English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 26/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
When you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 17/05-10/:’The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you. ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”?Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!” ’

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 25-26/2024
Text of Sayyed Nasrallah's speech/Sayyed Nasrallah: Operation ‘Arbaeen Day’ Achieved Goals, Israeli Preemptive Attack Claims Mere Lies
Israel and Hezbollah trade their most intense fire in months and then pull back
Netanyahu warns today's strikes in Lebanon 'not the final word'
Reports: Israel says doesn't want war after Hezbollah avenges Shukur
US says commitment to Israel's defense is ironclad, 'postured' to support
Hamas says Hezbollah strikes 'slap in the face' for Israel
Houthis hail Hezbollah strikes on Israel, renew threat to wage their own attack
Biden 'closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon' after Hezbollah avenges Shukur
Israel stages heavy airstrikes on south Lebanon as Hezbollah launches attack over Shukur
UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon crossfire
At Beirut airport, flights cancelled amid Hezbollah-Israel escalation
Lebanon PM urges de-escalation after Israel-Hezbollah strikes
What to know about the heavy exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah
Israel declares 48-hour state of emergency after escalation with Hezbollah
Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
UNIFIL, UN coordinator urge Israel and Hezbollah to cease fire
Hezbollah: Lebanese armed group with growing regional role
Air France suspends Beirut, Tel Aviv flights at least until Monday
Iran's proxies are always ready to destroy their countries for Iran/Roger Bejjani/Face Book/August 25/2024
Israel and Hezbollah trade heavy fire before pulling back, jolting a region braced for war
What to know about the heavy exchange of fire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah
IDF launches airstrikes on Lebanon and Hezbollah says it fired 320 Katyusha rockets at Israel in major escalation
The Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Rai:Reconciliation Is a Necessity for Lebanese Society
Former five-time Lebanese prime minister Salim Hoss dies at 94
Hezbollah's 'phase one' failure: Israel foils attacks on Mossad, IDF intel bases
'Nasrallah the chicken hunter': Arab world mocks Hezbollah over foiled attack
After Hezbollah’s barrage, can it be deterred? - analysis
Benny Gantz: Israel's northern response 'possibly too little, came too late'
Have the IDF's massive preemptive strikes prevented all-out war in Lebanon? - analysis
Former IDF intel chief casts doubts on Hezbollah's attack plan
Hezbollah chief says Sunday attack went as planned, further strikes possible
Netanyahu: Strike on Hezbollah another step in changing situation in North
Israeli Navy soldier killed in Iron Dome, Hezbollah drone incident in North
Tel Aviv stocks gain 2% after Israel's pre-emptive strike on Hezbollah
Israeli ambassador says US posture in Middle East played role in ‘deterring’ Iran

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 25-26/2024
Hamas says it rejects new Israeli conditions in Gaza ceasefire talks
Israel says more polio vaccines are delivered to Gaza, where aid groups seek pause in fighting
Syrian president says efforts to restore ties with Turkey have yielded no results
French police arrest synagogue blast suspect
Failed Syrian asylum seeker arrested after knife attack in Germany
American rapper Macklemore says he canceled Dubai show over UAE arming Sudan paramilitary forces
Two Nigerian police officers killed in attack by Islamist group, say police
Russian attacks on Ukraine kill 4 and injure 37, local authorities say
These Chinese nuclear submarines show it's serious about countering US dominance under the waves

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on August 25-26/2024
The Middle East: A Story of Journalistic Failure/Nils A. Haug/Gatestone Institute/August 25, 2024
Egypt looks elsewhere to get the stealth fighters the US reneged on/Paul Iddon/Business Insider/Business Insider/August 25, 2024
The Ideologies Are Shaken/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 25/2024
On the Current Moment of Painful Anticipation/Hazem SaghiehAsharq Al-Awsat/August 25/2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 25-26/2024
Text of Sayyed Nasrallah's speech
Sayyed Nasrallah: Operation ‘Arbaeen Day’ Achieved Goals, Israeli Preemptive Attack Claims Mere Lies
Batoul Wehbe/Al-Manar English Website/ August 25, 2024
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah revealed on Sunday details of the resistance’s recent powerful operation, warning that they will evaluate the Israeli concealment of today’s events, considering the response complete if satisfactory; otherwise, Hezbollah reserves the right to respond later.
In a powerful speech which was announced to be delivered only Sunday morning in Hezbollah’s statement, Sayyed Nasrallah emphasized the resistance’s determination to respond to the aggression on the southern suburbs of Beirut and the martyrdom of Military Commander Sayyed Fuad Shokr and several civilians, highlighting that the resistance had been prepared to respond from the first day of Sayyed Mohsen’s martyrdom, noting that the response is an integral part of the punishment.
His eminence explained that the resistance needed time to evaluate whether the response should be coordinated across the entire axis or handled by individual fronts. They also waited to allow negotiations a chance, aiming to halt the aggression against Gaza. He pointed out that the negotiations have been protracted, with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu imposing new conditions on the resistance in Gaza.
“The delay in the operation was caused by American and Israeli mobilization, and this delay also served as a form of punishment for the enemy. We delayed our response to allow sufficient time for the ongoing negotiations concerning Gaza,” Sayyed Nasrallah said.
Announcing the name of the large-scale military operation as “Operation Arbaeen Day” to commemorate its occurrence on this significant day, which holds profound historical importance, Sayyed Nasrallah outlined the criteria for the response, stating that it should not target civilians or infrastructure but rather focus on military targets related to the assassination operation, such as intelligence bases or air force facilities. Targets were to be situated very close to Tel Aviv.
“We established guidelines for our response, ensuring that targets would not be civilians or enemy infrastructure, but rather military sites directly linked to the assassination operation.”
Among the identified targets was the “Galilot” base, a central intelligence base housing Unit 8200, located 110 kilometers from the Lebanese border and only 1,500 meters from Tel Aviv. “We have identified the “Galilot” base as a primary target for Operation Arbaeen Day. This base houses Unit 8200, which specializes in intelligence gathering, eavesdropping, and espionage. It is situated 110 kilometers from the Lebanese border and just 1,500 meters from the border of Tel Aviv,” the S.G. pointed.
The “Ein Shemya” base, 75 kilometers from Lebanon and 40 kilometers from Tel Aviv, was also within the targeting circle, he said. The resistance planned to launch 300 Katyusha rockets and targeted drone sites to exhaust the Iron Dome and interceptor missiles, allowing drones to cross their intended targets, he explained further.
“The plan was to launch 300 Katyusha rockets and disperse them across various sites. This number was deemed sufficient to overwhelm the Iron Dome and its interceptor missiles for several minutes, allowing the drones to proceed,” Sayyed Nasrallah said, adding: “No resistance platforms were hit before the operation began. The resistance successfully launched 340 missiles, and all drone sites deployed their drones despite the raids. Remarkably, no site was damaged, either before or after the operation.”
Sayyed Nasrallah disclosed that the operation was scheduled for the Arbaeen of Imam Hussein (PBUH) and commenced at 5:15 AM after the dawn prayer. This operation marked the first-time drones were launched from the Bekaa region, successfully crossing the occupied Palestinian borders despite the long distance, he said.
“Our data suggests that a substantial number of drones successfully reached the two specified targets; however, as usual, the enemy is keeping this information confidential,” Hezbollah’s leader identified.
His eminence confirmed that no launch pads or drone sites were hit before or after the operation. He highlighted the primary targets: the “Aman” military intelligence base and the “8200” unit in Galilot, as well as the air defense base in Ein Shemya. He noted that a significant number of drones reached these targets, though the enemy is keeping this information secret. Despite launching 340 missiles, the enemy did not manage to thwart the operation. “If there were any casualties in Nahariya, Acre, or other locations, they were caused by Israeli interceptor missiles,” he further added.
Criticizing the Zionist narrative about the event, Sayyed Nasrallah described it as full of lies that reflect the entity’s weakness. “The enemy’s claim that it targeted ballistic missiles prepared to strike Tel Aviv is false,” he said. He also clarified that Hezbollah’s strategic and precision missiles were not used in this operation but remain intact, as the valleys thought to contain missile platforms had been evacuated previously.
“‘Israel’ falsely claimed to have destroyed our strategic missiles, despite knowing that we have not used them yet and may do so in the future,” the secretary general said, further stating that Hezbollah’s fighters had already evacuated all the valleys containing precision and ballistic missiles, so what the enemy bombed today were empty valleys. “The drone sites were not hit, and the missile launch pads fired their missiles without being damaged in the pre-raids,” he indicated.
Sayyed Nasrallah further noted that the enemy began raids half an hour before the operation due to the movement of the Mujahideen, not from intelligence information. “The enemy initiated the raids half an hour before the resistance operation, sensing the movement of the Mujahideen rather than acting based on intelligence information.”
He characterized the enemy’s actions as an intelligence failure and a failure in preemptive operations. “The enemy is claiming hundreds of raids, but in reality, they only hit two missile launch pads. What occurred was an act of aggression, not a preemptive action, and it had no impact on our operation today or on our Mujahideen.”
“We are confronted with an Israeli narrative filled with falsehoods and intelligence failures; in contrast, our military operation was executed exactly as planned, despite all the challenging circumstances,” he said.
Sayyed Nasrallah praised the resistance for its courage in carrying out the operation, despite the enemy’s efforts to shut down Tel Aviv and its airports. He stated that this was the first major operation undertaken without the late Sayyed Fouad, emphasizing that it was executed flawlessly. “This is the first major operation the resistance has undertaken without a great leader like Sayyed Fuad Shokr, yet we believe that the spirits of our martyred leaders are with us, supporting and guiding us.”
The response has set a new equation, demonstrating that the resistance remains formidable. “Today, we witnessed a scene that vividly demonstrates the courage of the resistance and its supporters, who acted boldly despite all the American and Western intimidation,” he said.
“We disrupted the Israeli entity with Katyusha rockets; imagine the impact if we had launched even other rockets,” Sayyed Nasrallah went on to say in his today’s powerful speech.
On the impact of today’s retaliation to the Israeli assassination of Sayyed Fuad Shokr, Sayyed Nasrallah threatened: “We will assess the outcome of the Israeli concealment of today’s events; if the result is satisfactory, we will consider the response process complete, if it falls short, we will reserve the right to respond at a later time.”
“At this stage, Lebanon can rest assured, as the enemy has announced that today’s events are concluded,” he said.
Looking ahead, Sayyed Nasrallah outlined the next stages of the operation, including further targeting and evaluating the results of the enemy’s concealment of the events. He assured continued support for Gaza and Palestine, regardless of the challenges and sacrifices. “Any hopes of silencing the support fronts, especially the Lebanese front, will fail; we will continue to support Gaza, regardless of the sacrifices involved.”
The charismatic leader ended his historic speech with a warning to the Israeli enemy: “The enemy must understand and be very cautious about the nature of Lebanon and the strategic changes occurring. Lebanon is no longer weak and can no longer be subdued easily, there may come a day when we invade you with a musical band!” Referring to a famous statement in the 1970s by Israeli military leader Moshe Dayan, who said then that the musical band in the Israeli army can invade and occupy Lebanon.
Sayyed Nasrallah began his speech by expressing gratitude to the Iraqi government and people for their hospitality during the Arbaeen of Imam Hussein (PBUH), acknowledging their generosity. He also extended condolences to the Lebanese people on the passing of Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss, recognizing him as a symbol of resistance and patriotism. He also thanked the resistance fighters for their steadfastness and dedication.
Early Sunday, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon announced its initial response to the martyrdom of the esteemed jihadi leader Sayyed Fuad Shokr, who was targeted by Israeli occupation aircraft on Tuesday, August 30, 2024. The attacks also resulted in the deaths of several civilians, including women and children.
Source: Al-Manar English Website

Israel and Hezbollah trade their most intense fire in months and then pull back
JOSEF FEDERMAN, ABBY SEWELL and KAREEM CHEHAYEB/JERUSALEM (AP)
Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah traded heavy fire early Sunday but backed off from sparking a widely feared all-out war, as both sides signaled their most intense exchange in months was over. The cross-border attacks came as high-level talks resumed in Egypt aimed at a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the war in Gaza that also would ease regional tensions. Hezbollah claimed to hit an Israeli military intelligence site near Tel Aviv in a barrage of hundreds of rockets and drones, and Israel claimed its strikes had been preemptive to avert a larger attack. Neither offered evidence. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the attack, a response to Israel’s killing of a top militant commander in Beirut last month, had been delayed to give the Gaza cease-fire talks a chance, and so fellow Iran-backed groups could discuss with Iran whether to attack Israel all at once. Israeli and U.S. military deployment also played a role. “We will now reserve the right to respond at a later time” if the results of Sunday’s attack aren’t sufficient, Nasrallah said, adding that allied Houthi rebels in Yemen -- and Iran itself -- had yet to respond. But he told the Lebanese people: “At this current stage, the country can take a breath and relax.” Israel’s military said its intelligence base near Tel Aviv wasn't hit. Israel and Hezbollah said they aimed only at military targets. Israel's military said one soldier with the navy was killed and two others were wounded either by an interceptor for incoming fire, or by shrapnel from one. Two Hezbollah fighters and a militant from an allied group were killed, the groups said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military eliminated thousands of rockets that were aimed at northern Israel and shot down drones heading for the center of the country. “I repeat — this is not the end of the story," he added.
Flights diverted as air raid sirens wail. Air raid sirens were reported throughout northern Israel, and Israel's international airport closed and diverted flights for about an hour. Israel’s Home Front Command later lifted restrictions in most areas. An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said Hezbollah intended to hit targets in northern and central Israel but initial assessments found “very little damage.” He said around 100 Israeli aircraft took part in the strikes.
Hezbollah said its attack involved more than 320 Katyusha rockets aimed at multiple sites in Israel and a “large number” of drones. Some Israelis were shaken. In the northern city of Acre, retired teacher Saadia Even Tsur, 76, said he was at the synagogue when his bedroom was damaged and arrived home five minutes later. “I went up and saw the size of the miracle that happened to me,” he said. A window was broken and debris was on his bed. Lebanon’s caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam, after an emergency government meeting, said officials were “feeling a bit more optimistic” about a de-escalation. “We feel more reassured since both sides confirmed that the expected operations ended,” he said. President Joe Biden was “closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon," according to Sean Savett, a spokesman for the National Security Council. The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. CQ Brown, arrived in Israel late Sunday for meetings on what the Israeli military called “joint preparations in the region as part of the response to threats in the Middle East.”
All-out war apparently averted for now. Danny Citrinowicz, an expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Hezbollah might be trying to “balance the equation without escalating into war.” Each side hopes their narrative will be sufficient for them to declare victory and avoid a wider confrontation, he said. Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after the start of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost daily, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border. Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a stalemate in 2006, is believed to be far more powerful now. The United States and Israel estimate it has some 150,000 rockets and is capable of hitting anywhere inside Israel. The group has also developed drones capable of evading Israel's defenses, as well as precision-guided munitions.
Israel has vowed a crushing response to any major Hezbollah attack. It has an extensive multi-tiered missile defense system, and it is backed by a U.S.-led coalition that helped it shoot down hundreds of missiles and drones fired from Iran earlier this year. The U.S. military has been building up its forces across the region in recent weeks. Hezbollah is a close ally of Iran, which has also threatened to retaliate against Israel for the killing of a senior Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran last month. Israel has not said whether it was involved. Iranian state media on Sunday played up the Hezbollah attack, calling it a success, but there was no immediate comment from Iranian officials. The U.S. and other mediators see a cease-fire in Gaza as key to averting a wider Mideast war. Hezbollah has said it will halt its strikes on Israel if there is a cease-fire. Egypt was hosting high-level talks in Cairo on Sunday aimed at bridging the gaps in a proposal for a truce and the release of scores of hostages held by Hamas. The talks include CIA director William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. Hamas sent a delegation to be briefed by Egyptian and Qatari mediators but was not directly taking part in negotiations.

Netanyahu warns today's strikes in Lebanon 'not the final word'
Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Sunday's strikes in Lebanon were "not the final word" in Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah. "We are striking Hezbollah with surprising, crushing blows... This is another step towards changing the situation in the north and safely returning our residents to their homes. And, I repeat, this is not the final word," Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting. He said the military destroyed thousands of "short-range rockets, all of which were intended to harm our civilians and forces in the Galilee.""Additionally, the IDF (Israeli military) intercepted all the drones that Hezbollah launched at a strategic target in central Israel," he said, without identifying what the target was. Israeli media however reported the target Hezbollah aimed to strike was the headquarters of the Israeli Mossad spy agency near Tel Aviv.

