Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 22-23/2024
Elias Al-Zoghbi to Voice of Lebanon: Political dancing does not lead to results, and acknowledging the national sin committed is a virtue
A French-Qatari summit in support of the Lebanese army
Hezbollah's first response to the Kafr Rumman raid!
One of the most prominent missile experts.. The party mourns Commander Saleh, the “martyr” of the Kafr Rumman raid
Israel “terrifies” southerners by targeting civilians... and there is no end in time for the aggression against Gaza!
Defying Israel's danger: Challenges of life and risks of death in Mari, South Lebanon
Israeli strike on Kfar Rumman kills 2 Hezbollah fighters including commander
Lebanon receives official border solution paper from Paris
US senators: Israel 'not bluffing' about Lebanon offensive
Majdal Zoun mourns 6-year-old Amal as border clashes drag
Army support conference postponed over French-Western 'disputes'
Report: Foreign presidential efforts to intensify before Ramadan
Report: Hochstein anew demands Hezbollah pullback from border
UNIFIL head meets with Tyre district mayors to hear their concerns
Report: Iran won't play role in south Lebanon reconstruction
MIBIL commander to the Lebanese: Place your trust in the LAF, which consistently demonstrates a high level of professionalism
Open Letter From To MTV & LBC: Why you are brainwashing us with Turkish Moves & Series All spoken In Syrian Language

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 22-23/2024
Houthis to step up Red Sea strikes, use ‘submarine weapons’, leader says
Israel’s war cabinet agrees to send a negotiating team to Paris for hostage talks
At least one killed, several wounded in gun attack near West Bank settlement
Israel hits Gaza’s Rafah; Hamas chief’s trip raises truce hopes
MSF slams US on Gaza at UN, says children as young as 5 want to die
‘Pattern’ of Israeli attacks on hospitals either intentional or ‘reckless incompetence,’ MSF chief tells UNSC
Day 4 at ICJ hearing: Jordan says Israeli occupation ‘unlawful, inhumane and must end’
West must return to imposing cost on Iran’s ‘malign activity’ to restore Mideast stability: Pompeo
4 charged in transporting suspected Iranian-made weapons. Two SEALs died in intercepting the ship
A Ukrainian officer said its air force had more planes than in February 2022.
US to impose sanctions on over 500 targets in Russia action on Friday
How US-Iran proxy wars are keeping the Middle East on edge

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on February 22-23/2024
Navigate to News section...Alexei Navalny, Death and Destiny/Bernard-Henri Lévy/The Tablet/February 22/2024
U.S. Scheming for a Palestinian State Unwittingly Strengthens Netanyahu/Gadi Taub/The Tablet/February 22/2024
How the US Abandoned Israel under Biden/Robert Williams/Gatestone Institute./February 22, 2024
We Were Wrong About What Happened to America in 2020/The New York Times/February 23/2024
The PA And The PLO/Nabil AmrAsharq Al-Awsat/February 23/2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 22-23/2024
Elias Al-Zoghbi to Voice of Lebanon: Political dancing does not lead to results, and acknowledging the national sin committed is a virtue
Voice of Lebanon / February 22, 2024
Activist and political writer Elias Al-Zoghbi spoke on Voice of Lebanon in the “Al-Massa Mansheet” program about changing the name “Unity of Fields” to the name “Unit of Squares,” and pointed out the two teams with the opposite approach, one of which is trying to link Lebanon to the conflict in the region, and the other team is trying to dismantle it... Al-Zoghbi pointed to the Iranian focus on the path of Lebanon and Gaza, considering it a path capable of equality and understanding away from the roar of the planes. He pointed out that Iran only believes in the American settlement, and its need for gains, political shares, and a negotiating role. He considered that it will sell in one place and buy in another, its features. It is not clear, and he confirmed at the same time that she is in the process of cutting her hair. He saw that Lebanon was suspended between the Gaza war, the war complex in the south, and the internal entitlement. He confirmed the cessation of the work of the Five-Year Committee, and the return of talk of sanctions. He pointed to the complex of not recognizing the role of the House of Representatives in electing a president within open sessions, and to the dual constitutional and unconstitutional clash. In the internal context, Al-Zoghbi pointed out the confusion occurring between the party and the movement, and considered that the political dance did not lead to a result, with a reference to the position of the Free Patriotic Movement on the principle of unity of the battlefields and the war in the south, and he explained that leaving the “understanding paper” in Mar Mikhael “the mine” It needs a bold decision from the movement, in which it acknowledges the national sin committed, especially with regard to the tenth item of the paper, which forever dedicates the role of Hezbollah’s weapons to it, and which did not refer to the role of the army in building the state, or to the Taif Agreement... and stressed that The agreement was made between one trained team and another experienced team. Al-Zoghbi said that all proposals are being made on the margins, while the basis of the problem in Lebanon lies in the vacuum and the absence of the head of state. He called on the Prime Minister to publicly declare that Lebanon does not want war, and confirmed entering into the new test and agreeing on the seven points in the border demarcation file. He saw that Israel is the least affected by the Houthi operations in the Red Sea... Al-Zoghbi stressed that the establishment of the state is the responsibility of the Lebanese, and pointed to the popular resentment that will reverberate against Hezbollah, and pointed to the party’s lack of awareness amid the military situation of the economic, moral, political and moral burdens. placed on his responsibility, advising him to hold a “brainstorming” session among party members to address all issues...

A French-Qatari summit in support of the Lebanese army
آNeda Al Watan/February 22, 2024
Information reported that the French-Qatari summit will be held on the 27th of this month between French President Emmanuel Macron and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The commanders of the French and Qatari armies will participate in part of it, along with the Commander of the Lebanese Army, General Joseph Aoun. It will focus on the security situation in the south and ways to support the army, as compensation for the Paris conference that could not be held.

Hezbollah's first response to the Kafr Rumman raid!
Janoubia/February 22, 2024
In response to the assassination carried out by the Israeli army today, Thursday, of a Hezbollah leader named Hassan Saleh, by targeting a building in Kafr Rumman, the party announced in a statement that it was “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their brave and honorable resistance, and in response to the attacks of the Israeli enemy.” On villages and civilian homes, most recently in Kafrman, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted, at 07:10 pm on Thursday, February 22, 2024, the Kayla Barracks with dozens of Katyusha rockets, hitting it directly.” Hezbollah also targeted, at 07:40 pm on Thursday, February 22, 2024, the Birkat Risha site with two Burkan missiles, hitting it directly. He continued in a statement, “The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted at (at 07:40) 16:55) On the afternoon of Thursday, February 22, 2024, enemy soldiers gathered in the vicinity of the Hanita site with missile weapons, and they directly hit it.

One of the most prominent missile experts.. The party mourns Commander Saleh, the “martyr” of the Kafr Rumman raid
Janoubia/February 22, 2024
Hezbollah officially mourned, this evening, Thursday, a new fighter who fell in its ranks, and the following statement came: “With greater pride and pride, the Islamic Resistance mourns the martyr, the fighter, Hassan Mahmoud Saleh “Jaafar,” born in 1973 from the town of Adshit in southern Lebanon, who rose to fame. A martyr on the road to Jerusalem.” Today, Israeli warplanes targeted a building in Kafr Rumman. It was reported that Hezbollah leader Saleh was among the victims who fell in the raid. According to information, Hassan Mahmoud Saleh is considered one of the most prominent missile experts. He also learned that his brother, Ali Saleh, nicknamed Bilal Adshit, participated in the capture of the two Israeli soldiers in 2006, and is considered one of the “most skilled rocket throwers” in Hezbollah. Saleh appears in the video published by Hezbollah, mourning a Hezbollah fighter, describing him as having fought tours against the Takfiris in Syria from Qalamoun to Aleppo to Zabadani. Today, Thursday, Israeli warplanes launched an air strike targeting a building in the town of Kafr Rumman, near the city of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, killing two people and wounding three others. An initial toll is likely to be from “Hezbollah.” After transporting the injured, the party established a security cordon around the targeted location. Earlier, today, Thursday, the Islamic Resistance - Hezbollah issued a statement in which it said: “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, permission has been given to those who fight on the grounds that they have been wronged, and indeed God has power over their victory. God the Most High, the Great, has spoken the truth.” The statement added, “ In support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip Gaza and in support of its brave and honorable resistance, and in response to the Israeli enemy’s attacks on villages and civilian homes.” He continued, “The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted, at 05:40 in the afternoon, on Thursday, February 22, 2024, a building in which enemy soldiers were holed up in Al-Manara Colony with appropriate weapons, and they directly hit it.” He added, “They targeted The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance, at 6:00 pm on Thursday, February 22, 2024, a building in which enemy soldiers were holed up in the Metulla Colony with appropriate weapons, and they directly hit it. He concluded: “Victory is only from me.” God is the Mighty, the Wise.”

Israel “terrifies” southerners by targeting civilians... and there is no end in time for the aggression against Gaza!
Janoubia/February 22, 2024
The Israeli insistence on breaching the wall of sound more than once over the heads of mourners and on a daily basis in the south and to terrorize safe civilians in their homes is met with rampant aggression that has become almost daily. It also confirms Israel’s move toward widespread aggression and raising the level of challenge before “Hezbollah” and dragging it into a response that would ignite the southern front. .Yesterday, it was noticeable that violence took over the situation, and the Israeli massacre of a woman and a child in Majdal Zoun resulted in a violent response from Hezbollah, after which tensions escalated in the south. Field sources told Janoubia that every additional day that passes on the southern front brings with it more escalation, friction, and attacks between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. Read also: Israel is pursuing Hezbollah leaders from the south to Syria...and the American veto is a “green light” to invade Rafah! It indicates that despite the Israeli escalation and massacres against civilians, Hezbollah is still “weighing” its responses in anticipation of giving Netanyahu’s government an excuse to implement its threats and expand the war.
There is no prospect for the Gaza war
The fiery atmosphere in the south is no less fiery than the Gaza front, which seems to have no time horizon. Palestinian sources reveal to Janoubiya that there has been a stagnation in the truce negotiations between Hamas and Israel, and everything that is said about progress and expressed by the US State Department is nothing but talk for media consumption only. The US State Department indicated that we are seeking a long-term agreement with security guarantees for Israel, and pointed out that we want a temporary ceasefire to release the prisoners and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. She pointed out that reaching an agreement is possible, and this may happen before the month of Ramadan. He pointed out that we held talks with the United Nations and several countries about ensuring that UNRWA’s work is not interrupted. She explained that UNRWA is currently the main distributor of humanitarian aid in Gaza, and we do not want the aid to be interrupted. On the other hand, NBC quoted the US State Department as saying, “Israel did not present a plan to protect about a million civilians in Rafah before its threatened attack.” Israeli Army Radio, citing military officials, reported that there are “estimates that the ground operation in Khan Yunis will soon end.” She revealed that “the army is close to deciding its position regarding the start of a ground operation in Rafah.”

