Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 09-10/2024
Who was Saint Maroun That The Mronite Church Carries His Name?/Elias Bejjani/February 09/2024
Khamies El Sakra -“Drunkards Thursday”, Maronite Tradition/Elias Bejjani/February 08/2024
Iranian Foreign Minister's diplomatic tour: A bid for regional stability
Sheikh Kabalan: Our resistance's role is a national duty for all Lebanon
Lebanon’s Maronite patriarch criticizes parliament for not electing president
ISF foils counterfeit currency smuggling attempt: $200,000 seized
Hezbollah fires 30 rockets at Israel after Nabatiyeh drone strike
Hezbollah commander seriously hurt in Nabatiyeh airstrike
Northern front tensions: Will the Israeli Cabinet decide to continue the war or pursue a prisoner exchange deal?
Israel intercepts 'suspicious target' off Haifa
The inevitable war between Israel and Hezbollah/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Arab News/February 09, 2024
Notes from Beirut: Lebanese resilience being tested to its limits/Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/February 09, 2024
Video & Text of Patriarch Al-Rahi's Sermon at Saint Maron’s Mass: Saving the country requires a president who challenges all the anomalies spread in the Lebanese state

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 09-10/2024
Iran's proxies in Iraq: Who are Iraq's armed factions?
Syrian air defenses respond to ‘hostile targets’ in vicinity of Damascus- state media
Israel PM orders army to prepare to evacuate civilians from Gaza’s Rafah
‘The war is ugly’: Palestinian minister recounts 90 days in Gaza
Gaza war paralyzes Israeli tourism for third year
Prague, Budapest hold up EU move to sanction violent Israeli settlers
Germany sends frigate to help secure Red Sea shipping
Houthi negotiator says Red Sea attacks won’t deter Yemeni peace, praises Saudi ‘brothers’
Putin tells West: Russia cannot be defeated in Ukraine
UNICEF says 700,000 children in Sudan at risk of worst form of malnutrition
King of Jordan embarks on tour of US, Canada and Europe to lobby for Gaza ceasefire
Iraq discusses military cooperation agreement with Spain
UAE mediates Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange
From history to humor: Putin's versatility in interview with Tucker Carlson
Netanyahu asks the army to devise a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah
Saudi Arabia hosts Arab diplomats for Gaza talks after Blinken tour
Biden calls Israel's Gaza response 'over the top'
Strikes on Gaza's Rafah as US warns of potential 'disaster'

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on February 09-10/2024
Ex-Israeli PM makes devastating condemnation of Netanyahu’s war in Gaza/Kim Sengupta/The Independent/February 9, 2024
A Quick Look at the 21st Century So Far/Drieu Godefridi/Gatestone Institute/February 09/2024
Question: “What does it mean that a Christian is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)?”/GotQuestions.org?/February 09/2024
Iraq needs reconciliation based on dialogue and word, not violence and blood/Mustafa Al-Kadhimi/Arab News/February 09, 2024
EU’s adaptability key to its future success/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/February 09, 2024
Americans anxious about prospect of Trump-Biden rematch/Maria Maalouf/Arab News/February 09, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 09-10/2024
Who was Saint Maroun That The Mronite Church Carries His Name?
Elias Bejjani/February 09/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/95781/elias-bejjani-who-was-saint-maroun-that-the-mronite-church-carries-his-name/
Fouad Afram Boustani, (1904- 1994), the Lebanese Maronite historian described the Maronite denomination as, a faith of intelligence, an identification of life, a solid belief in Catholicism, a love for others, an ongoing struggle for righteousness, a mentality of openness on the whole world, and on its different civilizations, and a vehicle for martyrdom.
The Maronites established the state of Lebanon and made it an oasis for the persecuted in the middle East. They believed and practiced multiculturalism and pluralism. They created with the help of other minorities in the Middle East the unique nation of Lebanon.
The Maronites made Lebanon their homeland since the 4th century after converting its native inhabitants to Christianity. They were identified by it, and it was identified by them, they were and still are one entity.
The Maronite people were always hopeful, faithful and strong believers in the Christian Catholic doctrine. They made victories of defeats, joy of sorrow and hope of despair.
The Maronites successfully created with hard work and a great deal of faith and sacrifices, the Maronite nation by fulfilling its four basic pillars, a land, a people, a civilization and a politically independent entity.
They constantly fight for what was theirs, and never ever surrendered to despair.
On the ninth of February for the past 1600 years, Maronites in Lebanon and all over the world have been celebrating the annual commemoration of St. Maroun, the founder of their Christian Catholic denomination.
Every year, on the ninth of February, more than ten million Maronites from all over the world celebrate St. Maroun’s day.
On this day, they pay their respect to the great founder of the Maronite Church, Maroun the priest, the hermit, the father, the leader and the Saint.
They remember what they have been exposed to, since the 4th century, both good and bad times.
They reminisce through the past, examine the present and contemplate the future. They pray for peace, democracy and freedom in Lebanon, their homeland, and all over the world.
Who was this Saint, how did he establish his church, where did he live, and who are his people, the Maronites?
St. Maroun, according to the late great Lebanese philosopher and historian, Fouad Afram Al-Bustani, was raised in the city of Kouroch. This city is located northeast of Antioch (presently in Turkey), and to the northwest of Herapolos (Manbieg), the capital of the third Syria (Al-Furatia). Kouroch is still presently in existence in Turkey, it is located 15 kilometers to the northwest of Kalas city, and about 70 kilometers to the north of the Syrian city, Aleppo.
As stated by the historians, Father Boutrous Daou and Fouad Fram Bustani, Maroun chose a very high location at the Semaan Mountain (called in the past, Nabo Mountain, after the pagan god, Nabo). Geographically, the Semaan Mountain is located between Antioch and Aleppo. People had abandoned the mountain for years, and the area was completely deserted.
The ruins of a historic pagan temple that existed on the mountain attracted Maroun. Boustan stated that St. Maroun moved to this mountain and decided to follow the life of a hermit. He made the ruined temple his residence after excoriating it from devils, but used it only for masses and offerings of the holy Eucharist. He used to spend all his time in the open air, praying, fasting and depriving his body from all means of comfort. He became very famous in the whole area for his faith, holiness and power of curing. Thousands of believers came to him seeking help and advice.
St. Maroun, was an excellent knowledgeable preacher and a very stubborn believer in Christ and in Christianity.
He was a mystic who started a new ascetic-spiritual method that attracted many people from all over the Antiochian Empire. He was a zealous missionary with a passion to spread the message of Christ by preaching it to others.
He sought not only to cure the physical ailments that people suffered, but had a great quest for nurturing and healing the “lost souls” of both pagans and Christians of his time. Maroun’s holiness and countless miracles drew attention throughout the Antiochian Empire. St. John of Chrysostom sent him a letter around 405 AD expressing his great love and respect asking St. Maroun to pray for him.
St. Maroun’s way was deeply monastic with emphasis on the spiritual and ascetic aspects of living. For him, all was connected to God and God was connected to all. He did not separate the physical and spiritual world and actually used the physical world to deepen his faith and spiritual experience with God.
St. Maroun embraced the quiet solitude of the Semaan Mountain life. He lived in the open air exposed to the forces of nature such as sun, rain, hail and snow.
His extraordinary desire to come to know God’s presence in all things allowed him to transcend such forces, and discover an intimate union with God.
He was able to free himself from the physical world by his passion and eagerness for prayer and enter into a mystical relationship of love with the creator.
St. Maroun attracted hundreds of monks and priests who came to live with him and become his disciples and loyal Christian followers.
Maroun’s disciples preached the Bible in the Antiochan Empire (known at the present time as Syria), Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel, They built hundreds of Churches and abbeys as well as schools and were known for their faith, devotion and perseverance.
At the age of seventy, in the year 410 AD, and after completing his holy mission, St. Maroun died peacefully while surrounded by his disciples and followers. His will was to be buried in the same grave with his beloved teacher, the great monk, Zabena, in the town of Kena, next to Kouroch city, where a temple was built in Zabena’s name.
St. Maroun’s will was not fulfilled, because the residents of a nearby town were able to take his body and bury him in their town and build a huge church on his grave. This church was a shrine for Christians for hundreds of years, and its ruins are still apparent in that town.
After Maroun’s death, his disciples built a huge monastery in honor of his name, adjacent to the ornate spring, (Naher Al-Assi, located at the Syrian-Lebanese border). The monastery served for hundreds of years as a pillar for faith, education, martyrhood and holiness.
It was destroyed at the beginning of the tenth century that witnessed the worst Christian persecution era. During the savage attack on the monastery more than 300 Maronite priests were killed.
The surviving priests moved to the mountains of Lebanon where with the Marada people and the native Lebanese were successful in establishing the Maronite nation. They converted the Lebanese mountains to a fortress of faith and a symbol for martyrhood, endurance and perseverance.
Initially the Maronite movement reached Lebanon when St. Maroun’s first disciple Abraham of Cyrrhus, who was called the Apostle of Lebanon, realized that paganism was thriving in Lebanon, so he set out to convert the pagans to Christianity by introducing them to the way of St. Maroun.
St. Maroun is considered to be the Father of the spiritual and monastic movement now called the Maronite Church. This movement had a profound influence on northern Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and on many other countries all over the world where the Maronites currently live.
The biggest Maronite community at the present time lives in Brazil. More than six million Lebanese descendents made Brazil their home after the massive emigration that took place from Lebanon in the beginning of this century.
God Bless all those who struggle for freedom and liberty all over the world.
NB: This piece was first published in 2013

Khamies El Sakra -“Drunkards Thursday”, Maronite Tradition
Elias Bejjani/February 08/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/115838/115838/
Today, Thursday, February 08/2024, the Catholic Maronites in Lebanon celebrate a tradition, and not a religious event. A tradition they call “Drunken Thursday,” which is the day that falls before the beginning of the forty-day fasting ritual – the Lent, that begins on the Ash Monday.
In past years, Maronite families, particularly in the mountainous areas, used to gather on this day at the dinner table to pray, meditate, and thank God for His blessings and gifts. They used to gather to thank the Lord for His gifts, and to supplicate for His blessings and approval before they start the Lent fasting, and before the start of austerity and prayers in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and his ascension to heaven. The “Drunken Thursday”, is neither a Maronite, nor a Christian holiday. Rather, it is a tradition that many of our people no longer celebrate, even if they remember it. Historically, “drunken Thursday” is an old tradition, and we do not know in any era of time it existed, and who created it, but it was certainly practiced in our mountains every year on the Thursday before the beginning of the forty-days fasting ritual – The Lent. There is very little information written about it in the books of Lebanese history and the Maronite church records (synaxarium). Some historical records say that the Maronites used to drink wine and Arak (Ozo) on this day, as a token of joy and partnership between parents and families during their blessed gatherings around the dinner table, as a replicate, concept and symbolism of the secret and last supper of Jesus Christ with his disciples, in a religious bid to give thanks to God for His blessings and gifts that He bestowed upon them.
NB: This piece was first published in 2015

Iranian Foreign Minister's diplomatic tour: A bid for regional stability
LBCI/February 09/2024
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian's visit to Beirut marks his first stop in the region, with further discussions planned in Damascus and Doha. His diplomatic tour aims to hold consultations with Lebanese and Palestinian officials regarding developments in Gaza, as well as bilateral and regional issues. The timing of these talks is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza are ongoing. Secondly, the ongoing US-Iranian confrontation in the region persists, with both Iran and the US repeatedly emphasizing their reluctance to escalate the conflict. Thirdly, US-Iranian discussions in Oman and Qatar have continued since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to LBCI. Simultaneously, a noteworthy statement from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the American newspaper The New York Times regarding the Iranian nuclear file, one of the unresolved issues between Washington and Tehran, revealed that Iran had slowed its production of enriched uranium used for nuclear bomb-making. The New York Times has interpreted this statement as Iran possibly seeking to ease its confrontation with the United States. In conclusion, the negotiations addressed several regional issues to find solutions that deter war escalation.

Sheikh Kabalan: Our resistance's role is a national duty for all Lebanon
LBCI/February 09/2024
The Grand Jaafari Mufti, Sheikh Ahmad Kabalan, emphasized Lebanon's sovereignty as substantial, dismissing any concern for Israel's security. He regarded the people of the South, with their various sects, as the pride of Lebanon, asserting their pivotal role in the nation's sovereignty amid all its historical wars. Kabalan stressed the need for a fraternal stance that serves Lebanon's interests and its people, not those of Tel Aviv. He stated, "Our resistance's role is a national duty for all Lebanon, with its diverse sects. It is everyone's moral, patriotic, and humanitarian duty to support the resistance, boasting of its victories and sacrifices, not to undermine it." The Mufti called for strengthening governmental healthcare and social services efforts, particularly within the Social Affairs, Health, and Health Insurance Ministries. Regarding Gaza, he hailed its resilience, sacrifice, and strategic victories, while in southern Lebanon, the focus intensified on ensuring Lebanon's sovereignty and seeking retribution from the worst terrorist entity in the region. He added, "Regarding Resolution 1701, the resistance has engaged in battles and wars for half a century to reclaim Lebanon's land, protect its sovereignty and national decision, offering the greatest sacrifices and contributions for this cause."

