared that Israel seeks to make their country responsible for Palestinians in Gaza, which Egypt ruled between the 1948 and 1967 Mideast wars. Egypt has joined Israel in its blockade of the Gaza Strip since the Hamas takeover, tightly controlling entry of supplies and the exit of people.
Israel's evacuation call told Palestinians to move to southern Gaza, raising expectations of a ground assault. A military spokesman said they would be allowed back once the war is over. But with bombardment continuing in south Gaza, the mass movement will likely put pressure on Egypt's border. Israel has not detailed its long-term plan for Gaza beyond crushing Hamas, which has ruled there since 2007. Even if displaced are allowed back, it isn't known what will remain of their homes and economy. A senior Egyptian security official told The Associated Press that Egypt has taken "unprecedented measures" to prevent a breach to its borders with Gaza. Thousands of security forces have been deployed at the border, he said. In 2008, Hamas militants blasted through the border fence with Egypt, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to flood into Sinai. The state-run al-Ahram daily reported that Egyptian authorities warned Hamas' leaders in recent days against any repeat of that. The official said Egyptian officials have been communicating "around the clock" with Israel, Hamas, the United States and European countries proposing a cease-fire, allowing aid delivery through Rafah and creating "safe zones" inside Gaza. He said there has been no Israeli response. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to news media. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was unaware of any contacts with Egypt about a cease-fire or humanitarian aid, though such contacts often take place among security officials. Egypt, which has a peace treaty and close security cooperation with Israel and contacts with Hamas, helped broker cease-fires in previous wars between the two sides. European Union chief diplomat Josep Borrel on Thursday supported Egypt's proposal to deliver international aid through Rafah. Egypt has called on countries and aid groups to send supplies to its el-Arish airport in northern Sinai, near Rafah. Jordan and Turkey have already sent shipments. Local aid groups, including the Egyptian Red Crescent, also begun collecting aid and donations. Israel launched its siege of Gaza in retaliation for Hamas' incursion Saturday, when militants stormed into southern Israel, massacring hundreds of civilians and soldiers and seizing some 150 hostages. More than 3,000 people have been killed on both sides.

Blinken seeks Arab pressure on Hamas as Israel readies Gaza move
Agence France Presse/October 13, 2023
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday began a tour of six Arab capitals to build pressure on Hamas while Israel readies a massive offensive on the Gaza Strip following the militants' attacks. The top U.S. diplomat spent a morning in Amman huddled with Jordan's King Abdullah II, a longtime U.S. partner, and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. He will head later Friday to Qatar and then Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, before heading in the coming days to the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, officials said. Blinken spent Thursday in Tel Aviv where he promised unwavering solidarity to US ally Israel after the surprise October 7 offensive by Hamas, who killed over 1,300 people and took about 150 more hostage. The United States has publicly blessed reprisals by Israel, which on Friday called for the immediate relocation of 1.1 million people in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which is already under an Israeli blockade. Israel has killed more than 1,500 people in strikes in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack and has cut off food, water and electricity. Qatar has longstanding ties with Hamas and has been seen as an intermediary in freeing the hostages. "We'll continue pressing countries to help prevent the conflict from spreading, and to use their leverage with Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release the hostages," Blinken said Thursday in Tel Aviv. "We'll also discuss how we can continue to make real our affirmative vision for a region that's more peaceful, more prosperous, more secure, more integrated. "In fact, that is the choice, and the choice in some ways has been made even more stark by the actions of Hamas." Saudi Arabia in the weeks before the attacks had spoken of progress in U.S.-led diplomacy to normalize relations with Israel -- a landmark step for the conservative kingdom that is guardian of Islam's two holiest sites. Few expect the momentum to be maintained, with the Saudis joining Qatar in blaming Israeli policies towards the Palestinians for the flare-up in violence. U.S. officials are working with Egypt -- which also borders Gaza and was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel -- on a plan for a safety corridor from Gaza. Blinken said he spoke to Israel "about possibilities for safe passage for civilians who want to leave or get out of the way in Gaza".
Working with Abbas -
The nearly 88-year-old Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority enjoys small levels of autonomy in the West Bank, is a sworn foe of Hamas, whose control of the Gaza Strip has led to a 17-year Israeli blockade. Blinken entered his private residence in Amman and shook hands next to a painting that depicted the veteran Palestinian leader superimposed in front of Islam's holy Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. The United States under President Joe Biden and other Democrats has largely been supportive of the Palestinian Authority, seeing it as the best option for long-term peace with Israel. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long sought to sideline the Palestinian Authority and Abbas, saying he is insufficiently committed to stopping violence, with the hard-right Israeli government rejecting the prospect of a two-state solution. Abbas made his first public remarks on the conflict on Thursday after meeting King Abdullah. Abbas called for "an immediate end to the comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people" and rejected "practices related to killing civilians or abusing them on both sides". Blinken earlier spoke to Abbas by telephone about the attacks, urging him to condemn the violence and maintain stability in the West Bank.

Tens of thousands protest across Mideast over Israel’s attacks on Gaza
Associated Press./October 13, 2023
Tens of thousands of Muslims demonstrated Friday across the Middle East in support of the Palestinians and to protest against the Israeli airstrikes pounding the Gaza Strip, underscoring the risk of a wider regional conflict erupting as Israel prepares for a possible ground invasion there. From Amman, Jordan, to Yemen's capital, Muslims poured out onto the streets after weekly Friday prayers. At Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Israeli police had been permitting only older men, women and children to the sprawling hilltop compound for prayers, trying to prevent the potential for demonstration as tens of thousands attend on a typical Friday. An Associated Press reporter watched police allow just a Palestinian teenage girl and her mother into the compound out of 20 worshippers who tried, some of them even over the age of 50. Young Palestinian men who were refused entry gathered at the steps near Lion's Gate, their eyes downcast, until police shouted at them and shepherded them out of the Old City altogether. "We can't live, we can't breathe, they are killing everything that good is good within us," Ahmad Barbour, a 57-year-old cleaner in a clean white thobe, said, seething, after police blocked him from entering for prayers. "Everything that is forbidden to us is allowed to them." The mosque sits in a hilltop compound sacred to both Jews and Muslims, and conflicting claims over it have spilled into violence before. Al-Aqsa is the third-holiest site in Islam and stands in a spot known to Jews as the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in Judaism. In Baghdad alone, tens of thousands gathered in Tahrir Square in the center of Baghdad for protests called by the influential Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr. "May this demonstration ... terrify the great evil, America, which supports Zionist terrorism against our loved ones in Palestine," Sadr said in an online statement. Across Iran, a supporter of Hamas and Israel's regional archenemy, demonstrators protested. In Tehran, the capital, protesters burned Israeli and American flags, chanting: "Death to Israel," "Death to America," "Israel will be doomed," and "Palestine will be the conqueror." Demonstrators waved Iranian, Palestinian, and Lebanese Hezbollah flags and held banners reading "Down with America" and "Down with Israel". Similar gatherings took place in other cities across Iran, where American and Israeli flags were burned. In Yemen's capital of Sanaa, held by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels still at war with a Saudi-led coalition, live television footage showed demonstrators crowding streets and waving Yemeni and Palestinian flags. The rebels' slogan long has been: "God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse of the Jews; victory to Islam." After prayers in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, some worshippers stepped on American and Israeli flags, in a sign of disrespect. In Jordan, which has long had a peace treaty with neighbouring Israel, more than 10,000 people gathered in central Amman, near the Grand Husseini Mosque, after a call for protests from the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, and several leftist and youth groups. In the Gulf state of Bahrain, hundreds of worshippers chanted "Death to Israel!" and "Death to America!" ahead of Friday prayers at Diraz mosque. Hundreds of people then joined a protest march, some of them waving Palestinian flags and others stamping on Israeli and U.S. emblems that were laid on the ground. In the Saudi capital Riyadh, where protests are prohibited, an AFP journalist witnessed police cuffing a worshipper who interrupted Friday prayers by shouting at the imam: "Speak about Palestine! Gaza is under bombs!"

