Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 14-15/2024
To Israel and the entire world: Lebanon is not Hezbollah, and Hezbollah is not Lebanon.ظElias Bejjani/February 15/2024
The 19th Anniversary of PM Rafik Hariri’s Assassination and the stalled accountability under Iranian occupation/Elias Bejjani/February 14/2024
Ash Monday: A Holy Day For Repentance Prayers & Forgiveness/Elias Bejjani/February 12/2024
10 Things to Know About UNIFIL
Escalation between Israel and Lebanon is possible - but latest exchange is unlikely to change status quo
A look at the arsenals of Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia as cross-border strikes escalate
Hezbollah Stokes Mideast Tensions With Strike Against Israel
Israeli Strikes on Lebanon Kill Four Including Two Children
Hariri marks Feb. 14 anniversary in mass rally in Beirut
Cyprus says Lebanon blocked return of 116 Syrian migrants
Thousands Commemorate 2005 Killing of Lebanon Ex-PM Hariri
Lebanese FM to Asharq Al-Awsat: Hezbollah Did Not Oppose 'Full’ Deal to Implement Resolution 1701
Israel municipal vote postponed in evacuated areas near Lebanon
Lebanon is using Hezbollah to blackmail Israel on border talks/David Daoud/MENASource/February 14/2024
Lebanon: A Return to the Pre-October 7 Status Quo/Rami al-Rayes/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
How Did I Get into Lebanon, and How Did It Come Out of Me?/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 14-15/2024
Netanyahu Is Pursuing War ‘For His Personal Career’, Palestinian FM Says
WHO warns assault on Gaza's Rafah would be an 'unfathomable catastrophe'
The ‘Philadelphi Corridor’: A goal for Netanyahu, a red line for Egypt
What to Know About Israel’s Impending Offensive in Rafah
Hamas heads to Cairo truce talks as Rafah braces for Israeli assault
Israel army shows video it says is of Hamas' Sinwar in tunnel
Displaced Palestinians Leave One of Gaza’s Main Hospitals after Weeks of Being Isolated by Fighting
Macron Tells Netanyahu France Opposes Israeli Ground Invasion of Rafah
Ireland, Spain Want EU to Review Israel’s Human Rights Compliance in Gaza
US Navy aircraft carrier going head-to-head with the Houthis has its planes in the air 'constantly,' strike-group commander says
Erdogan says Turkey ready to cooperate with Egypt on Gaza/Turkey’s President Erdogan visits Egypt
Egypt, Türkiye Unite in Efforts to Stop Israel’s Looming Offensive in Gaza’s Rafah
Ukrainian Military Says It Sank a Russian Landing Ship in the Black Sea
Russia now seeking ‘political deal’ on Ukraine while keeping occupied regions, says FM Lavrov
Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt Trudeau during House of Commons question period
Iran says saboteurs hit gas pipelines disrupting supply

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on February 14-15/2024
What is Nomophobia/Agencies/February 14/2024
Judicial Reform Controversy Emboldened Israel's Enemies/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute./February 14, 2024
Under Gaza’s Shadow, Syria Faces a New Welter of Conflict/The New York Times/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
The Foundations of Peace/Amal Abdulaziz al-Hazzani/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
Iranian Power Politics, Shiite Banana Republics and their Minions/Charles Elias Chartouni/February 14/2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 14-15/2024
To Israel and the entire world: Lebanon is not Hezbollah, and Hezbollah is not Lebanon.
Elias Bejjani/February 15/2024
If Israel genuinely aims to address the significant threats posed by the terrorist Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, it should direct its efforts towards, Hezbollah's operatives and leaders, along with their masters, the Iranian Mullahs, rather than implicating Lebanon as a whole.
It is a common knowledge, that the international community, including Israeli leadership, are all fully cognizant that Hezbollah does not represent Lebanon, or the majority of its peace loving people. Therefore, Lebanon and its citizens should not bear any responsibility what so ever for the actions of this Iranian terrorist-jihadist armed organization.
Furthermore, the current Lebanese Mikati government, is completely aligned with Hezbollah, fails to serve Lebanon's interests or to represent its people. Instead, it operates as a mere puppet entity controlled by Hezbollah and its Iranian masters.
Meanwhile, All heinous crimes committed in southern Lebanon in particular, or elsewhere, are the result of actions by Hezbollah, which is non-Lebanese, but an Iranian-backed militia waging Iran's wars in Lebanon and beyond.
By God's will, the day of reckoning for Hezbollah's leaders and operatives will inevitably arrive, regardless of their current immorality or indulgence in hallucinations, day dreaming, delusions and false triumphs.
Based on all the above facts, Israel, as a significant regional power, should acknowledge the Hezbollah's Jihadist, terrorist , Iranian mere affiliations, and adjust its military and political strategies accordingly, refraining from threats against Lebanon and its people.
In conclusion, Israel ought to address its issues with Iran and its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, which occupies and hijacks Lebanon, controls its government and confiscates its decision making process...and not Lebanon or the Lebanese peace life loving people.

The 19th Anniversary of PM Rafik Hariri’s Assassination and the stalled accountability under Iranian occupation
Elias Bejjani/February 14/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/115737/115737/
Today, on February 14, 2024, Lebanon and its people solemnly commemorate the 19th anniversary of the tragic assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. This heinous act, perpetrated in broad daylight in the heart of Beirut, continues to evoke feelings of anger and sorrow among the Lebanese populace.
The perpetrators of this crime, as conclusively determined by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), were identified as high-ranking members of Hezbollah’s military and intelligence apparatus. Even prior to the STL’s findings, the Lebanese people had already pointed fingers towards Hezbollah, recognizing the cold-blooded nature of the massacre and its orchestrated execution.
It was widely acknowledged that Hezbollah, acting under the directives of the Syrian and Iranian regimes, orchestrated this barbaric act of violence, with the active involvement of Syrian and Iranian intelligence agencies, and the complicity of their Lebanese proxies, the assassination of Rafik Hariri was meticulously planned and executed.
Despite the considerable financial resources invested in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon—amounting to approximately one billion dollars—true accountability remains elusive. While the court managed to identify the individuals directly involved in the assassination, it fell short of apprehending or prosecuting them. Furthermore, it failed to address the pivotal questions concerning the masterminds behind the crime, namely the Syrian and Iranian oppressive regimes, along with those who provided the financial and logistical support.
Regrettably, the lack of accountability extends beyond Hariri’s assassination, encompassing numerous other politically motivated killings that have plagued Lebanon’s history, dating back to the early sixties. The perpetrators of these crimes, whether operating under Palestinian, Syrian, or Iranian occupations, continue to evade justice, perpetuating a culture of impunity.
In the absence of genuine judicial accountability, the memory of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and all the martyrs of Lebanon remains tarnished.
As we reflect on this somber anniversary, let us remember and honor the sacrifices of these patriotic Lebanese individuals, and pray for the peace of their souls.

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

10 Things to Know About UNIFIL
FDD/February 14/2024
Despite a mandate to maintain international peace and security, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has repeatedly failed to secure the Israel-Lebanon border and support the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to curb the terrorist organization Hezbollah. UNIFIL’s 10,000 peacekeepers from 48 countries have looked the other way as Iran-backed Hezbollah has grown to more than 45,000 fighters equipped with an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles. Since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on October 7, UNIFIL has proven incapable of preventing Hezbollah from attacking Israel from Lebanon with rockets, guided missiles, and drones.
1. UNIFIL was established in 1978 to end war, restore peace and security
On March 11, 1978, Lebanese-based terrorists massacred 38 Israeli civilians near Tel Aviv, including more than a dozen children. Three days later, Israel invaded Lebanon to push terrorist groups away from Israel’s northern border. In response, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) called for Israel to withdraw and established UNIFIL on March 19, 1978, “for the purpose of confirming the withdrawal of Israeli forces, restoring international peace and security and assisting the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area.” Following the arrival of UNIFIL forces four days later, Israeli forces withdrew from hard-won positions in Lebanon.
2. Despite UNIFIL’s presence, Hezbollah’s military infrastructure dominates southern Lebanon
UNIFIL’s failure to counter Hezbollah has enabled an extraordinary military buildup by the Iran-backed group, including its accumulation of an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles. Israel assesses that Iran has helped Hezbollah establish facilities in Lebanon to convert rockets and missiles to precision-guided munitions potentially capable of penetrating Israeli defenses and striking significant, high-value targets throughout Israel. In October 2009, a large explosion occurred at a house containing a Hezbollah weapons cache south of the Litani River. Hezbollah immediately closed the area to UNIFIL and the LAF and, using large trucks, began transferring salvaged weapons to another location. The incident demonstrated UNIFIL’s basic acceptance of Hezbollah’s dominance in southern Lebanon.
3. UNSC Resolution 1701 expanded UNIFIL after a 2006 Hezbollah kidnapping triggered war
On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah operatives ambushed an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) patrol along the Israel-Lebanon border, killing eight soldiers and kidnapping two others. Israel responded with precision air strikes on Hezbollah assets, prompting the launch over the next month of some 4,000 Katyusha rockets targeting northern Israeli cities. At least 157 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed during the 34-day war, with nearly 400,000 driven from their homes for the duration. An estimated 1,000 Lebanese were killed, including an unknown number of Hezbollah terrorists. Passed in August 2006, UNSC Resolution 1701 ended the hostilities, expanded UNIFIL, required Lebanon to assert its sovereignty in the south, forbade the rearming of terrorist groups, and required the “unconditional release” of the kidnapped soldiers — whose bodies Hezbollah only returned as part of a 2008 prisoner exchange with Israel.
4. UNIFIL’s mandate requires southern Lebanon up to the Litani River be exclusively peaceful
UN Security Council Resolution 1701 expanded UNIFIL’s mandate to have its peacekeeping force “accompany and support the Lebanese Armed Forces” as they deploy in the area between the Blue Line — the informal border with Israel — and the Litani River. The resolution charged UNIFIL with helping the LAF to establish “an area free of any armed personnel, assets, and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL.” UNIFIL is to ensure that its area of operations “is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind” and that the peacekeeping force “resist[s] attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties.” However, despite the United Nations having strengthened and expanded its contingent of peacekeepers in Lebanon, Hezbollah is now the world’s most heavily armed non-state actor, with much of its arsenal concentrated in UNIFIL’s area of operations.
5. Hezbollah has repeatedly fired into Israel from UNIFIL’s area of operations
Since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023, an estimated 100,000 residents of northern Israel have had to evacuate their homes due to the threat from Lebanon. On December 7, a guided missile attack from south Lebanon killed an Israeli civilian, one of 11 Hezbollah attacks that day, prompting Israeli threats of harsh retaliation if attacks continue. On December 9, 2023, Hezbollah launched several rockets at Israel, including one that originated 20 meters from a UNIFIL compound. UNIFIL acknowledges and condemns Hezbollah activity but does little else. As of January 9, 2024, 12 IDF soldiers and five Israeli civilians have been killed, and over 150 other Israelis injured, in hundreds of anti-tank missile, mortar, and drone attacks. Without naming Hezbollah, in late November, UNIFIL’s head of mission expressed his “deep concern” about the situation and “the potential for wider and more intensive hostilities.” Thus, Israel remains on the precipice of a two-front war in which it will have to confront not just Hamas but also a better-armed adversary on its northern border.
6. The LAF hinders UNIFIL’s ability to monitor Hezbollah’s activities in south Lebanon
While supplemental U.S. support has enabled the LAF to deploy additional assets in areas where it operates, the LAF repeatedly turns a blind eye to Hezbollah activity in south Lebanon and prevents UNIFIL from investigating Hezbollah activity. In 2018, the LAF prevented UNIFIL from examining subterranean, cross-border Hezbollah tunnels into northern Israel, claiming doing so infringed on “private property.” According to the Israeli military, the LAF limits UNIFIL’s “access to illicit sites, concealing Hezbollah’s prohibited military operations.” A 2021 congressional report noted that LAF commanders had blocked UNIFIL from installing surveillance equipment.
7. UNIFIL’s mandate remains unfulfilled despite annual renewals, periodic upgrades
In August 2023, the renewal of UNIFIL’s mandate was complicated by disagreement over language concerning UNIFIL’s freedom of action and coordination with the Lebanese government. Previous U.S. administrations have threatened to veto UNIFIL’s annual renewal if changes weren’t made to its mandate. During a visit to Israel in late November 2023, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called for a “thorough re-evaluation” of UNIFIL’s mission, citing cross-border attacks on Israel by Hezbollah as indications it is not working as intended. The “rules of engagement need to change,” he said.
8. Hezbollah leadership incites against UNIFIL
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah claimed in an August 2023 speech that UNIFIL both works for Israel and violates Lebanon’s sovereignty. “This is why [the Americans] want UNIFIL to work for Israel. They want UNIFIL to spy for Israel. They want UNIFIL to replace the Israelis in places where they cannot [operate] … [Israel’s] drones are not as effective as they have been in the past, and their spies also have various problems. Where Israel’s drones, spies, and cameras cannot reach in order to obtain information, UNIFIL’s cameras are meant to replace them.” He further railed against UNIFIL conducting operations independent of the LAF and indirectly denied the funding and direction that Hezbollah receives from Iran by stating, “Now some wise guy might say that [Hezbollah] is also a military force. We are a Lebanese force, we are the Lebanese people, we are locals. We are not a foreign force.”
9. UNIFIL peacekeepers have been killed or injured in areas controlled by Hezbollah
In December 2023, UNIFIL said one of its soldiers had been shot by an unknown gunman and that an investigation had been launched. In October 2023, two mortar shells of undetermined origin hit a UNIFIL base, injuring one peacekeeper, hours after a shell landed inside a separate UNIFIL location. In December 2022, five Hezbollah-linked militants were charged with conspiracy and murder in a shooting attack that killed an Irish UNIFIL peacekeeper and injured three others. In June 2007, a car bomb killed six UNIFIL members and wounded two others.
UNIFIL members have also been caught in the crossfire of Hezbollah attacks on Israel. In January 2015, a Spanish peacekeeper was killed by an IDF mortar shell when the IDF returned fire after a Hezbollah attack killed two IDF soldiers and wounded seven others; while regretting the incident, Israel said it held Hezbollah and the Lebanese government responsible.
10. The U.S. contributes substantial sums to sustain UNIFIL – with insufficient return on investment
The United States contributes annually to UNIFIL’s budget even as the peacekeeping body fails to fulfill its mission. In 2023, Congress appropriated $143 million to UNIFIL, accounting for over one-quarter of the peacekeeping body’s approximately $510 million budget. Since the war in 2006, Washington has spent more than $2.5 billion to support UNIFIL. The United States has likewise invested a similar amount in the LAF since 2006, a portion of which is intended to facilitate cooperation between the LAF and UNIFIL in southern Lebanon. Neither the LAF nor UNIFIL lacks the funding or manpower necessary to carry out its responsibilities. The problem is a lack of will.