Defying Israel's danger: Challenges of life and risks of death in Mari, South Lebanon
LBCI/February 22/2024
Farmers in Mari Plain, near the southern border, are faced with a grim choice between the dangers of Israeli shelling and the threat of starvation, as they defy the risks to make a living from their fields. LBCI's cameras ventured into Mari Plain, capturing hundreds of individuals scattered across the fields, working tirelessly to salvage their crops amidst the ever-present threat of Israeli airstrikes. This group works beneath the town of Khiam, which faces daily bombardment. The town of Mari, the border town to which the Lebanese part of the occupied town of Ghajar belongs, lies within a volatile region bordered by Khiam, Hasbaya, the forests of Rashaya, and the heights of Mount Hermon. A missile dropped two days ago failed to detonate between the town's houses, sparing entire families. Despite the risks, its residents have not abandoned the village, where life continues in a semblance of normalcy. Every household exudes a sense of activity, but behind the façade lies the silent struggle of some to make ends meet. Despite the perilous journey between Mari and its surroundings, gas stations and shops remain open, catering to the needs of the town's residents. Although Mari bears little resemblance to the ghost towns that have emptied of their inhabitants, a closer look reveals similarities with Ain Arab.

Israeli strike on Kfar Rumman kills 2 Hezbollah fighters including commander
Agence France Presse/February 22/2024
At least two Hezbollah fighters were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a residential building in south Lebanon on Thursday, a security source said. Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.
An Israeli drone shot two guided missiles at the building in Kfar Rumman, near south Lebanon's Nabatiyeh, the security source said, declining to be identified as they were not authorized to brief the media. Israeli reports meanwhile said the slain Hezbollah fighters included a commander of the group's elite Radwan force who was responsible for the Shebaa Farms area. Kfar Rumman lies around 12 kilometers from the Israeli border. Hezbollah said it later fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at two Israeli military barracks in response to the Kfar Rumman attack.
Hezbollah had claimed a series of attacks on Israeli troops and positions on Thursday, including several which it said were in response to "Israeli attacks on villages and civilian houses."The violence on the border has sparked fears of another full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah like that of 2006.
Since October, at least 273 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 42 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army. Last week, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed that Israel would pay "with blood," after 10 civilians, including seven members of one family, were killed in Lebanon's largest single-day death toll so far. On Wednesday, an Israeli strike killed a woman and a girl, prompting retaliatory fire from Hezbollah.

Lebanon receives official border solution paper from Paris
Naharnet/February 22/2024
Lebanon has received an official paper containing Paris’ vision for resolving the border conflict with Israel, following the previous unofficial paper, media reports said. “The new paper was submitted by the French embassy in Lebanon on Wednesday and is written in Arabic, French and English, knowing that the previous paper contained only an English text,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday. “The official paper mentions the Shebaa Farms and the Kfarshouba Hills and the need to discuss their issue in the future,” the daily said. Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, who received the paper, will discuss with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati the official response that should be sent to the French side, the newspaper added. Cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah have killed at least 271 people on the Lebanese side since October 8, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 42 civilians. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army. The fighting has also displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border and Israel has repeatedly warned that it might use force against Hezbollah to secure its residents' return.

US senators: Israel 'not bluffing' about Lebanon offensive
Naharnet/February 22/2024
U.S. democratic senators Chris Coons and Richard Blumenthal have said that Israel "is not bluffing" about an offensive against Hezbollah but that a truce in Gaza could pave way for a de-escalation in lebanon. The senators told Reuters Wednesday, after they met with Lebanese officials in Beirut, that a possible Israeli military offensive against Hezbollah could be prevented as a hostage deal and truce in Gaza could have "positive consequences" for Lebanon. They said the coming weeks will be crucial for the region and for Lebanon. "The next few weeks are a real hinge point — for Gaza, for Israel, for Lebanon, for the Red Sea, for Iraq," said Coons, adding that the truce "could create that window of 45 days, quite likely during Ramadan as well, when the next steps can be taken to begin to build the confidence that could lead to a full implementation of (United Nations Security Council resolution) 1701."The senators had met Wednesday with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. They said they told him that Israel "is not bluffing" about an offensive. "It's not just rhetoric. It will act. And we hope that that message was conveyed to Hezbollah," Blumenthal said. Since October 8, Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged cross-border fire on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so in support of Gaza. The cross-border exchanges since October have killed at least 271 people on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 42 civilians. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.

Majdal Zoun mourns 6-year-old Amal as border clashes drag
Naharnet/February 22/2024
Hezbollah targeted Thursday a command center in Kiryat Shmona and a group of soldiers in a house in the Yuval settlement in northern Israel. Hezbollah later targeted two Israeli posts in the occupied Shebaa Farms and surveillance equipment in the Berkat Risha post. The Israeli army for its part shelled the Hamames hill and the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab and Rashayya al-Fokhar, while Israeli warplanes bombed al-Khiam, Kfarkila and Maroun al-Rass. Mourners meanwhile gathered in the southern town of Majdal Zoun to attend the funeral of two civilians killed in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday, including six-year-old Amal al-Durr. The strike Wednesday that had killed al-Durr, also killed another woman and critically wounded her daughter, prompting Hezbollah to retaliate with several rockets at the Matzuva settlement in north Israel. Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for 12 other operations against Israeli military positions on the border Wednesday. The cross-border exchanges since October have killed at least 271 people on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 42 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.

Army support conference postponed over French-Western 'disputes'
Naharnet/February 22/2024
A conference for supporting the Lebanese Army that France was preparing to host on February 27 has been postponed indefinitely. Al-Akhbar newspaper reported Thursday that the conference was postponed due to “disputes between Paris and European capitals in addition to Washington, amid the continuation of the war and the ambiguity of the political solution.”“The French tried to take credit for the file, so they decided to hold the conference without consulting with anyone,” diplomatic sources told the daily. “Paris was hasty in unveiling the conference and sending invitations, which confused the rest of the European and Western parties, especially that it is premature to specify the role that the army will play and what it might need,” the sources added. “That’s why the French were told to postpone the conference until the situation becomes clearer over the next two weeks in connection with the developments in Gaza,” the sources explained.

Report: Foreign presidential efforts to intensify before Ramadan
Naharnet/February 22/2024
Foreign efforts to break Lebanon’s presidential deadlock will intensify before the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, diplomatic sources said. “The roadmap has become nearly ready,” the sources told al-Jadeed TV. Ain el-Tineh visitors meanwhile told the TV network that “Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that he supports any domestic or foreign efforts.”“He has announced his readiness to open parliament for any consultative session or meeting,” the visitors said. Al-Jadeed added that there is a domestic presidential initiative aimed at “accompanying the foreign efforts and finding an exit that would allow all forces to climb down the tree and that would preserve sovereignty.”“The agenda of those behind the initiative is full of meetings with all forces in parliament, who will be invited to send representatives to a consultative meeting in parliament not chaired by anyone,” the TV network said.

Report: Hochstein anew demands Hezbollah pullback from border
Naharnet/February 22/2024
U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein has recently called Speaker Nabih Berri and renewed the demand that Hezbollah pull back its forces “for a few kilometers from the border with Israel,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday. Berri answered that Hezbollah would “withdraw from the entire south on the condition that Israel implement Resolution 1701,” the daily added. Cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah have killed at least 271 people on the Lebanese side since October 8, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 42 civilians. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army. The fighting has also displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border and Israel has repeatedly warned that it might use force against Hezbollah to secure its residents' return.

UNIFIL head meets with Tyre district mayors to hear their concerns
Naharnet/February 22/2024
UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro, accompanied by UNIFIL officials, has met with mayors from around the Tyre Caza to hear their concerns and talk about the needs of their residents as the exchanges of fire continue in south Lebanon.
“It is paramount to have these strong relationships with all of you, between the community and UNIFIL, in all the area of operations,” the UNIFIL chief told the gathered mayors Wednesday. “We continue our cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces and the local communities.”
Highlighting the support that UNIFIL and its contingents have provided to first responders, civil defense, schools, health care agencies, women, children, and municipalities, he noted that the mission is coordinating with U.N. bodies, embassies, and NGOs to help get aid where it is needed.
According to U.N. agencies, 80,000 people have been displaced on the Lebanese side of the Blue Line, with about three-quarters of them relocated to the Tyre caza (district). While most are living with family or renting houses, about 200 families are living in shelters and receiving direct assistance.
The ongoing exchange of fire has caused immense hardship for all those displaced on both sides of the Blue Line, with women and children particularly vulnerable. The daily violence and uncertainty about the future have led to fear, anxiety, and depression. Many children who have left their home communities are no longer in school. The sudden influx of population has also strained local infrastructure and services, which is why many communities have had to reach out to UNIFIL for help. “We are working very hard with the parties to avoid a situation of escalation,” the UNIFIL head said. “U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 is the framework. We have to support the government of Lebanon and the LAF for the implementation of 1701. This is what we are trying to do every day.”

Report: Iran won't play role in south Lebanon reconstruction
Naharnet/February 22/2024
Tehran has informed the relevant parties that it is “not concerned” with reconstruction operations in south Lebanon when the current confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah ends, a media report said. Iran has argued that Israel’s war machine is to blame for the destruction, Lebanon’s Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday. Tehran said that its experience during the eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s “did not lead to Iran getting compensations from the former Soviet Union after Iraq’s use of Soviet weapons back then,” the daily said. Cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah have killed at least 271 people on the Lebanese side since October 8, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 42 civilians. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army. Israel’s attacks have also caused major destruction in south Lebanon’s border towns and tens of thousands of residents have been displaced.