Gazans flee as army evacuation warning sparks condemnation
Agence France Presse./October 13, 2023
Palestinians carried belongings through the rubble-strewn streets of Gaza City Friday in search of refuge as Israel's army warned residents to flee immediately before an expected ground offensive in retaliation against Hamas for the deadliest attack in Israeli history. Hamas fighters broke through the militarized border barrier around the Gaza Strip enclave last Saturday, killing more than 1,300 people in Israel. There have been protests in support of the Palestinians across the Middle East and beyond, plus threats of a further confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon. At least five Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire across the occupied West Bank during rallies in solidarity with Gaza, the health ministry said. In Gaza, United Nations officials said the Israeli military told them the evacuation should be carried out "within the next 24 hours" but the army did not confirm that timeline. Israel has retaliated to Hamas's attacks by hitting Gaza with thousands of munitions. The strikes have claimed more than 1,530 lives -- 500 of them children, according to the health ministry in Gaza, where the health system is "at a breaking point," the World Health Organization said. "One million people no food no water, and still they are bombing them as they leave. Where are we going to put them?" Elizabeth El-Nakla, the mother-in-law of Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf, said in a video he posted. "This will be my last video. Everybody from Gaza is moving towards where we are," added Nakla, who was visiting relatives in Gaza from Scotland. "May God help us."The U.N. said the "impossible" mass relocation would affect 1.1 million or about half the entire population of the Gaza Strip, and urgently appealed for the order to be rescinded.
- Hostages -
Any Israeli ground operation is complicated by Hamas's holding -- according to Israel's government -- an estimated 150 Israeli, foreign and dual-national hostages who were taken back to Gaza during the attack. Hamas on Friday said 13 hostages, including foreigners, had been killed in Israeli strikes. The militants had previously reported four hostages killed in strikes. AFP correspondents in Gaza said the Israeli military on Friday dropped flyers on Gaza warning residents to flee "immediately" south of Wadi Gaza, with a map pointing south across a line in the centre of the 40 kilometer-long territory. "The IDF will continue to operate significantly in Gaza City and make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians," the army said earlier. "Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City inside tunnels underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent civilians." AFP correspondents said there were "heavy strikes" in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday morning, including Al-Shati refugee camp and Gaza City, primarily targeting residential buildings. The Hamas media office reported Israeli air raids on Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south. Israel's army said its "fighter jets struck 750 military targets in the northern Gaza Strip overnight" including "residences of senior terrorist operatives used as military command centres". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas "will be crushed." The militants said Saturday's attack sought to end Israel's "rampaging without being held accountable".
Hamas, in a statement, said "our Palestinian people" rejected Israel's Gaza evacuation order.
A 'crime' -
Carrying plastic bags of belongings, with suitcases on their shoulders and children in their arms, Gazans were, however, moving to other areas of the crowded territory in search of safety on Friday. Some walked while others drove, with belongings strapped to the roofs of their vehicles. More than 423,000 people have already fled their homes in the territory of 2.4 million, according to the U.N. Such an evacuation order could transform "what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation," a U.N. spokesman said. The territory was already under a land, air and sea blockade since 2006. Israel has now cut off water, food and power supplies to Gaza in a total siege it has vowed will not end until all hostages are freed. "I condemn this siege because you have to, when they ask so many people to leave, when they don't have access to food and medicine," said Norway's Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt. Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit said Israel's evacuation order is a "forced transfer" that constitutes "a crime". Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meanwhile said it will be "tantamount to a second Nakba" or "catastrophe", referring to the 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war when Israel was created. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters: "We are trying to provide the time and we are doing a lot of effort, and we understand it won't take 24 hours." Gaza's 2.4 million residents are enduring the fifth war in 15 years. Israeli fighter jets and drones have levelled entire blocks and destroyed thousands of buildings. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Jordan Friday, where he discussed with King Abdullah II "ways to address the humanitarian needs of civilians in Gaza while Israel conducts legitimate security operations", State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. King Abdullah called for "opening humanitarian corridors to allow for the entry of urgent medical and relief aid to Gaza", a royal court statement said. The top U.S. diplomat, on a regional tour, arrived from Israel which he visited Thursday in a sign of solidarity. Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, said in a statement posted on Telegram that "hospitals are starting to lose capacity" in a worsening situation with medicine and fuel running out.
Military build-up -
Israel has called up 300,000 reservists and moved forces, tanks and armour to the southern desert area around Gaza. On Friday an AFP correspondent near Sderot, just outside Gaza, saw a convoy of more than 20 Israeli tanks and a dozen armoured vehicles heading toward Gaza. In fields along the border with the territory, artillery fires like clockwork with a deafening noise every 30 seconds towards barely visible targets in Gaza, shaking the earth. Since Saturday Israeli soldiers have swept the southern towns and kibbutz communities and said they found the bodies of 1,500 militants. Yossi Landau, who has 33 years' volunteer experience with Zaka, which recovers the bodies of people who suffered unnatural deaths, says he has almost reached breaking point recovering the remains of those killed by Gaza militants. Hamas denies its fighters killed infants during the attack on Saturday.
Hezbollah threat
Israel's war now flaring in the south is further complicated by a threat from Hezbollah based to the north in Lebanon. The army and Hezbollah have exchanged cross-border fire in recent days. A Hezbollah official said on Friday his movement was "fully prepared" to join Hamas in the war against Israel when the time is right. The U.S. has sent additional munitions to Israel and deployed an aircraft carrier battle group to the eastern Mediterranean in a show of support, while warning Israel's other enemies not to enter the war. On Friday Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, also on a solidarity visit to Israel, pledged "iron-clad" backing for Israel in its war. In London, the UK said it was sending two Royal Navy ships and surveillance aircraft to the eastern Mediterranean to support Israel and "ensure regional stability". Israel's arch foe Iran has long financially and militarily backed Hamas and praised its attack, but insists it was not involved. The Washington Post reported that U.S. and Qatari officials have agreed to prevent Iran from using a $6 billion humanitarian assistance fund, following the Hamas attack. But an Iranian official said the U.S. "can NOT renege on the agreement." Thousands of Iranians, Iraqis and Jordanians took to the streets on Friday in a sign of support for the Palestinians. Pro-Palestinian rallies also occurred in Asia, including in Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Delhi and Dhaka.

Global Knife Attack Frenzy as Hamas ‘Day of Rage’ Gets Underway
Dan Ladden-Hall/The Daily Beast./October 13, 2023
Frenzied knife attacks were reported in China and France on Friday after Hamas called for the 13th to be a global “day of rage” in response to the group’s ongoing war with Israel. The disturbing acts of violence cannot be immediately linked to the war but the first victim was an employee of the Israeli embassy. The second attack, which killed at least one man, came in France where the local media reports that the assailant—who was known to the authorities as an Islamist radical—shouted “Allahu Akbar” during an attack on multiple people at a school. A terrorism investigation has been launched. The call for a “day of rage” has prompted security alerts all over the world with Jewish schools and synagogues from Palo Alto to London and Aukland closing for the day while the American authorities increased security measures in major cities and at the U.S. Capitol. In Beijing, the Israeli embassy staffer was attacked with a knife in broad daylight before being taken to the hospital. Chinese authorities have not released a motive for the attack, which comes after Israel admonished China for failing to condemn the unprecedented Hamas attacks which led to at least 1,300 Israeli soldiers and civilians being killed. Gaza Ground Invasion Might Be Both Necessary and Disastrous for Israel. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the embassy worker—who was not named—is in a stable condition following the assault, adding that the attack did not take place inside the embassy compound. Disturbing video footage purportedly showing the incident began circulating online Friday, appearing to show a man screaming and bleeding as he’s repeatedly stabbed by another man wielding a knife. A witness said the attack took place at around 2:20 p.m. local time, according to the South China Morning Post, with the victim allegedly helped by an English-speaking passerby. Another witness who heard screaming said he saw a tall, thin man wearing a white top leave the scene while carrying a knife. An investigation is now underway. It came after the Israeli Foreign Ministry said it expressed “deep disappointment” in a call with the Chinese envoy to the Middle East over Beijing’s failure to condemn Hamas’ weekend attack. Elsewhere, a teacher was killed and two others were left seriously injured in a stabbing attack at a school in France. The attack took place in a high school in the northern city of Arras, according to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. Citing police and prefecture sources, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported that the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) during the rampage. According to French network BFMTV, the assailant is a 20-year-old Chechen. Darmanin confirmed the perpetrator had been arrested, while BFMTV claimed the suspect’s brother was also arrested “near another high school.” According to Le Figaro, the alleged Arras attacker was on France’s state security watchlist. The country’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the incident on charges including “assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise.”Israelis Were Slaughtered, Now Jews Are Threatened Worldwide. Tensions were already running high around the world after a former Hamas leader called for a “day of rage” to show solidarity with the group on Friday. Khaled Meshaal, who currently serves as the head of Hamas’ diaspora office, said Tuesday that Muslims should “mobilize for jihad,” according to The Jerusalem Post. “I say very clearly that this is the moment for the nation to engage in the battle and for us to fight together,” he added. The alarming call has led to law enforcement agencies around the world bolstering security. On Thursday, U.S. House and Senate security officials said security at the U.S. Capitol complex would be stepped up over the next few days, according to Axios. House Sergeant-at-Arms William McFarland reportedly cited the “day of rage” as the reason for the tightening. At least three Jewish schools in California planned to close on Friday owing to the security concerns, while New York Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday night that law enforcement would be increased at potentially vulnerable locations. He nevertheless encouraged residents to continue attending their places of worship and sending their children to school. “New York City will do whatever it takes to keep our people safe,” he said.

