Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 07-08/2024
Video/Know Your Enemy: The Iranian Mullahs’ Regime and Its Terrorism Proxies/Elias Bejjani/January 07-08, 2024
Video & Text/Know Your Enemy: The Iranian Mullahs’ Regime and Its Terrorism Proxies/Elias Bejjani/January 07-08, 2024
Patriarch Al-Rahi: Is it permissible to burden citizens in the new budget draft more than they bore the cost of the financial, economic and social collapse?
Bishop Aoudi: Didn’t the Council realize that its failure to elect a president contributes to the despair of citizens, their displacement, the disintegration of the country, and makes it vulnerable to attacks and violations of its sovereignty, as happened recently?
Video/Remembering Mohamad Chatah with Samir Geagea
Screens at Beirut airport hacked with anti-Hezbollah message
LBCI's sources: The cyber-attack that targeted Beirut Airport disrupted the baggage inspection system known as BHS, and police dogs were used to complete the operation
Israeli politics chaos: Military readiness, Hezbollah and Hamas threats amidst deepening divisions within Israel
From Gaza to Lebanon: Blinken's efforts to maintain regional stability during Middle East tour
Calculated attacks: Details about Hezbollah and Israel's strikes
Widespread displacement: Escalation in southern confrontations intensifies
Operation retribution: Israel's history of targeted assassinations in Beirut
Hezbollah, Israel trade heavy cross-border fire as Blinken seeks to prevent regional escalation
EU's Borrell meets Hezbollah's Raad in bid to avoid wider war
Report: Israel's talk of expanding war to Lebanon alarms US

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 07-08/2024
Nine dead as violence surges on West Bank
Six Palestinians, Israeli police officer killed in West Bank clashes- officials
For Israel's hostage families, despondency sets in as world attention shifts
IDF releases picture of wanted Hamas military chief clutching wad of US dollars
Israel conducts airstrike on car carrying Al-Jazeera journalist
Israel cabinet slated to vote on 2024 war budget this week -Finance Minister
Genocidal acts: South Africa files complaint against Israel at the International Court of Justice
Jordan king presses Blinken on Gaza ceasefire, aid
Blinken says Turkey committed to 'positive' role in postwar Gaza as he opens diplomatic push
Israel says part of Hamas 'dismantled' as war enters fourth month
Palestinians must be able to stay in Gaza - Blinken
Al Jazeera bureau chief's son Hamza al-Dahdouh among journalists killed in Gaza
Iran must stop 'destabilising acts' to avoid regional escalation says French FM
Russia is on course to lose 500,000 troops by end of 2024, after turning its forces into a 'low quality, high quantity mass army,' says UK intel
North Korea again fires near the sea border with the South, as its leader's sister mocks Seoul
Russian forces suffer 493 casualties in a day on Tavria front
UN Yemen envoy outlines ‘roadmap’ to lasting peace in the country
France and Iran discuss risks to Mideast stability

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on January 07-08/2024
'A Gory Christmas': Christians Slaughtered in the Nigerian Genocide/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/January 07, 2024
Middle East faces multitude of challenges in 2024/Yasar Yakis/Arab News/January 07/2024
The enduring importance of the Turkish Straits/Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab News/January 07/2024
The Militias and the Overdue Appointment/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 07/2024
Blinken’s Visit to Saudi Arabia and the Expected Solutions/Dr. Abdulaziz bin Othman bin Sager/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 07/2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 07-08/2024
Video/Know Your Enemy: The Iranian Mullahs’ Regime and Its Terrorism Proxies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJcSBNVPmmY&t=307s
Elias Bejjani/January 06, 2024

Video & Text/Know Your Enemy: The Iranian Mullahs’ Regime and Its Terrorism Proxies
Elias Bejjani/January 06, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/125861/125861/
There is no doubt that the primary and most perilous threat to Lebanon’s coexistence, culture, history, present, future, identity, common living, and Lebanon the message is exclusively the Iranian regime.
This oppressive force not only subjects its own people to torture and massacre but also stands as an adversary to all Arabs, the entire civilized world, and humanity in general.
The Iranian regime is a common enemy, and it is crucial to acknowledge its role in fostering proxies of Jihadism, fundamentalism, terrorism, and barbarism. Notable among these proxies is Hezbollah in Lebanon, along with similar entities in Gaza, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria.
These groups are the actual adversaries, undoubtedly supported by the ignorant, the uninformed, the hypocrites, and all those Lebanese who have deviated towards hostility, hatred, and rejection of others.
Dear Lebanese, it is imperative to grasp this reality and respond accordingly – the Iranian Mullahs’ Regime and all its proxies represent the true enemy.

Patriarch Al-Rahi: Is it permissible to burden citizens in the new budget draft more than they bore the cost of the financial, economic and social collapse?
NNA/January 07/2024
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi presided over the “World Peace Day” mass in the Church of Our Lady in the Patriarchal edifice in Bkerke, assisted by the bishops: Boulos Matar, Maroun Nasser Gemayel, Maroun Al-Ammar, Jules Boutros, and a number of bishops, priests and nuns participated, in the presence of the president. Amin Gemayel, the Episcopal Committee “Justice and Peace,” and a crowd of activists and believers. After the Holy Gospel, the shepherd delivered a sermon entitled: “Here is the Lamb of God who carries the sin of the world,” in which he said:
Therefore, the Church does not stop condemning wars, calling for peace, and resolving conflicts through negotiation, political and diplomatic means. We, in turn, condemn war and call for peace through negotiation at every opportunity. Likewise, with regard to Israel’s war on Gaza, and its expansion into southern Lebanon against the will of any Lebanese or friendly country, especially since Lebanon is protected from war with Israel by the force of Security Council Resolution 1701. Everyone must adhere to it, to prevent the war from spreading to Lebanon against its will. About the will of the Lebanese who love their country and peace throughout it. Peace is the fruit of justice. How can we talk about internal peace in Lebanon, when we have seen these days that the draft budget is unjust to the Lebanese people, according to what we heard and read from within the Parliament? So we ask the questioners:
- Is it permissible to burden citizens in the new budget draft with more than they bore the cost of the financial, economic and social collapse, through tax increases, random fees and fines?
- How are the draft budget drafters blind to tax and customs evasion that fuels the illegal economy in Lebanon with billions of dollars?
These questions indicate the harm resulting from the absence of a president of the republic, as in his absence chaos prevails, the illegal gains reaped by those obstructing the election of the president, and the increase in the poverty of citizens.”
Al-Rahi concluded: “We call on the representatives to cooperate closely with the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee in order to amend the government budget draft and limit its harm to citizens. This is a national duty, allowing the House of Representatives to exercise Article 86 of the Constitution, and avoid issuing the budget on its own terms by a ministerial decree. Let us pray for May God, brothers and sisters, stop the wars with His infinite power, protect Lebanon and its southern borders from their evil and dangers, and plant in hearts the civilization of peace. Glory and praise be to Him, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, Amen.
After the Mass, the shepherd received the believers participating in the divine sacrifice.

Bishop Aoudi: Didn’t the Council realize that its failure to elect a president contributes to the despair of citizens, their displacement, the disintegration of the country, and makes it vulnerable to attacks and violations of its sovereignty, as happened recently?
NNA/January 07/2024
The Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut and its dependencies, Bishop Elias Aoudi, presided over the Mass service in St. George's Cathedral, in the presence of a crowd of believers. After the Gospel, he delivered a sermon in which he said: . How we lack officials who fear for their country much more than they fear for their interests or themselves. Most of our leaders and officials walk around surrounded by escorts, and I do not know what they are afraid of. When the day comes when we see leaders and rulers walking among the people without fear or worry, and when the number of escort men and escort vehicles diminishes or disappears, only then will Lebanon be in safe hands, whose owners fear for Lebanon more than they fear for themselves. Then they will have built a country with a strong authority that rules with truth and justice, with the authority of the law, in which every official and citizen knows his duties, and carries out his work honestly, honestly, and transparently, applying the laws, and respecting his brother in the homeland, not harming him, stabbing him, envying him, or asking him for a bribe to complete his transaction. All of this happens when the official is responsible in action, not in words. He is a role model in patriotism, integrity, honesty, and silent work. He does what is his duty and does not fall short or works in his own interest. He no longer fears anyone, but is loved and respected. He added: “And speaking of duties, has the House of Representatives not realized that its failure to elect a president contributes to the disintegration of this country, to the despair and displacement of citizens, and to making the country vulnerable to attacks on it and violations of its sovereignty, as happened recently? Isn’t the absence of the state the reason for the transgressions, permissiveness, and abuses that are occurring? Our country has become a foothold for evil because citizens and officials have abandoned God and followed interests and selfishness.” He concluded: “Let this people return to God, who will not abandon his children because of a private interest, as earthly officials do. Let us rely on Him and allow God, the Holy Trinity, to appear in the darkness of our lives in order to illuminate them with the light of knowledge, love, justice, and truth.”
 