Reports: Israel says doesn't want war after Hezbollah avenges Shukur
Naharnet/August 25/2025
Israel has told foreign parties that it moved to thwart a major Hezbollah attack on Sunday morning and that it does not intend to “turn that into a broad war,” the Israel Hayom newspaper said. “If Hezbollah is satisfied with its response today, Israel will not expand the military campaign and Fouad Shukur’s assassination file will be wrapped up,” the daily added. It also said that Israel’s messages to foreign powers were aimed at seeking help in “preventing an escalation.”Israeli state media had earlier quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying that “Israel's military operation has ended and things now are in Hezbollah's hand.”Israel’s foreign ministry meanwhile announced that Israel is “not seeking an all-out war” and that it “will act according to the developments.”A pro-Hezbollah analyst for his part told Al-Jazeera television that the U.S. has told Lebanon that Israel will not react further if Hezbollah has concluded its response to Shukur's killing.

US says commitment to Israel's defense is ironclad, 'postured' to support
Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
The United States said its commitment to Israel's defense was ironclad and that it was "postured" to support its ally after the Israeli military said Sunday it had launched strikes in Lebanon to prevent a major attack by Hezbollah. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken with Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant about Israel's defense against attacks by the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said. "Secretary Austin reaffirmed the United States' ironclad commitment to Israel's defense against any attacks by Iran and its regional partners and proxies," Ryder said in a statement. A Pentagon spokesperson added in a separate statement that the United States has "been very clear" that it "is postured to support the defense of Israel." Gallant announced a 48-hour nationwide state of emergency in Israel from 06:00 am (0300 GMT) Sunday after the military launched what it called pre-emptive strikes in Lebanon. The Israeli defense ministry said Gallant had briefed Austin on the situation. "We have conducted precise strikes in Lebanon in order to thwart an imminent threat against the citizens of Israel," Gallant told Austin, according to a statement. U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said "senior U.S. officials have been communicating continuously with their Israeli counterparts" at the direction of President Joe Biden, who was "closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon." "We will keep supporting Israel's right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability," Savett said in a statement. Hezbollah issued a statement Sunday announcing large-scale drone and rocket launches targeting deep into Israeli territory in retaliation for the death of its military commander in an Israeli strike last month.

Hamas says Hezbollah strikes 'slap in the face' for Israel
Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Sunday hailed strikes by Lebanon's Hezbollah against Israel, calling it a "strong and focused response". "We emphasize that this strong and focused response, which struck deep inside the Zionist entity, is a slap in the face" for the Israeli government, Hamas said in a statement after Hezbollah said it launched a large-scale operation using rockets and drones.

Houthis hail Hezbollah strikes on Israel, renew threat to wage their own attack
Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels praised attacks by Lebanon's Hezbollah on Israel Sunday and renewed threats to launch their own attack in response to Israeli strikes on a port in Yemen. "We congratulate Hezbollah and its Secretary-General on the great and courageous attack carried out by the resistance this morning against the Israeli enemy," said a Houthi statement, adding that a response to July 20 strikes by Israel on the rebel-run Hodeida port "is definitely coming."

Biden 'closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon' after Hezbollah avenges Shukur
Associated Press/August 25/2025
A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, Sean Savett, said Sunday that President Joe Biden was “closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon,” after Hezbollah said it fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel to avenge Fouad Shukur's killing and Israel said it struck 40 Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon to foil the attack. “At his direction, senior U.S. officials have been communicating continuously with their Israeli counterparts,” Savett added. "We will keep supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability," he added. The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, about Israel's defenses. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. CQ Brown, is on a visit to the region that is expected to take him to Israel, Egypt and Jordan.

Israel stages heavy airstrikes on south Lebanon as Hezbollah launches attack over Shukur
Associated Press/Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon early Sunday in what it said was a pre-emptive strike on Hezbollah, as the group said it had launched hundreds of rockets and drones to avenge the killing of one of its top commanders last month. The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked "thousands" of Hezbollah rocket launchers in south Lebanon that were aimed at northern and central Israel. "Approximately 100 IAF fighter jets ... struck and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels that were located and embedded in southern Lebanon," the military said in a statement. "Most of these launchers were aimed toward northern Israel and some were aimed toward central Israel." Hezbollah in turn "fired hundreds of rockets and UAVs towards northern Israel," most of them after Israel launched its attack, Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters. The fire from Hezbollah was "part of a larger attack that was planned and we were able to thwart a big part of it this morning," Shoshani said, while declining to specify what Hezbollah had targeted. "We're still in a situation assessment of the aftermath of the attack... there is still some fire happening," Shoshani said. "But I can tell you there was a little damage... very little damage." Shoshani said Israel's partners including the United States did not take part in Sunday's attack on Hezbollah.
"This morning was an Israeli operation," he said.
The heavy exchange of fire threatened to trigger an all-out war that could draw in the United States, Iran and militant groups across the region. It could also torpedo efforts to forge a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with the Palestinian group Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah, for over 10 months. By mid-morning, it appeared that the exchange had ended, with both sides having confined their attacks to military targets. But the situation remained tense, and the full extent of casualties and damage was not immediately known. The Israeli military said Hezbollah was planning to launch a heavy barrage of rockets and missiles toward Israel. Soon after, Hezbollah announced it had launched an attack on Israeli military positions as an initial response to the killing of Fouad Shukur, one of its founders, in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs last month. The attacks came as Egypt hosts a new round of talks aimed at ending the Israel-Hamas war. Hezbollah has said it will halt the fighting if there is a cease-fire in Gaza. Iran supports both groups as well as militants in Syria, Iraq and Yemen who might join any larger conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the start of a Cabinet meeting, said the military had eliminated "thousands of rockets that were aimed at northern Israel" and urged citizens to adhere to directives from the Home Front Command. "We are determined to do everything to defend our country, to return the residents of the north securely to their homes and to continue upholding a simple rule: Whoever harms us — we will harm them," he said.
Air raid sirens were reported throughout northern Israel, and Israel's Ben-Gurion international airport closed and diverted flights for approximately an hour due to the threat of attack. Israel's Home Front Command has raised the alert level in northern Israel and encouraged people to stay near bomb shelters.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that two people were killed and another two wounded in the strikes in southern Lebanon. Separately, a fighter for the Amal group, which is allied with Hezbollah, was killed in a strike on a car, Amal said. Hezbollah said its attack involved more than 320 Katyusha rockets aimed at multiple sites in Israel and a "large number" of drones. It said the operation was targeting "a qualitative Israeli military target that will be announced later" as well as "enemy sites and barracks and Iron Dome (missile defense) platforms." Hezbollah later announced the end of what it said was the first stage of retaliatory strikes, which it said would allow it to launch more attacks deeper into Israel. But a later statement said "military operations for today have been completed," noting that drones had crossed towards a target in the heart of Israel. The group said all the exploding drones it launched hit their targets, without saying how many. It listed 11 bases, barracks, and military positions that it said it targeted in northern Israel and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. It also dismissed Israel's claim that its preemptive strikes had succeeded in warding off a stronger Hezbollah attack.
Randa Slim, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Institute, said Sunday morning's exchange was "still within the rules of engagement and unlikely at this point to lead to an all out war." In the U.S., a spokesman for the National Security Council, Sean Savett, said President Joe Biden was "closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon." "At his direction, senior U.S. officials have been communicating continuously with their Israeli counterparts," Savett added. "We will keep supporting Israel's right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability."
The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, about Israel's defenses against Hezbollah. Austin "reaffirmed the United States' ironclad commitment to Israel's defense against any attacks by Iran and its regional partners and proxies," a statement said.
In recent weeks, diplomats from the U.S. and European countries have made a flurry of visits to Israel and Lebanon in an attempt to tamp down the escalation that they fear could spiral into a regional war. Last week, Israel's defense minister said he was moving more troops toward the Lebanese border in anticipation of possible fighting with Hezbollah. Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after the start of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel. Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire almost daily, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border. Until Sunday, both sides had been careful to avoid all-out war.
Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a stalemate in the summer of 2006, is believed to be far more powerful than it was during that conflict. The United States and Israel estimate it has some 150,000 rockets and is capable of hitting anywhere inside Israel. The group has also also developed drones capable of evading Israel's defenses as well as precision-guided munitions. Israel has one of the world's best militaries and an extensive multi-tiered missile defense system, and it is backed by a U.S.-led coalition that helped it shoot down hundreds of missiles and drones fired from Iran earlier this year. The U.S. military has been building up its forces across the region in recent weeks. Israel has vowed a crushing response in the case of all-out war, one that would likely demolish critical civilian infrastructure, especially in south Beirut and southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah's main strongholds are located. A war would likely displace hundreds of thousands of people on both sides. Hezbollah is a close ally of Iran, which has also threatened to retaliate for the killing of a senior Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in an explosion in Tehran last month that was widely blamed on Israel, which has not said whether it was involved.

UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon crossfire
Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
On the deserted border between Lebanon and Israel, Spanish U.N. peacekeepers have for more than 10 months effectively been caught in a war zone. Several Blue Helmets have been wounded in the crossfire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has also left dozens of Lebanese civilians dead in fallout from the Israeli war on Gaza. "Sometimes we need to shelter because of the shelling... sometimes even inside the bunkers," said Alvaro Gonzalez Gavalda, a Blue Helmet at Base 964 of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). To reach the base, AFP journalists escorted in a UNIFIL convoy passed through virtually deserted villages. Only the occasional grocer or automotive repair shop were still open along the road where fields have been left charred by bombardment. The base, surrounded by barbed wire and protected with heavy stone-filled berms, is not far from the town of Khiam, where dozens of houses have been destroyed or damaged, about five kilometers from the border. Over a wall that marks the frontier, the Israeli settlement of Metula is clearly visible. It has also been emptied of residents, as have other communities on both sides of the boundary.
Keeping watch
From a watchtower, binoculars help the peacekeepers see further -- into the Golan Heights annexed by Israel. The area has been a frequent target of Hezbollah fire.
Spanish Lieutenant Colonel Jose Irisarri said their mission, under Security Council Resolution 1701, is to "control the area" and help the Lebanese government and armed forces establish control south of the Litani River, which is around 30 kilometers from the border with Israel.The resolution ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. It called for all armed personnel to pull back north of the Litani, except for Lebanese state security forces and United Nations peacekeepers. While Hezbollah has not had a visible military presence in the border area since then, the group still holds sway over large parts of the south. When Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip attacked Israel on October 7, triggering war with Israel, Hezbollah opened what it calls a "support front" a day later, launching rockets and other fire from southern Lebanon against Israeli positions. Israel has hit back with air strikes and artillery fire.
"Some of these villages are completely empty. There is no one living there because of the risk and the constant attacks they are suffering," Irisarri said. The Security Council first established UNIFIL in 1978 after Israel invaded south Lebanon. Its mission was expanded after the 2006 war. Now, with fears of a wider regional war in which Lebanon would be on the front line, the U.N.'s Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said UNIFIL's role is "more important than ever". Spain's contingent of 650 soldiers, based at several positions, are among around 10,000 troops from 49 countries in the mission. "It's the only liaison channel between the Israeli side and the Lebanese side in all its components, such as Hezbollah," Lacroix told AFP in early August.UNIFIL's mandate expires at the end of August and Lebanon has asked for its renewal.Cross-border violence since the Gaza war started has killed 601 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 131 civilians, according to an AFP tally. The Israeli authorities have announced the deaths of at least 23 soldiers and 26 civilians since the fighting began, including in the annexed Golan Heights.
Far from home -
The Spaniards don't just limit themselves to their core mission. They also give "support and some help" to the local population, Irisarri said. As an example, he said their psychological team assists students with special needs. AFP was unable to visit the school during its tour on Friday, after the Spanish contingent raised the security level following exchanges of fire in the area. Israeli strikes in Lebanon's south on Friday killed seven Hezbollah fighters and a local child, according to Hezbollah and Lebanon's health ministry. Israel said its military aircraft had hit "terrorist" targets.
The peacekeepers have little time to rest, but have the company of two adopted dogs. When they do have leisure time, "we go to the gym to keep fit and also we enjoy watching movies and talking to some friends", said Gavalda.He has been in Lebanon since May. "We miss our families," but internet enables them to stay in touch almost daily, Gavalda said. Surrounded by death, the soldiers have set up on their grounds a small statue of the Virgin Mary inside a protective glass case.

At Beirut airport, flights cancelled amid Hezbollah-Israel escalation
Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
Beirut airport was functioning Sunday but many passengers were stuck as flights were cancelled or delayed, an AFP correspondent said, after Israel and Hezbollah announced broad strikes in an escalation of cross-border hostilities. "We came at 4:30 am for our flight at 8:00 am but they told us it was cancelled," said Elham Shukair, a passenger headed to the United States via Jordan. Seated on her bag in the arrivals hall, she said she had booked another flight later Sunday with Lebanon's Middle East Airlines in the hope of reaching Amman and making her onward connection. Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war. But Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday, saying it had thwarted a large-scale Hezbollah attack, while the Lebanese group announced its own cross-border strikes to avenge the killing of a top commander, Fouad Shukur, in an Israeli strike last month. Fears have spiked since Shukur's killing that the cross-border violence could degenerate into all-out conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, who last fought a devastating war in the summer of 2006.
Israel bombed Beirut airport, Lebanon's only international passenger facility, during that war. On Sunday, other passengers sat on the floor in the arrivals hall as screens showed cancelled or delayed flights, while the arrivals area was largely empty. "Our flight is still scheduled but it is delayed," said Diala Hatoum, who was set to travel with her son on a Qatar Airways flight. "We will see, we are waiting now," she added. Air France said it was suspending Beirut flights scheduled for Sunday and Monday, adding that the move could be extended depending on the situation in the Middle East. Royal Jordanian Airlines announced the suspension of Beirut flights "due to the current situation", and the UAE's Etihad Airways said it had also cancelled its services to and from the Lebanese capital. On Friday, German airline giant Lufthansa said it was extending a suspension of flights to Beirut until September 30. Lebanon's civil aviation authority emphasized Sunday that "the airport is functioning normally" despite some disruptions. There is "no truth" to rumors that all flights have been cancelled, said a statement from the authority carried by the official National News Agency. A number of airlines had already announced flight suspensions or cancellations to Beirut in recent weeks, with some later resuming services.

Lebanon PM urges de-escalation after Israel-Hezbollah strikes
Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
Caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati urged de-escalation Sunday after Israel struck Lebanon and Hezbollah said it launched attacks on Israeli positions, in a major escalation of cross-border hostilities. Mikati on Sunday told ministers at an emergency meeting that he had been holding "a series of contacts with Lebanon's friends to stop the escalation"."What is required is to stop the Israeli aggression first of all, and to apply Resolution 1701," a statement from his office said. Mikati also emphasized Lebanon's "support for international efforts that could lead to a ceasefire in Gaza", according to the statement. Hezbollah has exchanged regular fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war. Calls have mounted for the full implementation of the U.N. Resolution 1701 as a way of ending the current violence. The resolution ended a 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and called for the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers to be the only armed forces deployed in south Lebanon.