Israeli Embassy employee stabbed in China
Associated Press/October 13, 2023
A 50-year-old Israeli man who works at the Israeli Embassy in Beijing was stabbed on Friday in front of a supermarket, Chinese police and the Israeli government said. Beijing police said they had arrested a suspect, a 53-year-old foreign man. They said the victim is a family member of an Israeli diplomat. No motive was given for the attack. "The employee was transferred to hospital and he is in a stable condition," an Israeli government statement said, without giving additional details. The incident came after Israel criticized China's statement following the unprecedented and deadly incursion by the militant group Hamas into southern Israel last Saturday. The attack sparked an ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. The stabbing occurred as Muslims across the world took to the streets in large protests after Friday prayers over Israel's intense bombing campaign in Gaza. Just before the announcement, Israel's Foreign Ministry said Ambassador Rafi Harpaz had spoken Thursday with the Chinese envoy for the Middle East, Zhai Jun, to express his country's "deep disappointment" over China's comments after the Hamas incursion.
There was "no clear and unequivocal condemnation of the terrible massacre committed by the terrorist organization Hamas against innocent civilians and the abduction of dozens of them to Gaza," the statement said. "The Chinese announcements do not contain any element of Israel's right to defend itself and its citizens, a fundamental right of any sovereign country that was attacked in an unprecedented manner and with cruelty that has no place in human society."An earlier Chinese statement about the phone conversation said that Beijing condemns actions that harm innocent civilians and is "deeply concerned over the escalation of tensions and violence ... and saddened by the civilian casualties caused by the conflict." Asked about the Israeli statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reiterated that China opposes acts harming citizens and violating international law.
"China will continue to work unremittingly for de-escalation of the situation and the resumption of peace talks," he said. In Beijing, about half-a-dozen plainclothes police were stationed outside the Israeli Embassy in addition to the normal contingent of uniformed officers. Some 2 kilometers away at the Palestinian Embassy in Beijing, plainclothes officers were also on hand and one was tightening wires on a fence. Since the war broke out, bombarded with hostile messages, the Israeli Embassy in Beijing is filtering comments on its Chinese social media account. The embassy selected a comment that said, "Support Israel! Destroy the terrorist organization!" — the remarks got 5,700 likes. Chinese state media have blamed the United States for fanning tensions in the region. "The Chinese government has always propagated a narrative that places the blame squarely on Israel, a key U.S. ally, because this aligns with a key objective of (the ruling Communist Party's) propaganda: to undermine the U.S. in the international community," said Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House. "This time, it is no exception."While the United States remains Israel's top ally, China in recent months had tried to reach out to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox government as tensions had risen with Washington over Netanyahu's planned overhaul of the country's judiciary, which sparked months of protests. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were in the region Friday in support of Israel while President Joe Biden also has spoken out against the Hamas attack. America also has sent additional arms to Israel, deployed one aircraft carrier group and plans to send another to discourage a regional escalation as Israel prepares for a possible ground offensive in Gaza. The U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, tweeted on X that "we are shocked by today's attack on an Israeli diplomat in Beijing" and said the embassy had offered its full support to the Israeli Embassy and the Israeli community in China. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meeting with Chinese leaders in Beijing earlier this week, voiced dissatisfaction over the initial Chinese statement on the deadly Hamas incursion. Schumer later said he was gratified when a Foreign Ministry spokesperson later added that China is "deeply saddened by the civilian casualties" and "opposes and condemns acts that harm civilians."

A teacher is dead and 2 people are wounded after a France stabbing attack that echoes 2020 killing
ARRAS, France (AP)/ October 13, 2023
A man of Chechen origin who was under surveillance by the French security services over suspected radicalization stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school and critically wounded two other people in northern France on Friday, authorities said.
The attack was being investigated as potential terrorism amid soaring global tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas. It also happened almost three years after another teacher, Samuel Paty. was beheaded by a radicalized Chechen near a Paris area school.
French anti-terror prosecutors were leading the investigation into the stabbings at the Gambetta-Carnot school, which enrolls students ages 11-18 and is located in the city of Arras, some 115 miles (185 kilometers) north of Paris. The suspected assailant was arrested. The National Police force identified him as a Russian national of Chechen origin who was born in 2003. The French intelligence services told The Associated Press the man had been closely watched since the summer with tails and telephone surveillance and was stopped as recently as Thursday for a police check that found no wrongdoing.
Sliman Hamzi, a police officer who was one of the first on the scene said the suspected attacker, a former student at the school, shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic. Hamzi said he was alerted by another officer, rushed to the school and saw a male victim lying on the ground outside the school and the attacker being taken away. “Colleagues arrived quickly but unfortunately couldn’t save the victim,” Hamzi said. He said the victim, whom police described as a French language teacher at the Gambetta-Carnot school, had his throat slit. “I’m extremely shocked by what I saw," the officer said. "It was a horrible thing to see this poor man who was killed on the job by a lunatic.” Police said two other men, a second teacher and a security guard, were in critical condition. French President Emmanuel Macron traveled to Arras along with the interior and education ministers. Macron stopped for a moment before the blanket-covered body of the teacher, which was in the parking lot in front of the school. A puddle of blood was visible as forensic experts worked around the body. Macron then went to see students from the school in an adjacent building. School attacks are rare in France, and the government asked authorities to heighten vigilance at all schools across the country. Julie Duhamel, an official with the the Unsa teachers’ union in the Pas-de-Calais region that includes Arras, told Franceinfo that teachers had noted the suspect’s radicalization “a few years ago.” The suspected assailant's telephone conversations in recent days gave no indication of an impending attack, leading intelligence officers to conclude that the assailant decided suddenly on Friday to act, intelligence services told The Associated Press. The suspect’s brother was arrested in the summer of 2019 by the DGSI -- France’s counter-terrorism intelligence service -- on suspicion of being involved in the planning of an attack that was thwarted and is in jail, French intelligence said.
Police said another brother was taken into custody for questioning on Friday.
Hundreds of police deployed around the school and nearby neighborhoods, including heavily armed units, and barricaded a wide perimeter around the school. Parents said pupils were still confined to the locked-down school more than three hours after the attack.
Friday's attack had echoes of Paty's slaying on Oct 16, 2020 — also a Friday — by an 18-year-old who had become radicalized. Like the suspect in Friday's stabbings, the attacker had a Chechen background. Martin Doussau, a philosophy teacher at Gambetta-Carnot, said the assailant was armed with two knives and appeared to be hunting specifically for a history teacher. Paty taught history and geography. “I was chased by the attacker, who ... asked me if I teach history. (He said), ‘Are you a history teacher, are you a history teacher?'" said Doussau, who recounted how he barricaded himself behind a door until police used a stun gun to subdue the attacker. “When he turned around and asked me if I am a history teacher, I immediately thought of Samuel Paty,” Doussau told reporters. Prosecutors said they were considering charges of terror-related murder and attempted murder against the suspect.
The attack came amid heightened tensions around the world over Hamas' weekend attack on southern Israel and Israel's military response, which have killed hundreds of civilians on both sides. There have been calls in Muslim nations for mass protests after Friday prayers over Israel’s intense bombing campaign in Gaza. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Thursday ordered local authorities to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid a rise in antisemitic acts since the Hamas attack. France is estimated to have the world’s third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the U.S., and the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. France’s National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, held a minute of silence for the victims at the opening of its Friday session. National Assembly Vice President Naima Moutchou said the assembly “expresses its solidarity and thoughts for the victims, their families and the educational community as we learn that a teacher has been killed and several others have been injured.″

On his first foreign trip this year, Putin calls for ex-Soviet states to expand influence
The Associated Press/ October 13, 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin, on his first trip abroad since being indicted by the International Criminal Court in March, on Friday called on an alliance of former Soviet states to expand relations with non-Western countries.
In an address to the Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Putin also defended Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an attempt to prevent war and blamed the United States as an integral cause of the current war between Israel and Hamas fighters. His comments did not break ground but the trip was significant as his first venture outside Russia and the occupied territories of Ukraine after the ICC indictment for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. The indictment would oblige any country that is party to the ICC to arrest him on their soil. The CIS consists of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Armenia. Tajikistan has acceded to the ICC; Armenia, which recently approved joining the court, did not participate in the summit amid rising disputes with Russia. Putin told the CIS heads of state that “it is important to work together, together with like-minded people from other regions of the world — with the countries of the so-called world majority, the Global South, whose views are very close to us.” He deplored the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which broke out last week when Hamas launched raids on Israel, but took aim at the United States' role.
“For many years, the one-sided line of the Americans led the situation further and further into a dead end," he said. “The large-scale tragedy that Israelis and Palestinians are now experiencing was a direct result of the failed U.S. policy in the Middle East.”On Ukraine, he reiterated Russia's contention that sending troops into the country was justifiable because of years of fighting between the Ukrainian military and separatist forces in the country's east. Our special military operation is not the beginning of a war, but an attempt to stop it," Putin contended.