Video/Remembering Mohamad Chatah with Samir Geagea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1WguVrrz4k
Reflections on Mohamad Chatah with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.
Make sure to watch 'TEN YEARS' that includes conversations with family, friends and colleagues that reflect on Mohamad Chatah's life and career, a decade after his assassination:
https://youtu.be/_jAM77Vz7bk?si=69WFP...

Screens at Beirut airport hacked with anti-Hezbollah message
REINA TAKLA/Arab News/January 07, 2024
LONDON: Information screens at Beirut’s main airport were hacked on Sunday with a message to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Images posted to social media showed screens at check-in desks, arrivals and departures screens and monitors near the Rafic Hariri International Airport shopping areas with a message telling Nasrallah not to involve Lebanon in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. “In the name of God and the people, Beirut International Airport is not the airport of Hezbollah and Iran,” the message read. “To Hassan Nasrallah, you will not find supporters if you afflict Lebanon with war and you will bear responsibility for it and its consequences. To Hezbollah, we will not fight a war on behalf of anyone else. “You destroyed our port and now you want to destroy our airport by allowing weapons in. Let the airport be freed from international control,” it added. A group opposing Hezbollah claimed responsibility and an airport employee who wished to remain anonymous told Arab News that three people responsible for the hack, which was carried out internally via the airport’s intranet, had been arrested by security services. The source added that all screens were now back up and running as normal. In two speeches earlier this week, Nasrallah warned that northern Israel would be “the first to pay the price” if the war were to spill over to the Israeli-Lebanese border. He also used the speeches to vow revenge for deputy Hamas chief Saleh Al-Arouri, who was killed by an Israeli strike in Beirut on Jan. 2. Skirmishes on the Israel-Lebanon border have broken out since Israel’s military operation inside Gaza in retaliation for attacks carried out by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 last year.

LBCI's sources: The cyber-attack that targeted Beirut Airport disrupted the baggage inspection system known as BHS, and police dogs were used to complete the operation
LBCI/January 07, 2024
A cyber-attack on Beirut Airport disrupted the functionality of the BHS (Baggage Handling System) on Sunday, according to sources from LBCI. In response to the incident, authorities have employed police dogs to conduct the necessary baggage inspection procedures.

Israeli politics chaos: Military readiness, Hezbollah and Hamas threats amidst deepening divisions within Israel
LBCI/January 7, 2024
Israel remains on edge as the relative calm observed in the northern region on Sunday quickly dissipated following heightened security tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, which was prompted by the assassination of Hamas leader Saleh Al-Arouri. The Israeli army has maintained maximum readiness, with the potential for further escalation looming. Security forces have activated defensive systems after the attack on Meron air control base, notably the "Sky Dew" system, a crucial part of Israel's air defense arsenal, capable of precise surveillance and interception of missiles or drones. Amid the military discussions in the north outlining strategic plans in case of war, former head of military intelligence, Amos Malka, emphasized that the army is operating in Lebanon based on a set of goals. Israel must continually demonstrate its commitment to a military solution. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened his weekly government session with explicit threats and warnings directed at Hezbollah and Hamas. These threats carried implicit messages to coalition partners, particularly from the Blue and White party led by Benny Gantz, whose members were absent from the session, underlining the deepening divide in Israeli politics.
One hundred former military and security officials further highlighted this rift by signing a letter expressing support for Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. This came after Halevi faced criticism from right-wing ministers during an extended cabinet session over his decision to form a committee to investigate the events of October 7.  Attempts to mend the rift within the Likud party were observed as several Likud members launched a campaign to bridge the gap. As families intensified their protests and demonstrations following Qatar's announcement of the suspension of prisoner exchange negotiations due to Al-Arouri's assassination, the military unveiled a new bargaining chip to pressure Hamas to resume negotiations. This involves the continuation and deepening of the war in Gaza, coupled with preventing Gazans from returning to their homes in areas where military operations have concluded. These issues will require Israel to provide answers during the upcoming US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Tel Aviv.

From Gaza to Lebanon: Blinken's efforts to maintain regional stability during Middle East tour
LBCI/January 7, 2024
Despite acknowledging the challenges ahead, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken continues his diplomatic tour in the Middle East.
What is on his agenda? Accompanied by a senior official from the US State Department, Blinken aims to leverage his tour to pressure Arab nations reluctant to play a role in Gaza's reconstruction and management after Israel achieves its goal of eliminating Hamas. The US official revealed to Reuters that the US delegation plans to gather Arab opinions before conveying them to Israel in the upcoming days. Simultaneously, Blinken carries the weight of averting an expansion of the war in Lebanon. Over ten officials in the US administration and diplomats spoke to The Washington Post, expressing concerns that Benjamin Netanyahu sees a broader conflict in Lebanon as key to his political survival. According to the newspaper, the US administration, based on a new secret intelligence assessment, cautioned Israel against escalation in Lebanon. The warning stems from the belief that Israel would struggle to succeed in its war against Hezbollah while the fighting continues in Gaza. With the complexity of the Gaza and Lebanon war files, coupled with Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, the US Secretary of State landed in Jordan after visits to Turkey and Greece. There, he met with the Jordanian monarch and foreign minister. The Jordanian leadership affirmed its rejection of displacing Palestinians within or outside their land, encapsulating Jordan's concerns about potential Israeli-imposed transfers of West Bank residents.

Calculated attacks: Details about Hezbollah and Israel's strikes
LBCI/January 7, 2024
Hezbollah targeted the Israeli military base at Meron, responsible for all Israeli aerial operations in the north. The message was clear – a warning to prevent further attacks on the southern suburb, halt assassinations in Lebanon, and showcase Hezbollah's precise and sensitive target bank capable of delivering robust strikes against Israel. The Meron base, untouched since October 8 and classically targeted in the 2006 July War, became a security and military objective for the initial response to the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri in the southern suburb. The 62-missile strike on this critical and sensitive base prompted the Israeli forces to intensify their aerial and artillery fire, making Saturday one of the fiercest days on the southern front since October 8. The southern front, targeted extensively from east to west, witnessed over 30 attacks, including locations like Aainata and Qlaileh, along with Khiam, which faced a phosphorous strike for the second time in days. Kaouthariyet El Saiyad, though not the deepest point targeted in this conflict, bears a similar distance to Toul in Nabatieh. The deeper regions include Houmin al-Tahta and Zahrani. Despite the gradual increase in operations since October 8, even with the Meron incident and the assassination of al-Arouri in Hezbollah's stronghold, the southern front has yet to reach a point of full-scale conflict. It remains controlled, adhering to a non-war rhythm, despite Israeli threats and intensified gunfire over the past few days.

