Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 04-05/2024
US, France call to ‘avoid escalation in Lebanon and Iran’
Hochstein meets Gallant in Israel in effort to 'avoid war'
Border tension spikes amid fears of Hezbollah response to Arouri's killing
Local Hezbollah chief among 4 killed in Naqoura strike
Fear stalks northern Israel after strike kills Hamas deputy Arouri
Lebanon, Iran and Iraq attacks: Will the Israel-Hamas war spread?
French FM relays message from Macron to Mikati
War tensions spike after deadly Iran blasts, Lebanon killing
US official says Israeli strike killed deputy Hamas chief
After Arouri killing, Germany urges citizens to leave Lebanon swiftly
Israel killed Arouri in Beirut with warplane guided missiles not drone
Israel ‘has gone too far,’ Lebanon’s caretaker PM warns
Israel’s Assassinations in Beirut: From Bullets, Bombs to Aircraft
Food for thought: Strange that some analysts are overthinking today's strike against Harakat Al-Nujabaa in Baghdad
Hezbollah wouldn’t dare escalate this conflict/Robert Clark/The Telegraph/January 4, 2024
The American Mideast Coalition for Democracy (AMCD) calls on Congress to Curtail Aid to Lebanese Army After al Arouri Assassination in Beirut

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 04-05/2024
Mossad Chief Vows to Hunt Down Hamas Members after Arouri Killed in Strike
22,438 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Strikes on Gaza Since Oct. 7
Israeli Forces Search House to House in West Bank
Blinken heads back to Middle East amid fears over escalation in region
Saudi Arabia condemns forced migration of Palestinians from Gaza
Hamas loses a leader in Lebanon but holds on in Gaza
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken heads to Middle East as regional conflict heats
Israeli defense minister outlines new phase in Gaza war
What chances does South Africa’s genocide case against Israel have at the International Court of Justice?
Daesh militants claim Iran suicide bombings that killed 84
Iran revises down blasts death toll to 84
Houthi drone boat detonates in Red Sea a day after US warning
Iraq’s pro-Iran Hashed force says ‘US strike’ kills senior commander
Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council asks Houthis not to start a new war
UK foreign minister Cameron: Red Sea attacks must stop
Sheikh Mohammed Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah appointed prime minister of Kuwait
Egypt urges respect for Somalia’s sovereignty
Egypt plans expansion of new capital as first residents trickle in
US says Russia has used North Korean ballistic missiles in Ukraine and is seeking Iranian missiles
Toll in deadliest Russian strike on Kyiv rises to 32
Republicans push impeachment of Biden immigration chief
US education official resigns over Biden’s Israel-Gaza policy
Tunisian authorities arrest Al Jazeera journalist
US calls for urgent UN action on Houthis attacks on Red Sea ships

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on January 04-05/2024
Why The Palestinian Authority Is No Better than Hamas/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/January 4, 2024
All the Ayatollah’s men..Tehran’s proxies are fighting on many fronts/Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/January 04/2024
Change in Syria could be region’s black swan event of 2024/Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/January 04/2024
Odds stacked against Israel in genocide case/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/January 04/2024
Time running out for world to meet water security targets/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 04/2024
Court rulings on Trump loom large over US electoral landscape/Dalia Al-Aqidi/Arab News/January 04/2024
Al-Arouri…And Lethal Technology/Nabil Amr/Asharq Al Awsat/January 04/2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 04-05/2024
US, France call to ‘avoid escalation in Lebanon and Iran’
AFP/January 04, 2024
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna agreed to seek steps to avoid a wider Middle East war following strikes in Lebanon and Iran, the State Department said Thursday. In a telephone call the day before, the two top diplomats “discussed the importance of measures to prevent the conflict in Gaza from expanding, including affirmative steps to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank and to avoid escalation in Lebanon and Iran,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. The phone call comes ahead of another Middle East trip by Blinken, his fourth since Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel and carried out a major attack on October 7, triggering massive Israeli retaliation in the Gaza Strip. French President Emmanuel Macron earlier called on Israel to avoid escalation, “particularly in Lebanon,” where Israel was suspected of carrying out a strike on Tuesday that killed a senior Hamas leader. The United States said it did not have advance knowledge of the strike in Lebanon but described slain Hamas number two Saleh Al-Aruri as a “brutal terrorist.”In Iran, whose clerical state backs Hamas, twin blasts on Wednesday killed at least 84 people as they mourned Revolutionary Guard General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed four years earlier in a targeted US strike. A US official said that the attack bore the hallmarks of Daesh, which is strongly opposed by Shiite-majority Iran, and denied any role by the United States or Israel.

Hochstein meets Gallant in Israel in effort to 'avoid war'
Naharnet/January 04, 2024
U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein arrived in Israel Thursday where he held a meeting with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, ahead of a possible visit to Lebanon. “Israel would like to see a political solution, but understands that the chances are not high,” Gallant told Hochstein according to Israeli media reports. “We’re committed to returning the north’s residents to their homes and the timeframe for the political solution is short,” Gallant added. Israeli reports had said that Hochstein would explore the possibility of “preventing further escalation on the country’s northern border.” Israeli newspaper Haaretz had reported Wednesday that Hochstein would visit Israel in a bid to “avoid a war between Israel and Lebanon,” especially after Israel’s brazen assassination of Hamas deputy head Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where are a stronghold of Hezbollah. MTV meanwhile reported that Hochstein’s visit to Lebanon is not confirmed but rather hinges on “the developments that will take place during his visit to Israel this week.”According to media reports, Hochstein intends to return to Lebanon to seek a land border delineation agreement between Israel and Lebanon similar to the U.S.-mediated deal reached over the maritime border. “Should he manage to do so, he will be reviving Resolution 1701 and preventing any Israeli war on Lebanon,” the reports said. The Israeli Defense Ministry said Hochstein was briefed on “the security situation on Israel’s northern border and the conditions required by the defense establishment to facilitate the secure return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes in the region.” “Gallant reflected the determination of Israel’s defense establishment to change the security reality in northern Israel and along the border with Lebanon, and emphasized the top priority of enabling over 80,000 displaced Israelis to return to their homes,” the Ministry added.

Border tension spikes amid fears of Hezbollah response to Arouri's killing
Naharnet/January 04, 2024
Hezbollah targeted Thursday Israeli soldiers and posts in Shtula, Metula, al-Manara and al-Jerdah while Israel struck the outskirts of Houla and Maroun al-Ras and shelled al-Khiam and the Panorama curve -- between Kfarkila and Odeisseh -- with white phosphorus bombs. Four Hezbollah fighters, including a local Hezbollah leader, were killed overnight in southern Lebanon in Israeli strikes on the border town of Naqoura. The Lebanese group on Wednesday announced the deaths of five other fighters in southern Lebanon. In a visit Wednesday to the Lebanese border, where Israeli forces have regularly traded fire with Hezbollah since October 8, Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said troops were "in very high readiness". Near Israel's tense northern border with Lebanon, residents fear the killing of the deputy leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas in Beirut, Saleh al-Arouri, could escalate the war with Hezbollah.

Local Hezbollah chief among 4 killed in Naqoura strike
Agence France Presse/January 04, 2024
Four Hezbollah fighters were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, the Iran-backed movement announced Thursday, in what Lebanese state media said were Israeli strikes on the border town of Naqoura. The deaths, which according to a source close to the powerful militant group include a local Hezbollah leader, follow a strike on Beirut this week that killed a senior Hamas leader, raising regional tensions as war rages in Gaza. Hezbollah said in a statement the four fighters had been killed "on the road to Jerusalem" -- a phrase it has been using to announce deaths of its members due to Israeli fire since the Israel-Hamas fighting started on October 7. The group did not elaborate, but a source close to Hezbollah told AFP that the four were killed in Naqoura near the Israeli border, adding that one of them was the movement's local leader. Lebanon's official National News Agency said Israeli aircraft "carried out raids on the center of Naqoura, which destroyed a home and damaged surrounding houses". Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily fire with Israeli forces since October 8, the day after Hamas attacks triggered an intense Israeli military campaign against the Palestinian armed group, also supported by Iran, in the Gaza Strip. The Lebanese group on Wednesday announced the deaths of five other fighters in southern Lebanon. Nearly three months of cross-border fire have left 175 people in Lebanon dead, including 129 Hezbollah fighters, but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally.
In northern Israel, where Hezbollah has primarily targeted military positions near the border, nine soldiers and five civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities. On Tuesday a strike killed Hamas's deputy leader, Saleh al-Arouri, and six others in a southern Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah. A U.S. defense official told AFP Israel was behind the attack. Arouri is the most senior Hamas figure to be killed during the war, and his death came in the first strike on the Lebanese capital since hostilities began. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel in a speech on Wednesday against starting a war in Lebanon, assuring that his movement would fight "without limits". Several Hamas figures in exile reside in Lebanon, under the protection of Hezbollah. Israel vowed to "destroy" Hamas after the unprecedented attack on October 7, but its offensive on Gaza has killed 22,313 people, mostly women and children.

Fear stalks northern Israel after strike kills Hamas deputy Arouri
Agence France Presse/January 04, 2024
Near Israel's tense northern border with Lebanon, residents fear the killing of the deputy leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas in Beirut could spark a war with their neighbor. During nearly three months of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli army has also been exchanging cross-border fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is allied with Hamas. While the violence had already dampened the mood in the coastal city of Nahariya, the anxiety level shot up with the death of Hamas number two Saleh al-Arouri in a strike in a Beirut suburb on Tuesday. Lebanese security officials and Hamas blamed it on Israel, which has not directly commented on the killing. "In the morning, we didn't know whether to send our children to school... fearing Hezbollah's response to what happened yesterday," said Lee Zorviv, who owns a clothing shop. Hezbollah vowed Arouri's killing would not go unpunished and labelled it "a serious assault on Lebanon... and a dangerous development". The last Israel-Hezbollah war, in 2006, killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers. United Nations peacekeepers who patrol the frontier warned on Wednesday that further escalation could have "devastating consequences". "We continue to implore all parties cease their fire, and any interlocutors with influence to urge restraint," said UNIFIL deputy spokeswoman Kandice Ardiel. Iran-backed Hezbollah is believed to have amassed a considerable weapons arsenal in recent decades, while its foe Israel has received military support from the United States. Zorviv, in her 40s, said the school day was shortened and people were constantly checking their phones for updates. "The situation's really bad, really sad," she said. "Morale is down."
'We're scared'
The Gaza war broke out after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 that reportedly claimed the lives of around 1,140 people. Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has waged a relentless offensive that has reduced vast swathes of Gaza to rubble, claiming over 22,300 lives.
While residents in Nahariya worry about war with Lebanon, their finances have already taken a hit. Shop sales have halved in recent weeks, Zorviv said, while some businesses have closed. From the seafront, warships are visible beyond the fishermen and handful of swimmers who brave the winter water.
A soldier described the area as a "closed military zone".From teenagers to the elderly, many spoke of fear gripping Nahariya. In the city center, David, who declined to give his surname, predicted that more violence was inevitable. "War will break out. Something will happen," said the unemployed 54-year-old. "Either Israel will react strongly to Hezbollah, or they will respond (to the killing)... it's only a matter of time."Following Arouri's killing, the Israeli military said it was "in a very high state of readiness in all arenas"."We are highly prepared for any scenario," army spokesman Daniel Hagari said without directly commenting on the Beirut strike. People were seen in the city carrying automatic weapons, some in military uniform, others in civilian clothes. "We're scared," said Zorviv. "We're in a state of war."

Lebanon, Iran and Iraq attacks: Will the Israel-Hamas war spread?
Agence France Presse/January 04, 2024
Fears have mounted that Israel's war in Gaza could spread across the region after strikes in Lebanon and Iraq as well as deadly blasts in Iran, but experts say a wider conflict is unlikely for now. What has happened? Almost three months into the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, tensions are high in the region. Neighbouring Lebanon, Hamas and a U.S. official have said Israel was behind an air strike that killed Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri, 57, in a stronghold of Lebanese group Hezbollah in Beirut on Tuesday. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assassination of Aruri, a founder of the military wing of Hamas, but it had accused him of masterminding numerous attacks. Iran, which backs Hamas as well as Hezbollah, has blamed Israel and the United States for twin bomb blasts that Wednesday killed at least 84 people commemorating Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani killed four years ago in a U.S. strike. A State Department spokesman said any suggestion of U.S. involvement was "ridiculous" and that Washington had "no reason to believe that Israel was involved". Iraq and the pro-Iran Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary group, meanwhile, have blamed the United States for a drone strike that killed one of its military commanders in Baghdad on Thursday.
War with Lebanon?
Arouri is the most high-profile Hamas figure to be killed since October 7.
If Israel was behind the strike, it would be the first such attack in Beirut since a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. Large swathes of southern Lebanon were destroyed in that conflict, which killed 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. Lebanon's economy is now in tatters and endless political deadlock has all but stemmed international aid. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari on Tuesday did not directly comment on Arouri's killing but said the military was "highly prepared for any scenario". Mark Regev, senior advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel had not taken responsibility for the assassination, but stressed it was "not an attack on the Lebanese state" or Hezbollah. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned Israel, saying: "If the enemy thinks of waging a war on Lebanon, we will fight without restraint". The attack was a "major and dangerous crime" which "will not go unanswered and unpunished". Karim Bitar, professor of international relations at the Saint Joseph University in Beirut, said the strike was "worrying". "Even if neither Iran nor Hezbollah, nor Israel have any interest in open war, bad calculations, badly calibrated reprisals could lead to a conflagration," he said. Amal Saad, a scholar of Hezbollah and lecturer at Cardiff University, said "Hezbollah will have to respond in a way that... warns Israel not to repeat it". But "it can't respond in a way that gives Israel no choice but to launch all-out war," she said, adding Hezbollah would also have to increase security for other Hamas officials in Beirut. Maha Yahya, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, said the Lebanese group has so far sought to avoid "a major conflict that will destroy the country". "The risk of escalation is big but Hezbollah is trying hard to avoid being dragged into a conflict," she said.
Regional conflict?
Fabrice Balanche, research director at the University of Lyon, said a regional war was unlikely. "The Iranians do not want a confrontation with Israel, and neither does Hezbollah, because they know they will be on the back foot," he said.
"If Israel was attacked by missiles, the Americans would retaliate." Instead Iran would likely restrict its response to continuing upsetting maritime trade in the Red Sea, Balanche said. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have launched more than 20 attacks on merchant ships around the Red Sea's southern chokepoint at Bab al-Mandeb, disrupting shipping in a waterway that carries about 12 percent of global trade. "The Iranians have to react, but not head-on," Balanche said.
"Closing off Bab al-Mandeb is very costly" for those using this key route, he added.

French FM relays message from Macron to Mikati
Naharnet/January 04, 2024
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati received a phone call Wednesday evening from French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna. During the phone talks, Colonna said French President Emmanuel Macron had tasked her with conveying “France’s keenness on Lebanon’s sovereignty,” in the wake of the Israeli strike that killed a top Hamas official in Beirut’s southern suburbs. “More than ever, the time has come for shouldering responsibility and no one will triumph should escalation take place,” Colonna quoted Macron as saying. Mikati for his part stressed the need to “halt the continuous Israeli aggression against Lebanon and its sovereignty and to prevent Israel from worsening the situation.”