UK Speculates Why Russia Hasn't Conducted A Strike Against Ukraine In 3 Weeks
Kate Nicholson/HuffPost UK/ October 13, 2023
UK intelligence has a theory to explain why Russia has not launched a strike against Ukraine in 21 days.
In its latest update released on Friday, the ministry of defence (MoD) noted that the last strike conducted by the Russian Air Force Long Range Aviation (LRA) was carried out on September 21. The MoD pointed out that these kind of gaps between air attacks have not been entirely “unusual” over the course of the war – but that Moscow has actually been consistently striking Ukraine for the last six months. The last time Russia had a long break like this was the 51-day pause recorded between March 9 and April 28 earlier this year, according to the MoD. The UK intelligence officers claimed: “In that instance, it was likely that LRA had almost depleted its stocks of capable AS-23 missile munitions following its winter campaign against Ukrainian critical national infrastructure.” Russia is “likely” trying to preserve its stocks of these missiles, and using this break to “increase useable stocks in anticipation of further heavy strikes against Ukraine over the winter”. As temperatures drop, the frontline in Ukraine is likely to become even more static, meaning both sides will turn to other means of attack across the winter. The MoD also noted that Russia has been focusing its airstrikes against grain-related facilities in the south of Ukraine recently, and probably using highly accurate, un-crewed aerial vehicles for these attacks. It comes after Moscow refused to renew the deal which allowed Ukraine to export its grain through the wartime blockade, meaning Russia is now targeting Kyiv’s other export routes along the River Danube. Russian president Vladimir Putin has refused to restart the landmark deal until he gets compromises from the West. The MoD speculated in July that Russia actually wanted to leave the Black Sea Grain Initiative “because it decided that the deal was no longer serving its interests”. “Russia has masked this with disinformation,” the UK intelligence suggested, “claiming its withdrawal is instead due to concerns that civilians ships are at risk from Ukrainian mines and that Ukraine was making military use of the grain corridor without providing evidence for these claims.” The Ukrainian authorities claim more than 270,000 tonnes of grain have been destroyed by the Russian attacks on the river ports in recent months.

North Korea on track to overpower US nuclear defences
Nicola Smith/The Telegraph/ October 13, 2023
North Korea will soon be able to deploy enough nuclear missiles to overcome US defences, a congressional report has warned. The study released on Thursday by the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States gives an alarming assessment that the United States is militarily underprepared for simultaneous rising threats over the next decade from North Korea, Russia, China and Iran. It highlights Pyongyang’s “aggressive” expansion of its missile programme, including “rapid, ambitious missile development and flight-testing” to refine its nuclear-armed arsenal capable of striking as far as the US mainland. “Staying ahead of the North Korean missile threat to the homeland is a longstanding policy goal, to be pursued through ‘a comprehensive missile defeat approach’,” says the report. More broadly it sounds the alarm bell that the US requires a radical overhaul of its own nuclear arsenal and strategic posture to be able to defend itself against potential threats on multiple fronts, including the prospect of facing Russia and China as two nuclear equals for the first time. “To defend against a coercive attack from China or Russia, while staying ahead of the North Korean threat, the United States will require additional IAMD (Integrated Air and Missile Defence) capabilities,” it cautions. “The risk of conflict with these two nuclear peers is increasing. It is an existential challenge for which the United States is ill-prepared, unless its leaders make decisions now.”
The report points to nearly 100 missile tests conducted by Kim Jong Un’s regime in 2022, placing South Korea and Japan under increasing pressure. Tensions have spiralled on the Korean Peninsula since the collapse of denuclearisation talks in 2019. On Friday, North Korea again raised the spectre of using nuclear weapons to defend itself after the arrival of the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and its battle group in the southern South Korean port of Busan. The battlegroup will dock for five days as part of an agreement to increase the temporary deployments of powerful US military assets in response to the North’s growing nuclear threat. North Korean state media called it “an undisguised military provocation” and restated Pyongyang’s doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons that “allows the execution of necessary action procedures in case a nuclear attack is launched against it or it is judged that the use of nuclear weapons against it is imminent.”

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 13-14/2023
‘I don’t really have any other choice’: Young Israelis around the world return home after Hamas attacks
Lianne Kolirin and Issy Ronald/CNN/CNN/October 13, 2023
When he heard that Hamas militants were attacking a music festival his family was attending, Ben said Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, for his mother.
“I didn’t know what to do. I said please kill her because it would be better than being kidnapped,” Ben, whose surname CNN is not using for security concerns, said on Wednesday. “It’s a nightmare. I said ‘please kill her, don’t take her there.’”
Over WhatsApp, he watched, helpless, as his mother and younger brother sent updates for eight hours, telling him that they were hiding in small bushes, hearing gunfire and people walking past saying “Allahu Akbar.”
“(Every message) took about two minutes to arrive and in between there was no communication,” he said. “Every two minutes you are tearing your hair out to get an answer.”Eventually, Ben heard of a secure location, sent the map to his brother and they managed to escape from the festival.
The next morning, Ben flew to Israel from London where he lives with his British wife and children. mHe is one of many Israelis returning home from abroad as their country’s long-running conflict with Hamas escalates into a war not seen on this scale for a generation. To cope with the increasing demand, Israeli airlines El Al, Israir and Arkia added more flights on Tuesday to repatriate military reservists, Reuters reported.
Cutting short holidays or uprooting their everyday lives overseas, these Israelis are returning for funerals, in preparation for being called up into the military reserves, carrying supplies back with them, or to help protect their communities.
At least 1,200 people have been killed in Israel following Hamas’ deadly and brutal attack on October 7 when its militants broke through the heavily fortified border from Gaza, leaving atrocities in their wake.
Israel has responded by hammering Gaza with airstrikes and halting supplies of electricity, food, water and fuel to the Palestinian enclave. At least 1,417 people have been killed in Gaza in the days since, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and the enclave’s only power station ran out of fuel on Wednesday.
Straight after seeing his family when he landed in Israel, Ben went to Lod, a city about nine miles southeast of Tel Aviv, where there had previously been outbursts of violence.
There he joined friends in forming an impromptu neighborhood watch, to ensure the situation remained calm. He has since helped to deliver donated food and is planning to drive to the south of the country as there aren’t enough drivers to take people to their families.
“At least there’s something that I can do,” he said. “I couldn’t stay in London and just watch it all happening on TV.”
Another returning Israeli is 30-year-old Guy, who works in cybersecurity and has lived in London for the last five years. CNN is not using his surname for safety reasons. Guy traveled back to Israel on Wednesday after learning that six of his friends were missing after attending the Supernova music festival. Two of the group have since been confirmed dead. Guy, who lives in London, has returned to Israel to join up as a reservist, but also attend the funerals of friends killed at the Supernova festival. - Courtesy Guy
Guy, who lives in London, has returned to Israel to join up as a reservist, but also attend the funerals of friends killed at the Supernova festival. - Courtesy Guy
He told CNN that he is returning to be a military reservist, and for the funerals of his friends, who were part of a “close circle” that often went to trance music festivals, like Supernova, alongside Palestinians too.
“The generation born since the Yom Kippur War have never seen anything like this,” he said. “They have had the opportunity to believe in peace and the two-state solution… we grew up with that… The people that go to these festivals participate as citizens of the world who essentially just want to celebrate life.”
Israel has called up 300,000 reservists to fight for its military, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, Maj. Doron Spielman told CNN Wednesday, a mobilization on the scale of a major country such as the United States, despite Israel’s relatively small population of 9.7 million, according to data from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics in April.
“There’s not a family that does not have somebody that’s been called up. Or, unfortunately, since we’re such a small country, a family that does not have friends, or loved ones that are still missing,” Spielman told CNN.
Though there are some exemptions, every Israeli citizen over the age of 18 is required to serve in the IDF. After finishing their service, many take lengthy trips overseas, a kind of post-service rite of passage.
After completing his military service, 22-year-old Ben, who also asked to keep his family name confidential, had intended to explore Asia for several months. But he abandoned those plans on Saturday when he learned of Hamas’ attack while in a mountain village in Nepal. He has since returned to Israel and is on standby to serve as a reservist in a reconnaissance unit.
In a telephone call from Nepal on Monday, prior to his flight on Tuesday, Ben said he thought there were more than 100 Israelis in Kathmandu alone trying to return.
“It feels really hard to be so far away and there isn’t much you can do,” he said. “You’re worried about the people there and all you do all day is watch the news and look at your phone. It’s impossible to be away right now.”
Ilan Fisher, 29, is another Israeli expecting to be called up for reserve duty, he told CNN on Wednesday. He was on vacation in Melbourne, Australia on the day of Hamas’ attack, attending the wedding of two close Australian friends, both of whom also live in Israel.
Though Fisher has had multiple offers to remain in Melbourne, he intends to fly back on Sunday and expects to be drafted back into the army’s media department.
“Given the situation there right now, how dire it is and how dire it will be, I don’t really have another choice but to go back,” he said.
Some Israelis are rushing back for other reasons. Rachel Gold, 27, had been on vacation in Toronto and had the idea of taking supplies back to Israel with her friend, Jessica Kane, who had been visiting her parents in New York.
After putting out a call on social media, they raised $15,000 to buy supplies and flew back on Monday evening with two other friends, carrying 13 large check-in cases, four carry-on bags and several backpacks with them. The luggage was stuffed with supplies including head torches, flashlights, underwear, socks, toothbrushes, portable chargers, hydration pouches and protein bars.
Kane, 26, told CNN that her family are religiously observant and so she did not hear of the attack until her father learned of it by word of mouth while in synagogue.
“Initially I didn’t believe it. I thought it was being sensationalized,” she said. “We very quickly went on our phones. I had a few missed calls from the army and had a million red alert notifications about missiles falling. It was incredibly, incredibly difficult.”
The friends were met at the airport on Tuesday by volunteers who immediately took the donations to deliver to the south of Israel. Gold is now on a military base in the south, having been recruited as a reservist.
“Being here is a lot more comforting than being away,” she told CNN. “I felt desperately helpless just sitting at home watching the news and thinking what else I can do beyond sending money. Being here at least I feel part of it and taking action and doing things, plus I’m not glued to the news all day. Being here is a little bit less scary than being abroad.”
*CNN’s Niamh Kennedy and Abeer Salman contributed to this report.