What to know about the heavy exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah
Associated Press/August 25/2025
Israel and Hezbollah on Sunday launched their heaviest exchange of fire after months of strikes and counterstrikes, raising fears of an all-out war that could potentially draw in the United States, Iran and militant groups across the region. By mid-morning, it appeared the exchange of fire had ended, with both sides saying they had only aimed at military targets. Lebanese authorities said the Israeli strikes killed three people, while there were no reports of casualties on the Israeli side. The situation remained tense.
Here's a look at where things stand:
What happened early Sunday?
Israel says around 100 warplanes launched airstrikes targeting thousands of rocket launchers across southern Lebanon to thwart an imminent Hezbollah attack. Hezbollah then said it launched hundreds of rockets and drones aimed at military bases and missile defense positions in northern Israel and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Hezbollah called the attack an initial response to the targeted killing of one of its founding members and top commanders, Fouad Shukur, in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month. It said the first stage of the attack, which would allow it to launch assaults deeper into Israel, was completed. It also said its military operations Sunday were concluded. It denied Israel's claims to have thwarted the attack. At least three people were killed, including a fighter with the Hezbollah-allied Amal group, and two were wounded in the strikes on Lebanon. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said an initial assessment showed "very little damage" in Israel. Is this the start of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah? The exchange of fire does not appear to have set off a long-feared war, but tensions remain high. Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones at Israel shortly after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas' surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies, each backed by Iran, and Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. Israel has responded with airstrikes, and the near-daily exchanges have escalated in recent months.
More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes since Oct. 8, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and other armed groups but also more than 100 civilians and noncombatants. In northern Israel, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed by strikes from Lebanon. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the tense frontier. Israel has vowed to bring quiet to the border to allow its citizens to return to their homes. It says it prefers to resolve the issue diplomatically through U.S. and other mediators but will use force if necessary. Hezbollah officials have said the group does not seek a wider war but is prepared for one. Both sides have until now been careful to avoid actions that might trigger all-out war, and they may back down after Sunday's exchange. What would a war between Israel and Hezbollah look like?
Israel and Hezbollah fought to a stalemate a monthlong war to in 2006 that left much of southern Beirut and southern Lebanon in ruins, and drove hundreds of thousands of people from their homes on both sides.
Everyone expects the next war to be far worse. Hezbollah has an estimated 150,000 rockets and is capable of hitting all parts of Israel. It has also developed an increasingly sophisticated fleet of drones and has been experimenting with precision-guided missiles. A full-scale war could force hundreds of thousands of Israelis to flee, paralyze the Israeli economy and force the army, which is still engaged in Gaza, to fight on two fronts. Israel has vowed a crushing response to any major Hezbollah attack that would likely devastate Lebanon's civilian infrastructure and economy, which has been mired in crisis for years. Beirut's southern suburbs, and towns and villages across southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah's main strongholds are located, would likely be flattened. An Israeli ground invasion to root out Hezbollah could drag on for years. The militant group is far more advanced and better-armed than Hamas in Gaza, which is still putting up a fight after 10 months of intense Israeli bombardment and ground maneuvers.
Would a war draw in the United States, Iran and others?
An all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah could spiral into a region-wide conflict. Iran is a patron of Hezbollah, Hamas and other militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Iran has vowed to carry out its own retaliatory strike over the killing of Hamas' top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in a blast in its capital last month that was widely blamed on Israel. Israel has not said whether it was involved. Iran-backed groups across the region have repeatedly attacked Israeli, U.S. and international targets since the start of the war in Gaza and could ramp them up in a bid to take pressure off Hezbollah. The United States, meanwhile, has pledged ironclad support for Israel and moved a vast array of military assets, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, to the region in recent weeks to try and deter any retaliatory strike by Iran or Hezbollah. A U.S.-led coalition helped shoot down hundreds of missiles and drones fired by Iran toward Israel in April in response to an apparent Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals. Both sides downplayed an apparent Israeli counterstrike on Iran, and tensions gradually subsided. What impact would a war have on Gaza cease-fire efforts?
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent months trying to broker an agreement for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of scores of hostages held by Hamas. Those efforts have gained urgency in recent weeks, as diplomats view such a deal as the best hope for lowering regional tensions. Hezbollah has said it will halt its attacks along the border if there is a cease-fire in Gaza. It's unclear whether Hezbollah or Iran would halt or scale back their threatened retaliatory strikes over the killing of Shukur and Haniyeh, but neither wants to be seen as the spoiler of any cease-fire deal. Despite the intense diplomacy, major gaps remain, including Israel's demand for a lasting presence along two strategic corridors in Gaza, a demand rejected by Hamas and Egypt. High-level talks will be held in Egypt on Sunday.

Israel declares 48-hour state of emergency after escalation with Hezbollah
Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a 48-hour nationwide state of emergency from 06:00 am (0300 GMT) Sunday, after the Israeli military launched what it called pre-emptive strikes in south Lebanon. "The declaration on the state of emergency enables the IDF (Israeli military) to issue instructions to the citizens of Israel, including limiting gatherings and closing sites where it may be relevant," Gallant said, in a statement issued by his office. "I am convinced that there is a high probability of an attack against the civilian population in areas of the country where the declaration of a special situation did not apply," he said, referring to previous local emergency measures. "I hereby declare a special situation on the home front in other areas of the country. The situation is valid for 48 hours starting at 6:00 am," Gallant said. In a separate statement, the defense ministry said Gallant briefed U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on the overall situation. "We have conducted precise strikes in Lebanon in order to thwart an imminent threat against the citizens of Israel," Gallant told Austin, according to the statement. "We are closely following developments in Beirut, and we are determined to use all the means at our disposal in order to defend our citizens,” he said. The statement also said that the two officials "discussed the importance of avoiding regional escalation."

UNIFIL, UN coordinator urge Israel and Hezbollah to cease fire
Naharnet/August 25/2025
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Sunday called on Israel and Hezbollah to “cease fire and refrain from further escalatory action,” in light of the “worrying developments across the Blue Line since the early morning.”
“A return to the cessation of hostilities, followed by the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, is the only sustainable way forward,” a joint statement said.“We will continue our contacts to strongly urge for de-escalation,” it added. Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon early Sunday in what it said was a preemptive strike on Hezbollah, as the Lebanese group said it had launched hundreds of rockets and drones to avenge the killing of Fouad Shukur, its top military chief, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs weeks ago. The heavy exchange of fire came amid mounting fears of an all-out war that could draw in the United States, Iran and its militant allies across the region.

Hezbollah: Lebanese armed group with growing regional role
Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
Hezbollah, which has exchanged fire with Israeli forces since October, last went to war with Israel in 2006 and has since expanded its domestic and regional influence, politically and militarily. Financed and armed by Iran, Hezbollah is the most prominent actor in the so-called axis of resistance -- regional pro-Tehran armed groups opposed to Israel that also include Palestinian militants Hamas, Iraqi movements and Yemen's Houthi rebels. Since the day after Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel that triggered war in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah has launched cross-border attacks from Lebanon seeking to tie up Israeli military resources in support of Palestinians. Fears of all-out war have spiked after Hezbollah vowed to avenge an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs last month that killed a key commander, Fouad Shukur, and Iran pledged retaliation for the killing in Tehran, blamed on Israel, of Hamas's political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
War in 2006
Hezbollah, whose name means "Party of God" in Arabic, was founded during the Lebanese civil war after Israel besieged the capital Beirut in 1982, and has since become a key domestic political player. Created at the initiative of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the Shiite Muslim movement gained its moniker as "the Resistance" by fighting Israeli troops who occupied southern Lebanon until 2000.Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in July-August 2006 that killed some 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers, after the group kidnapped two Israeli troops in a cross-border raid. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 ended that conflict and called for the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers to be the only armed forces deployed in south Lebanon. But Hezbollah has maintained a discreet presence there, where it enjoys broad support and where experts say it likely has a network of underground tunnels. On August 16, the group released a video showing what appeared to be underground tunnels and large missile launchers, without revealing their location.
The group also has a strong presence in the Bekaa valley in east Lebanon near the border with Syria. Hezbollah has bolstered its powerful arsenal, including with guided missiles, and says it can count on more than 100,000 fighters.
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was elected secretary-general in 1992 after Israel assassinated his predecessor, and he rarely appears in public.
Regional, domestic influence -
Hezbollah is a key actor in the Middle East, where it plays a central role in the "axis of resistance". It has supported and trained Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Houthi rebels in Yemen, who since October have claimed attacks on Israel and Israeli-linked shipping interests. Hezbollah is also present in Syria, where many of its members have fought in support of President Bashar al-Assad in his country's civil war, with Damascus also an ally of Tehran. Domestically, Hezbollah is the only Lebanese faction to have retained its weapons after the country's 1975-1990 civil conflict, doing so in the name of "resistance" against Israel. It is now a key political player, though detractors have accused it of being a "state within a state". Political deadlock between Hezbollah allies and their adversaries since late 2022 has prevented the election of a new president, in a country experiencing a grinding economic crisis.
Services
Founded in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah has become predominant in all Shiite Muslim areas of Lebanon, while its key religious and financial institutions are based in Beirut's southern suburbs. The movement runs an extensive social services network, complete with schools, hospitals, emergency responders and a wide range of charitable organizations serving its supporters. Its trademark yellow flags and huge portraits of Nasrallah, along with pictures of slain commanders, fighters and "axis of resistance" figures, adorn areas of the country where it is popular. The United States has considered Hezbollah a "terrorist" organization for years, blaming it for a series of bombings and hijackings in the 1980s, including one targeting U.S. Marines in Beirut. The European Union applies the classification to the group's armed wing. In 2022, a U.N.-backed court sentenced two Hezbollah members in absentia to life imprisonment for a huge Beirut bombing in 2005 that killed Lebanon's former premier Rafic Hariri.

Air France suspends Beirut, Tel Aviv flights at least until Monday
Agence France Presse/August 25/2025
Air France is suspending flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut scheduled for Sunday and Monday after Israel launched massive air strikes into Lebanon and Hezbollah fired rockets and drones at Israel in response to Fouad Shukur's killing, the airline said. "Flights today and tomorrow are suspended," a spokesman for the French carrier said, adding that the suspension could be extended depending on the situation in the Middle East. Air France, which usually runs a daily service to both cities, had already halted flights to Beirut between July 29 and August 15, but has kept flying to Tel Aviv. Air France did not say whether its budget subsidiary Transavia, which also serves both destinations, would suspend its flights. German airline Lufthansa on Friday extended its Beirut flight suspension to the end of September, and said it would not fly to Tel Aviv and Tehran until September 2.

Iran's proxies are always  ready to destroy their countries for Iran
Roger Bejjani/Face Book/August 25/2024
A country (Iran) with no Air Force, no armored divisions, 0 air defense systems, rusty inefficient Navy, under sanctions….with proxies ready to destroy their countries for Iran…..are poking a nuclear country that has one of the strongest armies in the world, top of the line Air Force, long reaching Navy, best tanks in the world…… the game is crooked! If Iran and HZB are dreaming of a suicidal showdown, please take half of Lebanon including Jomblat land, all the prospective oil, half of the gold, Beirut airport and MEA. Just leave alone as long as it takes you to wake up from your moronic dream, and continue alone in your suicidal spree.  We (the Zionist agents of the interior as you call us), will focus on the future of our children, our economy, our well being, healthcare system, energy production and supply, tourism….we will have our own currency, airport, ports…from Beirut to Akkar.When you will be fed up of your Don Quichotian self-destruction and you would like to join back the boring Republic that has one army, a Republic looking for peace, prosperity, growth, education….. you will be most welcome.
Meanwhile fekko 3an A—-a.

Israel and Hezbollah trade heavy fire before pulling back, jolting a region braced for war
JERUSALEM (AP)/August 25, 2024 
Israel launched airstrikes inside Lebanon early Sunday that its military said targeted positions of the Shiite militia Hezbollah.
In a statement, the Israeli military accused Hezbollah of “preparing to file missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory.””‎‏In a self-defense act to remove these threats, the (Israeli military) is striking terror targets in Lebanon, from which Hezbollah was planning to launch their attacks on Israeli civilians,” Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said. Hagari warned Hezbollah would “soon fire rockets, and possibly missiles and” drones into Israel. Sirens sounded in northern Israel soon after the warning.
Social media footage showed what appeared to be strikes in southern Lebanon.

What to know about the heavy exchange of fire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah
Joseph Krauss/August 25, 2024
Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah on Sunday launched their heaviest exchange of fire after months of strikes and counterstrikes, raising fears of an all-out war that could potentially draw in the United States, Iran and militant groups across the region.
By mid-morning, it appeared the exchange of fire had ended, with both sides saying they had only aimed at military targets. Lebanese authorities said the Israeli strikes killed three people, while there were no reports of casualties on the Israeli side. The situation remained tense.
Here's a look at where things stand:
What happened early Sunday?
Israel says around 100 warplanes launched airstrikes targeting thousands of rocket launchers across southern Lebanon to thwart an imminent Hezbollah attack. Hezbollah then said it launched hundreds of rockets and drones aimed at military bases and missile defense positions in northern Israel and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.Hezbollah called the attack an initial response to the targeted killing of one of its founding members and top commanders, Fouad Shukur, in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month. It said the first stage of the attack, which would allow it to launch assaults deeper into Israel, was completed. It also said its military operations Sunday were concluded. It denied Israel's claims to have thwarted the attack. At least three people were killed, including a fighter with the Hezbollah-allied Amal group, and two were wounded in the strikes on Lebanon. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said an initial assessment showed “very little damage” in Israel. Is this the start of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah? The exchange of fire does not appear to have set off a long-feared war, but tensions remain high.Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones at Israel shortly after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas' surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies, each backed by Iran, and Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. Israel has responded with airstrikes, and the near-daily exchanges have escalated in recent months. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes since Oct. 8, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and other armed groups but also more than 100 civilians and noncombatants. In northern Israel, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed by strikes from Lebanon. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the tense frontier.
Israel has vowed to bring quiet to the border to allow its citizens to return to their homes. It says it prefers to resolve the issue diplomatically through U.S. and other mediators but will use force if necessary. Hezbollah officials have said the group does not seek a wider war but is prepared for one. Both sides have until now been careful to avoid actions that might trigger all-out war, and they may back down after Sunday's exchange. What would a war between Israel and Hezbollah look like?
Israel and Hezbollah fought to a stalemate a monthlong war to in 2006 that left much of southern Beirut and southern Lebanon in ruins, and drove hundreds of thousands of people from their homes on both sides. Everyone expects the next war to be far worse.
Hezbollah has an estimated 150,000 rockets and is capable of hitting all parts of Israel. It has also developed an increasingly sophisticated fleet of drones and has been experimenting with precision-guided missiles. A full-scale war could force hundreds of thousands of Israelis to flee, paralyze the Israeli economy and force the army, which is still engaged in Gaza, to fight on two fronts. Israel has vowed a crushing response to any major Hezbollah attack that would likely devastate Lebanon's civilian infrastructure and economy, which has been mired in crisis for years. Beirut's southern suburbs, and towns and villages across southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah's main strongholds are located, would likely be flattened.
An Israeli ground invasion to root out Hezbollah could drag on for years. The militant group is far more advanced and better-armed than Hamas in Gaza, which is still putting up a fight after 10 months of intense Israeli bombardment and ground maneuvers.
Would a war draw in the United States, Iran and others?
An all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah could spiral into a region-wide conflict. Iran is a patron of Hezbollah, Hamas and other militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Iran has vowed to carry out its own retaliatory strike over the killing of Hamas' top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in a blast in its capital last month that was widely blamed on Israel. Israel has not said whether it was involved. Iran-backed groups across the region have repeatedly attacked Israeli, U.S. and international targets since the start of the war in Gaza and could ramp them up in a bid to take pressure off Hezbollah. The United States, meanwhile, has pledged ironclad support for Israel and moved a vast array of military assets, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, to the region in recent weeks to try and deter any retaliatory strike by Iran or Hezbollah. A U.S.-led coalition helped shoot down hundreds of missiles and drones fired by Iran toward Israel in April in response to an apparent Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals. Both sides downplayed an apparent Israeli counterstrike on Iran, and tensions gradually subsided.
What impact would a war have on Gaza cease-fire efforts?
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent months trying to broker an agreement for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of scores of hostages held by Hamas. Those efforts have gained urgency in recent weeks, as diplomats view such a deal as the best hope for lowering regional tensions. Hezbollah has said it will halt its attacks along the border if there is a cease-fire in Gaza. It's unclear whether Hezbollah or Iran would halt or scale back their threatened retaliatory strikes over the killing of Shukur and Haniyeh, but neither wants to be seen as the spoiler of any cease-fire deal.
Despite the intense diplomacy, major gaps remain, including Israel's demand for a lasting presence along two strategic corridors in Gaza, a demand rejected by Hamas and Egypt. High-level talks will be held in Egypt on Sunday.

IDF launches airstrikes on Lebanon and Hezbollah says it fired 320 Katyusha rockets at Israel in major escalation
Rebecca Rommen/Business Insider/August 25, 2024
Israel says it carried out "pre-emptive" airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces said Hezbollah had been preparing to launch attacks on Israel.
Hezbollah later said it had fired 320 Katyusha rockets and targeted 11 military sites in Israel.
Israel launched what it called "pre-emptive" airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in the early hours of August 25 after it said it had identified plans for an attack on its territory. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it believed the Lebanese militant group had been preparing to fire missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory. "In a self-defense act to remove these threats, the IDF is striking terror targets in Lebanon, from which Hezbollah was planning to launch their attacks on Israeli civilians," Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in an update shared on X. The IDF later said that Hezbollah had launched over 150 projectiles from Lebanon toward Israeli territory. It added that 100 Israeli Air Force fighter jets had "struck and eliminated thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels."Hezbollah has said that it carried out the "first phase" of a planned attack on Israel in response to the killing of Fuad Shukr, one of the group's top commanders, according to Lebanese media. The group said it had fired 320 Katyusha rockets and targeted 11 military sites. It added it had completed its operations for the day. Israel's Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, responded by declaring a 48-hour state of emergency across the nation. Fears have been building over an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah in recent months. Gallant said on Sunday that Israel would seek to avoid "regional escalation" and that Israel would work with the US "to ensure Israel's defense as well as regional stability."

The Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Rai:Reconciliation Is a Necessity for Lebanese Society
This Is Beirut/August 25, 2024 
The Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Rai, underlined that “reconciliation is necessary for our Lebanese society,” stressing that “with it, wars of personal interest, which are more dangerous than armed wars, would end.”He also underlined the importance of national reconciliation, in a country where divisions are growing deeper, and the election of a President of the Republic to rebuild a state of national unity.
In his Sunday homily, the Maronite Patriarch also denounced the exclusion of Maronites due to the absence of an elected head of state, recalling the golden period when Maronites were in power. According to him, this period was marked by privileged relations between Lebanon, the Arab and the Islamic world.

Former five-time Lebanese prime minister Salim Hoss dies at 94
Associated Press/August 25, 2024
Five-time former Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss, who served during some of the most tumultuous years of his country’s modern history, died Sunday at age 94, the current premier said. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati described Hoss, who was also a former government minister and member of parliament, as the “conscience of Lebanon” in a statement announcing his death. He added that Hoss “passed away at the most difficult and delicate stage in which Lebanon needs its conscience.” Mikati was referring to fears that Lebanon could be pulled into a full-on war with Israel. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began attacking Israel a day after the start of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost daily since then, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border. Hoss “was a prominent economist and a role model for his expertise, ethics and knowledge,” Mikati said. “He placed the country’s supreme interest and the interest of citizens above all considerations.” Hoss was often described as a technocrat and widely respected as a rare statesman in a country marked by political and sectarian divisions. He served as prime minister for four terms during the country’s 15-year civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990. His final term in office was from 1998 to 2000. At one point, he presided over one of two dueling governments. After the term of President Amin Gemayel ended in 1988 with no successor elected, Lebanon became ruled by two governments, one headed by Michel Naim Aoun in Christian east Beirut and another by Hoss in Muslim west Beirut. By convention the prime minister of Lebanon is always a Sunni Muslim, the president a Maronite Christian and the speaker of Parliament a Shiite Muslim.

Hezbollah's 'phase one' failure: Israel foils attacks on Mossad, IDF intel bases
Yonah Jeremy Bob/Jerusalem Post/25/2024
The Jerusalem Post understands that Hezbollah was attempting to target the headquarters of the Mossad, as well as the IDF. Hezbollah has listed 11 bases it said it targeted, but it and the IDF have also implied that it was also hoping to target Mossad headquarters and IDF headquarters. The Jerusalem Post understands that measures were even taken in advance to reduce the likelihood of casualties had such attacks taken place. Those attacks would have been part of an attack of somewhere between several hundreds and potentially thousands of rockets all over northern Israel, with some targeting the Tel Aviv and central Israel regions. Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah continued to claim that his organization's attacks had caused damage to the IDF intelligence headquarters, while providing no evidence. IDF's preemptive strikes on Hezbollah prevented severe damage. However, so far the IDF’s preemptive strike before 5 a.m. prevented such higher quality attacks. Through Sunday afternoon, the largest reported damage was to dozens of buildings hit by Hezbollah in Acre. Prior to Sunday, villages in the northern Galilee and Golan Heights had been hit; Kiryat Shmona had been hit throughout the war, but damage to Acre had been very rare and much smaller. It was still unknown how much damage Hezbollah caused to certain IDF bases in the north, though casualties were estimated to be very low, while still under gag order.

'Nasrallah the chicken hunter': Arab world mocks Hezbollah over foiled attack
Ohad Merlin/Jerusalem Post/25/2024
‘The Chicken Massacre was carried with premeditation and deliberation,’ added one user ironically.
Following a tense morning where the IDF reportedly intercepted a wide missile attack from Hezbollah planned for the significant Shi’i commemoration day of Arba’iniyat Al-Hussain, the Iranian proxy claimed in a formal statement that all rockets and drones that were planned to take part in the attack were indeed operated and pledged to have ended its operations for the day. Some Hezbollah aficionados lauded the attack, sharing images of damaged houses and small fires that erupted as a result of the attack, while others claimed in a conspiratorial tone that this was an “Implicit coordinated response between the two parties,” adding: “initial response to Israel a chicken coop was destroyed, killing a number of chickens and chicks and breaking thousands of eggs. Damn you scoundrels, you and the Iranian Houthis, you laugh at the Arab peoples, you and the Zionists are two sides of the same coin, implementing one project and one goal.” However, the relatively low-key impact and damage of the attack sparked a wave of online comments from users around the Arab world mocking Hezbollah for its actions, and focusing especially on reports of damaged chicken pens in the Galilee region.Mockery across the Arab world
One Kuwaiti user named Fahed uploaded a picture of a dead chicken, adding cynically: “Allahu Akbar! Hassan Nasrallah’s response! Hezbollah’s response! The number of chicken injuries rose to 27 chickens, 5 of them are critically injured, with first-degree burns to the wings and beak, after the chicken pen was targeted in response to the assassination of Fouad Shukr. He says ‘Our missiles are accurate!’”
A parody account named after Syrian tyrant Bashar Al-Assad wrote “A video showing the result of Hezbollah’s response to Israel, where dozens of Israeli chickens were killed and wounded. Is it reasonable that my ally Hezbollah would respond to the assassination of the party’s top military commander by killing chickens? I will now call my friend Hassan Nasrallah to explain to him that Israel is a murderer and assassinated his leaders, not a midwife who delivered them so that he could slaughter chickens on this occasion.” A Syrian user named Khaled added: “The chicken massacre was not a coincidence, but a strategic plan! The goal? To prevent the opponents and enemies of the ‘resistance’ from gloating after every bombing and saying ‘They didn’t even hurt a chicken.’ Hezbollah finished off the chickens and chicks with premeditation and deliberation, in order to deprive us of the pleasure of joking and mocking its response and missiles!” A Jordanian commenter added, “Iranian Hezbollah takes revenge for Fouad Shukr and Haniyeh by striking an Israeli chicken coop, killing a number of chickens?!!” Another Saudi user named Sultan commented ironically: “Hezbollah’s retaliation against Israel following the assassination of Fu’ad Shuker struck a chicken pen where firefighting teams began to extinguish the fire. The results of the bombing: the death of a rooster, two hens, and a young chick.
One user named Omar compared the high-ranking leader assassinated by Israel and Hezbollah’s response, showing the burning chicken pen, while another user named Adel wrote, “Hezbollah excels in its precision in killing chickens.”
The Iranian-loyalist Hezbollah party in Lebanon has been targeting the North ever since Oct. 8, opting for a war of attrition over a large-scale invasion. Their attacks, which featured thousands of rockets and UAVs shot at Israeli communities and bases over the past 10 months, have resulted in several civilian deaths, as well as tens of thousands of evacuees across the country.

After Hezbollah’s barrage, can it be deterred? - analysis
Seth J. Frentzman/Jerusalem Post/25/2024
So far, Hezbollah appears to believe that this kind of conflict, in which it dictates the tempo, time, and place of attack, is in its interest.
Hezbollah continues to carry out attacks on Israel, even as it takes losses. This illustrates how the Iranian-backed terrorist group is undeterred. Hezbollah’s losses are mounting, but it is attempting to show that despite this, it is ready to escalate. On Sunday, Hezbollah put this plan into action, moving thousands of rockets aimed at Israel into place. The IDF carried out strikes on numerous locations using 100 aircraft and destroyed thousands of launchers. Hezbollah has now lost more than 420 of its fighters since October 2023. It has had many of its terror sites, such as observation posts, targeted. The question is whether Hezbollah can replace these losses. Up until now, the terrorist group appears to be indicating that it can replace its losses and that it is not deterred. In fact, Hezbollah continues to claim that its attacks are successful. From Hezbollah’s point of view and that of the larger Iranian-backed multifront war on Israel, the organization’s ongoing offenses are a success story because Hezbollah has fought much of the war inside Israel’s territory. As a result of its attacks, Israel has had to evacuate 60,000 people, with some 14,000 students now starting their school year away from home, meaning that they will likely be gone for up to two more years. Communities in northern Israel are damaged and devastated. People fear returning to the city of Kiryat Shmona. Hezbollah likely sees this as a success.
Hezbollah has less to lose than Israel
This war is being managed and fought in a proportional manner. However, Hezbollah has less to lose than Israel. Hezbollah, so far, has not faced political repercussions at home for its actions. People have had to flee Southern Lebanon, but Hezbollah doesn’t seem to lose out due to this new reality. It has political opponents in Lebanon. However, it is willing to risk part of the country to achieve success. From Iran’s point of view, this is a win. Iran can cause damage to northern Israel, and although there is destruction in Lebanon and Gaza, Iran itself remains intact. Also, Iran gets to use its proxies such as those in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen to target Israel. If Israel responds, this does not appear to harm Iran’s overall posture in the region. In addition, the countries that Iran exploits in the region are generally poor, so the proxies have less to lose if they plunge into war. Yemen, for instance, has already been at war for many years. The Houthis do not care if Yemen is harmed. As for Lebanon, it is already almost bankrupt. Iraq and Syria have been devastated by conflicts over the last decade as well. This is where Iran seeks to redraw the “equation” in the region. Iran knows that Israel was seeking to wage a “campaign between the wars” atwixt 2014 and 2023. This entailed Israel trying to prevent Iranian entrenchment in Syria. However, Iran was able to entrench there anyway and move weapons to Hezbollah. This organization also increased its stockpile of precision-guided munitions and drones. Now Hezbollah may have taken some losses in its rocket stockpile. However, it appears to have many tunnels and underground bunkers where it can hide its most sophisticated capabilities. Now, Hezbollah must weigh its next steps. Is it willing to make the type of conflict that unfolded in the early hours of Sunday morning a new normal? Will it continue to a second “phase” of operations, as it has threatened to do against Israel? Or is it happy to have tested Israel and increased the heat a bit, and now it will turn the heat back down and continue to attack northern Israel? Hezbollah understood that the equation of attacks now meant that as long as it only struck within a few miles of the border, this would not lead to a major escalation. What this means is that it could launch several rockets and drones a day and the consequences will be proportional. This managed conflict is not likely in Israel’s long-term interests. Is it in Hezbollah’s long-term interest? This is the key question for Hezbollah. So far, Hezbollah appears to believe that this kind of conflict, where it dictates the tempo, time, and place of the attack, is in Hezbollah’s interest. It is not deterred because it has generally only faced Israeli reactions. Even the attack yesterday was primarily about Israel preempting an attack, rather than rewriting the rules. The question in Israel will be whether Hezbollah can be deterred and when that might happen. As the war in Gaza continues, there is a sense that over the last seven months, Israel has wanted to shift focus to the North. However, the war in Gaza continues to require focus because Hamas continues its attacks.

Benny Gantz: Israel's northern response 'possibly too little, came too late'
Eliav Breuer/Jerusalem Post/25/2024
Sa'ar – response to Hezbollah attack insufficient • Likud orders members against conducting media interviews, Gotliv: Absurd decision
Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s planned attack in the North came “too late” and was “possibly too little,” National Unity chairman MK Benny Gantz said following a tour of the Asher Regional Council, including Nahariya and Acre, on Sunday.
“It is time to move from equations to results, from response to taking the initiative. The move that was initiated needs to be leveraged to increase the diplomatic and military pressure, in order to distance Hezbollah and return the residents of the North to their homes in safety,” Gantz said in a joint statement to the media alongside Moshe Davidovitz, Asher Regional Council head and head of the Conflict Zone Forum. Gantz criticized the government for failing to bring the area’s residents back home in time for the new school year set to begin on September 1, and called on members of the government to “move to the North” and feel for themselves the “pain of the residents.” Earlier on Sunday Gantz wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “We are all one fist against Hezbollah – the government and IDF have full, broad, and complete backing. Follow the Home Front Command’s guidelines – they save lives.”
A number of other party leaders commented on the Hezbollah attack on Sunday morning. United Right chairman MK Gideon Sa’ar wrote in a post on X that Israel’s response was the “less correct alternative.”
“Facing Hezbollah’s decision to launch thousands of missiles and rockets, the government of Israel again chose the less correct strategy,” he wrote. “The choice to merely thwart the attack after ten and a half months of Hezbollah’s attack against Israel is the continuation of the policy of containment. This decision has one outcome: only our enemies will determine the timing and scale of the escalation,” Sa’ar wrote. “This opportunity should have led to a decision on a general preemptive attack to change the reality in the North,” Sa’ar continued. “Leaving the existing reality in the north of the country unchanged means the continuation of containment. There will not be a point of time in the future with laboratory conditions to act. Whoever runs away from war – war will chase him,” Sa’ar concluded.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman wrote on X, “Israel’s government needs to act according to the enemy’s intentions and not according to the results. If Hezbollah indeed intended to fire 6,000 artifacts (missiles, drones, etc.) with the central goal being to hit strategic infrastructure of the state of Israel, just removing the threat cannot suffice. Israel must stop with the constraint and begin initiating, and end the war of attrition and the abandonment of the residents of the North for nearly 11 months, even at the price of a dramatic escalation. Security must be returned to the residents of Israel, and to the residents of the North in particular,” Liberman wrote.
Likud's response
The Likud ordered its members on Sunday morning not to conduct media interviews. Likud MK Tally Gotliv called the decision “absurd.” “Instead of being interviewed, giving explanations, demanding victory, and strengthening the people of Israel, we will leave the studios to weakening, defeatist propaganda,” Gotliv said, adding that she would not respect the interview ban and “demanded to continue attacking Hezbollah.”The Democrats Party chairman Yair Golan wrote on X on Sunday morning, “There is no [hostage] deal, there is a war. I said [this would happen], and now it is happening. The minister of history will judge, but about the coming hours two things should be said: The preemptive attack is very important to damage Hezbollah’s long-range missiles; and it is necessary to adhere to the life-saving directives of the Home Front Command, and act accordingly.

Have the IDF's massive preemptive strikes prevented all-out war in Lebanon? - analysis
Yonah Jeremy Bob/Jerusalem Post/25/2024
If Hezbollah's only achievement is limited strikes with few casualties, the preemptive strike may be seen as having averted a larger disaster.
Usually, a massive strike by one party in a conflict leads to a larger war. Certainly, in the current war, predictions have been that if the IDF went an inch too far in its attacks on Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group would savage Israel's home front with 6,000-8,000 rockets per day and mass drone swarms.
And that nightmare scenario could still happen. But as Israelis awoke Sunday morning, the most likely picture was radically different. Using immense intelligence capabilities and having constantly had huge numbers of aircraft and drones in the air for weeks since the July 30 killing of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr, the IDF carried out over 100 virtually simultaneous attacks against Hezbollah rocket launching platforms in a matter of minutes or less than half an hour shortly before 5:00 a.m. According to the IDF, it focused specifically on rocket launching platforms that were getting ready to imminently fire on Israel, especially the Tel Aviv and central Israel areas. Since then, Hezbollah has fired around 320 rockets and claimed to have aimed at around 11 IDF bases. Though the IDF is holding some details closely and keeping some under gag order, it has implied so far that hits and IDF casualties have been extremely minimal. IDF measures may have prevented disaster. If Hezbollah's only accomplishment is more strikes on Safed and Acre, with minimal casualties, then the military's preemptive strike may later be credited with having prevented a much larger disaster and even war. Step one in preventing such a war was stopping any successful strikes on major Israeli population centers or infrastructure. Step two would be focusing Israel's strikes on imminent attack platforms of Hezbollah while leaving other parts of Hezbollah and all of non-Hezbollah Lebanon largely untouched. In the balance of unwritten rules between Israel and Hezbollah, this would be a massive Israeli strike that still showed restraint and was not per se "offensive," but rather preemptive and narrowly tailored defense. There are no moves by the IDF to invade southern Lebanon, which it could have decided to do. Hezbollah may now be deciding how much more of a wave of attacks it can manage without exposing its capabilities to more hits by Israel. It may also be trying to convince Iran to join the fight, which would make the situation even more dangerous. But both Iran and Hezbollah know that the US could also still intervene on Israel's behalf. Also, a Gaza ceasefire may still be possible if a larger war does not break out, possibly pitting Iran and Hezbollah against Hamas since they do not want to take larger losses. However, the Gaza terror group would like its more powerful allies to expand the war to help it get better terms from Jerusalem.
The future is highly uncertain, but round one has gone to Israel.