War tensions spike after deadly Iran blasts, Lebanon killing
Agence France Presse/January 04, 2024
Fears that Israel's war in Gaza could spiral across the Middle East have mounted after twin explosions ripped through an Iranian crowd, claiming at least 103 lives following a strike in Lebanon that killed Hamas's deputy leader. More than 200 other people were wounded when the blasts about 15 minutes apart struck mourners commemorating slain Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his killing in a United States drone strike, Iran's state media reported. No group claimed responsibility for the blasts which, according to AFP archives, were the country's deadliest attack since a 1978 arson that killed at least 377 people. State-run TV labelled the blasts a "terrorist attack". They came with regional tensions already soaring a day after the Beirut strike which killed Hamas number two Saleh al-Arouri. U.S. official on Wednesday told AFP "an Israeli strike" took the life of Arouri, the most high-profile figure killed during the nearly three months that Israel has been at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Following Tuesday's unclaimed Beirut attack, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military was "highly prepared for any scenario". He did not comment directly on the killing of Arouri, who Hamas said will be buried on Thursday in Beirut's Shatila Palestinian refugee camp. Israel and Iran have long been bitter enemies. Violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen has spiked during the Gaza war sparked by the unprecedented October 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on southern Israel. There have been repeated, deadly exchanges of fire across the Lebanon-Israel border, attacks on shipping in the Red Sea area vital for global trade, and strikes against U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria. More intense wider warfare has so far been avoided, but the Iran blasts rattled global markets, sending oil prices up by more than three percent. Following the Arouri killing, Germany warned its citizens to leave Lebanon quickly and said, "further deterioration of the situation and expansion of the conflict cannot be ruled out".
Cross-border fire
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war started after the Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the death of around 1,140 people. Militants took around 250 hostages back to Hamas-ruled Gaza, 129 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israel. In response to the deadliest attack in its history, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, launching a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that has reduced swathes of Gaza to rubble and claimed at least 22,313 lives, according to the territory's health ministry. The United Nations estimates 1.9 million Gazans are displaced, and the World Health Organization has warned of the risk of famine and disease, with only a minimal amount of aid entering. After Tuesday's killing of Arouri, Lebanon's Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah blamed its foe Israel for the strike in its Shiite Muslim stronghold of southern Beirut. Although Israel did not claim the assassination, Hamas and Lebanese security sources accused it of killing Aruri, 57, a founder of the Hamas military wing. Hezbollah vowed the killing of Arouri and six other Hamas operatives would not go unpunished, labelling it "a serious assault on Lebanon... and a dangerous development". Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel against all-out war on the country to its north. But in a televised speech he also said Israel has sent "messages" that it was "settling scores" with Hamas leaders and did not intend to target Lebanon or Hezbollah. During the Israel-Hamas war, including on Wednesday, Israel has traded regular cross-border fire with Hezbollah. Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the Beirut strike proved Israel "has not achieved any of its goals". A few hours after those remarks, blasts in Soleimani's hometown of Kerman, Iran, tore through crowds gathered to honour Soleimani, the commander killed in a 2020 Baghdad drone strike by Israel's top ally the U.S. Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, setting Iran's political and military agenda across the region. Iran declared Thursday a day of mourning. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed "evil and criminal enemies of the Iranian nation" and said: "This disaster will have a harsh response, God willing."Following the blasts, President Ebrahim Raisi cancelled a Thursday visit to Turkey. Saudi Arabia, which last year reconciled with Iran after a seven-year diplomatic rupture, expressed "sincere condolences, sympathy and solidarity with Iran in this painful event". Washington also expressed sympathy "to the victims and their loved ones," while calling "ridiculous" any suggestion of U.S. involvement. "We have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller added. Israeli military spokesman Hagari did not comment when asked about the Iran blasts. "We are ready on all fronts," he said.
'Settling the score'
Israel has vowed to kill commanders of the Hamas Islamist movement, which is considered a "terrorist" group by the United States and European Union. The head of Mossad, David Barnea, said Israel's spy agency "is committed to settling the score with the murderers" who carried out the October 7, and with Hamas's leadership. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned the strike that killed Arouri was "an additional factor that can cause an escalation of the conflict". In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian territory where Arouri was born, the Palestinian Authority called a general strike to mourn his death. During the Israel-Hamas war violence in the West Bank has surged to levels unseen in nearly two decades, with at least 321 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops or settlers, the Palestinian health ministry said. At a protest in Ramallah on Wednesday against Arouri's killing, one resident, Hala Abu Gharbiyeh, said his death will not affect "the resistance." "These people carry messages of eternal freedom until the occupation is defeated. The message cannot stop with the martyrdom of the leader," she said, holding a Palestinian flag. In Israel's northern coastal city of Nahariya, near the border with Lebanon, many people are carrying weapons. Residents said they fear Arouri's killing could spark war in their region.

US official says Israeli strike killed deputy Hamas chief
Agence France Presse/January 04, 2024
Israel carried out the strike that killed deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Aruri in Beirut, a U.S. Defense Department official said. Arouri -- who died Tuesday in an area that is a stronghold of the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah -- is the most high-profile figure to be killed since the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza broke out in October. "The strike was an Israeli strike," the official, who requested not to be identified by name, told AFP, without providing further details. Hamas and security officials in Lebanon had previously accused Israel of killing Arouri and six others. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari did not directly comment on Arouri's killing but said the military was "highly prepared for any scenario" in its aftermath. The latest round of the Israel-Hamas conflict began when the Palestinian militant group carried out a shock cross-border attack from Gaza on October 7. Following the attack, the United States rushed military aid to Israel, which has carried out a relentless campaign in Gaza that has killed at least 22,313 people. Those deaths have sparked widespread anger in the Middle East and provided an impetus for attacks by armed groups across the region that are opposed to Israel. Accused by Israel of masterminding numerous attacks against the country, Arouri was elected in 2017 as deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, officially becoming the Islamist movement's number two. He is believed to have played a key role in honing the Islamist movement's military capabilities and building links with regional allies including Iran. Hezbollah -- which has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with Israel that has left more than 165 people dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally -- has warned that Arouri's killing "will not go unanswered or unpunished." On the Israeli side, at least four civilians and nine soldiers have been killed, according to figures from the military.

After Arouri killing, Germany urges citizens to leave Lebanon swiftly
Agence France Presse/January 04, 2024
Germany has urged its citizens to leave Lebanon quickly, warning that an expansion of the Israel-Hamas war could not be ruled out after a drone strike in Beirut killed a senior Hamas leader. "All German citizens, who are still in Lebanon, are asked to register on the ELEFAND crisis preparedness list and to leave the country as quickly as possible," wrote the German foreign ministry on X, formerly known as Twitter. The warning came after a meeting Wednesday of the German government's crisis unit. "A further deterioration of the situation and expansion of the conflict cannot be ruled out, especially given the killing of Saleh al-Arouri", the political number two of Hamas in Beirut on Tuesday, the ministry wrote. "This applies above all to the southern part of Lebanon, up to and including the southern urban areas of Beirut."Although Israel has made no claim, Hamas, Hezbollah and Lebanese security sources blamed it for the assassination of al-Arouri, 57, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing. Lebanon's Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel for the drone strike in its Shiite Muslim stronghold of southern Beirut. Germany had already issued a warning against travel to Lebanon in October, in the wake of the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel killed Arouri in Beirut with warplane guided missiles not drone
Agence France Presse/January 04, 2024
A high-level Lebanese security official has told AFP that Israel fired guided missiles from a warplane to kill Hamas number two Saleh al-Arouri in a Beirut suburb. Lebanese authorities and Hamas accused Israel of killing Arouri in Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday, with Lebanese state media saying he died with six others in a drone strike. "Arouri was killed in strikes using guided missiles which were launched by an Israeli warplane," the official said, requesting anonymity because of security concerns. "A drone could not have carried out such a precise strike," said the official with knowledge of the official Lebanese investigation into Arouri's killing. According to the official, the guided missiles used in the attack weigh around 100 kilos, making them too heavy to have been fired by a drone. Six missiles were used in Tuesday's attack, four of which exploded, the official said. Two of the missiles that detonated pierced through two floors and exploded in a room where Aruri was holding a meeting with other Hamas officials, the source added. A preliminary investigation by the Lebanese army indicates that remnants of those missile match those used by the Israeli army during cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah and other pro-Iran groups in southern Lebanon, the source said. Arouri is the most high-profile figure to be killed since the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza broke out on October 7. He was killed in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, and it was the first strike to reach the Lebanese capital since then. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari did not directly comment on Aruri's killing but said the military was "highly prepared for any scenario" in its aftermath. In a statement Tuesday, Hezbollah warned that Arouri's killing in a Beirut suburb they control "will not go unanswered or unpunished". The near-daily cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel has left more than 165 people dead in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah members but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, at least four civilians and nine soldiers have been killed, according to figures from the military.

Israel ‘has gone too far,’ Lebanon’s caretaker PM warns
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/January 04, 2024
BEIRUT: Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned what he described as repeated Israeli violations of the country’s sovereignty in a meeting on Thursday with Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lazaro, UNIFIL’s head of mission and force commander. Mikati told the leader of the peacekeeping force that Israel has ignored UN resolutions for years, and called for “voices to be raised” in the UN in support of Lebanon. The caretaker prime minister’s comments coincided with the funeral of Hamas deputy political leader Saleh Al-Arouri, who died in a suspected drone strike in southern Beirut on Tuesday. Al-Arouri was buried in the Palestinian Al-Shuhada cemetery in Shatila, Beirut, along with two Hamas officials, Azzam Al-Aqra’ and Mohammed Al-Rayes, who were also killed in the blast. Gunshots were fired in the air during the funeral, and mourners raised the Palestinian flag and banners of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Lebanese security services are investigating Al-Arouri’s death, while Hezbollah is also carrying out its own probe into the assassination. A security source said that the investigations are “complex,” and focused on the type of drone, its route, and the specifications of the missiles launched.
Retired Brig. Gen. George Nader suggested in a media statement that there might be “an agent from the decision-making circle, and not from outside, if we were to talk about a security breach.”Nader said: “Israel has technology that allows it to fly drones at 30,000 feet or 7,000 meters without being heard or seen. Fighter jets can launch missiles at a distance of 15,000 meters without being heard or seen, with very high accuracy exceeding 99 percent.”He added: “There are two ceilings above the room where Al-Arouri was present that were destroyed and fell on him. This indicates the capabilities that Israel possesses.
“Technically, the assassination has several possibilities, and we must wait for the investigation.”Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, in a statement denouncing Al-Arouri’s assassination, questioned the reason for “the presence of this number of armed Palestinian organizations and other armed organizations in various Lebanese regions, including in Beirut’s southern suburbs.”He said: “In principle, this matter requires the approval of the Lebanese official authorities, especially since Lebanon is ultimately a republic that must preserve and protect its sovereignty and emphasize not endangering its security and stability.”
Siniora’s reaction came as Israel’s operations on Thursday targeted border villages, including Maroun Al-Ras, near a Lebanese army point, where a fighter jet launched two air-to-surface missiles.
The Israeli army attacked the former Israeli detention site in the town of Khiam with phosphorus bombs, and shelled the outskirts of Bint Jbeil, Yaroun, and Aita Al-Shaab. Hezbollah announced on Thursday that it had targeted “a position of Israeli soldiers in Shtula and the Al-Jardah military point, and a gathering of soldiers in Metula and the Branit military site, achieving direct hits.”Israeli media said Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile toward Metula, hitting a building there. Israeli drone strikes continued late on Wednesday and Thursday, targeting residential buildings. Hezbollah paid a heavy toll, losing nine fighters in less than 24 hours, including field official Hussein Hadi Yazbek in the Naqoura area. On Wednesday evening, the Israeli army stepped up its attacks, destroying a three-story building in Naqoura with drones. Among Hezbollah members killed were Hadi Ali Rida from Teffahta, Ibrahim Afif Fahs from Jibchit, and Hussein Ali Mohammad Ghazaleh from Adloun, in addition to Abbas Hassan Jammoul, Hassan Dakik, and Mohammad Hadi Obeid.

Israel’s Assassinations in Beirut: From Bullets, Bombs to Aircraft
Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al Awsat/January 04/2024
Israel’s history of assassinating Palestinian leaders in Beirut dates back to the 1970s when some sought refuge in the Lebanese capital. Over the years, the methods employed in these operations have evolved from gunfire and bombings to the use of aircraft and drones, as suspected, in the assassination of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday evening. The first targeted assassination by Israel in Lebanon was that of the Palestinian novelist and politician Ghassan Kanafani. He was a member of the political bureau and the official spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The operation took place on July 8, 1972, in Beirut, involving a bomb planted in Kanafani’s car that led to his death. Approximately a year after Kanafani, “Operation Fardan” was executed in 1973 as a response to the actions carried out by armed Palestinian organizations, including the hijacking of planes to demand the release of prisoners in Israeli jails. Additionally, it was in response to the Palestinian Black September group kidnapping 11 Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972. The incident ended in the death of both the kidnappers and hostages. Subsequently, Israel decided to escalate its assassination efforts by targeting Palestinian leaders, specifically the leaders of the Black September group. On April 10, 1973, Israel carried out an assassination operation in Beirut, led by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, targeting three Palestinian leaders: Kamal Nasser, Kamal Adwan, and Mohammed Yusuf al-Najjar. An Israeli military commando unit infiltrated Beirut by sea, successfully detonating a building belonging to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. This operation had political repercussions in Lebanon, leading the then Prime Minister, Saeb Salam, to resign amid accusations of failing to protect Palestinians. As part of this series of assassinations, Israel executed an operation in Beirut in January 1979, targeting Ali Hassan Salameh, a leader in the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Black September group, known as the “Red Prince.”

Food for thought: Strange that some analysts are overthinking today's strike against Harakat Al-Nujabaa in Baghdad
Elie Abouaoun/Face Book/January 04/2024
Food for thought: Strange that some analysts are overthinking today's strike against Harakat Al-Nujabaa in Baghdad. The US made it clear a while ago that any attack that will cause harm to American military personnel will trigger a direct response. Al-Nujabaa recent attacks actually seriously injuried at least one US military personnel. There are other reasons why Al-Nujabaa stands out as more urgent to deal with -from a US perspective- compared to other PMF constituents. These reasons include the visible and growing relationship between Al-Nujabaa and Russia as well as the posturing of Al-Nujabaa on the extreme end of the spectrum when it comes to dealing with the US military presence in Iraq, their responsibility for the majority of the attacks against US embassy and military basis...etc. But the direct trigger is the fact that US military personnel were injuried. The pattern of US retaliation in Iraq, Syria and Yemen is still cautious and proportionate with the nature and scale of the attacks led by Iran's proxies. The US is still trying to avoid a large scale conflict in the region but at the same time making sure everyone is playing by the rules.

