Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 12-13/2024
Ash Monday: A Holy Day For Repentance Prayers & Forgiveness/Elias Bejjani/February 12/2024
Fasting is prayer, contemplation, repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation with God, oneself, and others/Elias Bejjani/February 10/2024
Israel intensifies attacks on southern Lebanon
WHO chief reiterates call for Gaza ceasefire, says medical aid to enclave ‘drop in the ocean’
France proposes Hezbollah withdrawal, border talks for Israel-Lebanon truce
Hezbollah commander trains Russian drone operators in Syria for deployment against Ukraine
Hezbollah announces the killing of two members in an Israeli bombing of southern Lebanon
The hand of a Hezbollah official was amputated and 4 were martyred by Israeli bombing
Two Israeli raids on the outskirts of Qabrikha and the outskirts of Taloussa towards Wadi Saluki
Deaths in Israeli raids on homes and cars
Border clashes: Latest developments
Hezbollah official injured in Israeli strike in southern Lebanon: AFP
Hezbollah official wounded in Israeli strike on Bint Jbeil
Report: Paris tells Lebanon Gaza truce before end of month
Army chief reportedly worried about escalation as Nabatiyeh becomes target
Lebanese FM: Resolution 1701 implementation vital for Lebanon's security
Report: Abdollahian urged allies in Lebanon to show restraint
Hariri meets with Mikati after arriving in Beirut
Nasrallah meets Nakhala as tensions flare in Lebanon, region
Sami Gemayel: Lebanon is a country of freedom, and Hezbollah is harming the essence of its existence
Lebanese army responds to discovery of unexploded Israeli missile in Habchit outskirts
Berri broaches developments with Ain El-Tineh visitors, receives Caretaker Foreign Minister, UN's Wronecka, Consular Corps delegation
Mikati broaches developments with UN’s Wronecka, meets Caretaker Finance Minister, Mufti of Akkar, Central Bank Acting Governor, Presidency General...
Bou Habib meets French, Spanish Ambassadors: Implementation of resolution 1701, ceasing violations, and Israel's withdrawal to internationally...

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 12-13/2024
Israeli forces rescue 2 hostages in dramatic Gaza raid that killed at least 67 Palestinians
Report: Biden calls Netanyahu an 'asshole' in private conversations
Egypt slams Israeli minister’s claim it shares October 7 ‘responsibility’
Palestinian president discusses latest Gaza developments with Qatari emir in Doha
Israeli military tells BBC it will discipline soldiers in videos seen humiliating Palestinian detainees
EU Foreign Policy Chief Calls on US to Stop Supplying Weapons to Israel
Egypt is threatening to void its decades-old peace treaty with Israel. What does that mean?
Egypt is threatening to void its decades-old peace treaty with Israel. What does that mean?
UAE diplomat says 'irreversible' progress to Palestinian state needed for Gaza reconstruction
Oil Falls After Weekly Gain as Iran Signals Gaza Talks Progress
UN Palestinian aid agency says it's 'critical' to receive EU aid soon, but EU wants an audit first
Iran's FM Arrives in Damascus, Invites Assad to Visit Tehran
Biden welcomes King of Jordan to discuss hostage deal
UNRWA says 'critical' to receive EU aid soon but EU wants audit first
Dutch appeals court orders Netherlands to stop exports of F-35 parts to Israel, citing war in Gaza
Yemen's Houthi rebels fire missiles at ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, causing minor damage
US Proceeds With $23 Billion Warplane, Missile Sale to Turkey
Sikh separatist’s home in Canada hit by gunfire
One dead, five injured in New York subway shooting

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on February 12-13/2024
'Why Doesn't Hamas Go to Hell and Hide There?': Other Voices from Gaza/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./February 12, 2024
Are Muslim Converts to Christianity Sincere?/Raymond Ibrahim./February 12, 2024
Why ‘transfer’ from Gaza is the Hamas war’s biggest taboo/Dr. Mordechai Nisan/New York Post/February 12/2024
No one is fooled by Iran and its proxies’ smoke-and-mirrors pantomime/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/February 12, 2024
The power of small and smart states/Armen Sarkissian/Arab News/February 12, 2024
Fear: A Shared and Taboo Sentiment in Our Region/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 13/2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 12-13/2024
Ash Monday: A Holy Day For Repentance Prayers & Forgiveness
Elias Bejjani/February 12/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/72716/elias-bejjani-what-is-the-ash-monday/
Before Christianity, The Jews used to scatter ashes on their heads and bodies while weeping and wailing over their sins, in order to purify their bodies from sins, and to remind themselves that they came from dust and to dust they will return.
The Jews used to practice this ritual before starting any fasting, in a bid to atone for their sins. Christians kept on performing this ritual, but the ashes used were taken from the olive branches burned on the Palm Sunday.
These ashes were used the next year on the first lent Monday to wipe the foreheads of the repentant fasting believers, with a cross symbol so that they begin the lent forty period with true repentance befitting their Christian faith …”Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return (genesis03/19)”.
Ash Monday is the first day of Lent ,and It is a moveable feast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. On The Ash Monday the priest ceremonially marks with wet ashes on the worshippers’ foreheads a visible cross while saying: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return (genesis03/19)”.
Worshippers are reminded of their sinfulness and mortality and thus, implicitly, of their need to repent in time.
Ash Monday (Greek: Καθαρά Δευτέρα), is also known as Clean and Pure Monday. The common term for this day, refers to the leaving behind of sinful attitudes and non-fasting foods.
Our Maronite Catholic Church is notable amongst the Eastern rites employing the use of ashes on this day.
(In the Western Catholic Churches this day falls on Wednesday and accordingly it is called the “Ash Wednesday”).
Ash Monday is a Christian holy day of prayer, fasting, contemplating of transgressions and repentance. It is a reminder that we should begin Lent with good intentions, and a desire to clean our spiritual house. It is a day of strict fasting including abstinence, not only from meat, but from eggs and dairy products as well. Liturgically, Ash Monday—and thus Lent itself—begins on the preceding (Sunday) night, at a special service called Forgiveness Vespers, which culminates with the Ceremony of Mutual Forgiveness, at which all present will bow down before one another and ask forgiveness. In this way, the faithful begin Lent with a clean conscience, with forgiveness, and with renewed Christian love. The entire first week of Great Lent is often referred to as “Clean Week”, and it is customary to go to Confession during this week, and to clean the house thoroughly. The Holy Bible stresses the conduct of humility and not bragging for not only during the fasting period, but every day and around the clock.
It is worth mentioning that Ashes were used in ancient times to express grief. When Tamar was raped by her half-brother, “she sprinkled ashes on her head, tore her robe, and with her face buried in her hands went away crying” (2 Samuel 13:19).
Examples of the Ash practices among Jews are found in several other books of the Bible, including Numbers 19:9, 19:17, Jonah 3:6, Book of Esther 4:1, and Hebrews 9:13.
Jesus is quoted as speaking of the Ash practice in Matthew 11:21 and Luke 10:13: “If the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
NB: This piece was first published in 2000, Republished today with numerous changes

Fasting is prayer, contemplation, repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation with God, oneself, and others
Elias Bejjani/February 10/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/83444/elias-bejjani-cana-wedding-miracle-the-forgiveness-marfaa-sunday-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b1%d9%81%d8%b9-%d9%88%d9%85%d8%b9%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b5%d9%88%d9%85/
Lent period starts with the Cana Holy Wedding Miracle and ends with the Holy Easter Day. Lent in the Maronite Church rite starts on the ASH Monday and ends on the Light Saturday.
The Sunday that comes before the beginning of the lent period is called  Ahad Al Marfah (أحد المرفع) or forgiveness Sunday (أحد الغفران).
Lent in principle is a Holy period that is ought to be utilized with God in genuine contemplation, self humility, repentance, penances, forgiveness, praying and conciliation with self and others. Lent is a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Jesus Who is the fountain of all love, forgiveness and mercy. Lent is a pilgrimage in which Jesus Himself accompanies us through the desert of our poverty while sustaining us on our way towards the intense joy of Easter.
The lent period is a spiritual battle that we chose to fight our own selves and all its bodily and earthly instinctual pleasures in a bid to abstain from all acts and thoughts of sin.
Lent is ought to strengthen our hope and faith in a bid to fight Satan and to keep away from his ways of sin and despair. Praying and contemplation teaches us that Almighty God is there to guard us and to lead our steps during the entire Lenten period.
When we fast and pray, we find time for God, to understand that his words will not pass away.
Through fasting and praying we can enter into that intimate communion with Jesus so that no one shall take from us the faith and hope that does not disappoint.
Fasting is a battle of spiritual engagement through which we seek to imitate Jesus Christ who fought Satan’s temptations while fasting in the wilderness. He triumphed over Satan, and we faithfully endeavour during the Lent period to tame and defeat our earthly instincts and make our hearts, conscience and thinking pure, immaculate and pious.
We fast and trust that the Lord is our loving Shepherd.
“Psalm 23:04: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and staff comfort me.”
Reading the Holy Bible and praying offers us God’s Word with particular abundance and empowers our souls and minds with His Word.
Mark 13:31: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”
By meditating and internalizing the Word Of God we learn precious and irreplaceable forms of prayer.
By attentively listening to God, who continues to speak to our hearts, we nourish the itinerary of faith initiated on the day of our Baptism.
Prayers and fasting allow us to gain a new concept of time and directs our steps towards horizons of hope and joy that have no limits.

Israel intensifies attacks on southern Lebanon
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/February 12, 2024
BEIRUT: Israel intensified its attacks on southern Lebanon on Monday. A residential house in the border town of Maroun Al-Ras was targeted during a raid, resulting in the deaths of four individuals.
A security source said that the target was Hezbollah’s official in the town.Israel increased its targeting of Hezbollah’s leaders in the field. A car near the Bint Jbeil Governmental Hospital was hit by an Israeli drone targeting Hezbollah official Mohammed Abd Al-Rasoul Alawiya. Although Alawiya managed to survive, there were casualties in the attack whose identities remained undisclosed. Hezbollah mourned Mohammed Baqir Hassan Bassam from the town of Ainata and Ali Ahmed Muhanna from the town of Maroun Al-Ras.
Hezbollah typically discloses the identities of its killed members, but it never discloses the identities or number of its injured members. An Israeli raid targeted a house owned by the Ataya family in the town of Tair Harfa, killing two people, who were said to be Palestinians. Israeli fighter jets conducted multiple airstrikes on the town of Khiam and the surrounding areas of Kafr Kila, Adissa, and Taybeh. Occasional Israeli artillery bombardment was reported in the forests of Labouneh and the outskirts of Al-Dhahira town. Hezbollah carried out various attacks on Sunday. They targeted spy equipment at the Ruwaisat Al-Alam site in the Kafr Shuba hills and the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms, as well as a group of soldiers in Jabal Nadhar. They also attacked a group of Israeli soldiers in the Tahihat triangle and spy equipment at the Al-Abad site.
The total number of Hezbollah operations from Oct. 8 to Feb. 11 has reached 1,013. On Sunday night, villages in the western and central sectors felt a tense calm after a series of violent artillery shelling and raids. One of these attacks targeted a house in Shihin, resulting in the death of two members of the Amal Movement: Mohammed Rabie Al-Masry from the town of Al-Mansouri in Tyre, and Hassan Ali Farroukh from Anqoun in Sidon. Several people were also injured during these incidents.
“If the US wants to stop the war, why is it, until this moment, providing Israel with all the ammunition it needs?” stated the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, during an event held by the party. “The battle between the Israeli army and Hamas will take forever and a day if the army is not deterred. The Israeli prime minister is escaping forward by insisting on moving on with the war to avoid going to prison.”Raad said the Israeli army’s “attacks on Lebanon were a twist on the usual when they targeted Hezbollah members in Nabatieh, Jadra, and Harouf. This has no effect on the balance of power whatsoever. “The Israeli army will never be able to impose its conditions on us. It has to be deterred until things get stabilized and move towards slowing down the pace of escalation. This is not impossible but will take a little longer,” Raad added. After he decided to suspend his involvement in political activities two years ago and left Lebanon, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri flew back to Beirut on Sunday night and held his first meeting on Monday with caretaker PM Najib Mikati. Some see the move as an indication of Hariri’s reinvolvement in political activities. Hariri will be commemorating on Wednesday the 19th anniversary of the assassination of his father, late PM Rafik Hariri. The Future Movement was absent from the political arena after Hariri’s decision. However, for the past couple of days, it invited its followers from various regions to head to Martyrs’ Square in Beirut for a commemoration ceremony that will be held in front of Hariri’s shrine in the heart of the Lebanese capital. Photos of Hariri and the blue banner of the Future Movement were raised in the streets of Beirut, Tripoli, and Sidon, in addition to placards calling on Hariri to return to politics.

WHO chief reiterates call for Gaza ceasefire, says medical aid to enclave ‘drop in the ocean’
ARAB NEWS/February 12, 2024
LONDON: The head of the World Health Organization said on Monday the humanitarian situation in Gaza was dire, adding that current levels of medical supplies reaching the Palestinian enclave were “only a drop in the ocean of need.”Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai and during his address he reiterated calls for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza that has ravaged the area. “WHO continues to call for safe access for humanitarian personnel and supplies,” he told the summit. “We continue to call for hostages held by Hamas to be released. And we continue to call for a ceasefire.”He added he was deeply concerned by Israeli attacks on Rafah where most of the enclave’s inhabitants have fled and where strikes killed 48 people overnight. “Only 15 out of 36 hospitals are still partially or minimally functioning, and Gaza health workers are doing their best in impossible circumstances,” he said. “I am especially concerned by the recent attacks on Rafah where the majority of Gaza’s population has fled the destruction. “So far, we have delivered 447 metric tons of medical supplies to Gaza, but it’s a drop in the ocean of need, which continues to grow every day,” he added.
The latest conflict broke out after attacks on Oct. 7 by Hamas fighters in Israeli towns, which killed 1,200 people and around 250 hostages seized, according to Israeli figures. The war, now entering its fifth month, has killed more than 28,000 people in Gaza, health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave have said.
Tedros said lessons were not being learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and that the world was not prepared for a new pandemic, which he added was inevitable. “If the world fails to learn from these lessons, it will pay dearly next time,” he said. “And there will be a next time. History teaches us that the next pandemic is a matter of when — not if.”He continued: “It may be caused by an influenza virus, or a new Coronavirus or it may be caused by a new pathogen we don’t even know about yet. Tomorrow we would face many of the same problems we face with COVID-19.”
Tedros rejected what he called “a litany of lies and conspiracy theories” surrounding current negotiations on an international agreement on pandemic preparedness and response. Since December 2021, when WHO member states met in Geneva to begin drafting a global agreement, efforts have been ongoing to reach a consensus ahead of the World Health Assembly in May. But “obstacles remain” to meet that deadline, Tedros said, due to misinformation about the agreement being a “power grab by the World Health Organization.”He rejected those accusations, adding that all countries needed to work together to share information, knowledge and expertise to detect and contain pathogens presenting a risk, and timely access to tests, treatments and vaccines.“The COVID-19 pandemic inflicted huge losses on communities, countries, businesses and economies. Those losses must not be in vain and must not be repeated,” he said. “It’s possible or even likely that we will face another pandemic in our lifetimes. We can’t know how mild or severe it might be. But we can be ready.”