Escalation between Israel and Lebanon is possible - but latest exchange is unlikely to change status quo
Sky News/February 14, 2024
The exchange of fire over Israel's northern border with Lebanon is some of the most serious yet - but the situation remains fundamentally the same. Hezbollah's Iranian patrons do not want the militia to escalate the conflict to an all-out war. And its commanders want to avoid one too. Israel may be weighing a bigger war but has not decided to do so yet. Ever since the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, Hezbollah and Israel have been duelling over the border. Hezbollah feels it must show solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza but not become drawn into a repeat of the devastating conflict of 2006. It knows the people of Lebanon will not forgive them for any escalation that could wreck the country's already decimated economy. Hezbollah was set up with Iran's encouragement to "resist" Israeli incursions and occupations and draws its ranks from the Shia of southern Lebanon. It is part of a crescent of Shiite militias stretching west from Iran. Since 2006 its armoury of missiles hidden in the hills of southern Lebanon has increased to 150,000 rockets, according to Israel. It is widely thought that Iran has paid for much of that to be used only as a last resort. The arsenal is an insurance policy it is claimed only to be used when Israel or the United States strike Iran's nuclear facilities. For these reasons, it would take a major escalation to tip Hezbollah into an all-out war. That is not out of the question. An accidental Israeli airstrike on a southern Lebanese kindergarten killing many children for instance might give Hezbollah commanders little choice but to respond in earnest. And a deliberate Israeli escalation is also a possibility. Since 7 October, Israel has been reevaluating a defence strategy that hitherto had preferred to manage the threat to its enemies rather than eliminate them. It now favours the latter when it comes to Hamas. And some in the Israeli government have advocated the same against Hezbollah.

A look at the arsenals of Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia as cross-border strikes escalate
BASSEM MROUE and JON GAMBRELL/QP/February 14, 2024
BEIRUT (AP) — The slow-simmering cross-border conflict between Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group and Israeli forces escalated Wednesday, reviving fears that the daily clashes could expand into an all-out war.
A rocket fired from Lebanon struck the northern Israeli town of Safed, killing a 20-year-old female soldier and wounding at least eight people. Israel responded with airstrikes that killed at least 10 people in southern Lebanon, including a Syrian woman, her two children, four members of another family and three Hezbollah fighters. At least nine people were wounded. The cross-border violence was triggered by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which in turn was set off by the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas, a Hezbollah ally. Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for Wednesday's strike. But it has vowed to continue its attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza. Amid fears of a further escalation, here’s a look at the arsenals of the two sides:
WHAT ARE HEZBOLLAH’S MILITARY CAPABILITIES?
Hezbollah is the Arab world’s most significant paramilitary force with a robust internal structure as well as a sizable arsenal. Backed by Iran, its fighters have gained experience during Syria’s 13-year conflict in which they helped tip the balance of power in favor of government forces. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had boasted that the group has 100,000 fighters, though other estimates put its troop strength at less than half that. Israel wants Hezbollah to withdraw its elite Radwan Force from the border so tens of thousands Israelis displaced from northern towns and villages can return home. Hezbollah holds a vast arsenal of mostly small, portable and unguided surface-to-surface artillery rockets, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. The U.S. and Israel estimate Hezbollah and other militant groups in Lebanon have some 150,000 missiles and rockets. Hezbollah also has been working on precision-guided missiles. Hezbollah has previously launched drones into Israel and in 2006, hit an Israeli warship with a surface-to-sea missile. Its forces also have assault rifles, heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, roadside bombs and other weaponry. During the current conflict, Hezbollah has frequently used Russian-made portable anti-tank Kornet missiles. More rarely, it has launched Burkan rockets that, according to Nasrallah, can carry a warhead that weighs between 300 kilograms (660 pounds) and 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds). In recent weeks, Hezbollah has introduced new weapons including a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 10 kilometers (6 miles) and a warhead weighing 50 kilograms (110 pounds).
WHAT ARE ISRAEL’S MILITARY CAPABILITIES?
Israel’s military has long been supported by the United States, with $3.3 billion in annual funding, plus $500 million toward missile defense technology. Israel is one of the best-armed nations in the wider Middle East. Its air force includes the advanced American F-35 fighter jet, missile defense batteries including the American-made Patriot, the Iron Dome rocket-defense system and a pair of missile-defense systems developed with the U.S., the Arrow and David's Sling. Israel has armored personnel carriers and tanks, and a fleet of drones and other technology available to support any street-to-street battles. Israel has some 170,000 troops typically on active duty and has called up some 360,000 reservists for the war — three-fourths of its estimated capacity, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a British think tank. With the war now in its fifth month, many of those reservists have returned home.
Israel has also long maintained an undeclared nuclear weapons program.
HOW SERIOUS IS THE LATEST ESCALATION?
While most analysts believe there is little appetite for a full-blown war by either Hezbollah or Israel, there are fears that a miscalculation by either side could trigger a major escalation. The U.S., France and other countries have dispatched diplomats in recent weeks to try to tamp down tensions on the border. Speaking on Tuesday, Nasrallah responded to threats by Israeli officials to launch an offensive if his group does not pull its forces back from the border. “If you expand (the conflict), we will expand," he said. Wednesday's exchange of strikes, some of which hit relatively far from the border area, is a clear indication of the risks that the violence could spill out of control. The two sides fought a 34-day war in 2006 that ended in a draw.

Hezbollah Stokes Mideast Tensions With Strike Against Israel
Gwen Ackerman and Dana Khraiche/February 14, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah intensified on Wednesday when Israeli towns and an army base came under what appeared to be the fiercest attacks from Lebanon since the confrontation began four months ago. The assault, presumed to be carried out by Hezbollah fighters based in Lebanon, prompted Israeli fighter jets to launch extensive strikes on the Iran-backed group’s positions. Israel Pulls Out of Peace Talks Over ‘Delusional’ Hamas Demands. The barrage of missiles from Lebanon hit the town of Safed, about 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the border and deeper into Israel than previous attacks by Hezbollah. The group has been trading fire almost daily with Israel since its war with Hamas erupted in October, though those skirmishes have mostly been contained to the border area. Many Israeli politicians, including members of cabinet, have urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the army to act more aggressively against Hezbollah, the most powerful militia in the Middle East. It vows to destroy the Jewish state.
One woman soldier was killed in the Wednesday assault, Israeli media reported, and eight people were wounded. While no group has claimed responsibility, the missiles came from an area largely controlled by Hezbollah. The Israel Defense Forces said its airstrikes targeted Hezbollah military compounds, control rooms and other infrastructure. One person was killed and 10 others were wounded in a strike that damaged shops and homes in the southern Lebanese village of Adsheet, state-run National News Agency reported. Hezbollah said one if its fighters was killed. “This isn’t just a dribble anymore, this is war,” Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, who’s long advocated a more aggressive stance against Hezbollah, said. “It is time to change the way we think.”Germany Ups International Pressure on Israel Not to Attack Rafah Other officials were more measured, but also implied Israel would retaliate aggressively. “This morning we experienced a severe attack for which the response will come soon and with strength,” said Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet but who heads an opposition party. The reaction in markets was muted and the shekel held on to its gains for the day.
Lebanon in Crisis
Gantz added the Lebanese government needed to take responsibility for Hezbollah’s actions. Lebanon’s in economic crisis and lawmakers haven’t chosen a president for more than a year, while there’s only a prime minister in a caretaker capacity. The government has little control over Hezbollah, which is a political party as well as a militant group. Wednesday’s flare-up coincides with threats by Israel’s military to start an offensive on Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than one million Palestinians have taken refuge from fighting elsewhere in the enclave. Despite strong criticism from US President Joe Biden and others, Netanyahu has said Hamas has fighters in Rafah and the war can only end when the group is destroyed. Daniel Sobelman, an expert on Hezbollah at Hebrew University and Harvard Kennedy School, said that the latest attack across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon was different in that it targeted an area “a bit further south.” But that didn’t necessarily mean a move beyond what “both parties refer to as the rules of the game,” he said. “Both parties for the past four months have stayed below a certain threshold of escalation.”Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a speech Tuesday his organization will continue to attack Israel until it agrees to a cease-fire with Hamas. US Will Face Repercussions From Gaza Even If It Avoids Wider War. “The front in south Lebanon is a pressure point through which to weaken the Zionist enemy, its economy and security,” Nasrallah said.
Mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar are working to secure an Israel-Hamas cease-fire and the return of about 100 hostages still held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza. Netanyahu, though, has played down the chances of an agreement. The prime minister refused to send negotiators to Cairo for follow-up talks on Thursday, saying he wouldn’t given in to Hamas’s “delusional demands.” One of the group’s conditions is that Israeli forces pull out of Gaza within about 90 days of a cease-fire. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who rules Palestinians in the West Bank, has urged Hamas to quickly accept a deal to prevent an attack on Rafah. What Is Hezbollah’s Role in the Israel-Hamas War?:
QuickTake
The war erupted when Hamas fighters swarmed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people. Israel’s retaliatory air and ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 28,500, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. Israeli officials say about 12,000 of those are Hamas fighters.
Hamas abducted around 250 people during its incursion. Roughly 100 were freed during a week-long truce that ended on Dec. 1 and another two were freed on Monday by special forces. The Israeli military has said that of the roughly 135 captives still in Gaza, 31 are dead. Hamas and Hezbollah are considered terrorist organization by the US. Iran backs anti-Israel and anti-US groups across the region. Together, they are often called the “axis of resistance.” They also include Yemen’s Houthis and militias in Syria and Iraq.

Israeli Strikes on Lebanon Kill Four Including Two Children
Asharq Al-Awsat/February 19/2024
A barrage of Israeli strikes on villages across southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed four people and wounded nearly a dozen, two Lebanese security sources said, as Israel said it had responded to Hezbollah rocket fire with air strikes and other bombardment. A woman and her two children were killed in an Israeli strike on the village of al-Sawana, the sources said. Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah said a strike on a separate town killed one of its fighters. Eleven people were wounded across the south and the level of damage was "vast", the sources said. Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire for more than four months, after the Lebanese armed group launched rockets across the disputed frontier in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which had launched a deadly assault on Israel.
Hezbollah did not announce any operations on Wednesday. The head of its executive council said that Israel's attacks onto Lebanese territory on Wednesday "cannot pass without a response". Ilana Stein, an Israeli government spokesperson, told journalists on Wednesday that "numerous launches" identified as coming from Lebanon on Wednesday morning had left one Israeli woman dead and another eight hospitalized. "As we have made clear time and time again, Israel is not interested in a war on two fronts. But if provoked, we will respond forcefully," she said. "The current reality, where tons of thousands of Israelis are displaced and cannot return to their homes, is unbearable. They must be able to return home and live in peace and security." Stein and Israel's military said on Wednesday that the military had responded to cross-border rocket fire from Lebanon.
The head of Israel's military Herzi Halevi, who had been meeting the heads of local municipalities in northern Israel on Wednesday, said that despite what he described as achievements against Hezbollah, this was "not the time to stop." Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address on Tuesday that his group would only stop its exchanges of fire if a full ceasefire was reached for Gaza. "On that day, when the shooting stops in Gaza, we will stop the shooting in the south," he said.The cross-border shelling has already killed more than 200 people in Lebanon, including more than 170 Hezbollah fighters, as well as around a dozen Israeli troops and some Israeli civilians. It has also displaced tens of thousands of people in the border areas of each country.