Lebanon’s Maronite patriarch criticizes parliament for not electing president
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/February 09, 2024
BEIRUT: During a religious celebration in central Beirut, he said that Lebanon was a country where “the constitution is violated in the absence of a president, while the nation needs one to put an end to pseudo-national unity governments, confiscate all illegal weapons, and challenge anyone who encroaches on sovereignty and independence.” Al-Rahi added: “We do not know why parliament is not called to convene to fulfill its primary duty, which is to elect a president. We now doubt the intentions and see in the obstruction of the presidential election suspicious, unacceptable and condemned motives.”The presidential vacuum has continued for a year and three months amid severe political division within parliament, without any Maronite candidate reaching the second round of presidential elections. Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement, insist on a candidate close to the Syrian president — former Minister Sleiman Frangieh — a nomination opposed by Christian parties in Lebanon. The vacuum extends to positions designated for the Maronite sect, including the position of governor of the central bank, currently held by the Shiite deputy governor in an acting capacity, and the extension of another significant Maronite position, the army commander, before his retirement for an additional year. Both positions require the presence of a president to fill the vacuum. The country is is being run by a caretaker government unable to make decisions. However, it has begun making appointments for vacant positions, as happened in Thursday’s session when a chief of staff was appointed on the pretext that the army commander was unable to travel in light of the vacancy in this position.
After turning into an electoral body, parliament began to deviate from its constitutional duty of electing the president and has started to practice legislation under the slogan of “legislation of necessity.” Meanwhile, in southern Lebanon, a war initiated by Hezbollah under the slogan of “supporting the resistance in the Gaza Strip” continues. Four months in, it has resulted in the death of more than 200 fighters from Hezbollah and allied parties, as well as civilians, and has led to massive destruction in the border villages.
Al-Rahi said in his sermon: “No one should attempt to turn the Maronites from free apostles into followers; they have a history of their own that cannot be erased, as they played a decisive role in establishing the state of Greater Lebanon.
“Lebanon has a positive, neutral system that gives it a role of mediation, gathering, dialogue, commitment to consolidating justice and peace, and protecting peoples’ rights.”Al-Rahi said: “We seem to be facing a programmed process of excluding the Maronites from the state, starting from not electing a president and closing the presidential palace. In the absence of a president, the constitution is violated, and there is no authority to stop this abnormal reality. Have we become a state whose system is tyrannical, replacing the declared system in the preamble to the constitution?”
Al-Rahi criticized “the violation of the constitution through the heresy of necessity adopted by parliament and the Cabinet to make appointments.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli army violated rules of engagement for a second day, targeting areas north of the Litani River. An Israeli drone fired two missiles at a house in the town of Yohmor Al-Shaqif in the Nabatiyeh governorate, without causing any casualties as the house was unoccupied. On Thursday, an Israeli drone pursued a car carrying two Hezbollah members in the Nabatiyeh area and launched a missile at it, wounding both individuals. They managed to jump out of the car, but one of them sustained critical injuries and the car was completely burnt out. In the past 24 hours, Hezbollah has targeted “spy equipment in the Doviv Barracks with appropriate weapons,” according to the party’s statement. It also targeted “Meron air base with Falaq 1 missiles,” after targeting “the headquarters of the Second Infantry Brigade at the Israeli Ein Zeitim base with dozens of Katyusha rockets.”Hezbollah attacks also targeted three Israeli barracks in the Golan Heights, using a Falaq-1 missile, as well as at Branit and Kiryat Shmona. Israel confirmed that the attacks resulted in three Israeli casualties, including an officer.
Hezbollah also attacked the Israeli Birkat Risha site with two Burkan missiles, a building in the Metula settlement, the radar site in the Occupied Shebaa Farms, and the Zaoura site. Israeli artillery shelling and airstrikes targeted the town of Maroun Al-Ras, a house in the town of Aita Al-Shaab in the Bint Jbeil district, and an uninhabited house in Markaba, and carried out an airstrike that destroyed a house in the town of Tayr Harfa in the Tyre region. The town of Kfarkela was targeted with shelling from a Israeli Markeva tank, and the airstrikes included the towns of Kfarkela and Al-Khiyam in the Marjaayoun and Hasbaya regions, causing only material damage.Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian arrived in Beirut to hold talks with Lebanese officials.

ISF foils counterfeit currency smuggling attempt: $200,000 seized
LBCI/February 09/2024
The Internal Security Forces' inspection unit at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut apprehended counterfeit US dollar bills amounting to $200,000, along with two Jordanian citizens attempting to smuggle it to Cairo in their luggage using a new and innovative method.

Hezbollah fires 30 rockets at Israel after Nabatiyeh drone strike
Agence France Presse/February 09/2024
About 30 rockets were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon late Thursday into early Friday, following an Israeli drone strike that seriously wounded a commander of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the Israeli army said. "We can confirm that around 30 rockets were fired from Lebanon toward the areas of Ein Zeitim and Dalton in the north of Israel," an Israeli army spokesperson told AFP, adding that initial reports suggested "no one was wounded" by the strikes. Earlier Thursday evening, an Israeli drone strike on a car in south Lebanon seriously wounded a Hezbollah commander, sources on both sides of the border said. The commander was "seriously wounded and a companion was also injured" in the strike, a Lebanese security source told AFP on condition of anonymity. The Israeli military said its aircraft struck a "Hezbollah commander" in south Lebanon, claiming he was involved in cross-border rocket attacks.
It claimed the target was "involved in a number of launches toward Kiryat Shmona and Metula" in northern Israel. But a military spokesman was unable to say whether those included rocket and missile launches earlier on Thursday. The strike took place on one of the main roads into the city of Nabatiyeh, relatively far from the border region that has seen almost daily exchanges of fire since the Israel-Hamas war broke out last October. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that the vehicle had caught fire after it was hit by a missile fired by an Israeli drone as it entered the city at around 4:15 pm (1415 GMT). The Lebanese army closed off the main road where the strike took place, an AFP photographer reported. Earlier, Hezbollah said it had targeted a brigade headquarters in the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona in the latest exchanges between the two sides. It also said its fighters "targeted the Meron air control base with a Falaq missile" in response to Israeli attacks "on villages and civilians."
The Israeli military said it "successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel."It said it had carried out air strikes on Hezbollah targets, "including weapons inside a truck, a terrorist infrastructure and a military compound in the areas of Khiam and Kfar Hamam."Israeli air force chief Tomer Bar warned that if war breaks out on the Lebanese border, "there will be massive and significant blows, hundreds of targets will be attacked simultaneously deep in the country -- as well as Tyre, Sidon, Beirut and the Bekaa (Valley)."Since the day after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, sparking the Gaza war, Hezbollah has targeted Israeli army positions along the border in support of the Palestinian Islamist movement. Israel has repeatedly bombarded Lebanese border villages, killing 227 people, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also 27 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, 15 people have been killed in the northern border area, including nine soldiers and six civilians, according to the Israeli army. The exchanges have sparked fears of a repetition of the devastating 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah that Western governments have been scrambling to avoid.
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne visited Beirut this week hot on the heels of his British counterpart David Cameron.

Hezbollah commander seriously hurt in Nabatiyeh airstrike
Agence France Presse/February 09/2024
The Israeli military told AFP on Thursday that its aircraft struck a "Hezbollah commander" in south Lebanon, claiming he was involved in cross-border rocket attacks. The confirmation came after a Lebanese security source said earlier that a military official of Hezbollah was "seriously wounded" in an Israeli air strike on a car in the city of Nabatiyeh in the heart of south Lebanon.

Northern front tensions: Will the Israeli Cabinet decide to continue the war or pursue a prisoner exchange deal?
LBCI/February 09/2024
Israel is still cautious about the northern front. Israeli forces recently conducted military exercises simulating a sudden war with Lebanon, reflecting lessons from the fighting in Gaza. As the administration threatens that diplomatic efforts will end, security experts caution that the Israeli army is not yet trained against a two-front war, emphasizing the need to exhaust all efforts to prevent a conflict with Lebanon. The military is actively strategizing its approach to the northern region, particularly after 12 towns in the area were placed on high alert in the last few hours due to drone infiltrations from the Lebanese border, including an incident near the shores of Haifa. Despite marathon discussions on a prisoner exchange deal and the war strategy in Gaza, the Israeli War Cabinet has yet to make a definitive decision, awaiting mediation talks led by Qatar and Egypt in Cairo. Two options remain on the table for the Israeli Cabinet regarding Gaza: a large-scale military operation in Rafah, opposed by Washington and Cairo, or a withdrawal of military units from the Strip. Regarding the prisoner exchange, Israel is considering various proposals, including exiling Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif from the deal's initial phase. However, indications suggest Tel Aviv may reject any deal with Hamas. As the situation unfolds, the Israeli army continues its strategy of pressuring Hamas through intensified ground operations and tunnel raids. Additionally, economic sanctions against Hamas are being considered in the Israel cabinet, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant proposing the formation of a Palestinian civilian committee, excluding Hamas, to oversee humanitarian aid distribution through the Erez and Karni crossings instead of Rafah, which Hamas controls. As debates rage within Israel, a decisive decision looms: continue the war or pursue a prisoner exchange deal.

Israel intercepts 'suspicious target' off Haifa
LBCI/February 09/2024
Israel's military said it had intercepted a "suspicious aerial target" on Friday off the northern port city of Haifa amid high tension along its frontier with Lebanon. The seaports of Haifa and Ashdod are crucial gateways for Israel's trade. An Israeli military spokesperson said the target had not caused any damage or injuries. "I cannot confirm exactly how close it was to the port, but the fact that, according to protocol, no sirens were sounded means that it was far enough," the spokesperson said, declining to say whether the target or its source had been identified. In December, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a drone that had crossed from Lebanon, triggering sirens in Haifa's suburbs. The military said the target had been intercepted within Haifa's maritime zone, which extends 25 nautical miles from the shore, according to a maritime security source. Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah have engaged in their deadliest cross-border hostilities in over 17 years, prompted by an attack on Israel from Gaza by the Palestinian militant group Hamas that triggered a major Israeli offensive on the coastal strip. Having evacuated tens of thousands of residents from areas near the Lebanese border, Israel has threatened to escalate fighting there unless Hezbollah stops cross-border attacks. While officials have said Israel's ports are protected by air defense systems, there are growing industry concerns over the impact on Haifa of any major escalation with Hezbollah.

The inevitable war between Israel and Hezbollah
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Arab News/February 09, 2024
While the world remains focused on Gaza, a senior Israeli official recently claimed that the country stands “closer to war than ever” on its northern border, as an ongoing low intensity conflict heats up. Hezbollah started its war on Israel on Oct. 8, according to its chief Hassan Nasrallah, to pin down a portion of the Israeli forces in the north, away from where they were needed the most: in the south, fighting Hamas.
By tying his war to Gaza, Nasrallah hoped that it would end whenever Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire. But it is unlikely that Israel will let Hezbollah get away with a war that the Iran-backed militia started. Israel will stop only when its security is restored and its interests are served.
From Gaza, Israel’s lesson has been that fences do not work. In the absence of peace treaties and trust, Israel must establish a no-man’s land that delays attackers and allows its security time to scramble and stop surprise attacks. Hezbollah’s war on Israel, alongside a few cases of infiltration from Lebanon, forced more than 100,000 Israelis in the north to take refuge further south.
Israel has 80 km of fenced borders with Lebanon, with many Israeli communities living only hundreds of meters away from the fence. For these Israeli refugees to return home, Hezbollah must be disarmed, as per UN Security Council Resolution 1559 and the Lebanese constitution as amended in the Taif Agreement. If disarmament is impossible, Hezbollah must abide by UNSC Resolution 1701 and withdraw its fighters to the north of the Litani river, 32 km away from the Israeli border.
Both resolutions look good on paper. Their enforcement, however, has proven elusive.
It is unlikely that Israel will let Hezbollah get away with a war that the Iran-backed militia started. In 2006, the UN expanded a small peace force contingent that was formed in 1978, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, to a 10,000-strong army and instructed the Lebanese Armed Forces to deploy south of the Litani, overriding a six-year-old Hezbollah veto against such a deployment.
Global and local measures fell short of enforcing 1701. Since Hezbollah dominates the Lebanese state, the army has often done its bidding, helping the militia obstruct and limit UNIFIL’s work. Over the past few years, both the US and Israel have lobbied the UNSC to amend UNIFIL’s mandate and allow it more freedom of movement and inspection. No matter how hard Washington tried, both the Lebanese army and UNIFIL have remained ineffective and unable to enforce 1701. Israel has been watching.
But Oct. 7 changed the Israeli security perspective. Gone are the days when it would bet on the rationality of its adversaries, calculating that they were more interested in improving things for their people rather than engaging in devastating wars.
For Israelis to go back home to the north, Tel Aviv must enact preemptive measures and early warnings. But before doing so, it must go through Washington, which has made it clear that it does not want to see the Gaza war expand to Lebanon or elsewhere in the region.
Iran, for its part, had a different idea. Its proxies across the region — in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen — have launched attacks on Israeli and American targets, presumably in support of Gaza.
Israel shared its concerns on Hezbollah with Washington, which deployed Amos Hochstein to Jerusalem and Beirut. Having lost more than 170 members of its Radwan special force to surgical Israeli strikes, Hezbollah’s position seemed to have softened. Both Nasrallah and the Lebanese have offered to settle the border dispute with Israel, as per UNSC Resolution 1701, but both made a deal incumbent on the end of the Gaza war.
“Lebanon has a new and historic opportunity to liberate every inch of its land, from B1 in Naqoura to Ghajar, to Shebaa Farms and Kfarchouba Hills,” Nasrallah said. “But any negotiation will not yield any results until the war in Gaza has stopped.”
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati reiterated Nasrallah’s position, saying: “We don’t accept that our brothers suffer genocide and destruction (in Gaza), while we discuss our own deal” with Israel.
Israel is hoping the UN comes up with a ‘new 1701,’ one with a verifiable enforcement mechanism.
Given the opportunity Nasrallah mentioned, Beirut sent a proposal to the UN stipulating that, in return for Israel conceding 13 disputed border points, in line with 1701, Lebanon would agree to revive the 1949 truce with Israel. However, the Lebanese did not mention Hezbollah’s disarmament or deployment, as outlined by the UN resolution. In return for Tel Aviv conceding the disputed border points, Hezbollah would agree to stop its war on Israel. But even then, only after a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Lebanon’s offer and America’s inability to rein in Hezbollah through diplomacy have left Israel with one choice: an inevitable all-out war that pushes Hezbollah northward to the Litani.
For its conclusion, an Israeli war with Hezbollah requires a new UN Security Council resolution, in which case Israel is hoping for a “new 1701,” one with a verifiable enforcement mechanism.
If the world fails to offer such a resolution, Israel will likely unilaterally carve out a no-go zone along the border, while 1701 will be enforced by the same “unknown” forces that have been hunting down Hezbollah and Iranian assets in Syria and preventing them from setting up a military infrastructure with which they can threaten and wage war on Israel.
**Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. X: @hahussain
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point of view