France proposes Hezbollah withdrawal, border talks for Israel-Lebanon truce
BEIRUT/PARIS
France has delivered a written proposal to Beirut aimed at ending hostilities with Israel and settling the disputed Lebanon-Israel frontier, according to a document seen by Reuters that calls for fighters including Hezbollah's elite unit to withdraw 10 km (6 miles) from the border. The plan aims to end fighting between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel at the border. The hostilities have run in parallel to the Gaza war and are fueling concern of a ruinous, all-out confrontation. The document, the first written proposal brought to Beirut during weeks of Western mediation, was delivered to top Lebanese state officials including Prime Minister Najib Mikati by French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne last week, four senior Lebanese and three French officials said. It declares the aim of preventing a conflict "that risks spiraling out of control" and enforcing "a potential ceasefire, when the conditions are right" and ultimately envisions negotiations on delineation of the contentious land border between Lebanon and Israel. Hezbollah rejects formally negotiating a de-escalation until the war in Gaza ends, a position reiterated by a Hezbollah politician in response to questions for this story. While some details of similar mediation efforts by U.S. Middle East envoy Amos Hochstein have been circulating in recent weeks, the full details of the French written proposal delivered to Lebanon have not previously been reported.
The three-step plan envisages a 10-day process of de-escalation ending with the border negotiations. One French diplomatic source said the proposal had been put to the governments of Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah. France has historical ties with Lebanon. It has 20,000 citizens in the country and some 800 troops as part of a U.N. peacekeeping force. "We made proposals. We are in contact with the Americans and it's important that we bring together all initiatives and build peace," Sejourne told a news conference on Monday. The plan proposes Lebanese armed groups and Israel would cease military operations against each other, including Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon. Several non-state groups, including Palestinian factions, have mounted attacks on Israel from south Lebanon during the latest hostilities, though Hezbollah is the dominant power in the area with a fighting force widely seen to outgun the Lebanese army.
The Lebanese armed groups would dismantle all premises and facilities close to the frontier, and withdraw combat forces - including Hezbollah's elite Radwan fighters and military capabilities such as antitank systems - at least 10 km north of the frontier, the document proposes. Any such withdrawal could still leave Hezbollah fighters much closer to the border than the 30 km (19 mile) withdrawal to Lebanon's Litani River, stipulated in a U.N. resolution that ended a war with Israel in 2006.
The shorter withdrawal would help ensure rockets did not reach villages in northern Israel that have been targeted with anti-tank missiles and was a compromise seen as more palatable to Hezbollah than a retreat to the Litani, one Western diplomat with knowledge of the two-page proposal said. Up to 15,000 Lebanese army troops would be deployed in the border region of south Lebanon, a Hezbollah political stronghold where the group's fighters have long melted into society at times of calm. Asked about the proposal, senior Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters that the group would not discuss "any matter related to the situation in the south before the halt of the aggression on Gaza". "The enemy is not in the position to impose conditions," added Fadlallah, declining to comment on details of the proposal or whether Hezbollah had received it. One of the Lebanese officials said the document brings together ideas discussed in contacts with Western envoys and had been passed on to Hezbollah. French officials told the Lebanese it was not a final paper, after Beirut raised objections to parts of it, the Lebanese official said. An Israeli official said such a proposal had been received and was being discussed by the government. Reuters reported last month that Hezbollah had rebuffed ideas suggested by Hochstein, who has been at the heart of the efforts, but that it had also kept the door ajar to diplomacy. Asked for comment for this story, a State Department spokesperson said the United States "continues to explore all diplomatic options with our Israeli and Lebanese counterparts to restore calm and avoid escalation." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Lebanese official said several elements prompted concern in Beirut, including the demand armed groups dismantle premises and facilities close to the border, which the official said was vaguely worded and could be used to demand moves against Hezbollah-affiliated civilian institutions.
'UNCLEAR' ELEMENTS
Tens of thousands of people have fled homes on both sides of the border since the fighting began on Oct. 8. Israeli strikes have killed nearly 200 people in Lebanon, 170 of them Hezbollah fighters. Attacks from Lebanon have killed 10 soldiers and five civilians in Israel. But the strikes have mostly been contained to areas near the border and both sides have said they want to avoid all-out war. Numerous Western envoys have visited Beirut to discuss ways to de-escalate the fighting, mostly meeting with Lebanese state officials rather than Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the United States. One of the Lebanese officials said a French technical delegation returned to Beirut two days after Sejourne's visit to discuss details, following the Lebanese objections. Another of the Lebanese officials said Beirut had not responded to the proposal, adding that it was neither signed nor dated and was therefore not deemed official enough to warrant a response.
THREE-STEP APPROACH
The proposal recalls a ceasefire which ended a war between Hezbollah and Israel in 1996, and also U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war.
It maps out three steps over 10 days.
The two sides would cease military operations in step one. Within three days, step two would see Lebanese armed groups withdrawing combat forces at least 10 km north of the frontier and Lebanon would initiate the deployment of soldiers in the south. Israel would cease overflights into Lebanese territory. As the third step, within 10 days, Lebanon and Israel would resume negotiations on delimiting the land border "in a gradual way" and with the support of the U.N. peacekeeping force UNIFIL. They would also engage in negotiations on a roadmap to ensure the establishment of an area free of any non-state armed groups between the border and the Litani river. Hezbollah has previously signalled it could support the state negotiating a deal with Israel to settle the status of disputed areas at the border to Lebanon's benefit. One of the issues to address is financing for the Lebanese army, severely weakened by a severe financial crisis in Lebanon. The proposal calls for an international effort to support the deployment of the Lebanese army with "financing, equipment, training". It also called for "the socio-economic development of southern Lebanon".

Hezbollah commander trains Russian drone operators in Syria for deployment against Ukraine
The New Voice of Ukraine/February 12, 2024
Russian drone operators are being trained by Hezbollah in Syria to participate in a full-scale war against Ukraine, Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) reported on Feb. 12. The training sessions are held at the Shayrat Airbase and are conducted by the Lebanese Hezbollah Police along with Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Kamal Abu Sadiq, a Hezbollah commander known for his drone expertise, is leading the program. The trainees, including Syrian mercenaries alongside Russian participants, are learning to operate Iranian-made drones such as the Shahed-136 and Ababil-3, as well as the Raad remote-controlled aircraft. This initiative comes as Russia seeks additional manpower for its war in Ukraine, with efforts to recruit mercenaries in Syria, including promises of expedited Russian citizenship for future combatants, according to Ukrainian intelligence. We’re bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Hezbollah announces the killing of two members in an Israeli bombing of southern Lebanon
Al Syasi/February 12/2024
On Monday, the Lebanese Hezbollah announced the killing of two of its members in the south of the country, after the Israeli army said it bombed the party’s targets, including a car in which Hezbollah members were traveling. According to the Arab World News Agency, the party said in two brief statements that the two members were Muhammad Baqir Hassan from the town of Ainatha and Ali Ahmed Muhanna from the town of Maroun al-Ras, without mentioning other details. The Israeli army said earlier today that its aircraft raided a series of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including a car taken by members of the group in the Maroun al-Ras area. Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee stated in his account on the “X” platform that several infrastructures were also destroyed in the areas of Al-Adissa and Al-Khiyam in southern Lebanon. Adraei added that the army also attacked two military buildings and a military site in the areas of Tair Harfa, Al-Jebin and Maroun Al-Ras. On the other hand, Hezbollah announced that it had targeted spy equipment at the Israeli radar site with a guided missile that achieved a direct hit. It was also announced that the Pranit Barracks had been targeted with a Falaq 1 missile, resulting in direct hits.

The hand of a Hezbollah official was amputated and 4 were martyred by Israeli bombing
Beirut/Al Syasi/February 12/2024
Information revealed that the hand of Hezbollah official in the town of Maroun al-Ras, Muhammad Alawiyah, was amputated after undergoing surgery after his car was targeted by an Israeli raid yesterday, while the death toll from the Israeli bombing of a house in Maroun al-Ras rose to four. The Israeli occupation aircraft targeted a house in the center of the town of Tair Harfa, seriously wounding two people, while members of the “Health Ambulance” Society were able to evacuate three citizens who were detained in their house as a result of the bombing. The raid caused damage to a number of houses, prompting rescue teams to Civil Defense to work to remove the rubble. Meanwhile, the head of the Future Movement, Saad Hariri, began his meetings after his return to Beirut, where he visited caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati yesterday at the government palace. Hariri responded regarding whether he was continuing to remain silent, saying, “I will see you on February 14,” while commenting. President Mikati praised the visit by saying, “The Grand Serail is his home and he is the one who receives us, not us.” It is expected that Hariri will visit both the Mufti of Lebanon, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, and other figures.

Two Israeli raids on the outskirts of Qabrikha and the outskirts of Taloussa towards Wadi Saluki
National News Agency/February 12, 2024
Israeli warplanes raided the outskirts of the town of Qabrikha - Marjayoun district, and also raided the outskirts of Taloussa in the direction of Wadi Saluki. Activists reported on social media that the raid on Taloussa targeted a house located near the public school and an ambulance center, and indicated that it led to the killing of Hezbollah members. Later, the party mourned in two statements: “Hussein Jamil Harisi “Sajid,” born in 1994 from the town of Taloussa in southern Lebanon, and Hassan Ahmed Turmos “Karrar,” born in 1988 from the town of Taloussa in southern Lebanon.”

Deaths in Israeli raids on homes and cars
Neda Al Watan/February 13, 2024
The southern front is still on fire and its military heat is rising day after day, with the expansion of the scope of Israeli operations on villages, sites and targets, especially with the recent increase in Israeli targeting of vehicles belonging to Hezbollah members and field officials, whether south or north of the Litani. Due to the Israeli attacks, significant damage was recorded to infrastructure, roads, electricity and water networks, and crops. On the ground, yesterday, an Israeli drone targeted a car near Bint Jbeil Governmental Hospital, and the Israeli army announced, “We targeted, with a raid, a car with Hezbollah members inside it in the Maroun al-Ras area.” It was reported that the target of the raid on Bint Jbeil was the party’s official in the Maroun al-Ras region, Muhammad Alawi. The Israeli army launched a raid on the town of Tair Harfa, targeting a house in the center of the town, seriously wounding two people, while members of the “Health Ambulance” Society were able to evacuate three citizens who were detained in their home as a result of the bombing to a safe area. The raid also caused damage to a number of homes, and Civil Defense rescue teams worked to remove the rubble amid intense enemy aircraft flying overhead.
In this context, the Civil Defense announced that 4 people were killed as a result of an Israeli bombing of a house in Maroun al-Ras. From its position inside the Al-Abad site, the Israeli army combed the outskirts of the border towns of Hula and Kafr Kila with machine guns. The forests in the Labouneh area (east of Naqoura) were subjected to intermittent artillery shelling.
Israeli aircraft targeted the town of Al-Jabayn. Immediately, ambulances headed to the area, and an Israeli raid was recorded on the vicinity of Majdalzon, and the tents above the chalet area were subjected to artillery shelling. Israeli warplanes raided the town of Khiam, and raided in two batches the Al-Awaidah hill between Kafr Kila and Adisa, in the Marjayoun district, and in the Taybeh region. Enemy aircraft raided the outskirts of the town of Aitaroun, and Israeli artillery bombed the outskirts of the town of Al-Dhahira. The warplanes raided a house in the town of Blida without recording any casualties. Artillery shelling also targeted the outskirts of Tair Harfa and Alma al-Shaab, and they combed the surroundings of the town of Al-Dhahira with machine guns. On the other hand, Hezbollah announced in a statement that, “In support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their brave and honorable resistance, and in response to the Israeli attacks on villages and civilian homes, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted a building in the Avivim settlement where soldiers were stationed.” They attacked the enemy with appropriate weapons and hit him directly.” The “party” added that it “targeted the spy equipment at the radar site with a guided missile and hit it directly.” He also announced that he had targeted “a building in the Yaroun colony where enemy soldiers were positioned with appropriate weapons and hit it directly.” In another statement, he indicated that his members bombed “Zarait Barracks with missile launches from Falaq 1 and achieved direct hits.” Also, “the site of Zabdin in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms was targeted with missile weapons and they hit it directly.” The party members continued their series of operations, targeting “a deployment of Israeli enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Birkat Risha site with Burkan missiles, and they achieved direct hits.” On the other hand, Hezbollah mourned “the martyr Mujahid Muhammad Baqir Hassan Bassam “Khomeini,” born in 1989 from the town of Ainatha in southern Lebanon” and “the martyr Mujahid Ali Ahmed Muhanna “Malik,” born in 1988 from the town of Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon.” For its part, the General Directorate of Internal Security Forces mourned in a statement, “its martyr, Sergeant Ali Muhammad Nimr Mahdi, who was martyred on 02/11/2024, following the bombing attack by the Israeli enemy, which struck his southern town of Hula.”

Border clashes: Latest developments
Naharnet/February 12, 2024
An Israeli drone struck Monday a car in the southern town of Bint Jbeil seriously wounding a Hezbollah official as Israeli warplanes bombed the southern villages of Tayr Harfa, al-Odaisseh, al-Khiam, Marwahin, al-Jebbayn and Maroun al-Rass.
The strikes came as tensions across the Middle East grow with the Israel-Hamas war, a drone attack last month that killed three U.S. troops in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, and attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels on vessels passing through the Red Sea. Drone strikes in Lebanon blamed on Israel have so far killed several officials from Hezbollah as well as the Palestinian militant group Hamas. A drone strike Saturday on the coastal town of Jadra killed two people and wounded two others. On Sunday, Hezbollah targeted five posts in northern Israel while Amal announced the death of two of its members in south Lebanon. The group's chief Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had said last week that Amal is "resisting" in the south "within its military capabilities".

Hezbollah official injured in Israeli strike in southern Lebanon: AFP
AFP/February 12, 2024
A Hezbollah official was seriously injured on Monday in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the city of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, according to what a Lebanese security source told Agence France-Presse. The source stated that "an Israeli airstrike targeted a Hezbollah 'connection' in the town of Maroun al-Ras," a term used by the party for its local officials in towns within its sphere of influence. The strike resulted in the local official sustaining "serious and critical injuries, prompting his transfer to the hospital for treatment," according to the source. An AFP photographer in the town reported damage to the car likely penetrated by a missile and caused a hole in its roof. Earlier, the National News Agency reported that "an enemy drone targeted a car near the government hospital in Bint Jbeil," resulting in "injuries," without any additional details provided. The civil defense affiliated with the Islamic Risala Scout Association, a relief organization associated with the Amal Movement, a Hezbollah ally, reported transferring an injury to one of the area's hospitals. Several towns in southern Lebanon were targeted by Israeli airstrikes on Monday, according to photographers from Agence France-Presse and the National News Agency. This marks the third time in less than a week that Israel has been accused of targeting cars without causing fatalities.

Hezbollah official wounded in Israeli strike on Bint Jbeil
Agence France Presse/February 12, 2024
A local Hezbollah official was seriously wounded Monday in an Israeli air strike on his car in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese security source told AFP. Israeli forces and the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have traded near-daily fire since war broke out on October 7 between Israel and the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip. The source said an Israeli strike "targeted a local Hezbollah official in the town of Bint Jbeil" and the official was "seriously injured". Lebanon's official National News Agency meanwhile said "an enemy drone targeted a car near the hospital" in Bint Jbeil, which lies near the country's southern border with Israel. An AFP journalist on the ground saw the targeted car, severely damaged with its roof pierced through. Israel has launched a series of strikes in recent days that have injured officials from Lebanese and Palestinian armed groups in southern Lebanon. On Saturday, senior Hamas officer Bassel Saleh survived a reported Israeli strike on his car in the Lebanese border town of Hula, security sources said, adding that two others were killed in the strike. On Thursday, an Israeli drone strike seriously wounded a Hezbollah commander in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, with the group later firing a salvo of rockets into northern Israel. Israeli strikes on Monday targeted a number of villages in the south of Lebanon, according to AFP and NNA journalists. Cross-border fire since the start of the Israel-Hamas war has killed at least 231 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 30 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, nine soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.