Hariri marks Feb. 14 anniversary in mass rally in Beirut
Agence France Presse/February 19/2024
Thousands of people gathered in the Lebanese capital Wednesday to commemorate the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri and urge his son Saad to make a political comeback. Waving the pale-blue flags of Saad Hariri's political party the al-Mustaqbal Movement, the crowd clapped and cheered as he paid his respects at his father's tomb in central Beirut. “I want to thank all the people who came from everywhere in Lebanon and I want to tell them that wherever I may be I will stay by their side and with them,” Hariri said. “Everything is better when it takes place at the right time and Saad Hariri shall not abandon the people,” he added. “Tell everyone that you have returned to the arena and that the country cannot function without you. The country’s pulse is here, so preserve this pulse, preserve the country, and we will stand by you,” Hariri went on to say. Hariri had arrived a few days ago from the UAE and held a series of political meetings in Beirut. "We want Saad Hariri to return to Lebanon, so that security and stability return," said Dina Hleihel, 55, a supporter who was present at the rally. Hariri was thrust into the political limelight following the February 14, 2005 assassination of his father. Ever the reluctant politician, he resigned as prime minister after unprecedented nationwide protests broke out in 2019 demanding the wholesale overhaul of Lebanon's political class. In 2022, he announced he was leaving politics and boycotted a parliamentary election that year. Mahmoud Hammoud, 32, also at the rally, told AFP that "today, all of Lebanon wants Saad Hariri to return to politics, because he can save Lebanon and garner international support."Despite now living in the United Arab Emirates, Hariri, who returned to Beirut on Sunday ahead of the anniversary, is still considered the country's main Sunni Muslim leader. Once enjoying strong support from Saudi Arabia, Hariri's relationship with the regional heavyweight deteriorated over the years as the kingdom accused him of being too accommodating to pro-Iran Hezbollah. The Sunni community, long a major political force which under Lebanon's delicate sectarian power-sharing system conventionally holds the post of prime minister, has been sidelined and beset by divisions since Hariri's self-imposed exile. Political life in Lebanon as a whole has been paralyzed for months, with deep divisions between the powerful pro-Iran camp and its adversaries. The country has been without a president for more than a year, while a caretaker government is at the helm as Lebanon navigates a crushing four-year economic crisis. Rafik Hariri, a towering figure, was killed in a suicide bombing targeting his armored convoy. The attack killed 22 people and injured 226. In 2022, a United Nations-backed court sentenced two Hezbollah members in absentia to life imprisonment over the huge 2005 truck bombing.

Cyprus says Lebanon blocked return of 116 Syrian migrants
Agence France Presse/February 19/2024
Cyprus has said it is in discussions with Lebanon over the return of 116 Syrian migrants rescued off its coast after Beirut refused to accept them back. The migrants were rescued in international waters 30 nautical miles off Cyprus at the weekend after departing Lebanon by boat, Cypriot officials said. Cyprus, the European Union's easternmost member, has for years had an agreement in place with Lebanon for the return of irregular migrants. Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees who leave Lebanon by boat are generally seeking a better life in Europe, and often head for the Mediterranean island, less than 200 kilometers away. Cypriot Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said the rescue of the 116 migrants from war-torn Syria was launched on Sunday after the Lebanese authorities raised the alarm. The following day, three Cypriot police and national guard vessels escorted them back to Lebanon, but they were denied entry, said Ioannou. "Unfortunately, the authorities of Lebanon did not accept the return of those on board the Lebanese vessel," he said. The minister said "Lebanon has a very big problem" with migration and stressed the issue would be handled politically. Cypriot authorities did not immediately confirm where the migrants were now. Ioannou said he did not know why the migrants were not allowed to disembark, adding however that there was "continuous communication" with the authorities of Lebanon. Last year, the U.N. refugee agency expressed concern over the return of more than 100 Syrian migrants to Lebanon, saying they had not been screened to assess whether they needed legal protection, or might be deported to their homeland. Nicosia -- which has seen an influx of irregular Syrian migrants arriving from Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October -- insists the returns are legal under the bilateral agreement with Beirut. Cyprus said the war, which has triggered a flare-up on the Israel-Lebanon border, weakened the efforts of Beirut to monitor its territorial waters and prevent the departure of migrant vessels. "The situation in Lebanon itself is difficult at the moment," said Ioannou. Cyprus is a "frontline country" on the eastern Mediterranean migrant route, with asylum-seekers comprising over five percent of the 915,000 population in the government-controlled parts of the island -- a record figure across the EU.

Thousands Commemorate 2005 Killing of Lebanon Ex-PM Hariri
Asharq Al-Awsat/February 19/2024
Thousands of people gathered in the Lebanese capital Wednesday to commemorate the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafic Hariri and urge his son Saad to make a political comeback. Waving the pale-blue flags of Saad Hariri's political party the Future Movement, the crowd clapped and cheered as he paid his respects at his father's tomb in central Beirut. "We want Saad Hariri to return to Lebanon, so that security and stability return," said Dina Hleihel, 55, a supporter who was present at the rally. Hariri was thrust into the political limelight following the February 14, 2005 assassination of his father. Ever the reluctant politician, he resigned as prime minister after unprecedented nationwide protests broke out in 2019 demanding the wholesale overhaul of Lebanon's political class. In 2022, he announced he was leaving politics and boycotted a parliamentary election that year. Mahmud Hammud, 32, also at the rally, told AFP that "today, all of Lebanon wants Saad Hariri to return to politics, because he can save Lebanon and garner international support."Now living in the United Arab Emirates, Hariri returned to Beirut on Sunday ahead of the anniversary. The country has been without a president for more than a year, while a caretaker government is at the helm as Lebanon navigates a crushing four-year economic crisis. Rafic Hariri, a towering figure, was killed in a suicide bombing targeting his armored convoy. The attack killed 22 people and injured 226.In 2022, a United Nations-backed court sentenced two Hezbollah members in absentia to life imprisonment over the huge 2005 truck bombing.

Lebanese FM to Asharq Al-Awsat: Hezbollah Did Not Oppose 'Full’ Deal to Implement Resolution 1701
Beirut: Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
Lebanese caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib stressed that Beirut is seeking the “full implementation” of United Nations Security Council resolution 170.
In an interview to Asharq Al-Awsat, he revealed that “no one in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, has opposed this proposal.”He added that the majority of foreign proposals to resolve the crisis in southern Lebanon revolve around the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters ten kilometers north so that the Israelis can return to their border villages and settlements.
Int’l proposals
Bou Habib denied that American officials have offered solutions to the crisis. “They have offered nothing and are still working on a plan,” he said. British officials have, however, suggested that surveillance towers be set up in the South. Bou Habib said the idea doesn’t elaborate on which direction the cameras would be positioned. Having them turned to Lebanon is not an option at the moment, he went on to say. France suggested that the number of Lebanese troops deployed south of the Litani River be increased, to which the FM said: “Resolution 1701 calls for the deployment of 15,000 Lebanese soldiers along the border.”“However, we are incapable of providing this number given the massive internal responsibilities the army has to deal with,” he explained. “At the moment, we can only secure no more than 4,000 soldiers and they are indeed deployed on the border. At the same time, we are prepared to recruit 7,000 to 8,000 new soldiers if Lebanon is provided with enough assistance,” he continued. “Without this assistance, Lebanon will be unable to secure the necessary funds to recruit them,” stated Bou Habib. Moreover, he said Lebanon hasn’t yet started the negotiations phase. He acknowledged that official contacts are being held with Hezbollah. They are being carried out by himself, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, “who is in constant contact with Hezbollah.”“We - the three officials – are tasked with communicating with the outside at the moment. We agree over our positions. I am in touch with various influential political forces in Lebanon,” he added. “There is a complete agreement over the need to implement resolution 1701, including the articles related to the Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shouba Hills,” he added.
Hezbollah’s complete withdrawal
Bou Habib said Israel had called for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters from the South back in October. The demand was echoed by European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in Brussels where he met with Bou Habib. The FM had relayed to the European official Lebanon’s demand for the full implementation of resolution 1701. Israel is insistent on Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the South, while it refuses to pull out from the Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shouba. Bou Habib explained that Hezbollah justifies its deployment by citing Israel’s occupation of Lebanese territories, which dates back to 2000. “Logically, if the international community wanted Hezbollah to pull out of the border regions, then Israel must withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory,” he explained.
“This is why we have been demanding a full agreement,” he stated.
Asked by Asharq Al-Awsat if Hezbollah supports a “full agreement” that leads to its withdrawal, the FM replied: “I believe if such an agreement is reached, then the party will pull out.” “The reasons why it is in the South will be no more once the agreement is implemented. I believe it will accept this, as demonstrated by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah who said the war in Gaza was an opportunity to fully liberate occupied Lebanese territory,” he remarked. “The Lebanese state is seeking the full implementation of resolution 1701. This means no Lebanese territories should remain occupied and Hezbollah or any other party should no longer maintain military presence in the South,” he added. “This is stipulated by resolution 1701 and Hezbollah has said it itself.” No one in Lebanon is opposed to this demand, stressed the FM.
Negotiations amid the presidential vacuum
Bou Habib said Hezbollah is not discussing negotiations related to the South because it is aware that this issue falls under the state’s jurisdiction. The negotiations themselves, which should be guided by the state, are tied to the election of a president. “No one but the president can sign off on the negotiations,” he declared. So, discussions have been held over the possibility of the signing taking place the day a president is elected. “There can be no final agreement without a president,” said the FM. Lebanon has been without a president since November 2022 when the term of Michel Aoun ended without the election of a successor. Ongoing political disputes between parties have so far thwarted the election of a head of state. Furthermore, Bou Habib noted that Israel is the side that has been expanding the scope of its attacks, whether in Beirut, Nabatieh or Iqlim al-Kharroub. Hezbollah has respected the truce that took place months ago and led to the release of hostages from Gaza. In addition, he said that should a ceasefire take hold in Gaza, then it would also encompass Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria. He did express his concern over the possibility that the conflict could spill over into the region if Israel wages a widescale war on Lebanon. “However, we support security and stability, which is why we have been demanding resolving border disputes that will help us avoid a major war,” he added.
Internal differences
On the pressure the government is coming under over the withdrawal of Hezbollah from the border, Bou Habib said: “We will not take a single step that could lead to civil war should the party be forced to pull out from the border without an agreement.”
“This issue is out of the question to avoid an internal clash,” he stated. “We would rather see a thousand regional wars than a single civil war,” he stressed. Furthermore, Bou Habib noted that the majority of political forces, Christian and non-Christian, have accepted Hezbollah’s de facto military presence in the South regardless of whether they support it or not. The FM, therefore, dismissed as “political debates” criticism related to this issue that are levelled against the government. He also rejected Lebanese accusations that the government was working as a mediator between Hezbollah and the international community, declaring instead that there was no such mediation because the talks are being solely held by the state, not the party.

Israel municipal vote postponed in evacuated areas near Lebanon
Agence France Presse/February 19/2024
Israeli municipal elections in areas near the Lebanese border and the Gaza Strip are expected to be postponed from February 27 to November 19, after a parliamentary committee recommended it Tuesday. "The internal affairs committee of the Knesset (parliament) has decided to support the interior minister's proposal to postpone the elections to November 19, 2024 in the nine areas evacuated by the government decision," it said in a statement. The committee's recommendation is expected to be approved imminently by the Knesset. Nearly 150,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes after the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7. That includes around 80,000 Israelis in the north of Israel, due to near daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah across the border with Lebanon, and 60,000 residents in areas close to Gaza that were targeted by Hamas. In the rest of Israel, including in the occupied West Bank and the occupied and annexed Golan Heights, elections will go ahead on February 27. The elections have been postponed twice from their original date of October 31.