Widespread displacement: Escalation in southern confrontations intensifies
LBCI/January 7, 2024
The confrontations in the south seem to have entered a new phase characterized by an expansion of Israeli attacks, intensifying their impact and leading to a broader displacement movement. The clashes, which erupted over a month ago with the Al-Aqsa tensions, initially concentrated within a two-kilometer range on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border. As the first month passed, the conflict area widened to five kilometers along the border. By October 22, 2023, it extended to Beit Yahoun, ten kilometers from the border, gradually progressing to Toul in Nabatieh, 20 kilometers away, and then to the Zahrani region, 40 kilometers from the border. This geographical expansion was accompanied by tactical changes, shifting from targeting resistance fighters and the outskirts of towns to hitting buildings and open spaces. In Khiam, internationally prohibited white phosphorus bombs were used for the first time, causing roads to be filled with toxic white smoke. In Naqoura, a two-story house was leveled two days ago, damaging relatively distant homes and shops. With this new battlefield reality, disaster management statistics indicate an increasing displacement movement. According to the latest report from the Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration, displaced individuals rose from 55,000 at the beginning of December to over 70,000 in early January in less than a month. LBCI's obtained numbers reveal that displaced individuals from the Tyre district numbered around 5,000 last month have now surged to 24,000. They have relocated from villages and towns to areas deemed safer. Bint Jbeil district also witnessed an increase in displacement, with figures reaching 27,000. The rest of the displaced are distributed between 10,000 from the Bint Jbeil district and another 10,000 from other border regions.

Operation retribution: Israel's history of targeted assassinations in Beirut
LBCI/January 7, 2024
For many years, Beirut has been and continues to be the stage for a series of assassinations targeting Palestinian leaders and figures executed by Israel. On July 8, 1972, a large explosion shook the capital, bringing news of the martyrdom of one of the prominent writers and political activists dedicated to the Palestinian cause, Ghassan Kanafani. Kanafani bid farewell to his wife and headed towards his car in the Hazmiyeh area when a planted explosive device detonated, leading to his assassination at the age of 36, along with his niece Lamees Najem. Though Israel never officially admitted to the assassination operation, the Prime Minister at the time reportedly instructed the Mossad to eliminate Kanafani due to his vocal support for armed fighting and fedayeen operations. In 1973, the target shifted to three prominent Palestinian leaders: Abu Youssef Al-Najjar, Kamal Nasser, and Kamal Adwan—founders of the Fatah movement and key figures in the Palestinian revolution. On April 10, 1973, Israel executed a landing operation involving 19 rubber boats from eight warships along the Beirut shoreline. A special Israeli forces unit, led by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak disguised as a blonde woman, targeted the residences of the three leaders on Verdun Street, assassinating them with gunfire. This assassination was in response to the Munich operation in 1972, where Palestinian fedayeen captured Israeli athletes during the Olympic Games to exchange them for Palestinian prisoners. In the ensuing confrontations with the German police, 11 prisoners were killed. Israel continued its threats and, in January 1979, succeeded in eliminating "The Red Prince," the mastermind behind the Munich operation. He is one of the most prominent leaders in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a well-known and highly charismatic personality. He led special operations against Israeli intelligence around the world from Lebanon, and he was married to Miss Universe Georgina Rizk. Ali Hassan Salameh, also known as Abu Hassan, orchestrated special operations against Israeli intelligence worldwide from Lebanon. Despite five failed assassination attempts, the sixth and final attempt in Beirut was executed. Salameh was assassinated as his convoy left his home in the Pine Residence in Verdun, where a car bomb was detonated. The explosion resulted in the death of four of his associates and four bystanders and injured 16 individuals.
The list of targeted individuals extends from Jihad Ahmad Jibril to the Majzoub brothers, concluding with Salah al-Arouri. The cycle continues, marking a dark chapter in the history of targeted assassinations in Beirut.

Hezbollah, Israel trade heavy cross-border fire as Blinken seeks to prevent regional escalation
Associated Press/January 7, 2024
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire in one of the heaviest days of cross-border fighting in recent weeks, a day after Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah urged retaliation for Israel's killing of a top Hamas leader in the suburbs of Lebanon's capital. Nasrallah said that if his group didn't strike back for the killing Tuesday of Saleh Arouri, Hamas' deputy political leader, all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to Israeli attacks. With the risk of regional escalation, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicked off an urgent Middle East diplomatic tour, his fourth since the Israel-Hamas war erupted three months ago. "It is absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict," the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in Beirut during his own Middle East tour. Hezbollah said it launched 62 rockets toward an Israeli air surveillance base on Mount Meron and scored direct hits in its "initial response" to Arouri's killing. It said rockets also struck two army posts near the border. The Israeli military said about 40 rockets were fired toward Meron and that a base was targeted. The army's chief spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the rockets caused no casualties in Israel.
Hagari said the military struck the Hezbollah squads that fired the rockets and also attacked Hezbollah military sites. Hezbollah said six of its fighters were killed Saturday, raising the toll since the fighting began to 150. Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon hit the outskirts of Kawthariyat al-Siyyad, a village about 40 kilometers from the border, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said. Such strikes deeper inside Lebanon have been rare since the border fighting started nearly three months ago. NNA also said Israeli forces shelled border areas including the town of Khiam. Separately, the armed wing of the Jamaa Islamiya in Lebanon, the country's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and a close ally of Hamas, said it fired two volleys of rockets toward the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona on Friday night. Two of the group's members were killed in the strike that killed Arouri. Blinken began his latest Mideast trip in Turkey, which the Biden administration believes can exert influence, particularly on Iran and its proxies, to tamp down fears of a regional conflagration. Those fears have spiked in recent days with incidents in the Red Sea, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.

EU's Borrell meets Hezbollah's Raad in bid to avoid wider war
Agence France Presse//January 7, 2024
The European Union's foreign policy chief met Hezbollah's top lawmaker Mohammed Raad in Beirut on Saturday, as part of a push to avoid Lebanon being dragged into the Israel-Hamas war. An EU source confirmed the meeting, which came hours after Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at an Israeli military base in response to the killing of a senior Hamas figure in an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday. The EU is "engaging in diplomatic dialogue with all relevant political representatives who have influence on the situation on the ground or have a stake in it," the source said. Speaking at a joint news conference with the Lebanese foreign minister, Borrell said: "It is absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict."I am sending this message to Israel too: nobody will win from a regional conflict."U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed Borrell's comments on the Greek leg of a regional tour that took him on to Jordan on Saturday. Blinken said he wants to make sure the conflict in the Middle East "doesn't spread.""One of the real concerns is the border between Israel and Lebanon, and we want to do everything possible to make sure we see no escalation," he added.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire since Hamas' unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel, which triggered the war. But a strike in Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold that killed Hamas' deputy leader, Saleh al-Arouri, on Tuesday intensified fears of a wider conflagration.
A U.S. defence official, who requested not to be identified by name, has told AFP that Israel carried out the strike that killed Arouri. Israel has not claimed responsibility. Hezbollah said it had targeted the Israeli military's Meron air control base with 62 missiles in its "initial response" to the killing of Arouri.
It said six of its fighters had been killed, without elaborating on the circumstances. The Israeli army reported "approximately 40 launches from Lebanon" and said it struck Hezbollah "military sites" in response. By the afternoon, warning sirens had sounded seven times in northern Israel, the military said. Contacted by AFP, a military spokesperson confirmed the mountaintop base had been targeted but did not say whether it was damaged. There were no immediate reports of any casualties. On Wednesday, Borrell had warned Arouri's killing could "cause an escalation of the conflict." Nearly three months of cross-border fire have killed 181 people in Lebanon, including 135 Hezbollah fighters but also more than 20 civilians. In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