Hezbollah wouldn’t dare escalate this conflict
Robert Clark/The Telegraph/January 4, 2024
As Israel still grapples with locating 130 unaccounted for hostages abducted and held by Hamas since October 7, there is quite a peculiar narrative currently circulating amongst Tel Aviv’s neighbours. According to many, including Lebanon’s ruling government, any attempts by Israel to legitimately hunt down and bring to justice the terrorist perpetrators responsible for the most heinous and grotesque acts since the Holocaust risks escalating regional tensions further. Having extensively travelled the beautiful country of Lebanon myself, I have witnessed first hand the extent to which the Lebanese people are in the vice grip of Hezbollah – an Iranian-funded and trained terror organisation almost identical in ideology to Hamas. That the Lebanese government – whose cabinet is made up of Hezbollah’s political wing – should accuse Israel of inflaming regional tensions after the targeted strike killing Hamas deputy Saleh al-Arouri, should come as little surprise. Yesterday, Lebanon’s prime minster Najib Mikati said Israel was attempting to drag his country into a “new phase of confrontations”, while foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib urged for calm and attempts to deescalate a situation that he is concerned about a potential response from Hezbollah for this week’s killing of Saleh al-Arouri. Make no mistake – for all intents and purposes, Israel is also at war not just with Hamas, but in a longer-term war of survival and self-defence against regional actors including Hezbollah who seek Israel’s destruction as a state.
Literally encircled by enemies and existential threats since its modern-day creation, Israel has battled daily since to keep its Jewish, Muslim, Christian and agnostic population safe from those that seek its destruction. The Iranian-controlled Hamas and Hezbollah act almost in unison, taking their orders from their masters in Tehran, just like the Houthis in Yemen.
This parity of terror can be witnessed on the Israeli-Lebanese border, as daily barrages are being launched from Lebanese territory against Israeli settlements.
In fact it is more accurate to assert that indeed it is the Lebanese government which has risked dragging its nation into a regional war with Israel, by not doing enough to control its own Hezbollah members against its daily attacks against Israel since last year.
The Israeli government have shown remarkable self-restraint against southern Lebanon, and the targeted strike this week in Beirut caused minimal casualties, occurring in the well-known Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh. If the Lebanese government harbours genuine concerns that the strike breached Lebanese sovereignty, as they claim, then perhaps not hosting the Hamas leadership in plain sight would be a good starting point to reconcile. Echoing the Lebanese government – or perhaps it is the Lebanese government doing the echoing – Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed that the strike also breached Lebanese sovereignty, risked dangerous escalation by Israel, and would not go unpunished by Hezbollah. The icing on the irony cake however must be given to Iran’s foreign minister, criticising Israel for its “cowardly terrorist operations” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
While all eyes will now firmly be on a potential response from Hezbollah and Iran, there will likely be little major escalation, save Hamas’ remaining and rightly terrified leadership base declaring that they are breaking off any talks for future hostage releases. This will likely change again once Hamas fighters feel constrained in Gaza once more and feel like a brief reprieve for air. The surgical strike conducted on Hamas’ most senior leader to be killed so far in this war has sent a powerful message to the rest of Israel’s enemies: Israeli intelligence, once regarded as among the world’s finest before failing to detect the 7 October massacre, is now back. Benjamin Netanyahu’s promise to strike Hamas’ leadership wherever they may be is being made good. As the world waits for what, if any, response Hezbollah can muster without it being drawn even further into engagements it will surely lose, Hamas’ leadership must wonder: who is next?I If Nasrallah wishes to proceed with his threats against Israel, then his deputies will find themselves next to Hamas’ on Tel Aviv’s hitlist. Lebanon’s foreign minister Habib was right about one thing – this is a regional war that even Hezbollah do not want. For despite all his bluster, Nasrallah knows that it is war that he cannot win.
**Robert Clark is director of the defence and security unit at Civitas. Prior to this he served in the British military

The American Mideast Coalition for Democracy (AMCD) calls on Congress to Curtail Aid to Lebanese Army After al Arouri Assassination in Beirut
January 3, 2024
The American Mideast Coalition for Democracy calls for American aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces to be curtailed after Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri and two other Hamas leaders were located by the Israeli Defense Force and assassinated via drone attack in a suburb of Beirut.
Arouri has been described as an architect of the October 7 massacre and has been involved in terrorism since the early 1990s. He was imprisoned by Israel but released in 2010 after which he traveled to Jordan, Syria and Turkey, where he recruited and directed attacks by Hamas before Ankara forced him out. He then set up shop in Lebanon in cooperation with Hezbollah. He played a role in getting one-thousand terrorists, including Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, released from Israeli prison in exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011. In 2015, the United States placed a $5 million bounty on his head, and he was elected as deputy head of Hamas in 2017.
“There are only two scenarios here,” began AMCD co-Chair John Hajjar. “Either the Lebanese Armed Forces did not know al-Arouri was active in Beirut, in which case, they are incompetent; or, they knew of al Arouri’s activities and whereabouts and did nothing, in which case, the LAF is thoroughly corrupted and infiltrated by Hezbollah. Either way, the U.S. taxpayer should not be funding them.”
Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on the IDF to reoccupy southern Lebanon and re-establish a security zone between the Litani River and the Israel border to eliminate Hezbollah’s ability to attack Israel. Hezbollah’s chief Hasan Nasrallah called the rocket attacks launched from this territory a “support front” for Hamas. Tens of thousands of Israelis in northern Israel have been displaced and had their homes and businesses destroyed by rockets fired from Lebanon. More than 64,000 Lebanese have also been displaced due to the ongoing fighting in the south.
“If Israel is forced back into Lebanon, it will be entirely due to the perfidy of Hezbollah,” said AMCD co-Chair Tom Harb. “Hezbollah has defied the United Nations and international community for years (especially UNSCR 1559 and 1701), thumbing their noses at repeated Security Council resolutions calling for their disarmament. They have shown over and again their contempt and disregard for Lebanese civilians by using them as human shields and by placing dangerous weaponry in the neighborhoods of southern Lebanon and throughout the country as well as storing bomb-making chemicals in the port of Beirut which led to the explosion of 2020, killing and injuring hundreds of innocent civilians. The Lebanese people will never know peace as long as Hezbollah lives and hides among them.”
AMCD calls on Congress to pause the flow of aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces until they can demonstrate their independence from Hezbollah by rooting out the terrorists in their ranks and cooperating in the removal of Hezbollah’s installations throughout Lebanon, including tunnels and rocket batteries, and be forced to comply with UNSCR 1559 and 1701.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 04-05/2024
Mossad Chief Vows to Hunt Down Hamas Members after Arouri Killed in Strike
Asharq Al Awsat/January 04/2024
The chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service has vowed that the agency would hunt down every Hamas member involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, no matter where they are. His pledge came a day after the deputy head of the Palestinian group was killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Israel has refused to comment on reports it carried out the killing, but the remarks by David Barnea appeared to be the strongest indication yet it was behind the blast. He made a comparison to the aftermath of the slayings at the Munich Olympics in 1972, when Mossad agents tracked down and killed Palestinian militants involved in killing Israeli athletes. Israel was on high alert Wednesday for an escalation with Hezbollah after the strike killed Saleh Arouri, the most senior Hamas member slain since the war in Gaza erupted nearly three months ago. Barnea said the Mossad is “committed to settling accounts with the murderers who raided the Gaza envelope,” referring to the area of southern Israel that Hamas attacked. He vowed to pursue everyone involved, “directly or indirectly,” including “planners and envoys.”“It’ll take time, as it took time after the Munich massacre, but we will put our hands on them wherever they are,” he said. Barnea was speaking at the funeral of former Mossad head Zvi Zamir, who died at age 98 a day earlier. Zamir headed the intelligence agency at the time of the Munich attack, in which Palestinian militants killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic delegation. Israel subsequently killed members of the Black September militant group who carried out the attack.

22,438 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Strikes on Gaza Since Oct. 7
Asharq Al-Awsat/January 04/2024
A total of 22,438 Palestinians have been killed and 57,614 have been wounded in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a statement on Thursday. Some 125 Palestinians were killed and 318 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry added. Israeli shelling killed 14 Palestinians on Thursday in Khan Younis in a southern coastal area of the Gaza Strip packed with people who had fled attacks in other parts of the enclave, Gaza health ministry officials said. The dead included nine children, an official told Reuters. There was no comment from the Israeli military on the attack although it had reported fighting and air strikes against Hamas fighters in the Khan Younis area on Thursday. Gaza residents also said Israeli planes and tanks bombarded three refugee camps in the center of the shattered enclave, prompting many civilians to head south. Israel's war against Hamas is nearing the three-month mark.

Israeli Forces Search House to House in West Bank
AFP/January 04/2024
Israeli forces searched houses in the Nour al-Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm on Thursday, detaining hundreds of people suspected of militant activities, the military said. Tulkarm, location of one of the main crossing points between the West Bank and Israel, has seen repeated raids by security forces since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, Reuters reported. According to residents, Israeli forces detained at least 120 people and demolished three houses, including one belonging to a member of the Tulkarm Brigades, an armed group linked to the Palestinian faction Fatah. "Army forces continue to operate, alongside other Israeli security forces, in a broad divisional operation to suppress terrorism in the Nour al-Shams refugee camp in Menashe," the military said in a statement. The Tulkarm Brigades said fighters were exchanging fire with the Israeli forces. The military said the operation had been under way for more than 30 hours and said hundreds of individuals had been detained for questioning. Troops destroyed militant infrastructure and identified numerous weapons, it said. The West Bank had already experienced the highest levels of unrest in decades during the 18 months preceding the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen but confrontations have risen sharply as Israeli forces have launched an invasion of Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers over the past weeks and security forces have carried out thousands of arrests, with repeated confrontations between troops and Palestinian protesters.

Blinken heads back to Middle East amid fears over escalation in region
REUTERS/January 04, 2024
WASHINGTON D.C.: US top diplomat Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East on Thursday, continuing the Biden administration’s intense diplomacy over Israel’s three-month long conflict with Hamas, as fears of a broader regional conflagration grow. The US secretary of state’s weeklong trip — his fourth to the region since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel sparked a massive Israeli air and ground assault — will include visits to Israel and the West Bank, Gulf countries and Egypt. He also will make stops in Turkiye and Greece. Blinken will repeat his calls to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza while attempting to make progress on the sensitive subject of how the Gaza Strip could be managed after the war, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters. Blinken travels with concerns of regional escalation in the spotlight. After a drone strike on Tuesday killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al-Arouri in the Lebanese capital Beirut, the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has exchanged fire with Israel from southern Lebanon, said his powerful Shia militia “cannot be silent.” The US military on Thursday carried out a retaliatory strike in Baghdad that killed a leader of a separate Iran-backed militia it blames for recent attacks on US personnel, a US official told Reuters. The conflict has also crept into vital Red Sea shipping lanes. The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of Yemen, have launched drones and missiles at more than 20 ships since Nov. 19. “It is in no one’s interest, not Israel’s, not the region’s, not the world’s, for this conflict to spread beyond Gaza,” Miller said, adding that Blinken would discuss unspecified steps the parties can take to avoid escalation. In response to Hamas’ cross-border assault in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and some 240 abducted, Israel unleashed a ground and air blitz that has killed 22,438 people, according to the Gaza health ministry. Visits to NATO allies Turkiye and Greece are also on Blinken’s agenda. Turkiye is expected to soon approve Sweden’s NATO membership, but its lengthy deliberation has frustrated Turkiye’s Western allies, including US lawmakers who are holding up the sale of F-16 fighter jets until Ankara signs off on the addition to the alliance.
FUTURE OF GAZA
Blinken is expected to revive US appeals to Israeli leaders to reduce the impact of its operation in Gaza on civilians that has created what relief agencies have called a humanitarian crisis, and which threatens to turn public opinion against Israel. Israel stopped food, medicine, power and fuel imports into Gaza at the start of the war, and aid agencies warn the population is at risk of famine even as the blockade has been partially eased in response to requests from Washington. As on previous trips, Blinken will try to begin discussions on how Gaza will be run if and when Israel achieves its goal of eradicating Hamas, which has run the strip since 2007. “We will discuss the need for combined governance that unites... the West Bank and Gaza under Palestinian leadership, but what the specifics look like I will keep for private diplomatic conversations,” Miller said. Israel’s Arab neighbors have pushed back, insisting that securing a cease-fire should be the priority. US officials have backed Israel in its rejection of genocide charges made at the International Criminal Court by South Africa, while pressing Israel to do more to protect civilians. Washington this week criticized two Israeli ministers for advocating resettling Palestinians outside Gaza, saying Israel had assured US officials the statements do not reflect policy. Miller acknowledged the challenges facing Blinken. “We don’t expect every conversation on this trip to be easy,” he said.

Saudi Arabia condemns forced migration of Palestinians from Gaza
ARAB NEWS/January 04, 2024
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia led widespread condemnation on Thursday of suggestions by far-right extremist ministers in the Israeli government that Palestinians should be forced to migrate from Gaza. Israel’s National Security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for “a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza’s residents” and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian enclave, a day after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made similar comments. Saudi Arabia “categorically condemns and rejects the comments of the two ministers,” the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. The Kingdom called on the international community to act in the face of the Israeli government’s “persistence in violating international law.”Qatar also “condemned in the strongest terms” the comments made by the two ministers.

