English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 05/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? ‘And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12/49-59/:”I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? ‘And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? Thus, when you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case, or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 04-05/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video:The Fourth Anniversary of the terrorist Hezbollah’s Explosion Of Beirut Port/Elias Bejjani/August 04/2024
Firing Alain Aoun from Aoun-Bassil Commercial Company/Hell, its Fire, and Worms Await the Demonic Son-in-Law Bassil and All of His Judas-Like Followers/
Elias Bejjani/August 02, 2024
Western countries advise citizens in Lebanon to leave over Israeli aggression
Hezbollah tearing itself apart looking for internal leak that led to Shukr's elimination - report
Pope Francis Holds Lebanon in His Heart and Thoughts
Lebanon marks four years since port blast as war fears loom
UK govt. tells British nationals in Lebanon to 'leave now'
France calls on citizens in Lebanon to leave 'as soon as possible'
US embassy urges citizens to leave Lebanon on 'any ticket available'
Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets at Beit Hillel after Israeli attacks on civilians
Beirut Port Explosion: Judge Bitar to Resume Investigation
August 4: Al-Rai Calls for International Investigation into Beirut Port Explosion
Audi on August 4: When Will the Judiciary Rise Against Politics and Politicians?
August 4: Weapons and Injustice/Natasha Metni Torbey/This Is Beirut/August 04/2024
Lebanon should take up Erdogan’s offer to step in/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/August 04, 2024
A tale of three explosions and their far-reaching echoes/Nadim Shehadi/Arab News/August 04, 2024
The Ottoman American Empire ...The Obama-Biden blueprint after Gaza/Tony Badran/The Tablet/August 04/2024

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published August 04-05/2024
Strikes on Gaza kill 12 and stabbing in Israel kills 2 as fears of wider war spike
Fears of Middle East war grow after Hamas leader killed in Iran
US moves in Middle East are defensive, aimed at reducing tensions -White House
Threat of expanding hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli army
G7 foreign ministers urge efforts to avoid inflaming Middle East tensions
At least 30 killed in Israeli strike on two Gaza school shelters: Palestinian Civil Defense
IDF finds dozens of Hamas tunnels near Philadelphi Corridor, including massive route
Iran expected to attack Israel as early as Monday, US officials arrive in Middle East - report
Cairo hostage negotiations show progress, despite tepid atmosphere - report
The West’s criticism of Haniyeh’s assassination misses the anti-terror point - editorial
US and allies prepare to defend Israel as Netanyahu says it's already in 'multi-front war' with Iran
Missile attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels hits container ship in first attack in 2 weeks
Jordan's top diplomat to make rare visit to Iran as regional tensions soar
Trump Shows Love To Vladimir Putin Over Prisoner Swap
Ukraine finally deploying F-16 fighter jets, says Zelenskiy
1 deputy killed and 2 injured in ‘ambush’ shooting in Florida, sheriff says

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources August 04-05/2024
Pro-Palestinian activists set sights on Democratic convention in Chicago/Jeffrey Fleishman/Los Angeles Times./August 4, 2024
Escalation vs. restraint: The strategic dilemma in Gaza and Hezbollah’s attrition war/Efraim Inbar/Jerusalem/August 04/2024
How Iran's Mullahs View the US Election/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./August 4, 2024
AI demands new thinking when it comes to national security/Joseph S. Nye, Jr./Arab News/August 04, 2024
Global security hangs in the balance as Iran prepares to strike/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/August 04, 2024
After Haniyeh/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 04/2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published August 04-05/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video:The Fourth Anniversary of the terrorist Hezbollah’s Explosion Of Beirut Port
Elias Bejjani/August 04/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/08/132851/
On the fourth anniversary of the Beirut Port explosion, we sadly remember August 4, 2020, a day that marked one of the largest catastrophes in the history of Lebanon and the world. The explosion at the Beirut Port, classified as the largest non-nuclear explosion in history, resulted in the deaths of over 200 people, injuries to thousands, the displacement of hundreds of thousands, and the transformation of Lebanon’s capital into a scene of devastation and ruin.
The Beirut Port explosion, a terrorist and criminal act, was caused by the ignition of a massive quantity of ammonium nitrate stored at the port. These dangerous materials had been stored for years, and it is believed that Hezbollah and the Syrian Assad regime were using them to manufacture barrel bombs that claimed the lives of thousands of Syrians. Additionally, Hezbollah utilized these materials in its terrorist operations in various European countries. Authorities in Cyprus and Germany confirmed Hezbollah’s involvement with these materials and seized quantities of them.
Since the explosion, Hezbollah, an Iranian terrorist proxy occupying Lebanon, wreaking havoc, corruption, killing its people, displacing them, and impoverishing them, has obstructed judicial investigations by all criminal and illegal means available to it, including the use of excessive force, weapons, terrorism, assassinations, accusations, arrests, and the manipulation of the judiciary. Hezbollah officials threatened the judges assigned to the investigation, and several military and civilian officials who had information about the party’s and Assad’s Syria’s involvement in the explosion were assassinated. Among these victims were a banker, two officers who worked at the port (Mounier Abu rjaili and Joseph Skaf) and photographer Joe Bejjani, who was killed in his home in Kahaleh village.
The situation worsened when Wafic Safa, Hezbollah’s security chief, brazenly threatened Judge Tarek Bitar, the investigator assigned on the case, leading to the forced suspension of the investigations and preventing numerous implicated witnesses, including ministers, MPs, and security officials, from testifying.
Today, on August 4, the Families of the Victims Committee will hold a protests to mark the anniversary of the massacre, demanding justice for the victims and the injured. These families, who have lost loved ones and endured unimaginable physical and psychological trauma, call for uncovering the truth and holding those responsible accountable.
In conclusion, we must affirm that justice remains an urgent demand, and the investigation must continue until the truth is revealed and the perpetrators are punished.
It remains that building a safe and stable future for Lebanon is impossible without justice and accountability.
The Beirut Port explosion was not a mere accident but a crime that requires a thorough and impartial investigation to ensure the rights of the victims and restore hope to their families and all Lebanese.
The author, Elias Bejjani, is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Author’s Email: Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Author’s Website: http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com

Firing Alain Aoun from Aoun-Bassil Commercial Company/Hell, its Fire, and Worms Await the Demonic Son-in-Law Bassil and All of His Judas-Like Followers
Elias Bejjani/August 02, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/08/132768/
Jebran Bassil, are you truly aware of the consequences of your evil actions, deviant stances, unpatriotic, and unfaithful piles of Nonsense?
If you still have even a grain of faith, remember that human life is a mere temporary gift, and when the Lord retrieves His gift, all that is earthly remains on the earth.
When human beings move to the afterlife, whoever they may be, will take nothing with them but their deeds.
Your deeds, as you are 100% aware, are merely heaps and sacks of sins, demonic acts, greed, lack of loyalty, narcissism, ingratitude, betrayal, and the worship of money and power.
We ask, how can you justify to your Lord on the day you stand before Him at the final judgment? And presently, to those of your followers who still have a grain of sense in their skulls, how can you justify standing alongside the enemies of Lebanon, its identity, its entity, its history, and the blood of the martyrs?
You and your uncle have reached the point of firing Alain Aoun from your crooked commercial company. It is truly a time of misery, drought, demons, and pseudo-men!!!
The author, Elias Bejjani, is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Author’s Email: Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Author’s Website: http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com

Western countries advise citizens in Lebanon to leave over Israeli aggression
Adam Schrader/UPI/August 4, 2024
Western countries including Italy, Britain, France and the United States have advised citizens in Lebanon to leave the country over escalating tensions between Lebanon and its neighbor, Israel, which is also waging war against Palestinians in Gaza. Displacing thousands of Lebanese civilians near the border, Israel has for months been conducting strikes on its northern neighbor to target Hezbollah, an armed political party created to oppose Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon in the 1980s. After fighting a civil war in Lebanon, the party survived and has continued to oppose Israeli aggression in the region. Tensions have increased between Israel and Lebanon since last week's assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian militia Hamas -- Hezbollah's ally in Gaza, which is fighting against Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and oppression of Palestinian people. "Given the worsening of the situation, we invite Italians temporarily staying in Lebanon not to travel to the South of the country and to return to Italy on commercial flights as soon as possible," Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in a statement. French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné noted that commercial flights from Lebanon are still available, an indication that might not be the case soon. "As a reminder, faced with the risks of military escalation in the Middle East, French nationals are urged not to travel to Lebanon," Séjourné said. With a more dire-sounding warning, the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said "British nationals in Lebanon should leave now" as it encouraged Brits in Lebanon to follow an official WhatsApp page for more information. In June, Human Rights Watch said that the Israeli military is illegally using airburst white phosphorus munitions as it attacks Lebanon, putting civilians in its northern neighbor at risk. The human rights organization said it verified that Israel illegally used airburst munitions over residential areas in five municipalities in June. The report counted the use of white phosphorous munitions in at least 17 municipalities since October 2023. At least 173 people have been injured by white phosphorous since October, Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health said. And more than 92,600 people have been displaced. Amnesty International has similarly documented the illegal use of white phosphorous by the Israeli military. It previously called on one such attack on the town of Dhayra to be investigated as a war crime.

Hezbollah tearing itself apart looking for internal leak that led to Shukr's elimination - report
Jerusalem/August 04/2024
Hezbollah has arrested some of its own members in search for how Israel found the location of its commander. Hezbollah is searching for answers as to how the location of its commander Fuad Shukr became known to Israel, allowing for the terror leader’s elimination in Beirut, the Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet Al-Janoubia reported on Saturday. Hezbollah officials confirmed to Reuters last week that the body of the commander had been discovered under rubble left by an Israeli airstrike. The IDF affirmed it had carried out the strike, adding that Shukr had been responsible for the deaths of 12 Druze children in Majdal Shams. "The IDF knows how to operate and reach a certain window in a neighborhood in Beirut; it also knows how to attack at a certain point in the underground, and we also know how to maneuver inside very strongly," IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said after the strike. An anonymous source told Al-Janoubia that Hezbollah's leading theory, given how religiously Shukr avoided technology that would enable his detection, is that someone within the terror group leaked his location and or that Israeli agents had infiltrated the group.
According to the source, Shukr avoided all technology that required his voice, facial recognition, or thumbprint. The terror leader also had his whereabouts heavily coordinated by security. “The [Hezbollah] party leadership has become certain that its ranks are infiltrated by networks of Israeli agents at high levels,” she confirmed. “The party fears that Israel has complete data on the party's formations, including names, photos, phone numbers, addresses, and audio data."The anonymous source further revealed, “The former officer in the General Security, before joining the ranks of Hezbollah, moved on the day of his assassination from one of the religious complexes in the suburb to Haret Hreik, where he had an office. Only a few security personnel knew about his movement.” Making arrests and carrying out investigation. Hezbollah has begun arresting officials within their group who knew Shukr's location, according to the source. “Suspicions revolve around a senior security official in Hezbollah who knew where Shukr and his guest were in the targeted building, as they were waiting for a signal from him for an upcoming meeting with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, shortly before the assassination was carried out.”The sources explained that “the security official, who was known for his tense relations with the jihadist body in the party, was placed under house arrest by investigators, and his work was suspended until the investigation was completed, and the party is keen not to expose what is happening within its ranks.”Shukr’s elimination also raised questions on how information was gained on past eliminated terror leaders. The sources pointed out that "the assassination of Shukr brought to the party's mind the assassination of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in the heart of the southern suburb, where it is assumed that he was coordinating and under the protection of the security committee headed by Hajj Wafiq Safa and assisted in the suburb by Hajj Ali Ayoub."She concluded by saying, “the party’s security committee is concerned with any security movement in the suburb; even the security services do not enter it without permission and direct coordination with the head of the coordination and liaison unit, Hajj Wafiq Safa, and the network of cameras planted in the streets and buildings of the suburb is under the authority of this committee.”Similar fears seem to have reached Iran, according to the New York Times, as dozens of arrests have been carried out in search of parties involved in the elimination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.

Pope Francis Holds Lebanon in His Heart and Thoughts
This Is Beirut/August 04/2024
On the fourth anniversary of the Beirut port explosion, Pope Francis called for justice to be served. He also urged efforts to help Lebanon emerge from its crises and to “achieve peace in the Middle East, ending the war that threatens the countries and peoples of the region in Israel, Lebanon and Syria.”Furthermore, he paid tribute to newly beatified Lebanese Patriarch Estephan Douaihy.

Lebanon marks four years since port blast as war fears loom
Agence France Presse/August 04/2024
Lebanon on Sunday marks four years since a catastrophic explosion at Beirut's port killed more than 220 people, with fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah hanging heavy over the grim commemoration. Several marches are set to converge on the port in the afternoon to remember the victims and demand justice. Nobody has been held responsible for the August 4, 2020 disaster -- one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions -- which also injured at least 6,500 people and devastated swathes of the capital. Authorities said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been haphazardly stored for years. An investigation has stalled, mired in legal and political wrangling. "The complete lack of accountability for such a manmade disaster is staggering," United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement on Saturday. "One would expect the concerned authorities to work tirelessly to lift all barriers... but the opposite is happening," she said, calling for "an impartial, thorough, and transparent investigation to deliver truth, justice, and accountability."In December 2020, lead investigator Fadi Sawan charged former prime minister Hassan Diab and three ex-ministers with negligence, but as political pressure mounted, he was removed from the case.
His successor, Tarek Bitar, unsuccessfully asked lawmakers to lift parliamentary immunity for MPs who were formerly cabinet ministers. In December 2021, Bitar suspended his probe after a barrage of lawsuits, while Hezbollah accused him of bias and demanded his dismissal. But in January last year, he resumed investigations, charging eight new suspects including high-level security officials and Lebanon's top prosecutor, who in turn charged Bitar with "usurping power" and ordered the release of detainees in the case. The process has since stalled again. A judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Bitar would "resume his proceedings, starting next week" and intends to finish "the investigation and issue his indictment decision... by the end of the year."Bitar will set dates for questioning defendants who have not yet appeared before him, according to the official. If the public prosecutor's office or other relevant judicial officials fail to cooperate, Bitar "will issue arrest warrants in absentia" for the defendants, the official added. Activists have called for a U.N. fact-finding mission into the blast, but Lebanese officials have repeatedly rejected the demand. Prospects of further disaster loom over this year's anniversary, with Hamas ally Hezbollah and the Israeli army trading cross-border fire since the Palestinian group's October 7 attack that triggered the Gaza war and fears that an all-out conflict could engulf Lebanon.

UK govt. tells British nationals in Lebanon to 'leave now'
Agence France Presse/August 04/2024
The UK government has urged its citizens in Lebanon to leave the country immediately, amid fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah and a broader regional conflict. In a statement, the foreign ministry said British nationals should depart the Middle Eastern country "now while commercial options remain available.".l "Tensions are high, and the situation could deteriorate rapidly," said Foreign Minister David Lammy."While we are working round the clock to strengthen our consular presence in Lebanon, my message to British nationals there is clear –- leave now."The Foreign Office said it was "strengthening" its support for Britons in the country by deploying "border force, consular officials and military personnel to the region." The officials will offer "additional support" to embassy staff while the military personnel will provide embassies with "operational support to help British nationals," the ministry said. "This is alongside Landing ship RFA Cardigan Bay and HMS Duncan already being in the eastern Mediterranean to support allies with humanitarian requirements, with the Royal Air Force also putting transport helicopters on standby," the statement added. "With the potential for exit routes out of Lebanon -- including roads -- being affected, limited, or closed, due to events escalating with little warning, teams will continue to urge British nationals to leave while commercial options remain available."

France calls on citizens in Lebanon to leave 'as soon as possible'
Agence France Presse/August 04/2024
France on Sunday called on its citizens in Lebanon to leave the country "as soon as possible" amid fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah and a broader regional conflict. "In a highly volatile security context, we once again call the attention of French nationals, particularly those passing through, to the fact that direct commercial flights and ones with stopovers to France are still available, and we invite them to make their arrangements now to leave Lebanon as soon as possible," the foreign ministry said in its travel advice notice for Lebanon.
With its call, Paris is following the example of Washington and London, which had recommended their own nationals to leave from Saturday. France estimates that some 23,000 of its citizens live in Lebanon, and last month around 10,000 French citizens were visiting to the country. Sweden also announced the closure of its embassy in Beirut and called on its nationals to leave. On Thursday, the French foreign ministry had updated an information sheet by highlighting the continued availability of commercial flights to France while stopping short of calling on nationals to leave Lebanon.
On Sunday, the ministry stressed French nationals were being "urgently asked" not to travel to Lebanon as fears of a regional conflagration after Iran and its allies threatened to respond to the assassination of Hamas' political leader, blamed on Israel. Tehran, along with Hamas and Lebanese-based, Iranian-backed ally Hezbollah, accused Israel of Wednesday killing Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh was killed a day after a strike claimed by Israel killed Hezbollah military chief Fouad Shukur near Beirut. Hezbollah said Saturday it had launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at Israel, saying the attack was in response to Israeli attacks on civilians in south Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is at "a very high level" of preparedness for any scenario -- "defensive and offensive."