Notes from Beirut: Lebanese resilience being tested to its limits
Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/February 09, 2024
Resilience is widely embraced in Lebanese society, both at home and abroad, as a source of pride, signifying the country’s capacity to endure frequent crises. However, within this idea lies a collective trauma and a tendency to overlook harsh realities.
Over the past five decades, Lebanon — whose capital Beirut was once known as the “Paris of the Middle East” — has endured a 15-year civil war, Israeli invasion, the repercussions of the prolonged Syrian conflict, the catastrophic 2020 Beirut port explosion, one of the world’s most severe economic collapses of the last 150 years and, most recently, the looming threat of the Gaza war. Thus, Lebanon’s attainment of the label “resilient” has not come easily for its people or society.
When the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel took place, all the scars of Lebanon’s wars and crises remained open and raw. Now, as yet another war rages in the region, the Lebanese people are bracing themselves, hoping their country will not become a casualty once more.
During my visit to Beirut last week, the atmosphere was tense yet subdued. Experts I spoke to in Lebanon, although they remained resilient in the face of regional conflicts, still fear that, if a full-blown war breaks out between Israel and Hezbollah, it could lead to a direct military confrontation between the US and Iran. This would turn the conflict into a regional war that could plunge the whole of the Middle East into a new period of chaos. Therefore, though no one desires a war, the looming threat remains a source of profound concern.
The Gaza war adds an additional layer of complexity to the profound and multifaceted crisis that Lebanon has been struggling with.
The country has been on edge for months and this situation is making things even worse. The UN Development Programme, World Bank and Lebanon Economic Monitor have shared concerns about the impact of the Gaza war on Lebanon’s already fragile economy. While the government is relying on international organizations for funding, many groups working in Lebanon cannot maintain their existing programs in the face of the ongoing war. However, it is important for international organizations to continue working with and assisting Lebanon, especially during these times.
Lebanon has been grappling with its worst economic crisis in recent years — since mass protests erupted in 2019 over a cost-of-living crisis. Moreover, the country’s parliament has repeatedly failed to elect a president and there is only a caretaker prime minister. In addition to these internal issues, there is a significant Palestinian presence in Lebanon as a result of the 1967 war, which resulted in large numbers of refugees seeking asylum. The country also hosts more than 1 million Syrian refugees. However, the Gaza war adds an additional layer of complexity to the profound and multifaceted crisis that Lebanon has been struggling with for the past few years.
So far, the exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel have been frequent but calibrated so as not to escalate. It is in neither Hezbollah’s nor Israel’s interest to escalate because such a war could be the most destructive either side has ever experienced. But that is no comfort for people who are far too acquainted with how quickly skirmishes can turn into full-blown conflicts.
The ongoing conflict around the southern border is adversely impacting key economic sectors in Lebanon, particularly tourism and services. The economy of south Lebanon has been affected, given the direct military attacks targeting a number of villages and towns, resulting in high displacement rates. This is likely to further burden the civic services that are already under strain from the presence of refugees.
In addition to the displacement issue, the tourism and hospitality sectors are also heavily impacted by the Gaza war. This is evidenced by the reduced flow of travelers and low hotel occupancy rates. The impact is palpable even at Beirut airport, a formerly bustling hub that is now almost empty. This underscores the grim reality behind the nostalgic “Paris” reference.
All-out war in Lebanon would force another generation of Lebanese to flee the country and may even trigger civil unrest.
Thus, international trade is also affected and may be subject to further repercussions should the war continue, mainly in terms of the widening trade deficit and the disruption of supply chains. Imports and exports are both key to Lebanon’s economy and the ongoing disruption may jeopardize the country’s efforts to recover from the crisis. On the one hand, the country relies on imports to meet basic necessities, mainly food and convenient goods; on the other hand, exports are considered a major source of foreign currency. Thus, the Gaza war has affected virtually all aspects of daily life in Lebanon. It is the major topic of conversation and experts often say: “If there’s another war, many believe that Lebanon may not get a chance to recover.” All-out war in Lebanon would force another generation of Lebanese to flee the country and may even trigger civil unrest. The psychology of security and insecurity, fear and hope, war and truce are part of the collective trauma of the Lebanese people. But Lebanon remains resilient, despite the large numbers of Syrian refugees, the regional turmoil, political paralysis, economic crises and now the war on its doorstep. As long as the war in Gaza goes on, peace in Lebanon and regional stability will continue hanging by a thread.
The resilience displayed by the Lebanese people is frequently likened to the legendary phoenix, which perpetually rises anew from the ashes, demonstrating its ability to endure and thrive. The resilience in Lebanese society also lies in the continuous hope and solidarity of the people and an ability to rise from the ashes. However, no one deserves to remain in a perpetual state of resilience.
*Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkiye’s relations with the Middle East. X: @SinemCngz

Video & Text of Patriarch Al-Rahi's Sermon at Saint Maron’s Mass: Saving the country requires a president who challenges all the anomalies spread in the Lebanese state
National News Agency/February 09, 2024 (LCCC translation from Arabic)
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126874/126874/
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Al-Rai presided over the Feast of Saint Maron Mass at Saint George Maronite Cathedral in Beirut, in the presence of Caretaker Minister of Communications Johnny Al-Qurm, French Ambassador Hervé Magro, Egyptian Ambassador Alaa Moussa, Apostolic Nuncio Monsignor Paolo Borgia, Representatives Salim Al-Sayegh, Farid Al-Bustani and Raji Al-Saad, Army Commander General Joseph Aoun, Director General of Security Major General Elias Bisri, and political and social figures.
Al-Rahi delivered a sermon entitled “When a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24), and he said: “Our Lord Jesus Christ is the grain of wheat par excellence. From his death on Calvary, the new humanity represented by the Church was born. And after his example of austerity. Through self-denial, Saint Maron died for himself in the Cyrus region between Aleppo and Antioch, and the Maronite Church was born, with its Syriac Antiochian heritage, on the faith of the Universal Church. This approach was left to us by Christ our Lord through the secret of his death and resurrection: death and resurrection in the spiritual and social sense. This is what the Lord Jesus confirmed when he said: “Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:26), which means that sacrificing oneself and one’s own interests produces the fruits of goodness in human societies.
He added: “We are happy to celebrate together this divine liturgy, in honor of our father, Saint Maron, the father of the Maronite community, its intercessor, and its role model. And since the holiday is national in Lebanon, we congratulate all the Lebanese, Christians and Muslims, and we extend special congratulations to all the sons and daughters of our church, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, and believers.” Those who live in the Eastern Patriarchal domain and in the countries of the Diaspora. I would like to thank His Excellency our brother Bishop Boulos Abdel Sater, Archbishop of Beirut, for the invitation to celebrate this holiday with you and for his kind words at the beginning of our celebration. I also thank His Beatitude Patriarch Mar Ignatius Youssef III Younan and their Beatitudes who They sent the honorable bishops to represent them, the honorable papal nuncio and the fathers, their excellencies the ministers, their excellencies the deputies and ambassadors, and all other civil and military positions, and their beloved brothers and sisters. On this occasion, I cannot hide from you the tear of my heart over the absence of the president of the country for the second year, who was the one who led the participants in the holiday Mass. We do not know why the Parliament is not called to convene and carry out its first basic duty, which is to elect a President of the Republic, so that all constitutional institutions are organized, the first of which is the House of Representatives, the Council of Ministers, the Judiciary, and the process of justice, and so that the process of reforms, improving the economy, and controlling corruption begins. In this case, we have become suspicious of the intentions, and we see the obstruction of the president’s election as suspicious, unacceptable and condemnable backgrounds.”
He continued: “Saint Maron was born around the year 350 and died around the year 410. Bishop Theodorets, Bishop of the Diocese of Cyrus, wrote his biography in his book “The Pure Ones of God” between the years 440 and 444. He did not know him personally, but rather knew him through his disciples who followed his approach by living in the open. And asceticism, prayer, and detachment. He likened them to “the garden that Maron planted, which bloomed in Qurshiyya, and extended throughout Syria.”
He said: “The disciples of Saint Maron, who were called “Maronites,” overlooked the ecclesiastical reality, with their Syriac Antiochene heritage inherited especially from Saint Ephrem the Syrian and Saint Jacob of Serouji; they demonstrated their ascetic life approach to living the Gospel and their fidelity to Maron up to the present day; and they demonstrated a Marian spirituality that filled their liturgical books. And their popular piety, which they derived from the Council of Ephesus (431), which recognized that Mary is the mother of God Jesus Christ in his full humanity, and they demonstrated their messianic spirituality in accordance with the doctrine of the Council of Chalcedon (451), which proved that in Christ there are two complete natures, one divine and the other human in one hypostasis. The foundations of these two ecumenical councils created a complete partnership between the Maronite Church and the See of Peter in Rome, and thanks to this partnership in faith, the Maronite Church recognized all previous and subsequent ecumenical councils. When a patriarchal church was formed in the late seventh century, it realized that it carried a divine call and a message in Lebanon and the Arab world and in its relationship Especially with Islam, seeking to promote service, love, living together, freedom, mutual respect and integration. Let no one attempt to transform the Maronites from free apostles into followers, nor make them without a history while they have an indelible history of their own (see Bishop Antoine Hamid Mourani: Maronite identity in its two fields Lebanese and Arab, page 15).
He added: “Is there anyone who is unaware, or perhaps ignores, that the Maronites played the decisive role in establishing the state of Greater Lebanon, in cooperation, of course, with others? Their journey was crowned by the honorable Patriarch Elias Al-Hoyek, who personally headed the second Lebanese delegation to the reconciliation conference in Versailles, France, and the third conference.” With the appointment of his deputy, Bishop Abdullah Al-Khoury, the “State of Greater Lebanon” was declared on the first of September 1920, distinguished from other countries in the region by the following characteristics:
A- Lebanon separates religion from the state, while neighboring countries are religiously Islamic, and Israel is a Jewish state.
B- Belonging to Lebanon through citizenship, not through religion.
C- Lebanon adopts cultural and religious pluralism,
D- Lebanon is based on the Charter of Coexistence between Christians and Muslims organized in the Constitution, whereby they cooperate equally in governance and administration.
E- Lebanon recognizes all public civil liberties, especially freedom of belief and expression.
6- As a result of these peculiarities, Lebanon, by nature has a positive, neutral system that gives it a role of mediation, meeting and dialogue in order to consolidate justice and peace, and protect the rights of peoples.”
He continued: “On this holiday, we cannot help but remember in our prayers the Maronite Patriarchs who led the formative process of Lebanon since the era of Patriarch Saint John Maron up to the declaration of the State of Greater Lebanon with Patriarch Elias Boutros Al-Hoyek and his successors who, to this day, preserve this deposit for the benefit of Lebanon and all the Lebanese. As for today We see us facing a process of programmed exclusion of the Maronites from the state, starting with the failure to elect a President of the Republic, the closing of the Republican Palace, and the return to the practice of Duika rule in a clearly visible and unacceptable manner. What can be said about excluding them and other Christians from ministries and public administrations? All in violation of the Constitution through the heresy of “necessity” that The House of Representatives adopts it to legislate without right, and the Council of Ministers to make appointments and everything that goes beyond the conduct of normal business, also without right. In the absence of the president, the constitution is violated as we see, and there is no authority to correct and stop this abnormal reality. Have we become in a state whose regime is tyrannical and replaces the regime? It is declared in the introduction to the constitution: “Lebanon is a democratic, parliamentary republic” (Clause C)? They say that Lebanon needs a president who does not provoke this or that party. One political analyst commented, writing: “The country’s reality requires a president who does not provoke anyone, and does not challenge anyone. .. but:
1) Saving the country requires a president who will challenge everyone who disrupts the constitution and overthrows the national charter, thereby defeating the formula of partnership and friendship.
2) Saving the country requires a president who will put an end to the false national unity governments and revive the parliamentary game in the Lebanese democratic system.
3) Saving the country requires a president who rejects all illegal weapons.
4) Saving the country requires a president who challenges everyone who attacks sovereignty and independence, lest Lebanon become a state of dependency and occupation. 5) Saving the country requires a president who challenges those who prevent the closure of the loose border between Lebanon and Syria with the intention of keeping Lebanon’s relations with its friends collapsed and with its opponents thriving.
6) Saving the country requires a president who challenges the countries working to settle Palestinian refugees and displaced Syrians.
7) Saving the country requires a president who challenges all the abnormalities spread in the Lebanese state, its institutions, and its human society. If the new President of the Republic does not provoke all these illegal groups and challenge all these deadly transgressions, then everyone will challenge and provoke him. Lebanon does not need a president who provokes or provokes, lest we enter into a spiral of open conflict.”
Al-Rahi concluded: “We pray to God, through the intercession of our father Saint Maron, asking him for a blessing that will help us live the requirements of the Gospel like him, and make prayer a means of uniting us with God and strengthening the bonds of unity with all people. To him be glory and thanks now and forever, Amen!”