Former IDF intel chief casts doubts on Hezbollah's attack plan
Maarive Online/August 25/2024
"There is no way that this was the plan and that this is how the Israeli response looks to such a step, which would mean starting an all-out war," Hayman said.  Former head of the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate Tamir Hayman voiced his opinion on Sunday on Israel's preemptive strike in Lebanon. "If indeed Hezbollah planned to fire 6,000 aerial threats, including to the center, as some reports indicate - then Beirut would be going up in flames right now," Hayman said. "There is no way that this was the plan and that this is how the Israeli response looks to such a step, which would mean starting an all-out war," he continued.  "It's good that the IDF destroyed thousands of weapons in the countermeasure operation early in the morning, but I recommend waiting with conclusions until the end of the event."Hezbollah planned to launch missiles on Sunday at around 5:00 a.m. to Tel Aviv, and the Israeli pre-emptive strike foiled the plan. All the launchers were destroyed in the Israeli attack. The IDF said that some 100 jets stopped thousands of missiles from being launched to the North. Hezbollah planned to launch about 6,000 missiles, dozens of them to central Israel. About a hundred planes attacked at the same time. In Israel, it is estimated that Hezbollah intended to launch missiles at the Glilot complex. 'First phase of response,' says Hezbollah. Hezbollah published a statement in which it claimed that the first phase of the response to the assassination of Fuad Shukr in Lebanon "has been successfully completed." The terrorist organization claimed that since this morning, it had launched more than 320 missiles and rockets into Israel. They later said that Israel's claims about the success of the attack were "empty" and that Nasrallah would speak later on Sunday and address the events.
IDF spokesman, R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari announced on Sunday morning that the IDF launched a preemptive strike in Lebanon after it was detected that Hezbollah was preparing to launch missiles and rockets at the State of Israel. Hundreds of Israel Air Force fighter jets carried out attacks on Hezbollah's anti-aircraft systems and Hezbollah's long-range missile systems. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant managed the event in the Kirya. The Defense Minister announced a special situation on the home front. All local authorities in Israel have entered the highest alert, including opening control centers and public shelters. The political-security cabinet will convene at 7:00 p.m. in the Kirya. According to a New York Times report, Hezbollah planned to launch rockets towards Tel Aviv at around 5:00 a.m. early Sunday, which the Israeli pre-emptive strike thwarted. The attack was supposed to include 6,000 missiles.

Hezbollah chief says Sunday attack went as planned, further strikes possible
Reuters/August 25/2024
The Hezbollah chief also stated in his address that they "launched drones from both south of Litani river, and north of Litani river," a direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that his group would assess the impact of its rocket and drone attack on Israeli military targets earlier in the day before determining whether it would carry out further attacks to avenge a slain commander. The leader of the Iran-backed armed group said in a televised address that the group had been able to carry out its attack "as planned," denying statements by the Israeli military that its pre-emptive strikes had stopped a wider attack. Hezbollah had no plans to fire at targets in Tel Aviv, including Ben Gurion Airport and the Israeli Defense Ministry, Nasrallah said in his speech.  “We targeted a military intelligence base 110 km into Israeli territory, 1.5km away from Tel Aviv,” Nasrallah said. “We wanted to target military sites close to Tel Aviv.”
The Hezbollah chief said that the terrorist group decided not to respond to the killing of Fuad Shukr by targeting civilian areas or Israeli infrastructure. “We decided to target military intelligence base where Israeli surveillance unit operates,” he stated.  He further stated that none of Hezbollah's precision or strategic missiles were damaged in Israeli strikes and that while the group did not intend to use precision or strategic missiles in Sunday's attack, the group may use them in the future.  The Litani river. Nasrallah also stated in his address that the terror organization "launched drones from both south of Litani river, and north of Litani river." This directly violates UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which established a demilitarized zone between the Blue Line and the Litani River, which was agreed to by both Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 following the Lebanon War.

Netanyahu: Strike on Hezbollah another step in changing situation in North
/Jerusalem Post/25/2024
PM Netanyahu: "Hezbollah tried to attack the State of Israel...we instructed the IDF to carry out a powerful preemptive strike to remove the threat." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed at the government meeting in the Kirya in Tel Aviv the preemptive strike carried out by Israel against Hezbollah early Sunday morning. "Hezbollah tried to attack the State of Israel with rockets and drones early in the morning. We instructed the IDF to carry out a powerful preemptive strike to remove the threat," Netanyahu noted. 'A powerful preemptive strike'. He added, "The IDF destroyed thousands of short-range rockets, and they were all intended to harm our citizens and our forces in the Galilee. In addition, the IDF intercepted all the drones that Hezbollah launched" towards "the center of the country." He further added, "Nasrallah in Beirut and Khamenei in Tehran should know that this is another step on the way to change the situation in the North, and return our residents safely to their homes."He reiterated that this was "not the end of the story." On early Sunday morning, the IDF carried out a preemptive strike against Hezbollah targets, which included launchers that were ready to fire at Israel at 5 a.m. towards areas such as Tel Aviv and central Israel.

Israeli Navy soldier killed in Iron Dome, Hezbollah drone incident in North
Yonah Jeremy Bob/Jerusalem Post/25/2024
David Moshe Ben Shitrit was killed in an incident involving a Hezbollah drone and an Iron Dome interceptor.
The IDF announced on Sunday that a sailor on a Dvora vessel, Third Petty Officer David Moshe Ben Shitrit, was killed in an incident involving a Hezbollah drone and an Iron Dome interceptor which had been fired to shoot down the drone in the vicinity of the ship. The vessel and other naval vessels are providing a mix of northern security roles. At around three to four kilometers from the coast close to the Israeli-Lebanese border, the Dvora was protecting the coast from physical invasion, helping identify threats from Hezbollah, and helping shoot down some threats. Drone did not hit vessel
So far, the IDF is considering whether the interceptor was following one or more drones and accidentally hit the vessel or whether the interceptor hit a Hezbollah drone, and shrapnel from the drone being shot down hit the vessel. The IDF said it was clear that the drone itself did not hit the Dvora before being shot down. Subsequently, Ben Shitrit was evacuated to a smaller fast boat to bring him to the coast where he was placed in an ambulance and brought to Nahariya Medical Center.
He was declared dead after attempts to resuscitate him failed. One other naval soldier was lightly wounded, and an additional soldier was moderately wounded.
The ship returned to the Haifa naval port where the small part of the ship which was damaged is currently being fixed. The Dvora is expected to return to sea within 24-48 hours.

Tel Aviv stocks gain 2% after Israel's pre-emptive strike on Hezbollah
Reuters/August 25, 2024
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Key Tel Aviv share indices closed about 2% higher on Sunday, with the blue-chip index touching a record high, after an Israeli pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah curbed a potential rocket barrage by the group against key targets in Israel. The blue-chip Tel Aviv 35 index ended 2% higher at 2091.6 points, after hitting an intraday peak of 2091.91, while the broader TA-125 rose 2.1%. "The trading day began after the publication of the extensive pre-emptive strike launched by the Air Force early in the morning, which prevented the launch of missiles towards strategic targets in Israel," said Yuval Tzuk, an economist in the bourse's research department. He said share gains were also helped by growing expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts. Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel early on Sunday, as Israel's military said it struck Lebanon with around 100 jets to thwart a larger attack, in one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare. Israel's foreign minister said the country did not seek a full-scale war but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned: "This is not the end of the story."

Israeli ambassador says US posture in Middle East played role in ‘deterring’ Iran
Miranda Nazzaro/The Hill/ August 25, 2024
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog said the U.S.’s “very strong” posture in the Middle East has prompted Iran to hold off on a retaliatory attack against Israel as threats of an all-out war loom over the region. “I think the Iranians are contemplating an attack on Israel, but decided for now to put it on hold,” Herzog said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation. “And I think the main reason for that was, deter messages from Israel and the U.S., and a very strong U.S. posture in the region, which tells you that you can deter them.”U.S. forces have been moved in the Centcom region in the Middle East, including about 40,000 U.S. service members. Defense Secretary Llyod Austin earlier this month ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East and told the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft strike group to accelerate its travel to the region amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran.
The U.S. and allies have feared an all-out war following the apparent assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut earlier this month. Iran has reiterated its intention to punish Israel for the death of Haniyeh, which Israel has yet to take responsibility for. Tehran, however, has not yet launched an attack amid weeks of speculation. Herzog on Sunday maintained Iran is not seeking war and does not believe Iran is either. “However, there is room for miscalculation, and I think part of his regional visit is to make sure that everything is under control,” Herzog said of Air Force General Charles Q Brown Jr.’s slated visit to Israel Sunday. “Again, the U.S. posture in the region is very strong, I think played a role in deterring Iran.”The remarks came hours after Israel launched a series of airstrikes in Lebanon early Sunday in what the country’s military described as a preemptive attack against Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group responded with an attack on Israeli military positions in retaliation for the death of Hezbollah’s most senior military commander Fuad Shukr in a strike in Beirut last month, the Associated Press reported. He was the right-hand man to the Lebanese militia group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The exchange of fire marked one of the largest clashes between the Iran-backed group and Israel in the past 10 months, further fueling concerns over an escalation in conflict in the region. Hezbollah began attacks against Israel shortly after the Israel-Hamas war broke out in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost daily, per the AP. It comes as negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release deal appeared to collapse last week as Israel and Hamas remain at odds on major issues. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the Middle East last week to push negotiations toward the finish line but left without any major agreement in place.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 25-26/2024
Hamas says it rejects new Israeli conditions in Gaza ceasefire talks
Reuters/August 25, 2024
Hamas said on Sunday that it rejects new Israeli conditions put forward in Gaza ceasefire talks, casting further doubt on the chances of a breakthrough in the latest U.S.-backed effort to end the 10-month-old war. Months of on-off talks have failed to produce an agreement to end Israel's devastating military campaign in Gaza or free the remaining hostages seized by Hamas in the militant group's Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war. Key sticking points in ongoing talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar include an Israeli presence in the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow 14.5 km-long (nine-mile) stretch of land along Gaza's southern border with Egypt. Hamas said Israel has backtracked on a commitment to withdraw troops from the Corridor and put forward other new conditions, including the screening of displaced Palestinians as they return to the enclave's more heavily populated north when the ceasefire begins. "We will not accept discussions about retractions from what we agreed to on July 2 or new conditions," Hamas official Osama Hamdan told the group's Al-Aqsa TV on Sunday. In July, Hamas accepted a U.S. proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source has told Reuters. Hamdan also said Hamas has handed to mediators its response to the latest proposal, saying U.S. talk of an imminent deal is false.

Israel says more polio vaccines are delivered to Gaza, where aid groups seek pause in fighting
Associated Press/August 25, 2024
Israel’s military on Sunday said polio vaccines for more than 1 million people had been delivered to Gaza, after the first confirmed case of the disease in the territory in a quarter-century. It was not immediately clear how, or how quickly, the more than 25,000 vials of vaccine would be distributed in Gaza, where ongoing fighting and unrest have challenged humanitarian efforts during more than 10 months of war. Other polio cases are suspected across the largely devastated territory after the virus was detected in wastewater in six different locations in July. Aid groups plan to vaccinate more than 600,000 children under age 10 and have called for an urgent pause in the war to increase vaccinations. The World Health Organization and the United Nations children’s agency have said that, at a minimum, a seven-day pause is needed. The U.N. has aimed to bring 1.6 million doses of polio vaccine into Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crowded into tent camps lacking clean water or proper disposal of sewage and garbage. Families sometimes use wastewater to drink or clean dishes. Polio is highly contagious and transmits mainly through contact with contaminated feces, water or food. It can cause difficulty breathing and irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs. It strikes young children in particular and is sometimes fatal. The new statement by the Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs said five trucks with special refrigeration equipment for vaccine storage were brought into Gaza on Friday in coordination with the U.N. The vaccines arrived Sunday. The statement said vaccinations will be conducted by international and local medical teams at “various locations” in Gaza, in coordination with Israel's military as part of “routine humanitarian pauses” to allow people to reach health centers. The statement said more than 282,000 vials of the polio vaccine have been brought into Gaza since the war began in early October. The territory’s health care system has been devastated, and workers are overwhelmed. Only about a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and 40% of its primary health care facilities are functioning, according to the U.N. But the WHO and UNICEF say their vaccination campaign will be carried out in every municipality in Gaza, with help from 2,700 workers. Before the war, 99% of Gaza’s population was vaccinated against polio. That figure is now 86%, according to the WHO.

Syrian president says efforts to restore ties with Turkey have yielded no results
Reuters/August 25, 2024
CAIRO (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday that efforts to mend ties with Turkey had so far brought no tangible results. "The initiatives did not yield any results worth mentioning despite the seriousness and genuine keenness of mediators," Assad said in a speech to the Syrian parliament, referring to conciliation efforts by Russia, Iran and Iraq. Turkey severed ties with Syria in 2011 after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, in which it supported rebels seeking to oust Assad. Assad views the rebels as terrorists. "The solution is openness," Assad said. "Restoring a relationship requires first removing the causes that led to its destruction." The Syrian president made clear that while he wants Turkish troops to withdraw from Syria, that was not a precondition for talks. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said earlier in July he would extend an invitation to Assad "any time" for possible talks to restore relations. A Turkish newspaper earlier reported Erdogan and Assad could meet in August, but a Turkish diplomat denied the report. Russia has been trying to facilitate a meeting between the two leaders in an effort to restore ties. Iraq also said in July that it may seek to try to bring the two leaders together.

French police arrest synagogue blast suspect
Malu Cursino - BBC News and Jaroslav Lukiv - BBC News/August 25/2024
Law enforcement officers and firefighters stand in front of the synagogue building following the fire and explosion of cars in La Grande-Motte, south of France, on August 24, 2024. French police say they have arrested a man suspected of setting fires and causing an explosion outside a synagogue in a southern resort. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said "the alleged perpetrator" was detained on Saturday. He added that the police had shown "great professionalism". French media reported that the suspect was shot and injured by police after he opened fire on the officers who came to arrest him in the city of Nîmes. Earlier on Saturday, a police officer was injured in the blast outside the Beth Yaacov synagogue in the nearby seaside resort of La Grande-Motte. The police officer's injuries are not said to be life-threatening, following the blast between 08:00 and 08:30 local time (07:00-07:30 BST) on Saturday. Five people, including the rabbi, were inside the synagogue at the time, authorities said. The explosion was caused by two cars which were set alight outside . Police sources told French media that one of the vehicles contained a hidden gas canister. The suspect - who was reportedly carrying a Palestinian flag - also set fire to several entrance doors of the synagogue. Jewish community leader Yonathan Arfi said the incident was "an attempt to kill Jews" and seemed to have been timed to target Saturday morning worshippers.President Emmanuel Macron said the incident was "a terrorist act". One eyewitness, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC: "Just as we were coming round the last corner, there was a huge explosion - a fireball into the air. "It was surreal, like a film. We didn’t go any further."Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Mr Darmanin visited the site on Saturday evening. Both had earlier condemned the attack, with Mr Attal calling it "an antisemitic act"."What happened here shocks and scandalises all Republicans in our country," Mr Attat said during the visit.
"Because the reality is that once again, French Jews have been targeted, attacked because of their beliefs." Mr Attal said an "absolute tragedy" had been "narrowly avoided" as "there would have been victims" if the synagogue had been full of worshippers. Both Mr Attal and Mr Darmanin said security would be strengthened outside synagogues. "I want to assure our Jewish fellow citizens and the municipality of my full support," Mr Darmanin said earlier in the day.
The French Jewish community already live under high security, with many synagogues and Jewish schools under police protection. A January 2024 report by the Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) said there had been a nearly threefold increase of antisemitic acts in France between 2022 and 2023. In May, police shot dead a man after a synagogue in the north-western city of Rouen was set on fire.
In 2015, two days after the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine, four people were murdered in a hostage attack on a kosher supermarket. The explosion comes amid heightened concerns for Europe's Jewish community, after the latest survey from the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) published last month found that Jewish people in the bloc continue to face high levels of antisemitism. More than 8,000 Jews in 13 EU countries, including Germany and France, were interviewed. Some 96% said they had encountered antisemitism in their daily lives. There has been widespread condemnation of the attempted arson attack across France's political spectrum.
Left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon called it an "intolerable crime", while the far-right National Rally's Jordan Bardella said it was "a criminal and antisemitic act".