US embassy urges citizens to leave Lebanon on 'any ticket available'
Agence France Press/August 04/2024
The U S. embassy in Lebanon has urged its citizens to leave Lebanon on "any ticket available,"namid fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah and a broader regional conflict. Despite flight suspensions and cancellations, "commercial transportation options to leave Lebanon remain available," the embassy statement said. "We encourage those who wish to depart Lebanon to book any ticket available to them, even if that flight does not depart immediately or does not follow their first-choice route," it added.

Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets at Beit Hillel after Israeli attacks on civilians
Agence France Presse/August 04/2024
Hezbollah said overnight it had launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at northern Israel. The Iran-backed group said its latest attack, on Beit Hillel in northern Israel, was in response to Israel's attacks on Kfarkela and Deir Siriane in south Lebanon which, it said, had injured civilians there. On Sunday, an Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in the southern border village of Rab Tlatine, causing no injuries. The developments comes as Israel braces for a Hezbollah response to the killing of its military chief Fouad Shukur in a brazen strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday. That strike, in a dense residential neighborhood, also killed three women, two children and an Iranian military adviser while wounding over 80 people.

Beirut Port Explosion: Judge Bitar to Resume Investigation
This Is Beirut/August 04/2024
In a highly anticipated move, judicial sources have confirmed that Judge Tarek Bitar, the investigating judge in charge of probing the deadly double explosion of August 4, 2020, is preparing to resume his work after a hiatus of over two and a half years. According to “Huna Lebanon”, Judge Bitar intentionally waited until after the August 4 anniversary to avoid political exploitation and will now continue his investigations. The sources revealed that Judge Bitar will be scheduling interrogation sessions for all accused individuals who have thus far failed to appear before him, including politicians, security officials, judges, and employees. Should they refuse to comply, Bitar is prepared to issue arrest warrants and take further legal action as necessary. This development is seen as a prelude to the eventual closing of the investigation and the referral of the case to the Public Prosecution. There is anticipation that an indictment will be issued within the current year, with the entire investigation expected to be concluded by 2025. According to “Huna Lubnan”’s sources, Judge Bitar’s determination to resume his work is based on a legal precedent he set in 2023, equating the role of the judicial investigator with that of judges on the Judicial Council. This stance is supported by a precedent set by the President of the Supreme Judicial Council Philip Khairallah, which emphasized the authority and immunity of Judicial Council judges and, according to Bitar, should also apply to the judicial investigator. However, there is potential for opposition from the Public Prosecution, which may not cooperate with Judge Bitar’s unilateral decision, particularly given the recent rejection of a proposal by Acting Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation Judge Jamal al-Hajjar to remove politicians and judges from the scope of the investigation.

August 4: Al-Rai Calls for International Investigation into Beirut Port Explosion
This Is Beirut/August 04/2024
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai called for an international investigation into the Beirut port explosion as the tragedy marks its fourth anniversary. “We pray for the course of justice in the investigation of the Beirut Port explosion,” he stated during his Sunday sermon from Diman.
Patriarch Al-Rai renewed his condemnation of the devastating explosion. He extended heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims while offering prayers for the recovery of the injured. He emphasized the necessity of removing political and partisan interference from the judiciary, advocating for an international probe given the stagnation of the local investigation.Al-Rai also expressed deep concern over the recent “scandal” surrounding the high school examinations, which he said “exposed rampant corruption and led to foreign universities’ reluctance to accept Lebanese students.”On another note, the Patriarch highlighted the significance of celebrating a mass of thanksgiving for Blessed Patriarch Douaihy, describing him as a beacon of hope during trying times. He lauded Patriarch Estephan Douaihy as a paragon of knowledge and holiness, affirming his unparalleled legacy among the patriarchs. The Patriarch’s address underscores a persistent call for justice and reform, reflecting widespread discontent with the current state of affairs in Lebanon.

Audi on August 4: When Will the Judiciary Rise Against Politics and Politicians?
This Is Beirut/August 04/2024
Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut Elias Audi called upon judges, lawyers, leaders and the entire nation to awaken their conscience and seek justice, as it has been four years since the Beirut port explosion and the perpetrators have not been held accountable. Metropolitan Audi presided over a solemn Mass at Saint George Cathedral on Sunday. The service was held in memory of the victims of the catastrophic August 4 explosion, which claimed numerous lives at Saint George Hospital in Beirut. Audi reflected on the immense tragedy that struck Beirut four years ago, devastating not only homes and institutions but also the hearts of its residents. “Today, we remember a painful tragedy that struck the heart of our capital, Beirut, four years ago, burning not only homes and institutions but also the hearts of its inhabitants,” he stated. He questioned the integrity and commitment of elected officials and those in power, asking, “Where are the deputies with the promises they made before the elections? Where are the officials with the duties entrusted to them? Are their consciences not stirred by a crime that claimed the lives of innocents, including children in the prime of their youth, pushing them to uncover its mystery and punish the perpetrators?”He asked those in power a stark question: “If their own children were among the victims, would they remain silent about the crime and ignore the truth?” Highlighting the need for judicial independence and integrity, he implored, “When will the judiciary rise against politics and politicians to prevent any hand from disrupting its work and tarnishing its image and role? And when will it rise against itself to cleanse itself of those who are corrupt and conscienceless?”He urged those responsible or knowledgeable about the incident to come forward and contribute to uncovering the truth, asking them to hold themselves accountable and ease their conscience. “Has Beirut, the mother of laws, become incapable of giving justice to its children? Has the state resigned from its duty to protect its citizens?” he asked, emphasizing the need for accountability and justice. Metropolitan Audi also prayed for the souls of all who passed away on August 4, 2020, or subsequently due to the wounds inflicted that day. He extended his prayers to those still suffering physically, psychologically and materially from the aftermath of the explosion.

August 4: Weapons and Injustice
Natasha Metni Torbey/This Is Beirut/August 04/2024
Far from over, the path to justice for the victims of the Beirut port explosion remains a long and winding one. After Judge Jamal Hajjar was designated interim Attorney General to the Court of Cassation to replace Judge Ghassan Oweidate – and despite Hajjar’s pledge to unblock the inquiry led by Judge Tarek Bitar – the investigation is still on hold. Is there still hope for a settlement? This Is Beirut sheds light on an affair that highlights the endemic neglect and corruption within Lebanese institutions, one that reveals serious loopholes in the country’s political and judicial system.
After numerous meetings held following his appointment as Public Prosecutor, all of which ended in total failure and recognition of the legal deadlock that has hindered the investigation into the port explosion for over a year, Judges Hajjar and Bitar reportedly succeeded last Thursday in finding a way out of the crisis. The investigating judge is said to have decided to continue his work by setting dates for questioning the individuals accused in this case. This would be the final step before closing the file and submitting it to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which should give a principled opinion to allow the publication of the indictment. The question posed by attorney Nasri Diab, a lawyer at the Court and member of the Beirut Bar’s accusation bureau, is as follows: “Will Prosecutor Hajjar agree to receive this indictment? If so, what will he do with it?”
In that same context, according to leaked information, the Attorney General might be able to recuse himself from the case. This additional measure would further compromise the progress of the investigation. In trying to verify the accuracy of this information, This Is Beirut learned that Jamal Hajjar is unlikely to withdraw. “We know that the retirement of Ghassan Oweidate has caused political tensions regarding the appointment of a successor,” notes lawyer Tamam Sahili, a member of the Beirut Bar’s accusation bureau. “Several names were proposed, including that of Judge Nada Dakroub, who, according to the law, should have replaced him. But as is often the case in Lebanon, politics wins over the law. Therefore, when Judge Hajjar accepted his appointment, he was well aware of the challenges he faced and the gravity and scale of the cases he had to deal with notably the Beirut port case,” she continues, dismissing the possibility of a potential recusal. Moreover, during the last meeting between the accusation bureau and the current prosecutor, the latter “did not express any desire to recuse himself,” confirms Sahili. According to her, “this is a critical stage where Prosecutor Hajjar, who enjoys a good reputation, is being tested.” She confided to TIB that during the multiple meetings the accusation bureau had with him, “he always showed transparency and cooperation, insisting on the need to resume the investigation and collaborate with Judge Bitar to allow the latter to issue the indictment.” She added that “meetings between the prosecutor and the investigating judge are ongoing to find points of convergence that would eliminate problematic aspects of the case, particularly the lawsuits filed by officials and judges, including Oweidate, against Judge Bitar.” For this, the prosecutor would need, according to the lawyer, a reasonable time frame to reach a solution, estimated at one or two months, especially since Tarek Bitar is “already in an advanced phase of drafting his indictment, with only a few points left, such as questioning some suspects and holding hearings before finalizing his act.”
Is Bitar’s Responsibility Engaged?
The situation has been stagnant for nearly three years, and some legal experts believe that the investigating judge is responsible. “I have no intention of questioning his integrity, but Judge Bitar is currently hindering the investigation,” says lawyer Marc Habka. “By insisting on his positions and preventing another judge from taking over after a prolonged suspension, Judge Bitar will never be able to reach a solution,” he continues. According to him, when one knows that multiple appeals and requests for dismissal have been filed against him – and no decision can be made because the plenary is not constituted – the investigation will always be suspended, even if Attorney General Hajjar could reconsider the decisions made by his predecessor Ghassan Oweidate. “Such an initiative would not change the situation, as the investigating judge will continue to be the subject of appeals,” he insists. In this regard, he believes that the judge’s responsibility is engaged at two levels: first, “when he directly targeted former ministers and deputies from a specific political camp, knowing that approaching them would undoubtedly lead to such a hostile reaction and the blockage of the investigation.” “In my opinion, Bitar should have started his investigations by questioning officials before summoning political leaders as a last resort,” notes Habka. Secondly, “how can one explain that after a year of absence, following his dismissal, the judge decides to reverse his decision based on jurisprudence? Why didn’t he do it earlier, knowing that during this period some detainees could have regained their freedom?” the lawyer indignantly asks.
Obstacles to the Inquiry
Fast forward to February 18, 2021, six months after the explosion at the Beirut port that killed 200 people and injured thousands of others: Judge Fadi Sawan, who is tasked with leading the investigation, is removed from his duties. The reason? An appeal for legitimate suspicion was filed by Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeaiter, both deputies affiliated with the Amal movement, implicated in this case. The Court of Cassation, which rendered this verdict, also deemed that the judge was a party to the case – his residence in Achrafieh was damaged by the explosion – and is therefore considered a victim of the explosion. This dismissal will mark the beginning of a standoff between a corrupt political class and a justice system struggling to assert itself.
On February 19 of the same year, Tarek Bitar – against whom a multitude of appeals have since been filed by those indicted by the judge in this case – succeeded Sawan. These include requests for the transfer of the case due to the judge’s alleged impartiality and appeals involving the state’s liability for the judge’s alleged misconduct. Mission accomplished for those who worked to prevent him from continuing his investigation. Former Prime Minister Hassan Diab, MPs and former ministers Ali Hassan Khalil, Ghazi Zeaiter, and Nouhad Machnouk, former Minister Youssef Fenianos, former army commander General Jean Kahwagi, and other military and administrative officials, accused of voluntary manslaughter, argued that these indictments do not fall within Judge Bitar’s jurisdiction, as they believe it is the High Court of Justice that should judge and hear presidents, prime ministers, and ministers. However, ‘these individuals are being prosecuted on the basis of a criminal offense and not for gross misconduct in office, as they claim based on the constitutional text,’ judicial sources indicate. The appeals were not the only obstacles the investigating judge had to face. Even within the Palace of Justice, the judiciary was engaging in a war of the greatest dissolution. With the support of part of the ruling class, the former Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, Ghassan Oweidate, who was himself indicted in the investigation into the double explosion at the port and had recused himself from the case due to his family ties with former Minister Ghazi Zeaiter, returned to the case. But why?
This was in 2023. Suspended since December 2021 due to multiple appeals against the investigating judge, the enquiry resumed unexpectedly with a sudden decision by Tarek Bitar, who decided to reclaim the case, relying on legal texts and a 1995 precedent, thus ending his removal from the case in question. As a result, he ordered the release of five of the 17 detainees involved in the investigation and prepared to launch new judicial proceedings against eight officials, including the directors of General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, and State Security, Tony Saliba.
Finding this decision void, the Public Prosecutor’s Office protested, and Oweidate acted. He filed charges against the investigating judge for “impersonation,” ordered the release of the 17 detainees, and issued an order prohibiting the relevant authorities from receiving any decisions, notifications, or documents from the investigating judge or any entity under his jurisdiction. He considered that the latter had been removed from the case due to the numerous appeals filed against him, which the plenary assembly of the Court of Cassation had been unable to rule on because of a lack of quorum. It is worth noting that, due to the retirement of some members of the plenary assembly of the Court of Cassation, the assembly is still not constituted. The appointment plan previously drafted by the Higher Judicial Council was blocked for months by the caretaker Finance Minister, Youssef Khalil (close to the Speaker of the House Nabih Berri), citing “an imbalance and ambiguity in the text.” The decree was never signed.
Internationally, Justice Takes Over
The Savaro Case – Following the verdict delivered on June 12, 2023, by the High Court of Justice in London against Savaro Ltd, no appeal was filed by the company that imported the ammonium nitrate that exploded on August 4, 2020, at the port of Beirut. “Today, after the expiration of the appeal period, the judgment is enforceable,” explained Professor Nasri Diab. “However, the case is not closed. I am currently working in collaboration with lawyer Camille Abou Sleiman, who represents the Dechert LLP firm, on paths that will allow us to advance in this case,” he continued, before revealing that “further measures will be implemented and announced in due time.”It is worth noting that, in February 2023, Savaro Ltd was declared civilly liable to the victims of August 4, by a verdict rendered by the High Court of Justice. The company’s name appeared on the contract for the purchase of ammonium nitrate, and Savaro acted in Lebanon as the effective owner of the cargo. After the ammonium nitrate arrived in Lebanon, and after the goods were unloaded at the port of Beirut and moved to hangar 12, the company made several attempts to retrieve it.
In January 2021, it initiated a procedure to be removed from the London commercial register (Companies House), but the decision to liquidate was suspended thanks to an intervention by the Beirut Bar Association’s prosecution office, represented by former Bar President Melhem Khalaf and lawyers Nasri Diab and Chucri Haddad. The legal action against Savaro was conducted in close collaboration with the Dechert LLP firm, represented by Abou Sleiman. In June 2023, the company was ordered to pay damages to the victims of the explosion.
Spectrum Geo – On July 13, 2022, the Swiss foundation Accountability Now announced legal action taken in Texas, USA, by a group of nine relatives of victims, against the American-Norwegian geophysical services company TGS, owner of the British company Spectrum Geo which chartered the Rhosus, a Moldovan-flagged ship that transported 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate to the port of Beirut. The plaintiffs accuse TGS of entering lucrative but suspicious contracts with the Lebanese Ministry of Energy to transport seismic survey equipment from Lebanon to Jordan aboard the aforementioned ship. They are seeking a compensation of nearly $250 million. In September 2023, according to a statement released by Accountability Now, “TGS agreed to hand over all relevant documents related to the Rhosus, the explosives, its seismic operations, as well as its relationships with Lebanese politicians, entities, or individuals in Lebanon and abroad connected in any way to the explosion.”
France Trial – Given the presence of French nationals among the victims, including one deceased and 40 injured, the Collective Accidents division of the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for “involuntary manslaughter and injuries.” Although there have been no developments in this context, there has been an attempt in recent months to create a collective of French victims in Paris, enabling them to act directly in the country and have a “legal” presence, notes Professor Diab. International Investigation – On July 4, 2022, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for the opening of an international investigation. French President Emmanuel Macron’s inaction was criticized, and the head of state was accused of “collusion with the Lebanese ruling class to avoid any internationalization of the investigation.” Internationalizing the investigation would be futile, some legal experts argue, criticizing the lack of cooperation from states following the explosion. “Why have the reports of international experts dispatched to Lebanon from August 5, 2020, never seen the light of day? Why have the requests for judicial cooperation not been honored?” protests Diab. It should be noted that after taking over the case, Judge Bitar sent more than 20 requests for cooperation to various nations. His requests remained unanswered. The investigation into the Beirut port explosion has become a symbol of the fight for justice and the struggle against impunity in Lebanon. It continues to face obstructive forces in a country where respect for the rule of law and the ability of institutions to withstand political pressure largely determine its future.