Lebanon is using Hezbollah to blackmail Israel on border talks
David Daoud/MENASource/February 14/2024
War once again looms between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah. After the last conflict between the two adversaries, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 1701, which installed figurative guardrails to prevent renewed war. It demanded that Lebanon—which promised to send fifteen thousand of its soldiers to its frontier with Israel—control its territory and disarm Hezbollah, or at least relocate the group north of the Litani River. It also upgraded the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to assist the Lebanese state in this task.
Those Resolution 1701 guardrails have proved illusory, with both sides incessantly trading cross-border fire for more than four months, and diplomats are now scrambling to prevent escalation. Rather than supporting these efforts, Lebanon is exploiting them. Instead of trying to constrain Hezbollah, Beirut—if not acting in concert with the group—is at least attempting to use its attacks as a bargaining chip—seeking to link an end of Hezbollah’s violence to a broader “package deal,” through which Lebanon can extract concessions from the international community and Israel.
Hezbollah began its latest attacks against Israel on October 8, 2023, to hamper Israel’s war efforts in the Gaza Strip. Initially, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati cautioned against “adventurism,” while the rest of the government remained largely silent about the attacks. But Mikati and other senior government officials soon shifted to cautious endorsement after Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said on January 5 that his group’s attacks were an “opportunity” for “Lebanon… to liberate every inch of our Lebanese land” along thirteen points of contention on the Blue Line, “from point B1 in Naqoura to Ghajar, to the Shebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba Hills.” Within days, Mikati was praising Hezbollah’s wisdom and characterizing its attacks against Israel as acts of self–defense, before officially aligning Lebanon’s position on a ceasefire in the south with Hezbollah’s, demanding a halt to Israel’s war in Gaza first.
Mikati’s subsequent attempts to walk back this alignment only entrenched it, particularly when he repeatedly echoed Nasrallah’s position that Lebanon was facing a “golden opportunity” to advance its position on territories disputed with Israel.
Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, meanwhile, described Hezbollah as “Lebanese who know” and seeking to secure “Lebanon’s interests.” He argued Lebanon would not try to silence Hezbollah’s guns—let alone consider disarming Hezbollah—until Israel settled all outstanding disputes. The Lebanese government, he reasoned, “doesn’t work for the Israelis to allow the[ir] settlers to return home” without gaining something in return. Bou Habib suggested Lebanon could hold out until these demands were met because it was long accustomed to instability.
As a result, diplomatic efforts to quell Lebanon’s desire to play with fire have gone nowhere. The Lebanese government seems to believe that it will get better terms as international desperation to stop Hezbollah’s attacks grows. That Western benefactors have reportedly floated a willingness to bankroll Lebanon’s failing economy to “sweeten the deal” only reinforces Beirut’s belief that this blackmail will ultimately be rewarded. Hezbollah may also believe that Washington’s eagerness to avoid an outbreak of another major war plays in its favor.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government are not wrong in assessing Washington’s fear of escalation. To understand the interplay of the Lebanese government and Hezbollah today, it is crucial to appreciate how the two worked in tandem during the Joe Biden administration’s January–October 2022 mediation of the Lebanese-Israeli dispute regarding where their maritime boundary ran through potentially lucrative offshore gas fields. At the time, Hezbollah also detected a US desperation to avoid the outbreak of a major war in the Middle East while it was already confronting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The group decided to, in Nasrallah’s words, “exploit” the situation by repeatedly threatening war to force the Americans and Israelis into agreeing on the maritime border.
While this cooperation remained officially unacknowledged by Lebanon, the course of events made it obvious. First, Beirut would adopt a position, then Hezbollah would swiftly move to reinforce it through threats—hence why the group adhered to the more minimal but official demand for Line 23 and not, as one might expect, the more maximalist Line 29. Nor did Lebanon ever disavow Hezbollah’s general posture during negotiations; it only once criticized the group’s actions, and only under US pressure. Nasrallah, meanwhile, readily acknowledged this symbiosis, repeatedly saying that Hezbollah was only acting to advance the Lebanese national interest as expressed in the government’s positions.
On his last day in office, Lebanese President Michel Aoun described Hezbollah’s “initiative” as “useful,” but once again stopped sort of admitting coordination. By contrast, Abbas Ibrahim—the head of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate and the chief Lebanese interlocutor during the maritime negotiations—has effectively denied that the Lebanese side was so passive. In a post-retirement interview, he described himself working hand in glove with Hezbollah to achieve Lebanon’s national interests. He explained how, when the Lebanese side sensed any Israeli hesitation to meet a Lebanese demand, Hezbollah would act aggressively while Nasrallah passed threats of war through Abbas to Amos Hochstein, the chief US negotiator, who would then pressure Israel into a concession. So it went until the undeservedly celebrated Israel-Lebanon maritime border deal was signed on October 27, 2022—and even then, Hezbollah refused to consider the matter fully closed.
Nevertheless, at face value, the “package deal” being offered by Lebanon appears worthwhile. After all, Israel is seemingly only being asked to concede a few kilometers of irrelevant territory. In exchange, it would obtain not only a ceasefire on the northern border but full Lebanese compliance with Resolution 1701, allowing more than eighty thousand displaced Israeli citizens to safely return home by permanently resolving the perpetual threat Hezbollah poses to their lives. But appearances are deceptive. Lebanon, by the admission of its officials, will never disarm Hezbollah. Bou Habib acknowledged that “would lead to a civil war, destroying the country.” “Personally, if we have a choice between civil war and regional war,” he explained, Lebanon should choose regional war. Bou Habib also refused to guarantee that Hezbollah would willingly accept constraints. He said Hezbollah should grant concessions to the Lebanese state, adding, “We’ll see what happens.” However, Bou Habib stressed, “in the end,” Beirut simply “may not succeed.” With a war more destructive than any that Hezbollah and Israel have ever fought hanging over the region like the Sword of Damocles, it may be tempting to grasp for this illusionary carrot being offered by the Lebanese government. Lebanon may not be identical to Hezbollah, but it is hard to deny that Beirut is again seeking to make gains by taking advantage of the very real and dangerous stick being wielded by Hezbollah.
*David Daoud is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), focusing on Hezbollah, Israel, and Lebanon issues. Follow him on X: @DavidADaoud.

Lebanon: A Return to the Pre-October 7 Status Quo
Rami al-Rayes/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
The Lebanese are in between two dramatically different states: a restrained war is raging on the southern front, while things are normal in other areas of the country. We see the villages on the border paying dearly on behalf of the entire country. The residents are being killed and their homes and infrastructure are being destroyed, bringing to mind the scenes we had seen before the Lebanese Civil War (1975 - 1990), when Israel assaulted South Lebanon at will, creating a very perilous situation.
The difference is that the Lebanese parties (with Hezbollah at the forefront, naturally) now have the capacity to retaliate and create damage across the many settlements scattered in the north of the occupied territories. They pose enough of a threat that the inhabitants of these settlements, who had been living in peace and stability have had to flee the territory that has been occupied since the 1948 Nakba. These residents have exerted significant pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do something so that they can return to "their homes."
We cannot allow the Israeli occupation forces to continue violating Arab territory like they have been violating Palestinian territory since the Nakba and the establishment of the Israeli state, hosting settlers from across the globe at the expense of the native population. In this regard, successive Israeli governments have refused to drop the country’s grandiose schemes and continue to seek political or military opportunities to achieve this objective. The plan to deport Palestinians from Gaza that was put forward at the beginning of the war is just one "manifestation" of this dangerous project that will remain in force so long as the Israeli government does not abandon its old-new expansionist projects.
We have heard calls on Lebanon to adhere to UN Resolution 1701, which was issued in 2006 following the 33-day July War that devastated the country but failed to achieve Tel Aviv’s declared objectives. Although the war destroyed much in Lebanon, including bridges, infrastructure, power grids, and more, it failed to eliminate Hezbollah. The same is true for this war in the Gaza Strip, which has been almost completely destroyed. The goal of eliminating Hamas has not and will not be achieved, despite the massive destruction and killing that has left accusations of genocide leveled at Israel by the UN’s highest judicial authority, the International Court of Justice.
In light of the current circumstances, more than three months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the best course of action for Lebanon might be a return to UN Resolution 1701 and its implementation in full. That would restore the status quo that had been in place before October 7, 2023 and that allowed stability and relative calm to prevail for years. Indeed, it was only interrupted by Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace, territory, and waters, which were only suspended for brief periods over the past few decades.
If there is a "consensus" in Lebanon that starting a wide-scale war with the Israeli occupation forces does not align with our national interest - not because of opposition to solidarity with Gaza and the Palestinian people, but because Lebanon cannot bear its grave repercussions - it should also apply to Israeli attacks and bombardments in Lebanon. These assaults cannot be stopped without significant American pressure on Israel. US pressure has already succeeded in preventing the expansion of the war in several directions, primarily from the Lebanese side.
In these difficult and critical times, anything can happen in the miserable domestic Lebanese scene, with the stagnation that has paralyzed the country for over a year and a half is likely to continue after the country failed to fill the presidential vacuum since President Michel Aoun's term ended on October 31, 2022.
It is incumbent on all Lebanese parties to set aside their differences and agree on electing a credible and respectable president who enjoys the local and international backing needed to help the country overcome its aggravating crises. The challenges to electing a president are not insurmountable and everyone bears some responsibility for this failure: both the parties insisting on a single candidate and excluding all others and the parties that have yet to propose a serious alternative, content with the "intersection" around a particular candidate at an earlier stage, which is probably behind us at this point. Amid the intransigence of both sides, the presidential vacuum will remain, as will the country's crises.

How Did I Get into Lebanon, and How Did It Come Out of Me?
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
I did not come from a Lebanese background. My family supported neither the Kataeb, nor Chamoun. A relative of mine uprooted a cedar tree to protest what he saw as the bigotry of Lebanism. Our north star did not point to Beirut or Mount Lebanon, but Tripoli and, behind it, Homs in Syria. We did not grow up hearing about Adonis or Astarte, but the swords of the early Islamic conquests of Yarmouk and Qadisiyah.
Through many fluctuations, and several disasters, I found myself shifting from one idea, Arabism, which has no parallel in reality, to a reality that is Lebanon, whose idea, with its romantic and rural connotations, was not very alluring or exciting.
And when I say "Lebanese reality," I am first and foremost referring to freedom, a scarce commodity in our region: freedom of thought and expression, political assembly, the press and union organizing, and the freedom to go against everything, from the ruler to Lebanon itself. As a result of freedom's centrality to the emergence of Lebanon, nationalism has not been a prominent feature of Lebanese patriotism, and there was never a time when more than few identified as Lebanese nationalists.
In this country, we have never known a leader who sought to forcefully homogenize us. We never had a ruler like Amanullah Khan, Reza Shah Pahlavi, or Kemal Atatürk, nor did we ever come under the rule of a man like Saddam Hussein or Hafez al-Assad. In the years leading up to the war, political parties categorized as being "anti-Lebanon" were legalized, and a Baathist and a Nasserist, who considered the entire country superfluous, won parliamentary seats.
Meanwhile, capitalism was expanding from the Mountainous-Beiruti core hub towards the North, the South, and the Bekaa Valley. Under Camille Chamoun, and especially under Fouad Chehab, infrastructure, modern administration and a respectable national university were built, giving rise to the broadest middle class in the entire region.
Yes, the Maronites enjoyed privileges, some resulting from the legacy of the Mountain's historical pre-eminence and others that reflected the animus of sectarian communities, their fears, and their tendency to refuse compromise and seek domination. Nonetheless, it is not delusional to claim that betting on peaceful and democratic development could have allowed for smoothing over this disparity at much lower costs than those that were eventually paid.
If our surroundings had been less belligerent, tense, and fraught, there would have probably been a lot more room for compromise and to bridge the disparities among the Lebanese. However, that has not happened. Freedom did not tempt many, neither in our country, nor the region, while nothing seemed easier than sacrificing it.The antagonisms of the Lebanese allowed the external to gradually but increasingly become their internal, until nearly everything interior faded away. For Lebanon ought not to be stable so long as Nasser was waging the battle of Arab Nationalism, nor should it stabilize so long as the Palestinian question remained unresolved. Today, stability is undesirable so long as Iran is in a precarious position. Just days ago, Iran's Foreign Minister Abdollahian expressed this view unequivocally, saying that "Lebanon's security is Iran's security."
This erasure of the internal in favor of an imperial illusion coincides with a comprehensive retreat into the smaller community. By retreating from the nation-state, we are breaking with our actual nation in favor of a larger, ideological, and imagined nation and simultaneously breaking with our state for the sect.
With this erasure of the internal, which has been accompanied by a martial vigilance of both the sect and the empire, we are transitioning into a permanent state of exception in which life and freedom are suspended and in which nothing flashes but violence and the anticipation of violence.
We were afforded, over this period, two opportunities to remake the interior: one on March 14, 2005, and another that a more grassroots movement with a broader base granted us on October 17, 2019. However, the failure of both attempts justifies fears that any attempt at reform could be akin to pouring water into a sieve. Indeed, what is the point of repairing the floors of a building when its foundations are rusty and decrepit?
Today we are split into two "camps": the fighting camp and the camp of those who are being killed by fighting, and the two are divided on almost everything. The warriors, with greater force and tenacity than ever before in the country's history, are imposing an official ideology that issues a new dictum every day: be like this and do that; otherwise, you are traitors and conspirators.
As for the casualties, they are not necessarily killed materially. They can be killed by being deprived of their freedom and the right to determine their fate, though many were also physically assassinated after disregarding those orders and refusing to give up their freedom. Naturally, the old and free Lebanon was no paradise, but it was certainly not hell either. The immense distance separating it from paradise was far shorter than that separating it from hell. More importantly, it was a country of open opportunity, albeit with a degree of unevenness, one part of which can be attributed to history and another to communitarian zeal. Today, we find deep and justified skepticism about whether this country will endure for a second century.
I say this with apologies to all of you, especially the highly optimistic among you. The people of this country find themselves at a greater loss than any other about what to do about the situation it is in. It might be time to bid farewell to this harrowing perplexity and settle on a conclusion, which, I believe, will also be harrowing.As for what concerns me - and many like me, I believe - it is that Lebanon, where freedom is contracting, has turned into a repellent country. Some of us are leaving it physically, and others are leaving it spiritually, in search of places where we have a better chance at freedom.
*Excerpt from an intervention delivered at the American University of Beirut, as part of the "Lebanon in its Second Century" seminar series.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 14-15/2024
Netanyahu Is Pursuing War ‘For His Personal Career’, Palestinian FM Says
Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday of caring only about his political survival as attempts to end the conflict in Gaza appeared inconclusive. More than 28,000 people have been killed and 68,000 injured in Gaza during Israel's retaliatory military campaign against Hamas militants who run the enclave following their deadly cross-border attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, when they killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages. Now, concerns are mounting of an Israeli ground offensive against the town of Rafah, a last refuge for more than a million Palestinians virtually trapped after they fled to the south of the enclave to avoid Israeli strikes. Maliki, a member of the Palestinian Authority running the West Bank, said it was imperative to find ways to prevent an attack on Rafah. "Netanyahu is determined that he wants to continue the war for his personal career, for his personal future, and it is very clear that he doesn't care about the destiny, the lives of innocent people, both in Israel and in Palestine, the Israeli hostages and the Palestinian innocent people in Gaza," Maliki said after meeting Constantinos Kombos, the Cypriot foreign minister. In Jerusalem, there was no immediate reply from Netanyahu's office to a request for comment on Maliki's remark. Cyprus, the closest EU member state to the Middle East, has proposed setting up a dedicated, one-way maritime corridor to deliver aid directly into Gaza. The project cannot get off the ground without a sustained ceasefire. "We agree that the escalating humanitarian needs call for a scaled up, unhindered flow of aid," the Cypriot minister said.