MIBIL commander to the Lebanese: Place your trust in the LAF, which consistently demonstrates a high level of professionalism
NNA - /By Nayla Assaf/February 22/2024
Italy's dedication to Lebanon has deep roots, spanning nearly four decades back to the early 1980s. During this time, Italy deployed its troops to South Lebanon, joining UNIFIL forces in peacekeeping endeavors.
In 2015, the Italian bilateral military mission in Lebanon (MIBIL) was established as part of the broader initiatives supported by the "International Support Group" (ISG). The ISG includes not only the member countries of the permanent council of the United Nations but also Germany, Italy, and the EU.
The mission, operating within this framework, has been unwavering in its efforts to assist both the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the civilian population. Its primary task is to organize and conduct training and consultancy activities for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).
In this context, the National News Agency (NNA) conducted an exclusive interview with Colonel Sandro Iervolino, the commander of MIBIL. He highlighted that "MIBIL's activities in cooperation with the LAF primarily focus on supporting education and training for the armed forces." The aim is to identify potential gaps in training and address critical issues through the organization of specialized courses by MIBIL. When discussing potential training gaps, Colonel Iervolino outlined strategies to overcome these challenges. He explained, "Our mission involves organizing specific courses, particularly in the areas of CBRN, healthcare, personal defense, sniping, and the execution of operations in urban, mountain, and maritime environments." Moreover, Iervolino affirmed that "MIBIL's main goal is to offer support to the Lebanese armed forces, which we see as a credible and resilient institution capable of providing effective assistance in Lebanon, especially during the current crisis."When asked about the activities carried out to date, the MIBIL commander disclosed that "since 2015, MIBIL has organized over 300 courses, benefiting more than 7,000 participants. Additionally, since 2023, MIBIL has engaged in civil-military cooperation, concluding 44 projects in the fields of education, healthcare, and agriculture in the past year."
He emphasized that, amidst challenging circumstances, "the mission delivers healthcare aided by the deployment of two medical teams at the military hospital in Beirut."Reflecting on his experience in Lebanon, Iervolino stated, "Six months into my role as the head of MIBIL, I can confidently say that our cooperation with the LAF is excellent on all fronts. Relations are genuinely friendly and collaborative, marked by a profound respect for the Italian staff." He expressed gratitude to his predecessors for their outstanding work and the credibility they established over the years. Iervolino then delved into the MIBIL work process. He explained, "After each training activity, our teams, working alongside Lebanese units, identify the necessary materials to enhance the operational and logistical capabilities of the LAF." He clarified that "this information is shared with the Italian Ministry of Defense, allowing it to be incorporated into projects funded by Italy to enhance the capabilities of partner countries' armed forces."
Iervolino emphasized that "the donations primarily involve specialized equipment, vehicles, and projects of great importance for the LAF."
In terms of cooperation with UNIFIL, he clarified, "MIBIL primarily operates in the central area of the country, thus its role differs from that of UNIFIL's responsibility."He affirmed that "currently, there is no evaluated option for collaboration with forces deployed south of the Litani under UN jurisdiction."
When asked about his assessment of the current situation of the LAF, the MIBIL commander acknowledged the challenges and resilience in line with Lebanon's economic situation. He expressed optimism, stating, "Despite the difficulties, we are all impressed by the LAF's high level of professionalism and anticipate further improvements in the near future."Regarding future activities, especially in the near future, Iervolino emphasized the ongoing commitment of the Italian armed forces and MIBIL, even after October 7. He assured that this commitment will persist with the same intensity in the coming months. Looking ahead to 2024, he disclosed, "The training provided by MIBIL will increase by 15%, and we are already working on the training plan for 2025." In delivering a message to the Lebanese people and LAF elements, Iervolino expressed, “I would like to send a message of hope to the Lebanese despite the serious crisis that the entire Middle East region is going through. I want to tell them that they can continue to place the utmost trust in the LAF.” Additionally, he reiterated support to his friends and the elements of the FAL, emphasizing the pride they feel in cooperating alongside them. He concluded by confirming their ongoing closeness and collaboration.

Open Letter From To MTV & LBC: Why you are brainwashing us with Turkish Moves & Series All spoken In Syrian Language
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/127286/127286/
February 22/2024
“I’m addressing my call full of anger and sadness to MTV & LBC the Lebanese broadcasting channels, asking and wondering why are they attacking or brainwashing us, and on daily bases, with Turkish movies or series, all spoken in Syrian language!?
It is extremely disturbing to listen to, as if we haven’t had enough, and during decades, of their barbaric occupation of Lebanon!!
It's so disturbing, to the point of feeling suffocated and invaded again! It just doesn't fit in at all in our Lebanese culture.
We have great Lebanese movies, series, directors, producers, actors and actresses that you can broadcast!
Why do Lebanese overseas have to subscribe to other applications, just to be able to watch LEBANESE?
It feels 'out-of-place, It's incomprehensible!!!
Lebanese Series & Movies, Directors & Productions, actors & actresses have by far a superior and more sophisticated level!
It is impossible to continue watching you, no matter how much we try, when they have been sucking our blood for almost 75 YEARS!!
Time to let go!
But if your excuse is that you cannot afford to buy Lebanese movies or series, have at least the DECENCY to hire Lebanese to reverse the Syrian spoken language of all your series or movies to LEBANESE!
Lebanese are still occupied, hurting, suffering, struggling or wearing black on their beloved ones, victims and martyrs!
Don’t forget that it is the Lebanese Patriots who supported you, rescued you and helped you go on your way, during every occupation!
Have a little COMPASSION, DIGNITY AND RESPECT!!!
GOD BLESS LEBANON🙏🏼” -
**Monica, the Lebanese-Phoenician, family & friends Overseas

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 22-23/2024
Houthis to step up Red Sea strikes, use ‘submarine weapons’, leader says
AFP/February 22, 2024
DUBAI: Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on a UK-owned cargo ship and a drone assault on an American destroyer on Thursday, and they targeted Israel’s port and resort city of Eilat with ballistic missiles and drones. The statement by a Houthi representative on social media site X came shortly after the group’s leader said it was ramping up attacks on ships in the Red Sea and other waters — including with new “submarine weapons” — to mirror Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip. Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden since November in support of Palestinians, as the Israel-Hamas war continues and the Gaza death toll reaches almost 30,000. “Operations in the Red and Arabian Seas, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden are continuing, escalating, and effective,” Abdul Malik Al-Houthi added in a televised speech. He gave no details of the submarine weapons. The group’s strikes are disrupting the vital Suez Canal trade shortcut that accounts for about 12 percent of global maritime traffic, and forcing firms to take a longer, more expensive route around Africa. The Houthis on Thursday sent shippers and insurers formal notice of what they termed a ban on vessels linked to Israel, the US and Britain from sailing in surrounding seas, seeking to reinforce their military campaign. The Houthis’ communication, the first to the shipping industry outlining a ban, came in the form of two notices from the Houthis’ newly dubbed Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center sent to shipping insurers and firms. The aim is to force sailing companies to collaborate with the Houthis to guarantee the safety of their ships, Ships owned by individuals or entities in Israel, the US and UK or sailing under their flags are banned from the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, Thursday’s notices said. “The Humanitarian Operations Center was established in Sanaa to coordinate the safe and peaceful passage of ships and vessels that have no connection to Israel,” a senior Houthi official told Reuters on Thursday. The months of attacks have upset global trade and reset shipping rates at a higher level. Insurance sources on Thursday said there was no change in rates since the issuance of the adviseries because marine underwriters had already restricted coverage availability or increased rates. “In terms or marine war insurance availability and pricing, we don’t see a significant effect from the Houthi group’s recent announcement since it echoed similar announcements from last year to target Israel, US and UK-linked vessels,” Marcos Alvarez, managing director, global insurance ratings, Morningstar DBRS, told Reuters. Militant leader Al-Houthi said retaliatory strikes by the US-British coalition have failed to stop its campaign. Earlier on Thursday, two missiles set ablaze a ship some 70 nautical miles southeast of Aden, Yemen, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said. The vessel and crew were reported safe and are proceeding to the next port of call, it said in a later update. That UK-owned, Palau-flagged ship, the Islander, was en route to Egypt from Thailand, according to British maritime security firm Ambrey and ship tracking data. The US military’s Central Command said in a social media post that the US shot down six Houthi drones in the Red Sea after they were identified as an imminent threat to US and allied warships. No ships have been sunk nor crew killed during the Houthi campaign. However there are concerns about the fate of the UK-registered Rubymar cargo vessel, which was struck on Feb. 18 and its crew evacuated. The Houthis said the Rubymar was at risk of sinking but a US defense official said it remained afloat. Rubymar is “sitting lower still in the water,” Ambrey said. A salvage attempt was aborted and a navigation warning to nearby ships was in place, the firm said. Other options are under consideration, the vessel’s security company ISS-SAPU said. Earlier on Thursday, Israel’s military also said it intercepted a target in the area of the Red Sea after sirens warning of incoming rockets and missiles sounded in the southern city of Eilat.

Israel’s war cabinet agrees to send a negotiating team to Paris for hostage talks
Jeremy Diamond, CNN/February 22, 2024
Israel’s war cabinet has agreed to send a negotiating team, led by Mossad Director David Barnea, to Paris on Friday to pursue talks over a potential ceasefire and hostage release deal, an Israeli official said. The negotiating team is expected to be empowered to engage in substantive negotiations rather than simply listening to proposals as they did during meetings in Cairo last week, the official said. The full Israeli cabinet is expected to vote on the matter overnight to give final approval for the trip. CIA Director Bill Burns and his Egyptian and Qatari counterparts were expected to be in Paris on Friday for talks, two sources familiar with the plans told CNN on Wednesday. The Israeli government had yet to confirm its attendance. The decision came during a war cabinet meeting Thursday night, at the end of a day that saw US President Joe Biden’s Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk meet with top Israeli officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli official said that the Israeli government had been waiting for confirmation that medication had reached the hostages in Gaza before agreeing to return to the negotiating table. That proof, combined with positive indications from talks in Cairo on Wednesday and prodding from US officials, ultimately triggered the Israeli agreement to send a negotiating team to Paris. This comes after CNN reported that the Biden administration is racing against the clock to secure a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war before Ramadan next month, with senior US officials believing that the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza is the only plausible way to bring the first pause to the deadly conflict since a seven-day truce in late November. Hamas leaders have been in Cairo this week, meeting with Egyptian officials to try to move the deal forward after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the most recent series of Hamas proposals as “delusional.” Among the biggest sticking points, people familiar with the talks say, were Hamas’ demands for the release of some 1,500 prisoners in the first phase, for Israeli troops to leave Gaza and discussions that would lead to a formal end to the war.
The first hostage deal in late November saw the return of dozens of hostages taken captive by Hamas on October 7 and a week-long truce. Since the end of that truce three months ago, civilian casualty levels in Gaza have continued to soar, as has the global condemnation of Israel’s military operation and the political pressure on the Biden administration to call for a permanent end to the war. This is a developing story and will be updated.

At least one killed, several wounded in gun attack near West Bank settlement
AFP/February 22, 2024
Three Palestinian gunmen killed one person and wounded eight when they sprayed automatic weapons fire at vehicles in a "terror attack" Thursday near a Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, police said. The three shooters were "neutralised", police said, and an AFP photographer later saw their bodies at the scene of the attack on a highway east of Jerusalem, where five cars were riddled with bullets. "The three terrorists... got out of their vehicle and started shooting automatic weapons at vehicles that were in a traffic jam on the road towards Jerusalem," police said in a statement about the attack near the Maale Adumim settlement. "Two terrorists were neutralised on the spot," police said. "In the searches conducted at the scene, another terrorist was located who tried to escape and he was also neutralised."The gunmen were identified as Mohammed Zawahrah, Kathim Zawahrah, and Ahmed Al-Wahsh by Israel's internal security service Shin Bet. Violence was already on the rise across the West Bank prior to the Gaza war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack, but has escalated since then to levels unseen in nearly two decades, with hundreds killed in recent months.
The West Bank's Palestinian population is about 2.9 million.