Hamas loses a leader in Lebanon but holds on in Gaza
The Associated Press/The Canadian Press/Thu, January 4, 2024
Israel appears far from achieving its goals of crushing Hamas and freeing an estimated 129 hostages still held in Gaza nearly three months after the group's surprise cross-border attack and the Israeli government's declaration of war. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says several thousand Hamas fighters remain in northern Gaza, where entire neighborhoods have been blasted into rubble. Heavy fighting is also underway in central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli officials say Hamas’ military structure is still largely intact. Thousands of people took to the streets of Beirut on Thursday for the funeral of top Hamas commander Saleh Arouri, who was killed earlier this week in an apparent Israeli airstrike on an apartment in the Lebanese capital. Hamas' Oct. 7 attack from Gaza into southern Israel killed around 1,200 people, and some 240 others were taken hostage. Israel’s air, ground and sea assault in Gaza has killed more than 22,300 people, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Currently:
— Strike kills 12 people, mostly children, in Gaza area declared safe zone by Israel
— Israel’s Mossad chief vows to hunt down Hamas members.
— The mother and American uncle of a U.S. service member are rescued from Gaza in a secret operation.
— A second administration official resigns in protest of Biden’s support for Israel's war in Gaza.
— An apparent Israeli strike killed a top Hamas commander. How might it impact the Gaza conflict?
— Find more of AP's coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here's what's happening in the war:
DIPLOMATIC AGREEMENT WITH HEZBOLLAH IS STILL POSSIBLE, ISRAEL SAYS
TEL AVIV — Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday that a diplomatic agreement with Lebanon’s Hezbollah was still possible, days after a suspected Israeli strike on a Hamas leader in Beirut threatened a dramatic escalation between the two countries. “We find ourselves at a junction. There is a short window of time for diplomatic understandings, which we prefer,” Gallant told Amos Hochstein, a White House envoy, at a meeting in Tel Aviv.
Gallant said a top priority was ensuring some 80,000 Israeli civilians forced to evacuate northern communities near the Lebanese border could return to their homes safely. The area was evacuated after Hezbollah began shelling northern Israel, shortly after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. Israel has demanded that Hezbollah respect a 2006 U.N. cease-fire requiring it to pull back from the Israeli border. Gallant’s comments came two days after the deputy head of Hamas was killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Beirut. Hezbollah, which has offered shelter and support to Hamas leaders, has vowed to avenge the attack.
Israel and Hamas have engaged in low-level exchanges of fire for nearly three months, but both sides have been hesitant to engage in all-out war.
10 CHILDREN, 2 ADULTS KILLED BY ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE IN SOUTHERN GAZA
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike has flattened a home in an area of southern Gaza that the military had declared a safe zone, as Israeli troops pressed their assault in the nearby city of Khan Younis.
The strike hit a house in Mawasi, a small rural strip on Gaza’s southern coastline where Israel’s military has said Palestinians should flee to escape the combat zone. The blast killed a man and his wife, seven of their children and three other children ranging in age from 5 to 14, according to a list of the dead who arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. There was no immediate response from Israel’s military. Israeli troops pushed into Khan Younis in early December and have been battling Hamas militants there for weeks. The military said Thursday that its troops uncovered a large tunnel hundreds of meters (yards) long with an entrance in a field next to a mosque.
FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE PLEDGES SUPPORT WHILE IN ISRAEL
SDEROT, Israel — Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited war-battered southern Israel on Thursday to express support for the country in its war against Hamas. Standing next to the ruins of a police station in the city of Sderot, home to a fierce battle between Hamas militants and police officers on Oct. 7, Pence said the United States stood with Israel, which is under international pressure to end its ground and air campaign in Gaza. Next week, the U.N.’s top court is expected to begin examining a South African case accusing Israel of genocide. “The world community always seems to find its way eventually to criticizing Israel, particularly in places like the United Nations, “ Pence said. “And in this dark hour, I wanted to do my part to make sure the people of Israel know that the people of the United States are with you and that we will stand with you.” Pence, who served under former President Donald Trump, is a longtime supporter of Israel. He dropped out of the 2024 presidential race in October after struggling to raise money and gain traction in the polls.
FUNERAL HELD FOR HAMAS COMMANDER KILLED IN LEBANON
Thousands of people took to the streets of Beirut for the funeral of top Hamas commander Saleh Arouri, who was killed earlier this week in an apparent Israeli airstrike on an apartment in the Lebanese capital. Draped in Palestinian and Hamas flags, Arouri’s coffin along with those of two of his comrades were first taken to a Beirut mosque for prayers Thursday before being carried to the Palestine Martyrs Cemetery. Arouri’s automatic rifle was placed on his coffin at the prayer service. The funeral was attended by Palestinian officials, including top Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, as well as representatives of some Lebanese political groups. People tried to touch the coffins surrounded by Hamas members wearing green caps. Some of the Hamas members were armed. “The enemy is running away from its failures and defeats (in Gaza) to Lebanon,” senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech aired during the funeral. He added that the killing of Arouri in Beirut “is a proof of (Israel’s) bloody mentality.” Lebanese officials and state media said an Israeli drone fired two missiles Tuesday at an apartment in Beirut’s southern Musharafieh district, which is a stronghold of Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group, instantly killing Arouri along with six other Hamas members. The Associated Press

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken heads to Middle East as regional conflict heats
Ehren Wynder/United Press International/January 4, 2024
Secretary of State Anthony Blinked is set to depart Thursday evening for the Middle East as tensions rise due to Israel's ongoing war with Hamas. Blinken's stops include Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt from Jan. 4 to 11, according to a statement from State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. The secretary's itinerary highlights the main players the United States relies on to de-escalate tensions in the region. "The secretary will reaffirm the U.S. commitment to working with partners to set the conditions necessary for peace in the Middle East, which includes comprehensive, tangible steps toward the realization of a future Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, with both living in peace and security," Miller said. Blinken's trip will focus on protecting civilian lives in Israel and the West Bank, releasing all remaining hostages, delivering humanitarian assistance and ensuring Palestinians are not displaced from Gaza, Miller said. He added that Blinken also will discuss deterring Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. This will be Blinken's fourth trip to the Middle East and the fifth time he's been in Israel since Hamas's attack on Oct. 7, which triggered Israel's retaliation in Gaza. The region is on high alert for the potential breakout of a wider conflict following the assassination of a top Hamas leader in Lebanon, terrorist attacks in Iran and attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq. The White House maintains its position as Israel's strongest ally amid international pressure for a cease-fire. Countries such as Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt meanwhile are working as mediators for Hamas or exercising influence with other players, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen, who have engaged in proxy strikes against Israel and the United States, but have not escalated to full-fledged war. Blinken also plans to discuss efforts with Turkey to complete Sweden's ratification of accession into NATO and also to discuss with Greece support for Ukraine and regional maritime security.

Israeli defense minister outlines new phase in Gaza war
REUTERS/January 04, 2024
JERUSALEM: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday outlined Israel’s plans for the next stage of its war in Gaza, with a new more targeted approach in the northern section of the enclave and a continuing pursuit of Hamas leaders in the south. The announcement came as Israel continued drawing down its forces in Gaza to allow thousands of reservists to return to their jobs after growing international pressure to shift to less intense combat operations. “In the northern region of the Gaza strip, we will transition to a new combat approach in accordance with military achievements on the ground,” Gallant’s office said in a statement it said outlined the guiding principles reflecting Gallant’s vision for the next phases of the war. He said operations would include raids, demolishing tunnels, air and ground strikes, and special forces operations. In the south of the besieged enclave, where most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is now living, many in tents and other temporary shelters, the operation would continue to try to eliminate Hamas leaders and rescue Israeli hostages. “It will continue for as long as is deemed necessary,” the statement said. After the war, Gallant said Hamas would no longer control Gaza and Israel would reserve its operational freedom of action. But he said there would be no Israeli civilian presence and Palestinian bodies would be in charge of the enclave. “Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel.”Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas gunmen who killed some 1,200 people in communities near Gaza and took around 240 into captivity as hostages, according to Israeli estimates. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 22,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, forced most of the population out of their homes and reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

What chances does South Africa’s genocide case against Israel have at the International Court of Justice?
ALEX WHITEMAN/Arab News/January 04, 2024
LONDON: South Africa’s decision to bring a case against Israel at the UN’s top judicial agency over what it describes as “genocidal acts” in Gaza represents a watershed moment for international law, according to experts. The International Court of Justice confirmed it has received an 84-page suit, filed on Dec. 29, detailing purported brutal practices in breach of Israel’s obligations under the Genocide Convention, and said a hearing will take place on Jan. 11 and 12. Michelle Kelsall, a senior lecturer in international law at the SOAS University of London and co-director of the Centre for Human Rights Law, said an ICJ ruling that finds there is a “plausible risk” of Israel committing genocidal acts would mark an important development in the push for a ceasefire agreement. “If the court does determine that there is a plausible risk to genocidal acts being committed, it may order provisional measures in line with what South Africa is requesting, which would be in keeping with recent case law determined by the court,” Kelsall told Arab News. “Notably, it does not need to determine if Israel is committing genocidal acts in order for the obligation to prevent to be invoked, or to order provisional measures. It is sufficient that a plausible risk of genocide occurring has been proven, based on the evidence presented.” Such evidence includes not only mass casualties, which now exceed 22,000 according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, but impediments to births through damage to essential health services, the destruction of homes, blockades preventing the provision of food, water and medical assistance, and widespread expulsions and displacement of Gazans.

Daesh militants claim Iran suicide bombings that killed 84
AFP/January 04, 2024
TEHRAN: Daesh said Thursday that it carried out twin bombings which killed at least 84 people at a memorial ceremony in Iran for slain Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani. The claim from Daesh came as Iran observed a day of national mourning for those killed in Wednesday’s blasts.
In a statement on Telegram, Daesh said two of its members “activated their explosives vests” among the crowds who had come to honor Soleimani on the anniversary of his death in a targeted US drone strike in Baghdad four years ago. Iranian investigators had already confirmed that the first blast at least was the work of a “suicide bomber” and believed the trigger for the second was “very probably another suicide bomber,” the official IRNA news agency reported earlier, citing an “informed source.”Soleimani, who headed the Guards’ foreign operations arm the Quds Force, was a staunch enemy of Daesh, a Sunni extremist group which has carried out previous attacks in majority-Shiite Iran. The death toll was revised down from around 100 the day after what Iranian authorities labelled a “terrorist attack” that also wounded hundreds near Soleimani’s tomb in the southern city of Kerman. Iran has suffered deadly attacks in the past from jihadists and other militants as well as targeted killings of officials and nuclear scientists blamed on arch foe Israel. On Thursday, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi spoke to ISNA news agency about bolstering security over its porous borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He said authorities have identified “priority points to block along the border” with the two countries, which has long been a key access point for militant groups, drug smugglers and irregular migrants. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday blamed “evil and criminal enemies” of the Islamic republic, without naming them, and vowed a “harsh response.” Regional tensions have surged amid the Gaza war sparked when Palestinian militant group Hamas launched their deadly October 7 attack on Israel, which Tehran welcomed while denying any involvement.
President Ebrahim Raisi’s deputy chief of staff for political affairs, Mohammad Jamshidi, charged on social media platform X that “the responsibility for this crime lies with the US and Zionist (Israeli) regimes, and terrorism is just a tool.”The United States rejected any suggestion that it or its ally Israel were behind the bombings, while Israel declined to comment. “The United States was not involved in any way, and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “We have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion,” he added, expressing sympathies to the victims of the “horrific” explosions and their families. Regional tensions have surged since the Gaza war erupted, drawing in Iran-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel on October 7, killing around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. In response, Israel launched a relentless offensive that has reduced vast swathes of Gaza to rubble and killed more than 22,300 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Iranian authorities called for mass protests again the Kerman blasts after weekly prayers on Friday, when officials have said those killed will be laid to rest. Revising down the death toll, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told IRNA “the number of martyrs... has been announced as 84 so far.” Iran’s emergency services chief Jafar Miadfar pointed to difficulties identifying dismembered bodies and said some victims were mistakenly counted “several times.”He said 284 people were wounded and “195 are still hospitalized.” Revered by many Iranians, Soleimani oversaw Iranian military operations across the Middle East, and millions came to his funeral in 2020. Current Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani suggested the Kerman crowd was “attacked by bloodthirsty people supplied by the United States and the Zionist regime.”He pointed to two recent killings widely blamed on Israel — a Beirut strike on Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al-Aruri, and the killing near Damascus of senior Guards commander Razi Moussavi in December. “The killing of Aruri and people like Razi Moussavi and the crime in Kerman show how desperate the enemy is,” Qaani said. Iran regularly accuses its arch foes Israel and the United States of inciting unrest, and authorities last month executed five people convicted of collaborating with Israel. In July, Iran’s intelligence ministry said it had disbanded a network “linked to Israel’s spy organization” that it said had been plotting “terrorist operations” across Iran. In September, the Fars news agency reported that an Daesh-affiliated key “operative,” in charge of carrying out “terrorist operations,” had been arrested in Kerman.

Iran revises down blasts death toll to 84
AFP/January 04, 2024
TEHRAN: Iranian authorities on Thursday said twin blasts in the country’s south killed 84 people the previous day, revising down an earlier toll from the explosions at a top general’s commemoration. Tehran’s official news agency IRNA quoted Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying that “according to forensic statistics, the number of martyrs from this incident has been announced as 84 so far.”The revised death toll was also confirmed by the head of Iran’s emergency services, Jafar Miadfar, who said the earlier tally of 95 killed was due to the fact that some bodies had been dismembered and counted “several times.”
Miadfar said 284 had been injured in what authorities labelled a “terrorist attack” in the southern city of Kerman. He added that “195 are still hospitalized.”The blasts on Wednesday ripped through a crowd commemorating Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a 2020 US strike in Baghdad. No group has claimed responsibility, but the blasts came amid high tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Lebanon on Tuesday. An Iranian official blamed Israel and the United States for the attack. Washington however has rejected suggestions of either nation’s involvement. “The responsibility for this crime lies with the US and Zionist (Israeli) regimes, and terrorism is just a tool,” the Iranian president’s political deputy, Mohammad Jamshidi, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Tehran regularly accuses its arch-foe Israel and the United States of inciting unrest in the country. In December, Iran executed five people convicted of collaborating with Israel. Beyond fighting a long shadow war with Israel, Iran is also battling various jihadist and other militant groups who have claimed multiple attacks in the country over the years. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed “evil and criminal enemies” of the Islamic republic for the attack and vowed a “harsh response.”Condemnations poured in from neighboring countries including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, United Arab Emirates as well as the European Union and Russia. Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, overseeing military operations across the Middle East. He remains a revered figure in Iran and parts of the wider Middle East. Wednesday’s bomb blasts were Iran’s deadliest since a 1978 arson attack in the southwestern city of Abadan killed at least 377 people at the Cinema Rex.

Houthi drone boat detonates in Red Sea a day after US warning
REUTERS/January 04, 2024
WASHINGTON: A Houthi drone boat ladened with explosives detonated in the Red Sea on Thursday but failed to cause any damage or casualties, the US Navy said, as the Yemen-based group continued its attacks in defiance of international calls to stop. The latest attack came one day after 12 countries including the United States, Britain and Japan issued a joint statement cautioning the Houthis of unspecified “consequences” unless it halts its attacks, in what one US official on Wednesday suggested was a final warning. The Iran-aligned Houthis have launched wave after wave of exploding drones and missiles at commercial vessels since Nov. 19, trying to inflict a cost in what they says is a protest against Israel’s military operations in Gaza. The Houthi campaign has been extraordinarily disruptive to international shipping, causing some companies to suspend transits through the Red Sea and instead take the much longer, costlier journey around Africa. Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads US Naval forces in the Middle East, told reporters on Thursday that the Houthi exploding boat drove out about 50 miles into the Red Sea and then detonated in dense shipping lanes.
“It came within a couple of miles of ships operating in the area — merchant ships and US Navy ships — and we all watched as it exploded,” Cooper told reporters, adding the target of the attack was not clear.
Cooper said have now been 25 attacks by the Houthis against merchant vessels transiting the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and added “there are no signs that their irresponsible behavior is abating.”The United States and other countries last month launched Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect civilian vessels, which Cooper said now included contributions from 22 countries. So far, Cooper said US warships and US partners have shot down two cruise missiles, six anti-ship ballistic missiles and 11 drones. On Sunday, US warships sank three Houthi speed boats to protect a commercial vessel from being hijacked. A senior Biden administration official told reporters on Wednesday “if that happened again, we would probably do the exact same thing.” The same official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the 12-nation statement to the Houthis was very clear.
“I would not anticipate another warning,” the official said. At the United Nations, a US representative told the UN Security Council that the United States believed the situation in the Red Sea had reached an “inflection point.”Asked whether Operation Prosperity Guardian might target Houthi positions with strikes to prevent them from attacking ships, Cooper said that the 22-nation coalition was purely defensive in nature. “Anything that happens outside of the defensive aspect of this operation is a completely different operation,” he said. The Houthis have said their attacks on commercial shipping target vessels with Israeli links or were sailing to Israel. But many vessels have had no Israeli connection and were not bound for Israeli ports, and major shipping lines have suspended their operations through the Red Sea. Cooper said the ships that have been attacked have direct connections to 55 countries. “So regardless of the vessel’s company ownership or its destination, these Houthi attacks are for sure destabilizing and contrary to international law and clearly ... must stop immediately,” Cooper said.