WHO warns assault on Gaza's Rafah would be an 'unfathomable catastrophe'
GENEVA (Reuters)/February 14, 2024
The World Health Organization on Wednesday warned that an Israeli military offensive against Rafah in southern Gaza would cause an "unfathomable catastrophe" and push the enclave's health system closer to the brink of collapse. "Military activities in this area, this densely populated area, would be, of course, an unfathomable catastrophe... and would even further expand the humanitarian disaster beyond imagination," said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza and the West Bank. More than one million Palestinians crammed into Rafah at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt, where many are living in tent camps and makeshift shelters after fleeing Israeli bombardments elsewhere in Gaza. The Israeli military says it wants to flush out Islamist militants from hideouts in Rafah and free hostages being held there after the Hamas rampage in Israel on Oct. 7, but has given no details of a proposed plan to evacuate civilians. The United Nations said that an Israeli offensive there could "lead to a slaughter." "It will also increase the burden on a completely overburdened... health system on its knees and increase the trauma burden and it would push the health system closer to the brink of collapse," Peeperkorn said. Peeperkorn said WHO's ability to distribute medical aid to Gaza was limited because many of its requests to deliver supplies had been denied. He said that only 40% of WHO's missions to northern Gaza had been authorised from November, and that this figure had dropped significantly since January.
"All of these missions have been denied, impeded, or postponed," he said, adding it was "absurd" that only 45% of WHO's mission requests for southern Gaza had been granted. Israel has previously denied blocking the entry of aid."Even when there is no ceasefire, humanitarian corridors should exist so that WHO, the U.N. can do their job," Peeperkorn said.

The ‘Philadelphi Corridor’: A goal for Netanyahu, a red line for Egypt
France 24/February 14, 2024
A narrow buffer zone between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, the "Philadelphia Corridor" has come under increasing scrutiny as Israel plans a full-scale military offensive on Rafah, Gaza’s crammed, southernmost city near the border. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has repeatedly declared his country’s intention to take control of the strategic sliver of land. That has Egypt worried amid fears of a breakdown of the decades-old Egypt-Israel peace accords. Truce talks in Cairo this week have focused attention on the pressure Egypt is facing during the Israel-Hamas war and a little-known sliver of land rather inaccurately called “the Philadelphi Corridor”, sometimes translated as the Philadelphia Corridor. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has repeatedly declared his country’s intention to control this narrow buffer zone along the Egypt-Gaza border since the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) launched its war against Hamas following the October 7 attacks. With Israel now threatening a full-scale ground offensive in Rafah – despite international warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe in a city crammed with around 1.5 million forcibly displaced Gazans – Egypt is warily eyeing its northeastern border with Israel.

What to Know About Israel’s Impending Offensive in Rafah
Yasmeen Serhan/Time/February 14, 2024
There are no safe havens in Gaza. That much has been clear since the early weeks of the war, when half of the Strip’s population was ordered to flee south amid unrelenting bombardment in preparation for an Israeli ground invasion. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians heeded that call in the hopes that they might be spared from the deadly violence that has killed more than 28,000 people to date. As the Israeli ground offensive moved south, so did they, with many ultimately ending up in the Strip’s southernmost city of Rafah. Now, as Israel announces its intention to direct its offensive towards Rafah—which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dubbed the “last bastion” of Hamas—more than half of the Strip’s 2.2 million population fear being caught in the crossfire. Some already have. More than 100 Palestinains were killed in Rafah early Monday in an Israeli military raid that resulted in the rescue of two Israeli hostages. U.N. officials and humanitarian organizations alike have warned that further attacks on the city would be catastrophic for civilians sheltering there, who remain physically trapped between Egypt to the south (which refuses to open its border to Palestinians, in part out of fear of abetting their permanent displacement) Israel to the east (which is unlikely to accept taking Palestinian civilians onto its territory), and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Gaza’s north, much of which has been destroyed, remains cordoned off by the Israeli military. “Rafah literally can’t absorb any more,” Amir Hasanain, a 21-year-old native of the city, tells TIME. Before the war, the city had a population of roughly 280,000. Over the past four months, that number has quintupled, transforming its landscape into a sea of tents. “The situation,” he says, “is only getting worse.”
Below, what to know about Rafah and Israel’s expanding ground assault.
What are the current conditions in Rafah?
Rafah was already one of the most densely-populated cities in Gaza before Oct. 7, housing some 280,000 people within 23 square miles. Today, it is bursting at the seams as one of the sole places of refuge in the besieged enclave, now home to some 1.4 million people. “You cannot find four square meters empty in Rafah,” says Yousef Hammash, a Gaza-based advocacy officer at the Norwegian Refugee Council. So congested is the city that its shelters have spilled out onto the streets, where tens of thousands of families have been forced to set up makeshift shelters using plastic and nylon. Disease has become rampant amid the overcrowding. Essentials such as clean water and medicine are scarce. Against this backdrop, the prospect of an Israeli military incursion on the city is “crazy even to think about,” says Hammash. “People are terrified.”
How will an Israeli offensive in Rafah impact the humanitarian situation in Gaza? Among the biggest concerns surrounding Israel’s impending assault on Rafah is the impact it could have on the flow of humanitarian aid into the Strip, which has already seen heavy disruptions. At present, there are only two border crossings for transmitting humanitarian aid—the Rafah crossing (from Egypt) and the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing (from Israel)—both of which transmit into Rafah governorate. “If hostilities were to take place in Rafah, that would seriously hamper aid operations,” says Shaina Low, a communications adviser at the East Jerusalem-based Norwegian Refugee Council. “If they aren’t killed in the fighting, Palestinian children, women and men will be at risk of dying by starvation or disease,” Bob Kitchen, the vice president of emergencies at the International Rescue Committee, said in a statement last week. “There will no longer be a single ‘safe’ area for Palestinians to go to as their homes, markets, and health services have been annihilated.”
Will civilians be able to evacuate Rafah?
While the Israeli prime minister’s office conceded that such an incursion “requires that civilians evacuate the areas of combat,” no such evacuation plans have yet to be articulated. (The Israeli military spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.) In order for Israel’s proposed evacuation to abide by international law, Low addes, “People evacuating need to be guaranteed safe passage, they need to have assurances of their safety once they reach where they’re being told to evacuate to, and they need to have guarantees that they will have the ability to return home once hostilities have ended and it’s safe for them to do so.”So far, Rafah’s population has received no such assurances. “People are showing signs of confusion and fear [over] what might happen to them once they invade Rafah, where will they go,” says Hasanain, “and if this prolonged nightmare may ever come to an end.”The prospect of an Israeli incursion on Rafah has sparked widespread alarm, particularly among Israel’s close allies. U.S. National Security Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters last week that the U.S. would not support Israel’s assault on Rafah “absent any full consideration for protecting civilians,” noting that such an incursion would be “a disaster for those people.” That sentiment was echoed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who stressed that Israel “has the obligation to do everything possible to ensure that civilians are protected and that they get the assistance they need in the course of this conflict.”
On Monday, however, Kirby clarified that the U.S. “never said that [Israel] can’t go into Rafah to remove Hamas,” but rather that it is “not advisable” to do so without a credible plan for the safety of Palestinians there. Politico reports that the Biden Administration has no reprimand plans in the works should Israeli forces enter the city without one.
European leaders expressed similar concerns, with the E.U.’s top diplomat Josep Borrell warning last week that an Israeli offensive would have “catastrophic consequences” for Gaza’s civilian population. (In separate comments on Monday, Borrell suggested that the U.S. and others should consider withholding arms exports to Israel amid the mounting death toll.) U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron urged Israel to “stop and think very seriously before it takes any further action,” reiterating the need for a sustainable ceasefire. Speaking alongside President Biden at the White House on Monday, Jordan's King Abdullah warned that an Israeli attack on Rafah would be "unbearable" for the Palestinian civilians residing there. "We cannot stand by and let this continue," he said. "We need a lasting ceasefire now. This war must end." Perhaps the most significant challenge to Israel’s proposed incursion came on Monday, when the South African government submitted an “urgent request” to the International Court of Justice to consider whether Israel’s impending invasion of Rafah constitutes a breach of the court’s orders. In January, in response to a case brought forward by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide, the top U.N. court ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent acts of genocide. In its request, South Africa cited section 1 of Article 75 of the Rules of Court, which states that the ICJ “may at any time decide to examine proprio motu whether the circumstances of the case require the indication of provisional measures which ought to be taken or complied with by any or all of the parties.”

Hamas heads to Cairo truce talks as Rafah braces for Israeli assault
Agence France Presse/February 14/2024
Negotiations to pause the Israel-Hamas war and free the remaining hostages headed into a second day in Cairo on Wednesday, as displaced Gazans braced for an expected Israeli assault on their last refuge of Rafah. A Hamas source told AFP that a delegation was headed to the Egyptian capital to meet Egyptian and Qatari mediators, after Israeli negotiators held talks with the mediators on Tuesday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an outspoken critic of Israel's conduct of the Gaza war, was also due in Cairo Wednesday for talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. CIA Director William Burns had joined Tuesday's talks with David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service, which Egyptian media said had been mostly "positive." U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby described the negotiations as "constructive and moving in the right direction."Mediators are racing to secure a pause to the fighting before Israel proceeds with a full-scale ground incursion into the Gaza Strip's far-southern city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are trapped. The potential for mass civilian casualties has triggered urgent appeals, even from close allies, for Israel to hold off sending troops into the last major population centre they have yet to enter in the four-month war. Key ally the United States has said it will not back any ground operation in Rafah without a "credible plan" for protecting civilians. Rafah is the main entry point for desperately needed relief supplies and UN agencies have warned of a humanitarian disaster if an assault goes ahead. UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said any military operation "could lead to a slaughter".Terrified civilians have been locked in a desperate search for safety. "My three children were injured, where can I go?" Dana Abu Chaaban asked at the city's border crossing with Egypt, where she was hoping to be allowed across with her bandaged-up sons. 'Let us cross' - Pressure has grown on Egypt to open its border to Palestinian civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom have sought shelter in makeshift camps by the border where they face outbreaks of hepatitis and diarrhoea and a scarcity of food and water.
But it remains closed to Gazans.
"For 100 days we enter the crossing and beg them to let us cross, or to do anything to help us," Habiba Nakhala said. US President Joe Biden has said civilians in Rafah "need to be protected", calling them "exposed and vulnerable". But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said "complete victory" cannot be achieved without the elimination of Hamas's last battalions in Rafah. As the truce talks go on in Cairo, the Israeli military has kept up its bombardment of Gaza. The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said Wednesday that 104 people had been killed overnight. Late Tuesday, the military released a video it said was from a security camera and showed Gaza's Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and family members escaping through a tunnel days after the October 7 attack that launched the war. "The hunt will not stop until he is captured alive or dead," Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters. Some Gazans in Rafah were already packing up their belongings in readiness to move but others vowed to stay put, fearing even greater misery in the bombed out hometowns they fled. Ahlam Abu Assi said she "would rather die" in Rafah than return to the famine-like conditions facing relatives who stayed in Gaza City. "My son and his children have nothing to eat. They cook a handful of rice and save it for the next day," she told AFP. "My grandson cries from hunger."
Hostages
The Hamas attack that launched the war allegedly resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. At least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's response, according to the health ministry. Around 130 of an estimated 250 people taken hostage by Palestinian militants during the attack are believed to remain in Gaza. Israel says 29 of them are presumed dead. Ahead of the Cairo truce talks, the Israeli campaign group Hostages and Missing Families Forum sent the Mossad chief a plea saying the delegation must "not return without a deal." Asked by reporters whether he believes the Americans among the hostages were still alive, National Security Council spokesperson Kirby said: "We don't have any information to the contrary."

Israel army shows video it says is of Hamas' Sinwar in tunnel
Agence France Presse/February 14/2024
Israel's army Tuesday released a video it said was of Hamas's chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, filmed on October 10 with his family members in a tunnel in the Palestinian territory. The black and white images showing a man said to be Sinwar being led through a tunnel together with a woman and three children are said to be the first of him since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. Israel accuses Sinwar of masterminding the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the conflict, now in its fifth month. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli troops had uncovered the video in a security camera during an operation in a tunnel, without elaborating on the location. "The footage shows leader of Hamas and mass murderer, Yahya Sinwar, fleeing with his children and one of his wives," he told a briefing. "This is how he escaped with his family from an underground tunnel to a secured complex he had built in advance," Hagari said. "This video of Sinwar is the result of our hunt. This hunt will not stop until we have captured him dead or alive." AFP was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the video. It was unclear from the footage where the tunnel was located, but in recent weeks the Israeli military has pounded Khan Younis, southern Gaza's main city and Sinwar's hometown. Hagari said the video had been filmed on October 10, three days after Hamas carried out an attack on Israel that allegedly resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. In response, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and launched a military campaign in Gaza that has killed at least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Earlier this month, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Sinwar was "moving from hideout to hideout" and was no longer leading the group's military operations in Gaza. "He has now become a terrorist on the run from being the leader of Hamas" in the Palestinian territory, Gallant said, without elaborating on Sinwar's presumed current location. Sinwar joined Hamas when Sheikh Ahmad Yassin founded the group in 1987, around the start of the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israeli occupation. The ascetic militant, known for his secrecy, has not been seen since October 7. Since then, Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht called Sinwar the "face of evil" and declared him a "dead man walking". But Israeli forces in Gaza have failed to locate any of Hamas's top leaders.