Schumer says he's leading a bipartisan group of senators to Israel to show 'unwavering' US support
MARY CLARE JALONICK/WASHINGTON (AP)/October 13, 2023
— Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is headed to Israel this weekend to discuss what resources the United States can provide for its war against Hamas. Schumer, D-N.Y., is leading a bipartisan group of senators to the country “to show the United States' unwavering support for Israel,” his office said. Schumer is the first Jewish majority leader of the Senate and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S.
The visit comes as Congress is considering how much money and equipment to send to Israel and as two other high-ranking officials, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretry Lloyd Austin, have visited in recent days.
Schumer’s office said he will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and senior opposition figure Benny Gantz, who is part of a newly formed wartime cabinet in Israel. His office has not released the names of the senators who will be traveling with him. The majority leader just this week returned from a trip to China, where he pressured officials to condemn the brutal attack on Israel by Hamas.
The U.S. officials are talking to Israeli officials about what kind of aid is needed to defend against attacks from Hamas and is seeking to avoid an expanded Middle East conflict.
The Israeli military directed some 1 million civilians to evacuate northern Gaza “for their own safety and protection,” ahead of a feared Israeli ground offensive. Gaza’s Hamas rulers responded by calling on Palestinians to “remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm” against Israel. Schumer's visit comes as the Senate is set to return to Washington on Tuesday and debate how much money and equipment to send to Israel and whether to tie an aid package with money for Ukraine in its war against Russia's invasion.

False hope and fracture kept Israel from seeing Hamas’ evil plan
Jonathan Schanzer/New York Post/October 13/2023
In the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attack that left 1,300 dead, Israelis are shocked and saddened. A war is imminent, and Hamas is not likely to survive it.
But when the dust settles, there will also be a reckoning within Israel. There was an intelligence failure. Perhaps more than one. Recent reports suggest the Egyptian government passed intelligence to Israel indicating an attack was imminent.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) confirmed it Wednesday. This came two days after an Egyptian official told the Associated Press that Israel dismissed the warnings. This sounds rather bad, of course.
But not all intelligence is created equal. Without knowing the source of the report or the specifics relayed, we can’t know if it was possible for Israel to process the information or act on it. That said, Israel’s vaunted security services clearly failed in other ways. In the months leading up to the 10/7 attack, a dangerous consensus had formed in the Israeli bureaucracy that Gaza-based Hamas. leader Yahya Sinwar was ready to reach an understanding with Israel that would lead to calm. He appeared to have even convinced Israel that he sought to deliver more goods and services to the beleaguered people of Gaza.
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Israel was cautiously optimistic about this, despite the fact Hamas was exporting violence to the West Bank, where its political rivals in the Palestinian Authority have struggled to maintain their grip on power. Even then, the fact pattern seemed to reinforce the notion that Hamas no longer wished to invite disastrous wars upon the territory it controlled.
That was obviously all wrong.
“We made them think that Hamas was busy with governing Gaza, and that it wanted to focus on the 2.5 million Palestinians [in Gaza] and has abandoned the resistance altogether,” boasted senior Hamas official Ali Baraka on Oct. 8. “All the while, under the table, Hamas was preparing for this big attack.”There are unconfirmed reports swirling now that a cyberattack disabled the high-tech system that enables Israel to monitor and secure the Gaza border. Such an attack, if true, would represent another breakdown in the system. Israel’s cyber capabilities are some of the best in the world and are predicated on the country’s ability to anticipate attacks before they happen by operating inside enemy networks. That plainly didn’t happen here. But perhaps the greatest blunder was the faulty assumption of the ruling coalition that the bitter domestic turmoil brought on by efforts to enact a judicial overhaul would not harm Israeli national security. The massive demonstrations on the streets of Israel in recent months clearly took their toll. Iran and its client in Gaza certainly saw opportunity in the tumult, especially when Israelis began refusing to show up for their reserve duty.
To the full credit of the security services, officials warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israeli deterrence was eroding. The premier simply did not listen. A commission of inquiry will examine all this in due course.
The good news is that Israel has snapped out of it. The military and intelligence services are laser focused on their mission: destroying Hamas and deterring Iran and Hezbollah from joining the fray. At the same time, the Israeli public has rallied around the tragedy of 10/7: 300,000 Israelis have been called up to serve their nation now led by an emergency unity government. With world opinion squarely behind them, they await their orders for a battle that will soon begin.
**Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president for research at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on X: @JSchanzer.