Iraq’s pro-Iran Hashed force says ‘US strike’ kills senior commander
AFP/January 04, 2024
BAGHDAD: A US strike in Baghdad on Thursday killed a military commander of the Hashed Al-Shaabi, an ex-paramilitary faction of the grouping said, with an Iraqi security official reporting two deaths in a drone attack. The Iraqi government, supported by pro-Tehran factions, decried an “aggression.” It accused a US-led international coalition but stopped short of pinning the blame on Washington, as regional tensions soar amid the Israel-Hamas war. “A drone targeted the logistical support headquarters of Hashed Al-Shaabi,” mainly pro-Iranian former paramilitary units integrated into the Iraqi armed forces, said the security official. The strike killed “two members and wounded seven others,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. A Hashed source, also asking not to be named, confirmed the death toll and charged that the United States was behind the attack.
Harakat Al-Nujaba, one of the Hashed’s factions, said in a statement that “the deputy commander of operations for Baghdad, Mushtaq Talib Al-Saidi,” had been “martyred in a US strike.” It came amid heightened regional tensions since war broke out between US ally Israel and Iran-backed Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the Palestinian group’s deadly October 7 attack. There was no immediate comment from US officials, whose forces in Iraq and neighboring Syria have faced a surge in attacks since the start of the Gaza war.
Videos shared on a Telegram channel linked to the Hashed showed columns of smoke rising above the area of the strike on Baghdad’s Palestine street, normally a bustling commercial road. The site was cordoned off by Hashed forces, who blocked journalists’ access to the site, an AFP photographer said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani’s office accused the US-led anti-extremist coalition of the strike, labelling it “a blatant aggression” as well as “a dangerous escalation and assault.”
“The Iraqi armed forces hold the global coalition forces responsible for this unwarranted attack,” a spokesperson for Sudani said in a statement. Hadi Al-Ameri, a senior commander of the Hashed Al-Shaabi, condemned what he described as a “heinous crime committed by the criminal American forces,” demanding the “immediate departure” of the international coalition.Washington has counted more than 100 attacks against US targets in Syria and Iraq since mid-October. Many have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel in the Gaza war. The United States has around 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria as part of the multinational coalition fighting the Daesh group since 2014. The US military has responded to recent attacks by launching air strikes targeting sites used by Iran and its proxy forces in Iraq and Syria, including Hashed sites. A US drone strike in Baghdad four years ago killed Iran’s Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani, whose commemoration on Wednesday in southern Iran was hit in an unclaimed bomb attack. Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, overseeing military operations across the Middle East. The twin blasts in the southern Iranian city of Kerman on the anniversary of Soleimani’s death killed at least 84 people, according to Iranian authorities.

Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council asks Houthis not to start a new war
SAEED AL-BATATI/Arab News/January 04, 2024
AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council cautioned the Houthis on Thursday against driving Yemen into a conflict with international powers over their Red Sea strikes, according to the official news agency SABA. The PLC said at a meeting in Riyadh that the Houthis are attempting to spark a war with international powers by intensifying their attacks on ships in the Red Sea, warning that any new conflict would exacerbate Yemen’s already dire humanitarian situation and accusing the Houthis of attempting to embroil the country in another war by exploiting Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. “In this context, the council held the Houthi militias entirely accountable for the implications and terrible consequences of their terrorist assaults on commercial ships, as well as for converting territorial waters into a theater for an international conflict,” SABA quoted the council as saying.
The PLC said that if the international community had helped the Yemeni government in its efforts to evict the Houthis from regions of Yemen under their control, the militia would not have presented a danger to international navigation traffic in the Red Sea. The council’s warning came only a day after the UN, the UK, Canada, and other nations warned the Houthis to cease attacking ships in the Red Sea or face “consequences,” which might include military operations against them. The Houthis have seized a commercial ship and fired ballistic missiles and drones at commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea, threatening to close the crucial trade corridor to all Israel-bound and Israeli-operated ships. The Houthis claim that the attacks were carried out to put pressure on Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza. Separately, Yemen’s government and the Houthis have traded accusations for delaying long-awaited prisoner swap talks.
Following a previous round of discussions, both parties agreed to meet again this month in the Jordanian capital of Amman to explore reaching a fresh prisoner exchange agreement that might liberate hundreds of Yemeni captives, including well-known Houthi-held Yemeni politician Mohammed Qahtan. They also agreed to exchange visits to one other’s jails. Majed Fadhail, a member of the government delegation, told Arab News on Thursday that the prisoner swap talks had been postponed “indefinitely” and accused the Houthis of refusing to attend the meeting without giving a reason, as well as refusing to allow Qahtan’s family to visit him or know his whereabouts. The Houthis’ refusal to free Qahtan, who has been imprisoned since 2015, forced the Yemeni government to suspend negotiations with the militia last year. “For the last eight years, they have refused to reveal his condition, allow his family to see him, or enable him to contact his family,” Fadhail said, adding that the Yemeni government would only allow the Houthis to visit prisons in the government-controlled Marib after they allow Qahtan to see his family. However, the leader of the Houthis’ prisoner exchange committee, Abdulkader Al-Murtada, accused the Yemeni government on Thursday of hindering the next round of negotiations by refusing to follow previously negotiated UN-brokered pledges, presumably referring to prison visits. “We have no problem participating in any round of discussions on the prisoners’ issue provided we get assurances from the UN that the prior accords that it backed would be implemented,” Al-Murtada said on social media platform X.

UK foreign minister Cameron: Red Sea attacks must stop
REUTERS/January 04, 2024
PRISTINA: Attacks on cargo vessels in Red Sea shipping lanes have to stop otherwise international action will be taken, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Thursday. Recent attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have drawn international condemnation, with Britain, the United States and others issuing a joint statement on Wednesday warning that there would be consequences to any further attacks. Houthis have since October attacked commercial vessels in the Red Sea. They say the vessels have Israeli links or are sailing to Israel and they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. "This is illegal. It's not to do with Gaza, it's not to do with Israel. This is about the freedom of navigation. This is about the ability of ships to carry their cargo," he told reporters during a trip to Kosovo. "The world economy, every economy, will suffer if ships keep coming under attack in this illegal and unacceptable way. And these attacks need to stop or actions will be taken." When asked, Cameron declined to specify what action Britain would take or whether it would send more Navy ships to the region. Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has previously said Britain is willing to take "direct action".

Sheikh Mohammed Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah appointed prime minister of Kuwait
KUNA/January 04, 2024
DUBAI: A Kuwaiti Emiri decree has appointed Sheikh Mohammed Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah as prime minister, the state news agency, KUNA, reported on Thursday.Sheikh Mohammed has been assigned to nominate members of the new government, KUNA added, citing the decree. Below is the biography of Sheikh Mohammed Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah:
- He was born in 1955 and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Claremont Graduate University, California, and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University.
- He held position of teaching assistant at the Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Political Sciences at Kuwait University between 1979 and 1985. He was then appointed as a professor in the department in 1985.
- He worked at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research from 1987 to 1988.
- He was appointed ambassador of Kuwait to the US in 1993 and held that position until he was appointed Minister of State for Foreign Affairs on Feb. 14, 2001.
- He was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Acting Minister of Social Affairs and Labor on July 14, 2003.
- On Feb. 9, 2006, he was named Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was reappointed in the same posts in July 2006 and March 2007, and in the cabinet reshuffles of October 2007 and May 2008.
- On Jan. 12, 2009, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Acting Minister of Oil.
- On May 29, 2009, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
- On May 8, 2011, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and held these positions in government until Oct. 2011.

Egypt urges respect for Somalia’s sovereignty
GOBRAN MOHAMED/Arab News/January 04, 2024
CAIRO: Egypt has stressed the need for countries to respect Somalia’s sovereignty to ensure regional stability and security. In a statement on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry “acknowledged the seriousness of the escalating movements, actions, and official statements issued by countries within and outside the region, which undermine the stability in the Horn of Africa region and intensify tensions among its nations.”Cairo said all nations on the continent must abide by African Union resolutions with regard to the respect for borders. The Foreign Ministry’s statement comes a day after President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi received a phone call from Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Somalia vowed on Tuesday to defend its territory and recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia after Addis Ababa struck a controversial deal with the breakaway region of Somaliland. The memorandum of understanding signed by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somaliland leader Muse Bihi Abdi gives Ethiopia access to the Red Sea port of Berbera.

Egypt plans expansion of new capital as first residents trickle in
REUTERS/January 04, 2024
CAIRO: Egypt is preparing to spend billions doubling the size of a lavish new capital it is building in the desert 45 km (28 miles) east of Cairo, where the first residents are trickling in, the head of the company overseeing the project said. The city is the biggest of a series of mega-projects that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi says are needed for economic development and to accommodate a growing population of 105 million, but critics say divert resources and increase Egypt’s debt burden.Government employees transferred in July to ministries and offices built in the new city’s first phase, eight years after the launch of the project known as the New Administrative Capital (NAC). “We have almost 48,000 employees coming every day,” Khaled Abbas, chairman of the Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD), told Reuters. Built on virgin land, the city is designed to serve as a high-tech model for Egypt’s future away from the clutter and chaos of Cairo. The government wants it to absorb part of Egypt’s population, which is growing by an estimated 1.6 percent a year. Though the pace of works appears to have slowed recently, phase one of the city already includes a 70-story tower — the tallest in Africa — an opera house with five halls, a mega mosque and the Middle East’s biggest cathedral. An electric train from eastern Cairo began operating last spring and an elevated monorail is due to start from the second quarter of this year, Abbas said.
Up to 100,000 housing units have been finished and 1,200 families have moved in, he added. Major banks and other businesses will move their headquarters by the first quarter of 2024.
NILE WATER
ACUD is poised to appoint a consultant to draw up a master plan for the capital’s second, third and fourth phases, Abbas said.
Phases one and two will each have a projected 1.5 million residents, and each will cover 40,000 feddans (168 square km). Work on phase one should run from later this year until 2027. “We have lots of demand now. That’s why we have to start immediately on phase two. If there is the demand, then after a year or something like that we can work on phase three,” Abbas said. Landscaping has also begun on an irrigated, 10 km-long park, dubbed the “Green River.” A plant near the Cairo suburb of Maadi will send 800,000 cubic meters per day of scarce Nile water, starting in two years. A second, 700,000-cubic-meter plant is planned. Together the two will consume roughly 1 percent of Egypt’s share of the Nile’s water. ACUD hopes to inaugurate a giant sports area, the Olympic City, with a 93,000-seat stadium, by the second quarter, Abbas said. ACUD, owned 51 percent by the military and 49 percent by the housing ministry, spent 500 billion Egyptian pounds on phase one infrastructure and buildings, Abbas said. That works out to about $16 billion at the current exchange rate, or $32 billion before Egypt began a series of devaluations in March 2022. Second phase infrastructure will cost another 250-300 billion pounds, Abbas said. In 2019, Abbas’ predecessor put the price tag for the new capital at $58 billion. Egypt’s finances have come under strain from an over-valued currency, a decline in remittances and surging debt repayment costs after heavy overseas borrowing. To help with costs, ACUD plans to float 5-10 percent of its shares on the stock exchange by the end of 2024 in a sale that could raise 150-200 billion pounds, Abbas said. “In six months we will be ready to take the decision to go to the stock market,” he said.

US says Russia has used North Korean ballistic missiles in Ukraine and is seeking Iranian missiles
WASHINGTON (AP)/January 4, 2024
U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russia has acquired ballistic missiles from North Korea and is seeking close-range ballistic missiles from Iran as Moscow struggles to replenish supplies for its war with Ukraine, the White House said Thursday. Recently declassified intelligence found that North Korea has provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several ballistic missiles, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. Russian forces fired at least one of those ballistic missiles into Ukraine on Dec. 30 and it landed in an open field in the Zaporizhzhia region, he said.
Russia launched multiple North Korean ballistic missiles on Tuesday as part of an overnight attack, the impact of which the U.S. was assessing, he said. Kirby said a Russia-Iran deal had not been completed, but that the U.S. “is concerned that Russia's negotiations to acquire close range ballistic missiles from Iran are actively advancing.”The Biden administration has repeatedly sought to make the case that the Kremlin has become reliant on North Korea, as well as Iran, for the arms it needs to fight its war against Ukraine and has disclosed intelligence findings that it says show as much. North Korea and Iran are largely isolated on the international stage for their nuclear programs and human rights records. The White House in October said that North Korea delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia. Relations between Russia and North Korea go back to the 1948 foundation of North Korea. Soviet officials installed a young and ambitious nationalist, Kim Il Sung, the late grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, as the country’s first ruler. Soviet aid shipments were crucial in keeping North Korea’s economy afloat for decades before the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
Kim traveled to Russia in September to meet President Vladimir Putin and visit key military sites. The Biden administration says Iran has provided Russia with attack drones.

Toll in deadliest Russian strike on Kyiv rises to 32
AFP/January 04, 2024
KYIV: A December 29 missile strike killed 32 people in Kyiv, authorities said Thursday, raising the toll of the deadliest attack on the Ukrainian capital since the war began. Russia has in recent days intensified aerial attacks against Ukraine, which says it has enough munition to withstand a few powerful assaults but would soon need more aid. “The total number of dead as a result of the enemy missile attack on December 29 is 32 people,” said the head of the Kyiv military administration Sergiy Popko. Thirty people were wounded, he added. All the 32 killed were in a warehouse, Ukrainian authorities said. Russia says it only targets military infrastructure. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko had said on Saturday that the December 29 strike was “the largest in terms of civilian casualties.” Russia had on that day launched 158 missiles and drones over Ukraine, the air force said, in an attempt to overwhelm air defenses. The attack killed at least 55 people and wounded 170. Ukraine has retaliated and the Russian border region of Belgorod faced a wave of attacks over the weekend, with 25 people killed — an unprecedented toll since the beginning of the offensive almost two years ago.