Displaced Palestinians Leave One of Gaza’s Main Hospitals after Weeks of Being Isolated by Fighting
Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
Palestinians have begun evacuating the main hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, according to videos shared by medics on Wednesday. Weeks of heavy fighting had isolated the medical facility and claimed the lives of several people inside it. The war between Israel and Hamas, now in its fifth month, has devastated Gaza' health sector, with less than half of its hospitals even partially functioning as scores of people are killed and wounded in daily bombardments. Israel accuses the militants of using hospitals and other civilian buildings as cover. Khan Younis is the main target of a rolling ground offensive that Israel has said will soon be expanded to Gaza’ southernmost city of Rafah. Some 1.4 million people — over half the territory’s population — are crammed into tent camps and overflowing apartments and shelters in the town on the Egyptian border.The videos showed dozens of Palestinians carrying their belongings in sacks and making their way out of the Nasser Hospital complex. A doctor wearing green hospital scrubs walked ahead of the crowd, some of whom were carrying white flags.
The Israeli military said it had opened a secure route to allow civilians to leave the hospital, while medics and patients could remain inside. Troops have been ordered to “prioritize the safety of civilians, patients, medical workers, and medical facilities during the operation,” it said. The military had ordered the evacuation of the hospital and surrounding areas last month. But as with other health facilities, medics said patients were unable to safely leave or be relocated, and thousands of people displaced by fighting elsewhere remained there. Palestinians say nowhere is safe in the besieged territory, as Israel continues to carry out strikes in all parts of it. The Gaza Health Ministry said last week that Israeli snipers on surrounding buildings were preventing people from entering or leaving the hospital. It said 10 people have been killed inside the complex over the past week, including three shot and killed on Tuesday. The ministry says around 300 medical staff were treating some 450 patients, including people wounded in strikes. It says 10,000 displaced people were sheltering in the facility. The war erupted after Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 captive. Over 100 hostages were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November in return for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israel responded to the attack by launching one of the deadliest and most destructive air and ground offensives in recent history. At least 28,576 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. That includes over 100 bodies brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours. Over 68,000 people have been wounded in the war, including around 11,000 in need of evacuation for urgent treatment, according to the ministry. Around 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, large areas in northern Gaza have been completely destroyed and a humanitarian crisis has left a quarter of the population starving.
The fighting also threatens to trigger a wider conflict. Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group has traded fire with Israeli forces on a daily basis along the border. A rocket attack on Wednesday wounded at least eight people when one of the projectiles hit a home in the northern Israeli town of Safed. The United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel, has been working with Qatar and Egypt to try and broker a ceasefire and the return of the remaining 130 hostages, around a fourth of whom are believed to be dead. The negotiators held talks in Cairo on Tuesday that were attended by CIA chief William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, but there were no signs of a breakthrough. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until “total victory” over Hamas and the return of all the hostages. Hamas has said it will not release all the captives until Israel ends its offensive, withdraws from Gaza and releases a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including top militants. Netanyahu has rejected those demands, calling them “delusional.”

Macron Tells Netanyahu France Opposes Israeli Ground Invasion of Rafah
Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, during which Macron expressed France’s “firm opposition to an Israeli offensive in Rafah.”The city on Gaza's southern border with Egypt is sheltering some 1.4 million displaced people — over half the Gaza Strip's population — who are crammed into tent camps and overflowing apartments and shelters. According to a statement from the president's office, Macron told Netanyahu that an offensive into Rafah could “only lead to a humanitarian disaster of a new magnitude,” with any forced displacement of a population potentially being a violation of international humanitarian law and increasing the risk of a regional escalation. He also stressed the urgency of delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza, including opening the Israeli port of Ashdod and establishing a direct land route from Jordan. However, Macron reiterated French support for Israel’s security and Paris' solidarity with the Israeli people following the “terrorist attack” on Oct. 7. Macron said the release of all the Israeli hostages, including three French nationals, was a priority for his government.

Ireland, Spain Want EU to Review Israel’s Human Rights Compliance in Gaza
Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
The prime ministers of Spain and Ireland asked the European Commission on Wednesday to urgently review whether Israel is complying with its human rights obligations in Gaza. At least 1,200 Israelis were killed and around 250 were taken hostage in a raid by Hamas militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7, prompting Israel to retaliate. At least 28,576 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli strikes, the health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday. Palestinians jammed into their last refuge in Gaza voiced growing fear on Wednesday that Israel will soon launch a planned assault on the southern city of Rafah after truce talks in Cairo ended inconclusively. "We are deeply concerned at the deteriorating situation in Israel and in Gaza... The expanded Israeli military operation in the Rafah area poses a grave and imminent threat that the international community must urgently confront," the prime ministers said in a joint letter published on the Spanish government website. "We also recall the horror of Oct. 7, and call for the release of all hostages and an immediate ceasefire that can facilitate access for urgently needed humanitarian supplies."The EU Commission confirmed receipt of the letter. An EU spokesperson said: "We do urge all sides when it comes to Israel to respect international law and we note that there must be respect, there must be accountability for violations of international law."Two weeks ago, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he was in talks with other EU heads of governments to review the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the basis that Israel may be breaching the agreement's human rights clause. The 23-year-old agreement sets out a framework for free trade in goods, services and capital, based on "respect for human rights and democratic principles". So far only Spain and Ireland have made public their support for a review. Varadkar said several EU states were also talking about a possible joint recognition of a Palestinian state. Ireland has long been a champion of Palestinian rights, and ministers have repeatedly said the government is considering recognizing a Palestinian state. Spain has also repeatedly advocated the recognition of a Palestinian state.

US Navy aircraft carrier going head-to-head with the Houthis has its planes in the air 'constantly,' strike-group commander says
Jake Epstein/Business Insider/February 14, 2024
Business Insider went aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which has been combating Houthi threats.
The aircraft carrier has planes in the sky "constantly," the strike group's commander said.
Keeping aircraft ready for missions is a substantial effort with a lot of moving parts.
It is loud, hot, and busy on the flight deck of the Ike, a deployed US Navy aircraft carrier which has heavily armed fighter jets taking off and landing around the clock.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is a lead ship in the Navy's response to the Houthis, and its aircraft have been involved in striking the Iran-backed rebels directly in Yemen and intercepting threats in the air. Business Insider saw operations firsthand during a visit to the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carrier. For the crew of the Eisenhower, keeping its planes ready — and airborne — is a robust operation and no easy feat, the carrier strike group's commander said. "It's a huge effort," Rear Adm. Marc Miguez told Business Insider during an interview on the Ike in the Red Sea this week. "We're going at it constantly," he said, adding that the crew is "launching airplanes every hour to hour and a half." Dozens of planes may take off from the carrier during a typical day, which can include multiple launch and recovery cycles over a period that can last up to 12 hours, if not longer. When a fighter aircraft, such as a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet, lands on the ship, personnel on the flight deck — sporting different colored vests that correspond with their job duties — prepare it for the next launch; it needs to be refueled and perhaps rearmed if it released any munitions during the previous flight. While this is happening, other crew members are managing the ship's catapults, mechanisms that allow the ship to launch planes carrying heavy payloads, and the arresting gear, which are belts that help the aircraft quickly decelerate upon landing. Each takeoff and landing carries with it a thunderous roar. Everything happening on the flight deck represents only a portion of what it takes to keep aircraft in the sky. The rest is happening throughout the floating city that is the Eisenhower, which more than 5,000 sailors are calling home during its deployment to the Middle East. Miguez oversees Carrier Strike Group 2, which consists of the Ike, four destroyers, and a cruiser. He said: "It's a ton of effort to get airplanes airborne and to keep them airborne." That's why readiness is key. In the months leading up to the deployment in mid-October, the carrier's crew was practicing things such as dynamic targeting, even though it wasn't known what the security situation off the coast of Yemen would be, Capt. Chris Hill, the Eisenhower's commanding officer, told BI.
There are more than 70 aircraft on the Eisenhower, with the air wing made up of F/A-18 Super Hornets fighters, E-2 Hawkeye early-warning aircraft, EA-18 Growler jets for electronic warfare and surveillance, and helicopters. While most of the aircraft are on the flight deck, some are below in an area known as the "hangar bay," where about 90 crew members from different squadrons perform maintenance. The aircraft can be tasked with various missions once they're airborne, from training to defending commercial vessels and US Navy ships from Houthi attacks. They always have to be ready to strike rebel assets in Yemen if needed, Capt. Marvin Scott, the commander of the Eisenhower's carrier air wing, said. Preemptive strikes, which are aimed at effectively eliminating Houthi missiles and drones before they can even become a threat to international shipping lanes, have become a regular occurrence in recent weeks. Before this shift in tactics, the US spent months shooting down Houthi threats in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after they had already been launched by the rebels. US Central Command has announced preemptive military actions on multiple occasions over the past few days. These have destroyed a handful of unmanned surface vessels, which are drone boats that can be packed with explosives, and anti-ship missiles. "It's a very flexible system," Scott told BI of the Eisenhower's flight operations. "We have a lot of options available to us" depending on what mission is being executed, he added. Scott said the Navy had "significantly degraded" the Houthis' capabilities over the past few weeks, including their ability to launch missiles and drones, thanks in part to the Eisenhower's actions and the planes that are airborne throughout the day. "We are poised and supported to stay here as long as it takes to defend the freedom of commerce," he said.

Erdogan says Turkey ready to cooperate with Egypt on Gaza/Turkey’s President Erdogan visits Egypt
CAIRO/ANKARA (Reuters)/February 14, 2024
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey was ready for cooperation with Egypt to rebuild Gaza as he made his first visit to the country since 2012. Erdogan and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held a joint news conference on Wednesday in Cairo after bilateral talks, taking a big step toward rebuilding relations between the regional powers. Erdogan said the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza topped the agenda of their talks. "We will continue to cooperate and stand in solidarity with our Egyptian brothers to put an end to the bloodshed in Gaza," he said, adding Turkey was determined to step up talks with Egypt at all levels in order to establish peace and stability in the region. President Erdogan also vowed to boost trade with Egypt to $15 billion in the short term, adding that the two countries were evaluating energy and defence cooperation. "I'd like to emphasize the continued connection between our peoples, over the past ten years, while our trade and investment relationship saw steady growth," Sisi said. Relations between Ankara and Cairo broke down in 2013 after Egypt's then-army chief Sisi led the ouster of the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, an ally of Turkey who had become Egypt's first democratically elected president the year before. The countries mutually appointed ambassadors last year. This month Turkey said it would provide Egypt with armed drones. Sisi greeted Erdogan as he emerged from his plane in Cairo with his wife and they conversed as they walked along a red carpet amid a fanfare, live television footage showed. Erdogan has sought to ease tensions with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Israel since 2021 - though since October he has publicly sniped with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel's devastating war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. Egypt, Israel, Qatar and the United States held inconclusive talks on Tuesday in search of a Gaza truce agreement. Cairo has made clear it will not allow an exodus of Gaza refugees over its border with the shattered Palestinian territory. Mursi died in prison in Egypt in 2019. Other senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood are jailed in Egypt or have fled abroad, including to Turkey. The Brotherhood remains outlawed in Egypt.

Egypt, Türkiye Unite in Efforts to Stop Israel’s Looming Offensive in Gaza’s Rafah
Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Edrogan united their efforts Wednesday in Cairo, calling for a halt to Israel’s looming offensive on a southern Gaza city in its war against Hamas.
Erdogan's visit comes as ties between Ankara and Cairo are back on track after years of tensions and frosty relations. Türkiye has long been a backer of the Muslim Brotherhood group, which has been outlawed as a terrorist organization in Egypt. The Turkish leader arrived in the Egyptian capital, his first visit to Cairo in over a decade, after visiting the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, where he met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Erdogan met with Sisi at Cairo’s Ittihadiya palace, according to Egypt’s state-run media. Their talks focused on bilateral relations and regional challenges, especially efforts to stop the war in Gaza, Sisi later said at a joint news conference.
“We agreed on the need for an immediate cease-fire (in Gaza) and the need to achieve calm in the West Bank” to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks with the ultimate goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state, Sisi said.
The war in Gaza has reached a critical point, with an impeding Israeli offensive on the city of Rafah, along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt, where some 1.4 million people — over half the territory’s population — are crammed into tent camps and overflowing apartments and shelters. Speaking at the news conference with Sisi, Erdogan urged Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avoid a ground offensive in Rafah and accused the Israeli government of committing “massacres” in Gaza. “Efforts to depopulate Gaza are not acceptable,” he said. Egypt is concerned that a ground assault on Rafah would push hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians across the border and into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. It has threatened to suspend the country's decades-old peace treaty with Israel. Egypt, together with Qatar and the United States, a key Israel ally, has been working to try and broker a ceasefire and the return of the remaining 130 hostages held by Hamas, around a fourth of whom are believed to be dead. The negotiators held talks in Cairo on Tuesday but there were no signs of a breakthrough. The war began with Hamas’ assault into Israel on Oct. 7, in which the militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. The overall Palestinian death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 28,000 people, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, and a quarter of the territory's residents are starving.
“Before the region is exposed to harsher threats, we need to stop the massacre in Gaza now,” Erdogan said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Tuesday.