Report: Israel's talk of expanding war to Lebanon alarms US
Naharnet/January 7, 2024
An American intelligence assessment found that it would be difficult for Israel to succeed in a war against Hezbollah amid ongoing fighting in Gaza, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. U.S. President Joe Biden has dispatched his top aides to the Middle East with "a critical objective: Prevent a full-blown war from erupting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah," the U.S. newspaper said. Israel has made clear it views as untenable the regular exchange of fire between its forces and Hezbollah along the border and that it may soon launch a major military operation in Lebanon.
“We prefer the path of an agreed-upon diplomatic settlement,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday, “but we are getting close to the point where the hourglass will turn over.”U.S. officials are concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may see an expanded fight in Lebanon as key to his political survival amid domestic criticism of his government’s failure to prevent Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the Washington Post said. "In private conversations, the administration has warned Israel against a significant escalation in Lebanon," it added
If it were to do so, a new secret assessment from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) found that it will be difficult for Israel's army to succeed because its military assets and resources would be spread too thin given the conflict in Gaza, according to two people familiar with those findings.
Hezbollah, which has well-trained fighters and tens of thousands of missiles and rockets, wants to avoid a major escalation, according to U.S. officials, who said the group’s leader, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, is seeking to steer clear of a wider war. In a speech on Friday, Nasrallah vowed a response to Israeli aggression, while hinting that he might be open to negotiations on border demarcation with Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive in Israel on Monday where he will discuss specific steps to “avoid escalation,” his spokesman, Matt Miller said before boarding a plane to the Middle East.
“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. But that view is not uniformly held within Israel’s government.
Since Hamas’ October assault, Israeli officials have discussed launching a preemptive attack on Hezbollah, U.S. officials said. That prospect has faced sustained U.S. opposition due to the likelihood it would draw Iran, which supports both groups, and other proxy forces into the conflict — an eventuality that could compel the United States to respond militarily on Israel’s behalf.
U.S. officials fear that a full-scale conflict between Israel and Lebanon would surpass the bloodshed of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war on account of Hezbollah’s substantially larger arsenal of long-range and precision weaponry.
“The number of casualties in Lebanon could be anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 and entail a massive evacuation of all of northern Israel,” said Bilal Saab, a Lebanon expert at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank.
Hezbollah may strike deeper into Israel than before, hitting sensitive targets like petrochemical plants and nuclear reactors, and Iran may activate militias across the region. “I don’t think it would be limited to these two antagonists,” he told The Washington Post. The threat of a wider conflict continued to grow Saturday as Hezbollah launched about 62 rockets into Israel in response to its assassination of senior Hamas leader Saleh Arouri and six others in an airstrike in suburban Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, days earlier.
In recent weeks, Israel’s regular shootouts with Hezbollah along the border have grown more aggressive, drawing private rebukes from Washington, said U.S. officials. Israeli officials initially were convinced that Hezbollah was behind the Hamas incursion and had received bad intelligence that a Hezbollah attack was imminent in the days after Oct. 7, according to two senior U.S. officials. There were deep fears in Israel that the government would miss the signs of another violent assault.
Biden was on the phone up to three times a day, the senior administration official said, in part working to dissuade Israel from attacking Hezbollah — a move that would have resulted in “all hell breaking loose,” the official said.
The Israelis’ deep fears about the threat influenced Biden’s decision to fly to Tel Aviv less than two weeks after the Hamas attack, according one of the senior officials. "The risk that Israel might launch an ambitious attack on Hezbollah has never gone away, said White House and State Department officials, but there has been broader concern about an escalation in recent weeks, particularly as Israel announced the temporary withdrawal of several thousand troops from Gaza on Jan. 1 — a decision that could open up resources for a military operation in the north," The Washington Post said. Another U.S. official said that the forces Israel withdrew from Gaza could be deployed to the north after sufficient time to rest and prepare for another wave of combat. But Israel’s air force is also overworked, having conducted constant strikes since the war began in October, said the official, explaining the Defense Intelligence Agency’s assessment that an escalation in Lebanon would spread Israeli forces thin. Pilots are tired, and airplanes have to be maintained and refitted, the official said. They would face more dangerous missions in Lebanon than in Gaza, where Hamas has little in the way of antiaircraft defenses to shoot down attacking planes. On Thursday, Biden sent special envoy Amos Hochstein to Israel to work on an agreement to reduce tensions at the Lebanese-Israeli border. The near-term goal is to develop a process to start negotiating a land demarcation agreement that could delineate where and how the two sides deploy forces along the border in an effort to stabilize the situation. U.S. and French officials are in discussions with the Lebanese government over a proposal that would have the Lebanese government take control of part of the Lebanon-Israel border, rather than Hezbollah, to help assuage Israeli concerns, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
The White House declined to detail the plan.
“We continue to explore and exhaust all diplomatic options with our Israeli and Lebanese partners,” said a U.S. National Security Council official. “Getting Israeli and Lebanese citizens back into their homes, living in peace and security is of the utmost importance to the United States," the official added.
U.S. officials concede that Hezbollah is unlikely to agree to a border deal while scores of Palestinians in Gaza are being killed or injured as a result of Israel’s military campaign there. Within the administration, there are differing perceptions about Netanyahu’s interest in a negotiated resolution to the Hezbollah conflict. One senior U.S. official said the Israeli leader’s pledge to create a “fundamental change” to address the border fighting with Hezbollah is mere bluster aimed at extracting concessions from the Lebanese group. Others said that if the Gaza war ends tomorrow, Netanyahu’s political career will end with it, incentivizing him to broaden the conflict. “The political logic for Netanyahu is to rebound after the historic failure of Oct. 7 and have some kind of success to show to the Israeli public,” said Saab, the Lebanon expert. “I’m not sure going after Hezbollah is the right way to do it because that campaign will be far more challenging than the one in Gaza.”

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 07-08/2024
Nine dead as violence surges on West Bank
Abbie Cheeseman/The Telegraph/January 7, 2024
Violence surged in the West Bank on Sunday as Israeli air strikes and a drive-by shooting left nine people dead. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) jets targeted Jenin refugee camp in the early hours of the morning after a border police vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. In a statement overnight the IDF said a female soldier was killed and several other soldiers were injured when their car hit the explosive device as they carried out “counterterrorism activities” in the camp. A helicopter was sent to help evacuate the wounded soldiers before its airstrike killed six people, the IDF added. The Palestinian health ministry said seven people were killed by Israeli warplanes, including four brothers. The IDF said it had targeted people who were hurling explosive devices at Israeli troops, but the Palestinian health ministry said that those killed had merely gathered at the site. “They’re all gone. I have no one,” the mother of the four dead brothers wailed in a video shared on social media when she discovered their bodies at the hospital. Later, a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem was reported to have been killed in a drive-by shooting at a busy intersection in the West Bank, in what appeared to be a case of mistaken identity. The Israeli military initially said he was Israeli, but the Associated Press reported that he was later identified as a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem who was driving a car displaying Israeli number plates. The Magen David Adom rescue service said the shooters had fired through the windscreen of his car and paramedics arriving at the scene in the central West Bank found the man unresponsive in his car. Sunday’s deaths bring to five the total number of Israelis killed in the West Bank since Oct 7, and the Palestinian death toll in the same period to 322, according to the UN. The West Bank was witnessing one of its most violent years in the past two decades before Hamas’s Oct 7 attack that killed 1,200 Israelis. Since then, the Israeli army has stepped up deadly raids in the West Bank amid a surge in settler attacks against Palestinians. The UK, US and other Western nations have called on Israel to do more to prevent settler violence.

Six Palestinians, Israeli police officer killed in West Bank clashes- officials
JENIN, West Bank (Reuters)/January 7, 2024
Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday, and an Israeli police officer was killed, Israeli officials said. Israel said its aircraft fired on Palestinian militants who had attacked troops in the city of Jenin. The Palestinian ministry said the strike targeted people who had gathered at the site. Eyewitnesses said the attack happened as Israeli forces were withdrawing. Four of those killed were brothers, according to family members. Mujahid Nazzal, a Palestinian doctor and first responder at the scene, told Reuters one of the dead was hit directly by a missile and the strike also seriously wounded a seventh person. Another witness, Ahmed Suleiman, said, "The air strike happened at the entrance of Jenin in an area called Martyr's Triangle. You can see the effects of the missile. Blood and body parts scattered everywhere."An Israeli border police officer was killed and others wounded when their vehicle was hit by an explosive device during operations in Jenin, the Israeli military and police said. A helicopter helped rescue them with covering fire, the military said, adding that an aircraft fired at a "terrorist squad that hurled explosives and endangered our forces, a number of terrorists were killed". The Jenin Brigade, an armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack on the Israeli security forces. The West Bank had already seen its highest levels of unrest in decades during the 18 months before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the militant Hamas group that rules Gaza. Confrontations in the West Bank have risen sharply since Israeli forces launched their retaliatory offensive on Gaza, seeking to wipe out Hamas. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers over the past weeks and security forces have made thousands of arrests.