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 09-10/2024
Iran's proxies in Iraq: Who are Iraq's armed factions?
LBCI/February 09/2024
In Iraq, the United States and Iran continue their battle, with the US deploying its forces directly and Iran through its proxies, specifically the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
Who is this resistance?
They are a number of armed groups formed by defectors from the Islamic Dawa Party, which emerged in the 1950s as one of Iraq's most prominent Shia parties. The splits gave rise to five prominent groups: the Badr Organization, the Iraqi Kata'ib Hezbollah, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, the Al-Nujaba Movement, and the Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada. While all these factions came under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in 2016, under the command of the Iraqi Prime Minister as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, they carried out attacks that the PM condemned. The largest and most powerful of these factions is the Badr Organization, which is less inclined to launch attacks against US forces as it seeks to maintain its political role based on a large parliamentary bloc. The Iraqi Kata'ib Hezbollah, founded by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, whom the United States assassinated alongside Qasem Soleimani in early 2020, coordinates military efforts between the Iraqi resistance and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq also has a military mission and is directed against US forces in Iraq, but its political role has grown to infiltrate parliament and the government. In 2013, all these factions witnessed defections, giving rise to new armed groups such as the Al-Nujaba Movement, which split from Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, and the Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, which split from the Iraqi Kata'ib Hezbollah. In summary, five armed factions operate under the Iranian umbrella in Iraq today.
These five arms have many so-called facade groups, through which they send messages and carry out operations without direct attribution, playing a significant role in the ongoing regional war between Tehran and Washington.

Syrian air defenses respond to ‘hostile targets’ in vicinity of Damascus- state media
REUTERS/February 09, 2024
DUBAI: Syrian air defenses shot down on Friday two drones in the west of Damascus, state media reported, citing a military source as saying the drones came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the west of the capital. The Israeli military has said it does not comment on reports in foreign media. Syrian state media reported earlier that the air defenses were responding to “hostile targets” in the vicinity of Damascus. Since December, Israeli strikes have killed more than half a dozen Revolutionary Guards, including a top intelligence general. Separately, the US military launched airstrikes earlier this month in Syria and Iraq against more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the militias it backs, in retaliation for an attack in Jordan in January that killed three US troops. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have suffered one of their most bruising spells in Syria since arriving a decade ago to aid President Bashar Assad in the Syrian war, as the United States and Israel conduct strikes against Iran-backed militias in the country. Informed sources told Reuters that the Guards had pulled out some of their senior officers as a result. Iran’s ambassador to Syria said on Thursday that Iran remained “present” in Syria. Iran’s foreign minister is due in Lebanon on Friday and then Damascus early next week for meetings with top officials.

Israel PM orders army to prepare to evacuate civilians from Gaza’s Rafah
AFP/February 09, 2024
GAZA: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to prepare to “evacuate” hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza’s Rafah, his office said Friday, after Washington warned it would not support any ground assault on the city.
The show of defiance against Israel’s main ally came after President Joe Biden issued his strongest criticism yet of Netanyahu’s conduct of the war, warning the response to Hamas’s October 7 attack had been “over the top.”Netanyahu told military and security officials to “submit to the cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions” of Palestinian militant group Hamas holed up in Rafah, a statement from his office said. The city is the last main population center in the Gaza Strip that Israeli troops have yet to enter but is also the main point of entry for desperately needed relief supplies. Palestinians displaced from other Gaza towns and cities have flooded into Rafah, sending its population soaring to an estimated 1.3 million, more than half of the territory’s 2.4 million population. The United States is Israel’s main international backer, providing it with billions of dollars in military aid. But the US State Department said it does not support a ground offensive in Rafah, warning that, if not properly planned, such an operation risked “disaster.” And in a sign of his growing frustration with Israel’s leadership, Biden said its military retaliation for the October 7 attack had gone too far.
“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top,” the US president said. “There are a lot of innocent people who are starving... in trouble and dying, and it’s got to stop.”Witnesses reported new strikes on Rafah overnight, after the Israeli military intensified air raids. AFP images showed scenes of devastation in Rafah’s streets, where people queued for increasingly scarce water. The Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said more than 100 people were killed in overnight bombardment, including at least eight in Rafah. The Palestinian Red Crescent said three children were killed in a strike in Rafah, where many displaced are trapped in tents pushed up against the Egyptian border. “We heard the sound of a huge explosion next to our house... we found two children martyred in the street,” said Jaber Al-Bardini, 60.
“There is no safe place in Rafah. If they storm Rafah we will die in our homes. We have no choice. We don’t want to go anywhere else.”The Israeli army said its forces had “eliminated 15 terrorists” in the past day in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s biggest city. It also reported fighting in central and northern Gaza.
Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. In response, Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas and launched air strikes and a ground offensive that have killed at least 27,947 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry. Militants seized 250 hostages, 132 of whom are still in Gaza, but 29 are presumed dead, Israel has said. State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said Washington had “yet to see any evidence of serious planning” for an Israeli ground operation in Rafah but said such an assault was “not something we’d support.”“To conduct such an operation right now with no planning and little thought... would be a disaster,” Patel warned. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had conveyed Washington’s concerns to Netanyahu directly during talks this week in Jerusalem, he added. UN chief Antonio Guterres said news of the coming Israeli push into Rafah was “alarming,” saying it “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare.”The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned against a major Israeli operation in Rafah.
“There’s a sense of growing anxiety and growing panic in Rafah. People have absolutely no idea where to go after Rafah,” said its chief, Philippe Lazzarini. On the ceasefire talks, Blinken insisted he still saw “space for agreement to be reached” to halt the fighting and bring home Israeli hostages, even after Netanyahu rejected what he labelled Hamas’s “bizarre demands.”Cairo hosted new talks Friday with Qatari and Hamas negotiators seeking a Gaza ceasefire and an agreement for a hostage-prisoner exchange.
A Hamas source told AFP there had been “positive and good discussions” in the Egyptian capital so far and expressed hopes for more progress.
The impact of the war has been felt widely, with violence involving Iran-backed allies of Hamas across the Middle East surging since October and drawing in US forces among others. Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said Friday it had fired dozens of rockets into Israel overnight in response to attacks in its south, including the city of Nabatiyeh. It came a day after an Israeli strike on a car in Nabatiyeh seriously wounded a Hezbollah commander, sources on both sides of the border said.
On the same day, the US military struck four unmanned surface vessels and seven cruise missiles it said Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia had been set to launch against ships in the Red Sea. The strike came after US forces last week launched a wave of attacks on Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria following the killing of three US troops in neighboring Jordan.

‘The war is ugly’: Palestinian minister recounts 90 days in Gaza
AFP/February 09, 2024
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, Feb 8, 2024 Agence France Presse: Palestinian culture minister Atef Abu Seif was in Gaza on October 7 for a planned ceremony when the Hamas attack on Israel set off the war and left him trapped for 90 days. During those painful months, Abu Seif said he witnessed unimaginable death and destruction and lost countless relatives and friends in the coastal territory where he was born. Now back in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank after he managed to escape the war zone, Abu Seif, 50, talked to AFP about the traumatic experience. “Gaza is no longer Gaza,” he said. After the war ends, he added, “we will need a new Gaza.”The minister was in the territory on October 7, which marked Palestinian Heritage Day, for a planned ceremony at Al-Qarara Museum in the southern city of Khan Yunis. “I wanted to celebrate the launch of Palestinian Heritage Day from Gaza for the first time in history,” he said. But it was not to be. That Saturday saw Hamas launch their unprecedented attack that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The militants also seized around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, of whom 29 are believed to have died. Israel, vowing to eliminate Hamas, launched relentless air strikes and a ground offensive that have killed at least 27,840 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Abu Seif said the toll includes many of his friends and “more than 100 relatives, including my sister-in-law and her children.”
Abu Seif said he spent the first 48 days of the war with his 17-year-old son and family members in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. But then their home was hit by an Israeli strike, forcing them to flee, like half of Gaza’s population of 2.4 million. They headed south to Rafah, on the border with Egypt, which Israel now says is the next target of its military campaign.From his days in Jabalia, Abu Seif has painful memories, including helping pull bodies from under the rubble after a strike hit a relative’s home. “We were shocked to find that a body which a friend retrieved belonged to his 16-year-old son,” said Abu Seif. “The war in Gaza is ugly.”Abu Seif said he eventually managed to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to return to Ramallah via Jordan. “I cannot imagine what my neighborhood in the (Jabalia) camp looks like now,” he said. And what will happen, he said, when he returns one day to Gaza and does “not find half of my friends alive“?“All the grief of the people of Gaza is postponed... because the sadness has no longer a meaning and is no longer useful in survival.”Before the war, Abu Seif used to travel to Gaza from Ramallah on Thursdays to link up with his friends for the weekend. He said now “almost half of them” have been killed. His ministry says the damage has been immense to Gaza’s cultural heritage. Around 195 historical buildings, including mosques and churches, and 24 cultural institutes have been damaged or destroyed, it says. The Al-Qarara Museum, which was surrounded by 5,000-year-old Roman columns, and an ancient Phoenician harbor have also been destroyed, said Abu Seif. Abu Seif criticized the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO “for keeping silent” on the destruction. After his return home, Abu Seif urged Palestinian authors and academics living in Gaza to write about their lives there.The result is a collection of stories from 24 authors called “Writing Behind the Lines.”One account entitled “The Donkey of Return” tells the story of Gazans forced to use donkey-drawn carts amid dire fuel shortages. Others relate to the challenges of the internally displaced with titles such as “Seven times displaced” and “We hope to survive.” “It is important for Gaza’s writers... to write about their lives,” said Abu Seif. “We want the world to read them.”