Lebanon should take up Erdogan’s offer to step in
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/August 04, 2024
All eyes are on Lebanon and on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah is in a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” situation. The only scenario that will save the day is third-party involvement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on an assassination spree, ordering the killings of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in southern Beirut and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran as the latter was attending the inauguration of the new president. Israel claimed that the strike on Lebanon is in response to the killing of 12 children in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan. Though there has been no independent investigation, Israel swiftly came to the conclusion that Hezbollah was responsible for the deadly rocket attack. Is this a case of deja vu? In 1982, Israel used an assassination attempt on its ambassador in London as an excuse to invade Lebanon. Israel blamed the Palestine Liberation Organization, though the organization was not behind the attempt. It was Abu Nidal, a splinter group from the PLO. Hence, people in Beirut are worried that the tragic incident in the Druze town might be used as a pretext for an invasion or an attack outside the current rules of engagement. After Israel’s dual assassinations, it is time for Hezbollah to respond. Hezbollah cannot but respond. The group needs to maintain its prestige, and cannot appear to be cowed by Israel. That would destroy its raison d’etre: resistance against Israel. However, if Hezbollah responds, Israel will have to respond in turn. Hezbollah’s audience is waiting for a response that will match the narrative. A taxi driver in Beirut told me that Israelis will witness a “painful” response, and the blood of innocent civilians will not go to waste. We are in a situation where neither party wants an escalation, but neither can afford to back down.
What is the solution? Is there a face-saving exit that will allow both parties to resume the diplomatic track? For the Lebanese government, there is an exit plan from this conundrum. The foreign minister or prime minister can call on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offer.
Erdogan last week suggested that Turkiye could intervene militarily to stop the war in Gaza. He mentioned Azerbaijan and Libya. In both cases, Turkish intervention changed the tide of the conflict. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said that “Israel won’t accept threats from a wannabe dictator.” However, Turkish intervention might be what both parties need in order to avoid full-scale war. The Lebanese government has not played the role it should to save the country.
Hezbollah has said that revenge for the Israeli attack in Beirut is coming, but it will need to wait for the right target opportunity. The US hopes that Hezbollah’s response will be limited, with few casualties, so that both parties can de-escalate. However, there is no guarantee that this will be the forthcoming scenario. Hezbollah might deliver a “painful” response. Then de-escalation would be impossible. Also, the cost would be unbearable for Lebanon. The country cannot tolerate an intensive air campaign. Both parties need to save face, and both have to show they can protect their own people. That is why a third party acting as a buffer is needed.
In previous pieces, I have written that Kosovo succeeded because it had a security guarantor, the US. The different parties respected the ceasefire agreement because no one wanted to confront the US. Here, Turkiye can play the role of guarantor.
However, the problem is that the Lebanese government is not being proactive enough. After the attack on Majdal Shams, Najib Mikati, the caretaker prime minister, issued a statement that reflected the weakness of the government and the helplessness of the Lebanese state. This will encourage Israel to have a free hand in Lebanon. The current government policy has been a non-policy. Its aim has been mainly to float and navigate rather than to make decisions that could put it at odds with domestic parties, or with regional or global powers. However, in this tense environment, it is the Lebanese government’s responsibility to save the country. It cannot just sit and watch events unfold. The government should ask for Turkiye to deploy in the south, creating a buffer between Hezbollah and Israel. If Turkiye is the security guarantor, residents on both sides of the border could return to their homes, and diplomatic negotiations could resume. The Turkish presence will be appreciated by both parties, even if in public they claim it is limiting their movement. It will give them a face-saving excuse to de-escalate. From the Lebanese side, Turkiye is a Muslim country that has always supported resistance in Palestine. Both Hezbollah and Turkiye have acknowledged Hamas as a resistance force. From an Israeli perspective, Turkiye is a NATO member, hence a pro-Western power that will not attack Israel. The Lebanese government has not played the role it should to save the country. The state should take this step. It should call on Erdogan’s offer, and begin lobbying Hezbollah, as well the different factions, to buy into this arrangement. At the same time, it should engage and be proactive with the US to make sure Israel is tamed. The Turkish scenario should be presented as an alternative to a confrontation. The Lebanese government should act quickly as we are running out of time. Once a major escalation takes place, it will be too late to take up Erdogan’s offer.
*Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.

A tale of three explosions and their far-reaching echoes
Nadim Shehadi/Arab News/August 04, 2024
Three major explosions, all linked to Hezbollah, have punctuated the growing influence of Iran in Lebanon and the region over the past 40 years. If this were a three-part TV series, the same actors would have been more or less involved in each of the three episodes. The net result is that southern Lebanon has been turned into the front line of a global confrontation between the US and its allies on one side, and Iran and its allies on the other. The first two explosions — the 1983 Beirut barracks blast and the 2005 bomb that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri — changed the course of history. The third explosion, the Aug. 4, 2020, Beirut Port blast, is still shaping the course of the country, with repercussions well beyond its borders. One common factor is that all three explosions happened against a backdrop of US-Iran confrontation, with Lebanon as one of its battlegrounds. The Israeli strike that killed Fouad Shukr on July 30 symbolizes the complex linkages. He was a Hezbollah military leader, second in command to Hassan Nasrallah, whose finger was on the trigger that could have launched a major post-Gaza military confrontation involving Iran, the US, and their regional and global allies. Shukr is alleged to have been involved in the 1983 Beirut barracks attack. He was also the commander of Hezbollah forces that intervened in Syria, which also included other Iranian proxies from Iraq, Yemen and beyond, all of which can be mobilized in the current war.
In all three cases the reaction of the US is key to later developments, and the sequence of events is relevant. After the 1983 Beirut explosion that killed 241 US military personnel, the US eventually capitulated to Syria. US President Ronald Reagan ordered the redeployment of US troops that were part of a multinational force that intervened to stabilize Lebanon after the Israeli invasion of 1982. At the same time Western hostages taken in Beirut by militant groups linked to both Iran and Syria were released in Damascus. The game of arsonist firefighter played by the Syrian regime eventually paid off. The Reagan administration gradually came to believe that only Syria could control Lebanon. In 1990, Syria was given a free hand in Lebanon as a sweetener for its participation in the Gulf War coalition to drive Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait. Syrian control allowed Hezbollah to flourish and remain unchallenged for 14 years. In June 2004, US President George W. Bush and his French counterpart Jacques Chirac met in Normandy at the D-Day commemorations and decided to patch up their differences over the US invasion of Iraq by sponsoring UN Security Council Resolution 1559. This would restore Lebanese sovereignty, and drive both Syria and Iran out of the country by disarming Hezbollah and other militias under its control.
Syrian control allowed Hezbollah to flourish and remain unchallenged.
Hariri, the target of the second bomb in our series, was suspected of aligning with Chirac against Syrian and Iranian influence. This was followed by what became known as the Cedar Revolution, a precursor to the Arab Spring, calling for an international investigation. Support for that eventually led to almost a dozen UN Security Council resolutions and the setting up of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Syria withdrew its troops under international pressure. We now know from the judgments and indictments of the Special Tribunal that a hit squad composed of several Hezbollah members was responsible for a series of assassinations of journalists, politicians, military and security personnel over several years. Hezbollah control was also achieved through a continuous state of war, control of the port and airport, occupation of the city, and paralyzing government and state institutions, as well as isolation from the Gulf countries.
On the international level, developments were also significant. The US withdrew from Iraq and engaged with the regime in Syria when President Bashar Assad dangled the carrot of a peace agreement with Israel. The most serious development for our story is the impact of the negotiations with Iran over the Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The JCPOA was negotiated on condition that talks would stick to technical aspects and “geopolitics” would be kept out of the discussions. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is said to have told US Secretary of State John Kerry that his mandate from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei included only the nuclear issue, and that he would walk out if any mention was made of Iran’s regional role, more specifically in Syria through its Iraqi and Lebanese proxies. The result was that the US became blind to the Houthis, Hezbollah and other Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps militias in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, leading to the situation now. This also led to the US limiting its support for the Syrian opposition in order to avoid a clash with Iran that would endanger the JCPOA. In 2013, the US fell for a Russian trick to retreat from President Barack Obama’s “red line” and negotiate Syria’s chemical weapons.
The 2020 Beirut Port blast is also heavily loaded with symbols that are relevant to the current regional confrontation. Originally 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at the port were said to be destined for the manufacture of barrel bombs in the battle for Syria. When that warehouse exploded, it was estimated that just over a quarter of the original quantity was left. This was enough to destroy half the city. Both civil and military authorities who knew about the cache were powerless to act. The investigation was blocked, and the legal process paralyzed after a threatening visit by Hezbollah’s security chief Wafiq Safa to the judicial authorities. Lokman Slim, the political commentator and critic of Hezbollah, was assassinated after speaking out about the group’s connections to the port blast. Four years after the Beirut Port explosion, the demand for justice for the victims and accountability for those responsible for the crime is falling on deaf ears internationally. The US administration is negotiating with Hezbollah as though it were the sovereign authority of the country. Is this another capitulation? A third one after the third bomb? The deafening sound of the explosions has far-reaching echoes.
**Nadim Shehadi is an economist and political adviser. He has held positions in academia and think tanks in Europe and the US. He ran a program on the regional dimension of the Middle East Peace Process at Chatham House. X: @Confusezeus