For Israel's hostage families, despondency sets in as world attention shifts
TEL AVIV (Reuters)/January 7, 2024
As Israel's vigil for its hostages in Gaza moves into a fourth month, a sense that time is passing while world attention shifts elsewhere has deepened the anguish felt by their families as hopes have faded for a deal to secure their release. The weekly demonstrations attract crowds in the thousands but developments like the presumed assassination in Lebanon last week of Saleh Al-Arouri, the deputy leader of Hamas, and political rows about the future of Gaza after the war have left families feeling increasingly left behind. "There's an aspect of, kind of, hopelessness," said Rebecca Brindza, a former senior executive at a Tel Aviv start-up, who left her paid employment to help the hostage families organise in one of the multitude of self-help groups that emerged from the trauma of events on Oct. 7. "A lot of us feel like the world kind of stopped on October 7th," she said. "And I think right now, what we're seeing is that the world in many ways is moving on."Of around 240 people taken captive on Oct. 7, almost half were released by Hamas during a brief truce in November. Stories like those of nine year-old Emily Hand, 17 year-old Mia Leimberg, who survived two months' captivity with her dog, or 85 year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, who described berating Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza when she met him in a tunnel, drew media attention around the world. For the families of those still in Gaza, there is only uncertainty. "Every minute there is critical. Every minute that they wait or linger with the hostage release can cost them their lives," said Sharon Alony-Cunio, 34, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, whose husband David remained in Gaza when she and their twin three-year-old girls were released during the truce. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a special parliamentary session in December that bringing all the hostages home was a "sacred mission" for Israel and he has met hostage families on several occasions. At the same time, he insists that the best way to force Hamas to free the hostages is military pressure. "We will not give Hamas any immunity whatsoever," he said on Saturday. As Israel settles in for a war that officials say could last for most of the coming year, the signs suggest the government's priority is defeating Hamas and killing or capturing senior leaders like Sinwar or military commander Mohammed Deif. "It's an impossible equation," said Aviv Bushinski, a political analyst who worked with Netanyahu as a consultant in a previous government. "Defeating Hamas and bringing the hostages home became something everybody said but we all know that this equation cannot coincide because naturally some or most of them are human shields for Sinwar."
'FAMILIES TORN APART'
As Israel's invasion of Gaza continues, and the death toll among Palestinians climbs to near 23,000, according to Palestinian health officials, world attention has increasingly shifted to the victims of the bombardment and away from the hostages and the 1,200 Israelis and foreigners killed by Hamas on the first day of the war. The mood appears far from the outpouring of emotion seen in November when much of Israel gathered in front of televisions to watch the first of the hostages return home, brought to safety in Red Cross landcruisers. For some from the leftish kibbutzim communities around Gaza, where many had hoped to build bridges with the Palestinians, there is also the sense that they had underestimated the threat from Hamas, Brindza said. "Hamas does not want Israel to exist," she said. "They don't want any of these people here." But while most of Israel supports the military operation, many hostage families appear ambivalent, not necessarily opposed to the war on Hamas, which has made clear it would repeat the Oct. 7 attack if possible, but aware of the danger the longer fighting continues. It is unclear exactly how many of the 136 thought to remain in Gaza are still alive but at least 23 have been declared dead by Israeli authorities. The death of three escaped hostages, mistakenly shot by Israeli troops last month as they tried to identify themselves, provided a bitter lesson in the risks they face. "I understand the importance of returning the security to the area, especially as someone who lives in a community by the fence, but not at the expense of our citizens," said Sharon Alony-Cunio. "The citizens must come before all else." For those who have returned, they must live with the memory of the ordeal, for the most part unable to return to their homes near Gaza while the invasion of the enclave, launched in October continues and the hostages left behind face an uncertain wait. "The families being reunited is wonderful and it is moving, but it's not just a saying that our hearts are still (with the hostages) in Gaza - so many families have been torn apart," Alony-Cunio said.

IDF releases picture of wanted Hamas military chief clutching wad of US dollars
The Telegraph/January 7, 2024
Israel’s military has released a new picture of Hamas’s shadowy military commander clutching a wad of US dollars while relaxing outdoors as it continues to hunt him down in Gaza. The image shows Mohammed Deif, the leader of the terror group’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, casually checking his watch as he clutches a half-full plastic cup in one hand and a wad of US dollar notes in the other. It was found among some 70 million digital files the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had unearthed in Gaza, where he is believed to be hiding out in the terror group’s sprawling network of underground tunnels. Nicknamed The Guest for his habit of continually moving around within the enclave to avoid detection by the Israelis, he is believed to have been responsible for orchestrating Hamas’s murderous Oct 7 rampage. The Israeli military did not say when or where the photo was taken, or exactly how or where its forces obtained the image. The new image shows the grey-haired 58-year-old sitting on a sandy bank in front of two pairs of shoes and alongside an unidentified man, who appears to be counting a stash of US dollars. His right eye appears to be missing. A shadowy figure, he has been on Israel’s most wanted list for nearly three decades and has survived at least seven assassination attempts that left him with impaired sight and movement. His wife, infant son and three-year-old daughter were reportedly killed amid the attempts on his life. Reports last month by Israeli media suggested IDF troops had uncovered video footage in Gaza which showed him walking without assistance, albeit with a slight limp, and a wheelchair that he may have used while traversing Hamas’s tunnel network owing to his injuries from the assassination attempts. Born in Khan Younis in Gaza in 1965, he has been described as the “Cat with nine lives” because of the number of assassination attempts he has survived. He also goes by the names Mohammed Diab and Mohammed al-Masri. Photographs of the Hamas commander are rare. Last week Israeli media published one image reportedly taken in 2018 at a social event, which had also been uncovered by the Israeli military in Gaza.
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Israel conducts airstrike on car carrying Al-Jazeera journalist
Adam Schrader/United Press International/ January 7, 2024
Israel conducted an airstrike Friday on a car that was carrying an Al-Jazeera journalist and a freelance journalist who contributed to France's AFP newswire. The two journalists were identified as Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya and a third passenger in the car, identified as Hazem Rajab, was also killed, Al-Jazeera reported. Hamza Dahdouh was the son of Wael Dahdouh, the news organization's bureau chief in Gaza. Wael Dahdouh was injured in a strike in December. The younger Dahdouh and his colleague Thuraya were on their way to interview civilians who have been forcibly displaced by Israel's bombing of residential houses in Gaza. "Hamza was everything to me, the eldest boy, he was the soul of my soul," Wael Dahdouh said as his son was buried on Saturday. "These are the tears of parting and loss, the tears of humanity."Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera strongly condemned the attack in a statement that said the slaying of the journalists "reaffirms the need to take immediate necessary legal measures against the occupation forces to ensure that there is no impunity." The Committee to Protect Journalists has previously blasted Israel's war on Palestine for its "record toll" on journalists. "The Israeli army has killed more journalists in 10 weeks than any other army or entity has in any single year. And with every journalist killed, the war becomes harder to document and to understand," said CPJ's Sherif Mansour. At least 68 journalists had been killed since the latest iteration of the war began as of mid-December. But journalists have been killed by Israel throughout the decades-long conflict between Palestine and Israel. In 2022, the Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was shot by an Israeli soldier raiding a refugee camp in the West Bank, Palestine. "Journalists are civilians and must be treated as such under international humanitarian law," said Mansour in December. "It's imperative we see independent, transparent investigations into the latest pattern of killings. In addition, the Israeli army must end its muzzling of international media by allowing them to report from Gaza, stop its harassment of journalists in the West Bank, and allow the free flow of information and humanitarian aid into Gaza."

Israel cabinet slated to vote on 2024 war budget this week -Finance Minister
JERUSALEM (Reuters)/January 7, 2024
Israel's cabinet is set to approve a 2024 wartime budget on Thursday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday, after ministers approved 9 billion shekels ($2.5 billion) in financial support for military reservists. "The state of Israel puts the reservists and their families at the center and this is the anchor of the budget for 2024 that we will deliver this weekend," Smotrich said in a joint statement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Israel last year approved a two-year budget for 2023 and 2024, but the war against Hamas in Gaza has shaken government finances, requiring budget changes and additional spending. In December parliament approved a special war budget for 2023 of nearly 30 billion shekels to help fund the war and compensate those impacted by Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks that sparked the war. Smotrich's spokesman clarified that the budget vote would likely take place on Thursday but offered no further details. The Finance Ministry has said that the war will likely cost at least another 50 billion shekels in 2024 and result in a near-tripling of its budget deficit to around 6% of GDP, in a projection that fighting will last through February. The Bank of Israel is urging the government to rein in spending unrelated to the war to balance out the additional defence and home-front expenses, saying looser fiscal policy could slow the pace of interest rate reductions.