Israel hits Gaza’s Rafah; Hamas chief’s trip raises truce hopes
REUTERS/February 22, 2024
CAIRO: Israeli bombing on Thursday flattened a mosque and destroyed homes in Rafah in a fierce surge of violence in the city, while the Hamas chief was in Cairo for talks Gazans hope could bring a truce and head off a full-blown assault on the city. In Khan Younis, the territory’s principal battlefield since Israel launched an assault on the city last month, Israeli forces withdrew from the Nasser Medical Complex a week after raiding it, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said. The World Health Organization had said earlier it aimed to evacuate some of the roughly 140 patients stranded there, where Palestinian officials said bodies of dead patients had begun to decompose amid power cuts and fighting. Israel gave no immediate comment. In Rafah, mourners wept over at least seven corpses in body bags, laid on cobbles outside a morgue in the city hard against the Egyptian border, where over half of the Palestinian enclave’s 2.3 million people huddled, mostly in tents. “They took the people I love, they took a piece of my heart,” wailed Dina Al-Shaer, whose brother and his family were killed in an overnight strike. Gaza health authorities said 97 people were confirmed killed and 130 wounded in the last 24 hours of Israeli assaults, but many more victims were still under rubble. Rafah’s Al-Farouk mosque was flattened into slabs of concrete, and the facades of adjacent buildings were blasted away. Authorities said four houses had been struck in the south of the city and three in the center. Residents said the bombing was the heaviest since an Israeli raid on the city 10 days ago that freed two hostages and killed scores of civilians. “We couldn’t sleep, the sounds of explosions and planes roaring overhead didn’t stop,” said Jehad Abuemad, 34, who lives with his family in a tent. “We could hear children crying in nearby tents, people here are desperate and defenseless.” The head of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) told the United Nations Security Council in New York that children who survive the war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries, but the invisible ones too. “These psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us that they would prefer to die,” said Christopher Lockyear. Gaza authorities said at least 20 people were also killed by bombing of two houses in a central part of the Gaza Strip, the only other substantial area yet to be stormed by Israeli forces. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas militants who control the territory stormed through Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies. Since then, nearly 30,000 people have been confirmed killed in Gaza, according to health authorities, with thousands more feared dead, unrecovered under ruins.
HAMAS LEADER IN CAIRO FOR TALKS
Israel has threatened to launch a full-blown attack on Rafah, the last city at Gaza’s southern edge, despite international pleas — including from its main ally Washington — for restraint. Residents who have fled to Rafah from elsewhere say there is nowhere left to go. Meanwhile, an already meagre aid flow has almost completely dried up. The heads of the main UN relief agencies, including UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and the WHO, released a letter pleading for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and warning that further escalation into Rafah would cause mass casualties. Talks to reach a ceasefire failed two weeks ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a counteroffer from Hamas for a four-and-a-half month truce that would end with an Israeli withdrawal. Hamas, still believed to be holding more than 100 hostages, says it will not free them unless Israel agrees to end fighting and withdraw. Israel says it will not pull out until Hamas is eradicated. The arrival of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Cairo this week for his first publicly announced visit since December was the strongest sign for weeks that negotiations remain alive. Haniyeh has met Egyptian mediators, but so far little has been said in public. Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters that Israel was now backtracking on terms the country had accepted weeks ago in a ceasefire offer hammered out with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators. “The occupation is not interested in achieving any agreement,” he said, accusing Netanyahu of ignoring the issue of freeing captives in a prisoner swap. “All he is concerned about is continuing the execution of Palestinians in Gaza.” There was no immediate response from Israeli officials. Netanyahu has said he would not agree to Hamas’ “delusional demands,” but that if the group were to show flexibility progress would be possible.
In one of the first indications of how Israel sees Gaza being run after the war, a senior Israeli official said Israel was looking for Palestinians with no links to either Hamas or the rival Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, to set up a civil administration in “humanitarian pockets” of Gaza. “We’re looking for the right people to step up to the plate,” the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “But it is clear that this will take time, as no one will come forward if they think Hamas will put a bullet in their head.” The plan was dismissed by Palestinians, including both Hamas and the umbrella Palestinian Liberation Organization of its main rivals, as an unworkable formula for Israeli occupation. “We are confident this project is pointless and is a sign of confusion and it will never succeed,” Abu Zuhri of Hamas told Reuters.

MSF slams US on Gaza at UN, says children as young as 5 want to die
Michelle Nichols/February 22, 2024
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The head of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that medical teams in the Gaza Strip have come up with a new acronym: WCNSF - wounded child, no surviving family.
"Children who do survive this war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries, but the invisible ones too," MSF International Secretary General Christopher Lockyear told the 15-member council. "There is a repeated displacement, constant fear and witnessing family members literally dismembered before their eyes," he said. "These psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us that they would prefer to die."Lockyear slammed the United States, saying he was appalled it had repeatedly used its veto power to block the council from demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in Gaza. "The people of Gaza need a ceasefire, not when practicable, but now. They need a sustained ceasefire, not a temporary period of calm," Lockyear said. "Anything short of this is gross negligence."The U.S. has vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions since the start of the current fighting on Oct. 7, most recently blocking on Tuesday a demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire as it instead pushes council to call for a temporary ceasefire linked to the release of hostages held by Hamas. China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun told the council he felt "appalled" by Lockyear's briefing. "We hope the tragic picture that he painted of Gaza for us can touch the conscience of a certain member of this council," Zhang said.
'WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO RISK?'
The United States had said it was concerned that the draft resolution it vetoed on Tuesday could jeopardize talks between the U.S., Egypt, Israel and Qatar that seek to broker a six week pause in the war and the release of hostages. Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood did not acknowledge Lockyear's briefing. He said the U.S. was pushing Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and had told its ally it should not proceed with a ground offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza "in the absence of a viable plan to protect civilians.""We all want to see a durable end to this conflict," Wood said. "The pace of hostage talks can be frustrating ... council support for this diplomacy is critical to increase pressure on Hamas to accept the agreement on the table." Britain's U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward described Lockyear's briefing as "harrowing." Britain abstained on Tuesday's vote, while the remaining 13 council members voted in favor of the Algerian-drafted resolution. Slovenia's U.N. Ambassador to the Security Council, Samuel Zbogar, asked: "What kind of a council have we become if we remain untouched by the tearful briefing that we heard today by the secretary general of Médecins Sans Frontières?" The war began when fighters from the Hamas militant group that runs Gaza attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. In retaliation, Israel launched a military assault on Gaza that health authorities say has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians with thousands more bodies feared lost amid the ruins."Today our staff are back at work risking their lives once again for their patients. What are you willing to risk?" Lockyear asked the council.

‘Pattern’ of Israeli attacks on hospitals either intentional or ‘reckless incompetence,’ MSF chief tells UNSC
EPHREM KOSSAIFY/February 23, 2024
NEW YORK: In one of the most powerful speeches delivered at the UN Security Council since beginning of the war in Gaza, the secretary-general of the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) on Thursday called for the UN body to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and ensure protection of health facilities, workers and patients. He said the world is watching council members “deliberate and delay while civilians die,” and expressed outrage at the recent US veto that prevented the adoption of “the most evident of resolutions, one demanding an immediate and sustained ceasefire.”Christopher Lockyear said: “Three times this council has had an opportunity to vote for the ceasefire that is so desperately needed. And three times the United States has used its veto power.”
He said the draft resolution tabled by the US last week to rival the Algerian draft it vetoed and “ostensibly” calling for a ceasefire is “misleading at best.”Although the draft in question does support a call for a ceasefire, it refers to it as a temporary measure that needs to be enacted “as soon as practicable,” which many have understood as leaving the decision for its implementation to the Israelis. Lockyear called on the council to reject “any resolution that further hampers humanitarian efforts on the ground and leads this council to tacitly endorse the continued violence and mass atrocities in Gaza.”
He added: “The people of Gaza need a ceasefire, not when practicable, but now. They need a sustained ceasefire, not a temporary period of calm. Anything short of this is gross negligence. The protection of civilians in Gaza cannot be contingent on resolutions from this council which instrumentalize humanitarianism to blur political objectives.”Lockyear painted an apocalyptic picture of the situation in Rafah, the last refuge for Gazans, where over 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering and which is now being engulfed with fear of a ground invasion.
Over four months of war have killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians in Israel’s constant bombing and attacks, according to MSF. More than 1.7 million are estimated to have been forcibly displaced and facing infected wounds and disease, as the organization says providing healthcare is becoming “virtually impossible” in Gaza, where medical facilities have not been safe from military attacks. “Our patients have catastrophic injuries, amputations, crushed limbs and severe burns,” Lockyear said. “They need sophisticated care. They need long and intensive rehabilitation. Medics cannot treat these injuries on a battlefield or in the ashes of destroyed hospitals. Our surgeons are running out of basic gauze to stop their patients from bleeding out. They use it once, squeeze out the blood, wash it, sterilize it, and reuse it for the next patient. “The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has left pregnant women without medical care for months. Women in labor cannot reach functional delivery rooms. They are giving birth in plastic tents and public buildings.“Medical teams have added a new acronym to their vocabulary, WCNSF: Wounded child, no surviving family. “Children who do survive this war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumas and injuries, but the invisible ones to those of repeated displacements, constant fear and witnessing family members being literally dismembered before their eyes. These psychological injuries have led children as young as 5 to tell us that they would prefer to die.”
On Feb. 20, a MSF staff member’s wife and daughter-in-law were killed and six other people were injured when an Israeli tank fired on a clearly marked MSF staff shelter in Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis. Israeli forces last week evacuated then raided Nasser Hospital, the largest remaining medical facility in southern Gaza. Those who were forced out have nowhere to go, said MSF. They cannot move back to the now largely destroyed north, and in Rafah they live amid constant Israeli airstrikes and the fear of an extensive ground incursion. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, MSF medical teams and patients have been forced to evacuate nine different healthcare facilities in the Gaza Strip. Five MSF workers have been killed. Today’s MSF efforts to help are “entirely inadequate,” said Lockyear. He added: “For 138 days we have witnessed the unimaginable suffering of the people of Gaza. For 138 days we have watched the systematic obliteration of a health system we have supported for decades. We have watched our patients and our colleagues be killed and maimed. This situation is the combination of a war Israel is waging on the entire population of the Gaza Strip; a war of collective punishment, a war without rules, a war at all costs. “The laws and the principles we collectively depend on to enable humanitarian assistance are now eroded to the point of becoming meaningless. “The humanitarian response in Gaza today is an illusion. A convenient illusion that perpetuates a narrative that this war is being waged in line with international laws. Calls for humanitarian assistance have echoed across this chamber. Yet in Gaza, we have less and less every day: less space, less medicine, less food, less water, less safety. We no longer speak of a humanitarian scale up. We speak of how to survive even without the bare minimum.”Lockyear said the Israeli attacks against medical facilities and staff have become now “all too familiar.”He said: “Israeli forces have attacked our convoys, detained our staff, bulldozed our vehicles. Hospitals have been bombed and raided. “This pattern of attacks is either intentional or indicative of reckless incompetence. Our colleagues in Gaza are fearful that as I speak to you today, they will be punished tomorrow.”Lockyear cautioned against casting international humanitarian law to the wind as that “will reverberate well beyond Gaza. It will be an enduring burden on our collective conscience. This is not just political inaction: It has become political complicity.”The humanitarian official demanded from the Security Council “the protections promised under international humanitarian law,” and a ceasefire from both parties. Lockyear asked council members: “We demand the space to turn the illusion of aid to meaningful assistance. What will you do to make this happen?”