The Ottoman American Empire ...The Obama-Biden blueprint after Gaza
Tony Badran/The Tablet/August 04/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/08/132878/
According to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israel has “effectively lost sovereignty” over the north of its own country thanks to Hezbollah rocket attacks that have sent 80,000 Israelis fleeing from their homes and set at least 20,000 acres of Israeli land on fire. Blinken made his comments before the Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 children in the Israeli Golan Heights community of Majdal Shams, in the wake of which Washington signaled that it would be working to “contain the fallout” from the attack. In both cases, the Biden White House was closely following its existing blueprint for how it expects the eastern Mediterranean will work following the cease-fire it is attempting to enforce on Israel in Gaza, leaving Hamas in charge of the strip as the prelude to formally establishing a U.S.-recognized Palestinian state.
There is nothing secret about the administration’s plan for how it will administer the Levant, which it first unveiled in October 2022 in the form of the Israel-Lebanon maritime border deal brokered by White House emissary Amos Hochstein and signed by the then caretaker prime minister, Yair Lapid, in the waning days of his government. According to the U.S. blueprint, the United States and Iran will jointly administer a set of Levantine provinces, including Israel; a future Palestinian state; and Lebanon. Jordan, which is also part of the local geography, is configured as an American protectorate to balance out Syria, which was recognized by Barack Obama, publicly in 2015 and privately in his letters to Ali Khamenei, as an Iranian regional “equity” and will therefore apparently be administered solely by Iran. Whatever problems may arise between the three Levantine provinces and their local subdivisions are to be adjudicated jointly by the U.S.-Iran condominium, with local governing entities being free to plead their cases in Washington but powerless to take independent action without taking on both the global superpower and its regional partner.
The U.S.-Iranian understanding has governed and constrained Israeli action since the beginning of the Oct. 7 war. By ruling out any major military action against either Hezbollah or Iran and declaring the establishment of a Palestinian state to be a necessary outcome of the end of the Gaza war, it has bound the Israeli war effort in a straitjacket of strategic futility that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have tried their best to wriggle out of. While the tactical successes of the past few days—in which Israel targeted the upper echelons of the Iranian network in successive strikes in Beirut and Tehran—smartly turned the power vacuum in the White House to Israel’s advantage, it is unclear what, if any, strategic significance they will have past November.
In the last two days of May, the Obama-Biden team again put forward its vision for the joint U.S.-Iranian administration of the region in two back-to-back announcements laying out how the Gaza endgame will work. Front and center in these announcements was the U.S. plan for Gaza and the Palestinians, which came with the public imprimatur of Barack Obama himself, the leader of the ruling party in Washington. The Obama plan, which begins with ending Israel’s military operation against Hamas, includes international engagement and investment in Gaza, and the formalization of the status of the Palestinian Territories as a proto-state under American management. The day before the proclamation on the Palestinians, Team Obama-Biden rolled out its plan for Israel’s northern neighbor, Lebanon. The president’s senior adviser, Hochstein, laid out a parallel multiphase plan for the Hezbollah-run country, which likewise features increased international engagement and cover, supplementing the United States’ substantial existing investments in so-called Lebanese state institutions, whose job is to run cover and provide support for Hezbollah.
What was original in the May announcements was the explicit connection that was made between the two plans, by both Washington and Hezbollah, the Iranian-led militia that rules Lebanon and acts as Iran’s local regent. The Lebanese plan would go into effect along with the Gaza plan, i.e., once Israel agrees to a cease-fire, with the Gaza plan being patterned on the Lebanese model. Biden and his team asserted that Israel has already agreed to the framework of the U.S. plan, signaling that Jerusalem, like Hezbollah, has signed on to Washington’s demands, just as it signed on to the Lebanese maritime deal—though, to be fair, it’s hard to see how the Israelis could turn Washington down in the middle of a war.
Hamas has not yet agreed to a cease-fire, though. Here, the United States appears to be faced by something of a logical conundrum. By granting Hamas victory in its war with Israel in the form of a cease-fire, followed by continuing control of the Gaza Strip, followed by a U.S.-backed state, the United States has in fact removed the motivation for Hamas to make any reciprocal concessions whatsoever. Why should it? Which is likely why the United States has engaged in only muted criticism of Israel’s military maneuvers in Rafah, which are the only form of leverage the United States has left to get the ball rolling on its regional blueprint.
So what does that blueprint consist of? It starts with U.S. investment and government grants to both countries that dwarf anything that the United States put into Gaza before the war. For Tehran, such investment is a subsidy; for the United States, it is a way of “containing the fallout” from any pesky rocket attacks, since Israel will be naturally constrained from bombing anything built with U.S. money or housing U.S. personnel. Then, there is active U.S. training and equipment for Lebanese and Palestinian armed forces, which in turn serve as shields and auxiliaries for much larger and more powerful terrorist armies that dominate both societies. Funding these (fictional) entities is like creating a large, heavily armed version of UNRWA, the supposed U.N. “relief agency” that funded Hamas and its tunnels before Oct. 7. Except the human shields these entities deploy will now be American military trainers.
What gives the Lebanon model its legs though, is not just that it joins the U.S. interest to the interests of the most powerful groups in Lebanese and Palestinian societies—namely, terrorist armies controlled by Iran. It extends beyond the shared particulars of international investment and engagement to a much older regional template with deep historical and geographical underpinnings. Perhaps the most relevant iteration of this template dates back to the mid-19th century. To understand the dynamics of the American-Iranian blueprint for Israel-Palestine-Lebanon, we therefore need to look to the late Ottoman Empire and its relationships with the Great Powers of Europe. In the early 19th century, while the Ottomans continued to control the eastern Mediterranean, the rise of Egypt under Muhammad Ali led to the reemergence of a familiar pattern in the Levant, which is the rise of a set of fractured territories that functioned as a buffer zone between rival centers of power. Only now, there was a twist. European power was now a major factor that the weakened Ottoman Empire not only couldn’t circumvent but also depended on. Most notable among this power were the British, whose intervention was critical in repelling Egypt from Beirut and Acre in 1840.
In turn, European industrial and military strength forced the Ottomans to grant competing European powers concessions and privileges in the Ottoman realm, especially in the Levant, where European consuls played a considerable active commercial and political role. By then, the Sick Man of Europe, as the Ottoman Empire was known, had become an important square on the European chessboard of power.
As a consequence of this regional and international intrigue, the sectarian bloodletting that broke out, especially in Lebanon in 1841, following Egypt’s retreat, led to the creation of a special administrative arrangement in Mount Lebanon—a compromise between the French, British, and Ottomans brokered by Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich. The arrangement replaced the abolished French-supported Emirate of Mount Lebanon, which had become a vassal of Egypt, and established two kaymakam’s, or sub-governorates, one Druze and one Maronite.
The sub-governorate system was marked by increased sectarian hostilities, culminating in the massacres of 1860, which led to another European military landing in Beirut, this time led by the French. Moreover, it resulted in the creation of a new arrangement in Mount Lebanon, negotiated between the Ottomans and the Great Powers of Britain, France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia: a special province (mutasarriflık). The idea of the special province was proposed by British diplomat Lord Dufferin. The province would be under European supervision and administered by a non-Arab Ottoman Christian governor chosen by the Sublime Porte, who would be advised by a local administrative council of sectarian notables. The province would have only a gendarmerie, trained by the French.
The province’s economy—silk monoculture—was dependent on the European market. European (and, by 1840, American) religious, educational, and health institutions as well as trade investments, concessions, and infrastructure projects (railways and port installations) were already well established in Beirut, the center of a separate administrative division (vilayet), which served as the base for the activities of the participants in Mount Lebanon’s affairs and for French influence in the region.
This complex arrangement remained in place until World War I. The war changed the calculus of the Great Powers toward the Ottoman Empire, which entered the war on the side of the Central powers. The Ottomans picked the wrong side, and after more than 500 years, their empire was finished.
According to the new local arrangements ratified by the League of Nations following the San Remo Conference, the Special Province of Mount Lebanon was replaced with a French mandate. Meanwhile, the Special Province of Jerusalem, created by the Ottomans 11 years after the Special Province of Mount Lebanon, albeit with different calculations, was replaced with the British mandate for Palestine, which was quickly partitioned into two districts, Transjordan (now the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan) and Palestine (now Israel, with an asterisk).
I am hardly suggesting that the brain trust of the Obama-Biden team has sat down and poured over 19th c. Levantine history in search for a historical precedent and a set of maps to underpin its policy. Rather, stumbling into the Lebanese model of the special province is, for one, a testament to the enduring structures of the Levant and its interaction with imperial powers. As it happens, the same structural elements that lent themselves to the Ottoman carve-up lend themselves naturally to the vision driving policy in Washington since Barack Obama’s first term: the realignment with Iran and the reconfiguration of the regional order. In that regard, the Obama-Biden policy represents at once a massive expansion of the special province model as well as its inversion, in some key ways.
Whereas European intervention was driven by competing interests, which necessitated upholding a declining empire and managing its holdings while keeping rivals in check, Obama’s division of the region is intended to elevate a regional middle power and inflate its status across the region while orchestrating regional and international investment in its territories so that it can “do its job” as a U.S. partner. The 19th-century Mount Lebanon special province was a compromise between direct Ottoman rule and the revival of a French-sponsored principality. In Obama’s conceptual universe, the special province is recognized as an Iranian satrapy ruled directly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its local legion—with an accepted American presence, whose function is to provide protection and direct investment, both of which serve in turn to prop up Tehran.
Refracted through this lens, the Obama-Biden team’s policy in Lebanon offers a sketch of its adapted special province model, which it plans to implement in the Palestinian Territories following the end of Israel’s monthslong incursion into Gaza.
Underscoring the privileged place the Lebanese special province holds in Team Obama-Biden’s regional configuration is the American physical headquarters in the tiny country: the U.S. embassy. The second smallest Arab country is host to the second largest U.S. embassy on earth (the largest is in Iraq)—a 43-acre, $1 billion mammoth.
The obvious question one might ask in response to hearing these numbers (the architectural renderings of this behemoth are even more startling), is: Why would America make that kind of investment in a pseudo-state run by Iran’s local representative? The answer is, precisely because it is Iranian territory.
The purpose of large-scale U.S. investment in Lebanon and its state institutions, as well as the building of an embassy that resembles a LEED-certified version of the Crac des Chevaliers in the hills overlooking Beirut, is not to attempt a hostile takeover or, to use the insufferable jargon of Washington hands, to “compete” with Iran. The last time there was perceived hostility in the American involvement in Lebanon, Iran blew up the U.S. embassy and the Marine barracks and kidnapped and murdered U.S. citizens in Beirut throughout the 1980s. No, the U.S. involvement is understood by all to be friendly and beneficial, aimed not at undermining the Iranian domain but at consolidating it in a joint venture. Much like the British with the Ottomans, American involvement in the Iranian realm is that of a patron—only not for the purpose of managing a declining empire, but for the inverted goal of consolidating the realm of an artificially inflated middle power that will administer the region under America’s aegis, for a price.
If the colossal embassy is the physical marker of the American investment in the Special Province of Lebanon, the principal avenue for U.S. involvement has been in the training and equipping of the security forces. Although they’re called the Lebanese Armed Forces, internally, the special province’s army performs gendarmerie functions; national security and defense policy and actual military functions are the domain of the Iranian court and its local military force, Hezbollah.
In recent years, however, the Obama-Biden team incorporated the LAF into the American counterterrorism enterprise, which has defined U.S. involvement in the region over the past quarter century. That enterprise is another facet of the American-Iranian partnership. Centering U.S. investment in the LAF on a target acceptable and beneficial to Iran is intended to reassure Tehran as to the shared nature of the force’s mission.
As another token of reassurance, the LAF is deployed along the border with Israel. In addition to playing a support role to Hezbollah in the area, positioning the U.S.-sponsored force in between Israel and the Iranian force means that an Israeli attack would have to target an American asset.
The same model is now being reproduced for the Special Province of Palestine. An ongoing Team Obama-Biden project is to stand up a Palestinian analogue to the LAF—let’s call it the PAF, an enterprise that began well before Oct. 7 under the supervision of the Obama-Biden team’s security coordinator in the Palestinian Territories, Lt. Gen. Michael Fenzel. Fenzel is also the administration’s point man in its campaign targeting Jews in Judea and Samaria—the flip side of the PAF policy, both of which are designed to consolidate a nascent Palestinian Special Province. Initially, Fenzel was said to have been standing up a 5,000-strong force trained and equipped by the United States. The objective of Fenzel’s force is to sharply curtail IDF operations in Judea and Samaria, setting the stage for full Palestinian control of the West Bank under American supervision.
Like its Lebanese counterpart, the PAF has been folded into the U.S. counterterrorism framework. Being designated a U.S. counterterrorism partner force is code for both guaranteed perpetual American investment and reassurance to Iran that the force will safeguard, not subvert, Tehran’s realm. The PAF’s job is not to go after Iranian forces, such as Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but to act as an auxiliary force and, by virtue of American sponsorship, as a constraint on IDF activity.
Since Oct. 7, Washington’s plans for the PAF have gone into overdrive. Like the LAF up north, the PAF features prominently in Team Obama-Biden’s “Day After” plan—that is, the formalization of the Palestinian Special Province, with its dual jurisdictions (or kaza, in keeping with Ottoman terminology). Within a couple of months since Oct. 7, the administration was already putting out talkers about the need to “strengthen” and “beef up” Fenzel’s nascent PAF. After a meeting between Fenzel and Palestinian Authority Intelligence Chief Majed Faraj in late 2023, chatter about guaranteeing funding (including salaries) for the force started to pop up in D.C.—again, following the LAF template. It’s said that during a meeting between Fenzel and the commander of the PA’s National Security Forces, Nidal Abu Dukhan, they also discussed U.S. salaries for the PAF.
In Lebanon, the Obama-Biden team has already deployed American trainers and special forces personnel. In fact, the U.S. military routinely docks naval vessels in Lebanese ports and uses an airstrip in the Hezbollah-controlled Bekaa to land airlifts of equipment for the LAF—turning all of these places into infrastructure that is ostensibly part of America’s global counterterrorism efforts.
In Gaza, the U.S.-made pier was intended to fulfill a related function and convey a similar signal. Though it might have been swept away by the sea and had to be temporarily relocated to avoid being washed out to sea again before it was finally decommissioned after failing to deliver the humanitarian supply surge that was its supposed function, the salient point is the persistence of the Obama-Biden team in rebuilding it over two months, at a cost of over a quarter of a billion in taxpayer money. In other words, at every level, administration messaging is persistently laying the groundwork for an ever-deepening level of direct management in the Palestine Special Province. In addition to Fenzel, the Obama-Biden team is said to be considering appointing a U.S. official to serve as the top civilian adviser who would be “based in the region” and would “work closely with the commanding officer” of a postwar security force in Gaza (which the State Department prefers to describe as a “gendarmerie”).
According to a recent report, the Biden administration “is coalescing around plans for an interim ‘Palestinian Council’ to govern Gaza and a security coalition in which the U.S. military will play a major role.” It’s perhaps a little on the nose, within the scope of the Ottoman analogy, for the United States to set up an “administrative council” for the Palestine mutasarrifate, but there it is. As with the “government of Lebanon,” the point of a council, whether it’s packed with notables or “technocrats,” is to provide cover for the Iranian clients who will continue to wield real power, propping up the American sick man of the Middle East.
In the Lebanese Special Province, the United States has assembled a consultative group with the ambassadors of four other nations (France, Egypt, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia) to manage the selection of a new “president”—a post that’s been vacant since 2022. The administration’s public pronouncements emphasize the importance of a new “president” for Lebanon. In reality, the administration’s point man on Lebanon, Special Adviser Hochstein, deals with Hezbollah through its ally, Shiite militia leader and “Speaker of Parliament,” Nabih Berri, among other cutouts, like former Director of General Security Abbas Ibrahim. The Lebanese government is a facade, an official channel to funnel U.S. aid and to cover for the fact that the administration is dealing as directly as possible with Hezbollah.
In fact, that’s precisely what the administration did in 2022 when it imposed its maritime boundary agreement, which in reality functioned as an official American designation of the Special Province of Lebanon as a U.S. protectorate, thereby discouraging Israeli military operations in that territory. Hochstein, then as now, talked as directly as he could with Hezbollah and advanced Iran’s interests, which he then pressed a client minority prime minister in Israel to accept in their entirety. One measure of the authority of this designation is that Israeli operations in Lebanon still haven’t happened, despite the “loss of sovereignty” declared by the U.S. secretary of state—who apparently gets to declare such things without the Israelis feeling able to say “boo.” Even after the Majdal Shams slaughter, Hochstein reportedly told Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that the United States opposed a strike on Beirut.
Intensified U.S. meddling in Israeli domestic affairs as well as the direct interference in Israel’s foreign and security policy since the maritime deal was sealed provide insight into where the state of Israel fits in the Obama-Biden team’s regional architecture alongside the joint U.S.-Iranian special provinces. Israel is a troublesome client, to be managed when possible by the U.S.-aligned Herodian faction inside the country, combined with external pressure like having Israel’s prime minister declared a war criminal by the International Criminal Court.
In the same vein, Washington’s framing of Iran’s April 13 direct missile and drone attack against Israel is instructive. Israel was constrained from retaliating against the Iranians. Instead, the United States made clear that the only legitimate defensive arrangement is one by the American-led integrated regional missile defense, which will effectively calibrate the “hit” that Israel is required to take, while ruling out of bounds any Israeli response to being attacked. That is to say, not only would Israel be denied the autonomous decision-making to go on the offensive, but also, even its defense would be contingent on what the United States deemed acceptable. Accordingly, following Hezbollah’s rocket attack on Majdal Shams, the administration reportedly listed targets in Lebanon that it considers to be out of bounds for Israel, including Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The Obama team sees Jewish sovereignty as a destabilizing factor in the regional arrangement with Iran, which therefore must be constrained, if not outright abolished. To fit in Obama’s “regional integration” vision, Israel has to be reduced to a province, with no sovereign control over its defense policy with regard to the Iranians and their holdings in the U.S.-managed regional architecture, in which you’ll have the subdivision, or kaza, of Gaza and the kaza of the West Bank united within a new mutasarrifate of Palestine. Jerusalem will be a special jurisdiction shared with Israel under international supervision. The Lebanon mutasarrifate will be in the north, and the Israel sanjak (in keeping with Ottoman terminology), minus Jerusalem, in the middle. Within these units, “administrative councils” will be the official governing bodies, which we will refer to as “governments” while actual power resides elsewhere.
In the Lebanon mutasarrifate Hezbollah, as Iran’s local mutasarrif, is the recognized ruler that the United States deals with through the administrative council. In the Palestine mutasarrifate, a council including notables, clans, bedouins, technocrats, and the PA will serve the same function, as Hamas retains its position as the de facto authority and representative of Iran. The U.S. envoy to the Palestine mutasarrifate will manage the former. In the Israel sanjak, a “unity government” and a strong judicial council will serve as the American clients answering to the U.S. proconsul and the security coordinator.
Any 19th-century Ottoman administrator, or French or British Middle East diplomat, would look at a map of these arrangements and smile at how familiar they are. Local rulers and potentates who are not familiar with Ottoman maps and who believe themselves to be the elected leaders of sovereign nations may have a surprise coming, though.
**Tony Badran is Tablet’s news editor and Levant analyst.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/ottoman-american-empire

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published August 04-05/2024
Strikes on Gaza kill 12 and stabbing in Israel kills 2 as fears of wider war spike
Associated Press/August 4, 2024
Israeli strikes early Sunday killed 12 people in Gaza, including four who were sheltering in a tent camp for displaced people inside a hospital complex, while a stabbing attack carried out by a Palestinian killed two people in a Tel Aviv suburb. Tensions have soared following nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and the killing of two senior militants in separate strikes in Lebanon and Iran last week. Those killings brought threats of revenge from Iran and its allies and raised fears of an even more destructive regional war.A woman in her 70s and an 80-year-old man were killed in the stabbing attack, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service and a nearby hospital, and two other men were wounded. The police said the attack was carried out by a Palestinian militant, who was "neutralized," and that a search was underway for other suspects. The rescuers said the wounded were found in three different locations, each about 500 meters (yards) apart, adding to concerns that more than one assailant was involved. Israel has been bracing for retaliation after the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike in Lebanon and Hamas' top political leader in an attack in Iran's capital last week. Both were linked to the ongoing war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel. In Gaza, an Israeli strike earlier on Sunday hit a tent camp housing displaced people in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, killing four people, including one woman, and injuring others, Gaza's Health Ministry said. An Associated Press journalist filmed men rushing to the scene to help the wounded and retrieve bodies, while trying to extinguish the fire. The hospital in Deir al-Balah is the main medical facility operating in central Gaza, and thousands of people have taken shelter there after fleeing their homes in the war-ravaged territory. A separate strike flattened a house in northern Gaza, killing at least eight people, including three children, their parents and their grandmother, according to the ministry. An Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City on Saturday killed at least 16 people and wounded another 21, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which announced the toll on Sunday. Israel's military, which regularly accuses Palestinian militants of sheltering in civilian areas, said it struck a Hamas command center. Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians, but the military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children. Israel says Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 people hostage in their surprise attack into southern Israel last October. Israel's massive offensive launched in Gaza has killed at least 39,550 Palestinians. Heavy airstrikes and ground operations have caused widespread destruction and displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Hezbollah has regularly traded fire with Israel along the Lebanon border since the start of the war, in what the group says is aimed at relieving pressure on its fellow Iran-backed ally, Hamas. The continuous strikes and counterstrikes have grown in severity in recent months, raising fears of an even more destructive regional war. Over 590 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most have been killed during Israeli raids and violent protests. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.

Fears of Middle East war grow after Hamas leader killed in Iran
Agence France Presse/August 4, 2024
Middle East tensions soared as Iran and its allies readied their response to the assassination of Hamas' political leader, blamed on Israel, spurring fears of a regional war. Israel ally the United States said it would move warships and fighter jets to the region, while Western governments called on their citizens to leave Lebanon -- where the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah is based -- and airlines canceled flights. The killing this week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, hours after the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah's military chief in Beirut's southern suburbs, has triggered vows of vengeance from Iran and the so-called "axis of resistance". Iran-backed groups from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria have already been drawn into the nearly 10-month war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. Israel on Saturday again traded fire with Hezbollah, carried out a deadly raid in the occupied West Bank, and struck a school compound in Gaza City in an attack that the Hamas-ruled territory's civil defense agency said killed at least 17 people. Numerous schools turned into displacement shelters have been hit across Gaza in recent weeks, with Israel insisting the facilities had been used by militants. Hamas denied using civilian infrastructure for military activities. Haniyeh was buried on Friday in Qatar, where he had been based. Israel, accused by Hamas, Iran and others of carrying out the attack, has not directly commented on it. Iran said on Saturday it expects Hezbollah to hit deeper inside Israel and no longer be confined to military targets. The Pentagon said it was bolstering its military presence in the Middle East to protect U.S. personnel and defend Israel. It said an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln would be deployed, as well as additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers and a new fighter squadron. U.S. President Joe Biden, at his beach home in Delaware, was asked by reporters if he thought Iran would stand down. "I hope so," he said. "I don't know." Soon after, Hezbollah announced it had fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at the northern Israeli settlement of Beit Hillel. Israel's army said early Sunday about 30 projectiles had been launched from southern Lebanon into Israel, with most of them shot down and no injuries reported.
Take 'any ticket available'
In Beirut, 20-year-old student Diana Abu Aasel told AFP she feared "something bad will happen to my family and friends. "If there is war, I don't think I will be able to bear staying" in Lebanon, she said. Crowds of thousands rallied Saturday in Morocco, Jordan and Turkey to denounce Haniyeh's killing and show solidarity with Palestinians, AFP correspondents reported. Haniyeh's killing is among a series of attacks since April that have heightened fears of a regional conflagration. His death came hours after Israel struck south Beirut, killing Hezbollah military chief Fouad Shukur. Both Britain and the United States on Saturday urged their citizens in Lebanon to leave immediately. Canada told its nationals to avoid all travel to Israel due to the "unpredictable security situation."Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its unprecedented October 7 attack which triggered war in Gaza and allegedly resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel's campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,550 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. Haniyeh was Hamas' lead negotiator in efforts to end the war. His killing raised questions about the continued viability of efforts by Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. mediators to broker a truce and exchange of hostages and prisoners. Hamas officials but also some analysts and protesters in Israel have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war to safeguard his ruling hard-right coalition. Protesters in several Israeli cities Saturday renewed their calls for a hostage-release deal.
Disease spreading in Gaza
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke separately with his French and British counterparts on Saturday about the situation in the Middle East, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. Blinken, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne all agreed on the need for restraint on all sides in the region, Miller said in a statement. Violence has also surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinian official sources said two Israeli air strikes killed nine people in the north of the territory Saturday. The Israeli military said it had "eliminated terrorist cells."The war in Gaza has caused widespread destruction and displaced almost the entire population of the territory where, the U.N. said on Friday, public health conditions "continue to deteriorate."It said nearly 40,000 cases of Hepatitis A, spread by contaminated food and water, have been reported since the war began. Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since October, saying it is acting in support of Hamas. Several airlines have suspended flights to Beirut and Tel Aviv. Flights to Beirut by Air France and low-cost carrier Transavia France will remain halted until at least Tuesday, their parent company said Saturday. Turkish Airlines on Saturday canceled its night-time flights to Tehran for the second night running, AFP correspondents noted.