Iran wanted Saudi Arabia to drop Israel — but failed miserably
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/New York Post/October 13/2023
At first glance, Thursday’s first-ever phone call between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi might suggest the two predominantly Muslim nations are coming together to support Hamas and its war on Israel.
But a closer look shows the two leaders were talking past each other. The Saudi prince, known as MBS, wants peace with Israel and his country’s full integration into the world economy, an agenda that puts him fundamentally at odds with Tehran’s drive to destroy Israel and dominate the Middle East through a network of clients and proxies. According to the Saudi readout of Thursday’s call, MBS “reaffirmed the kingdom’s unshakable position in championing the Palestinian cause and in supporting efforts to bring comprehensive and just peace, which guarantees the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”For Tehran, the Saudi reference to peace is intolerable because Israel’s existence is intolerable. Hamas’ charter likewise states the group’s goal is to “liberate Palestine, from River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean in the west.”
Despite restoring diplomatic ties with the Saudis in April, Iran may have instigated Hamas to launch its Oct. 7 attack on Israel because it feared the progress of Saudi-Israeli normalization talks.
At least as much can be inferred from top Iranian officials’ statements.
Ali Akbar Velayati, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s top foreign affairs aide, told Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in a Monday phone call that “whoever thinks they can solve their problems through normalization with the [Zionist] entity … should know that they are exposing the region to the dangers of their naïve plans, such as building corridors through the volatile Middle East.”The corridor Velayati considers so dangerous is the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, a planned intercontinental trade route that would connect India to Europe via the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel.
If constructed, this route would likely overshadow China’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative, which goes through Iran.
Velayati warned “some countries in the region of the consequences of normalizing ties with the Zionist entity that is bound to collapse” and called on these countries to “change course and learn a lesson from what happened to countries that had taken this path in the past.”
Those words constitute an implicit threat against the UAE and Bahrain, which in 2020 signed the Abraham Accords for peace with Israel.
Velayati insists normal relations with Israel will bring the collapse of Gulf governments, just like they did to the government of Iran’s Shah Reza Pahlavi, in 1979, and will lead to the demise of normalizing leaders, such as in the case of the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who had signed, that same year, the first peace treaty between Israel and one of its Arab neighbors. Saudi Arabia was well into normalization talks with Israel, thus prompting Iran, per a Wall Street Journal report that the White House disputes, to instruct Hamas to turn the table and start war, which so far seems to have put Arab-Israeli peace efforts on hold but without killing them — at least this is how America and European powers understand the situation.
In their joint statement, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy declared Hamas a terrorist organization and said they would “ensure Israel is able to defend itself” — read: to decimate Hamas — “and to ultimately set the conditions for a peaceful and integrated Middle East region.”
In other words, when Israel is done defending itself, Arab-Israeli peace and Middle East integration will resume.
When Tehran first restored its ties with Riyadh, the Iranians seemed to have been under the impression that Saudi Arabia had switched sides, abandoning America and the West and joining the Russia-China-Iran axis.
In March, Iranian TV reported that Saudi Arabia was planning to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. In August, Iranian media hailed Saudi Arabia for joining BRICS, the group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
But once again, a closer look showed that appearances may be deceiving. “We will consider BRICS’ invitation to join the bloc and decide accordingly,” said Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan.
Saudi Arabia has yet to join anti-Western coalitions, even if Riyadh acts nice around them. Similarly, Saudi Arabia might seem on the same page with Iran and Hamas, but in reality, the kingdom is still on the Western side and seeking a military treaty with America and normalization of relations with Israel.
When Israel beats Hamas and the dust settles, Saudi-Israeli talks will likely resume.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Twitter: @hahussain

Was Biden’s Speech as Pro-Israel as You Think?..No. Because it was missing the only word that matters. which is Iran
Tony Badran/The Tablet/October 13/2023
There is only one word that mattered in President Joe Biden’s remarks on the terrorist attack on Israel—and it was a word he didn’t say.
For those who care about actual U.S. policy rather than feel-good schmaltz, the point of Biden’s speech was not the oft-repeated dubious anecdote about meeting with Golda Meir during the Yom Kippur War. Nor was it Biden’s rich declarations about how he was raised in synagogues—along with being raised in Puerto Rican communities and growing up in Black churches. Rather, the entire speech was centered around the absence of one word: Iran.
Biden’s glaring omission of Iran, the chief sponsor, funder, and weapons supplier of Hamas, and the intended beneficiary of its monstrous suicide attack, was an affirmation that his administration’s policies remain unchanged after a weekend of unprecedented horror in Israel. Namely, Biden still fully intends to continue providing cover for the Iranian regime, to whom he released $16 billion of held funds before the attack—in addition to the tens of billions more that the administration has gifted Iran by not enforcing sanctions on its oil sales.
Instead, the administration has rather bizarrely been expending all its diplomatic capital since the attack to avoid connecting Iran in any way to a massacre perpetrated by a terror group that Iran clearly funds, arms, trains and directs. The administration has expended particularly large amounts of energy responding to an inconvenient Wall Street Journal article that reported that the Iranians planned the attack in the joint operations room they have established in Lebanon (the existence of which Hezbollah media had announced in 2021 after the last Gaza war).
Responding to the Journal article, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the press that they have absolutely no “confirmation”—zero, none—to back up the claim of Iranian foreknowledge, planning, or help in directing this particular attack. Yet in nearly the same breath, Sullivan called Iran “complicit” in Hamas’ attack. “They have provided the lion’s share of the funding for the military wing of Hamas. They provide training, they have provided capabilities, they have provided support, and they have had engagement in contact with Hamas over the years and years.” Come again? NSC spokesman John Kirby then added that there was nothing that suggests the Iranians were “witting, involved in the planning, or involved in the resourcing and the training that went into this very complex set of attacks over the weekend.”
Biden’s address was actually the second statement the administration put out that deliberately avoided mentioning Iran. On Monday, the U.S. released a joint statement with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, which not only avoided to mention Iran by name (never mind holding it responsible) but also made sure to include the administration’s term of art for its pro-Iran policy: “integration.” That is, the moral of the bloodiest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was that Iran and its regional assets like Hezbollah must continue to be “integrated” into the American regional architecture by forcing them down the throats of old allies like Israel and Saudi Arabia. They should not only “share the neighborhood” with those who seek their destruction, but they must prop up the polities these terrorists control.
What we heard in Biden’s speech, therefore, wasn’t the most moving articulation of the longstanding American alliance with Israel ever in human history, as a deluge of pro-administration propagandists rather stridently insisted. Rather, what we heard was the deliberate obfuscation of a reality that is plain, stark, and staring everyone in the face.
The reason the word “Iran” can’t be mentioned in public by the White House is that the Hamas massacre on Saturday is the direct product of a decade of U.S. regional policy directed at funding and reinforcing and strengthening a terrorist and terror-sponsoring regime in Tehran. It’s a vision built on a realignment of U.S. interests with this regime, to be cemented with gifting them a nuclear bomb. It’s a statement of ongoing commitment to this policy, which explains a comment made by a senior administration official in a briefing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which he spoke of “future initiatives” with Iran that the administration doesn’t want to see jeopardized. In other words, the administration’s priority is to ensure that none of the ugly business in Israel on Saturday is allowed to interfere with “future initiatives” with the mullahs.
Well, take a good look. What happened on Saturday is so ugly in part because that’s what the administration’s Iran policy looks like. Yes, the pictures, videos, and recorded voice calls are distastefully harrowing to some. But that’s the policy—which is often referred to as Barack Obama’s “legacy” or “signature initiative.” The policy is that Iran must be allowed a free hand to conduct its massacres through its regional Jew-hating proxies, while being given de facto immunity by the United States from Israeli retribution.
But wait, didn’t Biden say, as he again told American Jewish community leaders yesterday, that his administration was “enhancing” the U.S. posture by sending a U.S. carrier fleet to the eastern Mediterranean, which a senior defense official explained was sent to serve as “a deterrent signal” (whatever that means) to Iran and Hezbollah? Didn’t he say that sending the ship made it “very clear” to the Iranians to “be careful”?
So what do you suppose that aircraft carrier means? We already know, because Jake Sullivan said so explicitly, that the USS Gerald Ford is not in the region to strike Hamas. It’s there to ensure, as one administration official after another has said, that the war doesn’t expand to other fronts. But Hezbollah has spent days launching and orchestrating attacks from south Lebanon. Did they miss the “deterrent signal”? On the contrary. They understood exactly what it means, and to whom it’s intended: Israel is being deterred by the United States from striking them.
Senior administration officials told CNN that they “do not believe at this point that Hezbollah is likely to join Hamas’ war in force against Israel.” They also “think the warnings are having an impact even though there has been some escalation on the border.” So, Hezbollah will continue to use Lebanon as a launching pad against Israel, but not “in force.” Sure, there will be “some escalation,” but Israel will need to absorb those attacks, in order to “avoid igniting a larger regional war”—with Iran.
In other words, what the U.S. is signaling is Iran and Hezbollah’s preferred scenario: cost-free attacks from south Lebanon without fear of devastating Israeli retaliation. The U.S. carrier group, in other words, is there to ensure Israel does not attack Iran or Hezbollah, even if it wanted to. Integrate. Don’t escalate.
Israel just suffered the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It cannot afford to indulge in wishful thinking and fanciful readings of the U.S. strategic posture. Nor should it misread the vociferous statements of condemnations of Hamas as support for Israel, except insofar as it is willing to accept its new regional status as a punching bag for Iran.
After two days of radio silence, the architect of America’s Iran policy, Barack Obama, finally offered a single tweet.
All Americans should be horrified and outraged by the brazen terrorist attacks on Israel and the slaughter of innocent civilians. We grieve for those who died, pray for the safe return of those who’ve been held hostage, and stand squarely alongside our ally, Israel, as it dismantles Hamas. As we support Israel’s right to defend itself against terror, we must keep striving for a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Apparently, terrorists who kill 1,200 people in their homes and at a music festival is not the kind of thing you comment on at once. It takes a good 48 hours to think it through. That was the message.
Yet the text of Obama’s tweet is not entirely unimportant. It clarifies the point of American policy, which is to compel Israel to focus on Hamas in isolation, and not attempt to climb the escalation ladder against America’s preferred Middle Eastern partner. Yes, go ahead, “dismantle Hamas.” The trap is already set, as evidenced in Biden’s speech and in the “advice” of the deputy national security council adviser, Jon Finer, who reminded Benjamin Netanyahu of the need to act according to the rule of law. “We uphold the laws of war. It matters.”
Israeli retaliation was built into both the Iranian war plan and Obama’s info op. In other words, Israel is being encouraged to retaliate against Hamas—at which point it will be duly roasted for killing civilians. Release your anger, Luke. But whatever you do, don’t hit the Iranians.
This dichotomy is an important article of faith for Team Obama-Biden, and is in clear contrast to the policies of President Trump, who ended the fictional distinctions between Iran and its terror tentacles in the region. Trump’s regional policy was based on backing Israel and the Gulf states against Iran. By contrast, the current policy, disguised with florid promises about “having Israel’s back,” is designed precisely to protect Iran while it dismembers America’s allies—quite literally.
**Tony Badran is Tablet magazine’s Levant analyst. He tweets @AcrossTheBay.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/was-bidens-speech-as-pro-israel-as-you-think