Report: Paris tells Lebanon Gaza truce before end of month
Naharnet/February 12, 2024
The latest visits to Lebanon and Israel by French diplomatic, military and security delegations aimed to reach a blueprint for settling the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border, a media report said on Monday. “The French stressed (to Lebanese officials) that they had received assurances from Washington that the Gaza truce agreement is imminent and will not be delayed beyond the end of the current month,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported. A Lebanese diplomatic source told the daily that “Lebanon has received from the French a security proposal that requires long discussions.”
“Its content is based on the content of the April 1996 agreement that had called for no attacks on civilians by the two sides and it includes measures on both sides of the border and not only on the Lebanese side,” the source added.
French diplomats meanwhile told French daily Le Monde that Paris wants to “separate the Lebanese issue from the situation in the Gaza Strip.”“It has presented a proposal that calls for quick measures to end the clashes,” Le Monde added, noting that the French foreign minister had submitted the suggestion to Lebanese officials last Tuesday, after it was “discussed with Israel during a visit by representatives of the foreign and defense ministries.” The proposal calls for “measures that contribute to gradual pacification, such as Hezbollah’s withdrawal of its fighters to a depth ranging from 8 to 10 kilometers from the border, a distance equivalent to the range of its anti-tank missiles, the pullback of the Radwan force, and Hezbollah’s refrainment from rebuilding the bases and observation posts that were destroyed by the Israeli army after October 8,” Le Monde said. It added that France is working on a new program for supporting the Lebanese Army in order to deploy further forces on the border, noting that French army chief Thierry Burkhard had visited Beirut on Friday. Al-Akhbar meanwhile said the French side has discussed with the Army Command the possibility of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to the border and heard that “there is no material capability to carry out this mission.” Informed sources also told the Lebanese newspaper that Israel “will not be able to start a war with Lebanon” and that the latest threats “are only aimed at improving the conditions of negotiations.”

Army chief reportedly worried about escalation as Nabatiyeh becomes target
Naharnet/February 12, 2024
Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun is worried about the situation in south Lebanon, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper said Monday, quoting Aoun's visitors. Aoun told his visitors that the escalation in the south does not bode well as Israel might drag the U.S. into a conflagration, the daily said. It added that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon has informed Aoun that the entire city of Nabatiyeh has become a target for Israel. Last week, an Israeli drone strike had seriously wounded a Hezbollah commander on one of the main roads into the city of Nabatiyeh, a region relatively far from the border. On Saturday, an Israeli drone struck a car near the coastal town of Jadra about 60 kilometers from the Israeli border, making it one of the farthest inside Lebanon since Oct. 8. The strike killed at least two people and wounded two others. The previous farthest strike was the Jan. 2 attack that killed top Hamas official Saleh Arouri in Beirut. Shiite Duo sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, in remarks published Monday, that Israel has decided to cross the red lines by targeting areas north of the Litani river, in an attempt to drag Hezbollah into war. The targeting of Jadra was not only an assassination attempt, but it also signalled an expansion of the war, the sources said. Britain's top diplomat David Cameron had said, during a visit to Lebanon earlier this month, that his country is proposing a plan to de-escalate tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border. Pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper claimed that the British plan includes the installation of surveillance towers on both sides of the border to ensure that there are no violations of Resolution 1701. Nidaa al-Watan said Monday, quoting the army chief's visitors, that Hezbollah has not agreed on building the surveillance towers.

Lebanese FM: Resolution 1701 implementation vital for Lebanon's security
LBCI/February 12, 2024
Lebanon's caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, affirmed after he met with the ambassadors of France, Hervé Magro, and Spain, Jesus Santos Aguado, that "stability in the South is a priority for Lebanon." He confirmed that the comprehensive and balanced implementation of Resolution 1701, stopping violations and leading to Israel's withdrawal to internationally recognized borders, including the Shebaa Farms, is the key to achieving security.

Report: Abdollahian urged allies in Lebanon to show restraint
Naharnet/February 12, 2024
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s visit to Lebanon was aimed at “informing his allies in Lebanon that Tehran is engaged in the international and Arab efforts to find a solution that would start by the halt of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip,” a media report said.Abdollahian called for “giving a chance for a settlement based on halting the Israeli aggression against Gaza, revealing that contacts between Tehran and Washington have not stopped but have rather been intensified to prevent an expansion of the war,” a prominent parliamentary source told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. “The Sultanate of Oman is sponsoring the talks, in which Switzerland’s ambassador to Iran and officials from the State of Qatar are sometimes participating,” the source said. Abdollahian called for “restraint in order not to give a chance to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who is insisting on escalation in the South to send a message to the countries that are pressing him not to expand the war on the northern front,” Asharq al-Awsat said. It also added that Abdollahian called for implementing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hariri meets with Mikati after arriving in Beirut
Naharnet/February 12, 2024
Ex-PM and al-Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri held talks Monday at the Grand Serail in Beirut with caretaker PM Najib Mikati. Mikati welcomed Hariri and hoped the Feb. 14 anniversary of the assassination of his father, ex-PM Rafik Hariri, will be "a unifying occasion that asserts the unity of the Lebanese in the face of the dangers that Lebanon is facing." He later threw a lunch banquet in Hariri's honor. Hariri had arrived overnight in Beirut coming from the United Arab Emirates, his press office said. “He is staying at the Center House in preparation for his marking of the 19th anniversary of the martyrdom of his father Rafik Hariri and his companions on February 14,” the press office said. Media reports said Hariri also intends to meet with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan. “Berri will seek to bring together Hariri and ex-PSP chief Walid Jumblat,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported. And as sources close to Mikati described Hariri’s return to Beirut as “beneficial,” media reports said the ex-PM has received an invitation to visit Moscow and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Nasrallah meets Nakhala as tensions flare in Lebanon, region
Naharnet/February 12, 2024
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah met Monday with leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Ziyad al-Nakhala. Nasrallah discussed with Nakhala the latest developments in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and on other fronts, Hezbollah said in a statement. Since Oct. 8, Hezbollah has carried out 1013 attacks on northern Israel, in support of Gaza and Hamas. On Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian met Nasrallah, caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri. During his visit to Beirut, an Israeli drone struck a car near the coastal town of Jadra about 60 kilometers from the Israeli border, making it one of the farthest inside Lebanon since Oct. 8. The strike killed at least two people and wounded two others. The previous farthest strike was the Jan. 2 attack that killed top Hamas official Saleh Arouri in Beirut. On Saturday night, Israeli forces struck the southern Lebanese border village of Houla, killing one person and wounding nine, including children, as they left a mosque after prayers. In an apparent reference to attacks by Iran-backed fighters in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, Amirabdollahian said that if the U.S. wants calm to prevail in the region, then "the mechanism and the solution is to stop the genocide, crimes and the war against Gaza and the West Bank."The U.S. conducted Saturday "self-defense strikes" against two mobile unmanned surface vessels, four anti-ship cruise missiles, and one mobile land attack cruise missile in Yemen. Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s offensive in Gaza, imperiling a key route for trade between Asia, the Mideast and Europe. In Syria, Israeli airstrikes hit several sites on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, killing three people. Tensions have also flared elsewhere in the region. A U.S. airstrike in Baghdad Wednesday killed a commander of Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most powerful armed groups in Iraq, as part of Washington's retaliation for the killing of three U.S. troops in Jordan last month.

Sami Gemayel: Lebanon is a country of freedom, and Hezbollah is harming the essence of its existence
LBCI/February 12, 2024
MP Sami Gemayel, Kataeb Party leader, expressed concerns over Hezbollah's influence in Lebanon, citing its use of violence in politics and its ideological ties abroad. Gemayel emphasized that Lebanon cannot allow Hezbollah to dictate its fate, draw boundaries, and lead the country into wars, undermining its essence and sovereignty. Speaking during the annual meeting of the Students' Affairs Department at the party's headquarters in Bekfaya, Gemayel clarified that his remarks were not aimed at advocating for the country's division but rather for its inclusivity, where all citizens can live freely and with dignity. He reminded the audience of the sacrifices made by martyrs defending Lebanon's cause and stressed that Kataeb's struggle is for freedom in Lebanon. Gemayel highlighted the Kataeb's role in preserving Lebanon and called for a historical moment for the party to work towards rescuing the country. He underlined the party's commitment to Lebanon's cause above all else, sacrificing personal interests for the nation's sake. He asserted that the ongoing battle is about shaping public opinion, which will echo the party's stance in the near future, as witnessed in the past.
Regarding Lebanon's unique stance as an island of freedom amidst regional challenges, Gemayel emphasized its diverse society's right to maintain freedom and dignity. He emphasized Lebanon's role as a homeland for 18 sects seeking to preserve their liberty and dignity, participate in political life, form parties, and engage in national work. Gemayel stressed that no country can thrive with an illegal armed group serving foreign interests, as is the case with Hezbollah today. He highlighted the primary task of liberating the country's decision-making from the influence of this armed group, followed by a correction of the institutional work to avoid political, financial, or economic deadlocks at every turn.

Lebanese army responds to discovery of unexploded Israeli missile in Habchit outskirts
LBCI/February 12, 2024
An unexploded Israeli missile was found in the outskirts of the village of Habchit, and immediately, Lebanese army personnel rushed to the scene and imposed a security cordon. Meanwhile, a military expert took charg

Berri broaches developments with Ain El-Tineh visitors, receives Caretaker Foreign Minister, UN's Wronecka, Consular Corps delegation
NNA/February 12, 2024
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Monday received at the second presidency headquarters in Ain El-Tineh, UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka. The general situation and political and field developments were presented in light of Israel's continued aggression against Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.Speaker Berri later received Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Abdallah Bou Habib, with whom he discussed the current general situation and the latest political developments.Berri also welcomed in Ain El-Tineh, Dean of the Consular Corps in Lebanon, Joseph Habis, with a delegation of members of the consular corps, who came on a protocol visit. The visit was an occasion to dwell on the current developments in Lebanon and the region.

Mikati broaches developments with UN’s Wronecka, meets Caretaker Finance Minister, Mufti of Akkar, Central Bank Acting Governor, Presidency General...
NNA/February 12, 2024
Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Monday met at the Grand Serail with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, with whom he discussed the current developments in Lebanon and the region. Caretaker Premier Mikati later received at the Grand Serail, Mufti of Akkar, Sheikh Zaid Mohammad Bakkar Zakaria, over an array of national and Akkar related issues. Mikati then met with Caretaker Finance Minister, Dr. Youssef Khalil, with discussions reportedly touching on the current financial and economic conditions. Mikati also followed up with the Minister on the public sector dossier. The PM then met with Acting Governor of the Lebanese Central Bank, Wassim Mansouri. Mikati also received respectively at the Grand Serail, Head of the Association of Petroleum Importing Companies Maroun Chammas, and MP Najat Aoun. On the other hand, Mikati received a delegation from the General Directorate of the Presidency of the Republic, which included: the Director-General of the Presidency of the Republic, Dr. Antoine Choucair, Director General of Protocol and Public Relations, Dr. Nabil Shedid, in the presence of the Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers Judge Mahmoud Makiya, and Director General, Chief of Protocol & public relations department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Lahoud Lahoud. Choucair handed Premier Mikati the annual reports of the General Directorate of the Presidency of the Republic for the years 2020 - 2021 and 2022.
Discussions also touched on the situation of the General Directorate of the Presidency of the Republic.

Bou Habib meets French, Spanish Ambassadors: Implementation of resolution 1701, ceasing violations, and Israel's withdrawal to internationally...
NNA/February 12, 2024
Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Abdallah Bou Habib, on Monday affirmed after his meetings with the Ambassadors of France, Hervé Magro, and Spain, Jesús Santos Aguado, that "stability in the south is a priority for Lebanon, and the comprehensive and balanced implementation of Resolution 1701, which halts violations and leads to Israel's withdrawal to internationally recognized borders, including the Shebaa Farms, is the gateway to achieving security."

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 12-13/2024
Israeli forces rescue 2 hostages in dramatic Gaza raid that killed at least 67 Palestinians
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP)/February 12, 2024
Israeli forces rescued two hostages early Monday, storming a heavily guarded apartment in the Gaza Strip and extracting the captives under fire in a dramatic raid that was a small but symbolically significant success for Israel. Heavy airstrikes that provided cover for the operation killed at least 67 Palestinians, according to health officials in the beleaguered territory. The plight of the hostages has profoundly shaken Israelis, and the rescue in densely populated Rafah briefly lifted the spirits of a nation still reeling from Hamas’ cross-border raid last year that started the war. Israel has described Rafah — a city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where 1.4 million Palestinians have fled fighting elsewhere — as the last remaining Hamas stronghold in the territory and signaled that its ground offensive may soon target the city. In Gaza, the operation unleashed another tragedy in a war that has killed 28,340 Palestinians in the territory, displaced over 80% of the population and set off a massive humanitarian crisis. More than 12,300 Palestinian minors — children and young teens — have been killed in the conflict, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday. About 8,400 women were also among those killed. That means minors make up about 43% of the dead and women and minors together they make up 73% of the dead. The ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, provided the breakdown at the request of The Associated Press. Israel claims to have killed about 10,000 Hamas fighters. In Hamas’ cross-border raid on Oct. 7, an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and militants took 250 people captive, according to Israeli authorities. Israel says about 100 hostages remain in Hamas captivity after dozens were freed during a cease-fire in November. Hamas also holds the remains of roughly 30 others who were either killed on Oct. 7 or died in captivity. The government has made freeing the over 100 remaining hostages a top aim of its war, along with destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities. But as the fighting drags on, now in its fifth month, their freedom remains elusive and rifts have emerged in Israel over the best approach to end their ordeal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted persistent military pressure will bring about the captives' freedom — a position he repeated on Monday — even as other top officials have opposed this, saying a deal is the only way to secure their release.
A DRAMATIC RAID
Israeli military spokesman Read Adm. Daniel Hagari said special forces broke into a second-floor apartment in Rafah under fire at 1:49 a.m. Monday, accompanied a minute later by airstrikes on surrounding areas. He said the hostages were being guarded by armed Hamas militants and that members of the rescue team shielded the hostages with their bodies as a heavy battle erupted in several places at once with Hamas gunmen. The army identified those rescued as Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, abducted by Hamas militants from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on Oct. 7. Netanyahu’s office said they also hold Argentinian citizenship. The hostages were airlifted to Sheba Medical Center in central Israel, and their condition was reported to be good. They are just the second and third hostages to be rescued safely; a female soldier was rescued in November. The rescue, which Hagari said was based on precise intelligence and planned for some time, is a morale booster for Israelis but a small step toward winning the release of the remaining hostages, who are believed to be spread out and hidden in tunnels, likely in poor condition. Har's son-in-law, Idan Begerano, who saw the released captives at the hospital, said the two men were thin and pale, but communicating well and aware of their surroundings. Begerano said Har told him immediately upon seeing him: “You have a birthday today, mazal tov." The men, wearing sweatsuits, held long, tearful embraces with their relatives at hospital, according to video released by Netanyahu's office.
DOZENS KILLED IN STRIKES
The airstrikes that backed up the Israeli forces hit jam-packed Rafah in the middle of the night and dozens of explosions could be heard around 2 a.m. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Health Ministry, said at least 67 people, including women and children, were killed in the strikes. Al-Qidra said rescuers were still searching the rubble; an Associated Press journalist counted at least 50 bodies at the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. Mohamed Zoghroub, a Palestinian living in Rafah, said he saw a black jeep speeding near the Shaboura refugee camp in the town followed by clashes and heavy airstrikes. “We found ourselves running with our children, from the airstrikes, in every direction,” he said, speaking from an area flattened by the heavy strikes overnight. Footage circulating on social media from Rafah's Kuwaiti hospital showed dead or wounded children. The footage could not immediately be verified but was consistent with AP reporting. A young man can be seen carrying the body of an infant who he said was killed in the attacks. He said the girl, the daughter of his neighbor, was born and killed during the war. “Let Netanyahu come and see: Is this (infant) one of your designated targets?" he said.
CONCERNS ABOUT RAFAH
Netanyahu has said sending ground troops into Rafah is essential to meeting Israel's war goals. On Sunday, the White House said President Joe Biden had warned Netanyahu that Israel should not conduct a military operation against Hamas in Rafah without a “credible and executable” plan to protect civilians. More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million population is now crammed into Rafah, where hundreds of thousands live in sprawling tent camps and overcrowded U.N. shelters. Biden's remarks, made in a phone call with Netanyahu, were his most forceful language yet on the possible operation. Discussion of the potential for a cease-fire agreement took up much of the call, a senior U.S. administration official said, and after weeks of diplomacy, a “framework” is now “pretty much” in place for a deal that could see the release of remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a halt to fighting. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations, acknowledged that “gaps remain,” but declined to give details. The official said military pressure on Hamas in the southern city of Khan Younis in recent weeks helped bring the group closer to accepting a deal. Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the call. Hamas’ Al-Aqsa television station earlier quoted an unnamed Hamas official as saying any invasion of Rafah would “blow up” the talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar. Biden and Netanyahu spoke after two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said Egypt threatened to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if troops are sent into Rafah.