US moves in Middle East are defensive, aimed at reducing tensions -White House
Reuters/August 04, 2024
WASHINGTON: The United States is telling its citizens to leave Lebanon and is deploying more military might in the Middle East as preventative and defensive measures, Jonathan Finer, White House National Security Council deputy adviser, said on Sunday. “Our goal is de-escalation, our goal is deterrence, our goal is defense of Israel,” Finer said in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.”Regional tensions have soared following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ top leader, in Tehran on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a senior military commander from the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran.

Threat of expanding hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli army
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/August 04, 2024
BEIRUT: Israeli warplanes conducted five airstrikes on the border town of Kfar Kila on Sunday, demolishing five vacant homes and reducing them to rubble. An Israeli drone strike also targeted a house in the town center of Beit Lif, causing “severe injuries to two individuals and minor injuries to a third person,” according to the Ministry of Health’s Emergency Operations Center. The attack came hours after Iran-backed Hezbollah expanded its military operations against the Israeli army on Saturday night, targeting the settlement of Beit Hillel for the first time since hostilities began between the two sides 10 months ago.
The threat of expanding hostilities between Hezbollah and the Israeli army has increased due to Hezbollah’s decision to avenge the assassination of its prominent field commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in the southern suburbs of Beirut last week. The situation has raised Lebanese concerns about open war, especially as it has coincided with warnings from Arab and foreign embassies for their citizens in the country to leave immediately.The Israeli army fired incendiary bombs at the forests near the Blue Line after its heavy machine guns combed the town of Aita al-Shaab.In addition, an Israeli drone conducted an operation against a motorcycle in the town of Rab El-Thalathine but it failed to hit its target. In a separate incident, another drone targeted a water distribution power station in the town of Taybeh in southern Lebanon. The strike ignited a fire at the facility, causing a disruption in water supply. Hezbollah declared that it had “successfully targeted the espionage equipment at the Ramia military site, resulting in its destruction.”Additionally, the group launched rockets at the Manara military complex, “hitting it directly.”Hezbollah also said it had used artillery shells to target “the Birkat Risha site, achieving hits,” and “Al-Malikiyah … hitting it directly.”The group launched around 50 rockets toward the settlement of Beit Hillel on Saturday night.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it had included the location on its target list and attacked it for the first time with dozens of Katyusha rockets in response to Israeli attacks on Kfar Kila and Deir Siriane, which had targeted civilians. The Israeli military responded to Hezbollah’s action by expanding its own targets to include “a Hezbollah missile-launch pad and an additional infrastructure located in Marjayoun, southern Lebanon.”It added that it had “eliminated dangers in the Odaisseh area (in) southern Lebanon.”Israeli media reported on Sunday afternoon that “a factory in Kiryat Shmona in Upper Galilee was directly hit by a missile fired from southern Lebanon.”Meanwhile, three rockets were fired toward an Israeli site in the occupied Shebaa Farms. Saudi Arabia’s Embassy has reiterated its request for nationals to depart from Lebanon without delay, while the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged Jordanians “not to travel to Lebanon at present, for their safety,” and requested its citizens “residing and present in Lebanon to leave as soon as possible.” The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested its citizens to “take immediate measures to leave Lebanon as soon as possible,” describing the situation in the country as “a very volatile security context.”The statement released by the US Embassy on Saturday requested US citizens to “book any available travel ticket” and contact the embassy if any citizen did not have enough funds to return to the US. The offices of Middle East Airlines have witnessed some pressure from those wishing to bring forward their departure date from Lebanon.
An employee working in the call center said: “We receive between 6,000 and 8,000 calls a day to change the travel date. Most callers are Lebanese expatriates who have come to Lebanon to spend their summer vacation.” Arab and foreign airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon, with the exception of a few that have reduced the number of daily flights to one, including Turkish Airlines. Beirut International Airport saw no new arrivals throughout the night until the early-morning hours although, according to a government source: “Lebanon’s officials have not been warned of the possibility of Israel targeting the airport like it did during the 2006 war. “However, nothing is guaranteed in this confrontation, and any mistake could lead to dire consequences.”Adel Al-Masri, an attorney living in the Ruwais area of Beirut, said many people want to leave the city’s southern suburb. The attorney said: “The reassurances that minimize the likelihood of a war breaking out are no longer convincing us, as we are seeing what is happening in Gaza, and we do not want our children to live this bitter experience as we did.”

G7 foreign ministers urge efforts to avoid inflaming Middle East tensions
Reuters/August 4, 2024
The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies called on all parties involved in the current conflict in the Middle East to avoid actions that could lead to an escalation, Italy's foreign minister said on Sunday. During a videoconference chaired by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, the G7 ministers expressed "strong concern about the recent events that could lead to a wider regional spread of the crisis, starting with Lebanon", a statement said. "We call on the parties concerned to desist from any initiative that could hinder the path of dialogue and moderation and encourage a new escalation." Italy holds the G7's rotating presidency. Tensions in the Middle East, inflamed by the 10-month-old war in Gaza, have escalated in recent days after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, in Tehran on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a top military commander of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. The statement from the G7 meeting also called for the conclusion of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and the release of hostages there, as well as reaffirming the G7 countries' commitment to intensifying humanitarian aid to the people of the Palestinian enclave.

At least 30 killed in Israeli strike on two Gaza school shelters: Palestinian Civil Defense
Kareem Khadder, Ibrahim Dahman, Eyad Kourdi, and AnneClaire Stapleton, CNN/Sun, August 4, 2024
Rescuers in Gaza raced to dig victims from the rubble on Sunday after Israeli airstrikes on two school buildings left at least 30 people dead, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense. The strikes continue a bloody weekend, after a similar lethal attack on Saturday. Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense, told CNN that the majority of the bodies recovered Sunday have been women and children. Rescue operations continue in hopes that some people remain alive under the destroyed buildings, which had been serving as shelters for displaced families, he said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency have taken responsibility for the strike, saying that they were targeting “terrorists operating inside Hamas command and control centers” that were “embedded” within the schools. The IDF did not respond to CNN’s questions regarding the number of Hamas members and civilians killed in the strike, or whether civilians were warned of the strike in advance. Videos obtained by CNN from the area show extensive destruction and dead bodies in a schoolyard following the Israeli strike. In the videos, medics and rescuers carry injured children to waiting ambulances.Three floors of the northern wing of Al-Nasr School were destroyed, as was the ground floor of the adjacent Hassan Salama School, a local journalist told CNN. The two school buildings housed hundreds of displaced people, primarily women and children, according to the local journalist. Both schools were in a densely populated residential area. Palestinian officials told CNN that Israel did not give civilians any warning before the airstrikes occurred. “If a warning had been given, the number of deaths would have been lower,” Basal said. Sunday’s strike follows a series of strikes on the Al-Huda and Al-Hamama schools — also targeting alleged Hamas infrastructure, according to the IDF — that left at least 17 dead on Saturday. In that case, Basal said, “the first bombing was unexpected and resulted in a large number of martyrs and injured individuals. While the martyrs and injured were being retrieved, the occupation forces issued a warning that another strike was imminent.”The death toll from Israeli military action in Gaza since October 7 reached 39,583 on Sunday, with a further 91,398 people injured, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Israel launched the action in Gaza following the Hamas attacks, wihich killed around 1,200 people.

IDF finds dozens of Hamas tunnels near Philadelphi Corridor, including massive route
Jerusalem/August 04/2024
Soldiers are investigating and neutralizing discovered tunnel routes and have said that they will destroy all underground routes in the area. The IDF located on Sunday dozens of underground Hamas tunnel routes in the area by the Philadelphi Corridor, including one that goes three meters high. Soldiers are investigating and neutralizing discovered tunnel routes. They have said that they will destroy all underground routes in the area and work to prevent more of them from being constructed in the future. The reports of the tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor come more than a week after the IDF destroyed a kilometer-long tunnel in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.Other reports of discovered tunnels last month include one that stored weapons underneath a children's bedroom, which was found by IDF combat teams of Battalion 932 in the 401st Brigade. The last report of tunnels located near the Philadelphi corridor was in late May when about 20 were discovered. The Philadelphi Corridor was taken over by the IDF in early June

Iran expected to attack Israel as early as Monday, US officials arrive in Middle East - report
Jerusalem/August 04/2024
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Saturday that revenge will be “severe and at an appropriate time, place, and manner,” blaming the “terrorist Zionist regime” for Haniyeh’s death. The Iranian attack on Israel in response to the assassination of Hamas political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran last week is expected to come as early as Monday, three US and Israeli officials told Axios reporter Barak Ravid on Sunday. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of US Central Command, arrived in the Middle East early Sunday morning amid Hezbollah and Iran's threats against Israel, Walla reported on Sunday, citing two senior US officials. The aim of the visit, which was planned before the current escalation, is to prepare a coalition to counter such threats, the report added. Israel on high alert at Iran threatens revenge. Several Iranian officials vowed that the country would avenge Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination, as Israel remains on high alert for a potential attack and the United States is sending additional forces to the region. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Saturday that revenge will be “severe and at an appropriate time, place, and manner,” blaming the “terrorist Zionist regime” for Haniyeh’s death. In addition, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations told CBS News in an exclusive on Friday that Hezbollah would begin deliberately targeting Israeli civilians – claiming that it had not done so until now. The Lebanese-based terrorist group has reportedly decided to increase its targets in attacks in response to the assassination of its commander, Fuad Shukr. “Until now, Hezbollah and the [Zionist] regime have, in an unwritten understanding, practically adhered to certain limits in their military operations, meaning that confining their actions to border areas and shallow zones, targeting primarily military objectives,” a spokesperson from the delegation told CBS News. “However, the regime’s attack on Dahieh in Beirut and the targeting of a residential building marked a deviation from these boundaries,” the spokesperson said. “We anticipate that, in its response, Hezbollah will choose both broader and deeper targets, and will not restrict itself solely to military targets and means.”An Israeli official told CBS News that while Iran’s April 13 attack was thwarted, Israel was anticipating a “more aggressive” retaliation this time around – a retaliation which could extend to Israeli interests abroad. The US military will deploy additional fighter jets and Navy warships to the Middle East, the Pentagon said on Friday, as Washington seeks to bolster defenses following threats from Iran and its allies Hamas and Hezbollah. The US is bracing for Iran to make good on its vow to respond to the killing of Haniyeh two days ago in the Iranian capital Tehran. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had approved sending additional Navy cruisers and destroyers – which can shoot down ballistic missiles – to the Middle East and Europe. It is also sending an additional squadron of fighter jets to the Middle East.
“Austin has ordered adjustments to US military posture designed to improve US force protection, to increase support for the defense of Israel, and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies,” the Pentagon said in a statement. There had been speculation that the Pentagon might not replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group in the Middle East once it completed its ongoing deployment. But Austin decided to rotate in the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group to replace it. The Pentagon statement added it would increase readiness to deploy more land-based ballistic missile defenses. The US military also intensified deployments prior to April 13, when Iran launched an attack on Israeli territory with drones and missiles. Still, the threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon could present unique challenges to any efforts by Washington to intercept drones and missiles, given the group’s vast arsenal and immediate proximity to the Jewish state. At the time, Israel successfully shot down almost all of the roughly 300 drones and missiles with the help of the United States and other allies. Earlier, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the US did not believe escalation was inevitable. “I think we are being very direct in our messaging that certainly we don’t want to see heightened tensions, and we do believe there is an off ramp here – and that is that ceasefire deal,” Singh said. An Israeli delegation will travel to Cairo in the coming days for negotiations to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday.

Cairo hostage negotiations show progress, despite tepid atmosphere - report
Jerusalem/August 04/2024
According to senior officials familiar with the negotiations for the deal, a meeting held in Cairo led to progress in the parameters related to the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah crossing. According to senior officials familiar with the deal's negotiations, a significant negotiation meeting held in Cairo led to progress in the parameters related to the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah crossing. The Egyptian mediator, Intelligence Minister Abbas Kamel, hosted an Israeli delegation led by Mossad head David Barnea, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, and the coordinator of operations in the territories, Major-General Rasan Alianis. All of them are significant factors in advancing the negotiations.  They arrived in Egypt on Saturday. The delegation's departure to Egypt is the result of heavy US pressure on Israel and Egypt in recent days to continue negotiations on the hostage deal and on security issues related to it - even after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Walla reported.
US also involved in recent talks
President Biden's top diplomat, Brett McGurk, also met in Cairo on Thursday with the Egyptian intelligence chief and other officials and convinced them to hold the meeting. Additionally, McGurk asked Barnea and Bar to come to Cairo despite Hamas's refusal to accept Netanyahu's new conditions for the hostage deal. Nitzan Alon, the IDF official overseeing the issue of captives, did not join the trip with the head of the Mossad and the head of the Shin Bet.A source privy to the details said that the reason for this is due to Netanyahu's position that talks cannot lead to real progress.

The West’s criticism of Haniyeh’s assassination misses the anti-terror point - editorial
Editorial/Jerusalem/August 04/2024
Western leaders’ condemnation of Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination overlooks its critical role in the fight against terrorism. Rather than criticizing Israel, the West should support it. The assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran has provoked a wave of international condemnation, with numerous world leaders and organizations decrying the act as a dangerous escalation. However, their reaction fails to acknowledge the significance of this action in the broader context of global security and the ongoing war on terror. Instead of criticizing Israel, the Western world should commend this decisive move, which reinforces the commitment to combating terrorism. Haniyeh, for more than seven years the prominent leader of Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization, had a long history of orchestrating violence and terror against civilians. Under his leadership, Hamas has carried out numerous attacks that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people. His regime in Gaza was marked by aggressive militarization, the launching of rockets into Israeli territory, and the brutal suppression of political opponents within the Palestinian territories. Haniyeh’s alliance with Iran further exacerbated regional tensions, providing Hamas with the resources and support needed to sustain its terrorist activities. Designated as a terrorist by multiple countries – including the US, Israel, Canada, and the European Union – Haniyeh’s record speaks for itself. His involvement in numerous acts of terrorism, including suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and the orchestration of violent uprisings, has left a trail of destruction and grief. The US State Department specifically noted his role in destabilizing the region and contributing to a climate of fear and violence.
The leader of a terrorist group
Under Haniyeh’s leadership, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets into Israeli territory, targeting civilian populations. These indiscriminate attacks have resulted in numerous casualties and significant damage to infrastructure.
For instance, during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, over 4,500 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel. Hamas also has a long history of using suicide bombers to attack Israeli civilians. One of the most notorious attacks occurred in March 2004, when a double suicide bombing at the port of Ashdod killed 10 Israelis and injured dozens. Haniyeh planned and endorsed these tactics. Haniyeh played a crucial role in orchestrating the Great March of Return in 2018, which involved tens of thousands of Gazans attempting to breach the border fence with Israel. While framed as peaceful protests, many of these events turned violent, with armed participants attacking Israeli soldiers and civilians. This campaign resulted in numerous deaths and injuries. Hamas, under Haniyeh’s leadership, has been responsible for the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers. The most notable case is the abduction of Gilad Shalit in 2006, who was held captive for over five years before being released in a prisoner exchange deal – Yahya Sinwar, now Hamas’s Gaza military commander, being among those released.
Several Western countries – including the US, Egypt, and Qatar – have expressed concerns that Haniyeh’s assassination undermines ongoing peace negotiations and escalates regional tensions. For instance, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry labeled the killing as a “dangerous escalation,” while Qatar condemned it as a “heinous crime” and a “blatant violation of international and humanitarian law.” These reactions, however, ignore the broader implications of allowing a terrorist leader to operate with impunity. It is essential to recognize that Israel’s actions are not acts of aggression but of self-defense. Eliminating Haniyeh sends a solid message to terrorist organizations worldwide: Their leaders are not beyond reach. This act demonstrates Israel’s advanced intelligence capabilities and its unwavering commitment to neutralizing threats to its national security and the safety of its citizens. The international community must consider who aligns themselves with individuals like Haniyeh. Those who see him as a friend or ally are, in effect, partners in terror. Critics argue that Haniyeh’s assassination could derail peace talks and provoke further violence. While it is true that any significant military action can have immediate repercussions, the long-term benefits of removing a key critical figure outweigh the temporary instability. Haniyeh’s death disrupts Hamas’s leadership structure and diminishes its operational capabilities, thereby weakening the organization’s ability to carry out future attacks.