Failed Syrian asylum seeker arrested after knife attack in Germany
Daniel Bellamy/Euronews/August 25, 2024
A failed Syrian asylum seeker has been arrested after he said he was responsible for the knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival in the city of Solingen on Sunday. A judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe where the man had been flown by helicopter from Solingen, named him - without identifying his family name - as 26-year-old Issa al H. The dpa news agency reported, without citing a specific source, that his asylum claim had been denied and that he was to have been deported last year. On Saturday, the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence. The extremist group said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians and that the perpetrator carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.” The claim couldn’t be independently verified. Friday's attack plunged the city of Solingen into shock and grief. A city of about 160,000 residents near the bigger cities of Cologne and Dusseldorf, Solingen was holding a “Festival of Diversity” to celebrate its 650th anniversary. People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time Friday that a man had assaulted several people with a knife on the city’s central square, the Fronhof. The three people killed were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats. The festival, which was due to have run through Sunday, was cancelled as police looked for clues in the cordoned-off square. Instead, residents gathered to mourn the dead and injured, placing flowers and notes near the scene of the attack.
“Warum?” asked one sign placed amid candles and teddy bears. Why?
Among those asking themselves the question was 62-year-old Cord Boetther, a merchant fron Solingen. “Why does something like this have to be done? It’s incomprehensible and it hurts,” Boetther said.
Officials had earlier said a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion he knew about the planned attack and failed to inform authorities, but that he was not the attacker. Two female witnesses told police they overheard the boy and an unknown person before the attack speaking about intentions that corresponded to the bloodshed, officials said. The attack comes amid debate over immigration ahead of regional elections next Sunday in Germany’s Saxony and Thuringia regions where anti-immigration parties such as the populist Alternative for Germany are expected to do well. In June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed that the country would start deporting criminals from Afghanistan and Syria again after a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant left one police officer dead and four more people injured. The IS militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria about a decade ago, but now holds no control over any land and has lost many prominent leaders. The group is mostly out of global news headlines. Still, it continues to recruit members and claim responsibility for deadly attacks around the world, including lethal operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that killed dozens of people. Its sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq still carry out attacks on government forces in both countries as well as US-backed Syrian fighters.

American rapper Macklemore says he canceled Dubai show over UAE arming Sudan paramilitary forces
Jon Gambrell/DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/August 25, 2024
American rapper Macklemore said he canceled an upcoming October concert in Dubai over the United Arab Emirates' role "in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis” in Sudan through its reported support of the paramilitary force that's been fighting government troops there.
The announcement by Macklemore reignited attention to the UAE's role in the war gripping the African nation. While the UAE repeatedly has denied arming the Rapid Support Forces and supporting its leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, United Nations experts reported “credible” evidence in January that the Emirates sent weapons to the RSF several times a week from northern Chad. Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions including Darfur. Estimates suggest over 18,800 people have been killed in the fighting, while over 10 million have fled their homes. Hundreds of thousands are on the brink of famine. At a contentious U.N. Security Council meeting in June, Sudan's embattled government directly accused the UAE of arming the RSF, and an Emirati diplomat angrily told his counterpart to stop “grandstanding.” The UAE has been a part in ongoing peace talks to end the fighting. The Emirati Foreign Ministry offered no immediate comment on Macklemore's public statement Sunday, nor did the city-state's Dubai Media Office. Organizers last week announced the show had been canceled and refunds would be issued, without offering an explanation for the cancellation. In a post Saturday on Instagram, Grammy winner Macklemore said he had a series of people “asking me to cancel the show in solidarity with the people of Sudan and to boycott doing business in the UAE for the role they are playing in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis.”Macklemore said he reconsidered the show in part over his recent, public support of Palestinians amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip. He recently has begun performing a song called “Hind's Hall,” in honor of a young girl named Hind Rajab killed in Gaza in a shooting Palestinians have blamed on Israeli forces opening fire on a civilian car. “I know that this will probably jeopardize my future shows in the area, and I truly hate letting any of my fans down,” he wrote. “I was really excited too. But until the UAE stops arming and funding the RSF I will not perform there.”
He added: “I have no judgment against other artists performing in the UAE. But I do ask the question to my peers scheduled to play in Dubai: If we used our platforms to mobilize collective liberation, what could we accomplish?”
The RSF formed out of the Janjaweed fighters under then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades before being overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s. Dubai, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates, the world's tallest building the Burj Khalifa and other tourist destinations, long has tried to draw A-list performers in the city-state at a brand-new arena and other venues. However, performers in the past have acknowledged the difficulties in performing in the UAE, a hereditarily ruled federation of seven sheikhdoms in which speech is tightly controlled. That includes American comedian Dave Chappelle, who drew attention in May in Abu Dhabi when he referred to the Israel-Hamas war as a “genocide” while also joking about the UAE's vast surveillance apparatus. Macklemore, a 41-year-old rapper born Benjamin Hammond Haggerty in Kent, Washington, won Grammy awards in 2014 for his breakout song, “Thrift Shop.”

Two Nigerian police officers killed in attack by Islamist group, say police
Felix Onuah/Reuters/August 25, 2024
Nigerian police said two of its officers were killed and three left unconscious after an attack involving knives and explosives by the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in capital Abuja on Sunday. "The proscribed organisation attacked the police checkpoint unprovoked, wielding machetes, improvised explosive devices and knives," police spokesperson Josephine Adeh said in a statement. Police vans were also burned in the attack, the statement said. The Shi'ite group was banned by Nigeria in 2019 after violent protests demanding the release of its jailed leader. Nigeria's army accused the group of wanting to assassinate a former chief of army staff and it allegedly retaliated, killing more than 300 of the group's members in 2015, and its leader, El Zakazy, was imprisoned from 2015 till 2021.

Russian attacks on Ukraine kill 4 and injure 37, local authorities say
Reuters/August 25, 2024
Russia launched attacks on northern, eastern and southern Ukraine, killing at least four people and injuring 37, Ukrainian military and local authorities said on Sunday. Overnight attacks targeted Ukraine's frontline regions of Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Donetsk, Ukraine's air force said on the Telegram messaging app. Russia has been pummelling Ukrainian border regions with strikes, and Kyiv said its surprise incursion earlier this month into Russia's Kursk region aimed to hinder Moscow's ability to stage such attacks. "Most of the missiles did not reach their targets," the air force said, adding that Russia launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile, an Iskander-K cruise missile and six guided air missiles. It did not specify how many were destroyed. A missile attack on the northern region of Sumy killed one person, injuring at least 16 more, including three children, local authorities said on Telegram. Oleh Sinehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region in the east, posted that at least 13 people were injured in the Russian attacks, including a 4-year-old child. Ihor Terekhov, mayor of Kharkiv city, said a gas pipeline was damaged in the city and at least two houses were destroyed and 10 damaged. The air force said Russia launched nine attack drones, with Ukraine's air defence systems destroying eight of them over the Mykolaiv region. Russian attacks continued throughout the day in the southern region of Kherson, killing one person and injuring six more, according to Roman Mrochko, head of Kherson city's military administration. Regional prosecutors in Sumy said an aerial bomb attack on Sunday afternoon struck a residential neighbourhood in the Svesa village, killing two people and injuring two more. Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Russia. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