Day 4 at ICJ hearing: Jordan says Israeli occupation ‘unlawful, inhumane and must end’
ARAB NEWS/February 22, 2024
‘Israel is violating the rights of Muslims and Christians to the freedom of worship’
The International Court of Justice, the UN’s top court, on Thursday continued its hearing from dozens of states and three international organizations who question the legality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Representatives from countries including China, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Libya were expected to deliver their positions during the third day of the hearing at the ICJ, also known as the World Court. Speakers from the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have already demanded Israel end its occupation of the Palestinian territories, with the Kingdom’s envoy to the Netherlands Ziad Al-Atiyah stating Israel’s continued actions were legally indefensible. Ayman Safadi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan, said that “Israel is violating the rights of Muslims and Christians to the freedom of worship by banning Muslims from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque and not protecting priests from humiliation and abuse from Israeli extremists.” Safadi said that the “occupation was unlawful, inhumane and it must end.” “Israel has been systematically consolidating the occupation, denying the Palestinians’ rights to self-determination.”Safadi closed his remarks, saying “Palestinians are being killed in the hundreds every day in Gaza and in the West Bank because Israel is not being held accountable for its war crimes and violation of international law… rule that the Israel occupation, the source of all evil, must end.” Hayder Shiya Al-Barrak, ambassador and head of the legal department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, called on the ICJ to stop the “systematic killing machine” against the Palestinian people and the end of “mass murder” and “genocide.” Al-Barrak talked of Israel’s “barbaric acts”, including “air strikes and rocket attacks targeting civilians.” “These acts constitute war crimes executed with a criminal intent” and are serious violations of the laws of war, the Iraqi representative said, and added that Israel “must be held accountable”. The Iranian representative said the Israeli occupation force continuously violated Palestinians right to self-determination. “The establishment of the Israeli regime was done through a violent process which involved the forcible displacement of native Palestinian people to create a majority Jewish colony in line with the Zionist movement,” Reza Najafi, Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs said. Najafi listed a series of supposed ongoing violations by the Israeli occupying regime: prolonged occupation; alteration of the demographic composition in the occupied territories; alteration of the character and the status of the Holy City; discriminatory measures and violations of the rights of Palestinian people to permanent sovereignty over their natural resources. Najafi added that “the expansion of settlements, segregated roads and barriers as well as checkpoints has created a system of apartheid which is isolating Palestinian communities.”In his closing remarks, Najafi said “the inaction or insufficient action of the Security Council” was one of the “main causes of prolonged occupation of the Palestinians,” and it was “paralysed due to the stalemate” caused by a “certain permanent member.” Ma Xinmin, a foreign ministry legal adviser, meanwhile said Beijing “has consistently supported the just cause of the Palestinian people in restoring their legitimate right”. “In pursuit of the right to self-determination”, he mentioned, the Palestinian people’s use of force to “resist foreign oppression” and complete the establishment of an independent state is an “inalienable right”.

West must return to imposing cost on Iran’s ‘malign activity’ to restore Mideast stability: Pompeo
ARAB NEWS/February 23, 2024
LONDON: Taking away Iran’s ability to create instability in the Middle East was the driving force behind the 2020 Abraham Accords, and US policy needs to move back toward imposing a cost on Tehran’s malign actions, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday. The accords were agreements signed by the UAE and Bahrain to normalize relations with Israel, brokered by then-US President Donald Trump. Sudan and Morocco also later agreed to establish ties with Israel. Pompeo told the Future Investment Initiative Priority forum in Miami that the process of formulation to signing the accords happened due to a “central thesis” held by all involved that Tehran was the “malign actor” in the region.“You should know, I’m hopelessly biased as they’re still trying to kill me. If you see me walking around with a security team, it’s not because I enjoy it but because I still need it,” he said. “I think that’s telling. You can see (Iran’s) hand in what happened in Gaza. They supported, funded and essentially facilitated the capacity for Hamas to carry out the barbaric attacks (on Israel) which took place on Oct. 7. “Today, without the Iranian support you’d still have shipping through the Red Sea, instead of transit having to move some other way because you’ve got missiles being launched into (the area) with relatively good accuracy. “Nearly all the instability that takes place in the Middle East is as a direct result of that regime in Iran. The United States had the lead in deterring them and we’ve lost that.”Pompeo praised Saudi Aramco for stabilizing oil markets following an attack claimed by the Iran-backed Houthis on its facilities in Abqaiq-Khurais in eastern Saudi Arabia, but pinpointed that attack as the beginning of the end of the US and the West being able to deter Tehran. Despite a US drone strike that assassinated senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official Qassem Soleimani in 2020, Pompeo said the current administration of President Joe Biden and the leadership in many European countries are now unwilling to impose a cost on Tehran for its malign activities. “We permitted (Iran) for three years to fire rockets out of Yemen into southern Saudi Arabia and we did nothing, and that was a precursor to what I think you’re seeing today,” Pompeo added. He said part of the solution is being serious about taking Iranian crude oil off the market and limiting revenue for the regime from that source, adding that in January 2021, Iran had $4 billion worth of foreign exchange reserves compared with $25-$30 billion today.

4 charged in transporting suspected Iranian-made weapons. Two SEALs died in intercepting the ship
The Associated Press/February 22, 2024
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Four foreign nationals were charged Thursday with transporting suspected Iranian-made weapons on a vessel intercepted by U.S. naval forces in the Arabian Sea last month. Two Navy SEALs died during the mission. U.S. officials said that Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Christopher J. Chambers was boarding the boat on Jan. 11 and slipped into the gap created by high waves between the vessel and the SEALs’ combatant craft. As Chambers fell, Navy Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Nathan Gage Ingram jumped in to try to save him, according to U.S. officials familiar with what happened. The criminal complaint unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Richmond alleges that the four defendants were transporting suspected Iranian-made missile components for the type of weapons used by Houthi rebel forces in recent attacks. “The flow of missiles and other advanced weaponry from Iran to Houthi rebel forces in Yemen threatens the people and interests of America and our partners in the region,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a news release. “Two Navy SEALs tragically lost their lives in the operation that thwarted the defendants charged today from allegedly smuggling Iranian-made weapons that the Houthis could have used to target American forces and threaten freedom of navigation and a vital artery for commerce," Monaco said, Muhammad Pahlawan is charged with attempting to smuggle advanced missile components, including a warhead he is accused of knowing would be used by the Houthi rebels against commercial and naval vessels in the Red Sea and surrounding waters. He is also charged with providing false information to U.S. Coast Guard officers during the boarding of the vessel. Pahlawan's co-defendants — Mohammad Mazhar, Ghufran Ullah and Izhar Muhammad — were also charged with providing false information.

A Ukrainian officer said its air force had more planes than in February 2022.
Tom Porter/Business Insider/February 22, 2024
He told VOA it was because engineers maintain them well. Allies also sent Ukraine their planes. Ukraine's air force is far smaller and weaker than Russia's, but has avoided being wiped out. A Ukrainian air force officer said Ukraine had more combat planes available than it did in 2022, Voice of America reported.
Yevhen Bulatsik, commander of the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade, made the comments with VOA, an outlet funded by the US government. Bulatsik praised engineers for being able to rapidly fix damaged planes, meaning that minor damage did not end up being a big drain on resources.
On top of that, Ukraine's allies in central and eastern Europe have sent some of their planes, which are older Soviet models. "At the moment, we have much more of them than we had at the time of the full-scale invasion," Bulatsyk said of Ukraine's planes. He didn't give a figure, and there is no public data on the size of the Ukrainian air force. (Russia first invaded parts of Ukraine in 2014, but expanded its attack into a full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.) "All crews are prepared to perform tasks day and night, in simple and difficult weather conditions," Bulatsyk said, praising technical and support crews. Ukraine's air force was initially vastly outnumbered by the Russian air force, and some expected it to be destroyed. The US said Ukraine, in the early weeks of the invasion, had around 56 operational planes, mostly old Soviet models, that flew round-the-clock missions to repel the invasion. The numbers were later reinforced by fighter planes from Poland and Slovenia, mostly Soviet-era Mig-29s. After months of lobbying, Ukraine's allies also agreed to provide some US-built F-16 fighter jets. Ukrainian pilots have been training on them, and are due to enter combat service in 2024. The Ukrainian air force lost around 69 aircraft in the first year of the invasion, but Forbes reported that it has been able to replenish its fleet. That was partly by restoring old, grounded airframes and partly thanks to new planes provided by allies. Throughout the conflict, Ukraine has improvised to lessen Russia's advantages in equipment and manpower.
At sea, it also scored a series of victories over the Russian navy despite having hardly any ships of its own. But overall the picture for Ukraine is bleak — it recently retreated from the key town of Avdiivka, and is struggling to field enough fresh soldiers. US aid has also dried up, leaving Ukraine perilously short of ammunition. epublicans in the US House of Representatives have been blocking attempts to send further aid, most recently obstructing a $60 billion aid bill that passed the Senate and has support from the White House.

US to impose sanctions on over 500 targets in Russia action on Friday
Daphne Psaledakis, Andrea Shalal and David Lawder/ February 22, 2024
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will impose sanctions on over 500 targets on Friday in action marking the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told Reuters on Thursday. The action, taken in partnership with other countries, will be targeted at Russia's military industrial complex as well as companies in third countries that help facilitate Russia's access to goods it wants, Adeyemo said, as Washington seeks to hold Russia to account over the war and the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. "Tomorrow we'll release hundreds of sanctions just here in the United States, but it's important to step back and remember that it's not just America taking these actions," Adeyemo said. He said the sanctions are aimed at ensuring Russia cannot get access to the goods required to build weapons and slowing down Russia's access to revenues it needs to prop up their economy and build weapons. The package will be the latest of thousands of sanctions targeting Moscow announced by the United States and its allies following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which has killed tens of thousands and reduced cities to rubble.