US and allies prepare to defend Israel as Netanyahu says it's already in 'multi-front war' with Iran
Natalie Melzer And Samy Magdy/The Associated Press/August 4, 2024
TEL AVIV, Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday, as the United States and allies prepared to defend Israel from an expected counterstrike and prevent an even more destructive regional conflict. Tensions have soared following nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and the killing last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. Iran and its allies have blamed Israel and threatened retaliation. Hamas says it has begun discussions on choosing a new leader. Netanyahu said Israel was ready for any scenario. Jordan's foreign minister was making a rare trip to Iran as part of diplomatic efforts, while the Pentagon has moved significant assets to the region. “We are doing everything possible to make sure that this situation does not boil over,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told ABC. In Israel, some prepared bomb shelters and recalled Iran's unprecedented direct military assault in April following a suspected Israeli strike that killed two Iranian generals. Israel said almost all the drones and ballistic and cruise missiles were intercepted.
A stabbing attack on Sunday near Tel Aviv killed a woman in her 70s and an 80-year-old man, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service and a nearby hospital, and two other men were wounded. The police said the attack was carried out by a Palestinian militant, who was “neutralized.”Inside Gaza, Israel’s military said it struck Hamas command centers at two schools in Gaza City. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Earlier, Israeli strikes killed at least 18 people. One hit a tent camp for thousands of displaced Palestinians in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, killing four people, including one woman, and injuring others, Gaza's Health Ministry said. An Associated Press journalist filmed men rushing to the scene to retrieve bodies while trying to extinguish the fire. The Israeli military said it targeted a Palestinian militant in the strike, which it said caused secondary explosions, "indicating the presence of weaponry in the area.” The hospital in Deir al-Balah is the main medical facility operating in central Gaza as many others in the territory no longer function. A separate strike on a home near Deir al-Balah killed a girl and her parents, according to the hospital. Another strike flattened a house in northern Gaza, killing at least eight people, including three children, their parents and their grandmother, according to the Health Ministry. A further three people were killed in a strike on a vehicle in Gaza City, according to the Civil Defense first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government. Palestinian militants in Gaza fired at least five projectiles at Israeli communities near the border without causing casualties or damage, the military said. The military later told people in some parts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to evacuate. An Israeli strike on Saturday at a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed at least 16 people and wounded another 21, according to the Health Ministry, which announced the toll on Sunday. Israel’s military, which regularly accuses Palestinian militants of sheltering in civilian areas, said it struck a Hamas command center. The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 people hostage.
Israel's massive offensive in response has killed at least 39,580 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Heavy airstrikes and ground operations have caused widespread destruction and displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people, often multiple times. The militant group Hezbollah and Israel have continued to trade fire along the Lebanon border since the war began, with the severity growing in recent months. The Lebanese state-run National News Agency said an Israeli strike targeted a house in Beit Lef, and the Lebanese Health Ministry said two people were critically wounded. Hezbollah says it's aimed at relieving pressure on fellow Iran-backed ally Hamas. A growing number of countries, including the U.S., are encouraging citizens to leave Lebanon after last week's killing of a senior commander.

Missile attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels hits container ship in first attack in 2 weeks
Jon Gambrell/The Associated Press/August 4, 2024
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates/ A missile attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels struck a Liberian-flagged container ship traveling through the Gulf of Aden, authorities said Sunday, the first assault by the group since Israeli airstrikes targeted them. The Houthis offered no explanation for the two-week pause in their attacks on shipping through the Red Sea corridor, which have seen similar slowdowns since the assaults began in November over Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the resumption comes after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, the Houthis' main benefactor, amid renewed concerns over the war breaking out into a regional conflict. The rebels separately claimed to have shot down another U.S. military spy drone, without offering evidence. The attack on Saturday happened some 225 kilometers (140 miles) southeast of Aden in a stretch of the Gulf of Aden that has seen numerous Houthi attacks previously. It hit the container ship Groton just above its waterline, causing minor damage, said the Joint Maritime Information Center, a multinational coalition overseen by the U.S. Navy. An earlier missile attack missed the vessel, the JMIC said.“All crew on board are safe,” the center said. “The vessel was reported diverting to a port nearby.”The Groton had left Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates bound for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Groton's Greek managers did not respond to a request for comment. Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, claimed the attack in a prerecorded statement Sunday afternoon. The rebels have targeted more than 70 vessels with missiles and drones in a campaign that has killed four sailors. They have seized one vessel and sunk two in the time since. Other missiles and drones have been either intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or splashed down before reaching their targets.
The Houthis maintain that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain as part of the rebels’ campaign they say seeks to force an end to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the war — including some bound for Iran.
In the case of the Groton, JMIC said that the ship “was targeted due to other vessels within its company structure making recent port calls in Israel.” The Houthis also have launched drones and missiles toward Israel, including an attack July 19 that killed one person and wounded 10 others in Tel Aviv. Israel responded the next day with airstrikes on the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida that hit fuel depots and electrical stations, killing and wounding a number of people, the rebels say. In the time since, there has not been a reported attack on shipping through the Red Sea corridor, which links Asia and the Middle East onto Europe through the Suez Canal. Since November, Houthi attacks have disrupted the $1 trillion flow of goods passing through the region annually while also sparking the most-intense combat the U.S. Navy has seen since World War II.
Saree also claimed in his statement that the Houthis shot down a U.S MQ-9 spy drone over Saada province, without providing any details or images. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the claim.
Since Yemen’s civil war started in 2014, when the Houthis seized most of the country’s north and its capital, Sanaa, the U.S. military has lost multiple drones to the rebels, while others may have been lost by the CIA. MQ-9 drones, known as Reapers, cost around $30 million apiece. They can fly at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet (about 15,000 meters) and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The killing of Haniyeh in Tehran has sparked concerns of a new escalation in the Israel-Hamas war. Already, the U.S. military says it will move a fighter jet squadron to the Middle East and keep an aircraft carrier in the region. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group will enter the Middle East to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which is in the Gulf of Oman. Other ships are in the Mediterranean Sea with a Marine detachment if regional evacuations become necessary. Meanwhile Saturday, the U.S. military's Central Command said its forces destroyed a Houthi missile and launcher in Yemen. Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage, sparked the war. In the time since, Israel has killed at least 39,580 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and 590 in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials say.

Jordan's top diplomat to make rare visit to Iran as regional tensions soar
The Associated Press/TEHRAN, Iran/ August 4, 2024
Jordan’s foreign minister met Iran’s acting foreign minister in Tehran on Sunday as the United States and its Arab allies try to prevent a wider war after the back-to-back killings of top Iran-allied militants sparked vows of revenge against Israel. Ayman Safadi is the first senior Jordanian official to pay an official visit to Iran in over 20 years. Jordan is a close Western ally and helped intercept scores of missiles and drones fired by Iran toward Israel in April. Iran said it was retaliating for the killing of its generals in an Israeli strike in Syria. Many fear Iran and its regional allies could launch a similar attack following the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in an Israeli strike on Beirut last week and of Hamas’ top political leader in an explosion in Tehran a day later. Both attacks were widely blamed on Israel, which has acknowledged killing the Hezbollah commander. Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas have vowed to avenge the killings. Safadi “will deliver a message from His Majesty King Abdullah II to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the situation in the region and bilateral relations,” Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Safadi met acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani on Sunday, and later will meet Iran’s new president, Pezeshkian, reported SNN.ir, a news network close to the Guard. The last time a senior Jordanian official traveled to Iran on an official visit was in 2004 when then-Prime Minister Faisal al-Fayez went to Tehran. Last week, Jordan sent a lower-ranking official to Pezeshkian's inauguration. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was also in Tehran to attend the ceremony, died in an explosion that Iranian authorities have said was caused by a short-range projectile. Jordan, which borders Israel to the east, would likely be in the path of any Iranian retaliatory strike. Jordan cooperates with American forces under the umbrella of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and works closely with other militaries, including those of Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Trump Shows Love To Vladimir Putin Over Prisoner Swap
Ben Blanchet/HuffPost/August 4, 2024
Former President Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, just days after the massive prisoner exchange between the U.S., Russia and other nations. “By the way, I would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal. Did you see the deal we made?” the Republican presidential nominee said at a campaign rally in Atlanta. The historic prisoner swap, the largest such exchange involving the U.S. and Russia since the Cold War, saw 16 people, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, be released from Russian custody.
It’s been described as a massivewin for President Joe Biden’s administration in the days since. Trump, who hasshown love to Putin before and once claimed the Russian leader wouldn’t release Gershkovich “for anyone else” but him, didn’t mention any Americans who returned home as part of the deal at his Atlanta rally. “Now look, we want to get people in. You know we got 59 hostages, I never paid anything,” said Trump, who has falsely claimed that he gave “nothing” to secure the return of American prisoners in exchanges with other countries under his administration. “They released some of the greatest killers anywhere in the world. Some of the most evil killers they got,” he continued. “And we got our people back, but boy, we make some horrible, horrible deals. And it’s nice to say we got them back, but does that set a bad precedent?”
Trump: By the way I would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal. Did you see the deal we made? SeveralRepublicans have criticized the deal under Biden, while Trump called it a “win for Putin,” telling Fox Business host Maria Bartiromoin an interview broadcast on Friday that Gershkovich “would’ve never” been taken into custody if he were president. Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), used the prisoner exchange to boost the former president and claimed Americans were coming home because “bad guys” recognize he is “about to be back in office.”
“So they’re clearing house,” Vance told CNN earlier this week. “That’s a good thing, and I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.”White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, in response to Vance’s comments, told the network on Friday that there’s “absolutely zero evidence” that the deal was brought about due to fear of who would be the next president. “This deal was brought about because President Biden had alliances and partnerships and trust he could build on,” Kirby said in an appearance on “CNN News Central.”

Ukraine finally deploying F-16 fighter jets, says Zelenskiy
Anastasiia Malenko/Reuters/August 4, 2024
Ukrainian pilots have started flying F-16s for operations within the nation, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, confirming the long-awaited arrival of the U.S.-made fighter jets more than 29 months since Russia's invasion. The Ukrainian leader announced the use of F-16s, which Kyiv has long lobbied for, as he met military pilots at an air base flanked by two of the jets with two more flying overhead. "F-16s are in Ukraine. We did it. I am proud of our guys who are mastering these jets and have already started using them for our country," Zelenskiy said at a location that authorities asked Reuters not to disclose for security reasons. The arrival of the jets is a milestone for Ukraine after many months of waiting, though it remains unclear how many are available and how much of an impact they will have in enhancing air defences and on the battlefield. Russia has been targeting bases that may house them and vowed to shoot them down so they will not impact the war. Built by Lockheed Martin, the F-16s had been on Ukraine's wish list for a long time because of their destructive power and global availability. They are equipped with a 20mm cannon and can carry bombs, rockets and missiles. Talking to reporters on the tarmac of an airfield, Zelenskiy said Ukraine still did not have enough pilots trained to use the F-16s or enough of the jets themselves. "The positive thing is that we are expecting additional F-16s ... many guys are now training," he said. It was important, he said, that Kyiv's allies found ways to expand training programmes and opportunities for both Ukrainian pilots and engineering teams.
'NEW AVIATION STANDARD'
Ukraine has previously relied on an ageing fleet of Soviet-era warplanes that are outgunned by Russia's more advanced and far more numerous fleet. Russia has used that edge to conduct regular long-range missile strikes on targets across Ukraine and also to pound Ukrainian front line positions with thousands of guided bombs, supporting its forces that are slowly advancing in the east. "This is the new stage of development of the air force of Ukraine's armed forces," Zelenskiy said. "We did a lot for Ukrainian forces to transition to a new aviation standard, the Western combat aviation," he added, citing hundreds of meetings and unrelenting diplomacy to obtain the F-16s. "We often heard 'it is impossible' as an answer but we still made our ambition, our defensive need, possible," he said. It remains unclear what missiles the jets are equipped with. A longer range of missile would allow them to have a greater battlefield impact, military analysts say. Zelenskiy said he also hoped to lobby allied neighbouring countries to help intercept Russian missiles being launched at Ukraine through conversations at the Ukraine-NATO Council platform. "This is another tool, and I want to try it, so that NATO countries can talk to Ukraine about the possibility of a small coalition of neighbouring countries shooting down enemy missiles," he said. "I think this decision is probably difficult for our partners, they are always afraid of excessive escalation but we are fighting that."