Genocidal acts: South Africa files complaint against Israel at the International Court of Justice
LBCI/January 7, 2024
For the past three months, global appeals have failed to deter Israel from its destructive war on Gaza. Now, with South Africa filing a complaint against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, questions arise about the potential for curbing the aggression.
Why South Africa specifically?
Over four decades, South Africa endured apartheid policies imposed by white rulers, suffering under a system that translates to "apartheid" or discrimination in Afrikaans. Drawing parallels between the persecution faced by Palestinians under Israeli occupation and its own history, South Africa filed an 84-page complaint in December. The country accuses Israel of violating its commitments under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, a pact signed by both Israel and South Africa. Article 4 of this convention stipulates the punishment of perpetrators of genocide, whether they are government officials, public servants, or individuals.
What are the details of these alleged acts?
In its complaint, South Africa lists actions committed by Israel since October 7, stating that they bear characteristics of genocide, including:
-Israel's killing of over 22,000 Palestinians in Gaza, with the majority being women and children.
- Israel's targeting of hospitals and residential areas through bombings and blockades.
- Forced collective displacement and deprivation of Palestinians from sufficient food and water supplies.
The Israeli president stated, "There is no distinction between armed fighters and civilians in Gaza; it is the responsibility of the [Gaza] people as a whole."On November 11, an Israeli minister said, "We will inflict another Nakba on Gaza." Israel rejected the case for every evidence presented by South Africa, claiming it had "no merit" despite presenting proof. However, Israel remains obligated to send representatives to the court, represented by British lawyer Malcolm Shaw, an expert in regional conflicts.
As usual, Washington supports Israel's stance.
With the complaint set to be heard on January 11, Israel is diplomatically pressuring to avoid a potential court order by the Court of Justice demanding a halt to its military operation in Gaza. While court decisions are non-binding, they carry significant moral weight, impacting any condemned state.

Jordan king presses Blinken on Gaza ceasefire, aid
AFP/January 07, 2024
AMMAN: Jordan’s king urged the top United States diplomat on Sunday to push for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and an end to the humanitarian crisis brought by three months of war, the royal palace said. King Abdullah II made the remarks to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on a Middle East tour aiming to ensure the Israel-Hamas war does not spread. The war that began on October 7 with an unprecedented attack against Israel by Gaza-based Hamas militants triggered relentless retaliatory bombardment by Israel, leaving Gazans desperately in need of humanitarian aid.
King Abdullah warned Blinken against “the catastrophic repercussions of continuation of the aggression against Gaza, underlining the necessity of ending the tragic humanitarian crisis” there, a statement from the royal palace said. The king reiterated “the important role of the United States in bringing pressure for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, protection of civilians, and guaranteeing delivery” of medical and humanitarian aid. Washington has twice exercised its veto at the United Nations Security Council over cease-fire calls, drawing outrage in the Arab world, and Blinken has bypassed Congress to rush weapons to Israel.
He and other US officials have, however, become increasingly vocal about the need for Israel to protect civilians in Gaza, where the Hamas-run health ministry says 22,835 people have been killed since October 7. The war began with Hamas’s attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, according to an AFP tally based on the latest official Israeli figures. Militants also took around 250 people hostage, 132 of whom remain captive, Israel says. Blinken, who is seeking to get more aid into besieged Gaza, visited the World Food Programme’s regional coordination warehouse near the Jordanian capital. Inside the warehouse, stocked with pallets of canned food aid, the senior UN official in Jordan, Sheri Ritsema-Anderson, described the situation in Gaza as unlike anything she had seen during 15 years in the Middle East. It is “catastrophic,” she told reporters.
Blinken said “it is imperative that we maximize assistance to people in need,” by getting the aid in and distributing it effectively. “We’ll be working on that as well in the days to come,” he said at the warehouse. King Abdullah, whose country signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, also reaffirmed the need for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian question and underlined Jordan’s “total rejection” of any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Washington also insists on a two-state solution, something rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, some of whose cabinet members have called for Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza to leave. Regional tensions have soared since Tuesday when a strike in a Beirut stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally, killed Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh Al-Arouri. A US Defense Department official has told AFP that Israel carried out the strike. Blinken arrived in Jordan from Turkiye and Greece, where he said there is “real concern” over the Israel-Lebanon border, which even before the Aruri strike had seen regular exchanges of fire largely between Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, and Israeli forces.
“We want to do everything possible to make sure that we don’t see escalation there” and to avoid an “endless cycle of violence,” Blinken said. The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell carried a similar message on a visit to Beirut Saturday. “It is imperative to avoid regional escalation in the Middle East. It is absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict,” Borrell said. Blinken was also traveling on Sunday to Qatar and to Abu Dhabi.

Blinken says Turkey committed to 'positive' role in postwar Gaza as he opens diplomatic push
Associated Press/January 7, 2024
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that Turkey is committed to playing "a positive, productive" role for postwar Gaza and prepared to use its influence in the region to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from broadening even more. The latest Mideast mission by America's top diplomat opened with talks in Turkey and Greece before shifting to the region for "not necessarily easy conversations" with allies and partners about what they are willing to do "to build durable peace and security."Blinken's fourth visit in three months comes as developments in Lebanon, northern Israel, the Red Sea and Iraq have put intense strains on what had been a modestly successful U.S. push to prevent a regional conflagration since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and as international criticism of Israel's military operation mounts. Blinken held meetings with Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, in Istanbul about what Turkey and others can do to exert influence, particularly on Iran and its proxies, to ease tensions, speed humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza and begin planning for reconstruction and governance of postwar Gaza. Much of the territory has been reduced to rubble by Israeli bombardments. In Chania, a port city on the Mediterranean island of Crete, Blinken later visited with Greece's prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at his residence. "These are difficult and challenging times," Mitsotakis said. Blinken's day was ending in Jordan, with stops in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Sunday and Monday. Blinken will visit Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday and Wednesday before wrapping up the trip in Egypt. He said his priorities are protecting civilians — "far too many Palestinians have been killed" — getting more humanitarian aid into Gaza, ensuring Hamas cannot strike again and developing a framework for Palestinian-led governance in the territory and "a Palestinian state with security assurances or Israel."The ultimate goal, he said, is lasting peace, and his talks will focuses on what U.S. allies and partners are prepared to do to help with that process. "These are not necessarily easy conversations. There are different perspectives, different needs, different requirements, but it is vital that we engage in this diplomacy now both for the sake of Gaza itself and more broadly the sake of the future for Israelis and Palestinians and for the region as a whole," Blinken said. "There is clearly a strong desire among the majority of people in the region for a future that is one of peace, of security, of de-escalation of conflicts, of integration of countries and that's one path, that's one future. The other future is an endless cycle of violence, a repetition of the horrific events that we've seen and lives of insecurity and conflict for people in the region, which is what virtually no one wants."Turkey, and Erdogan in particular, have been harshly critical of Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the prosecution of the war and the impact it has had on Palestinian civilians.
But Blinken told reporters before he flew from Crete to Amman that "from our conversations today, it's clear that Turkey is prepared to play a positive, productive role in the work that needs to happen the day after the conflict ends and as well more broadly in trying to find a path to sustainable peace and security.'' Blinken would not go in details about what he heard from the Turkish officials.
``I think they're also prepared … to use the ties, the influence they have, the relationships they have with some of the critical players and some of the critical countries in the region to do everything possible to deescalate and to prevent the conflict from spreading. ... They clearly have a shared interest with us in doing just that and I'm confident from these conversations that they're going to make every possible effort," Blinken said. Hours before Blinken's meetings, Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militia fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel and said the barrage was an initial response to the targeted killing, presumably by Israel, of a top leader from the allied Hamas group in Lebanon's capital this past week.
Stepped-up attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have disrupted international trade and led to increased efforts by the U.S. and its allies to patrol the vital commercial waterway and respond to threats. The coalition of countries issued what amounted to a final warning to the Houthis on Wednesday to cease their attacks on vessels or face potential targeted military action. Since Dec. 19, the militants have carried out at least two dozen attacks in response to the Israel-Hamas war. From the Turkish officials, Blinken sought at least consideration of potential monetary or in-kind contributions to reconstruction efforts in Gaza and participation in security arrangements, according to U.S. officials. Blinken also stressed the importance that the U.S. places on Turkey's ratification of Sweden's membership in NATO, a long-delayed process that the Turks have said they will complete soon. Sweden's entry to the alliance is seen as a significant response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A Turkish official said Fidan told Blinken that Israel's "increasing aggression" in Gaza was a threat to the region and he called for an immediate cease-fire and the delivery of "uninterrupted" humanitarian aid. Fidan said negotiations for a two-state solution should begin "as soon as possible," according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issues in the private talks. Fidan also said Turkey was awaiting the outcome of its request to upgrade its fleet of F-16 fighter jets and stressed that the ratification of Sweden's NATO membership lay in the hands of the Turkish parliament.