Report: Biden calls Netanyahu an 'asshole' in private conversations
Naharnet/February 12, 2024 
U.S. President Joe Biden has been venting his “frustration” in recent private conversations, some of them with campaign donors, over his “inability to persuade Israel to change its military tactics in the Gaza Strip,” and he has named Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the “primary obstacle,” five people directly familiar with his comments told NBC News. Biden has said he is trying to get Israel to agree to a cease-fire, but Netanyahu is “giving him hell” and is impossible to deal with, said the people familiar with Biden’s comments, who all asked not to be named. “He just feels like this is enough,” one of the people said of the views expressed by Biden. “It has to stop.”Biden has in recent weeks spoken privately about Netanyahu, a leader he has known for decades, with a candor that has surprised some of those on the receiving end of his comments, people familiar with them said. His descriptions of his dealings with Netanyahu are peppered with contemptuous references to Netanyahu as “this guy,” these people said. And in at least three recent instances, Biden has called Netanyahu an “asshole,” according to three of the people directly familiar with his comments. On Sunday, Biden told Netanyahu in a phone call that he believes “a military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan” for protecting and supporting the Palestinians sheltering there, the White House said in a statement. The bulk of their 45-minute conversation focused on a long-discussed but repeatedly delayed agreement between Israel and Hamas to free hostages being held in Gaza in exchange for a pause in military operations and the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to the White House. Biden took a notably sharper tone Thursday and described Israel’s military assault in Gaza as “over the top.”

Egypt slams Israeli minister’s claim it shares October 7 ‘responsibility’
AFP/February 13, 2024
CAIRO: Egypt’s foreign ministry on Monday condemned as “disgraceful” and “irresponsible” comments by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who claimed Cairo has “considerable responsibility” for Hamas’s October 7 attack. Smotrich said during a Monday meeting of his Religious Zionism party that “the Egyptians bear considerable responsibility for October 7,” according to Israeli public broadcaster Kansas. The attack by Palestinian militants on that day resulted in the deaths of more that 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, and triggered war which has raged for more than four months. Israel’s relentless military offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has killed at least 28,340 people, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry. Smotrich claimed that “much of Hamas’s armaments pass through Egypt,” which shares a border with Gaza and has been a key mediator in efforts to end the fighting. In a statement, Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said it was “unfortunate and disgraceful” for the Israeli minister to “continue releasing irresponsible and inflammatory statements.”
“Egypt fully controls its territory, and does not allow any party to involve Egypt’s name in failed attempts to justify its own shortcomings,” he said. Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel and has long served as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Along with Qatar, it helped broker a week-long truce in November that saw the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and more aid deliveries into Gaza. Israel’s offensive has pushed more than half of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people into vast tent cities in the southern city of Rafah on the Egyptian border. Israel has begun to focus on Rafah as its most recent target, with worries of a looming Israeli ground incursion. Israeli strikes pounded the city overnight, killing around 100 people, the health ministry said Monday, coinciding with an Israeli operation that freed two hostages. Egypt’s Al-Qahera News network, which is linked to state intelligence, said Cairo is “closely following the situation” in Rafah, and “is ready to deal with every scenario.” The foreign ministry spokesman said Smotrich’s remarks reflect “a ravenous hunger for killing and destruction, and sabotage of any attempt to contain the crisis in the Gaza Strip.”

Palestinian president discusses latest Gaza developments with Qatari emir in Doha
ARAB NEWS/February 13, 2024
LONDON: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and the other occupied Palestinian territories during a meeting in Doha on Monday. In particular, they talked about ongoing efforts to secure an agreement for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, in a way that could pave the way for a just, comprehensive and sustainable resolution to the Palestinian issue. The two leaders also discussed the escalation of violence in the region, and reviewed bilateral ties and ways in which they might be enhanced, the Qatar News Agency reported. Sheikh Tamim reiterated Qatar’s unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and its solidarity with the Palestinian people in their efforts to achieve their rightful national aspirations. He said his nation remains committed to diplomatic and mediation efforts to halt the conflict in Gaza, and ease unrest in the West Bank, and to its support for initiatives that can help bridge divisions among Palestinians. Abbas thanked the sheikh for Qatar’s continued support for the Palestinian people. The president also met Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, known for his compelling coverage of war-torn Gaza. The photographer was evacuated to Doha in January after receiving death threats and alleged offers of bribes from Israel to stop documenting the Israeli military aggression in the territory.

Israeli military tells BBC it will discipline soldiers in videos seen humiliating Palestinian detainees
ARAB NEWS/February 13, 2024
LONDON: The Israeli military has told the BBC it will take disciplinary action against any soldiers implicated in recording and sharing online videos showing Palestinian detainees in degrading conditions. A BBC Verify investigation, which was made public on Friday, analyzed numerous videos from Gaza since November 2023, including eight videos of detainees. Legal experts say the filming and displaying of such videos could violate international law, which safeguards detainees from undue humiliation and public curiosity. One particularly disturbing video, shared by an Israel Defense Forces soldier on Dec. 24, displayed a wounded Palestinian detainee stripped, and with bound hands, seated on a chair during an interrogation before being paraded on the streets of Gaza without shoes. When asked about the photo by the BBC, the Israeli military said: “The photo was taken during a field questioning. The suspect was not injured. A reservist photographed and published the picture contrary to IDF orders and values. It was recently decided to terminate his reserve service.”Another video from the same soldier showed numerous Palestinian detainees in a sports field, mostly stripped to their underwear, with some blindfolded and arranged in rows, under the watch of Israeli soldiers. A notable scene included three women, blindfolded and kneeling behind a soccer goal, beneath an Israeli flag. Two other videos from another soldier featured images of blindfolded detainees alongside soldiers posing with firearms. The eight videos, identified by BBC Verify and posted by active or former military personnel who did not conceal their identities, have been removed from social media platforms following their discovery. International human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice told the BBC’s “Today” program on Monday that the filming and posting of such videos “may well be a war crime.” Nice, a leading expert on war crimes, called for a wider investigation into the footage beyond the dismissal of one reservist. He told the program: “The atmosphere in which soldiers operate reflects again the chain of command immediately above them and possibly the chain of command right to the top. That’s something that always needs to be investigated.” The Israeli military said that it will continue to act to identify “unusual cases that deviate from what is expected of its soldiers.”It added that “significant command measures will be taken” against soldiers involved in the footage identified by the BBC.'

EU Foreign Policy Chief Calls on US to Stop Supplying Weapons to Israel
Asharq Al-Awsat/February 13/2024
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday made a thinly veiled call on the United States to cut arms supplies to Israel due to high civilian casualties in its war in Gaza. Borrell recalled that US President Joe Biden said last week that Israel's response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack had been "over the top" and US and other Western officials had repeatedly said too many civilians were being killed in Gaza. "Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed," Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU development aid ministers in Brussels. "If the international community believes that this is a slaughter, that too many people are being killed, maybe we have to think about the provision of arms," he added. Borrell also noted that a Dutch court on Monday ordered the government of the Netherlands to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns they were being used in violations of international law in the Gaza war. Borrell said it was contradictory for countries to repeatedly declare that Israel was killing too many civilians in Gaza but do nothing concrete to prevent the killing. Israel has insisted it takes extensive measures to protect civilians but is forced to conduct military operations in civilian areas as Hamas, the Palestinian militant group responsible for the Oct. 7 attack, operates there. The United States is Israel's most important foreign arms provider. It gives Israel $3.8 billion in military aid annually, ranging from fighter jets to powerful bombs. Washington has so far not heeded any pleas to cut such aid. In his remarks in Brussels, Borrell also sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he was not listening to pleas to do more to protect civilians. "Everybody goes to Tel Aviv, begging 'please don't do that, protect civilians, don't kill so many'. How many is too many? What is the standard?" Borrell said, appearing angry and emotional. "Netanyahu doesn't listen (to) anyone." Borrell said Netanyahu had been calling for an evacuation of Palestinian civilians from the Rafah area of Gaza - the last part of the enclave where people have found refuge - but the veteran Spanish politician questioned how this could be done. "They are going to evacuate? Where? To the moon? Where are they going to evacuate these people?" he said.

Egypt is threatening to void its decades-old peace treaty with Israel. What does that mean?
JULIA FRANKEL/AP/February 12, 2024
JERUSALEM: It was a warm handshake between the unlikeliest of statesmen, conducted under the beaming gaze of President Jimmy Carter. Sunlight streamed through the trees at Camp David, Maryland, as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin solidified a landmark agreement that has allowed over 40 years of peace between Israel and Egypt. It has served as an important source of stability in a volatile region. That peace has held through two Palestinian uprisings and a series of wars between Israel and Hamas. But now, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to send Israeli troops into Rafah, a city in Gaza on the border with Egypt, the Egyptian government is threatening to void the agreement. Here's a look at the history of the treaty and what could happen if it is nullified.
HOW DID THE TREATY ORIGINATE?
It was 1977, and Begin, Israel's new prime minister, opposed ceding any of the land Israel had conquered a decade earlier in the 1967 Mideast war. Those lands included Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Egypt and Israel had fought four major wars, most recently in 1973. So it shocked the world when Egypt's Sadat broke with other Arab leaders and decided to engage with the Israelis. The talks culminated in the Camp David Accords in September 1978 and a peace treaty the following year. Under the peace treaty, Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai, which Egypt would leave demilitarized. Israeli ships were granted passage through the Suez Canal, a key trade route. The countries established full diplomatic relations in Israel's first peace agreement with an Arab country. “The Camp David Accords were led by three brave men who took a bold stance because they knew the lasting effects for peace and security, both then and for the future. We need the same kind of leadership today, and that is currently lacking,” said Paige Alexander, chief executive of the Carter Center.
WHAT IS EGYPT'S CURRENT POSITION?
Two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat told The Associated Press on Sunday that Egypt may suspend the peace treaty if Israeli troops invade Rafah. Netanyahu says Rafah is Hamas' last remaining stronghold after more than four months of war and that sending in ground troops is essential to defeat the group. But Egypt opposes any move that could send desperate Palestinians fleeing across the border onto its territory. Rafah also serves as the besieged territory's main entry point for humanitarian aid, and an Israeli attack could stifle the deliveries of key supplies.
Rafah's population has swelled from 280,000 people to an estimated 1.4 million as Palestinians flee fighting elsewhere in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of those evacuees are living in sprawling tent camps. Netanyahu has ordered the military to prepare a plan to evacuate all Palestinian civilians before the offensive starts. But it is unclear where they will go. Netanyahu said Sunday that they would be able to return to open spaces farther north. But those areas have been badly damaged by the Israeli offensive.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THE TREATY IS VOIDED?
The treaty greatly limits the number of troops on both sides of the border, though the countries have agreed in the past to modify those arrangements in response to specific security threats. This has allowed Israel to focus its military on other threats.
Along with the war in Gaza, Israel has engaged in near-daily skirmishes with the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon while its security forces deploy heavily in the occupied West Bank.If Egypt were to nullify the agreement, it could mean that Israel can no longer rely on its southern border as an oasis of calm. Bolstering forces along its border with Egypt would no doubt challenge an Israeli military already thinly stretched. But it would bear serious ramifications for Egypt as well. Egypt has received billions of dollars in U.S. military assistance from the U.S. since the peace agreement. If the agreement is voided, it could jeopardize that funding. A massive military buildup would also strain Egypt's already struggling economy. Alexander said any step that could draw Egypt into the hostilities “would be catastrophic for the entire region.”

UAE diplomat says 'irreversible' progress to Palestinian state needed for Gaza reconstruction
DUBAI (Reuters)/February 12, 2024
The United Arab Emirates' ambassador to the United Nations said on Monday that there must be an "irreversible progression" towards a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for a regional commitment to reconstruction of Gaza. Lana Nusseibeh said there was "a very strong" Arab consensus that such progress was needed for any contributions towards reconstruction in Gaza once the devastating war between Israel and Hamas is over. "We cannot keep refunding and then see everything that we have built destroyed," she said at the World Government Summit in Dubai. "There must be an irreversible progression to the two-state solution for regional partners to be on board with the reconstruction part... and that has to be something that has international guardrails and benchmarks and it has to have the support of the United States amongst other key actors," she said. Gulf states have historically helped with reconstruction after previous conflicts. However, the extent of destruction after four months of war in Gaza is unprecedented over decades of conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians, with more than 85% of the enclave's population driven from their homes. The UAE is one of several Arab states that have established diplomatic ties with Israel over recent years. Nusseibeh's remarks chime with the stance of Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries on the need for clear progress towards a Palestinian state.

Oil Falls After Weekly Gain as Iran Signals Gaza Talks Progress
Rob Verdonck and Alex Longley/(Bloomberg)/February 12, 2024
Oil declined following last week’s advance after Iran’s foreign minister flagged the Israel-Hamas conflict could be moving closer to a diplomatic solution.Brent fell 1.1% to below $82 a barrel, after gaining 6.3% last week. Early trading was muted with many Asia markets closed for Lunar New Year holidays.
Iran’s Hossein Amirabdollahian held talks in recent days in Beirut, including with senior officials from Hamas. “Developments in Gaza are moving toward a diplomatic solution,” he said, without offering any specifics on timing. Still, Yemen’s Houthis said they attacked another ship in the Red Sea, underscoring the continued menace to vessels in the region. Meanwhile, the Israeli military conducted a series of strikes in Gaza on targets in the southern city of Rafah. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said on Sunday that civilians would be directed out of harm’s way before a military operation. Oil has traded within a band of about $10 for most of this year as nervousness over the conflict in the Middle East has been partially offset by ample global supply and a shaky demand outlook — especially in China, the second-biggest consumer. There are additional downside risks to demand forecasts for China, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts said in a note, citing a surge in electric vehicle sales and conversations with local consumers. Traders will this week be looking to monthly reports from both OPEC and the International Energy Agency for further indications of supply and demand.