How US-Iran proxy wars are keeping the Middle East on edge
REBECCA ANNE PROCTOR/23 February 2024
DUBAI: Iran and the US are engaged in an intensifying proxy war, which is playing out across several Middle Eastern states. Although neither side appears to be looking for a direct confrontation, vulnerable Arab countries with divided loyalties are paying the biggest price. That seems to be the consensus view of Middle East experts as low-intensity wars rage on in several parts of the region in addition to the full-on Gaza conflict. Since Oct. 7 last year, Iran-backed militias have mounted more than 170 attacks on US military bases and assets in Syria, Iraq and Jordan in response to US support for Israel in the Israel-Hamas war, prompting American retaliation. Meanwhile, Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen have launched repeated attacks on commercial and military shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, likewise prompting retaliatory strikes by the US and UK on militia targets.
While analysts believe the US and Iran are unlikely to become embroiled in a direct state-on-state confrontation, attacks by Iranian proxies are expected to occur for as long as Israel’s military campaign in Gaza continues.
Some experts think Iran is acutely aware of the Biden administration’s fear of a regional escalation and has sought to exploit this threat as a means of influencing the course of the war in Gaza. Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, believes Iran is trying “to instrumentalize that fear by directly ordering, indirectly encouraging, or acquiescing to proxy attacks against Israel, the US, and international shipping.”
In this way, Iran “hopes a terrified Biden administration will increase pressure on Israel to end the war before total destruction of Hamas,” he told Arab News.
However, this proxy war is playing out on the sovereign territories of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Yemen — all nations that can ill-afford to be swept up in a regional conflict. Some commentators say Arab lives in these countries are being treated as expendable. “I think the attacks signal bloody bargaining between America and Israel on one side and Iran on the other,” Ayad Abu Shakra, a journalist at Asharq Al-Awsat, told Arab News.
“I don’t think there is any ‘war of survival’ or a ‘war of elimination’ between the two camps, the Israeli-American camp and the Iranian camp. They are bargaining, as if in a bazaar, but with blood. The Iranians are fighting the Americans with Arab bodies and vice versa.” This bargaining, as it were, has the potential to get out of hand, however. On Jan. 28, US forces stationed at Tower 22, a remote installation in Jordan, close to the Syrian and Iraqi borders, came under drone attack, leaving three US soldiers dead and 34 wounded.
US President Joe Biden said the drone attack was launched from Iraq by an Iran-backed militia. He vowed to retaliate at a time and in a manner of America’s choosing. On Feb. 3, the US military launched an air assault on 85 targets at seven locations across Iraq and Syria including command and control headquarters and weapon storage sites used by Iran-backed militias and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This was followed on Feb. 7 by a drone attack on eastern Baghdad that killed Abu Baqir Al-Saadi, commander of Kataib Hezbollah, the Iraqi militia that Washington had deemed responsible for the attack on US troops in Jordan.
Iran of course denies links to any militias in the Middle East. For instance, in a Jan. 29 letter to the UN Security Council, Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, said: “There is no group affiliated with the Islamic Republic or Iran’s armed forces, whether in Iraq, Syria, or elsewhere that operates directly or indirectly under the control of the Islamic Republic of Iran or acts on its behalf.
“Therefore, the Islamic Republic of Iran is not responsible for the actions of any individual or group within the region.”
Some Republican lawmakers had exhorted the administration to authorize a direct strike against Iran, even if it risked sparking a wider escalation. Others accused Biden of responding too slowly and giving the enemy too much forewarning.
Wary about being dragged into another potentially open-ended Middle East war, especially during an election year, Biden has appeared keen to limit the scope of America’s retaliation. “The Biden administration partially called the Islamic Republic’s bluff by harshly reacting to the killing of three American servicemen and women in Jordan, but publicly signaled that it would not target Iranian territory,” said Alfoneh. “Retaliating for the loss of American life was a correct response, but the US would perhaps be better off keeping the Islamic Republic guessing about America’s retaliation, which may include Iranian territory in the future.”
Iran is likewise mindful of the potential blowback from its activities. But by operating through its network of proxies throughout the region, Tehran feels it can deny any involvement in attacks on Israel or US targets while reaping the benefits.
“After 1979, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared the export of the Islamic revolution, Iranians formed the IRGC,” said Abu Shakra.
“It was almost an open secret that they would rather fight their wars of negotiations with the Americans and Israelis in Arab cities rather than fight them in Iran’s cities.
“They eventually took over Beirut, Baghdad, Damascus and Sanaa, and now they are negotiating with the Americans and the Israelis through massacres, in which the Arabs are paying the price, not the Iranians.”
Nevertheless, according to analysts, Iran has sometimes overplayed its hand, leading to a more aggressive US response, as was the case when the administration of former President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in Jan. 2020, allegedly to stave off a planned attack on US forces in Iraq.
“They are reminded of the accepted bargaining limits,” said Abu Shakra. “The assassination of Qassem Soleimani, for example, was such a reminder and a big hit. Both America and Iran are still respecting ‘the rules of engagement.’”
The latest US retaliation does appear to have had an impact. On Feb. 12, the Pentagon announced there had been 186 US casualties in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since Oct. 18. A day later, on Feb. 13, it declared there had been no further attacks on US forces.
Washington is also likely in no hurry to attack Iran directly because the survival of the Islamic Republic has other uses. “It’s important to note that Iran is a sizable player whom the West can ‘use’ in any role,” said Abu Shakra.
“Whether Washington admits it or not, Iran is a very important bulwark against the rise of Sunni militant Islam. Iran is also a potential counterbalance against a nuclear Pakistan. Iran is an important bulwark against the expansion of the Chinese in the Gulf.“No one has the strategic interest of destroying Iran. Neither America, nor Russia, nor India can ignore the role or influence of Iran.”Critics of the Biden administration say its hesitance about a direct confrontation with Iran was demonstrated by its response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, including efforts through media leaks to play down an Iranian link and prevent a regional escalation.
INNUMBERS
• 269 People killed in Lebanon since violence erupted in October 2023.
• 40 Civilians are believed to be among the dead in Lebanon.
• 16 Israeli nationals were killed in the north, including 6 civilians.
When Israel began its retaliatory campaign in Gaza, the US said there was no proof that Iran was behind the Oct. 7 attack, said Abu Shakra. Then, within a week or two, the US said it did not want the conflict to spread.
“They wanted it to be limited,” he said. “The Americans did not want any involvement with the Iranian militias in Lebanon and Iraq. I think unless the Iranians overplay their cards and become too arrogant, the current fighting will remain limited to Iran’s Arab appendages.
“I think neither the US nor Israel nor the pro-Tehran Iraqi regime or Iran itself has any real interest in direct confrontation, which would be apocalyptic if it were to happen.”
Likewise, Alfoneh believes Iran has little to gain from a direct conflict with the US. Instead, it can outsource its activities to proxies to tilt regional affairs in its favor.
“The Islamic Republic achieved all of its objectives on Oct. 7,” said Alfoneh. “Hamas’ terrorist incursion into Israel shattered the myth of Israel’s invulnerability.
“Iran got even with Israel, which for years has bombed Iranian and allied positions in Syria, and even engaged in operations on Iranian soil, and the attack sabotaged diplomatic normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.”
The interests of the Palestinians, and indeed the populations of the wider Arab region caught in the crossfire, are thereby secondary to these geopolitical goals.
“The fate of Hamas and Palestinian civilians is of no interest to the Islamic Republic, which perceives them as expendable pawns in a grander chess game in the region,” said Alfoneh. “Therefore, the Islamic Republic is not interested in spreading the war in Gaza, which may directly entangle Iran in a war with Israel and, possibly, with the US.”

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 22-23/2024
Navigate to News section...Alexei Navalny, Death and Destiny
Bernard-Henri Lévy/The Tablet/February 22/2024
The murdered Russian opposition leader who became something else
Everything about the death of Alexei Navalny is strange. The circumstances. The fable of an accident while walking, when we know that there was no walking in the Polar Wolf penal colony in Kharp. The laughing and luminous eye that, even if perhaps it was, upon reflection, a shade too blue the night before his death, was still that of a grand vivant. The body hidden, reappearing, stolen again, invisible still as I write.
The hypotheses, galloping apace, are contradictory and never quite convincing: Poison, like in 2020? Slow-burning or immediate? An unknown assassin who infiltrated the prison? A professional, with a dagger, or a strangling without a trace? Were the bruises from an attack or an attempted resuscitation? Were the CCTV cameras turned off by FSB visitors in the hours before his death? How did a distant prison have a professional press release ready to go only several minutes after the purported time of his demise?
And of course, the crazy conspiratorial conjectures: not dead … or, at least, not necessarily … a purer Prigozhin, buried in the snow, water, and ashes of the Arctic Circle, which have become now in our imaginations a last frozen circle of Dante’s hell ...
And then there’s the decision to kill Navalny. No one doubts that Putin, if he didn’t do it himself, at least allowed his most formidable opponent to be killed. Nor is there any doubt that this public execution is a message to those who, in the West and no less in the Russian Federation, might be tempted to defy his power, which remains, at heart, so vulnerable. But, if so, why?
Or, more exactly, why there, as opposed to somewhere else, why today and not yesterday? Why did Putin kill Navalny now, at this moment in history, when he had his opponent at his mercy for the last three years? Something to do with Ukraine? On the day that Zelensky spectacularly reestablishes his European diplomatic ties? Or as a bloody codicil to the madness emerging from a Moscow agitating, for the first time, for a terrifying war in space? I, Vladimir Putin, am speaking …
Or, rather, I say nothing. I kill and unleash terror on the world … The death, then, of one of the great opposition figures comes as a fiery salvo, a storm, a tornado, a tempest … Unless it is even simpler than that: the coming elections where, like all those who have pulled off a coup d’état in the style of Curzio Malaparte, the former KGB agent holds all the cards—and the “Vote at Noon” movement against Putin, which Navalny and some others called for, encouraging Russians to arrive to the polls all at once, on March 17, to vote for an ass, a horse, a straw man, anyone but him ...
But the biggest enigma remains Navalny himself. Let us set aside his dark side, his ambiguities before the war against Ukraine. I do not tire, since the announcement of his death, of reading and rereading everything being said about his last moments, the last days of his short life. I imagine the cell. The solitary hole. The plank on the floor. The endless nights. The buzzing that one hears after a week of isolation. The blackness like a shroud. The cold like a coffin. The taste of poison hidden in bad soup, the potato gruel, the hardboiled egg bought for 19 rubles, crumbled into badly cooked rice. Putin’s speeches, playing loudly, a form of torture, morning and night, within the four walls of the disciplinary wing. Closing his eyes during body cavity searches. Opening them to find the expressionless face of the guard, who is also serving a life sentence.
And then again, the still more mysterious question asked ever since his voluntary return to Moscow, three years ago, barely recovered from his first poisoning with the neurotoxin Novichok: Why? How? What could he have been thinking when, instead of taking care of himself in Berlin, and then running the opposition from New York or Paris, he decided to throw himself back into the wolf’s den and return to Russia like a dead man walking?
There are cases like this in Dostoyevsky. There is the engineer Kirilov and his superior suicide, the proof of supreme liberty, who made such a mark on Gide and Alexandre Kojève. There are characters like this, half-saint half-demon, who, like Christ to whom they said: “if you are the Son of God, save yourself,” answer: “if I save my life, I will lose yours; it’s to save your life that I sacrifice my own.”
There is Plutarch. There is du Guesclin, the Spartans of Leonidas, Jean Moulin. There are the Plyushches, the Sharanskys, the Danylo Shumuks, survivors of the Gulag who, in the 1980s, showed me that nothing, not even death, is worse than becoming a martyr without testifying. And there are today’s Ukrainian heroes who also showed me that dying is nothing, no more than a cigarette puff, a blood stain slightly more black that grows, the sky the color of smoke—and then you become an example, an imperishable memory, a figure more alive dead than living.
Navalny was of that stripe. He was one of these man-mountains, who, without exaltation, with wisdom, rise up and become much more than their selves. The Acropolis, said our Plutarch, André Malraux, is it the only place in the world haunted both by spirit and courage?
Well, no. There is also, from now on, Kharp.
*Translated from the French by Matthew Fishbane.
*Bernard-Henri Lévy is a philosopher, activist, filmmaker, and author of more than 30 books including The Genius of Judaism, American Vertigo, Barbarism with a Human Face, Who Killed Daniel Pearl?, and The Empire and the Five Kings. His most recent film, Slava Ukraini, premiered nationwide on May 5, 2023.