These Chinese nuclear submarines show it's serious about countering US dominance under the waves
Benjamin Brimelow/Business Insider/August 25, 2024
China shows how it would attack Taiwan as tensions riseScroll back up to restore default view. China has built upon decades of earlier failures to field a growing submarine force. Its attack boats and boomers have grown much quieter and harder to track. The fleet build-up shows the importance China believes subs will have in future conflicts. Two days before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in China this April for meetings with the country's leader and other high-ranking Chinese officials, China's People's Liberation Army Navy released footage of a nuclear submarine firing a ballistic missile. The video, which also showed three other submarines making up the carrier Shandong's strike group, was released as part of celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the country's navy. Two months after its release, a Chinese ballistic missile submarine surfaced in the Taiwan Strait, near Taiwan's Kinmen islands.
The publicity and show of force are the latest evidence of China getting serious about its ambitions to build up its nuclear submarine fleet.
China has built upon decades of earlier failures to field a growing submarine force whose boats are more capable against the US's advanced subs in a sign that China believes its ambitions may come down to an undersea fleet that can sink rivals and deter enemies from nuclear attack. Its vast shipbuilding industry is cranking out nuclear submarines at a fast clip, with new designs also in the works.
Nuclear attack submarines
China's interest in nuclear submarines dates as far back as the mid 1950s, immediately after the US Navy commissioned the world's first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus. But with the Soviet Union unwilling to transfer nuclear propulsion technology to China, the Chinese had to start from scratch.
China's first attempt at creating a nuclear-powered submarine was focused on developing a nuclear attack submarine (classified as SSN) because designing a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine would have required developing a naval reactor, submarine-launched ballistic missile, and underwater launching system all at once. The effort was given the green light in 1958, but construction on the first boat would not begin until 1968. Though launched in 1970, construction was further delayed by the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution, and the vessel was not commissioned until 1974. Known as the Type 091, it was designated as the Han-class by NATO. Measuring from 321 to 350 feet long and displacing over 5,000 tons submerged, it was armed with six torpedo tubes at the bow that could fire at ships or other submarines. In all, five Type 091 SSNs were built between 1968 and 1990.
The Type 091 class was nowhere near as combat-capable as its peers, largely due to the fact that they were the first nuclear-powered submarines China ever built, and because they had no assistance in doing so; the sub's reactor must be stable enough to continuously provide mechanical power to turn its propellor and to generate its electricity. These subs were substantially louder than most of their contemporaries and were viewed as considerably outdated.
Type 091 subs did undertake multiple deployments and were involved in a number of incidents. They also received upgrades that improved their performance in the early 2000s. Ultimately, however, they served more as stepping stones towards future nuclear subs than as front-line assets. Two of the five subs have since been retired.
China's second-generation SSN, the Type 093, proved a drastic improvement over its predecessor. Designated the Shang-class by NATO, development on the subs originated in the 1980s, but construction on the first sub only began in 1998, four years after a decision by Chinese leaders to proceed with building a new class of SSNs to better face the challenges of the coming century.
Unlike the Type 091, the Type 093 benefitted from technology transfers from Russia. The Russian Rubin Design Bureau also reportedly consulted with the Chinese on the class's overall design. By 2003, the first sub was launched, and in 2006, it was commissioned into service.
At 351 feet long and with a displacement of about 7,000 tons, the Type 093s have six torpedo tubes capable of firing wired, acoustic, and wake-homing torpedoes. They are also capable of launching YJ-18 and YJ-82 anti-ship cruise missiles, and are equipped with bow and flank-mounted sonars.
Seven Type 093 SSNs have been built across three variants; two Type 093s, four Type 093As, and at least one Type 093B. The Type 093A is an upgraded design with improved quieting — noise is one of a submarine's biggest giveaways, which can be detected by passive sonar and hydrophones. The Type 093B is a further upgraded version, equipped with a pump-jet propulsor and the ability to deploy a towed sonar array. It is expected to play more of a land-attack role with long-range cruise missiles.
Also known as "boomers" and given the classification "SSBN," nuclear ballistic missile submarines are perhaps the greatest nuclear deterrent any nation can possess. Intended to stay submerged for months at a time on a patrol, they carry nuclear missiles with long ranges and preserve a country's ability to retaliate if they are attacked with what's known as a second-strike capability. Deployed submarines are much more difficult to destroy compared to ICBM silos and strategic bombers.
China's first SSBN, the Type 092 (designated Xia-class by NATO), was based on the Type 091 SSN. Launched in 1981 and commissioned in 1983, only one was built. Measuring about 393 feet long and with a submerged displacement of about 8,000 tons, it was armed with six torpedo tubes and 12 launch silos for SLBMs.
Like the Type 091, the problem-plagued Type 092 is regarded as little more than a test case. Despite being commissioned in 1983, it was only active from 1987 onwards. It had a terrible safety record, with reports of it suffering from radiation leakage, and was also considerably loud — so much so that there was little doubt it would be detected by its adversaries.
The SLBM it carried, the JL-1, was also comparatively unimpressive. Not fully operational until 1988, it was unable to carry multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), and instead only carried a single nuclear warhead ranging from 200 – 300 kilotons. Its range was also only about 1,056 – 1,335 miles, which severely limited its ability to strike the most relevant targets.
Consequently, the Type 092 never made a single deterrent patrol, and instead spent most of its time either within Chinese territorial waters or docked in Chinese naval bases. For all its inadequacies, however, the Type 092 did act as something of a stepping stone for the development of China's next SSBN, the Type 094. Designated as the Jin-class by NATO, the Type 094 is a vast improvement over its predecessor, with a new propulsion system, improved electronics and sensors, and, perhaps most crucially, lower sound levels.
At 450 feet long and with a submerged displacement of around 10,000 tons, the sub's armament is similar to the Type 092 (six torpedo tubes and 12 SLBM launchers), but it carries a different SLBM: the JL-2. Capable of carrying a one megaton nuclear warhead or 3-8 MIRVs, the JL-2 was introduced in 2015, and has an estimated range of between 4,970 - 5,592 miles. In 2022, it was reported that China began deploying the new JL-3 SLBM on its Type 094s. Able to carry a single 1-megaton nuclear warhead and possibly multiple MRVs, the JL-3 is believed to have a range of over 6,200 miles — putting the American West Coast in range of Chinese SLBM's for the first time. By comparison, US Navy Ohio-class SSBNs are each armed with 20 Trident II SLBMs, which are believed to have a minimum range of 1,242 and a maximum range of 7,456 miles.
Six Type 094s have been constructed, with the first laid down in 2001. The two most recent subs are of the Type 094A upgraded subvariant. The class represents China's first credible sea-based nuclear deterrent, with the US Department of Defense reporting in 2022 that China "is conducting continuous at-sea deterrence patrols" for the first time.
Numbers, sophistication, and use
The growth of China's nuclear submarine fleet is impressive considering the timeline. According to the US Department of Defense, China has constructed 12 nuclear submarines in the last 15 years. And the growth isn't just constrained to numbers — it also includes capabilities, with the newest Chinese nuclear submarines closing the gap with their American counterparts. The Type 093, for instance, is believed to be about as quiet as the US Navy's current Los Angeles-class SSNs.
China's fleet of diesel-electric powered submarines is also getting larger and more sophisticated, with recent upgrades aimed at increasing stealth and time underwater being implemented on their newest Type 039 class subs.
The growth in numbers and sophistication reflects the importance China believes submarines, particularly nuclear submarines, will have in potential future conflicts with its regional and global adversaries.
Chinese SSNs, with their ability to stay under water for long periods of time, could act as hunter-killers of American and allied ships and submarines in the waters east of Taiwan, possibly pushing them towards the Second Island Chain.
Chinese SSBNs, meanwhile, would likely operate from the safety of their bastions in the South China Sea, ready to launch their SLBMs whenever required. They could also operate in the Sea of Japan, putting even more of the continental US in range of their missiles. All the while, they could be aided by their fleet of diesel-electric attack subs and the Underwater Great Wall, a network of sensors embedded on the floor of the East and South China seas aimed at detecting rival subs.
But China's nuclear subs still have limitations. The Type 094, for instance, is reportedly louder than the 1970s-era Russian Delta III-class SSBN and about twice as loud as its current American or Russian counterparts.
China's nuclear submarine ambitions remain undiminished. A new class of SSBN, the Type 096, has been in development for years and is expected to be operational by 2030. A new SSN, the Type 095, is also planned as well.
Benjamin Brimelow is a freelance journalist covering international military and defense issues. He holds a master's degree in Global Affairs with a concentration in international security from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His work has appeared in Business Insider and the Modern War Institute at West Point.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on August 25-26/2024
The Middle East: A Story of Journalistic Failure
Nils A. Haug/Gatestone Institute/August 25, 2024
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism." — Zoheir Mohsen, Trouw, March 31, 1977.
"The founding of the PLO, now known as Fatah had nothing to do with the desire for statehood, throughout the charter it states, again and again, its sole goal is the destruction of Israel, nothing more, thus started the Palestinian Narrative, they needed a story behind their need." — Timothy Benton, February 14, 2019.
Arabs who fled during the fighting had likely assumed, based on broadcasts they were hearing, that leaving the area would make it easier for the Arab armies to kill the Jews. The plan presumably was to return soon to collect the spoils and take possession of a swiftly-conquered land.
When the Arab armies were defeated, and some of the people who had fled tried to return, they were told they had not been loyal and were refused admittance. It is the Arabs who fled, and their descendants, who now call themselves Palestinians. They are simply Arabs who fled Israel at the time and were not allowed back.
Neither the Palestinian Authority in the West bank nor Hamas in the Gaza Strip nor the Palestinians in general are seeking a two-state solution. They are quite openly seeking a one-state solution: displacing Israel.
Comparisons to England and Ireland fall way wide of the mark: even at the height of Ireland's "Troubles", no one ever claimed that England belonged to Ireland and that everyone who was not a Roman Catholic should leave.
The land that comprises Jordan, according the Balfour Declaration, was officially pledged as "a national home of the Jewish people." Jordan, therefore, is rightfully Occupied Israel.
The Wall Street Journal published its July 4, 2024 online edition with a piece titled, "Israel Has Seized More Land This Year Than in Any Year in the Past Three Decades" -- referring to those portions of the West Bank more correctly described as Samaria and Judea, which constitute, as at least one of the names denotes, the "heartland" of Israel. Israel cannot "seize" its own land. There is a historical, legal, and ethical warrant for acknowledging Israel's legitimate rights of ownership to all of its land, including Gaza, the West Bank and Transjordan (Jordan), as originally purposed not only by the Balfour Declaration, but also in the San Remo convention of 1920. This allocation was further partitioned by Winston Churchill in 1921 to accommodate claims by the Hashemite Emir Abdullah.
It therefore takes a strong dose of purposed cognitive dissonance, religious fanaticism, ignorance, naiveté or even anti-Semitism, to deny Israel's claims. When taking all these considerations into account, it is understandable that renowned international law expert Jacques Gauthier urges the Jewish people of Israel, "Never allow people to tell you that you are trespassers. It's your land; it's been given to you in law."
Although 145 UN members "currently recognise a Palestinian state, this doesn't make it so." James Sinkinson, jns.org, July 16, 2024.
What exactly does recognition of such a state entail in practice? Exclusive Islamist ownership of the land? What areas of land are these nations referencing exactly? Do they validate the legitimacy of radical Islamism and a jihadist government with its own military? Who has jurisdiction to make these decisions? What about the Jews and their claims?
With these questions and more, "recognition" makes no sense. All it does is to expose these countries' historic antisemitism, raise false expectations and create the danger of more deaths far from the countries making these unnecessary, sanctimonious, cost-free claims. Unilateral recognition of "Palestine" will inevitably result in yet another failed state, inhabited by jihadi terrorists, openly eager to repeat the terror of October 7, 2023 on Israel's population.
On July 17, 2024, Israel doubled-down on its rights to the land. Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, or any part of one, "on any piece of land west of the Jordon river." The situation is now clear: there is no chance of Israel agreeing to a so-called "two-state solution." to the Palestinian question. The Oslo Accords, having died a long time ago, are now officially dead.
It appears, then, that Islamist strategy is to take ownership of certain words to reverse their intended application. For this reason, Jews are referred to as "occupiers" of Israel, implying that Gaza, Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem comprise the original Palestinian homeland despite voluminous written and archaeological evidence to the contrary.
Israeli Jews cannot validly be accused of illegally occupying their own land. To the contrary, Palestinians and their allies are in occupation of Israel's land and are therefore subject to Israel's jurisdiction and control. They might resent the fact that the land belongs to Israel and the Jewish people who have the exclusive right of occupation, along with those whom Israel welcomes.
Accordingly, it is the task of journalists of courage -- from all spheres of the political divide – always to carefully investigate the validity of each party's claim. Should they do so in this instance, the outcome becomes clear: the land belongs to the Jewish people, and those they graciously welcome there -- not to anyone else. As this is not the conclusion that many writers and their editors seek, the propaganda of a Palestinian victimhood theory, coupled to a negation of Israel's land claims, will in all likelihood persist.
It is the task of journalists of courage always to carefully investigate the validity of each party's claim. Should they do so in this instance, the outcome becomes clear: the land belongs to the Jewish people, and those they graciously welcome there -- not to anyone else. As this is not the conclusion that many writers and their editors seek, the propaganda of a Palestinian victimhood theory, coupled to a negation of Israel's land claims, will in all likelihood persist. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
On May 15, 1948, five Arabs armies started a war – and lost. From that time on, many Arabs have called this loss a "nakba" ("catastrophe"). Ever since then, they have been seeking sympathy for losing a war which they began. If they are unhappy, perhaps they should not have started a war in the first place.
On that May 15, forces from Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, and Iraq "swooped in... just hours after British forces withdrew from Palestine and Israel had declared its independence." Until then, anyone born there was a Palestinian. Christians were Palestinians, Jews were Palestinians. The "place of birth" on every passport was stamped "Palestine."
Arabs who fled during the fighting had likely assumed, based on broadcasts they were hearing, that leaving the area would make it easier for the Arab armies to kill the Jews. The plan presumably was to return soon to collect the spoils and take possession of a swiftly-conquered land.
When the Arab armies were defeated, and some of the people who had fled tried to return, they were told they had not been loyal and were refused admittance. It is the Arabs who fled, and their descendants, who now call themselves Palestinians. They are simply Arabs who fled Israel at the time and were not allowed back.
The well-kept secret, of course, is that, according to none other than a late senior official of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Zoheir Mohsen, the "Palestinian people does not exist:
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva, and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan." — From "Wij zijn alleen Palestijn om politieke reden", Trouw, 31 March 1977.
A 2019 article by Timothy Benton notes:
"The founding of the PLO, now known as Fatah had nothing to do with the desire for statehood, throughout the charter it states, again and again, its sole goal is the destruction of Israel, nothing more, thus started the Palestinian Narrative, they needed a story behind their need."
The Arabs who did not leave Israel during the War of Independence, and their descendants, still live there as Israeli Arabs, full citizens with the same rights as Jews, except exempt from military service -- Israel did not want anyone fighting his brother. These Israeli Arabs now make up 20% of Israel's population and hold prominent positions in medicine, business, journalism, the judiciary, representation in Israel's parliament, and even on Israel's Supreme Court. The claim of "apartheid" is a libel. By contrast, Arabs who had fled to Lebanon in 1948 are still prohibited from holding any number of worthwhile jobs. Some Arabs call that the real apartheid.
Israel, during that war and in the years after, welcomed roughly the same number of Jewish refugees who were expelled or fled from Arab states as there were Arabs who fled from Israel -- roughly 700,000 for each side. Unlike the Jews, however, the Arab countries refused to let their Arab "brothers" in as full citizens, and demanded that they could only "return" to the country they had just willingly left. Since that time, many Arab countries and enemies of Israel have used these souls and their descendants as political pawns to protest that Israel refused to let them in after they had started a war to exterminate it.
In 1967, the Arabs started another war -- and lost. Israel, after warning Jordan not to enter it -- a warning Jordan ignored -- retook land, including parts of Jerusalem, which Jordan had captured in the unlawful, earlier war. Israel also re-entered its historical homeland, Judea and Samaria, on the west bank of the Jordan River, which separates the two countries. This was when the calls began claiming that Jerusalem and the West Bank were supposedly "occupied". They had indeed been "occupied" -– illegally, by Jordan since the war of 1948. What is never said, of course, as at least one of the names denotes, is that the supposed "occupiers," the Jews, have historically been "occupying" this land for nearly 4,000 years.
Nevertheless, calls for Israel to end its supposed "occupation" began to emanate not only from Islamist media but even from supposed journalists in the West. Sadly, these allegations are never based on history or facts, but appear to come from ideological myths generated by theories of social justice and real or imagined victimhood.
In 2020, the New York Times was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, while "knowing full well that America's leading historians had concluded that more than a few of the [1619 Project] essays' claims]were utter nonsense." In other words: false. The absence of a factual context usually derives from solid investigative reporting – or more likely from any investigative reporting -- combined with fashionable socio-political theories. They perpetuate misleading and misinformed "news" stories that are disseminated to an unsuspecting public, whose trust is eventually eroded – sometimes to the mystified shock of the media outlets. Not all journalists, of course, are of this ilk, but they are probably in the minority. An example of sterling investigative journalism is Peter Schweizer exposing the corruption by "American's progressive elite" in his 2020 bestselling work, Profiles in Corruption.
History and facts reveal a number of erroneous assumptions about Israel's purportedly unlawful "occupation of Palestinian lands." When Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, for instance, described the unilateral recognition of a state of Palestine as "an investment in the only solution that can bring lasting peace in the Middle East," he showed an abysmal grasp of reality. Neither the Palestinian Authority in the West bank nor Hamas in the Gaza Strip nor the Palestinians in general are seeking a two-state solution. They are quite openly seeking a one-state solution: displacing Israel.
Comparisons to England and Ireland fall way wide of the mark: even at the height of Ireland's "Troubles", no one ever claimed that England belonged to Ireland and that everyone who was not a Roman Catholic should leave.
How these one-sided articles, proposals, and beliefs come about, apart from blatant anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, might be worth looking into.
Some blame can be attributed towards a failure to apply the basic principles of journalism: namely, investigating the facts and then seeing where they lead. In today's kinetic news train, journalists often do not have the time, or possibly think they do not have to bother with, investigating the real story -- the history and facts -- behind popularised assumptions. They might also be told by their editors, explicitly or implicitly, what stories to bring and what not to bring. Veteran journalist Mark Judge laments that in the past, "writers found stories by exploring their subjects, and filled their reviews with insights and wisdom that came from long years of experience."
Perhaps some journalists – on both sides of the political spectrum – now write to pacify their editors, publishers or advertisers, whether consciously or not. The eminent editor of the New York Times Editorial Page, James Bennet, was fired for having published a column by Senator Tom Cotton that ran counter to the prevailing fad of the month. Cotton had suggested that if the riots at the time persisted, the government might "Send in the Troops" -- evidently a heresy; better to let the city burn down.
At crucial times in a polarized society, such as the present, independently-minded writers -- those with a critical outlook, integrity, and an objective, unbiased, attitude essential for the common good of their audience -- appear to be an endangered species.
"Independent journalism" wrote Bennet, is seen in "fair-minded, truth-seeking journalism that aspires to be open and objective." The New York Times' problem, he added, had "metastasised from a liberal bias to an illiberal bias; from an inclination to favour one side of the national debate to an impulse to shut debate down altogether."
The lacking element, Bennet claimed, is that of courage -- courage to write truth and to disclose the real facts in the face of editorial pressure to capitulate to fashionable ideals, increase sales, comply with the prevailing office ethos or to follow conventional wisdom -- all of which may mask truth. He noted integrity as the "moral and intellectual courage to take the other side seriously and to report truths and ideas that your own side demonises for fear they will harm its cause." That is the crux of the matter: a possible harming of the "cause" -- an ideological position, and anathema to objective reporting.
Sadly, a survey indicates only some 44% of US journalists accept that they "should always strive to give every side equal coverage" of the story. The rest seem simply to go with "conventional wisdom" – a superficial approach which can all too often screens the accurate narrative.
The New York Times might have been handed Pulitzer Prizes – as Walter Duranty was for a great whitewash of the crimes of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin; and again for the Russia Hoax. The prizes should have been for fiction. The same dangerous journalistic nonsense was on also on display during responses to Covid-19, for claims that Hunter Biden's laptop was disinformation and for failing to mention that Hunter's father, President Joe Biden, was for years cognitively impaired.
The upshot of journalistic failure to root out the real story is that when the truth is at last displayed, "the entire country, including its most seasoned reporters, are as shocked as everyone" wrote Jill Abramson, previously of the New York Times. She was alluding to President Biden's mental and physical incapacity. Thus those who have the right to know -- the voting citizens of the country -- have been deliberately deceived for a significant period of time.
Many leading politicians, celebrities, and much of the media claim that "Biden's presidency has been a raging success," but, when properly considered, it has been quite a disaster -- encompassing America's surrender to the Taliban terrorist group in Afghanistan, passively watching a Chinese spy balloon gather information over America's most sensitive military sites, and in general, resulting in a "world in flames."
This brings attention to the land question.
In the view of Islamists, "Palestinian land" extends from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean), giving birth to the fashionable slogan favoured by an anti-Zionist crowd of dedicated deconstructionists, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." Why the neighbouring territory of Jordan, on the other side of the river, is not included in the land claim is not explained. The land that comprises Jordan, according the Balfour Declaration, was officially pledged as "a national home of the Jewish people." Jordan, therefore, is rightfully Occupied Israel. If Israel were a fraction as expansionist as Iran and the Palestinians, it should be claimed as such.
The Wall Street Journal published its July 4, 2024 online edition with a piece titled, "Israel Has Seized More Land This Year Than in Any Year in the Past Three Decades" -- referring to those portions of the West Bank more correctly described as Samaria and Judea, which constitute, as at least one of the names denotes, the "heartland" of Israel. Israel cannot "seize" its own land. There is a historical, legal, and ethical warrant for acknowledging Israel's legitimate rights of ownership to all of its land, including Gaza, the West Bank and Transjordan (Jordan), as originally purposed not only by the Balfour Declaration, but also in the San Remo convention of 1920. This allocation was further partitioned by Winston Churchill in 1921 to accommodate claims by the Hashemite Emir Abdullah.
Claims to territory are generally validated through various factors including international law. In the case of Hebrew-Jewish claims to the land, validation also comes from Israel's history, its ancient documents, religious texts, tradition, archaeological findings, and Jews living in the same land for more than 3,600 years. The Jews have maintained their historic language, culture and religion over nearly four millennia, and are the only remaining tribe in the region that can prove its ancient heritage and identity.
All these factors, and more, give credence to Israel's claims of legitimacy, namely, that the Jewish people are rightful owners and occupiers of all of Israel. It therefore takes a strong dose of purposed cognitive dissonance, religious fanaticism, ignorance, naiveté or even anti-Semitism, to deny Israel's claims. When taking all these considerations into account, it is understandable that renowned international law expert Jacques Gauthier urges the Jewish people of Israel, "Never allow people to tell you that you are trespassers. It's your land; it's been given to you in law."
The March 28 recognition by Norway, Ireland, and Spain of a non-existent Palestinian state – one without a functioning government, a definable border or even a viable economy -- has been shown to reflect an anti-Semitic bias by those nations when compared to the attitudes of Europe's other countries, which do not, at present, accept legitimacy of a non-existent, Palestinian state.
Although 145 UN members "currently recognise a Palestinian state, this doesn't make it so, " wrote the author James Sinkinson. What exactly does recognition of such a state entail in practice? Exclusive Islamist ownership of the land? What areas of land are these nations referencing exactly? Do they validate the legitimacy of radical Islamism and a jihadist government with its own military? Who has jurisdiction to make these decisions? What about the Jews and their claims? Will the result be a jihadist, Islamist, Palestinian Gaza and West Bank with a little bit of land in-between for Jews so that they are eventually squeezed or murdered out of existence? Will these countries try to force this recognition onto Israel?
With these questions and more, "recognition" makes no sense. All it does is to expose these countries' historic antisemitism, raise false expectations and create the danger of more deaths far from the countries making these unnecessary, sanctimonious, cost-free claims. Unilateral recognition of "Palestine" will inevitably result in yet another failed state, inhabited by jihadi terrorists, openly eager to repeat the terror of October 7, 2023 on Israel's population.
On July 17, 2024, Israel doubled-down on its rights to the land. Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, or any part of one, "on any piece of land west of the Jordon river." The situation is now clear: there is no chance of Israel agreeing to a so-called "two-state solution." to the Palestinian question. The Oslo Accords, having died a long time ago, are now officially dead.
Therefore, when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) made a finding on July 19, two days after the Knesset resolution, to the effect that "the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replied:
"The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including in our own capital Jerusalem, nor in Judea and Samaria our historical homeland. No absurd opinion at the Hague can deny this historical truth or the legal rights of Israelis to live in their own communities in our ancestral home."
The part of Israel known as the Gaza Strip is presently occupied by so-called Palestinians, who are simply residents there by the grace of Israel, which, for the sake of peace and future Gazan prosperity, decided in 2005 that they could reside there with no Jew in sight. Unfortunately, instead using the billions given them to build a Dubai on the Mediterranean, they built an underground city of terror tunnels instead.
Palestinians are Arabs who settled on the land, just like the Hebrews, the Jewish people who have lived there nearly four millennia. George Mason University Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich, a specialist in international law, notes that "all the arguments that make Israel out to be an occupying force collapse under the weight of a single, simple fact: A country cannot occupy territory to which it has a legal claim."
It appears, then, that Islamist strategy is to take ownership of certain words to reverse their intended application. For this reason, Jews are referred to as "occupiers" of Israel, implying that Gaza, Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem comprise the original Palestinian homeland despite voluminous written and archaeological evidence to the contrary.
Israeli Jews cannot validly be accused of illegally occupying their own land. To the contrary, Palestinians and their allies are in occupation of Israel's land and are therefore subject to Israel's jurisdiction and control. They might resent the fact that the land belongs to Israel and the Jewish people who have the exclusive right of occupation, along with those whom Israel welcomes.
Journalists deceive their audience by endorsing, without investigative effort, the standpoint of many political leaders in the West. Compliance with editorial culture can be a mitigating factor, yet journalists worthy of the name -- such as those who exposed the Watergate and other significant scandals -- are prepared expose the real story. Still, political loyalties can make a play: it was reported of even the highly respected journalist Carl Bernstein that he "admits Democrats have told him for 18 months that Joe Biden is not fit to serve a second term." Yet, where was the posting of this vital information?
When the UN recognized "Palestine as eligible for statehood," noted the French-Canadian attorney and scholar Jacques Gauthier, "many people wouldn't be following this falsehood if they knew the true narrative."
Accordingly, it is the task of journalists of courage -- from all spheres of the political divide – always to carefully investigate the validity of each party's claim. Should they do so in this instance, the outcome becomes clear: the land belongs to the Jewish people, and those they graciously welcome there -- not to anyone else. As this is not the conclusion that many writers and their editors seek, the propaganda of a Palestinian victimhood theory, coupled to a negation of Israel's land claims, will in all likelihood persist. As an attempted solution, Newsweek now displays on its website a "Fairness Meter," asking readers to indicate the level of bias or fairness (factuality) of a published article. Perhaps more news sites might consider a like idea.
To counter the prevailing "conventional wisdom" that often impedes the truth of a story, it is time, as James Bennet wrote, for journalistic "courage combined with a critical approach, objectivity, fairness, and integrity" to again take a rightful place in restoring public trust in the media. These requirements are particularly necessary in matters of international importance such as the intentions of Russia or China, or the claims of Iran and its proxies such as the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas. It is time for realism and truth to dominate the narrative, not idealism and ideology.
Nils A. Haug is an author and columnist. A Lawyer by profession, he is member of the International Bar Association, the National Association of Scholars, a faculty member at Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the Academy of Philosophy and Letters. Retired from law, his particular field of interest is political theory interconnected with current events. He holds a Ph.D. in Apologetical Theology. Dr. Haug is author of 'Politics, Law, and Disorder in the Garden of Eden – the Quest for Identity'; and 'Enemies of the Innocent – Life, Truth, and Meaning in a Dark Age.' His work has been published by First Things Journal, The American Mind, Quadrant, Minding the Campus, Gatestone Institute, National Association of Scholars, Israel Hayom, Jewish News Syndicate, Anglican Mainstream, Jewish Journal, Document Danmark, and others.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Egypt looks elsewhere to get the stealth fighters the US reneged on
Paul Iddon/Business Insider/Business Insider/August 25, 2024
The US reneged on Trump's promise to sell F-35 stealth fighters to Egypt.
The Egypts are reportedly in talks with China to acquire some of its advanced aircraft.
The talks may be a way to "pressure the US" into offering Egypt something, an analyst told BI. Egypt's military still desperately wants a world-class fighter jet.
With the deal it sought to acquire 20 F-35 stealth fighters from the US on ice, Egyptian officials reportedly discussed buying fourth- and even fifth-generation fighter jets from China. It could be a sign that Cairo, a top recipient of American military aid, is either seriously pursuing advanced aircraft from a US rival or trying to ratchet up pressure on the US to cave and sell it F-35 Lightning IIs. The Egyptian wish list reportedly includes the fourth-generation J-10C Vigorous Dragon fighter, in service in the air forces of China and Pakistan, and fifth-generation FC-31 Gyrfalcon, which is still a prototype.
One report in August even claimed Egyptian officials sought China's premier fifth-generation fighter, the J-20 Mighty Dragon, which is in all likelihood a nonstarter given Beijing's reluctance to export it to anyone.
"China would no doubt want to sell Egypt advanced fighters because the Egyptians tend to purchase a lot of military hardware, and thus could become a reliable and valued customer for China," Nicholas Heras, senior director of strategy and innovation at the New Lines Institute, told Business Insider.
"However, Egypt would likely be cautious about upsetting the United States by purchasing Chinese-made, advanced warplanes, and would also have to navigate Israeli concerns about what that type of purchase would signal about Egypt's future intentions toward Israel." Two American laws are making it difficult for Egypt to buy its stealth fighters. First, the United States' commitment to uphold Israel's so-called Qualitative Military Edge by not selling advanced weapons to others in the region was written into law in 2008. Second, the 2017 Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) federal law mandates sanctions against countries that import military hardware from US adversaries. "Egypt is constrained by the US policy of providing Israel with a QME over its Arab neighbors, even if those states have a peace treaty with Israel, such as Egypt does," Heras said. "The F-35 is especially problematic from an Israeli perspective because those planes can be used to counter Israel's air superiority in the event that Egypt and Israel become enemies again."
During his presidency, Donald Trump verbally committed to selling Egypt 20 F-35As in 2018 but opposition from the Department of Defense and Israel killed any potential deal. Frustrated, Egypt turned to Russia for 24 non-stealthy, fourth-generation Su-35s but canceled that order under threat of sanctions.
"Why doesn't the US supply Egypt with F-35 fighters that it supplied Israel with, since it is objecting to the Russian Su-35 fighters deal?" Maj. Gen. Naser Salem, former head of the Egyptian army's reconnaissance department, remarked to Al-Monitor in 2020, aptly epitomizing Cairo's frustration.
Ryan Bohl, a senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at the risk intelligence company RANE, wouldn't be surprised if these recent reports of Egypt-China talks over potential fighter acquisitions are accurate, but thinks they're unlikely to make progress. "I tend to think that if such talks do take place, they're designed to pressure the US to offer some kind of other defense option for Egypt," Bohl said.
That could include upgraded F-16s. The United States also suggested in 2022 that it was open to selling Egypt F-15s for the first time. Neither of these decades-old fighters would undermine Israel's military prowess; the Israel Defense Force flies advanced versions of them, as well as the F-35 — one of a leading class of so-called fifth-generation fighter aircraft with a stealth design and advanced avionics that give it increased survivability in contested airspace too dangerous for older aircraft.
Since signing its peace with Israel in 1979, Egypt has been a major customer of US military hardware and aid. Washington provides Cairo with $1.3 billion in military aid each year, and the Egyptian armed forces operate large quantities of American military hardware, from F-16s to M1 Abrams main battle tanks. In light of this, it's questionable whether China would feel comfortable selling Egypt one of its most advanced fighters. "China would not want to sell advanced hardware to a major non-NATO ally like Egypt where the US might be able to glean information (or outright steal it)," Bohl said. "I expect that Beijing would want these security concerns addressed first, which would take time and building trust."
Egypt has bought Chinese warplanes before, such as the Shenyang J-6. But that's a vintage fighter of a bygone age compared to the modern, cutting-edge FC-31. At best, Beijing may expect Cairo to invest in less advanced aircraft like the J-10C before seriously considering any sale of fifth-generation jets.
It's unclear if Cairo can convince Washington to reverse its ban on selling F-35s anytime soon for several reasons. "Right now, Egypt getting F-35s is not a priority for the US, given both the QME for Israel, Egypt's lack of immediate pressing defense needs for F-35s, and Washington's concerns about delivering such systems abroad when it has major geopolitical challenges in Europe and Asia that weaken the interest in exporting them," Bohl said.
It's not inconceivable that Egypt could make the case that 20 F-35As would not undercut Israel. After all, Israel has already bought 50 and recently signed a deal for another 25. Furthermore, Israel has a unique and specialized variant, the F-35I Adir, most likely more advanced than any basic F-35A model the Egyptian Air Force would receive. "On that front, it's possible, and particularly with Egypt's support for Israel in the Gaza War, the Israelis might be more open to it," Bohl said. "I think the constraints are stronger in the US at the moment than in Israel over the F-35s overall."
Egypt may also have a third option for acquiring stealth fighters that sidesteps China and the US. They could tap countries like South Korea, Turkey, and India that are developing stealthy jets. "This is the most viable option, but all of these systems are years away from deployment, let alone export," Bohl said. "Turkey's TF Kaan might fit the bill given that it's the most progressed and Ankara wants it as an export option."
"If Egypt is to move into fifth-generation fighter jet territory, I would venture these second-tier options are the most likely way."