UN Palestinian aid agency says it's 'critical' to receive EU aid soon, but EU wants an audit first
BRUSSELS (AP)/LORNE COOK/February 12, 2024
The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Monday that it’s vital that it receives new European Union funding within weeks because Israel appears to be readying a ground assault on Rafah, where many civilians have taken refuge.
The aid agency UNRWA is reeling from allegations that 12 of its 13,000 Gaza staff participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel.UNRWA immediately fired the staff, but more than a dozen countries suspended funding worth about $440 million, almost half of UNRWA’s budget for 2024. Asked how important it is that UNRWA receive an 82 million euro ($88 million) EU payment by the end of the month, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said, “It’s absolutely critical.” He has previously warned that the agency might be forced to close by the end of the month.
Two U.N. investigations into Israel’s allegations are underway, but the European Commission -– the third biggest donor to UNRWA after the United States and Germany -– has demanded a separate audit and wants to appoint experts to carry it out. The audit would focus “on the control systems needed to prevent the possible involvement of (UNRWA) staff in terrorist activities,” the EU’s executive branch said. It also is insisting on “a review of all UNRWA staff” to confirm they had no role in the attacks. Of the U.N. agency’s 13,000 Gaza staff members, more than 3,000 continue working there. Screening them all within weeks would be impossible, and time is of the essence. The agency has been the main supplier of food, water and shelter during the war in Gaza, where around 85% of the population has been displaced. Part of the audit would involve a new “pillar assessment” of UNRWA. The commission routinely carries out these checks of agencies that it funds to ensure that they’re complying with EU standards. But even the EU’s crisis management commissioner, Janez Lenarcic, conceded on Monday that such an assessment of UNRWA “has been concluded very recently.” The agency was also included in an audit the commission launched in October, which found that no funds were reaching Hamas. Lazzarini was in Brussels on Monday to update EU ministers responsible for development policy on the agency’s needs and the allegations against it. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who chaired the meeting, told reporters that “nobody else can do what UNRWA is doing.”“The presumption of innocence is valid for everyone, at any time, even for UNRWA. It is not a secret that the Israeli government wants to get rid of UNRWA,” Borrell said. Israel has long accused UNRWA of tolerating or even collaborating with Hamas activities in or around U.N. facilities, but it had stopped short of demanding the agency’s immediate closure. No one -– in Israel or abroad -– has offered an alternative for delivering aid to Gaza’s besieged population. But over the weekend, the Israeli military said it had discovered tunnels underneath the agency's main headquarters in Gaza City, alleging that Hamas militants used the space as an electrical supply room. Borrell warned that if UNRWA ceases to operate, “it will make it still worse. You know, hundreds of thousands of people are being fed, eat, everyday thanks to the work of UNRWA. And not only in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria, in Jordan.”

Iran's FM Arrives in Damascus, Invites Assad to Visit Tehran
Asharq Al-Awsat/February 13/2024
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian handed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad an invitation from Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to visit Iran. Amirabdollahian arrived Sunday in Syria and discussed the latest regional and international developments with Assad. The FM condemned the Israeli attack that targeted military advisors in Syria. Since the beginning of 2024, Israel launched over ten attacks against Iranian militias' sites within Syria, killing about 31 soldiers and injuring nine others, including six from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), six from the Lebanese Hezbollah, and three Iraqis. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the attacks destroyed about 27 targets, including weapons and ammunition depots, headquarters, centers, and vehicles. On Saturday, ahead of Amirabdollahian's visit to Damascus coming from Beirut, Israel bombed al-Dimas Airport, west of Damascus, targeting the Syrian military infrastructure. Deputy head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation Vadim Collet explained that the Israeli warplanes launched their attack from outside Syrian airspace, according to Russia Today. The Syrian FM Faisal Mekdad met with Amirabdollahian for bilateral talks. Iran's top diplomat condemned the US "illegal presence" on Syrian territory and said that he discussed with President Assad the latest regional and international developments. The Syrian President affirmed that the US stance towards the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip threatens the expansion of conflict by continuing to provide the Zionist entity with lethal weapons and Washington's aggressions.Assad said: "The Zionist entity and the West are in trouble today, and the West is now required to save that entity, and Israel's escalation in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon is nothing but an attempt to get out of this trouble."The President criticized the relevant international institutions, especially the Security Council, for their inability to stop Israel's massacres against the Palestinian people. Israel is preparing to complete commiting crimes in Rafah, said Assad. Amirabdollahian, in turn, said that Gaza is now the main issue not only at the regional level but also at the international level, noting that Syria is on the front lines in supporting the Palestinian people and their cause.
Ahead of his visit to Syria, the Iranian FM was in Beirut, where he met with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement Ziad al-Nakhalah, Hamas official Osama Hamdan, and Deputy Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Jamil Mezher. "The region is moving toward stability, security, and political solutions," Amirabdollahian said in a news conference at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. Media reports stated that decision-makers in Tehran are considering the next steps regarding the escalation of US and Israeli attacks against its forces in Syria and Iraq. According to reports, the military tends toward responding to the assassinations, while the diplomatic channels believe it is crucial to maintain restraint and avoid escalation to keep matters under control. They seek to exploit the regional developments for the benefit of Iranian diplomacy.

Biden welcomes King of Jordan to discuss hostage deal
Associated Press/February 12, 2024
President Joe Biden is hosting Jordan's King Abdullah II in Washington Monday and the two leaders are expected to discuss the ongoing effort to free hostages held in Gaza, and growing concern over a possible Israeli military operation in the port city of Rafah. It is the first meeting between the allies since three American troops were killed last month in a drone strike against a U.S. base in Jordan. Biden blamed Iran-backed militias for the fatalities, the first for the U.S. after months of strikes by such groups against American forces across the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The meeting with King Abdullah II comes as Biden and his aides are working to broker another pause in Israel's war against Hamas in order to send humanitarian aid and supplies into the region and get hostages out. The White House faces growing criticism from Arab-Americans over the administration's continued support for Israel in the face of growing casualties in Gaza. It appeared a deal for another pause in the fighting was getting close. A senior U.S. administration official said Sunday that after weeks of shuttle diplomacy and phone conversations, a framework was essentially in place for a deal that could see the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for a halt to fighting. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, acknowledged that gaps remained but declined to specify what they are. The official said Israeli military pressure on Hamas in Khan Younis over the last several week s has helped bring the militant group closer to accepting an agreement. The potential for an agreement took up the majority of Biden's call Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The official said the two leaders also had a significant back and forth about the potential expansion of Israeli military operations into Rafah and that Biden reiterated U.S. opposition to the idea under the "current conditions" while more than 1.3 million people are sheltering there. It was the most forceful language yet from the president on the possible operation. Biden, who last week called Israel's military response in Gaza "over the top," also sought "urgent and specific" steps to strengthen humanitarian aid. Israel's Channel 13 television said the conversation lasted 45 minutes. The official said the Israelis "made clear they would not contemplate an operation" in Rafah without safeguarding the civilian population. The official said the U.S. is not sure there is a feasible or implementable plan to relocate civilians out of Rafah to allow military operations to take place. Jordan and other Arab states have been highly critical of Israel's actions and have eschewed public support for long-term planning over what happens next, arguing that the fighting must end before such discussions can begin. They have been demanding a cease-fire since mid-October as civilian casualties began to skyrocket.Biden had planned to visit Jordan during his trip to Israel in October shortly after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, but the trip was scrapped. On his way home from Israel, Biden announced he'd helped broker the first deal to pause fighting temporarily and to open the crossing in Rafah to humanitarian aid. In the months since, members of his administration have made repeated trips to the region to engage with leaders there.

UNRWA says 'critical' to receive EU aid soon but EU wants audit first
Associated Press/February 12, 2024
The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Monday that it's vital that it receives new European Union funding within weeks because Israel appears to be readying a ground assault on Rafah, where many civilians have taken refuge. The aid agency UNRWA is reeling from allegations that 12 of its 13,000 Gaza staff participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel.UNRWA immediately fired the staff, but more than a dozen countries suspended funding worth about $440 million, almost half of UNRWA's budget for 2024. Asked how important it is that UNRWA receive an 82 million euro ($88 million) EU payment by the end of the month, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said, "It's absolutely critical." He has previously warned that the agency might be forced to close by the end of the month. Two U.N. investigations into Israel's allegations are underway, but the European Commission -– the third biggest donor to UNRWA after the United States and Germany -– has demanded a separate audit and wants to appoint experts to carry it out. The audit would focus "on the control systems needed to prevent the possible involvement of (UNRWA) staff in terrorist activities," the EU's executive branch said. It also is insisting on "a review of all UNRWA staff" to confirm they had no role in the attacks. Of the U.N. agency's 13,000 Gaza staff members, more than 3,000 continue working there. Screening them all within weeks would be impossible, and time is of the essence. The agency has been the main supplier of food, water and shelter during the war in Gaza, where around 85% of the population has been displaced. Part of the audit would involve a new "pillar assessment" of UNRWA. The commission routinely carries out these checks of agencies that it funds to ensure that they're complying with EU standards. But even the EU's crisis management commissioner, Janez Lenarcic, conceded on Monday that such an assessment of UNRWA "has been concluded very recently." The agency was also included in an audit the commission launched in October, which found that no funds were reaching Hamas. Lazzarini was in Brussels on Monday to update EU ministers responsible for development policy on the agency's needs and the allegations against it. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who chaired the meeting, told reporters that "nobody else can do what UNRWA is doing.""The presumption of innocence is valid for everyone, at any time, even for UNRWA. It is not a secret that the Israeli government wants to get rid of UNRWA," Borrell said. Israel has long accused UNRWA of tolerating or even collaborating with Hamas activities in or around U.N. facilities, but it had stopped short of demanding the agency's immediate closure. No one -– in Israel or abroad -– has offered an alternative for delivering aid to Gaza's besieged population. But over the weekend, the Israeli military said it had discovered tunnels underneath the agency's main headquarters in Gaza City, alleging that Hamas militants used the space as an electrical supply room. Borrell warned that if UNRWA ceases to operate, "it will make it still worse. You know, hundreds of thousands of people are being fed, eat, everyday thanks to the work of UNRWA. And not only in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria, in Jordan."

Dutch appeals court orders Netherlands to stop exports of F-35 parts to Israel, citing war in Gaza
MOLLY QUELLU/THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)/February 12, 2024
An appeals court ordered the Dutch government on Monday to halt the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, citing a clear risk of violations of international law. A trio of human rights organizations brought a civil suit against the Netherlands in December, arguing authorities needed to reevaluate the export license in light of Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip. “It is undeniable that there is a clear risk that the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law,” Judge Bas Boele said in reading out the ruling, eliciting cheers from several people in the courtroom. The exports must cease within seven days. The decision came as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte traveled to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the conflict. Rutte was also expected to separately meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.
“We are extremely grateful that there is justice and that the court was willing to speak out on justice,” lead lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld told reporters after the hearing. Oxfam Novib, Pax Nederland and The Rights Forum filed the case in December. They argued the continued transfer of the aircraft parts makes the Netherlands complicit in possible war crimes being committed by Israel in its war with Hamas. In January, a lower court sided with the government, allowing the Dutch to continue sending U.S.-owned parts stored at a warehouse in the town of Woensdrecht to Israel. The Netherlands is home to one of three F-35 European regional warehouses. Other countries are also considering restricting weapons sales to Israel. Human rights groups in the United Kingdom have brought a similar suit against their government, attempting to block weapons exports to Israel. In the United States, Democrats in the Senate are pushing a bill that would require President Joe Biden to get congressional approval before greenlighting weapons sales to Israel. Late last month, the U.N. top court ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza. Although that decision was made after the appeal in the Dutch case was heard, the groups’ lawyers say judges likely considered the legally binding order from the International Court of Justice. The decision left some room for Dutch authorities to export parts of the aircraft being used in operations other than Gaza. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was studying the decision. The government has eight weeks to appeal, though the prohibition on exports will remain.

Yemen's Houthi rebels fire missiles at ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, causing minor damage
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)/February 12, 2024
Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired two missiles at a ship bound for a port in Iran on Monday, causing minor damage but no injuries to its crew, authorities said. The attack on the Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Star Iris shows just how widely the Houthis now target ships traveling through the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the two waterways. The Star Iris had been heading from Brazil to Bandar Khomeini in Iran, the main backer and armer of the Houthis in Yemen's yearslong war. The Houthis sought to describe the Star Iris as an “American” vessel without offering evidence, and said they targeted the ship with multiple missiles. The Houthis' military “will not hesitate to carry out more operations in retaliation to the Zionist crimes against our brothers in the Gaza Strip, as well as in response to the ongoing American-British aggression against our dear country,” Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a statement after the attack. The British military’s United Kingdom Trade Operations center, which oversees Mideast waters, reported the attack, saying it happened while the Star Iris was traveling south through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that separates East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula. The ship's captain “reports his vessel was attacked by two missiles and reports minor damage,” the UKTMO said. “Vessel and crew are safe. Vessel proceeding to next port of call.”The attack on the Star Iris follows days in which no Houthi attacks on ships were reported. It's unclear what caused the pause, though the U.S. and British militaries have conducted multiple rounds of airstrikes targeting the Houthis' missile arsenals and launch sites in territory they hold. Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s offensive in Gaza. They have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for trade among Asia, the Mideast and Europe.

US Proceeds With $23 Billion Warplane, Missile Sale to Turkey
Selcan Hacaoglu/Bloomberg/February 12/ 2024
The US moved ahead with a $23 billion sale of F-16 warplanes, missiles and bombs to long-time ally Turkey after Ankara’s ratification of Sweden’s membership in NATO.
Congress approved Turkey’s acquisition of as many as 40 Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16 Block 70 aircraft and 79 upgrade kits to modernize its fleet as well as hundreds of missiles and bombs. The critical sale will reinforce Turkey’s defense at a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war has roiled the Middle East. The purchases will enable Turkey to retire its F-4 jets and to modernize NATO’s largest F-16 fleet after the US as a stopgap until it can develop its own warplanes. Jeff Flake, the US ambassador to Turkey, hailed the decision in a message posted on X on Sunday, saying Turkey’s “F-16 fleet is critical to NATO’s strength, ensuring future interoperability among allies.”Turkey is home to an early-warning radar at Kurecik, a critical part of NATO’s ballistic-missile defense capabilities, as well as Incirlik Air Base, close to Syria and used by the Pentagon to store tactical nuclear weapons.
Ankara has welcomed the approval of the sale of F-16s and weapons by Washington but strains remain between the allies, including Turkey’s refusal to jettison its Russian air defenses as demanded by Washington and an alliance between US troops and Kurdish forces, who are viewed as a mortal threat by Ankara, against Islamic State in Syria.