Republicans push impeachment of Biden immigration chief
AFP/January 04, 2024
WASHINGTON: US Republicans announced impeachment proceedings Wednesday against Joe Biden’s homeland security chief over the worsening border crisis, as they seek to cement immigration as a major issue in November’s presidential election. Up to 10,000 migrants have been detained daily of late after crossing illegally from Mexico in what Republicans describe as a humanitarian disaster, while the White House and lawmakers have failed to agree on reforms to stem the influx. Republicans in Congress, who concluded a probe into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in December, accuse the Democrat of creating a national security emergency by ignoring immigration policy. No impeachment vote has been scheduled, but House Homeland Security Committee chairman Mark Green said an initial hearing would hold next Wednesday. “Our investigation made clear that this crisis finds its foundation in Secretary Mayorkas’ decision-making and refusal to enforce the laws passed by Congress, and that his failure to fulfill his oath of office demands accountability,” he said. A majority of the House would be required to vote that Mayorkas had committed “high crimes and misdemeanors,” prompting a Senate trial that would boot him from office if two-thirds of senators voted to convict. That is seen as virtually impossible, however, as 51 of the 100 members in the upper chamber are Democrats. The border issue unites the fractious Republican Party, but even in the House finding the votes for impeachment could still be a challenge, as the Republican majority has narrowed to just two votes. Speaker Mike Johnson sought to galvanize the rank-and-file by taking around 60 members to the frontier town of Eagle Pass, Texas, on Wednesday, where they toured a border patrol facility and spoke to locals.
“Since the time that President Biden took office the administration has done next to nothing to protect the border. But we’ve all seen with our own eyes, they have opened the border wide to the entire world,” Johnson told reporters. “It’s estimated that nearly 170 countries have people coming in and flowing across this border... And these are not people who are fleeing and looking for asylum that are in fear for their lives in their home countries.” The proceedings will present a headache in an election year for Biden, who faces his own Republican-led impeachment inquiry over unfounded allegations of corruption, and whose low approval ratings on immigration are among his biggest weaknesses. Just 38 percent of registered voters in a December Harvard CAPS-Harris poll said they approved of the Democratic president’s handling of immigration, down from 46 percent a month earlier. Border agents said Tuesday a monthly record of 302,000 migrants were encountered by authorities after crossing illegally in December. In Eagle Pass, Johnson called on Biden to reinstate the abandoned Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy keeping asylum seekers out of the country until their court appearances, which he suggested would reduce illegal entries by 70 percent. The Democratic National Committee accused Republicans of undermining efforts to boost border patrols and strike a deal on immigration, while the Homeland Security Department called the impeachment drive a “baseless political exercise.” The Mayorkas announcement came with the White House and senators from both parties in talks on border security and asylum reforms, with Republicans conditioning aid to war-torn Ukraine on the passage of an immigration bill. Negotiations have focused on tightening the rules for asylum seeke                               rs and expanding expedited removals, with both sides hoping to have a proposal to circulate next week. Johnson has said he won’t accept anything less than the hard-line border and immigration bill passed last year by House Republicans, a non-starter in the Senate. Texas governor Greg Abbott, a staunch Re                                  publican, has sought to take the immigration debate nationwide by sending thousands of migrants to Democratic-led northern cities. Mayors in New York, Denver and Chicago have pressured Biden to take urgent action. Abbott also signed a bill last month that would allow state police to arrest and deport migrants who cross illegally into the United States from Mexico. The Justice Department filed a suit against Texas on Wednesday arguing that the bill known as SB4 is unconstitutional and only the federal government has the authority to regulate immigration.

US education official resigns over Biden’s Israel-Gaza policy
REUTERS/January 04, 2024
WASHINGTON: A senior official in the US Education Department stepped down on Wednesday, citing President Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict in Gaza, the latest sign of dissent in the administration as deaths continue to grow in the war. Also on Wednesday, 17 Biden re-election campaign staffers issued a warning in an anonymous letter that Biden could lose voters over the issue. Tariq Habash, special assistant in the Education Department’s Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, said: “I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives, in what leading human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government.”Habash, a Palestinian-American and an expert on student debt, was appointed early in Biden’s presidency as part of a build-out of the Education Department’s student loan expertise. The 17 anonymous Biden re-election campaign staffers, in their letter, published on Medium, urged Biden to call for a cease-fire in Gaza. “Biden for President staff have seen volunteers quit in droves, and people who have voted blue for decades feel uncertain about doing so for the first time ever, because of this conflict,” the staffers wrote in the letter. Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller earlier on Wednesday said that the US has not observed acts in Gaza that constitute genocide. His remarks were in response to proceedings launched by South Africa at the International Court of Justice over Israel’s military operations in Gaza. Israel also has denied claims of genocide in Gaza. Josh Paul, a former State Department official, resigned from the Biden administration in October in protest over what he called the administration’s “blind support” for Israel. In November, more than 1,000 officials in the US Agency for International Development (USAID), part of the State Department, signed an open letter urging the Biden administration to call for an immediate cease-fire. After at least three cables criticizing the administration’s policy were filed with the State Department’s internal “dissent channel,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken
acknowledged disagreements
in a November letter.
In December, some staff in the Biden administration held a vigil near the White House to demand a cease-fire in Gaza. Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Some 240 hostages were also taken back to Gaza. The total recorded Palestinian death toll from Israel’s retaliatory offensive had reached 22,313 by Wednesday, almost 1 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population, the Gaza health ministry said. Israeli bombardments have flattened much of the densely populated enclave, leaving most Gazans homeless, with food shortages threatening famine.
The United States has publicly slammed the rhetoric of some Israeli ministers and pushed Israel to curb civilian deaths in Gaza. Critics argue that Washington is not using its leverage as a major supplier of arms and aid to influence Israeli policy.                                                                                            
GOBRAN MOHAMED/Arab News/January 04, 2024
CAIRO: The League of Arab States and the Arab Parliament have voiced support for the Somali government in condemning a controversial deal between Ethiopia and Somaliland. Ethiopia this week signed an agreement granting it naval and commercial access to ports along Somaliland’s coast in exchange for recognition of the breakaway region’s independence. The Arab League said that the memorandum of understanding violated Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Somalia vowed on Tuesday to defend its territory by any legal means and recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia after Addis Ababa agreed the deal with Somaliland. The agreement, signed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somaliland leader Muse Bihi Abdi, will give Ethiopia access to the Red Sea port of Berbera. Jamal Rushdi, spokesman for the secretary-general of the Arab League, condemned any deal that violates the sovereignty of the Somali state or attempts to take advantage of Somalia’s fragile internal situation. He said that the Arab League supports the decision of the Somali Cabinet, which rejected the memorandum of understanding signed on Jan. 1, between Ethiopia and Somaliland as “null and void and unacceptable.”Rushdi said the deal violates Somalia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and international law. The Arab League also warned that the agreement could increase the spread of extremist ideas at a time when the Somali state was making considerable efforts to confront the issue. Meanwhile, the Arab Parliament called on Ethiopia to “adhere to the rules and principles of good neighborliness, respect for countries’ sovereignty, and not interfere in their internal affairs to achieve regional security and stability.”The Arab Parliament voiced its support for Somalia in any legal action to maintain its stability and national sovereignty.

Tunisian authorities arrest Al Jazeera journalist
Agence France Presse/January 04, 2024
Tunisian authorities have arrested an Al Jazeera reporter, the network's bureau chief said Thursday, as campaigners voiced concern over a growing number of journalists behind bars in the North African country. "Samir Sassi, a journalist at the Al Jazeera office in Tunisia, was arrested after security forces raided his house" late Wednesday, said Lotfi Hajji, director of the Qatar-based television network's bureau in Tunis. He told AFP that police did not disclose the reasons for the arrest nor where Sassi was being held. There was no official comment from Tunisian authorities. Hajji said the security forces had also seized Sassi's "computer, phone, and the phones of his wife and children". Al Jazeera's Tunisia bureau has been closed since President Kais Saied's swift power grab in July 2021, but the network's journalists remained accredited and maintained their coverage in Tunisia. Authorities did not provide a reason for shutting down the bureau at the time. Tunisia has come under criticism for a crackdown on the freedom of speech, including the arrests of more than 30 journalists in 2023, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). In an open letter to Saied published on Thursday, the IFJ expressed its "deepest concern at the frequent imprisonment of journalists, in total contravention of the provisions of the Tunisian Constitution in respect of freedom of expression and the media". It mentioned the case of Tunisian journalist Zied El Heni, who was arrested on December 29 after criticising Tunisian Commerce Minister Kalthoum Ben Rejeb in a radio show he hosts. Heni became well known during the 2011 uprising that ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and set in motion what later came to be known as the Arab Spring. The journalist remains in detention, awaiting trial scheduled for January 10. "Heni's case is not an isolated one, but clearly indicates the existence of a systematic policy of instrumentalizing legal procedures and the judicial system to systematically intimidate, bully and imprison journalists," said the IFJ. Last summer, the United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said he was "deeply concerned" over the crackdown on media in Tunisia, with vaguely worded legislation used to criminalise criticism. Seventeen journalists in Tunisia currently face trial, according to local media. Heni and some other journalists have been prosecuted under the provisions of Decree 54, which punishes those accused of spreading "false news" with a prison sentence of up to 10 years. The legislation "is being used to silence journalists and opponents of the president", Anthony Bellanger, general secretary of the IFJ, said earlier this week, accusing the government of "attacking journalists".

US calls for urgent UN action on Houthis attacks on Red Sea ships
Associated Press/January 4, 2024
The United States has called on the U.N. Security Council to take urgent action against Yemen's Houthi rebels for attacking ships in the key Red Sea trade route and warned their longtime financier Iran that it has a choice to make about continuing to provide support to the rebels. U.S. deputy ambassador Christopher Lu told an emergency council meeting that the Houthis have carried out more than 20 attacks since Nov. 19 -- and despite losing 10 fighters in a confrontation with U.S. forces after trying unsuccessfully to board a cargo ship on Sunday, the rebel group announced Wednesday morning they had targeted another container ship. The Houthis, who have been engaged in a civil war with Yemen's internationally recognized government since 2014, have said they launched the attacks on ships in the Red Sea with the aim of ending Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas' Oct. 7 surprise attack in southern Israel. International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told the council that as a result of the Houthi attacks, around 18 shipping companies have rerouted their vessels around South Africa to avoid the risk of being hit.
Some 15% of international trade goes through the vital Red Sea area, he said, and rerouting ships around the Cape of Good Hope represents an additional 10-day journey, negatively impacts global trade, and increases freight rates.
U.S. envoy Lu stressed to the council that the Houthis have been able to carry out the attacks because Iran has supplied them with money and advanced weapons systems including drones, land attack cruise missiles and ballistic missiles – in violation of U.N. sanctions. "We also know that Iran has been deeply involved in planning operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea," Lu said. He said the United States isn't seeking a confrontation with Iran but Tehran has a choice. "It can continue its current course," Lu said, "or it can withhold its support without which the Houthis would struggle to effectively track and strike commercial vessels navigating shipping lanes through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden."
After the U.S. Navy sank three Houthi boats on Sunday with the loss of 10 of its fighters, the spokesman for the White House National Security Council wouldn't say what further actions the Biden administration was considering. John Kirby told ABC's "Good Morning America" the United States has made it clear to the Houthis that "we take these threats seriously and we're going to make the right decisions going forward." Lu, the U.S. deputy ambassador, said the Houthi attacks "pose grave implications for maritime security, international shipping and commerce" and it's vital that the Security Council speak out now on the need to uphold international law and the right to freedom of navigation. A U.S. draft resolution circulated to council members after the open meeting and obtained by The Associated Press would condemn and demand an immediate halt to the Houthi attacks and recognize the right of any country to defend their merchant and naval vessels in accordance with international law. Without mentioning Iran, the draft would also condemn "the provision of arms and related materiel of all types to the Houthis" in violation of U.N. resolutions. It would also call for all countries to implement the arms embargo on the Houthis and recall that the U.N. panel of experts monitoring sanctions "has found many Houthi weapons to be of Iranian origin."The U.S. draft would underscore "the need to avoid further escalation of the situation."There was near unanimous condemnation of the Houthi attacks in speeches Wednesday by the 15 council members, and many calls for the rebel group to release the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated cargo ship with links to an Israeli company that it seized on Nov. 19 along with its crew. A statement issued later by the U.S., Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom called for the immediate end of Houthi attacks and warned that further attacks would require collective action. "The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region's critical waterways," the 12 countries said. On Dec. 1, the Security Council issued a press statement condemning and demanding an immediate halt to Houthi attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea "in the strongest terms." Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called on Houthi leaders to implement that statement and halt attacks, but he stressed that they must be seen as a response to the violence in Gaza "where Israel's brutal operation has continued for three months now," leading to escalating attacks in the West Bank and along the Israel-Lebanon border. Russia sees two scenarios for the current Red Sea situation, he said. The favorable one would be for the Security Council to redouble efforts to end the Yemen civil war and the violence in Gaza, Nebenzia said. The "catastrophic" scenario is to escalate the use of force in the Red Sea — which he said the U.S. and its allies are calling on the council to do — which risks derailing a settlement of the Yemen conflict and would create conditions "for igniting a new major conflict around at least the Arabian Peninsula" and a wider regional conflict.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 04-05/2024
Why The Palestinian Authority Is No Better than Hamas
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/January 4, 2024
If the Biden administration is hoping that the PA leadership will halt its ongoing campaign of incitement against Israel in the mosques, media and the rhetoric of Palestinian officials, it is living in a dream world. If the Biden administration believes that the PA, as part of a "revitalization" process, will cease its endless glorification of terrorists and systematically rewarding them with monthly stipends for murdering Israelis, it is also in for a rude awakening.
The Biden administration... can continue to dream about "revamping" the PA, but... every Palestinian child knows that this will never happen as long as Palestinian leaders continue to pay handsomely for the murder of Jews and call for the elimination of Israel.
As the Biden administration doubtless knows, replacing Hamas with the PA will change nothing in the Gaza Strip.
The Biden administration... can continue to dream about "revamping" the PA, but... every Palestinian child knows that this will never happen as long as Palestinian leaders continue to pay handsomely for the murder of Jews and call for the elimination of Israel. Pictured: On July 23, 2018, at a ceremony honoring Palestinian terrorists, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said: "We will neither reduce nor withhold the allowances of the families of martyrs, prisoners, and released prisoners... if we had one single penny left, we would spend it on the families of the martyrs and the prisoners." (Image source: MEMRI)
As the Biden administration continues to promote the idea of having a "revitalized" Palestinian Authority (PA) govern the Gaza Strip the day after the current Israel-Hamas war, PA leaders are again proving why they are not much different from the Iran-backed Islamist terrorists who want to destroy Israel and murder Jews.
After the January 2 assassination in Beirut, Lebanon, of Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of the Hamas "political bureau," who was behind countless terroir attacks against Israelis over the past decade, PA leaders were quick to praise him as a "martyr" and a "hero" and condemn Israel for allegedly killing the top Hamas terrorist. This glorification of an arch-terrorist is nothing less than a full endorsement of Hamas's Jihad (holy war) on Israel, as outlined in its 1988 charter, which states that "Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes." (Article 8)
This is the same PA whose leaders continue to meet on a regular basis with senior Biden administration officials to discuss scenarios for the day after the Israel-Hamas war. Biden administration officials have made no secret of their desire to see a supposedly "revamped" Palestinian Authority replace Hamas as the ruler of the Gaza Strip.
It is worth noting that in 2018 the US Department of State's Rewards for Justice Program offered rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the identification or location of al-Arouri and Lebanese Hezbollah leaders Khalil Yusif Mahmoud Harb and Haytham Ali Tabataba'i.
Al-Arouri, who funded and directed Hamas military operations in the West Bank, has been linked to several terrorist attacks, hijackings, and kidnappings. He announced Hamas's responsibility for the June 12, 2014 terrorist attack in which three Israeli Jewish teenagers, including the US-Israeli citizen Naftali Fraenkel, were kidnapped and murdered.
The Biden administration has yet to spell out what it means when it talks about a "revitalized" Palestinian Authority.
If the Biden administration is hoping that the PA leadership will halt its ongoing campaign of incitement against Israel in the mosques, media and the rhetoric of Palestinian officials, it is living in a dream world. If the Biden administration believes that the PA, as part of a "revitalization" process, will cease its endless glorification of terrorists and stop systematically rewarding them with monthly stipends for murdering Israelis, it is also in for a rude awakening.
Shortly after the killing of al-Arouri, PA President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction issued a statement condemning the "cowardly assassination" and praising the Hamas terrorist as a "prominent Palestinian national figure, fighter and martyr." According to Fatah, "the martyrdom of al-Arouri hurt the feelings of all Palestinians." Fatah also called for a general strike in the West Bank on January 3 to mourn the death of al-Arouri and other Hamas terrorists.
Fatah Central Committee Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub, who is closely associated with Abbas, called Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to offer his condolences over the "martyrdom" of al-Arouri, saying: "With the martyrdom of Saleh al-Arouri, Palestine lost one of its faithful sons and fighters who devoted his life to serving the Palestinian cause."
PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh also hailed al-Arouri as a "martyr" and extended his condolences to Hamas and the Palestinians. Shtayyeh also asked God to "cover [al-Arouri] with his vast mercy and accept him in Paradise."
In the West Bank city of Jenin, Jamal Hawil, a senior Fatah official, led a demonstration to denounce the killing of al-Arouri, whom he labeled as a "martyr."
Hawil also praised Hamas's October 7 massacre, in which the terrorist group more than 1,200 Israelis were murdered, more than 5,000 wounded, and more than 240 kidnapped and taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
He emphasized that al-Arouri had inspired the upsurge in anti-Israel terrorism activities in the West Bank:
"Saleh al-Arouri called on the Palestinian youths [in the West Bank] to resist with stones, Molotov cocktails, pistols, and explosive devices. Our armed factions will teach [Israel] a painful lesson."
It should come as no surprise that Abbas and other PA leaders have long been glorifying terrorists by calling them "martyrs" and "heroes." In 2021, Abbas called to console the families of two Palestinian terrorists who were killed while attacking Israelis. Abbas told the father of one of the terrorists:
"Allah will increase your reward over our martyr [Israa Khzaimiah], the Palestinian people's martyrs. Allah will let her dwell in Paradise, and certainly her place is in Paradise because she is a martyr of Palestine and Jerusalem. I always bow to our male and female heroes."
Since the brutal Hamas massacres of Israelis on October 7, the atrocities have been celebrated by at least 11 Palestinian schools, including eight run by the PA, according to the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se).
In one example, the Ya'abad Boys Secondary School (near Jenin) told parents that it would be closed on October 18 "out of respect for the pure blood of our martyrs. God punish the Jews and those who support them."
Similarly, the Adnan Zaki al-Safarini Boys High School in Tulkarm staged a demonstration on October 12 praising Hamas's massacre, with a video showing a male student's speech, entitled: "A day that will live forever in the history of the Arab Palestinian struggle... the day of al-Aqsa Flood [the name Hamas uses for its October 7 atrocities[."
IMPACT-se noted:
"It appears that many schools across the Palestinian Territories have seized the opportunity of the October 7 attacks to celebrate the massacre, glorifying Hamas terrorists and lauding their bravery and sacrifice. The imagery of gliders, used by Hamas militants to carry out the atrocity, is specially invoked in some instances, including a social media post from one school showing second-grade students coloring in drawings which depicted Hamas terrorists on gliders, made by their art teacher, featuring the words 'Glorious Gaza.' Many schools also took this opportunity to disseminate expressly antisemitic messages, wishing God to 'punish the Jews' or calling the Jews 'prophet killers' in the tradition of antisemitic deicide accusations. These findings indicate that the next generation of Palestinians are being desensitized to violence and death, to see Jews and Israelis as inhuman creatures, and to perceive their own death in battle as an utmost goal. In light of this, one cannot escape the conclusion that should the status quo of Palestinian education continue, the next atrocity is all but assured."
If the Palestinian Authority were to be allowed to return to the Gaza Strip, as the Biden administration wants, it would continue its decades-long path of education for terror. Abbas and his PA leadership would do exactly what Hamas has been doing in the Gaza Strip for the past two decades: raise yet another generation of Palestinians on Jew-hating messages and the glorification of terrorists.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, can continue to dream about "revamping" the PA, but every Palestinian child knows that this will never happen as long as Palestinian leaders continue to finance the murder of Jews and call for the elimination of Israel. It is time for the Biden administration to understand that there is no real difference between those who perpetrate terrorist attacks and those who encourage them, glorify them and pay terrorists bountifully for each murder.
As the Biden administration doubtless knows, replacing Hamas with the PA will change nothing in the Gaza Strip.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