1 deputy killed and 2 injured in ‘ambush’ shooting in Florida, sheriff says
Paradise Afshar and Ashley R. Williams, CNN/August 4, 2024
A central Florida deputy was killed and two others were injured when they were “ambushed” after responding to a disturbance Friday night, Lake County Sheriff’s Peyton Grinnell said. The shooting happened at a home in Eustis about 40 miles north of Orlando around 8 p.m. Grinnell said.“We went to a disturbance at one house - the initial call was for a disturbance - and then, while we were on that scene, somebody at that scene told the deputies they needed to go to the other house, that that’s where there was a problem happening,” Grinnell said at a news conference early Saturday.
Lake County deputies arrived at the other house to find the back door kicked in and “some commotion” taking place inside, the sheriff said. “They were just met with a lot of gunfire,” Grinnell said. The first deputy who entered the house was injured and trapped inside while another deputy was able to get out.Other law enforcement responded, and when they went to rescue the trapped deputy, they were again met with gunfire and another deputy was struck, the sheriff said. Two of the responding deputies sustained gunshot injuries, and the deputy who was trapped inside the home later died from his gunshot injuries, according to Grinnell.The slain deputy has been identified as 28-year-old Master Deputy Sheriff Bradley Michael Link, according to Lake County Sheriff’s Lt. John Herrell. Herrell described Link as a “good deputy,” and became emotional while speaking about him during a press conference on Saturday.
“Deputy Link wasn’t even supposed to be there,” he said. “He wasn’t even part of the road patrol unit. He heard the call go out, he went there to assist.” Link was a five-year veteran, joining the sheriff’s office in 2019. “Brad, as our Sheriff’s Office family knew him, touched the lives of all who were blessed enough to work with him; his contributions and the impact of this loss will not soon be forgotten,” the sheriff’s office said. All three suspects in the shooting were also killed, Herrell said. No official cause of death has been determined, however the sheriff’s office said their gunshot wounds appear to be self-inflicted. Herrell also noted at least seven deputies returned fire during the incident, but “there is no indication that [the suspects] were struck with any return fire from our deputies.”Herrell said the “bunker style dwelling” where the shooting took place was stockpiled with firearms, ammunition, canned goods and non-perishable food items. There was also “a lot of literature to suggest that they were very much anti-government leaning people,” Herrell said. An animal enforcement unit had been to the home in the past, but “as of right now, we don’t show anything of any violent crime,” the sheriff said.
Grinnell noted this was the first death of a deputy in the community since February 2005 and said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the incident.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources August 04-05/2024
Pro-Palestinian activists set sights on Democratic convention in Chicago
Jeffrey Fleishman/Los Angeles Times./August 4, 2024
He walked down a side street, eyes darting here and there, wondering how it would unfold.
"What kind of fences will the police have? Will they bring dogs?" Hatem Abudayyeh asked. He stopped in the shadow of the United Center, home of the NBA's Bulls and the NHL's Blackhawks and a draw for tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who are expected to protest against U.S. support for Israel at the Democratic National Convention this month. "I hope they don't militarize it," he said. "The first statement the police made was about mass arrests. They've backed off a little. But they're trying to intimidate us."
The son of Palestinian immigrants, Abudayyeh is one of the march's organizers and has long been at the center of civil rights protests. He was investigated by the FBI more than a decade ago — no charges were brought —and in 2017 he helped block traffic at Chicago O'Hare International Airport over then-President Trump's Muslim travel ban. The demonstration he is preparing comes as this onetime city of stockyards and slaughterhouses hopes it can avoid the chaos and police brutality that marked the antiwar protests that engulfed the Democrats' convention here in 1968.
"Palestine is this generation's Vietnam War," Abudayyeh said, noting that more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, have been killed by Israeli forces since Hamas attacked Israel in October. "We're unabashed about the Palestinian right to self-defense to end Israeli genocide. We have momentum. I don't think we'll lose any steam with [President] Biden out of the race. Kamala Harris and other Democrats are still backing Israel."
Abudayyeh's parents emigrated from the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Al Jib and settled on Chicago's North Side in the 1960s. Both were activists and community leaders, who on Sundays drove their son to Arab neighborhoods on the South Side so he would know his lineage and learn that social change comes from sacrifice and solidarity. That lesson has kept him on the front lines of hundreds of demonstrations. But few as consequential as the national stage he and his compatriots from more than 150 organizations will find themselves on when an energized Democratic Party arrives here with the expectation of nominating Harris for president.
“I don’t feel there’s anything to lose,” said Abudayyeh, 53, a large man with glimmers of gray in his beard who calls himself an "anti-imperialist" and sounds at times like a provocateur from a long-ago newsreel. “We’ve already dealt with political repression. We know the feds are here and will be crawling up and down Chicagoland.”
The Chicago Police Department has been training to de-escalate threats of unrest at the convention and is calling in hundreds of law enforcement officers from across the state for backup. The department — just weeks after a Fourth of July weekend that saw more than 100 shootings citywide — is under intensifying pressure over security after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last month. This comes after a 2021 report by the city’s Office of Inspector General found the department was marred by confusion and intelligence failures during violence related to the George Floyd protests a year earlier. The police will “not only allow everyone who comes here to express their 1st Amendment rights, but we will protect their rights while doing it,” department Supt. Larry Snelling told reporters recently. “What we will not tolerate is vandalism to our city. What we will not tolerate is violence.”
The overall goal of the protest — organizers have condemned the Democratic Party as being “a tool of billionaires and corporations” — is ending U.S. military aid to Israel and the creation of an independent Palestinian state. That same demand ignited demonstrations that shook college campuses in the spring. But the protesters in the March on the DNC 2024 come from many causes, including immigrant, reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, anti-racist networks and those seeking to stop police repression in minority communities.
"We are in unconditional solidarity with the Palestine liberation movement," said Frank Chapman, a mentor to Abudayyeh and field organizer and education director of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. "Our political destinies are entwined. All those billions of dollars going to Israel could be used to build up America and reverse the injustices against Black Americans. You can't have a war on poverty and at the same time perpetuate genocide overseas."
Activists stapled together protest signs on a recent evening at the alliance's South Side headquarters, where a picture of Malcolm X hung on the wall, and outside, not far from the L train, a man carried an open bottle in a crumpled bag and wandered beneath a sign for Living Hope Church and a lawyer’s billboard that read, “Call Top Dog.” The activists ranged in age from students to a gray-haired man; they moved swiftly and quietly stacking signs near the windows like a small army waiting to advance.
Delegates on the convention floor in 1968 hold signs that say 'Stop the War"
New York delegates protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War on the floor of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (Getty Images)
"It feels like we're building something," Adrian Gallegos, a computer science major at the University of Illinois Chicago, said next to rows of "Stop Police Crimes" signs. The air was sharp with the spirit of rebellion, as if one were listening to Jimi Hendrix while eavesdropping on the 1960s anti-establishment musings of Black Panther deputy chairman Fred Hampton or Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman.
"The system has been exploiting and oppressing people for 400 years," said Kobi Guillory, co-chair of the Chicago alliance. "It's inevitable it will crumble under the weight of its own contradictions."
The 1968 peace movement "was a mostly white-led movement. This is not,” said Chapman, a revered figure in the city’s civil rights scene for half a century. “The struggle for peace today is more multi-ethnic and multi-international. It is broader and deeper than the antiwar movement around Vietnam. This will lead to a political realignment for people of color and working-class white people who want change.”
Abudayyeh sees similarities to and contrasts with 56 years ago. The 1968 convention followed Democrat incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision not to seek another term; this year President Biden dropped out of the race. Then and now, the Democrats were divided over unpopular wars. But the Israel-Hamas war is different from the Vietnam War, which consumed the American imagination for years, killing more than 58,000 U.S. service members and an estimated 2 million to 3 million Vietnamese. Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip is supported by U.S. military aid, but Washington has not declared war, and no American soldiers are dying.
What's more, the politics of Chicago and the country are not the same as in 1968, when the nightly news echoed with reports of rioting and the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Back then, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who was known as "the Boss," ordered a clampdown on dissent, and police attacked protesters with billy clubs and tear gas, leaving hundreds arrested or injured. Current Mayor Brandon Johnson is a progressive and onetime union organizer who has supported activists and in June ordered a task force to study making reparations to Black residents.
The protests at this year’s convention will confront a troubled and distracted land. The assassination attempt against Trump, Biden’s departure, the rise of Harris and battles over abortion, inflation, book banning, housing prices and other issues have left many Americans inward-looking and dispirited about the future. But Abudayyeh said the injustices against Palestinians are visceral enough to force Democrats, including Harris, who has been more forceful than Biden in criticizing Israel for creating a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip, to take notice of the marchers’ demands at the convention.
Police officers in helmets roust protesters; one officer pins a protester to the ground
Chicago police officers forcefully disperse demonstrators outside the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 29, 1968. (Michael Boyer / Associated Press)
"Yes," he said, "the timing is right."
The other day, Abudayyeh, wearing a face mask after a bout with COVID-19, drove beyond his office at the Arab American Action Network, where he is executive director, to an Arab neighborhood of sweet shops, jewelry stores and beauty academies. The streets and swirling dialects connected him to Palestinians, like his deceased parents, who emigrated here after Middle East wars and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
“They always wanted to return home, but [Palestinians are] now an established presence in Chicago,” said Abudayyeh, who has a daughter, and is also national chair for the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. “It took my parents 25 years to buy a house and give up on the dream of going back.”
The conversation, as often with Abudayyeh, who seems to be in many places at once, turned in a new direction. Protest organizers, he said, have been in a months-long struggle with the city on a route that would allow demonstrators to march close to the United Center.
Hatem Abudayyeh speaks in downtown Chicago to protest against Israel's recent
Hatem Abudayyeh speaks in downtown Chicago in January 2009, protesting against Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip. (Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)
“We’re making progress,” he said. “When we first filed for a permit, the city wanted to keep us four miles away from the center.” The new plan allows protesters to gather at and march from Union Park, several blocks from the site. “We’re within sight and sound,” he said, “but they’re not giving us a long enough route to accommodate tens of thousands of people.”
Abudayyeh is accustomed to the reach of the state. Two years after working with antiwar activists at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., the FBI raided his home, seizing computers, files, books and documents. His bank accounts were frozen. The sweep was part of an investigation into about two dozen activists in the Midwest suspected of supporting international terrorist organizations. Abudayyeh was targeted over helping arrange delegations to Gaza and the West Bank of activists opposed to Israeli occupation.
He said he had no connection to militant groups. Months earlier, he had been invited to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the West Wing of the White House, for an outreach meeting for Arab Americans. Activists and community leaders came to his defense. He refused to answer a grand jury subpoena, and more than two years later his confiscated materials were returned and no charges were filed.
"This is a massive escalation of the attacks on people that do Palestine support work in this country and antiwar work," he said at the time. “We're not going to stop speaking out against U.S. support of Israel's violations of the Palestinian people."
A woman stands among supportive demonstrators
Abudayyeh’s statements and sentiments are often provocative in an age when some protesters against the Gaza war have been assailed as antisemitic or for espousing terrorism for their support of Hamas. He has called Hamas “a legitimate resistance force” and has said “the real terrorists are the governments and military forces of the U.S. and Israel.” When Iran retaliated against Israel with missiles and drones in April, Abudayyeh broke the news during an activist meeting, where a few in the crowd cheered.
In 2017, Abudayyeh coordinated the defense committee for Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian activist imprisoned in Israel for her involvement in two bombings in Jerusalem in 1969. Odeh said she confessed after being tortured by the Israeli military. She was released in a prisoner swap a decade later and eventually moved to Chicago, where she was associate director of the Arab American Action Network. She became an American citizen but was deported after pleading guilty to not disclosing her criminal history to immigration officials.
Abudayyeh's activism has been ingrained since childhood. His father, who worked for an insurance company, was a co-founder of the Arab Community Center, and his mother was Chicago chapter president for the Union of Palestinian Women’s Assns. He attended UCLA in the early 1990s, studying biology and English and hoping to join a progressive campus culture. Instead, he said, he found a mostly white and well-to-do population that was uninterested in activism, except for Latino students who taught him about the Chicano movement.
“I saw that social change wasn’t going to happen at UCLA,” he said, noting that that was no longer the case, given the university's pro-Palestinian protests in recent months. He left campus and returned to Chicago, where he coached high school basketball and was increasingly drawn to civil rights issues and working with the Palestinian community. In 2002, he traveled to Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank as part of a program to teach young Arab and Palestinian Americans and others about the Israeli occupation so they could return to the U.S. to help organize for Palestinian independence.
“I came back from that trip transformed,” he said. “I think for a while I had felt diaspora guilt. I realized I had to commit more of my life to ending the occupation. I owed it to my parents and my grandparents and cousins of mine who did not have the opportunity I had to grow up in safety and security. They faced bullets and repression.”The morning after his drive to the Arab neighborhood, Abudayyeh parked near Union Park and walked toward the United Center in west Chicago. He approached from a side street, wondering how close he could get during the convention. He talked logistics and spoke of the St. Paul Principles for protest — put together by activists at the 2008 Republican convention — that call for solidarity and opposing “any state repression of dissent including surveillance, infiltration, disruption and violence.”
The parking lots were empty. A local film crew was shooting video. “I know the camera guys,” he said. “The reporters don’t always come to our protests. But the photo guys do. They know me.” He turned and walked back toward Union Park. He mentioned that his father never finished college; he had children and relatives back in Al Jib to support. It was that way for many, he said, turning past First Baptist Church, his jeans frayed and cuffed, his T-shirt blowing in a hot breeze. Marchers, he said, would be arriving from across the country in buses, trains and caravans. He predicted they would fill the park and swell into the streets. There were only weeks left to prepare. The sun was high and he was sweating. He pulled down his COVID mask and took a breath, disappearing into the shadows at the edge of the park and driving home for a few hours' rest.
-Hatem Abudayyeh is a long-time Palestinian activist and organizer who is preparing
"I don't feel there's anything to lose," Abudayyeh said about the upcoming protest in Chicago. "We've already dealt with political repression. We know the feds are here and will be crawling up and down Chicagoland." (Alex Garcia / For The Times)
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Escalation vs. restraint: The strategic dilemma in Gaza and Hezbollah’s attrition war - opinion
Efraim Inbar/Jerusalem/August 04/2024
As global leaders express concerns over escalating violence in Gaza and Hezbollah’s ongoing war against Israel, the Israeli debate between escalation and restraint intensifies.
Governments in many capitals of the world have repeatedly expressed apprehensions about escalation of the Gaza conflict and Hezbollah’s war of attrition against Israel. They fear greater violence, more casualties and an expansion in the number of regional participants in the war. United States President Joe Biden sent aircraft carriers to the region signaling his desire to prevent escalation and repeated on several occasions his famous warning, “Don’t” – with limited success. Such fears, warnings and the many calls for restraint are understandable, particularly for Western audiences, but they are not very useful. First, these pronouncements express genuine reluctance to use force and are seen by most people in the Middle East as weakness – a trait despised in these parts. In contrast to Western attitudes that view the use of force as uncivilized and anachronistic, Middle Easterners see it as a legitimate option in the toolbox of international actors.
Moreover, it is popular. Hamas gained huge popularity among Palestinians for its October 7 attack on Israel. Israelis cherish successful targeted killings, and these are also well appreciated by its Arab allies. In many situations, climbing the escalation ladder is probably the best way to put an end to violence. Indeed, the Hamas raids and atrocities are a direct result of the containment policy conducted for years by Israel. Instead of escalating and exacting a high price from Hamas to change its strategic calculus, Israel preferred to absorb many rocket attacks and refrained from a strong riposte that could lead to escalation. This only gave time to Hamas to build its military capabilities and acquire the might to withstand an Israeli offensive now in its tenth month. De-escaalation a Western concept
Similarly, Israel’s reluctance to preempt in Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to build a formidable missile arsenal. This organization grew to become a monster that since October 8 has conducted, undeterred, a war of attrition against Israel. With Iran’s blessing, it succeeded in emptying the north of Israel of its residents and in forcing the IDF to deploy large military formations south of the Lebanese border that are needed to attain a faster victory in Gaza. Attrition warfare is the best outcome for the population-centric Iranian strategy and the worst possible scenario for Israel. The continuous existence of over one hundred thousand missiles in the hands of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, after he crossed the Rubicon of waging a long war of attrition, is an intolerable situation for Israel. Only escalation intended to eliminate the missile arsenal can put an end to the war of attrition.
In the Lebanese case, the “diplomatic solution” the Americans and the French are pushing for is a mirage. Hezbollah cannot be trusted to abide for long to any agreement that does not serve its ends, and the UN contingent in south Lebanon assigned to prevent the Hezbollah encroachment toward the Israeli border has proved its impotence. War against Hezbollah is inevitable; Israel might have to wait for more hospitable circumstances, but they will come. Readiness to escalate and bear additional costs signals determination to attain necessary goals. Victory in war is achieved not only by the greater ability to exact costs from the enemy, but no less by the capability to sustain pain and suffering.
Actions deter louder than words
Therefore, being perceived as having a predilection for escalation helps deterrence. Fear of retaliation has a cooling effect on many tempers all over the world. This is the rationale for the threatening behavior of the bully in a tough neighborhood. Unfortunately, the Middle East is such a neighborhood. Deterrence must be maintained over time by the occasional use of force. This is its only lubricant – not words. Risk aversion is often lauded in many circles and international situations. Yet, restraint in the strategic arena is problematic. It could be construed as a fatal weakness, and it might invite aggression. This is the way the bullies read things, particularly the Middle East variety. Each situation obviously requires a separate calculation of opportunities and risks. But the Pavlovian advice to act with restraint, and warnings of escalation, indicate a lack of understanding of the strategic game played by the violent Mideastern actors. Words such as goodwill, trust, and search for stability have a different meaning in the vocabulary employed by the radicals in the region. Iran and its proxies want to destabilize it. They all want the United States out of the Middle East and that the regimes of America’s allies fall and be substituted by radical Islamists.
They cannot be persuaded to refrain from scheming against the West and its regional allies. Diplomacy has little value. Westerners who worship the sanctity of life are not fully aware that Islamist radicals are ready to make many sacrifices and to bear a great deal of pain. Iran has been under economic sanctions of various intensity for decades with little impact on its policies. In the final analysis, the only effective persuasion is the use of force. This requires willingness to escalate the struggle for freedom and other Western values. Islamist radicals need to be defeated. The timing of escalation can be debated but not the course of action.
**The writer is president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and chair of the Department of Strategy, Diplomacy, and National Security at Shalem College.