Sikh separatist’s home in Canada hit by gunfire
AFP/February 13, 2024
OTRTAWA, Canada: Shots appear to have been fired at the Canadian home of a Sikh separatist activist, police said Monday, following recent allegations by Ottawa and Washington that Indian dissidents living abroad in both countries have been targeted for assassination. Constable Tyler Bell-Morena said Peel Regional Police were alerted by construction crews about what appeared to be “a bullet hole in a window of the home” of Inderjit Singh Gosal in the province of Ontario, and are investigating. Gosal is also a close associate of prominent Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American Sikh activist in New York whom US authorities say was the target of a thwarted assassination plot in the United States last year. There were no injuries in the shooting as the Brampton, Ontario, home is under construction and currently unoccupied. “We understand who this person is and his affiliations, but it’s just too early for us to speculate that there’s any connection” to other violence and threats, Bell-Morena told AFP. “We are obviously investigating it with all avenues in mind,” he added. Pannun, writing on social media, called the incident a “drive-by shooting.”Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in September directly linked New Delhi to the killing of another Sikh separatist in the country, Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. After Trudeau went public with his allegations, India denied the charges and responded furiously, briefly curbing visas for Canadians and forcing Ottawa to withdraw diplomats. Canada also suspended negotiations for a free-trade agreement with India. Washington was more reserved in its assessment of New Delhi’s potential involvement in the Pannun case, saying only that an Indian government official was allegedly involved in the planning. Earlier this month, a group of people shot at the British Columbia home of Simranjeet Singh, an associate of Nijjar. Two Canadian teens have been arrested for discharging a firearm, but a motive has not been determined by police, according to Canadian media. Both cases center on radical Sikh separatists living abroad and promoting an independent state called Khalistan in the northern Indian state Punjab, where New Delhi crushed an insurgency three decades ago.

One dead, five injured in New York subway shooting
AFP/February 13, 2024
NEW YORK: One person was killed and five others injured in a shooting at a New York subway station just ahead of the busy rush hour Monday afternoon, officials said. Authorities were alerted just after 4:30 p.m. (2130 GMT) and six people were taken to hospital, the fire department said. “We don’t believe this was a random shooting... We believe this shooting all stems from a dispute between two groups that started on a train,” said the city’s police transit chief Michael Kemper.“Unfortunately one of the victims, a 34-year-old (male), was pronounced deceased.”There was a major emergency response at the elevated Mount Eden Avenue subway station in the northern borough of the Bronx, nine miles (14 kilometers) north of Manhattan’s Times Square, an AFP correspondent saw. Police detectives and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were at the scene conducting a fingerprint search following the shootings. Mass shootings are common in the United States, where there are more guns than people and about a third of adults own a firearm. Polls show a majority of Americans favor stricter gun regulations, but the powerful gun lobby and mobilized voters supporting the country’s culture of strong gun rights have repeatedly stymied lawmakers from taking action. New York has a lower homicide rate than many major US cities, and possession of firearms in public is illegal for civilians in almost all cases.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 12-13/2024
'Why Doesn't Hamas Go to Hell and Hide There?': Other Voices from Gaza
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute./February 12, 2024
One can understand why Al-Jazeera and Arab media journalists are so anti-Israel that they do not want to provide a platform to any Palestinian to criticize Hamas. Yet, one cannot understand why the foreign media is turning a blind eye to the critical voices coming out from the Gaza Strip and Palestinians and Arabs living outside the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
Why? These journalists are busy searching for stories that reflect badly only on Israel.
"Anyone who questioned Hamas's motives or objectives has been painted as a cowardly collaborator. To demand better living conditions or more political liberties was akin to treason.... Others are reluctant to speak out against Hamas for fear of seeming disloyal or pro-Israel. If people outside of Gaza find it difficult to question the forced conformity, imagine how much more challenging it is for many inside the coastal enclave." — Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib, X (Twitter), January 6, 2024.
"You're either going to govern and develop the place, or you're going to be a resistance group, but you can't do both at the same time.... Hamas could have made different choices that would have opened new political pathways for Palestinian unity and the development of Gaza. Instead, they chose to hold their people hostage and divert materials and resources into a futile armed resistance project that has set Palestinians back by decades." — Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib, X, February 4, 2024.
"Those who don't have to live with the consequences of Hamas's "resistance" are understandably the group's most fervent supporters and excusers (weirdly especially in London). Leave it to lousy beneficiaries of Western privilege to defend a terror group that oppresses its own people and uses them as cannon fodder in its suicidal adventures... Never forget that over 30,000 Gazans would still be alive today if Hamas kept its fighters at home on October 7. The pro-Palestine movement deserves better 'allies' and 'supporters' than overt & covert Hamas enthusiasts." — Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib, X, February 2, 2024.
"Anti-Hamas = Zionist. Call for coexistence = Zionist. Condemn Hamas = Zionist. Both sides' lives matter = Zionist. Sympathize with Israeli hostages = Zionist. How many definitions are there for Zionist? .... I forgot the most important one: Peace supporter = Zionist." — Hamza, X, February 5, 2024.
[Palestinian writer Majdi Abd Al-Wahhab] called on the international community and the Arab world to act to eliminate all the Palestinian organizations and stop their military and civilian activity, "so that the Palestinians will be rid of them and their harm and can start blazing a new, straight path for themselves, far from destruction, killing and devastation."
"The destruction caused by Hamas to Gaza will not end even if Israel's war on Gaza does stop. The destruction will continue, as is evident from the 'glorious' history of our [Palestinian] organizations." — Majdi Abd Al-Wahhab, Elaph, January 9, 2024.
The Arab media covering the war in Gaza ignores any Palestinian who dares to criticize Hamas. Al-Jazeera, the Qatari TV station that has long served as Hamas's official mouthpiece, removed from live interviews Palestinians who complained about Hamas's oppressive measures and who hold Hamas responsible for the massive destruction.
Since the beginning of the current war in the Gaza Strip, a growing number of Palestinians and Arabs have been speaking out against the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group, whose members committed the October 7 massacre against Israelis. On that day, more than 1,200 Israelis were murdered, raped, mutilated, tortured and burned alive, while another 240 were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip, where more than half are still held hostage by Hamas terrorists.
The voices of the Palestinians and Arabs who are critical of Hamas, however, have been almost completely ignored by mainstream media in the West, most of which remains obsessed with Israel. At present, there are no foreign journalists inside the Gaza Strip, but this should not serve as an excuse for ignoring the views and sentiments of Palestinians who disagree with Hamas's genocidal attack on Israel or who hold it fully responsible for the nakba (catastrophe) that has befallen the two million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip as a result of the war. This war, needless to say, was triggered by Hamas's October 7 atrocities. The foreign media can always find Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and elsewhere who are willing to express their views through social media.
The Arab media that is covering the war in the Gaza Strip has made it a habit of ignoring any Palestinian who dares to criticize Hamas or say a bad word about its leaders. There have even been a number of incidents in which Al-Jazeera, the Qatari TV station that has long been serving as Hamas's official mouthpiece, removed from live interviews Palestinians who complained about Hamas's oppressive measures and who hold Hamas responsible for the massive destruction of houses and buildings and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since the beginning of the war.
In one instance, during an interview with Al-Jazeera, a Palestinian patient from the Gaza Strip, who complained about Hamas terrorists hiding inside hospitals, was cut off. Al-Jazeera was asking the elderly wounded Palestinian to give his eyewitness testimony about the fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas terrorists. The man said: "What's happening is criminal! Why is the resistance [Hamas] hiding among us? Why don't they go to hell and hide there?"
This is just one example of how Al-Jazeera and most of the Arab media organizations operating inside the Gaza Strip have been working hard to silence critics of Hamas or anyone who dares to accuse the terrorist group of bring death and destruction to the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip.
One can understand why Al-Jazeera and Arab media journalists are so anti-Israel that they do not want to provide a platform to any Palestinian to criticize Hamas. Yet, one cannot understand why the Western media is turning a blind eye to the critical voices coming out from the Gaza Strip and Palestinians and Arabs living outside the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
The bad news is that many Palestinians continue to support Hamas even after the October 7 carnage. The good news is that there are increasingly some Palestinians who deplore what the Hamas terrorists did and who are willing to speak out. The anti-Hamas Palestinians, however, are being ignored by foreign media and are failing to attract the attention of Western journalists. Why? These journalists are busy searching for stories that reflect badly only on Israel.
One of the popular voices against Hamas on social media is Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib, who left the Gaza Strip for the US a few years ago. Many of Al-Khatib's family members remain in the Gaza Strip, and some of them were killed in the fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas.
Here are some of the comments he posted on X (formerly Twitter) in response to the international media's indifference:
"For decades, Hamas has cynically equated itself with the word 'resistance,' (muqawama) as if the group's violent ideology was the only real way to push back against Israeli injustices.... In the past, however, many have embraced non-violent resistance.
"Hamas, by contrast, has always promoted armed struggle as the sole path for Palestinian rights and statehood. The group's suicide bombings undermined the fragile but promising Oslo Peace Accords in the 1990s, and it has consistently incited Palestinians against peace, coexistence and nonviolent resistance.
"The group has used mosques, charity groups, youth camps and slick media campaigns to propagate its message and has used public shaming and violence to smother dissent. Anyone who questioned Hamas's motives or objectives has been painted as a cowardly collaborator. To demand better living conditions or more political liberties was akin to treason. Many people have fallen under this pressure. And many Muslims in the diaspora have taken on this messaging.
"Others are reluctant to speak out against Hamas for fear of seeming disloyal or pro-Israel. If people outside of Gaza find it difficult to question the forced conformity, imagine how much more challenging it is for many inside the coastal enclave."
In another post, Al-Khatib wrote:
"When Hamas, an Islamist movement that had already carried out hundreds of terror attacks against Israeli civilians, took over Gaza and then continuously declared its intention to target Israel through militant actions/activities & to do everything possible to smuggle munitions and turn the Strip into a resistance citadel, of course there were going to be consequences including wars and a siege/blockade. That would have been true whether it was Israel or any other nation - it is entirely predictable.
"Hamas found ways to insulate itself from the impact of the blockade on Gaza while Palestinians suffered. Millions of Gazans, including my family and friends, experienced endless hardships due to the blockade while Hamas goons turned the disaster into money-making opportunities. For example, Hamas imposed hefty taxes on electricity generator operators who were providing supplemental power to residential homes for a monthly fee -- these were local entrepreneurial initiatives to use big diesel generators to provide thousands of homes with electricity, which was only available for a few hours a day. The group literally hindered & taxed efforts to address the consequences of the blockade that its own actions and choices brought upon Gazans.
"The group could have engaged in political and diplomatic overtures and initiatives, including the renunciation of violence or simply committing to a long-term truce with Israel that could have seriously helped in lessening the blockade's impact and allowed for more goods and services to enter Gaza and improve lives for people. Lifting the blockade while adopting armed resistance is mutually exclusive. You're either going to govern and develop the place, or you're going to be a resistance group, but you can't do both at the same time.
"Hamas could have made different choices that would have opened new political pathways for Palestinian unity and the development of Gaza. Instead, they chose to hold their people hostage and divert materials and resources into a futile armed resistance project that has set Palestinians back by decades. I know personally & intimately of multiple occasions, public and private, during which Israel would have been open to letting Gaza fully develop unhindered & unrestricted if Hamas had renounced violence - and that could have been done in phases, meaning it wouldn't have entailed Hamas immediately giving up all of their weapons, but simply making verifiable and overt/clear commitments that the group is not going to smuggle weapons and munitions and will instead focus on governing and engaging in a political process to achieve the two-state solution."
Al-Khatib and other Hamas critics point out that because of their views against the terrorist group, they have become targets of smear campaigns in which they are accused of being "pro-Israel" and "Zionists."
"I can maybe understand why some Palestinians are reluctant/hesitant to acknowledge Hamas' crimes against Israeli civilians on Oct 7. After all, most Gazans & Palestinians (due to propaganda) don't believe that Israeli civilians were targeted/killed on that day," Al-Khatib wrote.
"But the torrential rain of attacks/threats/harassment by 'allies' of the pro-Palestine movement against me, particularly in Western/European countries (mainly white/non-Palestinian activists/Twitter warriors) is inexcusable and shameful & confirms what I've been saying about the inevitable failure of the movement if it doesn't change course quickly and abandon Hamas & the group's Islamist terror.
"Make no mistake: pro-Hamas sentiments have become mainstream since October 7, ironically, at a time when most Gazans are actually turning against the Islamist group. Those who don't have to live with the consequences of Hamas's 'resistance' are understandably the group's most fervent supporters and excusers (weirdly especially in London). Leave it to lousy beneficiaries of Western privilege to defend a terror group that oppresses its own people and uses them as cannon fodder in its suicidal adventures.
"Twitter Mujahideen & resistance porn promoters are the enemy of Palestinians and their just/urgent cause, particularly those experiencing the worst of the war in Gaza. Never forget that over 30,000 Gazans would still be alive today if Hamas kept its fighters at home on October 7. The pro-Palestine movement deserves better 'allies' and 'supporters' than overt & covert Hamas enthusiasts. Denying the atrocities of October 7 is truly shameful."
Hamza, another Hamas critic from the Gaza Strip, also pointed out how he is being accused of being a "Zionist" simply for criticizing Hamas and being sympathetic to Israel. Hamza wrote on X:
"Anti-Hamas = Zionist. Call for coexistence = Zionist. Condemn Hamas = Zionist. Both sides' lives matter = Zionist. Sympathize with Israeli hostages = Zionist. How many definitions are there for Zionist? I forgot the most important one: Peace supporter = Zionist."
In another post, which is also ignored by Western media outlets, Hamza reveals how Hamas is using the tragedy in the Gaza Strip, especially the shortage of food, to raise prices. As an example, he posted photos of Bounty and Galaxy candies and chocolates whose prices have jumped from two Israeli shekels to 18 shekels ($5). Hamas terrorists have also been accused of stealing much of the humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians are not the only ones who are coming out against Hamas and whose voices are being ignored by many Westerners. There is also a significant number of Arabs who have taken to social media to lash out at Hamas.
Gulf Arab Khulood Salman wrote:
"Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, the Palestinians have been living in miserable conditions, corruption, theft of money and aid. From time to time, [Hamas] brings them into a fierce war with Israel, according to what the interests and agenda of the regime in Iran and its allies require.
"The Gaza Strip will not stabilize, Yemen will not stabilize, Iraq will not stabilize, Lebanon will not stabilize with the presence of militias affiliated with the Iranian regime. There is no security, there is no stability except by getting rid of those extremist terrorist militias."
In this video, Hamas Leader Khaled Mashaal says Hamas took power of the Gaza Strip, but had no interest in governing the Palestinians. He claims their only interest is the 'resistance:' fighting Israel and killing Jews. For him, Palestinian civilians are cannon fodder, human shields, or expendable.
In two recent articles on the Saudi website Elaph, Palestinian writer Majdi Abd Al-Wahhab directs harsh criticism at Hamas. He states that its October 7 attack against Israel brought nothing but disaster upon the Palestinians people, expresses hope that Allah will curse Hamas for the devastation it has brought upon Gaza, and wonders why it spent vast sums on digging tunnels and launching a hopeless war against Israel instead of investing them in developing the Gaza Strip and its people.
In his first article on December 26, 2023, Abd Al-Wahhab calls Hamas' October 7 attack a "kamikaze" operation, like those of the Japanese pilots in World War II, which, he says, did nothing to help Japan's war effort. He urged Hamas to learn from the experience of the Japanese and renounce its pointless military action. In addition, he called on the international community and the Arab world to act to eliminate all the Palestinian organizations and stop their military and civilian activity, "so that the Palestinians will be rid of them and their harm and can start blazing a new, straight path for themselves, far from destruction, killing and devastation."
Wahhab wrote:
"Let me borrow the Japanese word 'kamikaze' – suicide [warriors] – and use it in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, even though the two cultures use this concept in different ways. This word may be applicable to the Palestinian reality today... [to] operations that, judging by their outcomes, were suicide missions, and which were meant to liberate Palestine and establish a national or Islamic state...
"The kamikaze [pilots] did not help Japan win World War II. After the US dropped two atomic bombs on it, Japan was defeated. It surrendered and declared it would abandon all military action.
"Palestine's kamikaze [warriors], who started operating about a century ago and demanded the liberation of this land, lost about half of it in 1948, and later, in 1967, lost all the rest. Then they brought devastation and disintegration upon the Palestinians, until they finally destroyed the Gaza Strip over the heads of its people after Hamas' kamikaze attack against Israel on October 7.
"Now that we have reached this level of devastation and lost the homeland and everything in it, the question is: Will the Palestinian factions... learn from the experience of the Japanese, follow their example, renounce armed action and distance themselves from militarism, which has not yielded anything and will not do so in the future, given the power relations [between the sides]? These factions and their operatives, of all persuasions, have not understood [that it is hopeless] and will not understand it in the future, judging by their history, during which they have lost and destroyed everything."
In his second article, dated January 9, 2024, Abd Al-Wahhab wrote:
"Anyone who sees the destruction in Gaza, in terms of human lives, buildings, and on the economic, financial and psychological levels, cannot but pray to Allah and ask him to curse all those who caused this destruction. How can we not curse the people who caused this, given this complete devastation? How can we not curse Hamas and its leaders after they have destroyed every element of dignified existence in the Gaza Strip?!
"When Hamas carried out its attack [on October 7] and invaded the [Israeli] localities on the Gaza border, did it expect Israel to refrain from retaliating in force and from delivering blow after blow to the Gaza Strip....Wouldn't it have been appropriate for Hamas, which has already proved its [considerable] planning abilities, to invest these abilities and energies in building up the Gaza Strip and completing the growth that had been achieved there – [growth] that was the envy of many Arabs and Muslims living in Yemen, Somalia or other countries, [whereas today] the Gazans wish to achieve the level of those [countries] and see them as a safe haven?!
"Wouldn't it have been better for Hamas to invest the human and financial capital – which it squandered on building up its military abilities and digging tunnels – in developing Gaza, its people, its buildings and its streets? It has already been proven that [Hamas'] military abilities can cause Israel no more than very superficial harm, and certainly cannot defeat it, and the evidence for that is [now] clearly in front of us.
"The destruction caused by Hamas to Gaza will not end even if Israel's war on Gaza does stop. The destruction will continue, as is evident from the 'glorious' history of our [Palestinian] organizations. This devastation does not bode well, contrary to the assumptions of those who delude themselves that [they are] winning. It will be another in a long chain of [devastating developments] that will last years and lead to geographic, topographic and demographic changes in the Gaza Strip, in the short term and the long one.
"Congratulations to the leaders of Hamas for what they have done in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem. The path is obvious and clear: the devastation will be followed by [people] fleeing, migrating and living in misery and suffering, both in the Strip and outside it, and whoever does not become a refugee [in his homeland], will migrate. Many are now thinking of migrating, after Hamas has caused them to lose everything that was meaningful in their lives. [But this is only] providing they can find a way to migrate and leave the Strip or the West Bank, for the propagandists of fake [Palestinian] patriotism and [Arab] nationalism will prevent them [from doing so], and leave them in their current situation, just as [other] Palestinian refugees remained refugees for decades, trapped in the camps of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
"Thanks to Hamas for turning us into a new refugee enterprise – providing we even manage to survive after it has destroyed our souls. Does Hamas not deserve all these curses, now that it has led the Palestinians to perdition and turned them into fuel for the flames [of war]?!"
Those who ignore the grievances of the Palestinians against Hamas are hurting the very Palestinians they claim to support. Even if the number of Palestinians who are willing to speak out against Hamas remains relatively small, there is no justification for burying their voices and distorting the reality – that some Palestinians are not afraid to confront the terrorists amongst them. To ignore these voices is to be complicit with Hamas in muzzling their truly heroic efforts to speak out.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Are Muslim Converts to Christianity Sincere?
Raymond Ibrahim./February 12, 2024
Muslim asylum seekers throughout Western Europe are increasingly converting to Christianity: 40 Muslim migrants aboard the Bibby Stockholm, a Barge in Portland Port in Dorset, England, have reportedly embraced Christ, are fervently attending churches, and being instructed by faith leaders. Another 20 Muslim migrants were baptized two weekends ago in Wethersfield, Essex.
Surely this is good news for both Christians and atheists in Europe: for Christians, because they are winning souls for Christ (and gaining much needed followers), and for atheists, because the Muslim who becomes a Christian stops being a Muslim.
There is just one problem: from the very beginning, Muslims have been notorious for insincerely saying or doing almost anything—not just falsely converting to Christianity, but even denouncing and cursing Muhammad—if so doing benefits or empowers them over the hated infidel. Worse, Islam approves of such stratagems, as captured in the doctrine of taqiyya.
At the same time, and because many people tend to project themselves onto others, Muslims are converting to Christianity because they still think Europe is Christian and that Christians behave like Muslims—meaning that Christians are commanded to hate non-Christians and help fellow Christians. (Islam commands Muslims to hate non-Muslims and help Muslims.) Because Christians and converts to Christianity are persecuted all throughout the Muslim world, Muslims assume that Christians (in Europe) are eager to help any Christian minority or Muslim convert to escape the persecution.
At any rate, history offers an especially instructive example of what some Muslims are willing to do when threatened with deportation from the boons of infidel living. In 1492, Granada, the final Muslim bastion of Spain which had long terrorized Christians, was reconquered. Its Muslims were initially granted lenient terms, including the right to travel abroad and practice Islam freely. However, whenever the opportunity arose, they launched many hard-to-quell uprisings—several “involving the stoning, dismembering, beheading, impaling, and burning alive of Christians”—and regularly colluded with foreign Muslim powers (e.g., Ottoman Turks) in an effort to subvert Spain back to Islam.
The Spanish crown eventually issued an edict that Muslims either had to convert to Christianity—and therefore slough off their jihadist animus—or quit the peninsula. In response, the entire population of Granada—hundreds of thousands of Muslims—openly embraced Christianity but remained crypto-Muslims. Publicly they went to church and baptized their children; at home they recited the Koran, preached undying hate for the infidel and their obligation to re-subjugate Spain to Islam. And all this deception was legitimized by the fatwas of leading Islamic clerics.
One historian explains the great lengths these “Moriscos”—that is, Muslim converts to Christianity who were still “Moorish,” or Islamic—went to deceive the Christians:
For a Morisco to pass as a good Christian took more than a simple statement to that effect. It required a sustained performance involving hundreds of individual statements and actions of different types, many of which might have little to do with expressions of belief or ritual per se. Dissimulation [taqiyya] was an institutionalized practice in Morisco communities that involved regular patterns of behaviour passed on from one generation to the next.
Despite this elaborate masquerade, Christians increasingly caught on: “With the permission and license that their accursed sect [Islam] accorded them,” a frustrated Spaniard remarked in the seventeenth century, “they could feign any religion outwardly and without sinning, as long as they kept their hearts nevertheless devoted to their false impostor of a prophet. We saw so many of them who died while worshipping the Cross and speaking well of our Catholic Religion yet who were inwardly excellent Muslims.”
In short, generation after generation of Muslims pretended to be and lived as model Christians in Spain—even as they had nothing but hatred for Christianity and Christians—and all to remain and eventually reconquer Spain for Islam.
Nor do Muslims go to such great lengths of deception only to evade deportation. Some employ it for exclusively murderous ends. In 2013, for example, an assassination plot against a Christian pastor in Turkey was exposed; 14 Muslim suspects, including at least three women, were arrested. According to the pastor in question, Emre Karaali: “Two of them attended our church for over a year and they were like family.” One was even baptized. In reality, “These people had infiltrated our church and collected information about me, my family and the church and were preparing an attack against us.”
Citing history or the affairs of distant nations such as Turkey is, ultimately, unnecessary. After all, Britain itself has had ample experiences of Muslim terrorists feigning conversion to Christianity. Indeed, a few days ago it was reported that,
The suspect in the Clapham chemical attack converted to Christianity with a Baptist church that “welcomes strangers”… Abdul Ezedi has been on the run for six days after allegedly dousing a 31-year-old woman and her two daughters, aged three and eight, with an alkaline substance and trying to run them over with a car before fleeing the scene in Clapham, south London. Ezedi was convicted of sex offences in Newcastle in 2018, but was allowed to remain in the country because the sentence did not reach the threshold for deportation. It has emerged that the 35-year-old was twice refused asylum before being granted leave to remain in the UK after a priest vouched for his conversion, arguing that he was “wholly committed” to his new religion.
Despite all of the above, it must be acknowledged that Muslim conversions to Christianity are not uncommon and possibly growing. Some of the aforementioned converts may be sincere.
Such is the tragic mess of Islam. Its followers have cried wolf so often that it is nearly impossible to determine when it is true. As a result, someone—either sincere converts or duped Europeans—will invariably continue to pay the price for Islam’s lies.