Gaza war paralyzes Israeli tourism for third year
AFP/February 09, 2024
NAZARETH, Israel: In Israel’s biblical city of Nazareth, the basilica is empty, restaurants and shops that usually thrive on Christian pilgrims are closed, and many hotels have been shut for months.The Gaza war that began after the Hamas attack of October 7 has plunged the country’s tourism industry into a fresh crisis, just as it had started to recover from the Covid pandemic. “We felt that the influx of tourists was starting to be good at the end of September, the beginning of October,” said Marwa Taha Abu Rani, manager of the Fauzi Azar hostel in the Old City.
With the outbreak of war, future bookings were canceled, she told AFP about her guesthouse, part of the Abraham Hostel group and located in a grand 19th-century home. “We aren’t working at all,” she said. “There’s no one.”
The hostel’s tall arched windows overlook the marketplace and the Basilica of the Annunciation, where Catholics believe the Angel Gabriel told Mary she would give birth to Jesus. The economy of Nazareth, set in the hills of northern Israel, is heavily dependent on Christian pilgrims, making it a bellwether for Israel’s tourism industry on the whole. Even during what is the low season on the annual tourism calendar, the city has been unusually empty.Tourism accounts for about three percent of Israel’s economy and employs around 200,000 Israelis directly, according to the tourism ministry.
The country had been projected to draw 5.5 million visitors in 2023, a million more than 2019’s record high, it added.
October 7 changed all that.
Hamas’s attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. At least 27,840 Palestinians, most of them women, children and adolescents, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in retaliatory Israeli bombardments and ground offensive since October 7, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Foreign tourism to Israel evaporated immediately after the attack — accelerated by many airlines canceling flights to Israel — which has put tour guides, hotel staff, bus drivers and others out of work. Only around three million people had visited Israel by the end of 2023, the ministry said. Many hotels now receive government funding to house Israelis displaced by the war — from areas near Gaza and from along the northern border with Lebanon, which has been rocked by cross-border fire with militant group Hezbollah. But smaller business like Fauzi Azar have been left in the lurch. The sector’s new crisis sparked by the war could not have come at a worse time, said Peleg Lewi, a senior adviser to Israel’s tourism minister. “2023 was the year that we recovered from the Covid and it was supposed to be the most successful year in Israel’s history,” he said. Israel’s previous major wars — in 2006 against Hezbollah and in 2014 against Hamas — each lasted less than two months and their economic impact was limited, said Michel Strawczynski, an economist at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Now Israel has been engaged in fighting for over four months with both militant groups, and has called up hundreds of thousands of reservists. No end appears in sight anytime soon. Israeli leaders say attaining the war’s objectives could take a year. Strawczynski said this war’s economic impact will “clearly” be higher, largely because of the loss of foreign tourism. In the fourth quarter of last year, Israel’s GDP fell by about three percent, he said. “Concerning 2024, things are completely dependent on how long this war will be, and also whether there will be a deeper confrontation in the north,” he said. The current estimation at Israel’s tourism ministry is that — even if fighting in Gaza subsides and there is no war with Hezbollah — 2024 as a whole already appears “a bit lost,” said Lewi. “If everything goes okay, we see the end of 2024 coming back to normality,” he said. In the basilica in Nazareth, one of the caretakers, Friar Wojciech Boloz, said he hopes the usual crowds will soon come back. “We feel a little bit empty without the pilgrims,” he said. Tourists and pilgrims not only fuel the local economy, Boloz said. “They give the life to this church.”

Prague, Budapest hold up EU move to sanction violent Israeli settlers
REUTERS/February 09, 2024
BRUSSELS/PARIS: An EU effort to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank has stalled due to objections from Hungary and the Czech Republic, diplomats say. The two staunch allies of Israel made clear in an EU committee on Thursday they were not ready to let the proposal go forward for now, said four diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity about internal EU deliberations. Some said a compromise may be found later to let the measures proceed, possibly after more EU sanctions on Hamas, the Palestinian militant group responsible for the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the current Middle East crisis. While much international attention has focused on that cross-border assault from Gaza and Israel’s subsequent war there, European officials have also expressed increasing concern about rising violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. The United States and Britain have expressed similar concerns and have already imposed sanctions on several settlers they say are responsible for violence. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in December he would propose similar measures. But EU sanctions require unanimity among member states and the bloc has yet to find agreement — a reflection of broader divisions on the Middle East, with some EU countries strongly backing Israel while others lean more toward the Palestinians. The proposals under discussion would impose sanctions on around a dozen people or organizations, according to diplomats. The EU has not spelled out what the sanctions would entail but officials have said they would include bans on travel to the EU. The EU has already imposed sanctions on Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks and diplomats say more are in the pipeline. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday now was “definitely not the time” to sanction Israeli settlers, state news agency MTI reported. Budapest says the EU’s focus should be on helping Israel to defeat Hamas and free hostages. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said his country was not “substantively” blocking sanctions on settlers inciting violence but did not want them to come alongside measures against Hamas. “An act of terrorism is not on the same level as acts by settlers,” he said. “These things cannot be connected.” France, which has been pushing for the settler sanctions and is expected to introduce national travel bans on two or three individuals imminently, is hoping that once its measures are in place European partners will be more willing to press ahead. “Once we have our measures we shall see how the others react,” said a French diplomatic source.

Germany sends frigate to help secure Red Sea shipping
AFP/February 09, 2024
BERLIN: A German navy frigate set sail for the Red Sea on Thursday with the aim of protecting commercial ships from attacks by Yemeni rebels, as part of a planned European Union mission. The deployment marked “the most serious engagement of a unit of the German navy in many decades,” navy chief Jan Christian Kaack told reporters in Berlin. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched a series of attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November, saying their campaign was in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.
The Red Sea normally carries about 12 percent of global maritime trade. The unrest has prompted some shipping companies to reroute their vessels away from the Red Sea, making them take the longer and costlier route around the southern tip of Africa.The “Hesse” frigate set off from the northern German port of Wilhelmshaven with a crew of around 240 people, Kaack said. It will be able to respond to potential attacks including from missiles, drones and remotely controlled “kamikaze boats,” he said. It is expected to be tasked with escorting commercial ships and intercepting attacks. The frigate’s mission still needs to be confirmed by the German parliament and the European Union, however. The EU is currently considering a naval mission to improve security for merchant ships in the Red Sea. A decision could be announced before the next meeting of EU foreign ministers on February 19. Countries including Italy, France and Belgium have signalled an interest in joining the mission. US and British forces meanwhile have in recent weeks carried out joint strikes aimed at reducing the Houthis’ ability to target vessels transiting the key Red Sea trade route, but the rebels have vowed to continue their attacks. Most trade between Asia and Europe usually passes through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal that leads to the Mediterranean Sea. According to the International Monetary Fund’s PortWatch platform, total transit volume through the Suez Canal was down 37 percent this year by January 16 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Houthi negotiator says Red Sea attacks won’t deter Yemeni peace, praises Saudi ‘brothers’
Asharq Al-Awsat/February 09, 2024
LONDON: Mohammed Abdulsalam, chief negotiator and spokesperson of the Houthis, says that the recent meeting of the Sanaa delegation with Saudi Arabia officials has “resulted in overcoming the most important obstacles facing the roadmap” to peace. These solutions were in line with those championed by the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said Abdulsalam in a wide-ranging interview with Asharq Al-Awsat on Thursday. Abdulsalam had previously called Saudi Arabia officials his “brothers” in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat in January. He did so again on Thursday, and answered questions about peace initiatives, attacks in the Red Sea and regional and international relations. Abdulsalam said the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea would only stop if Tel Aviv ended their assault on the Palestinian people. Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Al-Jaber shakes hands with the political leader of the Houthis, Mahdi Al-Mashat in Sanaa. (X: @mohdsalj) Abdulsalam believes that efforts at finding peace in Yemen “is going well, both since the start of the UN truce in April 2022, corresponding to the month of Ramadan at that time, and also through discussions with the Saudi side under Omani sponsorship, which are going well so far.”Asked about the extent of the Houthis’ willingness to begin political negotiations that include power sharing, elections, and a new constitution, Abdulsalam said “the roadmap included everyone’s concerns, and highlighted the urgent humanitarian situation that the Yemeni people are suffering from.”In a previous statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, Abdulsalam said that the Houthis’ Red Sea operations would not impact the peace initiatives. He said it was “necessary to respond to the urgent situation in Palestine, which represents a risk for regional, Arab and Islamic security. Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Minister of Defense, meets with a delegation from Sanaa during their visit in Riyadh in September 2023. (SPA)
“It will affect us in Yemen if Israel dominates, eliminates or weakens the Palestinian people and its resistance. This will reflect negatively on everyone, aside from the religious and moral position towards this issue. Therefore, we consider that it is separate from the peace process so far and think that the statements of the West come as part of an attempt to pressure us to back down.”Abdulsalam added: “The military operations in the Red Sea, which target Israeli ships as well as ships heading towards Israel, will continue until the aggression against the Gaza Strip ends and the siege is lifted by bringing food assistance into the north and south of the strip. He said the Houthis were open to talks with Western powers on the Red Sea situation, under the “auspices of our brothers in the Sultanate of Oman.”

Putin tells West: Russia cannot be defeated in Ukraine
AFP/February 09, 2024
WASHINGTON: President Vladimir Putin said in an interview released Thursday with controversial right-wing US talk show host Tucker Carlson that the West should understand it is “impossible” to defeat Russia in Ukraine. In a two-hour interview with the former Fox News host — coming just ahead of the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — Putin also said a deal “can be reached” on imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. “There are certain terms being discussed via special services channels,” he said, while insisting that the reporter is a spy — something the Journal and US government vehemently deny. It was the first one-on-one interview of Putin by someone from the Western media since 2019. However Carlson, who is close to White House candidate and former president Donald Trump, asked few tough questions and largely listened while the Kremlin leader lectured him on his views of Russian history, portraying the country as a victim of Western betrayals. Putin defended his decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022. And he said the West now realizes that Russia will not be defeated, despite US, European and NATO help to Ukraine. “Up until now, there has been the uproar and screaming about inflicting a strategic defeat to Russia on the battlefield. But now they are apparently coming to realize that it is difficult to achieve, if possible, at all. In my opinion, it is impossible by definition,” he said. He also aimed a message at the US Congress, where Trump-dominated Republicans are increasingly reluctant to keep backing Ukraine with weapons and other military aid. “I will tell you what we are saying on this matter and what we are conveying to the US leadership. If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons,” he said. When asked if Moscow would consider invading other countries in the region — NATO members Poland and Latvia — or generally across the European continent, Putin said that was “out of the question.”“We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply don’t have any interest. It’s just threat mongering,” Putin said.
A war with Poland, he said, would happen “only in one case: if Poland attacks Russia.”Asked about a possible change in leadership after the US election, where Biden is expected to face off against Trump in a rematch of their 2020 contest, Putin indicated he would see little change. “You just asked me if another leader comes and changes something? It is not about the leader. It is not about the personality of a particular person.” Facing Putin in matching white chairs with a small table between them, Carlson rarely pushed back in his interview in an ornate room at the Kremlin — recorded Tuesday and posted on Carlson’s own website — and did not challenge Putin over his relationship with Trump. While president and since being defeated by Biden, Trump has repeatedly praised Putin and failed to condemn the invasion of Ukraine — saying that if he was reelected he would be able to solve the war in “24 hours,” though not saying how. By contrast, Biden has branded Putin a “war criminal” and has made backing for Ukraine’s elected, pro-Western government one of the key priorities of his presidency.

UNICEF says 700,000 children in Sudan at risk of worst form of malnutrition
REUTERS/February 09, 2024
GENEVA: UNICEF said on Friday that 700,000 children in Sudan were likely to suffer from the worst form of malnutrition this year, with tens of thousands who could die. A 10-month war in Sudan between its armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devastated the country’s infrastructure, prompted warnings of famine and displaced millions of people inside and outside the country. “The consequences of the past 300 days means that more than 700,000 children are likely to suffer from the deadliest form of malnutrition this year,” James Elder, spokesperson for UNICEF, told a press conference in Geneva. “UNICEF won’t be able to treat more than 300,000 of those without improved access and without additional support. In that case, tens of thousands would likely die.”Elder defined the most dangerous form of malnutrition as severe acute malnutrition, which makes a child 10 more likely to die from diseases such as cholera and malaria. He said 3.5 million children were projected to suffer acute malnutrition. UNICEF provides “ready-to-use therapeutic food,” or RUTF, a life-saving food item that treats severe wasting in children under five years old, to Sudan.
UNICEF is appealing for $840 million to help just over 7.5 million children in Sudan this year, but Elder deplored the lack of funds collected in previous appeals. “Despite the magnitude of needs, last year the funding UNICEF sought for nearly three-quarters of children in Sudan was not forthcoming,” Elder said.
The United Nations on Wednesday urged countries not to forget the civilians caught up in the war in Sudan, appealing for $4.1 billion to meet their humanitarian needs and support those who have fled to neighboring countries. Half of Sudan’s population — around 25 million people — need humanitarian assistance and protection, while more than 1.5 million people have fled to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan, according to the United Nations.

King of Jordan embarks on tour of US, Canada and Europe to lobby for Gaza ceasefire
ARAB NEWS/February 09, 2024
LONDON: Jordan’s King Abdullah set off on Thursday on an international tour during which he will attempt to mobilize international support for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and for efforts to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians and a mechanism to provide sustainable humanitarian aid to the territory. His trip, which will include visits to the US, Canada, France and Germany, comes as attempts continue by the US and regional powers to broker a ceasefire agreement and secure the release of hostages, with the wider aim of achieving a long-term solution. The king will emphasize the important need to establish a political horizon that paves the way for a comprehensive resolution to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Jordan News Agency reported. In Washington, King Abdullah will hold talks with President Joe Biden, top officials from his administration and members of Congress. This year also marks 75 years of diplomatic relations between the US and Jordan and the king and Queen Rania will visit the White House to celebrate the anniversary. The king will meet Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. He will also attend the 60th Munich Security Conference in Germany, where he is expected to meet several senior European and international officials. Prince Faisal bin Al-Hussein will assume the role of regent during the king’s absence.