Ukrainian Military Says It Sank a Russian Landing Ship in the Black Sea
Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
Ukraine's military said Wednesday it sank a Russian landing ship in the Black Sea using naval drones, a report that has not been confirmed by Russian forces. The Caesar Kunikov amphibious ship sank near Alupka, a city on the southern edge of the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014, Ukraine’s General Staff said. It said the ship can carry 87 crew members, The Associated Press said. Sinking the vessel would be another embarrassing blow for the Russian Black Sea fleet and a significant success for Ukraine 10 days before the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Ukraine has moved onto the defensive in the war, hindered by low ammunition supplies and a shortage of personnel, but has kept up its strikes behind the largely static 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line. It is the second time in two weeks that Ukrainian forces have said they sank a Russian vessel in the Black Sea. Last week, they published a video that they said showed naval drones assaulting the Russian missile-armed corvette Ivanovets. Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, known by its Ukrainian acronym GUR, said its special operations unit "Group 13” sank the Caesar Kunikov using Magura V5 sea drones on Wednesday, damaging the vessel on its left side. The same unit also struck on Feb. 1, according to officials. Ukrainian attacks on Russian aircraft and ships in the Black Sea have helped push Moscow’s naval forces back from the coast, allowing Kyiv to increase crucial exports of grain and other goods through its southern ports. A new generation of unmanned weapons systems has become a centerpiece of the war, both at sea and on land. The Magura V5 drone, which looks like a sleek black speedboat, was unveiled last year. It reportedly has a top speed of 42 knots (80 kph, 50 mph) and a payload of 320 kilograms (700 pounds). The Russian military did not immediately comment on the claimed sinking, saying only that it downed six Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea overnight. Caesar Kunikov, for whom the Russian vessel was named, was a World War II hero of the Soviet Union for his exploits and died on Feb. 14, the same day as the Ukrainian drone strike, in 1943.

Russia now seeking ‘political deal’ on Ukraine while keeping occupied regions, says FM Lavrov
The New Voice of Ukraine/February 14, 2024
Moscow is allegedly ready for a "political and diplomatic" end to its war against Ukraine, but only with the occupied territories in mind, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a speech in the State Duma on Feb. 14, according to Russian media. "Given the current position of the West, there are no options to reach an agreement on the issue of Ukraine," he said. Reuters earlier wrote that Vladimir Putin had offered to "freeze" the war in Ukraine through intermediaries, but the United States refused to negotiate. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine must return all its territories and would not accept territorial concessions to Russia. Russian media previously reported that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson stated after his recent interview with the dictator that Putin had told him off the record that he was ready for a “significant compromise” on Ukraine. The Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security in Kyiv denied this statement and called it another "dump." The flow of allegedly "peaceful proposals" by the Kremlin indicates that they cannot completely seize these territories, so they offer to "give them away". Bloomberg reported on Jan. 25 that Putin continues to test the United States to see if it is willing to engage in negotiations to end Russia's war in Ukraine. According to the agency's sources, Putin may be willing to consider giving up his insistence on Ukraine's neutral status and even abandoning his opposition to possible NATO membership, the threat of which was Russia's main justification for the invasion. The New York Times reported on Dec. 23 that despite Putin's recent statements that his goals in the war against Ukraine have not changed, he is signaling through backroom diplomacy that he is ready to make a deal.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt Trudeau during House of Commons question period
The Canadian Press/February 14, 2024
OTTAWA — Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted question period briefly on Wednesday, interrupting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he answered a question from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. A handful of people carried banners and chanted: "free free Palestine, stop arming Israel." House of Commons security personnel grabbed the banners and escorted demonstrators out as some kept chanting near the exit. The Speaker stopped debate for two minutes to allow the chaos to subside before resuming proceedings. Amid the cacophany, Conservative MPs yelled "shame" towards the New Democrat benches. NDP MP Blake Desjarlais stood up, pointed his finger and yelled "shame" right back.
Some Bloc Québécois and Tory MPs said later that they had seen one or more NDP MPs clapping for the protesters. Visitors who enter the House of Commons to watch question period from the public gallery must go through security screening when they enter the building. It's far from the first time that protesters have stood in the gallery to disrupt proceedings and call attention to their cause. As proceedings got back underway in the Commons, Parliamentary Protective Service officers escorted handcuffed protesters, who continued chanting, into police cars waiting outside.
One of the protesters told reporters they had posted a statement to a Palestinian Youth Movement Instagram page. "The calls to stop arming Israel took place in expression of a deep concern of the ongoing genocide in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli state, leading to a death toll of over 28, 000 with more than 67,611 wounded," the statement said. "After months of blocking aid to civilians, indiscriminate bombing of civilians and vital resources — Canadians express anger and frustration to the federal government and Canada’s complicity in this violence."
After question period resumed, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh lobbed a question to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about arms exports to Israel. He said the Liberal government authorized $28.5 million in "new military exports" to Israel's government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The prime minister has the power and responsibility to protect civilians. When will the prime minister stop selling arms to Netanyahu?” Singh asked. Trudeau responded that Canada hasn't issued "any new export permits since Oct. 7."
Pro-Palestinian protests have been happening across Canada since the Israel-Hamas war began that day, when Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostage. Israel declared war on Hamas, and since then Gaza Strip has been under near-constant bombardment. Officials in the Hamas-controlled territory say more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past four months. Global Affairs Canada says Ottawa has not allowed arms to be sent to Israel in decades, but does allow for the export of military technology and "non-lethal" goods, a term that disarmament advocates argue is not clearly defined. Israel was within the top 20 destinations for the export Canadian military goods in 2022, the most recent year for which figures are available.

Iran says saboteurs hit gas pipelines disrupting supply
Agence France Presse/February 14/2024
Two explosions struck gas pipelines in Iran early Wednesday in an act of "terrorism and sabotage" that disputed gas supplies in three of the country's provinces, state media reported. "This act of terrorism and sabotage was carried out in two locations at around 1:00 am," National Iranian Gas Company manager Saeed Aghli told the energy ministry's official Shana news agency. The saboteurs hit pipelines in the cities of Borujen in the southwestern province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and Safashahr in the southern province of Fars, Aghli said, adding that there were no casualties in the explosions or the ensuing fires. State media reported that the sabotage had disrupted gas supplies in at least three provinces -- North Khorasan in the northeast, Lorestan in the west and Zanjan in the northwest. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks and Iranian officials did not immediately apportion blame. Iran has generally blamed agents of its arch foe Israel for similar acts of sabotage in the past. Tehran has made the Palestinian cause a centrepiece of its foreign policy since the Islamic revolution of 1979 and the two governments have long fought a shadow war of sabotage and assassinations.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 14-15/2024
What is Nomophobia
Agencies/February 14/2024
Nomophobia, or “NO MObile PHone PhoBIA” is when a person experiences fear or anxiety about not having mobile phone connectivity. It can lead to agitation, changes in breathing, and other symptoms. While some people may dislike the idea of going without their phone for prolonged periods, others experience fear or anxiety about losing connectivity from their mobile phone. This is known as nomophobia. Nomophobia is similar to other psychological conditions related to fears of certain things. It also shares a connection with other types of anxiety disorders, such as social phobia. The following article defines and reviews what nomophobia is, possible causes, treatments, and more. Nomophobia refers to a fear of not having mobile phone connectivity. It can cause panic or anxiety for the person experiencing it. A 2019 article in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary CareTrusted Source mentions that several potential psychological conditions, such as social anxiety or panic disorder, may appear in a person before the development of nomophobia. However, researchers also noted that it is still unclear if the disorder comes from an existing anxiety disorder or from a cell phone addiction. Other researchers have expressed similar findings. In a 2016 study, researchers proposed that nomophobia may be less of a specific phobia or anxiety and more of an addiction. They proposed changing the name and making a classification called “smartphone addiction disorder.” Currently, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition does not recognize nomophobia as an actual disorder. However, researchers have argued for its inclusion for several years.

Judicial Reform Controversy Emboldened Israel's Enemies
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute./February 14, 2024
[T]he reports about military reservists threatening not to report for duty created the impression among Iran's mullahs and their terror proxies that the Israeli security establishment had been seriously undermined and was on the verge of collapse.
"Their [Israel's] own officials continuously warn that their collapse is nearing. Their president says this, their former prime minister says this, their [military] chief says this and their defense minister says this. They all say it." — Iranian Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei, April 5, 2023.
Iran and its terror proxies were reportedly happy to see... threats by reserve soldiers and pilots to refrain from participating in military service.
As Netanyahu's political rivals were busy protesting against him, Israel's enemies were making preparations to invade Israel. Convinced that Israel had been weakened to the point of being unable to defend itself, Hamas chose October 7 as the date to launch the assault. In the Middle East, weakness invites violence, and when your enemy smells blood, you can bet it will go for your throat.
As Netanyahu's political rivals were busy protesting against him, Israel's enemies were making preparations to invade Israel. Pictured: Anti-government protesters on March 27, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)
The controversy over the judicial reform proposed by the government of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year was what likely encouraged Iran's terror proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis to attack Israel. The mullahs in Tehran and the three Iran-backed Palestinian, Lebanese and Yemeni terror groups viewed the dispute over the reform as proof of Israel's perceived weakness, disunity and a sign of its imminent demise.
Israel's enemies have always shown great interest in political, security, economic and social events in Israel. They closely follow these events and devote huge efforts to analyzing them as part of the "know thy enemy" doctrine.
The judicial reform, a set of five changes to the judicial system, proposed in January 2033, would shift the balance of power in Israel from a few unelected judges in Israel's Supreme Court back to the public and their elected representatives. The proposed reform sparked an unprecedented wave of protests and strikes. As part of the opposition to the judicial reform, some military reservists, including air force pilots, threatened, if the legislation proceeded, not to show up for military reserve duty.
The Iranian regime had closely monitored the dispute. For the regime's media, the scenes of Israelis clashing with the police after blocking highways and the entrance to Ben Gurion Airport for months on end were an indication that the Jews in Israel were headed toward civil war. In addition, the reports about military reservists threatening not to report for duty created the impression among the mullahs and their terror proxies that the Israeli security establishment had been seriously undermined and was on the verge of collapse.
It was against this backdrop of reports about the imminent "collapse of the Zionist entity" that Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 massacre of Israelis. Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people, wounded 5,000, and kidnapped more than 240 others, half of whom are still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Like their patrons in Tehran, Hamas and Hezbollah were also convinced that the judicial reform infighting had weakened Israel to a point where it would no longer be interested in defending itself against a massive invasion.
The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen website reported in January 2023:
"We must not underestimate the repercussions of this deep division [within Israel], which is expected to increase and expand, and will certainly have many risks and important consequences on the level of cohesion of the [Israeli] state and the strength and resilience of its institutions.
"There is no harm in exploiting the [Israeli] enemy's weakness. The Zionist internal arena has witnessed a noticeable increase in the volume of warnings about the danger of the [Israeli] state slipping into further fragmentation and division, which could threaten its regional and global standing."
In April 2023, The Islam Times, an Iranian online media outlet, commented on the turmoil in Israel over the controversial judicial reform: "Hebrew sources have warned in recent months of the collapse of the Zionist entity."
"In recent months, the differences and gaps between the different sectors inside the Zionist society have taken an upward trend. Aside from issues such as differences between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews and tensions between secular lists and extremist religious movements, the policies of the Netanyahu government, especially in the field of judicial reform, exacerbated these divisions to the point that the streets of Tel Aviv were transformed into an arena for confrontation between opponents and supporters of the [Israeli] prime minister. It is noteworthy that internal divisions in the Zionist society are an issue that Zionist analysts and experts strongly warn about and present as a threat to the existence of the Zionist entity. According to these analysts, the gap that is forming from within the Zionist society and gradually expanding will eventually extend to the official institutions and pillars of the Zionist entity and cause its collapse from within."
The Islam Times addressed the threats by military reservists:
"Recently, the issue of the refusal of the pilots of the Zionist entity's army and reserve forces to participate in military missions has turned into a problem due to their opposition to Netanyahu's political approach. Gadi Eisenkot, former Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, recently said: 'Israel is in the most dangerous security situation since the October war of 1973, and the strength of the Israeli army is in danger.'"
Also in April 2023, on X (Twitter), Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei weighed in on the judicial reform crisis. The various crises facing Israel, he said, have accelerated its pace of collapse before the 25-year time frame he had previously predicted.
"The Zionist regime has never faced such a terrible crisis like the current one during its 75 years. It is gripped by severe political instability. In 4 years, it has changed 4 prime ministers, & political coalitions have fallen apart before they have been completely formed."
Khamenei was also quoted on another occasion as saying:
"Their [Israel's] own officials continuously warn that their collapse is nearing. Their president says this, their former prime minister says this, their [military] chief says this and their defense minister says this. They all say it. They say their collapse is nearing and that they won't make it to their 80th birthday. We said a few years ago [in 2015] that they wouldn't reach the next 20 or 25-year point from then."
Five months before Hamas's attack on Israel, Iran's Al-Vefagh newspaper published an interview with Reda Sadr Al-Husseini, described as a Middle East expert, saying that Israel has not witnessed such a fragile situation since its establishment in 1948:
"The fragility that exists today in the political, economic, cultural, social, and even military and security fields of the Zionist entity has robbed sleep from the eyes of its senior officials and Zionist supporters around the world.... In fact, the events that have occurred in recent years have never been seen in the past 70 years. Among these events, we can mention the failure of the Knesset to form a stable government, the inability to form an alliance between political factions, and the emergence of many problems between politicians and religious people. In nearly four years, four prime ministers have changed in this entity. We must not forget that for years the Zionist entity has been presented as the safest place in the world and the most civilized and democratic place in the world. Now comes Netanyahu, who has dozens of cases of moral and financial corruption, to rule them. In order to escape from trial, he resorts to the judicial reform that angers these settlers, and even when he retracts, apologizes, and somehow surrenders to them, they do not accept his apology and continue to object to the government, as huge crowds come every week to the courtyard of Netanyahu's house, to the point that, in some cases, the Netanyahu family was escorted from their place of residence at night through secret roads and taken to a shelter and a safe place. Therefore, today there is no need for a comprehensive war to destroy this [Israeli] entity, as the matter is no longer a problem. Today it is clear that the collapse from within is imminent."
In February 2023, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said of the crisis in Israel:
"The foolish government in Israel is pushing for two major conflicts—an internal conflict within Israel and a conflict with the Palestinians that will expand to the region. We are hearing discourse from the entity's president [Isaac Herzog] and former prime ministers Lapid, Bennett, Olmert, Barak and former defense ministers and a general who talk about civil war and bloodshed and that there is no solution to the challenges posed by the new government."
Many Arabs who were following the protests against the judicial reform took to social media to express joy over the tensions. Some of the hashtags trending then on social media were "The Zionist entity is on fire" and "The [Zionist] entity is collapsing."
Commenting on the protests, Algerian political analyst Mohammed Dakhouche wrote: "Oh God, make them [the Israelis] suffer and lead them in the path of disharmony."
Yemeni social media pundit Mohammed Rawdhan wrote on X to his 107,000 followers:
"Netanyahu is burning the entity. Police clash with demonstrators protesting against Netanyahu and his government. Oh God, hasten the demise of the Zionist entity."
In July 2023, Iranian and Hamas officials met in Tehran to estimate the extent of the unrest in Israel resulting from the judicial reform plan and the ensuing protests and how to benefit from them. The two sides concluded that the crisis had indeed weakened Israel.
Iran and its terror proxies were reportedly happy to see Israel torn apart by the crisis sparked by the government's moves to approve judicial amendments, especially threats by reserve soldiers and pilots to refrain from participating in military service.
As Netanyahu's political rivals were busy protesting against him, Israel's enemies were making preparations to invade Israel. Convinced that Israel had been weakened to the point of being unable to defend itself, Hamas chose October 7 as the date to launch the assault. In the Middle East, weakness invites violence, and when your enemy smells blood, you can bet it will go for your throat.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
© 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.