Why ‘transfer’ from Gaza is the Hamas war’s biggest taboo
Dr. Mordechai Nisan/New York Post/February 12/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126979/126979/
The massacre by Hamas of 1,200 Israelis last October 7 triggered the Israeli army’s invasion of the Gaza Strip to eradicate Hamas, demolish its military infrastructure and liberate 240 hostages from captivity.
Nearly 28,000 Palestinians have died in the months since, according to the Hamas-run health administration. And Israel’s military operations have displaced hundreds of thousands more.
The result: The Hamas assailants are increasingly portrayed as victims in a manipulative twisting of the truth.
In its 1988 Covenant, Hamas made its goals clear: “To raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.”
If not destroyed, the war of Hamas against Israel will continue without end.
One solution to Hamas’ intractable violence has been the transfer of Gazans from Gaza.
In November, Israel’s Right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for upwards of 1.8 million Gazans to “voluntarily” leave the Gaza Strip, while last month Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhyu was reportedly in talks to resettle Gazans to locations as far flung as Congo.
The idea of Arab population transfer is nothing new. Indeed, resettlement touches upon Zionism’s century-long predicament with its Arab neighbors.
Stalwart Zionists – Theodore Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion – favored encouraging Arab migration to nearby countries during the period around Israel’s independence.
Approximately 500,000 Arabs fled Israel amid the turmoil of 1948; another 250,000 left the West Bank for Jordan in the decades that followed.
Confounded by a large hostile Arab population within the territorial additions that followed 1967’s Six-Day War, Israeli political leaders, Levi Eshkol and Moshe Dayan, promoted Arab emigration to nearby Jordan and even distant Latin America.
Although no plan was ever enacted, today, some half a million people of Palestinian origin make their home in Chile.
In recent years, Israel’s security establishment began to revisit Gazan resettlement following a series of brief, yet bloody, battles with Hamas.
According to the noted Israeli television commentator Ohad Hemo, who specializes in Arab Affairs: “The dream of every youth in Gaza is to emigrate [to the West].”
An estimated 250,000 – 350,000 young Palestinian men already have since Hamas overthrew the ruling Palestinian Authority in 2007.
Some departed permanently, while others left for temporary work in European countries.
The possibility of Palestinian emigration on a significant scale has its historical roots in similar cases during times of great conflict across the globe.
Wars catalyzed flight for Bosnians to Austria in the 1990s, and Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh nearly three decades later.
Millions of Afghans, Syrians, and Ukrainians, became refugees amid trauma and upheaval of wars and invasion in their own lands.
The case of Gaza is similar – yet different.
The embattled UN agency UNRWA, for instance, has helped ensure that generations of Gazans would remain refugees in their own land, regardless of the changing world around them.
Gazan refugee camps, housing some 155 UNRWA facilities, became a breeding ground of hatred of Israel and, as recently revealed by Israeli forces, a storehouse for arms caches.
The camps were also a convenient political tool, a symbol of Arab efforts to exercise their “right of return” to abandoned homes lost in 1948.
Weaned on a diet of Islamic fanaticism and rabid Jew-hatred, Hamas-run Gaza is not the kind of neighbor Israel should – or even could – tolerate in the long term.
Despite those hundreds of thousands who’ve already left, the international community is intent on denying Gazans the choice of emigration – even if it might extricate them from a life of despair and hardship.
Canada has expressed a willingness to accept some Gazan refugees, while the Muslim republic of Chechnya within the Russian Federation accepted roughly 1,200 Gazan refugees early this year.
Nations in Africa and South America, said Israeli Parliament Member Danny Danon in December, are also willing to open their doors, though some have requested financial compensation.
And potential relocation plans to Egypt have been also discussed.
If only the West would let them.
Last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken exemplified this illogical moral posturing when he said during a visit to Jerusalem that the United States “rejects the settlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza.” Similar sentiments were shared by leading EU and UK politicians, while Europe’s borders are being tightened to prevent a surge of Gazan migrants to nations already overflowing with refugees.
The idea of Palestinian emigration remains the great ‘elephant in the room’ as war rages in Gaza. But few dare discuss it honestly.
As he allows millions of illegal immigrants to cross into the US, President Biden opposes a similar ‘world without borders’ for Palestinians that might offer them a new life, as well.
Perhaps the greatest irony lies in the population transfer that has already taken place in Gaza – of 8,000 Israeli Jews forcefully expelled by their own government during its departure from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
This was a move the US supported, viewed as a step toward regional reconciliation and peace.
Nearly two decades later, a transfer in reverse is seen by Washington as a violation of human rights.
The contrast combines a moral sham with political recklessness — perpetuating a seemingly intractable conflict instead of pushing to resolve it.
*Dr. Mordechai Nisan, a retired lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of numerous books on Middle East history.
https://nypost.com/2024/02/10/opinion/transfer-from-gaza-is-the-hamas-wars-biggest-taboo/