The Miscalculation of Hamas
Emanuele Ottolenghi/The Messenger/October 13/2023
Hamas came at dawn and murdered with abandon. It had the element of surprise. Israel was unprepared. This was unprecedented. Israel’s security barrier breached; Israeli communities and military bases overrun; territory conquered; and horrific casualties inflicted. Yet the consequences of its actions may ultimately spell Hamas’ demise. Did its leaders not game this scenario? The answer, likely, is that they did and miscalculated. By misreading Israel, the United States, and, possibly, their very own paymasters in Iran, they may have lit a fire that will now engulf them.
But first things first. From Hamas’ point of view, the attack was an unmitigated success, probably more than expected. The operation, carefully planned for months, was kept a tight secret. Israeli intelligence appears to have completely missed the clues. More importantly: Hamas went where no other terror group had ventured before. It conquered, albeit briefly, Israeli territory, rampaged for hours, challenged only by scant Israeli security presence, slaughtered hundreds, and herded survivors back to Gaza. In Israel, the shock will reverberate for a long time.
Here, too, this was a game changer. Hamas, like Hezbollah and the PLO in the past, previously used Israeli hostages (dead or alive) as leverage. But this time, Hamas — coached, funded, and armed by its Iranian paymasters — had a more grandiose plan: not just to fundamentally alter the dynamics of its conflict with Israel, but to set the region on fire. It hopes to open new fronts that have not materialized yet. Hezbollah has not launched a full assault on Israel’s north. The West Bank has not joined in. Israel’s Arab population has not taken to the streets, like it did in the first weeks of the Second Intifadah, 23 years ago, though recent echoes of those clashes make it a possible scenario. All that could still change. It is a high-stakes game that could cripple Israel with mass casualties and loss of territory.
Seen in this light, Hamas may have gamed Israel’s response and concluded that Israel’s intelligence failure, the hostage crisis, the bloody cost of a ground operation, the risk of new fronts, the likely dissipation of international solidarity once Gaza’s civilian casualties mount, Israel’s own casualties, all would stop Israel in its tracks. Or that Iran and its proxies would join the fray and come to the rescue. Even at a high cost, it might have been worth it.
What Hamas did not envisage was Israel’s response, the wave of international sympathy aroused by the horrors Hamas committed, U.S. resolve to prevent an all-out regional escalation, and the consequences Washington will exact if Iran greenlights further escalations.
First and foremost, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Tehran misread Israel. Or better put, Israelis.
For months, Israel spiraled into acrimonious political fights over judicial reforms. A nation torn apart, with weekly demonstrations to oppose fundamental changes to the country’s constitutional order, with growing voices from the security establishment and civil society warning the country’s leadership that the proposed reform was compromising Israeli democracy and with reservists suspending annual service in protest. It was not a fringe movement, and included senior reserve officers, former military leaders, intelligence, pilots, and more.
The spirited nature of Israeli democracy, to the fanatic eye of its Islamist enemies, appeared as incontrovertible proof of fragility, a symptom of what they always thought Israel to be: a house of cards. Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, as their PLO predecessors, have always believed that Israel was an artificial implant in the region, a colonialist project that looked invincible from the outside but was more fragile than it cared to admit. The theory behind this thinking postulated that Israel, like a spiderweb, looked ingenious and robust, but was intrinsically fragile and bound to easily break.
With this concept in mind, and superficial evidence seeming to prove it published daily in Israeli newspapers, Israel’s enemies bet on a divided country that would not rally behind its increasingly hated prime minister. That was the first — and likely biggest — miscalculation.
As news broke of Hamas’ murderous rampage, Israelis set aside their differences and rallied around the flag. Hundreds of thousands of reservists answered the call of duty. Israelis abroad are flooding back home to join them. The country mobilized behind its citizens-soldiers, offering supplies, and behind the victims of last week’s horror, offering aid and shelter. And a national unity government that, with Netanyahu as prime minister, appeared like a pipe dream until last Friday is now a reality. There will be a reckoning. But not while the enemy is at the gates.
Israel has confronted existential threats before. Each time, regardless of national mood and the divisive politics of the moment, Israelis of all religious and political persuasions joined as one. They call it a war of no choice, because a mortal enemy forced Israel into belligerence, and the survival of the nation depended on victory at all costs.
Take the 2000 Second Intifadah. Israel was deeply divided over the Oslo process. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had been assassinated in 1995 by a fanatic opponent. In July 2000, then Prime Minister Ehud Barak lost his parliamentary majority just before traveling to Camp David to negotiate a comprehensive peace agreement. And yet when two months later, a PLO- and Hamas-orchestrated campaign of suicide bombings left Israel vulnerable, Israelis buried their dead and rose, a nation in arms, to restore Israel’s deterrence and eventually neutralize the terror threat that Israel had initially failed to confront.
Hamas grossly underestimated Israel’s strength and the sense of sacrifice and civic duty that, in the hour of peril, unites its citizens as brothers-in-arms. Hamas thought the spiderweb was already broken. Instead, the pain of unspeakable horror fortified it.
Next, Hamas and Iran misread the Biden administration.
The White House took sides in Israel’s domestic quarrel over Netanyahu’s constitutional overhaul. The Israeli prime minister begged for a White House meeting for months, and got only a cameo appearance on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. More than a snub: It was a public humiliation. Meanwhile, the Biden administration sought to revive a nuclear deal with Iran that Israel vehemently opposed. Hamas saw so much daylight between Washington and Jerusalem that it failed to understand America too.
Even as Washington is distracted by the Ukraine war and China’s rise, even as tensions between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu did and do remain, America would not abandon Israel in the hour of despair. Not just words of condemnation, military assistance, congressional resolutions, and solidarity lighting on public buildings — Washington sent a carrier strike group to deter Iran and its proxies in Syria and Lebanon from joining the onslaught. It is ready to position more assets and embed forces in Israel. And it said, very clearly and publicly, lest Tehran misunderstands, that it has its finger on the trigger.
What of Hamas’ paymasters in Tehran, who orchestrated Saturday’s horror show in the hope of setting the entire region on fire?
Suddenly, they realize that America is not a declining power but a sleeping giant. That Israelis will fight for their home, to the last one of them, because they have nowhere else to go. And that the Hamas pogrom of October 7 may turn out to be the last hurrah of Hamas’ murderous cult. The terrorist group may still escalate, but the price has suddenly gone up, as has the risk of losing.
Hamas started the war. It is doubtful it will end its way.
***Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on X @eottolenghi. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.