Under Gaza’s Shadow, Syria Faces a New Welter of Conflict
The New York Times/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
The scale and ferocity of the conflict in Gaza and the unspeakable suffering of its civilians have rightly provoked the world’s outrage. But in Syria, a steep escalation of violence that has forced the flight of tens of thousands more people in what remains the world’s largest displacement crisis is taking place largely unnoticed outside the region.
Syria, too, desperately needs a halt to the violence. But instead, the more than 12-year-long war there grows more intense, now along five fronts in a kaleidoscope of conflict. Syrian government and Russian forces are fighting armed opposition groups in the northwest; ISIS is stepping up its attacks across the country; Türkiye is attacking Kurdish-led forces in the northeast; the Kurdish-led forces are fighting local tribes; and the United States and Israel are hitting back against forces linked to Iran.
With the region in turmoil, a dedicated international effort to contain the fighting on Syrian soil is imperative. Over a decade of bloodshed needs a diplomatic end. A lasting truce in Gaza would also considerably calm the situation in Syria, decreasing tensions between the foreign powers — including the United States, Israel and Iran through its proxies — that are active militarily inside the country.
In Homs, in western Syria, a drone attack by unknown assailants killed and injured scores of cadets, family members and others at a military academy graduation ceremony on Oct. 5. The Syrian military and Russian forces, which have been backing President Bashar al-Assad, retaliated by attacking at least 2,300 locations in the opposition-controlled northwest, with schools, hospitals, markets and camps for Syrians forced from their homes among them. Some 120,000 people — many of whom had already been displaced several times, including by the huge earthquake last February — were sent fleeing, and at least 500 civilians were injured or killed just in the incidents that our commission has tracked since October.
The weapons have included internationally prohibited cluster munitions — continuing devastating patterns that our commission has documented since Syria’s civil war began in 2011. In the past, these revelations produced widespread outrage. The difference now? The world’s attention is elsewhere.
ISIS is also stepping up its deadly activity inside Syria, attacking both civilian and military targets, continuing to demonstrate its operational capacity and extremist ideology.
Meanwhile in the northeast, Turkish forces have accelerated their operations against Syrian Democratic Forces, an opposition group that Türkiye says has ties to terrorist activity on its soil. That opposition group has also been fighting local tribes in Deir al Zour, eastern Syria’s largest city, in a conflict fueled by longstanding grievances that the Kurdish-led local administration is failing to provide essential services or to secure basic rights. The civilian deaths that have ensued remain uncounted.
And most alarmingly, the heightened regional tensions arising from the Gaza onslaught have led to increased attacks on Syrian soil by Israel and by Iranian militias. US bases in Syria have been attacked over 50 times by the militias since October. Well before the Jan. 28 attack in Jordan that killed three American service members, the United States has conducted retaliatory strikes on facilities reportedly used by Iran-linked groups, and the killings in Jordan have led to a new spate of American retaliatory attacks in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, creating fears of a wider conflict. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes, ostensibly aimed at Iranian-linked assets, have repeatedly put Syria’s civilian airports, urgently needed for deliveries of humanitarian aid, out of commission.
Amid all this, Syrians face increasing and intolerable hardship. Nearly 17 million of them need humanitarian aid such as food, water and medical care. Yet aid deliveries are hanging by a thread, dependent on the arbitrariness of the Syrian government and hampered by sanctions. Meanwhile, a severe shortfall in donor funds forced the UN World Food Program to suspend regular food aid in Syria, placing millions in the grip of hunger. One of the most brutal civil wars of this century has claimed more than 300,000 civilian lives in Syria in the past dozen years. It should be no surprise that the number of Syrians seeking asylum in Europe in October reached the highest level in seven years.
By now almost every war crime and crime against humanity covered by the International Criminal Court has been committed in Syria: deliberate targeting of hospitals and health workers, direct and indiscriminate attacks on civilians (some involving chemical weapons) under the guise of fighting “terrorists,” summary executions, torture and forcible disappearance of tens of thousands of people. Add to this the largely unaddressed genocide of Yazidis during the period of ISIS rule in parts of Syria. The longstanding lack of respect for fundamental international human rights and humanitarian law in Syria not only enables the killing and maiming of victims on all sides of the conflict but also erodes the very essence of the international protection system. We are witnessing such disregard for international law in a growing list of conflicts — including in Ukraine, Sudan and now Gaza.
Member states must act urgently to bring this alarming trend to a halt. In November, the International Court of Justice ordered Syria to cease torture. In recent years, diligent prosecutors in Europe have convicted more than 50 perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria. Such efforts must be continued, supported and expanded for atrocities committed not only in Syria, but everywhere.
In the meantime, the most egregious violations could end if the fighting stops. We implore the international community to not lose sight of the Syrian crisis. Syria needs courageous diplomats, daring donors and determined prosecutors more than ever. And more than anything else, after nearly 13 years of conflict, it needs a nationwide cease-fire now.

The Foundations of Peace
Amal Abdulaziz al-Hazzani/Asharq Al-Awsat/February 14/2024
The region has not witnessed this degree of tension since the revolutions of the year of chaos in 2011. The present and future of all its countries are now under threat, and the specter of crisis looms larger with every day that the Gaza war continues. Internationally, reactions to the scenes in Gaza have exceeded expectations, so much so that US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public quarrels are making headlines and being followed on TV.
Indeed, Biden has no choice but to impose calm in Gaza, and Netanyahu is not understanding. For his part, Netanyahu is compelled to improve his image, a concern Biden does not share. This has given rise to a rare divergence in views.
Negotiators from the mediator countries are working diligently and traveling the world to hold meetings on all levels- with nation leaders, foreign ministers, and intelligence officials - as they vie to solve the problem or at least alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza. Yet, the war continues, because the two parties to the conflict, Israel and Hamas, remain intransigent and refuse to budge as the number of casualties in Gaza is expected to reach 30,000 people soon, one-third of them children.
What has come to be known as the "next day" of the war, i.e. what happens after it ends, has become an important part of the discussion, especially among Arab countries, because while the circumstances may be bleak, they also create hope for a massive opportunity to resolve the historic Palestinian question.
In September of last year, a Palestinian national project to resolve the conflict between the rival factions had been underway. It enjoyed the support of the major Arab players, and the Palestinian Authority, at least, engaged with them seriously. During this period, we saw leaks that a peaceful solution to the issue as Riyadh made a solution to the Palestinian issue a requisite for normalization.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not see itself as just any country. As the political analyst Ihab Abbas put it, Riyadh is the jewel in the crown, and normalization with it is keenly sought by both the United States and Israel.
None of the parties involved knew what Hamas was planning, even the members of the movement holding talks with representatives of the Palestinian Authority to mend the Palestinian divide. Hamas had circumvented all previous peaceful solutions. However, the reality is that this war did not shuffle the cards like the events of 2011, nor did it obscure the scene. On the contrary, there is now a clear and steadfast commitment to a single goal. We may not have even seen European positions as positive and fair to the Palestinians as those being voiced today. The European Union, along with the United States, Arab countries, China, and Russia - regardless of each party's interest - are all united in their push to compel Tel Aviv to end the war. Netanyahu sees this alignment against him and knows that he has stepped into a mine; thus, he will not move it until the end.
Since March 2002, we have not heard of a unified and decisive Arab push to solve the issue through the "two-state solution". As explosions roared in Gaza, Israel, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, representatives of the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates met in Riyadh last week ago to discuss what has been called a "path of return" toward a Palestinian state.
The first and most important step along this path is closing the ranks of the Plaestinians. The rivals must be brought together under a single administration that represents the Palestinian state internationally, one that is not marred by parties involved in the ongoing war. It is not too early to say that an interim Palestinian government negotiating for this state and choosing the capital is the best course, as the current climate and conditions are not suitable for organizing elections, as happened in 2006, not long ago. Today, the Palestine Liberation Organization has a national duty and an opportunity it has not had for decades. And it is not alone; it is supported by an Arab alliance that has the tools needed to influence Washington and Tel Aviv.
It is important to return to the day "before" October 7, 2023, and revive the negotiations on this basis: a two-state solution along the 1967 borders and the reconstruction and resettlement of the Palestinians in Gaza. Despite the determination we see in Arab states to support an independent Palestine, they will certainly have to contend with an ever-present problem, the parties that do not seek peace and cannot coexist with peace. Nonetheless, we are at a critical juncture in the Arab-Israeli conflict. To conclude, to be honest and fair with our Palestinian brothers, we must tell them that no matter how strongly they can rely on the support of any Arab country, no one will be able to end their crisis unless they unite behind one mission, one man, and one collective national objective.

Iranian Power Politics, Shiite Banana Republics and their Minions
Charles Elias Chartouni/February 14/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/127048/127048/
The last statement of Abdallah Bou Habib (the so-called Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lebanon), insofar as the military presence of Hezbollah in South Lebanon, reflects the instructions of his mentors and the state of subordination of the cabinet, formed by Najib Mikati, to its diktat. The purported legitimacy of this cabinet should be questioned from a constitutional standpoint and its incumbents denied representativeness, on account of their illegal mandate, political subservience to the Iranian political agenda, and outright violation of national sovereignty. We have come to a point where any condescension towards an open domination strategy equates with complicity and constitutional betrayal.
There are no more attenuating circumstances that justify the ongoing coup d’État conducted through the deliberate compliance of ministers, who have no other standing but the one conceded by the Iranian patron and its flunkeys. It should be made clear that the power configuration in Lebanon has lost its constitutional grounding and should be opposed on this very basis. The political and legal extraterritoriality of Hezbollah and its subordinates should be highly emphasized and serve as a platform for a vocal opposition. The declaration of war against Israel is an illegal act that was never discussed, consented to, and endorsed by the different Lebanese constituencies, and Hezbollah should, single-handedly, bear the brunt of its political and military policies. It should be stated very clearly that Hezbollah and its Iranian handler violated UN resolutions 62, 425, 1559, 1680, and 1701 and their annexes. Lebanon is bound by these resolutions and, therefore, is not in a state of war with Israel. The whole plot revolving around the “unified battlefields” is an ideological hoax crafted by the Iranian regional subversion policy and broadcasted by its ancillaries.
The situation in Lebanon is like the one in Irak, whereby, the Iranian regime is trying to sway the balancing politics of the previous cabinets, annex the duplicitous government of Mohammad Shayya’ al Sudani, force the withdrawal of the American troops on the political agenda, put back Irak on the road to civil war and discretionary political void. The Iraqi political scenery is as divided as its Lebanese corollary and on its way to joining the scenarios of political chaos prevailing throughout the Iranian condominiums in Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinian fractured political landscape. The frozen political conflicts on the Iraqi-Syrian interfaces, the battered Lebanese sovereignty, and the Palestinian everlasting political dependency are adroitly instrumentalized by the alternating Arab, Islamic, and Russian power brokers.
The defeat of Hamas and the modulated containment of Hezbollah and acolytes is mandated if this cycle of open-ended conflicts is to end, yield to diplomacy and negotiated conflict resolution, and rehabilitate international mediation. Oppositions in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and amongst Palestinians should demonstrate their resolve and move beyond the ideological fallacies and political strictures forced on their respective countries and political environments, and the plying of national sovereignty by transnational ideologies and power politics. Domestic actors have to display their opposition and rally the international actors working actively on stopping violence and reintroducing alternative political dynamics of conflict resolution and peacemaking.