No one is fooled by Iran and its proxies’ smoke-and-mirrors pantomime
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/February 12, 2024
During yet another of his incessant trips to Beirut, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian declared last week: “War is not the solution, and we absolutely never sought to expand it.” Nevertheless, through a multitude of Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese and Yemeni paramilitaries, expanding the conflict is exactly what Tehran has been doing over the past four months. Iran lies so brazenly, but it can’t help boasting about the control it wields through these proxy armies.
“A large-scale attack on Lebanon will spell the end of Netanyahu,” Abdollahian boldly asserted. This was a stupid thing to say on two levels: first, because it would also entail the end of Lebanon as we know it; and second because politically Netanyahu is already a dead man walking. “Our assessment is that the Zionist regime will never be able to fight on two fronts,” Abdollahian said — as if such frivolous speculation were not gambling with the lives of millions in Lebanon and nearby states, with negligible immediate cost to Iran itself.
This exemplifies the disregardful manner in which Tehran treats Arab states as cards to be used and incinerated in the cause of scoring cheap political points. The ayatollahs treat everybody like fools in denying their culpability in mobilizing region-wide armies of proxies, as if nobody would guess the country of origin of the drones and missiles being fired off indiscriminately across the Middle East.
Iran lies so brazenly, but it can’t help boasting about the control it wields through these proxy armies.
Alharq Al-Awsat quoted Hashd Al-Shaabi politicians in Iraq recalling how they were given their marching orders by senior Iranian officials soon after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel: “They told us that we are part of Iran and its power in the region. You are the striking hand to protect Shiism, and it is time not only to liberate Al-Aqsa, but to rule the countries of the region.” In apparent reference to these meetings, Kata’ib Hezbollah’s Abu Fadak Al-Muhammadawi said: “The sensitive regional context and what will transpire depends mainly upon our commitment to what we agreed upon.”
Iraq’s paramilitary Hashd Al-Shaabi and its Quds Force masters have years of experience of playing games of smoke and mirrors behind counterfeit identities, seeking to establish a veneer of separation between the array of “Islamic resistance” factions who have been engaged in attacking US targets, while Hashd groupings present themselves as legitimate politicians in a clumsy good cop, bad cop routine.
“Resistance” factions such as Hezbollah Al-Nujaba have little to lose politically, since they have no parliamentary seats. They have therefore been the most gung-ho elements in attacking the Americans, even ridiculing other Hashd components for their lack of battle readiness. Like the Houthis in Yemen, these forces have scattered far and wide in small mobile cells, so that retaliatory Western strikes inflict negligible losses.
Kata’ib Hezbollah has one foot in and one foot out of Iraq’s parliament. Its political figurehead Hossein Moanes anticipated “a long war of attrition against the enemy which will last for years.” Meanwhile its “resistance” wing was blamed for last month’s attack that killed three Americans, triggering widespread reprisals, including the killing of a Kata’ib Hezbollah commander, Abu Baqr Al-Saeedi.
The group's subsequent hurried announcement that it would temporarily cease attacking the US, and strenuous denials of Iranian involvement, were presumably intended to short-circuit US-Israeli pressure to target “the head of the snake” and strike Tehran directly. Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq, meanwhile, despite its long history of deadly attacks on US assets, has mostly stayed out of the latest bouts of attacks — focusing on the Hashd’s political and economic priorities in a complex but well coordinated division of labor.
The Hashd’s confluence of economic, political, military and social agendas highlights why these factions have become so hazardous for Iraq’s continued existence, particularly under a government so heavily dominated by these entities that it has doled out prime economic concessions worth billions of dollars in revenue, over and above the $3 billion this 240,000-strong force receives annually from the state purse.
Kata’ib Hezbollah has one foot in and one foot out of Iraq’s parliament. Its political figurehead Hossein Moanes anticipated “a long war of attrition against the enemy which will last for years.”
All the while, smaller “resistance” factions have a free hand to tenaciously pursue Iran’s longstanding goal of evicting the Americans. As Hezbollah Al-Nujaba’s Akram Al-Kaabi said: “It has become a duty for everyone to declare war on America and remove it, humiliated, from Iraq.” This comes at a time when US-Iraqi talks on the future status of foreign troops in Iraq continue. We should expect this to be the subject of fiery political grandstanding in the coming days. although many within Iraq’s administration fear how rapidly things could fall apart — yet again — if the Americans depart. Hilariously, after Iran and its proxies had gone to enormous trouble to establish phantom entities such as“Ashab Al-Kahf” or “Saraya Awliya Al-Dam” to claim responsibility for attacks on US forces, megalomaniac faction leaders such as Akram al-Kaabi and Kata’ib Hezbollah’s Abu Hussein Al-Hamidawi were unable to restrain themselves from boasting about their own prowess in staging these assaults. As the Hashd researcher Michael Knights astutely noted: “The facade strategy requires a sacrifice of ego, which is not something they can keep up for very long.” These cloak-and-dagger identities never stopped the US military targeting Kata’ib Hezbollah and Hezbollah Al-Nujaba directly — albeit too little, too late.
These factions are solely accountable to the Quds Force, whose personnel are embedded within the Shoura Council of Kata’ib Hezbollah and other factions, pulling their strings behind the scenes.
In the event of further escalation, it’s unlikely that Iran’s leaders and paramilitary officials wearing political suits can distance themselves from the oncoming storm. Unfortunately, such callous stupidity is likely to cost countless Arab lives and region-wide devastation, along with the lives of untold numbers of innocent Iranian civilians when the miscalculations and mishaps of these ignoramuses ultimately bring the battle to the gates of Tehran. The ayatollahs hubristically believe they’ve been enormously clever in such farcical lies and professions of non-involvement. But the identity of the puppet masters mobilizing these proxy armies and inflaming the regional battlefield on all fronts is hidden to nobody.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

The power of small and smart states
Armen Sarkissian/Arab News/February 12, 2024
The publication of my book, The Small States Club: How Small Smart States Can Save the World, has provoked a much-needed discussion on small states. In the course of my lives as a scientist and diplomat, businessman and politician, I have unceasingly marveled at the tenacity of small states. Their survival has always been predicated on overcoming insuperable odds.
When the modern state came into existence with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, there were 400 small states. Hundreds of them were extinguished by the antecedents of today’s great and middle powers. Today, there are roughly 150 small states — a sevenfold increase since the establishment of the postwar order in 1945. But their survival can scarcely be taken for granted in an increasingly multipolar world whose order, institutions and norms are being torpedoed by the velocity of political, geopolitical, social and technological transformation.
If there is an overwhelming priority or a paramount preoccupation common to all small states, it is survival. The world has never been structured to facilitate the survival of small states and treating small states as disposable has been the norm through most of recent history. Survival, therefore, has largely depended on the will and skill of small states themselves.
To preserve themselves, small states must be agile, adaptable and adroit. Internally, as Aristotle said of the city-states of the 4th century B.C., they must train their populations to be jacks of all trades. Externally, they must exert themselves to mobilize an international order reinforced by institutions and equipped with the means to uphold its rules. In short, small states must also be smart states.
In international relations, as the Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye argues, there are three kinds of power: hard power, which involves coercion; soft power, which flows from a nation’s cultural output; and what I would call “smart power.” The last of these amalgamates components of both hard and soft power but also, crucially, makes an effort to bolster itself by leveraging technology intelligently.
Unlike conventional approaches, smart power actively embraces and harnesses emerging tools such as artificial intelligence, aiming not only to adapt but also to derive significant advantages from these innovations. The essence of smart power lies in its ability to synergize traditional sources of influence with cutting-edge technologies, positioning itself strategically to navigate and capitalize on the ever-evolving landscape of power dynamics.
In the course of my career, I have seen the improbable rise of small states that were born in impossible conditions and written off before they could learn to crawl. The UAE, for instance, was dismissed even before its visionary founder, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, had unified the dusty emirates that made up the Trucial States. Today, more than five decades after its inauguration in 1971, the UAE is not only an international cultural hub and a center of commerce, it is also home to the world’s unlikeliest green city. Meanwhile, Qatar, capitalizing on its gas reserves and the strategic American airbase it hosts, contributes uniquely to global diplomacy by serving as both a mediator and a negotiator.
The future of Singapore was similarly in grave doubt once Britain withdrew its forces in 1971, exposing it to the whims of the great and middle powers surrounding it. Lee Kuan Yew, the city-state’s father, reacted to this crisis by aggressively superintending Singapore’s transformation into an economic force in the world and a diplomatic troubleshooter in the region.
At its independence in 1966, Botswana had exactly 8 miles (12 km) of tarred road in the entire country. Its land was shrouded with sand and its people scraped a living from agriculture. Today, Botswana is a model of economic prudence and efficient governance in Africa. With a population under 2 million, its low taxes, high income (at $6,000, its per capita income is larger than Malaysia’s), excellent healthcare and openness to foreign talent have made it the envy of others.
Today, the UAE is not only an international cultural hub and a center of commerce, it is also home to the world’s unlikeliest green city.
We inhabit a world in which, for the first time, long-marginalized voices have acquired the capability to amplify themselves and be heard. An individual with a smartphone is possessed with the power to break news and shape trends. A small, tech-savvy state can compete with large states. Technology has eroded the capacity of large powers to remain the predominant centers of progress and achievement.
Eight of the top 10 nations on the Bloomberg Innovation Index are small states. Singapore, a consistently high-ranking state on the index, is a world leader in medical innovation. Despite being home to the equivalent of only 7 percent of Germany’s population, it accounts for more patents in healthcare than its European counterpart. It has converted its curses — its location and limited resources — into opportunities to become one of the most prosperous countries in the world.
Sweden, home to fewer than 11 million citizens, has emerged as a captain in the fields of technology, research and development and innovation. It has more technology hubs per capita than any part of the world save Silicon Valley. Even the stars are no longer beyond the reach of small states. In 2021, the UAE, home to just over 9 million people, successfully orbited its rover around Mars — catapulting itself into an exclusive league once occupied by great powers.
Stability, constancy, the rule of law, peace and predictability are imperative for the success of small states. And a club of such states would help smaller nations exert greater influence in cultivating the climate essential for global security, progress and prosperity. In doing so, it would also temper the aggression and destructive impulses of large powers.
“The Small States Club” tells the compelling story of eight small countries that dot Europe, Asia and Africa that would qualify as founding members of such a club. There are, of course, others that merit attention, but I selected these states because I have studied them closely and their travails and successes, individually and collectively, carry indispensable lessons for small (and even large) states operating in a world in flux.
Often, I have interacted extensively with the leaders and key figures in these nations. Not every country I have examined features every virtue prized by every society. But despite their shortcomings, they can teach us something valuable about surviving and succeeding in an inhospitable world.
As an Armenian diplomat and later as president, I often reflected on the need for a consortium of smaller states, a collective that might be nimbler and more effective than the sluggish giants that currently dominate international relations. This “S20,” as one might call it, would be a club of nations — from Singapore to Switzerland and Botswana to Arab states — unburdened by the weight of empires, ready to learn from past errors and earnestly seek to arbitrate conflicts with fairness and foresight.
Small states live on the knife-edge of survival; peace is not a luxury for them but the precondition of their existence. This is why small states tend for the most part to be averse to conflict: war imposes a disproportionate toll on them. There will always be exceptions to the rule, but small states generally tend to promote peace — or at least strive to create conditions to avert the outbreak of fighting. Therefore, minimizing, if not altogether eliminating, bloody conflict is not a noble ideal for them — it is a necessity.
Even though a club of small states would take responsibility for their fates and help foster peace through collective action and mutual support, the idea of such a collaborative body has met with resistance from the larger states, whose preeminence depends on the status quo. They look upon any new institution that might affect the scales of influence with suspicion and skepticism.
But I am pleased to note that the publication of The Small States Club has stirred a discussion. Representatives of key small states have shared their enthusiasm for a so-called S20 grouping. There is much work to be done, but the idea is catching on. If peace and progress are to be more than impossible dreams, we must reduce if not cease our dependence on big powers and obsolete institutions and instead harness the survival instinct of small states to create a body that values dialogue over discord and collaboration and peace over conquest and perpetual conflict.
• Armen Sarkissian is the former President of Armenia and author of “The Small States Club: How Small Smart States Can Save the World.” X: @ArmSarkissian

Fear: A Shared and Taboo Sentiment in Our Region
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 13/2024
Decades of occupation, oppression, and conflict over land and victimhood are the background to the heart-wrenching scenes in Gaza. However, so are other elements that have resulted from occupation, and resistance to it, to the same extent that they have shaped them. Fear, one of those elements, has played a key role in leading us to this miserable state of affairs and aggravating it, not only in the main stage in Gaza, but also in several other countries and regions of the Middle East. Having said that, the concept of fear has only rarely been integrated into our understanding of what is happening and has thus not been given the same analytical significance that other conflict terms have. Indeed, this neglect of fear, which is shared by the warring parties, is reinforced by the patriarchal, nationalist, and religious cultures of all parties. The fearful do not show their fear; even when presenting themselves as the sole victims, they must blend that image with one of strength. For instance, while Palestinians fear the Israeli war machine that has killed and continues to kill them, they affirm their strength by underlining their insistence on remaining steadfast and stressing the support of Arabs, Muslims, and allies. As for the righteousness of their cause and struggle, it is sufficient for ensuring victory. Similarly, while the Israelis - on whom the memory of the Holocaust and pogroms weigh heavily - fear neighbors they consider hostile, they are confident of victory due to their strong army, international alliances, and their claims to righteousness.
Everyone who lives in the Middle East understands the fear common to its communities, and that each of these communities has an almost epic history replete with battles, expulsion, and displacement. Political thought, on the other hand, exposes the lengths that are taken to circumvent fear and replace it with claims to strength.
Both Palestinians and Israelis have a right to be afraid. Palestinians, who have lost the prospect of a state since 1948 - as every country in the area was emerging or gaining independence - are indeed afraid of a vicious and technologically advanced army that has previously defeated several Arab armies that had been thought to be strong; and that was before settlers became an additional armed force instilling fear and encroaching on their territory. Recalling how readily the security-obsessed Israelis resort to violence in response to the slightest challenge by Palestinians, and how easily their response turns into collective punishment, helps us grasp aspects of this fear. Recent Palestinian history is brimming with reasons to be fearful, including forced expulsion, statelessness, and difficult living and working conditions, especially for those who have ended up in refugee camps and were subsequently left with no choice but to reside in neighboring countries among communities that are plagued, for their part, by demographic fears. Haunted by their painful history in Europe and apprehensions of its recurrence, the Israelis find themselves in a region in which they are a different and unliked minority. Openly or implicitly, most of them operate under the assumption that peace and normalization are not sufficient guarantees against hatred and rejection. Their peace with Egypt, which dates back to 1978, only established a "cold peace," and the same is true for their peace deal with Jordan, which is now three decades old.
Nothing amplifies this fear like the increasing attachment to identities and the compulsion to dig up historical grievances that come with it. We know that recent decades have turned Muslims more Islamic and Jews more Jewish, making it more difficult to build bridges than ever. Diplomatic reconciliations from above between governments do little to change that.
There is no single template for alleviating the fears of the fearful in the Levant, especially after the collapse of the Lebanese model, which had often been described as an incubator of Muslim-Christian coexistence. Recently, we saw mass revolutions degenerate into sectarian and ethnic conflicts, giving rise to massive waves of refugees, as well as ISIS and the plight of the Yazidis and others who were subjected to its rule. As the long-standing and transnational question of injustice against the Kurds remains unresolved, and Türkiye continues to refuse to apologize to the Armenians, calls for federalism or secession are growing among the Christians of Lebanon.
It is difficult to leap over the major role that the Iranian revolution has played in this regard, laying the most robust groundwork for the transition toward the era of closed identities. Meanwhile, the figures most associated with peace, Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin, met their ends at the hands of extremists from their own peoples. As for Yasser Arafat, whom the Israelis directly humiliated at several junctures, Hamas took control of Gaza after his death, expelling the Palestinian Authority he had established.
Fear explains the Israeli obsession with security, as well as Israel’s outright rejection of a return of the Palestinians and the establishment of a single state, especially since there is no geographic buffer separating them from the Palestinians like that separating the French and the Algerians or the Portuguese and the Angolans. The Israelis have ultimately shown no appetite for embarking on the adventure of peace, and peace does remain an adventure in some sense.
Similarly, it is not reassuring to Palestinians that the Israelis who sympathize with their rights are too weak to influence the zeitgeist in their country or the policies of their state. After the "peace camp" had once been vigorous and robust, and the principle of withdrawing from occupied territories had held sway, this camp has disintegrated and eroded. The withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza in 2000 and 2005 afforded those who had been saying that withdrawal would not bring peace with arguments to reinforce their claim, and that was before Hamas, which does not recognize Israel and the Oslo Accords in the first place, took over Gaza. The frightened tend to instill fear in the other that lives in fear, driven by the illusion that by doing so, he dispels his own fear. This was multiplied a hundred times over by the Al-Aqsa Flood and Israel’s collective punishment.
There seems to be little reason to doubt that fear and the attempt to dispel it by scaring the other will become the norm in our region unless a third party, one that has the strength and capacity to impose a feasible settlement, intervenes to reassure both fearful sides.