U.S. Scheming for a Palestinian State Unwittingly Strengthens Netanyahu
Gadi Taub/The Tablet/February 22/2024
Overwhelming Israeli opposition to rewarding Palestinian terrorism with a state puts the prime minister’s adversaries in a bind
If the news that the U.S. is going to recognize a Palestinian state that doesn’t exist was intended to break up Prime Minister Netanyahu’s wartime coalition, it’s unlikely to work. Contrary to what the Biden administration assumes, the obstacle to the “two-state solution” is Israel’s electorate, not its prime minister. The more the administration tries to ram this misguided plan down the throat of traumatized Israelis who are in no mood to compromise their security, the more the country’s prime minister will recover political support.
The calculation here is not a difficult one to make: Netanyahu’s coalition is united in the belief that promising the Palestinians a state in the middle of a war for national survival would be a declaration by Israel’s government that murdering, raping, and kidnapping Israelis is the way for Palestinians to achieve their national ambitions. Even the prime minister’s rivals in the coalition, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, have had to publicly support this consensus.
If this is not clear to the White House, it may be because the administration is clinging religiously to its failed “regional integration” policy—its appeasement of Iran—while relying on a uniformly leftist Israeli press that is eager to tell it what it wants to hear, about a nonexistent moderate electorate that will deliver a moderate two-statist coalition, if only Netanyahu can be removed from office.
One can imagine Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan calculating that by replacing Netanyahu with a leader who is willing to “courageously” agree to the two-state model, however far in the future it may be, the recent disasters of U.S. regional policy will turn out to look like a success: A new Palestinian proto-state backed by the U.S. would not only help to rescue Biden’s reelection prospects in Michigan, but also would prop up the administration’s Iran policy, forcing Israel to “de-escalate,” i.e., accommodate Iran’s wishes. And then, a newly moderate Israel and a revitalized Palestinian Authority would be incorporated into the supposedly stabilizing mission of regional integration, as U.S. allies “learn to share the neighborhood” with Iran and its proxies. Remove Netanyahu, and all will be well.
If that’s the plan, it’s a fantasy from start to finish.
From day one, Israel’s war against Hamas has threatened to discredit the Middle East strategy of three Democratic administrations. It was precisely this strategy, the appeasement and “integration” of Iran, that invited the war in Gaza in the first place and threatens to escalate armed conflict with Iran’s other regional assets—Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and IRGC-led militias in Syria and Iraq. Had the U.S. not paved the way for Iran’s rising power and regional influence, Iran’s Palestinian proxy would have had neither the confidence nor the means to perpetrate the Oct. 7 massacre.
Trying to force a solution on Israel without any hope of peace will only cause more Israelis to believe that our erstwhile American ally has turned against us.
The longer the Gaza war continues, the greater the chance that it will bring down the failed “regional integration” policy. That is why from day one, the administration’s policy has been to circumscribe the conflict, both geographically and politically. According to the White House, the Oct. 7 attack was just the latest chapter in the long history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not the Iranian-Israeli war that it really is. In support of this false framing is a false answer: The Israeli-Palestinian problem demands an Israeli-Palestinian solution.
Thus the Biden administration wants to force Israel to commit to an “irreversible path to a Palestinian state” on “the day after.” This was supposed to split Netanyahu’s governing coalition in the middle of a war. Because, the calculation goes, if the U.S. forces the issue now, Netanyahu will have to either acquiesce, and lose the right flank of his coalition (Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the rest of their parties), or else take a clear stand against it—giving the moderate flank of his coalition (i.e., Gantz, Eisenkot and their National Unity party) an excuse to exit.
The departure of Gantz and Eisenkot would not automatically topple the government, since the right-wing bloc still has a majority in the Knesset without National Unity. However, it could deprive the coalition of the broad consensus it needs to conduct the war, setting off a chain-reaction leading to elections, that would, the White House probably hopes, elevate Gantz to the premiership. A moderate with strong ties to the Washington establishment, Gantz would then help put things back on the “irreversible path to a Palestinian state,” making the Middle East safe for regional integration again.
Israel’s progressive press, along with polls that showed a decline in Netanyahu’s approval after the war began and a corresponding rise in Gantz’s popularity, likely created the impression of a moderate alternative waiting in the wings, requiring but a push from the Americans. Indeed, as minister of defense in the Lapid-Bennet coalition from 2020-2022, Gantz was known for enforcing strict limits on Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, while turning a blind eye to Palestinian illegal settlement in the same areas. He also attempted to revitalize Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2021 by hosting Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, at his home in Rosh Ha’ain. Since the war began, Gantz has refused to answer questions about whether he supports a Palestinian state—allowing him to signal to the left and to the White House that he remains on board without killing his chances for reelection, which depend on support from the center and the moderate right.
It was the U.S. push to recognize a Palestinian state, however, which forced Gantz to take a public stand against it, putting him shoulder-to-shoulder with Netanyahu. Recent polls explain why: 44% of Israelis say that their views have shifted to the right in the wake of Oct. 7. More than at any time in the past, American recognition of a Palestinian state would be seen by Israelis as categorically anti-Israel, a reward to Iran for its aggression, and a prize to the Palestinians for having massacred Jews. Rather than trap Netanyahu between Gantz and Smotrich, the Biden administration has trapped Gantz: If he publicly supports a Palestinian state, he will not survive politically to see it through. He therefore has had no other choice but to come out explicitly against it—along with everyone else in the cabinet.
Last Sunday, the cabinet voted unanimously for the following resolution:
1. Israel utterly rejects international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. A settlement, if it is to be reached, will come about solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.
2. Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition in the wake of the October 7th massacre would be a massive and unprecedented reward to terrorism and would prevent any future peace settlement.
Then on Wednesday, a huge majority of the Knesset (99 out of 120) affirmed the cabinet’s position and voted in favor of a similar resolution, with only nine members opposing and the rest abstaining. Both votes are a clear indication of a mainstream consensus that, if it recognizes a Palestinian state, the U.S. would be throwing Israel under the bus.
No previous U.S. administration has contemplated recognition unless the Palestinians commit to end the conflict, partition the land, recognize the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their own nation-state, and sign a final accord of peace and normalization. Many Israelis were once willing to recognize a Palestinian state under these conditions. I was once among them. But the numbers declined after Yasser Arafat rejected a full and fair partition deal at Camp David in 2000, and the Second Intifada ensued.
Now, after Oct. 7, this constituency has almost disappeared. At this point, most Israelis would not accept partition even if the Palestinians made the commitments they have disdained to date. We learned this lesson the hard way: We can’t afford to exchange land for promises which can easily be broken. We can’t allow for even a remote possibility of a future terror state perched above our coastal plain, with less than 9 miles to travel before reaching the center of Tel Aviv. Trying to force a solution on Israel without any hope of peace will only cause more Israelis to believe that our erstwhile American ally has turned against us. The harder the Biden administration presses its case, the more likely the result of the next election will make Netanyahu’s “extremist right-wing coalition” look moderate by comparison. A more “extreme” and more determined coalition could well move to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and reclaim the West Bank before it hatches a much larger and more formidable terror state than the one we are now fighting in Gaza.
*Gadi Taub is an author, historian, and op-ed columnist. He is co-host of Tablet’s Israel Update podcast.

How the US Abandoned Israel under Biden
Robert Williams/Gatestone Institute./February 22, 2024
"Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. And I promise you: We're going to do everything in our power to make sure that it will be." — US President Joe Biden, October 18, 2023.
It did not take long, however, for the Biden administration to completely turn that promise on its head. The reversal began with US demands on Israel to scale down military operations, which were already scaled down....
"Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history.... Israel's use of real phone calls to civilians in combat areas (19,734), SMS texts (64,399) and pre-recorded calls (almost 6 million) to provide instructions on evacuations is also unprecedented." — John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, United States Military Academy West Point, newsweek.com, January 31, 2024
The only relevant country that has apparently not been invited to the "urgent" discussions [to reward terrorists unilaterally with a soon-to-be-militarized Palestinian State] is Israel.
"I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone," US President Joe Biden said right after the October 7 massacre by the terrorist organization Hamas of Israelis, Muslims, Americans, Europeans, Filipinos and Thai visitors enjoying a Saturday holiday in southern Israel. "As long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone," Biden continued.
"It has brought to the surface painful memories and scars left by a millennia of antisemitism and the genocide of the Jewish people. The world watched then, it knew, and the world did nothing. We will not stand by and do nothing again. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. And I promise you: We're going to do everything in our power to make sure that it will be."
It did not take long, however, for the Biden administration to completely turn that promise on its head. The reversal began with US demands on Israel to scale down military operations, which were already scaled down beyond that of any military in the history of urban warfare, to the extent that the lives of Israeli soldiers were endangered. The Israel Defense Forces had dropped thousands of leaflets urging Gazans to flee south to designated safety areas. Instead of carpet bombing, which would have prevented the death of hundreds of Israeli soldiers, the IDF conducted only pinpoint strikes by air, and maneuvered on foot through booby-trapped alleyways and hundreds of miles of booby-trapped tunnels. Hamas, meanwhile, was shooting at its own citizens to keep them from fleeing to safety, so that the IDF would have to fight Hamas terrorists embedded within the civilian population.
"Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history," wrote John Spencer, a leading expert in urban and subterranean warfare, who is chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at the United States Military Academy West Point.
"... Israel provided days and then weeks of warnings, as well as time for civilians to evacuate multiple cities in northern Gaza before starting the main air-ground attack of urban areas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) employed their practice of calling and texting ahead of an air strike as well as roof-knocking, where they drop small munitions on the roof of a building notifying everyone to evacuate the building before a strike.
"No military has ever implemented any of these practices in war before.
"The IDF has also air-dropped flyers to give civilians instructions on when and how to evacuate, including with safe corridors...
"Israel's use of real phone calls to civilians in combat areas (19,734), SMS texts (64,399) and pre-recorded calls (almost 6 million) to provide instructions on evacuations is also unprecedented."
Nevertheless, the Biden administration escalated its criticism into brazen insinuations against Israel of supposed wrongdoings in its warfare in Gaza.
"Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on October 7," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Israel earlier in February. "The hostages have been dehumanized every day since, but that cannot be a license to dehumanize others," Blinken went on, implying that Israel was "dehumanizing" Gazans.
"The daily toll that [Israel's] military operations continue to take on innocent civilians remains too high. We urge Israel to do more to help civilians knowing full well that it faces an enemy that would never hold itself to those standards."
No one knows how many civilians have been killed in Gaza. The casualty numbers are issued exclusively by the Gaza Health Ministry – operated, of course, by Hamas, which classifies every casualty as a civilian one.
When Blinken "accuses Israel—inaccurately, unfairly, and libelously—of dehumanizing Palestinians," former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren commented, "he dehumanizes us and contributes to the delegitimization of Israel and the demonization of Jews worldwide."
In early February, Biden then told reporters: "I'm of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza – in the Gaza Strip – has been over the top." White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later tried to "clarify" the comment by saying that Biden had meant that Israel must ensure that its "operations are targeted and conducted in a way that they are protecting innocent civilians."
The US government, however, is fully aware that Israel does more than any other military – even more than the US – to protect civilians. White House spokesperson John Kirby, a retired Navy Rear Admiral, said on February 13:
"We have seen them [IDF] take actions -- sometimes actions that that even I'm not sure our own military would take -- in terms of informing civilian populations ahead of operations, where to go or not to go."
Kirby also called South Africa's lawsuit against Israel over its warfare in Gaza "meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever."
Most recently, the Biden administration has taken its anti-Israel stance one step further. The US State Department is now "investigating" Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that allegedly killed dozens of civilians, as well as allegations that Israel used white phosphorous in Lebanon. The aim, according to US officials who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, is "to determine whether one of America's closest allies has misused its bombs and missiles to kill civilians."
In addition, the Biden administration has reportedly been investigating Israel's military campaign in Gaza "for months" despite reassurances that it was doing no such thing. Kirby told reporters on January 4:
"I am not aware of any kind of formal assessment being done by the United States government to analyze the compliance with international law by — by our partner Israel... we need to take a different approach in terms of trying to help Israel defend itself."
Nevertheless, the Huffington Post wrote on February 13 that, according to unnamed Biden administration officials, the investigations have been taking place in both the State Department and the Defense Department:
"Internally, U.S. officials have been assessing possible international law violations by Israel for months, and they are continuing to do so, HuffPost has learned from four sources familiar with private discussions about the assessments."
Most telling of the US abandonment of Israel while it is fighting terrorism on behalf of Western civilization, are the reports that Biden, in coalition with Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Palestinian representatives, is in a great hurry to reward Hamas for its October 7 massacre – which it has vowed to repeat "again and again" times until Israel is annihilated – with an "irreversible" plan to establish a Palestinian state. According to the Washington Post on February 14:
"The Biden administration and a small group of Middle East partners are rushing to complete a detailed, comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and Palestinians, including a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state, that could be announced as early as the next several weeks."
The group of countries looking to force a two-state solution on Israel extends far beyond the Middle East:
"The circle of support for a firm plan extends beyond the small group of those working on it directly. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has expressed public interest in early recognition of a Palestinian state.
"The European Union is 'reaching out ... to see how we can work together to have a larger plan that actually focuses on getting to the end of the conflict,' said Sven Koopmans, the E.U. special representative for the Middle East peace process. 'That's an actual peace process that wants to get to an independent, fully recognized Palestinian state and a secure state of Israel fully integrated in the region. Is that feasible? It's extremely difficult, but in the absence of any other plan, we are interested in pursuing this.'"
The only relevant country that has apparently not been invited to the "urgent" discussions is Israel. The world evidently does not consider it a sovereign state that is allowed to make its own security decisions. Instead, Israel must presumably be forced into making "peace" with an enemy that has sworn to rape, mutilate, torture, burn and murder until every Jew in the land has been eliminated.
The Israel government immediately issued a statement:
"Israel outright rejects international dictates regarding a final accord with the Palestinians. Such an agreement will be reached solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions. Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition, in the wake of the October 7th massacre would give a huge reward to unprecedented terrorism and prevent any future peace accord."
Yet, even that was distorted by hostile media. According to Honest Reporting:
"What Israel's statement about unilateral recognition did not do, was oppose Palestinian statehood in general. That is, Israel did not outright reject the idea that a Palestinian state could be formed as part of a larger peace agreement... The fact is, Israel has shown time and time again that is willing to negotiate with Palestinians and is not opposed to the actualization of a Palestinian state.... For the media to suggest otherwise is just historical revisionism."
The Biden administration's main interest, however, seems clearly not to be facts. Rather, it appears to be to smear and distance itself from Israel, perhaps hoping that it will deliver more "swing states" in America's upcoming November election.
Biden is losing voters, however, for reasons other than his views on Israel. One can start with the recent Hur Report by the US Department of Justice, which said that Biden would not be charged with the crimes he had apparently committed, of illegally taking and unsafely storing classified documents because he is a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" -- perfect for running the country? Since Biden began his term in January 2021, America has also seen "galloping inflation;" an open border that FBI Director Christopher Wray, according to the House Committee on Homeland Security, said "poses [a] major security threat," as well as, Wray warned:
"China's capacity to 'wreak havoc' on US infrastructure and directly harm Americans .... our water treatment plants, our electrical grid, our oil and natural gas pipelines, our transportation systems.... low blows against civilians are part of China's plan."
Finally, there is the incalculable danger to the Middle East and North America of an Iranian regime with unlimited ambition on the threshold of delivering unlimited nuclear bombs.
Biden, clearly, seems not that intent on making Israel or the Free World a safe place again. At least not if it might compromise his reelection.
**Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States.
© 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.