Canada must secure the release of hostages without funding Hamas
Tzvi Kahn/National Post/October 13/2023
If Ottawa supports a U.S. ransom deal, terrorists would take it as green light to capture more Canadians
These were among the final words of Canadian-Israeli dual national Vivian Silver, sent to a friend via text message on Saturday, as members of the Iranian proxy Hamas entered her home in a community near the Gaza border. The Globe and Mail reported the exchange Monday.The 74-year-old woman, a longtime peace activist, is now a hostage of the terrorist group. Her whereabouts and condition remain unknown. Ottawa is working with Washington to secure her release as the United States seeks to recover several hostages of its own.
Israel is at war — and Canadians are in the crossfire. Two other Canadian women, Tiferet Lapidot and Shir Hanna Georgy, have been taken hostage. Three additional Canadians — Ben Mizrachi, Alexandre Look and Adi Vital-Kaploun — are dead at the hands of Hamas. The capture of Canadian hostages reflects the flaws of Ottawa’s current deferential policy toward Tehran, which sustains the conflict between Israel and Hamas and even gave the final go-ahead for this weekend’s brutal attacks.
Hostage-taking is one of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s founding crimes — and a tactic long favored by its terrorist proxies. Canada responded forcefully to this malign conduct in the early days of the regime. It needs to do so again now.
In November 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Six U.S. officials weren’t in the embassy compound when it was invaded. The Americans quickly received shelter in the homes of Canadian diplomats, who worked with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to concoct an elaborate ruse to enable an escape.
The U.S. diplomats posed as members of a movie crew visiting Iran to scout locations for filming. Using false Canadian passports shipped from Canada, they quietly departed Iran from Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.
It was one of Canada’s finest moments. Yet in the subsequent 44 years, Canada has reverted from liberator to victim.
The clerical regime incarcerated dozens of foreign nationals, including some 10 Canadians. At least two Canadians have perished in Iran; one was tortured and beaten to death, and the other died under circumstances that were never revealed to the public.
At the present juncture, if Ottawa’s Iran policy doesn’t shift course, even more hapless Canadian citizens may become victims of Tehran and Hamas once again.
Context is key: In August, the United States agreed to release $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds as a ransom payment to Tehran to secure the freedom of five innocent Americans imprisoned on false charges of espionage. Washington also released five Iranian nationals residing in American jails for violating U.S. laws.
In theory, Tehran supposedly agreed to use the $6 billion only for humanitarian purposes. In practice, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has said Iran will spend the funds however it pleases. That likely means the cash will support the regime’s military budget.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau played no role in this exchange, which the parties negotiated in secret with no formal text. But in light of the latest developments in Israel, he needs to pay heed. The U.S. transaction offers a stark lesson for Ottawa: Weakness begets aggression. Hamas surely took inspiration from the U.S. hostage deal when it decided to take Americans and Canadians as prisoners. There is no substitute for courage and resolve — as Canada demonstrated in 1979 — in the face of a brutal Islamist regime determined to humiliate and weaken the West.
That’s especially true if more secret negotiations between Washington and Tehran for a broader nuclear deal are underway. If past is prologue, Iran and Hamas could demand U.S. and Canadian ransom payments in exchange for the latest hostages.
If Washington caves in the event of a new deal, Trudeau will likely face prodigious domestic pressure to express support. But consent would be a dangerous mistake. Tehran and Hamas would likely interpret Ottawa’s backing as a green light to capture additional Canadian hostages. And there’s no telling how much more money Iran would demand for their freedom. There’s a better way. Trudeau should announce that he would oppose any U.S. deal that entails ransom payments to Tehran. He should declare that Canada will never pay a ransom for hostages. He should discourage Canadians from visiting Iran. And he should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which commandeers Iran’s regional aggression and domestic repression, as a terrorist group pursuant to Canada’s Criminal Code. Such a policy won’t endear Trudeau to U.S. President Joe Biden or persuade him to change course. However, it would remind Tehran and Hamas that Canada remains as bold and defiant today as it was when it facilitated the escape of U.S. diplomats from Iran in 1979. In so doing, Trudeau would strengthen Canadian deterrence and could make Tehran and Hamas think twice before they seize another Canadian national.
Ottawa has demonstrated that it can help America free hostages without paying Tehran a dime. It shouldn’t condone U.S. capitulation now.
*Tzvi Kahn is a research fellow and senior editor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Follow him on X @TzviKahn. FDD is a nonpartisan research institute based in Washington, D.C. that focuses on national security and foreign policy.

The death of Netanyahu’s myth of peace without peacemaking?
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/October 13, 2023
The killing of hundreds of Israeli children, mothers, pensioners and innocent young people was a horrific atrocity. But the angry momentum created by this horror has unleashed a new slaughter of the innocents on an industrial scale, through massive, indiscriminate bombing across Gaza. Israel’s Defense Minister boasted of the “complete siege” of Gaza’s two million citizens: “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas… We are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly.”
Entrapping and bombing a civilian population with tons of munitions is straightforwardly a war crime. No wonder Benjamin Netanyahu’s stony face when US Secretary of State Blinken stood next to him and declared that it was “vitally important” that Israel respect international humanitarian law. “It’s what distinguishes us from terrorist organizations”, Blinken said.
These appalling scenes of slaughter did not erupt from nowhere. They occurred in the context of an inexorable escalation in tension over recent months — or arguably decades: in early 2023 there was sustained escalation in state violence against Palestinians, with 200 killed in the West Bank alone. There was massive anger at military assaults against the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque, and hundreds of attacks against Palestinian farmers by militant settlers, overseen by a cabal of extremists committed to the eradication of the Palestinians as a nation. All this contributed to the increasing inevitability of an explosive response from the Palestinian side. Statements in recent days from the GCC, Saudi Arabia and the Arab world held Israel’s authorities responsible for creating this situation through “depriving Palestinian people of their legitimate rights and systematic provocations against their holy sites.”These developments are catastrophic for Netanyahu’s credibility. Israel was direly unprepared because it has spent the past few years at war with itself, with mass protests against Netanyahu’s outright lurch toward the far right. Israeli commentators have highlighted the calamitous impact of appointing hellraising extremists such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir to sensitive ministerial positions for managing security and oversight of occupied territories.
With Hezbollah and Israel exchanging missile fire over the Lebanon border, Israel fears what could happen if Hezbollah fully entered the conflict, with its exponentially greater missile capabilities and the prospect that its fighters could replicate the Gaza breakout throughout villages in northern Israel. Despite Joe Biden’s warning to Iran’s proxies not to exploit the situation, Hassan Nasrallah urged Arab states to rethink normalization with Israel, and pro-Hezbollah cleric Ahmed Qablan denounced Israel as a “lie which soon will be eradicated from the face of the earth.” In Lebanon, memories of Israel’s brutally vengeful 2006 military campaign are still deeply raw.
Western leaders who had been privately disdainful of Netanyahu’s wholesale embrace of the extreme right nevertheless raced to support Israel’s “absolute right to defend itself” — offering a blank slate of impunity for whatever acts of collective punishment Israel unleashes, including a ground invasion. This excessive Western tolerance has contributed to bringing us to where we are today: offering Israel unlimited military support to perpetuate the occupation, turning a blind eye to decades of human rights abuses and war crimes, and diplomatic language that portrayed Palestinian lives as expendable.
This provided immaculate diplomatic cover for 70 years of brutal occupation, and remorseless devouring of Palestinian territories. Militant West Bank settlers this year embarked on an unprecedented campaign to brutalize and displace Arab farmers, with an estimated 140 sq km of Palestinian lands seized in recent months. As demographics relatively favor Palestinian population growth, Israeli political power is increasingly monopolized by a theocratic, extremist, anti-democratic minority, among whom fantasies of extermination and genocide are mooted as long-term solutions to the Palestine question.
The images of death and trauma we have witnessed on both sides in recent days are an unforgivable tragedy. Human rights must be universal, sacred and unconditional. There have been well over 2,000 Palestinian and Israeli deaths, and Palestinians are already disproportionately bearing the brunt of thousands more fatalities, with tens of thousands of others bereaved and rendered homeless.
Netanyahu’s rhetoric about “eradicating” Hamas is nonsense, given that disproportionate Israeli violence only drives more disenfranchised youths toward armed groups. Young boys in Gaza will witness mothers and siblings being slaughtered, and will grow up consumed by hatred, desiring nothing more than to end their own miserable existence in a gesture of destruction against those they blame for their plight.
The images of death and trauma we have witnessed on both sides in recent days are an unforgivable tragedy.
As with illegal West Bank settlement activity, the dense network of settlements built around Gaza was provocatively calculated to constrain and suppress the Palestinian population. As an Al-Hayat journalist in 1994, I had several days of exclusive access to Yasser Arafat immediately before his return to Palestine after the Oslo accords. He was rightly skeptical about Israel’s readiness for peace, but desperately wanted to believe that peace was possible. Netanyahu’s arrival as prime minister in 1996, following the murder of Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist, came to represent a rejection by the Israeli public of Oslo’s aspirations for a just peace. October 2023 marks another decisive turning point, when Netanyahu’s assertion that Israelis could enjoy permanent peace without peacemaking was decisively exposed as a lie.
If Israelis desire to spare their descendants future reruns of the anarchy, tragedy and carnage of recent days, they should compel their leaders to embrace the principles of “land for peace” enshrined in the Oslo accords and Arab Peace Initiative.
Instead, these inhuman acts of vengeance playing out before the horrified eyes of the world are the surest guarantor of further generations of slaughter, genocide and annihilation yet to come.
*Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.