Israel says part of Hamas 'dismantled' as war enters fourth month
Agence France Presse/January 7, 2024
Israel said it had "dismantled" Hamas' military leadership in northern Gaza as its war against the Palestinian group entered a fourth month Sunday, with fears mounting that the conflict could spread into neighboring Lebanon. Israel carried out air strikes in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis early Sunday. Israel's army said late Saturday it had "completed the dismantling of the Hamas military framework in the northern Gaza Strip" and its forces would now focus on central and southern areas of the territory. The war in Gaza was triggered by an unprecedented attack on Israel launched by Hamas on October 7, which resulted in the alleged deaths of around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The militants also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israel. At least 24 are believed to have been killed.
In response, Israel is carrying out a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that have killed at least 22,722 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel would continue its campaign to "eliminate Hamas, return our hostages and ensure that Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel."Netanyahu was under growing pressure on Saturday with demonstrators gathering in Tel Aviv's Habima Square to call for early elections and the resignation of his government. "Bibi Netanyahu and all the rest of his idiots are ruining Israel and they are destroying everything we hoped and dreamed of," Shachaf Netzer, 54, told AFP. "Everybody here wants an election."
'Uninhabitable' -
AFP correspondents reported Israeli strikes on Saturday in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter from the fighting. Victims of the bombardment were brought to the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, where relatives and mourners gathered. One of them, Mohamed Awad, wept over the body of a 12-year-old boy and counted the deaths in his family. "My brother, his wife, his children, his relatives and the brothers of his wife -- there are more than 20 martyrs," Awad, a journalist, told AFP. Civilians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip have borne the brunt of the conflict as the scale of the destruction has triggered mass displacement and a deepening humanitarian crisis. With swathes of the territory reduced to rubble, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths on Friday said "Gaza has simply become uninhabitable."The World Health Organization says most of Gaza's 36 hospitals have been put out of action by the fighting, while remaining medical facilities face dire shortages. International aid group Doctors Without Borders said it had evacuated its staff from Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza after a bullet penetrated a wall in the intensive care unit. "The situation became so dangerous that some staff living in the neighbouring areas were not able to leave their houses because of the constant threats of drones and snipers," said Carolina Lopez, the group's emergency coordinator at the hospital.
Diplomatic push
Top Western diplomats were in the region over the weekend as part of a fresh push to boost the flow of aid into Gaza and address mounting fears of a wider conflict. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Jordan on Sunday during a Middle East tour that will take him to Israel and the occupied West Bank next week. "One of the real concerns is the border between Israel and Lebanon, and we want to do everything possible to make sure we see no escalation," he told reporters in Greece, where he stopped before continuing to Jordan. Blinken was due to hold talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II before heading to Qatar and Abu Dhabi later in the day.

Palestinians must be able to stay in Gaza - Blinken
BBC/January 7, 2024
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Palestinians must not be put under pressure to leave Gaza, and must be allowed to return to their homes once conditions allow. Mr Blinken condemned statements from some Israeli ministers who have called for the resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza.
The US official was in Qatar on his latest Middle East tour.
He was speaking as the siege on Gaza entered its fourth month.
More than 22,000 people - mostly women and children - have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. It has reported at least 113 deaths over 24 hours of Israeli bombardment.
The latest war was triggered by an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on 7 October, in which 1,200 people were killed - most of them civilians - and about 240 others taken hostage.
Why are Israel and Hamas fighting in Gaza?
"Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow," Mr Blinken said. "They cannot, they must not be pressed to leave Gaza."Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for Palestinians to leave Gaza and make way for Israelis who could "make the desert bloom".
And National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir this week issued a call "to encourage the migration of Gaza residents" as a "solution" to the crisis. The official line from the Israeli government is that Gazans will eventually be able to return to their homes, though it has yet to outline how or when this will be possible.
Mr Blinken's trip comes amid rising tensions in the region, with concerns that the war in Gaza could spread.
Saleh al-Arouri, a top Hamas official, was assassinated in a suspected Israeli attack in southern Beirut on Tuesday along with six others - two Hamas military commanders and four other members. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-backed movement in Lebanon, described Arouri's assassination as a "flagrant Israeli aggression" that would not go unpunished. Hezbollah then fired rockets into Israel on Saturday as a "preliminary response" to the killing of Arouri. Hamas leader's assassination sparks wider war fears
"This is a moment of profound tension in the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering," Mr Blinken said. Qatar's PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al -Thani said that the killing of Arouri had affected "the complicated process".
Mr Blinken also said that the death of journalist Hamza al-Dahdouh, the eldest son of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief who was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Gaza., was "an unimaginable tragedy". He added that "far too many innocent Palestinian men, women and children" have died in the war.
Mr Blinken arrived in Qatar following stops in Jordan, Turkey and Greece. He went on to Abu Dhabi late Sunday, and on Monday is due to travel to Saudi Arabia.