Iraq discusses military cooperation agreement with Spain
ARAB NEWS/February 09, 2024
LONDON: Iraq and Spain have been holding talks about a possible military cooperation agreement, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said on Thursday after a meeting with Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles. He said he discussed such a deal with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez when the latter visited Baghdad in December. Al-Sudani said that Spain plays an important role in NATO’s mission in Iraq, but reiterated his government’s intention to conclude the activities of international coalition forces in the country when the counterterrorism capabilities of local security forces are sufficiently developed to tackle threats, particularly those posed by the remnants of Daesh. Al-Sudani also commended Spain for its stance on the conflict between Hamas and Israel in Gaza and its support for efforts to prevent the genocide of Palestinians. Robles said her country remains committed to cooperation with Iraq, respect for its decisions regarding the international coalition forces deployed in the country, and continued support for the Iraqi Defense Ministry. Currently, 367 Spanish soldiers are deployed in Iraq as part of NATO forces there and the global coalition against Daesh, the Kuwait News Agency reported.

UAE mediates Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange
ARAB NEWS/February 09, 2024
DUBAI: The UAE’s foreign ministry has mediated a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia, state news agency WAM reported on Friday. The foreign ministry highlighted the success of the mediation, and said 100 prisoners would be released from each side. The ministry said it will continue to support efforts to find a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine.

From history to humor: Putin's versatility in interview with Tucker Carlson
LBCI/February 09/2024
Russian President Vladimir Putin engaged in a rare interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, blending historical anecdotes with jest as he addressed the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia's relations with the West. During the approximately 30-minute exchange, what began as a 30-second answer from Putin evolved into a historical discourse as he delved into a historical narrative spanning from the establishment of the Russian dynasty in 862 AD to the present day, emphasizing one singular point. Regarding the continuing Russo-Ukrainian conflict, Putin reiterated his blame on NATO and the United States, holding them responsible for perpetuating the war. Putin teased Carlson about the seriousness of their conversation, marking his first interview with a Western journalist since the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian war. Moreover, Putin emphasized Russia's determination to pursue its interests while denying any intention to escalate the war with other countries like Poland and Latvia. However, Putin remained confident that Russia and Ukraine would eventually resolve their differences swiftly. Throughout the interview, the Russian President maintained a light-hearted demeanor, even when questioned about the explosion that disrupted the Russian gas pipeline, Nord Stream, which supplies Europe. In response, his answer was sarcastic, adding to the light-hearted nature of the interview.

Netanyahu asks the army to devise a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah
AFP/February 09/2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested the military to devise a plan to "evacuate" civilians from Rafah, where half of Gaza's total population of 2.4 million people is currently crowded, his office announced on Friday. Netanyahu's office stated in a press release that the Prime Minister asked military officials to "present a comprehensive plan to evacuate the population and eliminate the brigades" of the Hamas movement in the city, which serves as the last refuge for those fleeing the war in the Gaza Strip.

Saudi Arabia hosts Arab diplomats for Gaza talks after Blinken tour
Agence France Presse/February 09/2024
Four top Middle Eastern diplomats reiterated calls for "irreversible" steps towards the recognition of a Palestinian state during talks on the war in Gaza hosted by Saudi Arabia, state media reported on Friday. The meeting -- held on Thursday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his fifth crisis tour of the Middle East since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war -- was attended by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, as well as a senior Palestinian official. Two diplomats briefed on preparations for the meeting told AFP it was intended to promote a unified Arab position on the war, now in its fifth month. "In their meeting, the ministers emphasized the need to end the war on the Gaza Strip, reach an immediate and complete ceasefire, ensure the protection of civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law, and lift all restrictions that impede the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave," the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. They also voiced support for UNRWA, the U.N. Palestinian aid agency that is under fire over Israeli accusations that 12 staff members were involved in Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered the war. "They also stressed the importance of taking irreversible steps to implement the two-state solution and recognize the state of Palestine on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital," SPA said. Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, has never recognized Israel, though officials were considering doing so before the Hamas attack, which allegedly resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas in response, launching air strikes and a ground offensive that have killed at least 27,840 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration continues to tout the possibility of Saudi-Israeli normalization, though the Saudi foreign ministry said this week it would not be possible without a halt to Israeli "aggression" and recognition of an independent Palestinian state. Blinken left the region without securing a pause in fighting, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered troops to "prepare to operate" in Rafah, the last major town in the Gaza Strip ground forces have yet to enter.

Biden calls Israel's Gaza response 'over the top'
Agence France Presse/February 09/2024
Israel's military response in the Gaza Strip to the October 7 attacks by Hamas has been "over the top" and has "got to stop," U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday. "I'm of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top," the Democrat told reporters at the White House. "There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and it's got to stop."American support for Israel's war on the Palestinian militant group has sparked a flurry of attacks on US troops in the region, as well as criticism of the Biden administration at home and abroad. Months of bombardment and siege have deepened a humanitarian crisis across Gaza. But Biden, 81, said he had pushed to get humanitarian assistance into the territory. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi initially "did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in", Biden said. "I talked to him, I convinced him to open the gate. I talked to Bibi to open the gate on the Israeli side," he continued, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "I've been pushing really hard, really hard, to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza." Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 allegedly resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and launched air strikes and a ground offensive that have killed at least 27,840 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry. Militants also seized around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, of whom 29 are believed to have died. The war has sparked a surge in violence across the region by Iran-backed groups operating in solidarity with Hamas, drawing retaliatory attacks from Israel, the United States and its allies.

Strikes on Gaza's Rafah as US warns of potential 'disaster'
Agence France Presse/February 09/2024
Israel conducted fresh strikes on southern Gaza's overcrowded border town of Rafah on Friday, where more than a million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, with key backer the United States warning of a looming "disaster".Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he has ordered troops to "prepare to operate" in Rafah, the last major town in the Gaza Strip Israeli ground troops have yet to enter. A State Department spokesman said Thursday that the United States did not support an Israeli operation in Rafah, with President Joe Biden later telling reporters he considered Israel's conduct of its war against Hamas to be "over the top".The Israeli military stepped up its air strikes on Rafah Thursday, with witnesses reporting more overnight. The territory's health ministry said early Friday that more than 100 people were killed during the night, including at least eight in Rafah.
The Palestinian Red Crescent meanwhile said three children had died in a strike on Rafah. UN chief Antonio Guterres said news of the coming push into the city was "alarming", and warned it "would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare". State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said Washington had "yet to see any evidence of serious planning" for a Rafah ground operation. Noting Rafah was also a crucial entry point for humanitarian aid, he added such an assault was "not something we'd support". "To conduct such an operation right now with no planning and little thought... would be a disaster," he said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken conveyed Washington's concerns to Netanyahu directly during talks on Wednesday in Jerusalem, Patel said. Asked about the war in Gaza at an unrelated press conference Thursday evening, Biden told reporters he was "of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top."
Little progress on truce
The war was triggered by Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which allegedly resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 troops, security personnel, armed settlers and civilians according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Some of those killed were hit by Israeli shelling during the operation to oust Hamas' fighters from south Israel. Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and launched air strikes and a ground offensive that have killed at least 27,840 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry. Militants also seized around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, of whom 29 are believed to have died. Months of bombardment and siege have given rise to a deepening humanitarian crisis, especially in southern Gaza. U.N. rights chief Volker Turk, meanwhile, charged that Israel was committing a "war crime" with its reported destruction of buildings to create a "buffer zone" along the border inside Gaza. Israel's "extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, amounts to a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a war crime", he said in a statement. Despite a recent blitz of diplomatic efforts aimed at brokering a truce, Blinken wrapped up his fifth crisis tour of the Middle East since the war started without securing a pause in fighting. On the ceasefire talks, Blinken insisted he still saw "space for agreement to be reached" to halt the fighting and bring home Israeli hostages, even after Netanyahu rejected what he labelled Hamas's "bizarre demands". Egypt was set to host new talks with Qatari and Hamas negotiators in hopes of achieving "calm" in Gaza and a prisoner-hostage exchange, an Egyptian official said. A Gaza-based Palestinian official close to the militant group later told AFP they expected negotiations to be "difficult", but said Hamas was "keen to reach a ceasefire". In Riyadh, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan reiterated calls for a "immediate and complete ceasefire", as well as "irreversible" steps towards the recognition of a Palestinian state during talks on the war in Gaza, Saudi state media reported on Friday. Two diplomats briefed on preparations for Thursday's meeting told AFP it was intended to promote a unified Arab position on the war.
'Axis of resistance' -
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, whose country backs the "axis of resistance" groups aligned against Israel, is expected to travel to Lebanon on Friday. The Iran-backed axis, which includes Hamas, have stepped up attacks around the Middle East, including in Lebanon, where Hezbollah militants fired a barrage of rockets towards Israel on Thursday. Earlier Thursday evening, an Israeli drone strike on a car in south Lebanon seriously wounded a Hezbollah commander, sources on both sides of the border said. On the same day, American forces struck "four Huthi unmanned surface vessels (USV) and seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles that were prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea," the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) reported. A U.S. air strike in Iraq on Wednesday killed a senior commander from a pro-Iran armed group who CENTCOM said was "responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces." The strike came after Washington last week launched a wave of attacks on Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria following the killing of three U.S. troops in neighboring Jordan.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 09-10/2024
Ex-Israeli PM makes devastating condemnation of Netanyahu’s war in Gaza
Kim Sengupta/The Independent/February 9, 2024
A former prime minister of Israel has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of needlessly prolonging the Gaza offensive and blocking the path to peace while kidnapped hostages are left to die. In a scathing condemnation, Ehud Olmert charged that Mr Netanyahu’s “arrogance” and “manipulation” had led to catastrophic security failures, allowing the Hamas attack which triggered the current conflict. He also warned that right-wing “messianics and extremists” brought into Israel’s governing coalition by the prime minister, are blocking the vital need for a settlement and have plans to cleanse Palestinians from their vision of a “Greater Israel”. Mr Olmert’s strident criticism came as Mr Netanyahu snubbed the latest international attempt at a ceasefire, declaring that the war will continue until complete victory. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, left his fifth visit to the Middle East in the last four months with relations between the Israeli government and Washington reportedly at their worst since the conflict began.
Speaking to The Independent, Mr Olmert said: “Israel has received huge support from the West, from Rishi Sunak in Britain, from Olaf Scholz in Germany, Emmanuel Macron in France and, of course, from Joe Biden, who I got to know well.
“They have got opposition to this support from some people at home. How much longer will they be able to continue this support if this Israeli government will not even open up a narrow window to what may eventually become a peace agreement that will end this war?” Mr Olmert served as deputy prime minister, acting prime minister, and then – from 2006 to 2009 – prime minister of Israel, having spent many years in the Likud party now headed by Mr Netanyahu. Mr Olmert began his political career as a hawk who opposed returning land seized in the six-day war and voted against the Camp David Accords.
However, he later became the chief architect of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and came close to reaching an agreement on a two-state solution with Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas before it fell apart at the last. He argues that there needs to be a ceasefire followed by all conceivable efforts to rescue the hostages still being held. Failure to do this and continue a military mission no longer tenable while hostages remained captive, he held, would be “absolutely unforgivable” and “something which will never be forgotten by the people of Israel”. According to the latest Israeli intelligence estimates, 32 of the more than 130 hostages still held by Hamas are dead after four months of fighting. Until now the Israeli military had confirmed that 29 had lost their lives in captivity. Hostages who were freed in a deal last November appealed to Mr Netanyahu to negotiate a ceasefire and bring their loved ones home.
Speaking at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Thursday, they spoke of their fear that the captives will pay the price for the prime minister’s pursuit of “absolute victory”.
One of them, 72-year-old Adina Moshe, said: “I’m very afraid and very concerned that if you continue with this line of destroying Hamas, there won’t be any hostages left to release. Everything is in your hands.”
Another, Sharon Aloni Cunio, 34, added: “We’ve reached the awful moment when you must decide who lives and who dies… 136 hostages now wait in tunnels, without oxygen, without food, without water, and without hope, waiting for you to save them. The price is heavy, unbearable, but the price of negligence will become a stain for generations.”Mr Olmert said Mr Netanyahu was trying to hide his government’s failure to prevent the Hamas massacre by continuing with military action that has plainly unachievable aims. He said: “The Hamas attack on 7 October was probably the greatest military defeat in the history of the state of Israel. “We had a similar surprise in 1973 [the Yom Kippur war], but that attack was against soldiers, not civilians, and the outcome was very different when the army fought back quickly and aggressively.
“This time the trust of our people, civilians, was betrayed. They were attacked in their homes, and for hours and hours there was no military to save them. This was a devastating defeat for our country.
“The prime minister of Israel is trying to make believe this never happened. He talks about destroying Hamas and removing them from the face of the earth. This is not humanly possible, not something that can be achieved. “It is impossible to destroy a terrorist organisation hiding underground in the most crowded urban centre in the world, surrounded by civilians.”Even when the war ends, Mr Netanyahu appears determined to follow policies that will massively damage Israel, according to Mr Olmert.
Mr Netanyahu has vowed that Israeli forces will stay in Gaza. He is also determined, he has said repeatedly, to stop the PA from administering Gaza. Hard-right members of his cabinet, meanwhile, have advocated resettling Gaza and annexing the PA-run West Bank. Mr Olmert said: “Israel should not keep an army of occupation in Gaza, that would be a very bad mistake. What needs to happen is an international force, with a strong Western presence, to be there. “There are plans by people in this government to take over the West Bank as well. Do we really want to impose occupation on 5 million Palestinians, deny them fundamental human rights? Freedom of speech? Freedom of movement? “I know the tide of opinion turned against the idea of a Palestinian state after the Hamas attack. But I believe that in a relatively short time people will come to terms with the need for a Palestinian state; there is no alternative to this which can work.”The Israeli offensive in Gaza was necessary and inevitable after the Hamas atrocity and a very strong response was needed, Mr Olmert continued.
“And we have done a very good job in a vigorous, impressive manner. We destroyed their bunkers, we have killed and captured many of their fighters, we have destroyed their [missile] launch sites”, he said. “But now there is no longer any point in staying on just to destroy two more tunnels and kill some more people when we have hostages that need to be rescued, to be brought home to their families. This has to be done through negotiations, and those negotiations can lead to a peace agreement.”
More than 27,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli military mission began, according to the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian health authority. Mr Olmert said he did not know the veracity of the numbers, but accepted there have been large-scale civilian casualties. “I ordered our forces to go into a war in Gaza when prime minister,” he said. “You can’t do that and pretend that civilians won’t be killed. I do not know how you can deal with terrorists who hide among people to attack you, without the risk of that happening.
“Let’s not forget the barbarity of Hamas, the killing of children, women, old people, the sexual abuse, the brutality: we were shocked, we were full of grief, how could we not be?” Mr Olmert, paused and looked away for a few seconds before continuing: “Look, the death of a baby in the hands of Hamas is heartbreaking, it is terrible; the death of a baby in Gaza is also heartbreaking and terrible.
“Many of us personally knew people killed by Hamas. A friend, someone I have known since kindergarten was shot and had to lie pretending to be dead for 10 hours. Her husband, a lovely man, was killed in front of her. There are so many other such stories.
“But I also personally know people in Gaza, know what they are going through: families who have had their homes destroyed, people who have lost relations, families who are having to hide underground, frightened. “That is the reason we try for peace, to try at least to prevent this happening in the future. I speak as someone who was not accused of being soft on our enemy when I was in government, I was accused of being too hard.” Mr Olmert insisted that he has “absolutely no regrets” about his part in pulling out of Gaza in 2005: “We had to have 30,000 soldiers stationed there to protect 10,000 Israeli settlers. Soldiers were getting killed, there were constant attacks. What was the wisdom in keeping that?”
He pointed out that Mr Netanyahu, who is now criticising that withdrawal from Gaza, had voted for it to take place. He was also responsible, Mr Olmert added, for freeing more than 1,000 Hamas prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar, who went on to become the group’s head in Gaza, in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a kidnapped Israeli soldier.
“Netanyahu released hardened terrorists, the worst murderers. Then he allowed money to flow into Gaza, he helped Sinwar become powerful”, said Mr Olmert, his finger jabbing in the air. “There was this arrogance that the situation can be controlled, he gave this image that he was the top security expert in the world, he knew how to deal with Hamas, with Iran, with Syria. “His government thought they could manipulate the situation. PA they saw as a burden; Hamas as an asset. Now we see the result of that miscalculation.”
Mr Olmert was convicted in 2015 in Jerusalem on charges of breach of trust, fraud, and tax evasion, much of it involving campaign contributions, and served 16 months in jail. He said of the conviction: “The fact is that you may be a president and prime minister, a senior politician. But when the court decides you’re guilty, you have to accept that and bow your head, which I did.”
He pointed out that Mr Netanyahu is also facing criminal charges of corruption, fraud, and breach of trust filed in 2019. It resumed last December after a two-month pause due to the Gaza war. Mr Netanyahu, who denies the charges, did not attend the hearing. “Let’s see how that goes, again it is up to the court what happens to the prime minister,” said Mr Olmert. Mr Netanyahu’s need for political survival has led him to form a coalition with the hard right, some of whose leaders want wholesale expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank. A senior minister has armed Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have gone on murderous rampages, driving out Palestinian farmers from their land.
“What is happening there is absolutely horrible, farmers being killed, their homes and olive groves destroyed. For these people in Netanyahu’s government, messianics and extremists, Gaza is just a preliminary stage of a bigger plan, to get rid of Palestinians from the West Bank and annex it,” said Mr Olmert. “What I am saying about these people is the view of most Israeli people, the international community needs to know the vast majority of the Israeli people are totally against this. We are not going to let them throw Palestinians out of the West Bank, we shall put our bodies in the way of them, we have to stop it. This is not just for the sake of Palestinians, but also of Israel, we cannot let the values we hold be destroyed by these people.”But, despite the current dark days, Mr Olmert says he is full of optimism: “There’ll be elections in Israel and we’ll have a new government. There are people who can provide the leadership of courage, including the courage to make peace, integrity and moral obligation. “I also know people on the Palestinian side who are capable, talented and can lead their people. I am sure we will get through this together. I have great hope for the future.”