We Were Wrong About What Happened to America in 2020
The New York Times/February 23/2024
Covid numbers recently climbed again. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention once again reported monthly death tolls in the thousands. Mask mandates are back in New York City’s public medical facilities and nursing homes. The presidential race has kicked into gear, and just as in 2020, the stakes seem existential. It all makes me feel I’m revisiting a past I never actually left.
I’m not the only one wrestling with that feeling. In other ways, 2020 seems like another lifetime. The pandemic ended; we went on with our lives. Yet by considerable margins, people still say they feel alienated, vulnerable, unsafe. It’s only now becoming clear how little we understood what the United States experienced during that unforgettable year and how deeply it shaped us.
I’ve come to think of our current condition as a kind of long Covid, a social disease that intensified a range of chronic problems and instilled the belief that the institutions we’d been taught to rely on are unworthy of our trust. The result is a durable crisis in American civic life. Just look at the election cycle we are about to fall into: It seems the world turned upside down several times, and yet here we are facing the prospect of another contest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as though the country hasn’t moved forward an inch. Everything changed, and yet almost nothing changed.
In March, when Covid-19 hit New York City, the same state government that took ages to issue a liquor license needed just days to demand that the newly opened Mac’s cease operations. Mr. Presti understood the threat and accepted the decision. What he didn’t expect was that the pub would have to remain closed or restricted, on and off, for more than a year. Or that, because his business was new, the government would offer so little financial support.
On a wide range of outcomes, including many that were less visible at the time, this country fared much worse during the Covid pandemic than comparable nations did. Distrust, division and disorganized leadership contributed to the scale of our negative health outcomes. As for our continuing distress, the standard explanation is a uniquely American loneliness. The surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, declared it an epidemic in its own right.
The truth, however, is there’s no good evidence that Americans are lonelier than ever. Our social patterns changed, of course. Yet a major recent poll showed that older Americans said they were significantly less lonely than they were three years ago; a recent peer-reviewed study reported that middle-aged Americans described themselves as less lonely than they were 20 years ago. Loneliness is more pervasive among younger Americans, but there too, the rates have also plummeted since 2020. Logically, we should be feeling better. Why can’t we shake this thing?
Because loneliness was never the core problem. It was, rather, the sense among so many different people that they’d been left to navigate the crisis on their own. How do you balance all the competing demands of health, money, sanity? Where do you get tests, masks, medicine? How do you go to work — or even work from home — when your kids can’t go to school?
The answer was always the same: Figure it out. Stimulus checks and small-business loans helped. But while other countries built trust and solidarity, America — both during and after 2020 — left millions to fend for themselves.
Now the Biden administration is flummoxed by why Americans don’t feel more optimistic despite all the good economic news, and some conservative groups are frustrated that Republican voters remain loyal to a candidate who has been charged with 91 felony counts. Voters are refusing to behave the way some are telling them would be rational. But the inequities that the pandemic laid bare have only deepened over time. For millions of Americans, distrust feels like the most rational state.
Over the past four years, I’ve gotten to know New Yorkers from every borough who felt abandoned by our core institutions when they needed a steady hand: a Bronx political aide who didn’t trust the vaccines she was promoting, an elementary teacher in Manhattan’s Chinatown whose students were viewed with suspicion by people afraid of the Asian flu and Mr. Presti, who spent months looking for help or for answers while his work life and his dreams for the future fell apart. In November he and his partner kept their bar open past the 10 p.m. curfew mandated by the city. Soon after, they declared their business an “autonomous zone.” He went on Fox News to express his frustration about little guys getting clobbered by big government, being forced to sacrifice their livelihood. Fed up with institutions that wouldn’t help him, he grew distrustful of scientific authorities and impatient with fellow citizens who seemed too weak to question those in power. At some point, Mr. Presti started calling himself a freedom fighter.
The very different people I spoke with that year all had one thing in common: a feeling that in the wake of Covid, all the larger institutions they had been taught to trust had failed them. At the most precarious times in their lives, they found there was no system in place to help.
Nearly four years later, the situation is, if anything, worse.

The PA And The PLO
Nabil AmrAsharq Al-Awsat/February 23/2024
Regardless of the polls showing a decline in popular support, and despite ongoing excavation efforts to dig up a body to run things after this war, particularly in Gaza, bets are on the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization once again. Both are organs of a single body that enjoys Palestinian, regional, and international legitimacy.
The President of the PA has met this development by expressing his readiness - on behalf of both the PA and the PLO - to take on the responsibility of governing Gaza, provided that this responsibility encompasses the Palestinian entity in its entirety: the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem, i.e., all of the territory that it is presumed will (as it indeed should) become Palestine. Plans for a Palestinian state are currently being discussed by the entire world, including the United States and half of Israel, and this is not idle talk but a serious project. Implementation on the ground, as well as official recognition by those who have so far refused to recognize this state, are now subject matter of this dialogue, not just slogans or principles.
On what is commonly referred to as "the day after," the wisdom of betting on the Palestinian Authority and the PLO will be determined by the Palestinians themselves. They must lift themselves up without directives from anyone and prepare the domestic scene for the negotiation process. That means ensuring the necessary popular and partisan support, with the integration of every faction into the Palestine Liberation Organization a priority in its political program and the negotiation process.
This does not preclude opposition within parliament (the Palestinian National Council), and Hamas should have seats in this parliament, whether Council members are appointed through an agreement between the factions or elected. Either way, elections must eventually be held after the war, to reinforce the representatives of the Palestinian people's legitimacy, which has seriously eroded over the past few years.
The PA cannot go back to governing Gaza, which it considers to have never left despite the coup against it, so long as a single Israeli soldier remains in the strip. National unity through the emergence of a state is another requisite for its return. Indeed, the PA's experience in the West Bank and the unhealthy relationship with the Israelis that developed during, before, and after the collapse of Oslo, should be a lesson, and the same mistakes should not be repeated.
The framework according to which the PA was responsible for running Area A and partially responsible for Area B, while it was absent from Area C, gave Israel everything it wanted for nothing in return. Settlement building continued and expanded, and the wonton, cost-free occupation persisted, with and without security coordination. The arrangements of the Oslo Accords turned the PA into a policing arm of the occupation in the eyes of Palestinians, which is a crucial factor in explaining its loss of support and prestige.
As Mahmoud Abbas is very well aware, the PA, along with the Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Organization, needs to be reformed in a whole host of ways, whether the negotiation process begins tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Such reforms are not only needed to bolster their influence over these talks and turn them into serious actors, but also because these bodies manage the lives of millions of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. This administration must, with or without a settlement, improve in a manner that makes Palestinians' lives easier and provides them with the means to remain resilient and stay on their land, as well as to remain committed to their national movement, which will not abandon its responsibilities in leading the Palestinian people towards their objectives and granting them their rights, which have been recognized by the entire world.
After the war on Gaza, with everything it can be credited and blamed for, with all the challenges it has created, foremost among them are rebuilding an area that has been totally destroyed, reconstituting a political system that has eroded and collapsed due to a lack of renewal, and reunifying a nation whose division left it split...
After the war, Palestinians will be on the frontlines leading the efforts to achieve these goals. The better and more convincing the performance, the less hesitant the world be to support Palestinians and strive in earnest work for the establishment of a Palestinian state, whose emergence alone could mitigate all the repercussions of a conflict. Only through this state could fragments of this nation exhausted by wars and calamities be brought together and finally achieve its aspirations. We should not ignore the fact that this is now what the whole world wants.