The Ideologies Are Shaken
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 25/2024
While the regional tensions today are high, particularly since October 7 and the war on Gaza, the scene is very clear. After nearly ten months of war and the tragedies it has caused, the lines have been drawn, and there can be no more lies or wishful thinking.
There is no need, today, to explain the motives behind Hamas' decision on October 7th, who was behind it, and that it did not yield any gains or even superficial benefits. It was clearly another episode in a series of mistakes that have been made over the course of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.There is no need to explain Iran's position either, especially after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, or the positions of the armed sectarian militias operating in four regional capitals and their actions. The same is true for Hezbollah’s position and goals.
I am referring to the period since the war on Gaza began. As for Iran and Hezbollah's positions, they have been clear for decades, despite all the efforts of some Arab media outlets, and now by social media platforms, aimed at distorting reality and deceiving the public.This also applies to the Muslim Brotherhood, which tried to build its standing by exploiting the war on Gaza but saw its efforts significantly undermined by the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
While the picture is clear, the recent escalation in media rhetoric has been remarkable. We have seen the circulation of false and misleading leaks aimed at tarnishing the image of moderate states, particularly Saudi Arabia, which is leading the drive for reform and development. There has also been a campaign of vulgar insults and accusations of betrayal on social media platforms. So why is all this happening?
In my view, these attacks can be explained by the clarity of the situation. We have reached a stage at which "the ideologies are being shaken" after the ideologues had sought to exploit the Gaza war to consolidate their positions, like Iran, or to recalibrate, like the Muslim Brotherhood. This has engendered political confusion in some states and apprehension among militias. The groups that had sought to benefit from the Gaza war have realized that, as the conflict nears its end, severe blows are imminent.
Here, I am not talking about winning or losing in Gaza. Rather, I am referring to those who had been planning to leverage the Gaza war in certain Arab capitals: Damascus, Beirut, Sanaa, and Baghdad, and to undermine the authorities in Riyadh, Cairo, and Amman. The ideologies are shaken because of their fears of losing public support, among both ordinary people and elites, as well as losing the influence they had built through incitement and disinformation in the West, from Europe to the United States, where they continue to make futile attempts to deceive the world.
Today, everyone can see the consequences of the war in Gaza. Hamas is in disarray, choosing Sinwar to lead the movement following the shock of Ismail Haniyeh's assassination in Iran. In Tehran and within Hezbollah, we find confusion over how to retaliate against Israel, especially given what Netanyahu is doing to Hezbollah's leadership, for fear of the repercussions. All of this has shaken the ideologies because the blow has been unsettling on multiple fronts. These are facts, this is where they find themselves. The victims of Gaza are the last thing on their minds. No voice of reason has emerged among them, nor has there been any attempt to mitigate losses. Instead, there all we see are flimsy accusations, insults, and sentimental rhetoric.

On the Current Moment of Painful Anticipation
Hazem SaghiehAsharq Al-Awsat/August 25/2024
The Lebanese grew weary of waiting for the "major retaliation" that Iran and Hezbollah have threatened. But it seems that this boredom didn't last long, as they soon began awaiting a strike the Israelis had claimed they would carry out. That, at least, is what the statements of their rabid officials, especially those of the army, have been suggesting. In addition to calls for "focusing on the north" and talk of "transferring military forces there," increasing numbers are reaching the conclusion that Amos Hochstein's efforts will not dissipate the tensions on the southern border, nor bring the displaced back to their homes, nor consolidate the implementation of Resolution 1701. The wait for either one of these two strikes is painful and terrifying; anticipating war always is, especially as images of the atrocities that the Israelis have committed, and are committing, in Gaza are constantly being broadcast on television and circulated on social media. It seems that Lebanon is not the only arena of disappointment. There are many reasons to be afraid and hurt in several other countries as well. That does not inevitably mean that war will break out, but it does mean that it could break out and that the likelihood of a war is high. The "deal," which has been the subject of meetings in several regional and international capitals, might never take off. While the role of the US in this process is the subject of debate, the optimistic signals it has conveyed (for purely American considerations) obscure the pessimistic reality of the "deal's" status.
Meanwhile, the battles in Gaza are close to their conclusion, and having gained nothing from the "support" provided by the “Axis of Resistance,” Gaza is itself ending with them. Amid the heart-breaking scenes coming out of the Strip, there is growing concern for the West Bank, which is being ravaged by settlement expansion and organized mayhem. After 11 months of fighting, it has become clear that immense pressure and broad condemnation have failed to impose a ceasefire on Benjamin Netanyahu. Benefiting from a transitional period in the United States, Netanyahu continues, with typical repugnant conceit, to behave like he is luring the others, one by one, into war. Besides his military machine, he is armed with an American armada- with its land bases and aircraft carriers in the sea- the likes of which the region has never seen. Netanyahu also managed to reconsolidate his domestic standing following the recent operations in Beirut and Tehran, and to remove some of the pressure to bring home the hostages taken on October 7 and are still alive. With the Israeli prime minister having explicitly prioritized crossings over the safety of the hostages, he has effectively stripped Hamas of the strongest card it still has to play, if not its last one. On the other hand, reluctance, contradiction, and stalling have defined Iran’s rhetoric about its “retaliation.” Its new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has been tasked with tempering its behavior so that the country is seen as patient, wise, and open to the world- not qualities that were associated with Tehran in the past. At the same time, it is becoming clear that the Arab position, the stances of both its people and officials, have no more of an impact than that of the Palestinian people and officials. "Failure," "repression," and "complicity" do not provide a full explanation for the Arabs’ ineffectiveness without reference to certain global shifts, including those of the Middle East, and the emergence of new generations, interests, and values; and while reservations regarding many of them are warranted, they cannot be ignored or overlooked. In the Levantine societies that supposedly constitute the fighters’ backbone and base of support, fragmentation and civil strife prevail, either overtly, as in Syria, or beneath the surface, as in Lebanon and Iraq.
One of the ugliest elements of this bleak portrait came to light at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which unfortunately showed that the Gaza war has had little impact on US public opinion. Despite Israel's tarnished image, the Democrats’ sharp need for Muslims’ votes in swing states, and prominent Democrats like Elizabeth Warren voicing their opposition, the Democrats refused to platform a Palestinian speaker. In doing so, the Democratic Party, the broad tent that is home to voters who tend to support Palestinian rights, has unequivocally prioritized the Jewish state and its "right to defend itself.’’
Yes, the world is unfair, but so long as we live in it and are subject to its influences, we must deal with it, in both justice and injustice, without being hindered by fanciful self-perceptions or weak and misguided assessments of our world-wide influence. This is not said to create despair or to spread a “defeatist culture.” Rather it is said out of fear for the lives of massive numbers of people who have been cast as disposable. This said in the knowledge that it might now be far too late to demand an end to the suicidal operation that began on October 7th. Even if the Iranians and their proxies were to try to end it, Netanyahu, who seeks to prolong the war, could refuse to stop. Nevertheless, speaking out about fears for human lives continues to be urgently needed, especially for those being killed against their will in others’ battles. As for death lovers, they certainly have every right to do as they wish with their own lives, so long as they do not drag anyone else along with them, even if they call them martyrs.

From Elias's Archive
Professor Walid Phares Versus Mercenaries
Elias Bejjani/April 19, 2016
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/04/39454/

Crucifying Dr. Walid Phares and the Facts
Elias Bejjani/November 03/2011
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/04/39556/

In praise of Professor Walid Phares
Yair Ravid/Jerusalem Post/November 28/16
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/49294/

Walid Phares and Trump are Addressing Jihadist Terrorism the Right Way
Elias Bejjani/August 17/2016
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/08/44534/

Congratulations to the Brave People of the USA & President Donald Trump
Elias Bejjani/November 09/2016
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/11/48398/