A Quick Look at the 21st Century So Far
Drieu Godefridi/Gatestone Institute/February 09/2024
If you add to this the European Union's obsession with the environment, which has become little more than a machinery for imposing constraints, vexations, punishments and taxes in the name of "energy transition", it appears that stagnation is a problem from which Europe might have the greatest difficulty in freeing itself. China talks tough about Taiwan, but seems leery of using its considerable military force if it can count on the US failing to respond.
Above all, the Chinese regime is a ruthless dictatorship in which people and their property disappear, and there are no mechanisms for peaceful reform.
If there is a single element of the American system that Europe should replicate, it is this flexibility in the labor market.
Will that never happen? No, of course not. That is why Europe will continue to stagnate, while America, despite all its current difficulties, opens up the way of the future.
If the economic and geopolitical facts examined here are anything to go by, the 21st century will be more American than ever.
We are not quite a quarter of the way into the 21st century, but already a few clear structural trends have emerged, even if it is impossible to predict the next "black swans" -- radically unpredictable events with far-reaching consequences – that might occur. Here are four of the trends.
Since 2000, Europe has stagnated on many fronts -- anemic growth, a crashing birth rate, military disinvestment -- from which countries such as Belgium and Germany have still not emerged. Perhaps most worrying of all, according to criteria such as patents, capital investment, and stock market giants such as GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon), Europe has stopped innovating. People innovate in the United States; they still innovate in Asia, but in Europe – hardly at all. If you add to this the European Union's obsession with the environment, which has become little more than a machinery for imposing constraints, vexations, punishments and taxes in the name of "energy transition", it appears that stagnation is a problem from which Europe might have the greatest difficulty in freeing itself.
As history shows, stagnation is an intermediate state. Over time, stagnation is almost always the prelude to regression (here, here and here). When Sparta stopped having children, Sparta wasn't defeated overnight. Sparta remained Sparta, for a time, with its glorious city and its military contingents. Afterwards, Sparta was not defeated: it simply gradually disappeared from the face of the earth.
The sharpshooters of French Thought, who have the distinction of being wrong almost all the time, on every subject have been telling us for 50 years that the 21st century would be 'Chinese'. We are told: Learn Chinese as fast as you can, they are already on their way! In reality, the Chinese Communist Party is also stagnating, caught up in many crises at every level: Economic stagnation, demographic collapse, unemployment among young Chinese at 20%, stock market collapse, destruction of the Hong Kong financial center, monetary isolation. Many have predicted the replacement of the US dollar by China's yuan as the world's international currency -- a transformation China is clearly trying to effect -- but if you were a country, would you rather be protected by China or protected by the Free World?
China talks tough about Taiwan, but seems leery of using its considerable military force if it can count on the US failing to respond. One problem is that that China sees Biden as weak, passive and compliant, so they may well be planning to try to "Hong Kong" Taiwan. Above all, the Chinese regime is a ruthless dictatorship in which people and their property disappear, and there are no mechanisms for peaceful reform. Chinese President Xi Jinping alone decides everything, "like a god among men", and unfortunately for his people, does not seem particularly open to criticism.
Then there is the rest of the world, what in the 20th century was known as the "Third World." Compared to the previous century, the Third World, at least in places, is doing better: some countries have become much richer, thanks to the market economy and openness to international capitalism. Experts tell us that the countries of the BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] organization embody the future, just as they told us yesterday that the 21st century will be Chinese. The problem is that the two major countries of BRICS -- China and India -- are almost at war on their common border, and that there are far more things to divide the BRICS countries than to unite them, and that an organization can only ever decide according to the principle of the greatest common denominator, which, in the case of BRICS, seems close to zero.
The BRICS countries are getting richer, billions of people are being lifted out of poverty, and we rejoice. It is noticeable that countries such as the great Brazilian democracy are thinking of a future less dependent on the West. However, the idea that BRICS will shape the 21st century does not stand up to analysis. Prof. Jyrki Käkönen wrote in 2014:
"[I]t is not easy to assume that BRICS would be an organization capable of changing the international system as long as BRICS members have different kinds of expectations when it comes to the future world order. In this respect the most important BRICS countries are China and India, which also have contradictory interests and expectations about the future order of Asia as well as the entire world order."
Argentina recently announced that it was dropping its application to join BRICS.
Then there is the American system, which constantly seems to test its own limits. There are countless problems in the United States, such as immigration, which has sadly become as lawless in the US as it is in Europe There is defunding the police, which, not surprisingly, has added to the anarchy. The political divisions that race-baiters have whipped up are such that rather than help minorities, such as improving K-12 education, there have just been increasing episodes of violence and an increasing number of cities with massive drug problems.
America, however, is also prosperous; formidably innovative, at the head of the most dazzling military concentration ever assembled, and structurally capable of managing economic and financial crises better than its competitors. Why? For a simple reason: flexibility. In many American states, you can hire and fire without cause, with just a few days' notice. As soon as a company expands, it can hire on a massive scale in order to grow because it knows that if it hits hard times, it can also lay off people just as fast. A company is a rational entity.
If there is a single element of the American system that Europe should replicate, it is this flexibility in the labor market.
Will that never happen? No, of course not. That is why Europe will continue to stagnate, while America, despite all its current difficulties, opens up the way of the future.
If the economic and geopolitical facts examined here are anything to go by, the 21st century will be more American than ever.
**Drieu Godefridi is a jurist (University Saint-Louis, University of Louvain), philosopher (University Saint-Louis, University of Louvain) and PhD in legal theory (Paris IV-Sorbonne). He is an entrepreneur, CEO of a European private education group and director of PAN Medias Group. He is the author of The Green Reich (2020).
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Question: “What does it mean that a Christian is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)?”
GotQuestions.org?/February 09/2024
Answer: The new creation is described in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” The word “therefore” refers us back to verses 14-16 where Paul tells us that all believers have died with Christ and no longer live for themselves. Our lives are no longer worldly; they are now spiritual. Our “death” is that of the old sin nature which was nailed to the cross with Christ. It was buried with Him, and just as He was raised up by the Father, so are we raised up to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). That new person that was raised up is what Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 5:17 as the “new creation.”
To understand the new creation, first we must grasp that it is in fact a creation, something created by God. John 1:13 tells us that this new birth was brought about by the will of God. We did not inherit the new nature from our parents or decide to re-create ourselves anew. Neither did God simply clean up our old nature; He created something entirely fresh and unique. The new creation is completely new, brought about from nothing, just as the whole universe was created by God ex nihilo, from nothing. Only the Creator could accomplish such a feat.
Second, “old things have passed away.” The “old” refers to everything that is part of our old nature—natural pride, love of sin, reliance on works, and our former opinions, habits and passions. Most significantly, what we loved has passed away, especially the supreme love of self and with it self-righteousness, self-promotion, and self-justification. The new creature looks outwardly toward Christ instead of inwardly toward self. The old things died, nailed to the cross with our sin nature.
Along with the old passing away, “the new has come!” Old, dead things are replaced with new things, full of life and the glory of God. The newborn soul delights in the things of God and abhors the things of the world and the flesh. Our purposes, feelings, desires, and understandings are fresh and different. We see the world differently. The Bible seems to be a new book, and though we may have read it before, there is a beauty about it which we never saw before, and which we wonder at not having perceived. The whole face of nature seems to us to be changed, and we seem to be in a new world. The heavens and the earth are filled with new wonders, and all things seem now to speak forth the praise of God. There are new feelings toward all people—a new kind of love toward family and friends, a new compassion never before felt for enemies, and a new love for all mankind. The things we once loved, we now detest. The sin we once held onto, we now desire to put away forever. We “put off the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:9), and put on the “new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
What about the Christian who continues to sin? There is a difference between continuing to sin and continuing to live in sin. No one reaches sinless perfection in this life, but the redeemed Christian is being sanctified (made holy) day by day, sinning less and hating it more each time he fails. Yes, we still sin, but unwillingly and less and less frequently as we mature. Our new self hates the sin that still has a hold on us. The difference is that the new creation is no longer a slave to sin, as we formerly were. We are now freed from sin and it no longer has power over us (Romans 6:6-7). Now we are empowered by and for righteousness. We now have the choice to “let sin reign” or to count ourselves “dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11-12). Best of all, now we have the power to choose the latter.
The new creation is a wondrous thing, formed in the mind of God and created by His power and for His glory.