How Iran's Mullahs View the US Election
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./August 4, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/08/132884/
Since assuming office, the Biden-Harris administration, in the tradition of former President Barack Obama, released billions of dollars to Iran. In addition, there was lax enforcement of existing sanctions, waiving of other sanctions and no secondary sanctions whatsoever -- meaning that any country that does business with Iran is banned from doing business with the US -- placed on Iran to discourage other countries from financing it.
China therefore has become Iran's largest customer, and Europe conducting business as usual. This financial relief has come alongside a lenient attitude towards the advancements in Iran's nuclear program. These include more than 160 Iranian military attacks against US troops just since October; virtually shutting down the Suez Canal, thereby forcing ships, unable to buy insurance, to detour around Africa; Iran's and its terror groups' military actions in the region, including the war against Israel, and Iran's military support to Russia to attack Ukraine.
Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, openly acknowledged that without Iran's financial and military support, many militia and terror groups might have been unable to survive.
The Trump administration's sanctions forced Iran's leaders to cut funding to militias, allies, and terror groups. The regime's militants reportedly were not receiving their salaries or benefits, preventing them from fighting. As one Iran-backed militia fighter in Syria told The New York Times, "The golden days are gone and will never return. Iran does not have enough money to give us."
It is no wonder why Iran is apprehensive about the prospect of a Trump victory. Under Biden-Harris or Democratic leadership, the Iranian regime enjoys financial benefits and total impunity. Under Trump, the "golden days" might again come to an end.
Since assuming office, the Biden-Harris administration, in the tradition of former President Barack Obama, released billions of dollars to Iran. In addition, there was lax enforcement of existing sanctions, waiving of other sanctions and no secondary sanctions whatsoever, (Image source: iStock)
In Iran's latest presidential elections, the candidates revealed that they are concerned about the possibility of former President Donald J. Trump winning the upcoming US election. From their perspective, a victory for Trump would be detrimental to their interests.
Since assuming office, the Biden-Harris administration, in the tradition of former President Barack Obama, released billions of dollars to Iran. In addition, there was lax enforcement of existing sanctions, waiving of other sanctions and no secondary sanctions whatsoever -- meaning that any country that does business with Iran is banned from doing business with the US -- placed on Iran to discourage other countries from financing it.
China therefore has become Iran's largest customer, and Europe conducting business as usual. This financial relief has come alongside a lenient attitude towards the advancements in Iran's nuclear program. These include more than 160 Iranian military attacks against US troops just since October; virtually shutting down the Suez Canal, thereby forcing ships, unable to buy insurance, to detour around Africa; Iran's and its terror groups' military actions in the region, including the war against Israel, and Iran's military support to Russia to attack Ukraine.
These actions demonstrate that the Biden-Harris administration has not only been accommodating Iranian interests, but also has actually been funding both sides of two wars against the US and its allies. Thanks to the Biden administration's effectively hobbling domestic US energy production the first week in office, the US has been buying oil from Russia at inflated prices, enabling it to attack Ukraine. The Biden administration has also been funding Iran and its proxies in its war against Israel, and has been funding Israel as well. The Biden administration has even continued -- unconditionally and unlawfully -- to give the Palestinian Authority millions of dollars, much of which it uses to pay "$350 million a year in Pay-for-Slay terror rewards" to terrorists and their families who murder Jews. It is noteworthy that the EU and the World Bank are also accessories to funding this terror.
The Iranian regime has been freely flouting sanctions under the Biden-Harris administration. Iranian oil exports have surged, financing Iran's military actions. In the first quarter of 2024, Iranian oil exports saw a dramatic increase, reaching an impressive 1.82 million barrels per day— a level not seen since October 2018, shortly before the Trump administration reintroduced oil sanctions. Oil revenues traditionally make up nearly 80% of the country's total income.
By contrast, under the Trump administration, the situation was starkly different; By the conclusion of his first term, Iran faced severe political and financial difficulties. The Iranian economy was nearing collapse, with inflation and unemployment reaching unprecedented levels. The regime struggled to pay its employees. The economic conditions in Iran became so dire that some officials even warned of a potential revolt and the possible collapse of the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian regime was in survival mode and desperately needed cash to maintain its power as oil exports dwindled under the Trump administration. Before the Trump administration re-imposed sanctions on Tehran and implemented the "maximum pressure" policy, Iran was exporting more than two million barrels of oil a day. By the end of Trump's first term, Iran's oil exports had plummeted to around 70,000 barrels a day. Additionally, Iran's currency, the rial, had significantly depreciated in value, further exacerbating the regime's financial struggles.
The Trump administration's sanctions forced Iran's leaders to cut funding to militias, allies, and terror groups. The regime's militants reportedly were not receiving their salaries or benefits, preventing them from fighting. As one Iran-backed militia fighter in Syria told The New York Times, "The golden days are gone and will never return. Iran does not have enough money to give us."
Soon, however, under the Biden-Harris administration, those "golden days" returned. Once again, Iran had the capacity to bolster its Shiite armies and their proxies, including Hamas Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Iran's militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the approximately 40 Iraqi Shiite groups under the banner of the Popular Mobilization Forces.
Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah openly acknowledged that without Iran's financial and military support, many militia and terror groups might have been unable to survive:
"We are open about the fact that Hezbollah's budget, its income, its expenses, everything it eats and drinks, its weapons and rockets, are from the Islamic Republic of Iran... As long as Iran has money, we have money... Just as we receive the rockets that we use to threaten Israel, we are receiving our money. No law will prevent us from receiving it."
When the Biden-Harris administration assumed office, the influx of cash again allowed the mullahs to suppress domestic opposition with greater force; arm their terror groups; initiate massive aggression against Israel; support Russia, and supercharge their nuclear program. That financial support also enabled them to compensate their radical loyalists, promote the regime's revolutionary ideals, and solidify the power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
It is no wonder why Iran is apprehensive about the prospect of a Trump victory. Under Biden-Harris or Democratic leadership, the Iranian regime enjoys financial benefits and total impunity. Under Trump, the "golden days" might again come to an end.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
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AI demands new thinking when it comes to national security
Joseph S. Nye, Jr./Arab News/August 04, 2024
Humans are a tool-making species, but can we control the tools we make? When Robert Oppenheimer and other physicists developed the first nuclear fission weapon in the 1940s, they worried that their invention might destroy humanity. Thus far, it has not, but controlling nuclear weapons has been a persistent challenge ever since. Now, many scientists see artificial intelligence — algorithms and software that enable machines to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence — as an equally transformational tool. Like previous general-purpose technologies, AI has enormous potential for good and evil. In cancer research, it can sort through and summarize more studies in a few minutes than a human team can do over the course of months. Likewise, it can reliably predict patterns of protein folds that would take human researchers years to uncover.
But AI also lowers the costs and the barriers to entry for misfits, terrorists, and other bad actors who might wish to cause harm. As a recent RAND study warned: “The marginal cost to resurrect a dangerous virus similar to smallpox can be as little as $100,000, while developing a complex vaccine can be over $1 billion.”Moreover, some experts worry that advanced AI will be so much smarter than humans that it will control us, rather than the other way around. Estimates of how long it will take to develop such superintelligent machines, known as artificial general intelligence, vary from a few years to a few decades. But whatever the case, the growing risks from today’s narrow AI already demand greater attention.
For 40 years, the Aspen Strategy Group, consisting of former government officials, academics, businesspeople, and journalists, has met each summer to focus on a major national security problem. Past sessions have dealt with subjects such as nuclear weapons, cyberattacks, and the rise of China. This year, we focused on AI’s implications for national security, examining the benefits, as well as the risks. Among the benefits are a greater ability to sort through enormous amounts of intelligence data, strengthen early-warning systems, improve complicated logistical systems, and inspect computer code to improve cybersecurity. But there are also big risks, such as advances in autonomous weapons, accidental errors in programming algorithms, and adversarial AIs that can weaken cybersecurity. China has been making massive investments in the broader AI arms race, and it also boasts some structural advantages. The three key resources for AI are data to train the models, smart engineers to develop algorithms, and computing power to run them. China has few legal or privacy limits on access to data, though ideology constrains some datasets, and it is well supplied with bright young engineers. The area where it is most behind the US is in the advanced microchips that produce the computing power for AI.
Autonomous weapons pose a particularly serious threat.
American export controls limit China’s access to these frontier chips, as well as to the costly Dutch lithography machines that make them. The consensus among the experts in Aspen was that China is a year or two behind the US, but the situation remains volatile. Although Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed to hold bilateral discussions on AI when they met last fall, there was little optimism in Aspen about the prospects for AI arms control.Autonomous weapons pose a particularly serious threat. After more than a decade of diplomacy at the UN, countries have failed to agree on a ban of autonomous lethal weapons. International humanitarian law requires that militaries discriminate between armed combatants and civilians, and the Pentagon has long required that a human be in the decision-making loop before a weapon is fired. But in some contexts, such as defending against incoming missiles, there is no time for human intervention. Since the context matters, humans must tightly define, in the code, what weapons can and cannot do. In other words, there should be a human “on the loop” rather than “in the loop.” This is not just some speculative question. In the Ukraine war, the Russians jam Ukrainian forces’ signals, compelling the Ukrainians to program their devices for autonomous final decision-making about when to fire.
One of the most frightening dangers of AI is its application to biological warfare or terrorism. When countries agreed to ban biological weapons in 1972, the common belief was that such devices were not useful, owing to the risk of “blowback” on one’s own side. But with synthetic biology, it may be possible to develop a weapon that destroys one group but not another. Or a terrorist with access to a laboratory may simply want to kill as many people as possible, as the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult did in Japan in 1995. While they used sarin, which is not transmissible, their modern equivalent could use AI to develop a contagious virus. In the case of nuclear technology, countries agreed, in 1968, on a nonproliferation treaty that now has 191 members. The International Atomic Energy Agency regularly inspects domestic energy programs to confirm that they are being used solely for peaceful purposes. And despite intense Cold War competition, the leading countries in nuclear technology agreed, in 1978, to practice restraint in the export of the most sensitive facilities and technical knowledge. Such a precedent suggests some paths for AI, though there are obvious differences between the two technologies.
It is a truism that technology moves faster than policy or diplomacy, especially when it is driven by intense market competition in the private sector. If there was one major conclusion of this year’s Aspen Strategy Group meeting, it was that governments need to pick up their pace.
**Joseph S. Nye, Jr., co-chair of the Aspen Strategy Group, is a former dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, a former US assistant secretary of defense, and the author, most recently, of “A Life in the American Century” (Polity Press, 2024). ©Project Syndicate

 Global security hangs in the balance as Iran prepares to strike
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/August 04, 2024
The rivalry between Israel and Iran has now escalated to a new and more dangerous level, making the likelihood of an all-out war between the two more probable than ever. This shift underscores a critical juncture in the region’s geopolitics, where the potential for a full-scale conflict is no longer a distant possibility, but an imminent threat.
For many years, Israel and Iran’s hostilities were confined to this shadow war, characterized by indirect attacks and strategic maneuvers designed to undermine each other without sparking a full-scale conflict. This delicate balance was disrupted in April 2024. Israel launched a direct airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Damascus, Syria. The attack resulted in the deaths of several high-ranking Iranian officials. Iran’s response involved the seizure of the Israeli-affiliated vessel MSC Aries and the launching of missile strikes on Israeli territory. These actions prompted Israel to retaliate with strikes on Iranian and Syrian targets on April 19. The sequence of these events marked a departure from the indirect methods previously employed, and signaled a willingness by both sides to engage in more overt military actions, thus raising the stakes significantly.
Following these escalations, both countries seemed to take steps to de-escalate the situation. This return to the shadow war indicated a mutual understanding that an all-out war would be detrimental to both parties. But in spite of the temporary lull in direct confrontations, the underlying tensions remained unresolved, creating a highly volatile situation. The assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, reportedly through a bomb smuggled into a guesthouse, has likely served as a catalyst for renewed direct confrontations. This incident brought the shadow war back into the spotlight and will most likely push the conflict to new heights. From the Iranian leaders’ perspective, the attack is a direct affront that requires a strong response in order to deter future provocations, and to maintain its image of power on the regional and global stage. Iran’s leadership, spearheaded by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed to avenge Haniyeh’s death. For the Iranian leaders, the assassination is viewed as a direct challenge to their authority. Khamenei reportedly issued orders for retaliatory attacks against Israel, framing the assassination as an egregious act necessitating a harsh response. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has echoed these sentiments, promising a severe and painful retaliation. This rhetoric reflects Iran’s broader strategic aims of demonstrating its power. The heightened state of alert and the public commitments to revenge indicate a significant escalation in the rhetoric and actions likely to follow, highlighting the depth of the current crisis.
Iran’s leadership most likely feels it has to respond decisively in order to demonstrate its power and save face, both domestically and among its regional proxies. From the prism of the Iranian leaders, a failure to respond adequately could be interpreted as weakness, undermining Iran’s influence in the region.
A large-scale conflict with Israel would likely draw in the US, further straining Iran’s resources. Iran’s options for retaliation might be diverse and complex. One potential course of action could involve coordinating with its regional proxies, particularly Hezbollah, to launch attacks on Israeli targets. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has vowed revenge for the death of Fouad Shukr, the group’s second-in-command. This indicates a willingness and readiness to escalate hostilities. Another plausible scenario may involve Iran conducting direct military actions against Israel, utilizing its arsenal of drones and ballistic missiles. This approach mirrors previous actions, such as the missile strikes in April. Nevertheless, it is important to point out that direct attacks carry significant risks, including the potential for escalation into a wider conflict.
A third scenario may involve a combined offensive including Iran and Hezbollah, allowing both parties to claim revenge. This coordinated approach could amplify the impact of the attacks. By involving Hezbollah, Iran may attempt to leverage the group’s operational capabilities to enhance its strategic objectives. This scenario underscores the interconnected nature of regional alliances and the complexities of coordinating multi-faceted military operations. It is important to consider Washington’s role in this escalating conflict. The Biden administration appears to be preventing a full-scale war. During previous confrontations, the US intercepted many Iranian missiles aimed at Israel. As tensions rise, the US is likely preparing for potential Iranian attacks and will play a crucial role in mitigating the risks of escalation.
The scope and scale of Iran’s potential retaliation remain uncertain, but several factors are likely to shape its response. Iran may aim to conduct a limited, targeted attack to avoid provoking a full-scale war, while still demonstrating its power. Such an attack would likely avoid civilian targets, and might involve advance notifications to the US or other major powers to manage the risks of unintended escalation. This approach reflects Iran’s strategic calculus, balancing the need for a robust response with the objective of avoiding a larger conflict that could be politically and economically devastating for the country. The careful planning and execution of such an operation would aim to achieve strategic objectives without crossing thresholds that could trigger uncontrollable escalation. It is important to note that engaging in a full-scale war would be politically and economically disastrous for Iran, given its domestic challenges. The Iranian regime faces significant economic pressures and sociopolitical issues that would limit its capacity to sustain prolonged military engagements. A large-scale conflict with Israel would likely draw in the US, further straining Iran’s already limited resources and complicating its strategic calculations.
Therefore, Iran is likely to pursue limited, calculated strikes that allow it to assert its power, while avoiding the broader consequences of a full-scale war. However, Israel’s response to even limited Iranian strikes is unpredictable and could potentially escalate the situation further.
In conclusion, as Iran prepares to retaliate, the risk of an all-out war is increasing exponentially, threatening severe repercussions for regional stability and international security.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian American political scientist. X: @Dr_Rafizadeh

After Haniyeh
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 04/2024
The method, location, and timing of the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh are the story and the message. It is a major turning point. Whether Iran retaliates directly or through its militias, Netanyahu has changed the course of events to his advantage.
Dear reader, consider this quote to understand what I mean. "The United States is a superpower. Yet, for nine months, it has been unable to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Now, with the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday, the blood feud between the two appeared to deepen, with American peacemakers standing on the sidelines." It was not a Palestinian party that said this, nor is it my opinion. It is part of the introduction to a Washington Post article by David Ignatius. It affirms the points I made in last week’s column: "Now, Keep Your Eyes on Netanyahu."
In it, I argued that, after his recent visit to Washington and Biden's decision to withdraw from the presidential race, Netanyahu is no longer constrained. He does not listen to anyone, not even the American administration, and will do what he likes until the American people head to the polls on November 5.
Netanyahu realized that the balance of power in Washington had shifted following Biden's withdrawal. He now has several objectives, including the fortification of his leadership domestically and drawing - or rather imposing - a new landscape for the next American president. If Kamala Harris becomes president, she will have to deal with the reality he has created on the ground.
If Trump is elected president, he will follow the plan that Netanyahu had laid out for him. It is clear that Netanyahu has learned a lot from Trump’s way of thinking, particularly his decision to assassinate Qassem Soleimani. Netanyahu has now followed in Trump’s footsteps, targeting figures who had believed to be off-limits, such as Haniyeh, and he did it on Iranian soil.Now, Iran might retaliate, or an Iranian proxy militia in the region could do so. However, this does not concern Netanyahu in the slightest, as such a response would be perfectly suited to his objectives. The most prominent of these objectives is escalation. Indeed, Netanyahu’s strategy is clearly to strike at the "tentacles of the octopus," as the Israelis used to say. Iran could either maintain its "strategic patience," launch a symbolic response or drag Washington into military confrontation. More than it had ever been before, this is now Netanyahu’s main goal. That is why he risked exposing intelligence capabilities that Israel had not previously dared to reveal, especially in the operation to assassinate Haniyeh in Tehran.Now the question is: What about Hamas? I believe that Mr. Abdulrahman Al-Rashed summed up the answer to this question nicely in his column "Haniyeh is Sinwar’s victim." In it, Rashed reminds us of a fact that is often overlooked in the media: Sinwar and Haniyeh were competitors and rivals. However, the heart of the matter is in the following quote from the article. "Netanyahu and Sinwar destroyed the future of Hamas, and the movement, along with Gaza, became a victim of extremist calculations, joined by Tehran, which decided late last year to try to change the rules of the Palestinian game and prevent regional reconciliation efforts."
That is absolutely right. This is precisely what Netanyahu wants, at least until November 5. Therefore, things will be entirely different following the assassination.