All the Ayatollah’s men..Tehran’s proxies are fighting on many fronts
Clifford D. May/The Washington Times/January 04/2024
Forty-five years ago this month, a revolution was underway in Iran. It was called an Iranian revolution but its leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had a more ambitious project in mind: the founding of a new Islamic empire that would project power throughout the Middle East and far beyond.
In 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei succeeded Mr. Khomeini as “supreme leader” of the misleadingly named the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Like his predecessor, he has repeatedly and relentlessly vowed “Death to Israel” and “Death to America!”
And he’s elaborated: “Death to America will happen. In the new order I am talking about America will no longer have any important role.”
The rulers of China and Russia also are determined to expand their empires and establish a new world order, one in which they make the rules, and the U.S. becomes a hapless has-been.
So, thinking strategically, Mr. Khamenei has forged close relations with the infidel strongmen in Beijing and Moscow.
And he funds, arms, and instructs a list of Middle Eastern protégés and proxies.
Among them: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
On Oct. 7, the two terrorist groups led the invasion into Israel where they carried out the most barbarian attacks on Jews since the Holocaust.
As many as 500 of the invaders had trained in Iran, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
A spokesman for Mr. Khamenei called the onslaught “one of the acts of revenge for the assassination of General [Qassem] Soleimani by the U.S. and the Zionists.”
Mr. Soleimani, you’ll recall, commanded the Quds Force, a division of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Arabs in Syria, and many others elsewhere.
Jan. 3 is the fourth anniversary of the drone strike, ordered by President Trump, that killed Mr. Soleimani.
There were, of course, other motivations for the 10/7 atrocities. The Hamas Charter of 1988 declares: “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.”
Meanwhile, since 2021, Kata’ib Hezbollah and other Shia militias loyal to Tehran have launched more than 150 attacks against American outposts in Iraq and Syria.
American reprisals have been restrained, though last weekend U.S. airstrikes reportedly targeted nine sites, killing more than a dozen fighters.
Starting on October 8, Hezbollah, Tehran’s Lebanon-based foreign legion, has fired more than a thousand rockets into northern Israel, forcing communities in that part of the country to evacuate.
And from Yemen since Nov. 19, the Houthis have used Iranian-supplied missiles and drones to attack 23 commercial vessels in the Bab al-Mandeb strait, gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, and therefore one of the world’s most economically important waterways.
The Houthis also hijacked a Japanese-operated cargo ship. The vessel and its crew are now reportedly being held in the Yemeni port city of Hodeida.
Iranian naval ships in the area have reportedly been passing intelligence to the Houthis to facilitate targeting.
And, according to the Pentagon, last month a drone launched directly from Iranian territory struck a Japanese-owned chemical tanker 200 miles off the Indian coast.
In response to these aggressions, the Pentagon has organized Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational naval force that has been shooting down Houthi missiles and, on Sunday, sunk three small boats carrying militants who fired on American helicopters attempting to stop them from hijacking a Danish-owned containership.
A little about the Houthis: They call themselves Ansar Allah, meaning Supporters of God. A Shia military and political organization, their theology is consistent with Tehran’s and succinctly expressed in their slogan: “Death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam.”
For a decade, they have been waging a civil war against the government of Sunni-majority Yemen, a conflict in which more than 150,000 people have been killed. A ceasefire between the rebels and the government has been in effect since 2022.
Just before leaving office, President Trump designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization.
Just after taking office, President Biden removed the Houthis from that blacklist. He also froze weapons sales to Saudi Arabia which had been leading an Arab coalition supporting the Yemeni government.
The Houthis expressed no gratitude.
Why are the Houthis and their patrons in Tehran attempting to rule the waves adjacent to Yemen?
I think they hope to demonstrate that the U.S. is a “weak horse,” frightened and feckless, unwilling even to acknowledge that most of the conflicts in the Middle East have roots in Tehran, and incapable of containing Iran’s Islamic Revolution.
If Operation Prosperity Guardian fails to silence Houthi guns, President Biden will face a choice: Capitulate or escalate.
The latter would mean at least directing the Pentagon to eliminate Houthi weapons warehouses, the vessels and helicopters used for hijackings, and perhaps command-and-control centers.
But such a response would be only tactical. A strategic approach would focus less on the puppets and more on those pulling the strings of the Houthis – along with the strings of Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Shia militias.
On Monday, an Iranian warship passed through the Bab al-Mandab into the Red Sea. And in recent days, Iran’s rulers have increased their production of enriched uranium. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, they may now have enough to produce three nuclear bombs.
A nuclear-armed regime in Tehran would be more difficult to contain and deter – and a more valuable partner for Beijing and Moscow.
President Biden, like his predecessors in the White House, has said that for Tehran’s jihadis to possess nukes would be “unacceptable.”
Mr. Khamenei, who will be 85 in April, may think it’s time to find out whether that’s a bluff. Expect an eventful New Year.
*Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times.

Change in Syria could be region’s black swan event of 2024
Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/January 04/2024
A black swan event is one that was neither predicted nor expected but has catastrophic consequences. As we look at the situation in the Middle East, there have been so many scenarios drawn up and analyzed that we can, with a good degree of certainty, state that nothing unexpected can happen because we expect everything — and always expect the worst.
Yet, as the files pile up, we tend to focus specifically on the urgent and not the important. And so, using a diluted definition of a black swan event, what file or event could take place in 2024 that was not on everyone’s bingo cards? One that could change the dynamics and future of the region.
As the ripple effects of the war in Gaza continue toward tensions between Israel and Hezbollah and the Houthis, there is another theater that could bring about the perfect storm: Syria.
In short, we observe that the war in Gaza has insulated silos and the existing rules of engagement respected by all parties. This has limited the risk of the conflict blowing up into a regional or global one. This is very distinguishable when looking at Hezbollah’s reactions to repeated Israeli strikes. The same applies to the situation in the Red Sea, which is an intensification of the “rules” that have prevailed for decades. The 2016 (also a US election year) episode of American navy command boats being caught and then released by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps serves as a reminder. Iraq could also be added to this list. And so, we notice that interests are shared and disputed from one silo to another, keeping everyone in check.
Syria is the final and biggest silo and it is the one that could create an unexpected outcome. It is the one country where all direct and indirect actors have personnel on the ground: Iran, Turkiye, the US, Russia, China, Israel, etc. It is also a conflict zone that has its own rules of engagement and bizarre arrangements. The clearest of these is the adversarial positions of the Kurdish People’s Defense Units, known as the YPG, and Arab tribes. The first is supported by the US and the latter by Turkiye, which is also a member of NATO. In the same way, we sometimes notice tensions between Iran and Russia despite the fact that they stand on the same side. Since 2011 and throughout the years, the fight against Daesh has served as a “cooler” for this file, with all parties having this common enemy.
However, the intensity and frequency of incidents is rapidly increasing — more than in any other arena. On Saturday, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces targeted a crowded market in Idlib province, killing two. Idlib is the last stronghold still controlled by Syrian opposition fighters. Home to 4.5 million people, Idlib is thought to be the most densely populated region in northwest Syria. Of these, 1.9 million reside in camps for internally displaced people.
The US-Turkiye divide has prevented the opposition from resurfacing as a credible threat to the regime.
A few days before this attack, Turkiye announced a new wave of airstrikes on Syria’s Kurdish-held northeast in retaliation for two separate attacks on its bases in northern Iraq, which killed 12 soldiers. Ankara blamed Kurdish militants for the attacks, according to media reports. On Tuesday, a week after killing Razi Mousavi, a senior IRGC general, the Israel Defense Forces said it had carried out strikes on targets in Syria in response to rocket fire on northern Israel a night earlier. The list does not stop here as, also on Tuesday, deadly clashes between the Free Syrian Army and the YPG took place across seven districts in the eastern Deir Ezzor province. The Syrian regime has benefited greatly as a result of these divisions. Despite the fact that it has been unable to regain control over the entirety of its territory, it has been able to regain confidence in its capacity to maintain itself. It is, more precisely, the divisions among the allies of the opposing sides that have given double leverage to Assad and his clan.
The US-Turkiye divide has prevented the opposition from uniting and resurfacing as a credible threat to the regime. And the Russia-Iran competition has given more freedom to the regime in terms of decision-making and ensured it is not in the grip of a single power. Despite all this, the regime has always been — behind the headlines — a low-grade military threat to Israel, which will always be the No. 1 enemy. Finally, if we add in the potential resurgence of Daesh, this situation becomes a perfect spiderweb that protects the Syrian regime and allows it to come back to the surface.
Just as ultimately these are all regional (whether tacit or not) arrangements, it is only a change in these arrangements that has the potential to be a catalyst for a change in the order. There are two possibilities that are most likely. The first is an agreement between the US and Turkiye that would put the regime under serious threat of a united opposition, with the risk of the country moving back into complete chaos. The second is an agreement between the US and Russia in light of the changes in Ukraine and the possibilities that are currently being mentioned of a negotiated outcome. There are others of course, but these are the most plausible in the current situation.
Should both happen at the same time, it would be the biggest challenge to the regime in Damascus and could change the face of the Middle East in a manner unseen since the time of decolonization and independence.
• Khaled Abou Zahr is the founder of SpaceQuest Ventures, a space-focused investment platform. He is chief executive of EurabiaMedia and editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi.