Iraq needs reconciliation based on dialogue and word, not violence and blood
Mustafa Al-Kadhimi/Arab News/February 09, 2024
Before I became prime minister of Iraq, I recalled many questions that I had carried with me since my forced exile until my return in mid-2003, through all the stages that followed, all the way to the legitimate popular protests in October 2019.
There is a common denominator between these questions: the lack of an important characteristic in their answers —transparency. This is the first step to building an institutional democratic state that enshrines the concept of belonging to the homeland, and requires all of us to put its interest ahead of any other consideration. I remember what I said in Irbil in October 2022, on the fifth anniversary of the death of former President Jalal Talabani: “Let us adhere to dialogue, dialogue, dialogue ... and nothing else, as it is our only way to resolve the crisis.”
I remain confident about this path because of its necessity politically, economically, socially, and structurally, provided it is transparent, clear, comprehensive, deep, and productive, removes past obstacles, and establishes the foundation for reform of our political system.
Why do we lose time?
Discussions between elites, officials, and those concerned with public affairs always conclude with an acknowledgment of the failure of the political process that was built after 2003. This failure extends, first, to the form of the political, economic, and security system; second, the unifying relationship between the social components and segments; and third, to the nature of the discourse directed to the masses, and the competencies and energies of impulsive youth. All this failure is manifested by the helplessness of the state as a whole, the weakness of its institutions to perform their tasks, and the difficulty in regenerating itself. Discussions between elites, officials, and those concerned with public affairs always conclude with an acknowledgment of the failure of the political process that was built after 2003. These discussions raise questions and problems that require convincing answers that can be streamlined in media and public discourse, ensuring interaction between political and popular actors. It is necessary to start from a basic rule that calls for understanding the movement of history and learning from the experiences of others. History moves forward and cannot go backward.
My constant recall of the experiences of others is not a pleasure, as much as it is a sincere invitation to benefit from and learn lessons and to buy time and invest it, instead of wasting it. We are in a fight against time, and missing the opportunity means delaying the future for years.
Our young Iraqi experience at various levels seems humble in the face of the tremendous leaps that our surroundings and the world are witnessing. The national humanitarian and moral duty requires launching a sustainable reform and development project. This is based on the conviction that the era of coups is over, that military interventions do not build but rather destroy, and that honest discourse is linked to actions, not words.
How can we achieve this?
It is essential to open broad and transparent discussions on all thorny issues, or those that raise “reservations” and require a kind of consideration and silence. These discussions are based on legitimate questions, imposed by the failure to implement previous visions, and it has become necessary to address them so that they do not resurge in the next few years. What are the components of our Iraqi national identity? What are the unifying threads between thosecomponents? How can they be formulated and re-presented in a convincing way to all national, intellectual and social segments? This problem is the introduction to preserving the history that is deeply rooted in humanity, and it would be the starting point for building our future, for which we fought throughout the years of exile, defending those who opposed dictatorship inside and outside Iraq.
What is the most appropriate form of government? How can we express the true will of the people? What is the optimal electoral system for this? Do some constitutional provisions need to be reconsidered? Let us define them and propose mechanisms to modify them.
How can we organize the relationship between central government and the Kurdistan region? Have we succeeded in implementing a federal system? How can we restore prestige to the state and its institutions? What is the most appropriate solution to control the rampant weapons that have become part of the culture of our society?
We are in a fight against time, and missing the opportunity means delaying the future for years.
Has our economic system succeeded in achieving the desired prosperity or failed in attaining even aminimum level of development? How can we restore the balance between the state’s financial resources without total dependence on oil?
What needs to be prioritized: the higher Iraqi interest or the interests of others? Why can’t we be like others who put the interests of their country before everything else? Are Iraqis required to be internationalists or patriots? What are the forms of interaction with major issues and their limits? How will we build our state within this geographical, politically conflicting space? How can we turn this threat into an opportunity to make Iraq an arena for meeting, launching, and attracting major projects that achieve economic interconnectionwith our surroundings?
How do we employ our moral and value system in our political work without making it an excuse for committing crimes, so that we do not lose those who believed in us and misplace values formulated by human nature?
These problems will remain captive to the idea if they are not transformed into a serious dialogue that produces concepts, through a national institution that brings together the political, intellectual, academic and social elites, cooperating with each other, to find answers and turn them into projects in the hands of those concerned. In that way we restore lost confidence, so that the people will be on the side of a state that is keen to renew itself on the one hand and establish a real reform path on the other, to reach comprehensive reconciliation based on dialogue and word, not violence and blood.
*Mustafa Al-Kadhimi is the former prime minister of Iraq. This article first appeared in Asharq Al-Awsat.

EU’s adaptability key to its future success
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/February 09, 2024
As the EU this week marked the 32nd anniversary of its creation, it is a fitting moment to reflect on the journey of this historic alliance. The EU has undergone profound transformations, while facing numerous challenges and achieving notable successes.
In the Dutch city of Maastricht, a significant moment transpired on Feb. 7, 1992, as the Treaty on European Union was officially signed. This milestone not only established explicit regulations for the impending single currency, but also outlined frameworks for collective foreign and security policies, as well as fostering closer collaboration in justice and home affairs. The formal inception of the “European Union” was thereby marked by the enactment of this pivotal treaty.
The journey of the EU has not been without its hurdles. The union has confronted economic crises, political divisions, the unprecedented global challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, the Russia-Ukraine war. In addition, the economic disparities among member states, as exemplified by the struggles of Southern European countries during the eurozone crisis, underscore the ongoing challenge of achieving economic convergence.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that the EU has grappled with political divisions, most notably during the Brexit saga. The decision of the UK to leave the union in 2016 highlighted internal fissures and raised questions about the cohesion of the bloc. The aftermath of Brexit has necessitated a reevaluation of the EU’s structures and policies, particularly in areas such as trade, security and immigration.
In spite of these challenges, the EU has achieved significant milestones that have shaped its identity as a global player. For example, the creation of the euro currency in 1999 stands out as a symbol of economic integration and the fostering of trade and stability among nations.
The enlargement of the EU to include many more Central and Eastern European countries in the early 2000s brought about political and economic transformation, enhancing stability and cooperation in the region. Moreover, the EU has played a pivotal role in promoting peace and diplomacy. The union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 for its contribution to the advancement of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe. The Schengen Area, which was established in 1995 and allows for passport-free travel among member states, exemplifies the bloc’s commitment to fostering unity and cooperation.
When it comes to the economic perspective, it was believed that one of the primary advantages of EU membership would lie in the economic benefits derived from the single market. Member states have access to a vast consumer base, facilitating trade and economic growth. Indeed, the free movement of goods, services, capital and people has not only boosted economic activity but has also promoted cultural exchange and understanding among European citizens.
Another issue is related to environmental sustainability and social justice, which has led the EU to implement progressive policies. From stringent environmental regulations to the protection of workers’ rights, the EU has sought to create a harmonious and equitable society. Additionally, there has been an emphasis on research and innovation, which has propelled Europe to the forefront of technological advancements, fostering its competitiveness on the global stage.
While the EU has undoubtedly brought about positive changes, it is not immune to criticism. For example, the eurozone crisis of the early 2010s exposed the flaws in the common currency framework and revealed the challenges of maintaining economic harmony among diverse economies. Austerity measures imposed on struggling member states led to social unrest and raised questions about the effectiveness of the EU’s economic policies.
Moreover, the handling of migration issues has been a divisive topic. Disagreements among member states on burden-sharing and the lack of a unified approach have strained relations, revealing underlying tensions and disparities in the EU’s response to humanitarian challenges.
In addition, the democratic deficit, characterized by a perceived lack of accountability and transparency in decision-making processes, has been a recurrent concern. Some critics argue that unelected officials in Brussels exert too much influence, potentially undermining the democratic principles member states hold dear. To strengthen the union, its leaders face the critical task of reinforcing it to navigate an ever-evolving geopolitical landscape. This includes implementing effective mechanisms to address economic disparities among member states. This can be achieved by focusing on promoting sustainable economic growth among all members, investing in education and innovation and fostering job creation to achieve greater convergence.
And, in order to counter criticisms of a democratic deficit, EU institutions should prioritize transparency and inclusivity. Engaging with citizens through open dialogue and ensuring that decision-making processes are more accessible can help rebuild trust and strengthen the democratic foundation of the union.
More fundamentally, the EU ought to develop a unified and compassionate approach to migration, addressing both the humanitarian aspects and the concerns of member states. A comprehensive migration policy, based on solidarity and burden-sharing, can contribute to a more cohesive and cooperative union.
The EU has achieved significant milestones that have shaped its identity as a global player.
Finally, as the world faces challenges such as climate change, cybersecurity threats and global health crises, the EU must constantly adapt its policies to address these issues collectively. Strengthening cooperation in areas of common interest will reinforce the EU’s role as a leader in addressing global challenges. This can include embracing technological advancements and fostering innovation. Investing in research and development, promoting digitalization and ensuring that member states are equipped to navigate the digital age will also contribute to the union’s competitiveness on the global stage.
In a nutshell, the EU’s ability to adapt and overcome challenges and conflicts will determine its role in shaping the future of Europe and beyond. By addressing economic disparities, building a common approach to migration, adapting to global challenges and fostering innovation, EU leaders can chart a course for a stronger and more resilient union.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. X: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Americans anxious about prospect of Trump-Biden rematch
Maria Maalouf/Arab News/February 09, 2024
As Donald Trump inches closer to capturing the Republican Party nomination for president after his major victories in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, the probability of him again confronting President Joe Biden in November is today the central question in American politics. However, different scenarios are now being debated to assess the likelihood of Trump returning to the White House.
While Trump is regarded as the presumptive GOP candidate and he has a solid grip over rank-and-file Republicans, there is speculation that he will not win enough votes among independents and the general population to guarantee victory over Biden. Most Americans do not want a November 2024 replay of the election of four years ago. Most voters think they have little reason to choose either of the two candidates. But both Biden and Trump are trying to convince the American voters that they are the right choice. Biden’s campaign sees its biggest advantage in him being a polar opposite candidate to the figure of Trump himself. They are portraying the former president to the American public as someone who is very vulnerable because, if he were to be convicted of a crime as a felon, his support would drop dramatically.
Undeniably, Biden faces no opposition in the Democratic Party race. Biden won last month’s New Hampshire Democratic primary strongly, getting 64 percent of the vote on a write-in campaign. His nearest rival, Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, had only 20 percent, while author Marianne Williamson was third with 4 percent. And Biden last week trounced his two competitors in South Carolina, netting more than 96 percent of the vote.
However, it is also important to assess Trump’s political strength. Trump swept the Jan. 15 Iowa caucus with a large victory margin. He won 56,260 votes, which was 51 percent of the total and guaranteed him a gain of 20 delegates. On the other hand, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had figures of 21.2 percent and 23,420 votes, earning him nine delegates. Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, had 19.1 percent of the vote, or 21,085 votes, and secured eight delegates. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who styled his campaign as him being the harshest critic of Trump, received only 191 votes, or 0.2 percent of the Iowa Republican electorate.
In the New Hampshire primary, Trump won 54.3 percent of the vote, getting 176,392 votes and 12 delegates. Haley held 43.2 percent of the vote or 140,288 ballots, winning her nine delegates. They are being accused of looking out for their own interests, not the American people’s common interests
It is critical to point out that Trump is favored to win on Super Tuesday, which is scheduled for March 5. In addition, he is far ahead in the polls in South Carolina, where his now sole opponent, Haley, was previously governor. Furthermore, he enjoys a great deal of support among evangelical Christians. Needless to say, his “MAGA” supporters are well organized and stand with him in every political fight he enters. Many Republican voters believe that a liberal establishment that is biased against him is responsible for fabricating his legal troubles. An even bigger segment of Republicans thinks that Biden’s win in 2020 was illegitimate.
Nevertheless, Trump has his weaknesses. Although he had a nearly three-to-one advantage among registered Republicans in Iowa, Haley wins more votes among undeclared or independent voters. The alienation of Trump by millions of independent voters could be the most crucial factor that might prevent him from winning against Biden.
Yet, the political message of the US presidential election in 2024 is confusing to millions of Americans. Neither Biden nor Trump are popular. Both of them are viewed as too old. The American people are anxious to get this election over with. Voters resent the fierce hostility that each candidate harbors toward the other. The language of the campaign is so abrasive. There is a desire for revenge in this campaign. The two candidates are hitting out against each other out of arrogance and conceit. They are being accused of looking out for their own interests, not the American people’s common interests. The two parties are aggressive toward each other. Most Americans judge the course of the campaign for president in 2024 as displaying unhealthy signs for democracy.
Biden’s tenure in the White House has been dominated by high inflation and the wars in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Gaza. Many fear that another Trump presidency will be an exercise in authoritarianism. Therefore, the election in 2024 will be less of a popularity contest than a casting of ballots on which candidate the American people consider the least bad option.
• Maria Maalouf is a Lebanese journalist, broadcaster, publisher, and writer. X: @bilarakib