Odds stacked against Israel in genocide case
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/January 04/2024
With many activists calling for a nation to stand up and invoke the 1948 Genocide Convention over Israel’s conduct during its war on Gaza, it was South Africa that took that step on Dec. 29. All eyes are now on the International Court of Justice in The Hague, as this case could be a game-changer that stops the Israeli aggression against Palestinians. Francis Boyle, the American international law professor, carefully examined the 84 pages of documents submitted by South Africa and concluded that it has a solid case against Israel. In 1993, Boyle was able to obtain a genocide indictment for Bosnia and Herzegovina against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the International Court of Justice.
The South Africa hearing is scheduled to be held on Jan. 11-12. An order could be issued within a week for Israel to cease and desist all actions that could amount to genocide. Hence, it would be an order to stop the aggression against Palestinians. Article 1 of the Genocide Convention calls on all parties to the convention to prevent genocide being committed once a cease and desist order is issued. The case is a strong one, as the genocidal intent of the Netanyahu government is very clear. The crime of genocide, as defined by the UN in 1948, is “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” According to Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, genocidal intent usually translates into genocidal actions and ethnic cleansing is usually followed by genocide. In an op-ed for The New York Times published in November, Bartov mentioned the case of Jews in Nazi Germany. Initially, the Nazis’ plan was to remove them from German territories, but later the aim became to annihilate them.
The racist Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has been the greatest source of proof for the South African case. Ministers have clearly spelled out what they want to do with the people of Gaza. They are plainly saying that they want to transfer them to Sinai. It has also been reported this week that Israel has been holding secret talks with the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the aim of it taking in the expelled Gazans. In the meantime, Israel is continuing its campaign to obliterate Gaza and render it unlivable. The case is clear and, once an order is issued, the convention’s 153 state parties have to comply. The International Court of Justice is the highest legal authority in the UN.
The racist Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has been the greatest source of proof for the South African case
What makes the case even stronger is the fact that it is South Africa that presented it. Some have raised eyebrows as to why it was not an Arab or a Muslim state that filed the case with the International Court of Justice. But it is an advantage that it is a non-Arab and non-Muslim country. The reason Palestine is gaining so much sympathy across the world is because the issue is not viewed as a Muslim issue or an Arab issue. The issue of Palestine is viewed as one of social justice and human dignity. World-renowned Hollywood director Oliver Stone described it as an issue related to justice, peace, balance and basic human decency.
South Africa is the best defender of the Palestinians as its people suffered from apartheid inflicted by a colonial regime that subjugated the natives. Today, the same situation exists in Palestine. In the West Bank, settlers live under Israeli law while Palestinians are under military rule. This dual legal system, in which people are differentiated and separated based on their race, is the straightforward definition of apartheid. In fact, several scholars and politicians have spoken about the “Bantustanization” of the West Bank, drawing a parallel with apartheid-era South Africa, where the Indigenous population had to live in overpopulated enclaves. Hence, when South Africa, which is a majority-Christian nation, presents the case to the court, it acts as a nation that has suffered from injustice and pledged “never again” to apartheid.
If, on the contrary, a Muslim-majority country had presented the case, it would have become politicized. Racist politicians would have interpreted it as a trial by Muslims to impose their will on the world. However, now that it has been presented by South Africa, bigots will have less to say. Hateful politicians like former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who has bluntly called for Palestinians to be evicted and sent to countries that are “pro-Hamas,” will think twice before making statements that could be considered to be a call for genocide by the International Court of Justice.
It will be interesting to see the position of the US, which is supposedly the guardian of the current world order. Will it defy the highest legal authority in the UN to shield Israel from genocide accusations? Can it still allow Israel to act with impunity? According to Boyle, under Article 3 Paragraph E of the Genocide Convention, the US could be implicated for “aiding and abetting” genocide. This will be a test of the US to see whether it will comply with international law or if it will subjugate it to serve its ally. France has already announced that it will comply with any order that comes from the court.
It would also be interesting to see how the American public reacted if their country were accused of complicity in genocide. The calls for a ceasefire would probably increase. The pressure on the Biden administration will also increase, as we are now in an election year. Hopefully the US will be compelled to coerce Israel into a ceasefire if the latter tries to defy any order of the court. So, all the indicators are on the Palestinian side. All we have to do now is wait and see.
• Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.

Time running out for world to meet water security targets
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 04/2024
The world has six years left to go until the 2030 deadline set by the UN to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Unfortunately, the global community today finds itself confronting an unsettling reality — a shortfall in terms of meeting critical targets, especially in the realm of water-related goals. It is imperative that nations unite, accelerate their efforts and undertake substantial measures to ensure water security on a global scale. It is important to point out that the ramifications of falling short in this pivotal area extend far beyond the environmental domain, including permeating into the economic, social and geopolitical dimensions. The urgency of addressing water-related challenges cannot be overstated. A reevaluation of our strategies and commitment to transformative action is necessary.
At the heart of the SDGs lies Goal 6: clean water and sanitation, which is a testament to the international community’s recognition of the centrality of water to sustainable development. Yet, as the 2030 deadline looms, progress in achieving the water-related targets has been uneven and, in many instances, insufficient. Access to clean water remains a distant reality for millions, with disparities exacerbated by factors such as poverty, gender and regional inequalities.
First and foremost, the global community must acknowledge the fact that the quest for water security extends beyond installing pipelines and coming up with new purifying techniques. It also requires a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted challenges that are intertwined with water scarcity, pollution and inadequate sanitation. Water security, in practical terms, transcends the mere availability of water; it encompasses equitable access, efficient management and the preservation of water ecosystems.
As a result, bridging the gap in access to clean water demands targeted interventions in regions where communities grapple with the daily struggle for survival due to inadequate water sources.
Some regions and countries facing significant water insecurity include sub-Saharan Africa (nations like Somalia and Sudan and parts of the Sahel region), the Middle East and North Africa (countries such as Yemen and Jordan and parts of North Africa), South Asia (including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and some countries in Central Asia, such as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and parts of Kazakhstan.
It is imperative to place a greater focus on infrastructural investments and innovative technologies. Community engagement initiatives that empower local populations to take ownership of their water resources are also critical.
Secondly, it should be noted that water management strategies must evolve to meet the demands of a changing climate and burgeoning populations. This involves not only optimizing existing water sources, but also exploring sustainable alternatives such as rainwater harvesting, wastewater recycling and desalination technologies.
In fact, smart water management, augmented by data-driven technologies and real-time monitoring, can enhance efficiency, minimize losses and contribute to the sustainable utilization of this finite resource.
It is imperative to place a greater focus on infrastructural investments and innovative technologies.
The third significant issue is the role of diplomacy in addressing this important crisis, as the pursuit of water security extends beyond national borders. Transboundary water issues have become increasingly prevalent, posing challenges that require collaborative and diplomatic solutions.
As a result, shared water resources demand cooperative frameworks, the fostering of trust and equitable agreements between neighboring nations. International organizations can play a crucial role in facilitating dialogue and brokering agreements, emphasizing the interconnectedness of water security with broader geopolitical stability. Fourth, addressing water-related goals also entails tackling interconnected issues such as pollution, a silent assailant that is threatening the quality of our water sources. Industrial discharge, agricultural runoff and inadequate waste management systems have led to the contamination of rivers, lakes and aquifers, jeopardizing ecosystems and endangering human health.
An effective way to tackle this issue would be through stringent regulations, robust enforcement mechanisms and a paradigm shift toward sustainable practices in agriculture and industry. The “polluter pays” principle should be upheld; this incentivizes industries to adopt ecofriendly technologies and practices.
Another interconnected issue is sanitation, which remains an Achilles’ heel in the global pursuit of clean water. Poor sanitation can lead to a cycle of waterborne diseases, poverty and hindered socioeconomic progress.
Comprehensive sanitation solutions require education, awareness campaigns and behavioral change initiatives that dispel cultural taboos surrounding sanitation practices. Gender-sensitive approaches are crucial, recognizing the disproportionate impact of inadequate sanitation on women and girls.
As the international community recalibrates its strategies to expedite progress on water-related goals, financial commitments emerge as a linchpin. The transformational change needed to secure clean water for all requires substantial investments in infrastructure, technology and capacity-building. Governments, international institutions and the private sector must collaborate to mobilize resources and create innovative financing mechanisms that ensure sustained investment in water security projects.
Educating the public and fostering a sense of water consciousness is equally imperative. Public awareness campaigns can cultivate a culture of responsible water use, encouraging individuals to adopt water-saving practices in their daily lives.
Last but not least, education programs, particularly in schools, can instill an understanding of the intrinsic value of water and the broader implications of its scarcity.
In conclusion, the imperative to expedite efforts toward achieving water security globally is not merely an environmental concern, but a moral and pragmatic necessity. The consequences of inaction are profound — encompassing health crises, economic setbacks and social upheaval. The UN SDGs underscore our collective commitment to a better, more equitable world. As we approach the deadline, the international community must rise to the occasion, reinvigorating its dedication to the principles of sustainability, cooperation and resilience. In navigating these troubled waters, we have the opportunity to forge a path toward a more secure, prosperous and sustainable future for us all.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. X: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Court rulings on Trump loom large over US electoral landscape
Dalia Al-Aqidi/Arab News/January 04/2024
As the curtain rises on a new year, the collective gaze of Americans is steadfastly fixed on the upcoming elections, which are scheduled for Nov. 5. In the forthcoming months, the political landscape of the US is poised to undergo a transformational journey, marked by a wave of political campaigns orchestrated by the Republican and Democratic parties. Their efforts are focused on two primary objectives: winning the White House and gaining more seats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. In pursuit of these overarching goals, they strategically plan and execute various maneuvers aimed at securing the desired positions within the government. Their campaign tactics involve careful consideration of each electoral battleground, as they aim to claim the presidency and establish a substantial presence in the legislative branch. The upcoming elections will be a crucial test of democracy. Candidates will compete to get voters’ attention and support by sharing their goals, beliefs and plans. The outcome will play a significant role in determining the country’s direction for the next four years.
The presidential race is a pivotal electoral contest that commands attention from both the media and the public. In this race, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are actively pursuing the official nomination of their respective parties. The process involves early voting in individual states to secure their party’s endorsement, thereby gaining crucial support for their candidacy.
Several states conduct their primary elections six to nine months before the presidential vote. During these primaries, voters select candidates through secret ballots. The state hosting the primary considers the voting outcomes to allocate delegates to the winning candidates. This process — a source of pride for democratic nations — is particularly prominent in the US. However, there are unprecedented efforts in some states to prevent Trump from participating as a candidate, potentially significantly impacting the election results.
Colorado and Maine have grabbed attention for their recent actions aimed at excluding the former president from their upcoming presidential ballots. These endeavors, however, are not isolated incidents, as a broader trend has emerged across the nation. Challenges to Trump’s eligibility for the presidential ballots have surfaced in some 30 states, reflecting a widespread and concerted effort to navigate the electoral landscape. This unfolding scenario underscores the complexity and diversity of approaches taken by various states in addressing Trump’s potential candidacy.
A significant example in this context is the recent decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to bar the former president from the 2024 primary ballot. This decision stemmed from the court’s ruling that Trump is ineligible to feature on the state’s ballot despite being the front-runner for the Republican Party’s nomination. The court’s rationale for this exclusion is linked to Trump’s alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. This decision sparked discussions about the intersection of legal considerations and political eligibility criteria.
In a democratic framework, the essence lies in citizens’ right to decide without undue political interference.
The crucial questions are who gets to make this decision and what are the potential ramifications of such a ruling, which may set a precedent for similar actions against political rivals in the future. In a democratic framework, the essence lies in citizens’ right to decide without undue political interference. This prompts reflection on the implications for subsequent elections and the broader landscape of democratic processes.
Indeed, it is evident that a significant majority of Democrats and a portion of Republicans do not favor a Trump return to the White House. However, within this collective sentiment, a noteworthy and large group emphasized the importance of ensuring that the former president should not be excluded through political maneuvering or the exploitation of the American justice system.
This critical perspective is consistent with a broader commitment to upholding the principles of justice and due process, emphasizing that, even in politics, individuals — including ordinary voters — should be protected from political decisions that would prevent them from making their own decisions. This debate reflects a tension between political preferences and a commitment to upholding democratic values, raising complex questions about the intersection of justice, politics and the rights of private citizens in the electoral landscape.
The unfolding events stimulate a broader conversation about the resilience and adaptability of democratic institutions in the face of evolving challenges and the need to uphold the democratic principles that form the cornerstone of our governance.
If the trend of states excluding unwanted candidates persists, it will raise concerns about the future direction of the US. Governments and leaders often arbitrarily exclude candidates from elections in many third world countries. The question arises: Could America find itself heading down a similar path?
Even among those competing with Trump for the Grand Old Party nomination — candidates who stand to gain from this decision — a unanimous stance of disapproval has been voiced, including by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley. They categorically reject this measure, asserting that it poses a threat to the fundamental principles of democracy. According to them, the decisions in question represent a potential impediment to the democratic process. They undermine the core tenet that the ultimate authority to choose a representative should rest solely with the citizens.
This shared sentiment among Trump’s Republican rivals reflects not only a concern for fair democratic practices, but also underscores the significance of upholding the right of every citizen to participate in the electoral process without external interference.
As we witness the unfolding legal proceedings, the implications of this decision on the political dynamics — not just within particular states but on a national scale in the context of the upcoming presidential election — remain uncertain. The ongoing discourse surrounding this issue catalyzes a more in-depth exploration of the intricate interplay between partisan interests and the bedrock principles underpinning a fair and equitable democratic process. This deliberation prompts us to scrutinize how such rulings may reverberate across different regions, shaping the electoral landscape and influencing the delicate equilibrium between political considerations and the fundamental tenets of a just democratic system.
• Dalia Al-Aqidi is Executive Director at the American Center for Counter Extremism. X: Twitter: @DaliaAlAqidi

Al-Arouri…And Lethal Technology
Nabil Amr/Asharq Al Awsat/January 04/2024
Saleh al-Arouri decided his fate when he chose to take a path that turns one into a prospective martyr. Spending a long time imprisoned in his homeland, or dying a martyr wherever his war leads him. He was threatened with assassination in Türkiye. Although he had reasonable protection, it was not a guarantee.
He had been a drone target since he settled in Beirut, not as a political refugee or a man fleeing death, but as a leader of a front that did a lot of damage in Israel. Thus, Israel issued a death sentence against him, making several attempts until finally succeeding in the same place where it leveled buildings to the ground when Yasser Arafat’s presence was suspected. The same place where Kamal Nasser, Kamal Adwan, and Abu Youssef al-Najjar, were killed, when a large force was sent for them. If not for Yasser Arafat's caution, which he maintained throughout his life, he would have been the fourth. In Beirut, the capital of assassinations in the Middle East, Israeli explosives, silencers, reconnaissance planes, and bombers operated non-stop, pursuing leaders and cadres, including the star of stars, the martyr and son of a martyr, Ali Hassan Salameh. “If you are Palestinian, then you have a bullet, a bomb, or a shell with your name on it,” we used to say at the time. We live in a golden era for lethal technology. Israel has surpassed all the killers of the ages, inventing a method for killing every human being.
For a child, even if it be but a fetus within its mother's womb...there's death.
For a mother, even a nursing one...there's death. For school and university students and their professors... there's death. And for every human, whether one with a profession, holding a pen, or merely a passerby... there's death for all. In an era when lethal technology is flourishing, drones and guns, both loud and silenced, have shortened distances. Wherever a Palestinian is found, all means are mobilized to reach him, whether he is in Rome, Paris, Nicosia, Malta, or Tunis. The intelligence agencies of the world unite against him, share information about him, count his breaths in his sleep, photograph him at the door of the library he frequents, and the means of transport he uses. To kill Arafat, an air bridge was set up from a military base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv to allow the plane to refuel in the air and cross three thousand miles to kill Arafat in Hammam al-Shatt in Tunis, but the man's caution thwarted the attempt.
Another was set up to kill Khalil al-Wazir in the same place, but Abu Jihad was not fated to survive. Just as he is not the first in this series of assassinations, he will be the last. The man knew his destiny; indeed he chose and decided it. He knows that in the fight against Israel, no one is safe.
There is no escape from it in the golden era of lethal technology, no for those who do not possess the same kind of tools as their killers. This technology kills both up close and from afar, with gunpowder and poisonous polonium, and with the press of a button somewhere else in the universe, a drone is made to drop its bombs with no less than one hundred percent precision.
Unfortunately, if Israel does not have a particular piece of equipment, then the master of technology, the US, supplies it to them. And Arouri, who is one of its top targets, does not have similar technology to use against his opponents... its defining characteristic is its asymmetry.
Arouri's prophecy about himself came true. He was finally martyred and his death, like his life, was an earthquake that shook the universe, sent leaders and armies to shelters, imposed a state of alert that stretches from Bab el-Mandeb to Gaza, and left every military operations room puzzling over the how, when, and where, it will be retaliated to. The Israelis exchange whispers in celebration, but only for a moment, as they know that it is not the story of a man they pursued for a long time and finally captured... It is the story of enduring injustice inflicted on a people seeking life by any means possible, a mystery that drones, gun muzzles, machine guns, and silencers cannot solve... The only thing that can solve it, and there is no alternative... is justice.