Al Jazeera bureau chief's son Hamza al-Dahdouh among journalists killed in Gaza
Shaimaa Khalil - BBC News, Jerusalem/January 7, 2024
The eldest son of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief has been killed in an Israeli strike in southern Gaza. Hamza al-Dahdouh, an Al Jazeera network journalist and cameraman, was with other journalists on a road between Khan Younis and Rafah when a drone strike hit. Freelance journalist Mustafa Thuraya was also killed. Four other members of bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh's family were also killed in October. His wife Amna, his grandchild Adam, his 15-year-old son Mahmoud and seven-year-old daughter Sham all died in an Israeli strike. According to Hisham Zaqout, an Al Jazeera correspondent, Hamza and a group of journalists were en route to the Moraj area northeast of Rafah - which was designated a "humanitarian zone" by the Israeli army - but which had reportedly experienced recent bombings. Many displaced Gazans had fled to the area to escape the bombardment in other regions of the territory. Hamza had intended to report on the unfolding situation and the aftermath of the bombings in the area, according to Al Jazeera. It also showed his father Wael al-Dahdouh in tears, holding his hand and standing next to his body in a morgue in Khan Younis. He was buried in the southern city of Rafah. "Hamza was not just part of me. He was the whole of me. He was the soul of my soul. These are tears of sadness, of loss. These are tears of humanity," his father said at the funeral. "I call on the world to look closely at what's happening in Gaza."Wael al-Dahdouh was himself wounded and his cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa was killed in a separate strike while filming last month. Mr al-Dahdouh, who has eight children, continued reporting on the war in Gaza. Hamza al-Dahdouh had one million followers on Instagram. His final post before he was killed was about his father. "You are steadfast and patient. Do not despair of God's mercy. Be certain that he will reward you," he said. Al Jazeera condemned the killing and what it said was the "targeting" of Palestinian journalists in Gaza. "Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemns the Israeli occupation forces' targeting of Palestinian journalists' car," the company said in a statement, accusing Israel of "violating the principles of freedom of the press". The BBC has contacted the IDF for comment. Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told the BBC's World This Weekend that "Israel does not deliberately target journalists". "We're the only country in the Middle East that actually does have a free press. We're the only country in the entire region where the press can write bad things and criticise the leaders of government," he said. "To say Israel deliberately targets the press is ridiculous, we're the only country that actually enshrines the free press."More than 75 journalists have been killed since the war in Gaza started. More than 22,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Iran must stop 'destabilising acts' to avoid regional escalation says French FM
RFI/January 7, 2024
France's foreign minister told her Iranian counterpart Saturday that "Iran and its affiliates" must stop "destabilising acts" that could spark a broader conflict in the Middle East amid the war in Gaza. During a telephone call with Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Catherine Colonna "delivered a very clear message: the risk of regional conflagration has never been so great; Iran and its affiliates must immediately cease their destabilising acts", according to a statement on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. "Nobody would win from escalation," it added. Their call came after the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon said it had targeted an Israeli base with 62 missiles in an "initial response" to the killing of Hamas's deputy leader in Beirut. France's Macron calls for restraint after Israeli killing of Hamas deputy. Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas militants from Gaza after their lightning attack on Israel on 7 October, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to a tally based on official figures. Israel since then has been carrying out a relentless bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza that have killed at least 22,722 people, most of them women and children, according to the territory's health ministry. The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the strike, which added to fears of a wider conflict in the region. He is expected to hold meetings with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Russia is on course to lose 500,000 troops by end of 2024, after turning its forces into a 'low quality, high quantity mass army,' says UK intel
Alia Shoaib/Business Insider/January 7, 2024
Russia is on course to have lost half a million soldiers by the end of the year, the UK Ministry of Defense said.
Russia's forces have become "a low quality, high quantity mass army," the department said.
It will likely take Russia five to 10 years to rebuild its forces to a high standard.
Russia is on course to have lost half a million soldiers by the end of the year, the UK Ministry of Defense said. Russia's forces have become "a low quality, high quantity mass army," the department said. It will likely take Russia five to 10 years to rebuild its forces to a high standard. Russia is on course to have lost a total of 500,000 soldiers by the end of this year if casualties continue at their current rate, the UK Ministry of Defense said. The average daily number of Russian casualties in Ukraine has risen by almost 300 during the last year, the department noted, citing data from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Neither Business Insider nor the UK's MOD could independently verify the methodology used by the Ukrainian General Staff. But the MOD previously said the figures are "plausible," putting it down to mounting casualty figures from Russia's attacks on Avdiivka, a small town on the edge of occupied Donetsk. The increased casualty rate reflects how the quality of the Russian military decreased following the partial mobilization of military reservists in September 2022, the department said. The mobilization turned Russian forces into "a low quality, high quantity mass army," according to the department. Russia shows 'no regard for the lives of its own soldiers' Analysts have said that Russia is employing "human wave" tactics in Ukraine, in which large numbers of poorly trained soldiers are sent to the battlefield and die in high numbers. One example of this tactic was a recent report of near-suicidal attacks on a section of the eastern front in which Russian forces repeatedly tried to commit identical tank assaults in the same part of a Ukrainian forest that was thwarted by Ukrainian forces seven times. John Kirby, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, said that the tactic demonstrated that Russia "continues to show no regard for the lives of its own soldiers, willingly sacrificing them in pursuit of Putin's goals." The UK defense department said it will likely take Russia five to 10 years to rebuild a cohort of "highly trained, experienced readiness force. "Russia has been secretive about the numbers of its casualties, but US intelligence estimates that around 315,000 of Russia's troops have been killed or injured since the beginning of the war. This is believed to be around 90% of the personnel it had when the war began.

North Korea again fires near the sea border with the South, as its leader's sister mocks Seoul
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)/January 7, 2024
North Korea again fired artillery shells near its tense sea boundary with the South on Sunday, as the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un mocked the South's ability to detect its weapons launches. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff dismissed Kim Yo Jong’s statement as “a comedy-like, vulgar propaganda” meant to undermine the South Korean people’s trust in the military and stoke divisions. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired more than more than 90 rounds near the rivals’ disputed western sea boundary on Sunday afternoon. It said South Korea strongly urged North Korea to stop provocative acts immediately. North Korea’s military later confirmed it used coastal artillery systems to carry out live-firing exercises. It said the drills were part of its military training schedules and the direction of its shells fired didn’t expose any threat to South Korea. On Friday, North Korea launched about 200 shells. South Korea also claimed that the North fired more than 60 rounds on Saturday, but its rival has denied that. Kim Yo Jong said that North Korea on Saturday only detonated blasting powder simulating the sound of its coastal artillery on the seashore, to test the South Korean military’s detection capabilities. “The result was clear as we expected. They misjudged the blasting sound as the sound of gunfire and conjectured it as a provocation. And they even made a false and impudent statement that the shells dropped north” of the sea boundary, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.
“I cannot but say that (South Korean) people are very pitiful as they entrust security to such blind persons and offer huge taxes to them,” she said. “It is better 10 times to entrust security to a dog with a developed sense of hearing and smell.” Animosities between the two Koreas are running high because North Korea has conducted a barrage of missile tests since 2022 while South Korea has expanded its military training with the United States in a tit-for-tat cycle. North Korea’s artillery firings Friday prompted South Korea to have its troops on border islands fire artillery rounds near the sea boundary in response. The shells launched by the two Koreas fell at a maritime buffer zone they had established under a 2018 military agreement on lowering front-line military tensions. The agreement requires the Koreas to halt live-fire exercises, aerial surveillance and other hostile acts along their border, but the deal is now in danger of collapsing because the two Koreas have taken measures breaching it. Experts say North Korea is likely to ramp up weapons tests and escalate its trademark fiery rhetoric against its rivals ahead of South Korea’s parliamentary elections in April and the U.S. presidential elections in November. They say Kim Jong Un likely thinks a bolstered weapons arsenal would allow him to wrest greater U.S. concessions if former President Donald Trump returns to the White House. In her statement Sunday, Kim Yo Jong called South Korea’s military “gangsters” and “clowns in military uniforms.” She also suggested South Korea’s possible future miscalculation of North Korean moves could cause an accidental clash between the rivals, jeopardizing the safety of Seoul, a city of 10 million people which is only an hour’s drive from the land border. On Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong issued a statement calling South Korean conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol “foolishly brave” but his liberal predecessor Moon Jae-in “very smart." South Korean analysts say she was attempting to help muster those opposing Yoon's tougher policy on North Korea ahead of the April elections.
Hyung-jin Kim, The Associated Press

Russian forces suffer 493 casualties in a day on Tavria front
The New Voice of Ukraine/January 7, 2024
Ukrainian forces on the Tavria front eliminated 493 Russian soldiers in a 24-hour period, with approximately 10 surrendering as prisoners of war, Commander Oleksandr Tarnavskyi of the Tavria Operational-Strategic Group reported on Telegram on Jan. 7. The enemy conducted 32 air raids, eight missile strikes, and 1007 artillery bombardments, within the operational zone in the past day, said Tarnavskyi. He added that there were 38 combat clashes during the same period. “Our defenders steadfastly maintain the defense and actively engage on designated fronts,” said Tarnavskyi. “The total losses of the enemy in the past day amounted to 493 individuals and 46 units of military equipment.”The commander specified that the following were destroyed:
One tank
8 armored vehicles (APCs)
12 artillery systems
Two anti-aircraft missile systems
12 UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)
10 vehicles
One piece of special equipment
Additionally, three ammunition depots were destroyed.
Earlier, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported the liquidation of 860 Russian troops in the country within the past day.
The overall losses of the Russian army since the beginning of the full-scale invasion exceed 364,000 military personnel.

UN Yemen envoy outlines ‘roadmap’ to lasting peace in the country
ASHARQ AL-AWSAT/January 07, 2024
LONDON: The UN’s envoy for Yemen has laid out a roadmap for peace in the country, which he says is reliant on solid commitments from the internationally recognized government and the Iran-backed Houthis. In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper published on Sunday, Hans Grundberg said any peace plan in Yemen would need to be implemented in phases and was also dependent on securing a lasting ceasefire and ensuring the withdrawal of non-Yemeni forces from the country. The “non-Yemeni forces” includes the Arab Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, Iran’s Quds Force, which is responsible for foreign operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Sources have told Asharq Al-Awsat that the withdrawal would be “connected to completing the first phase” of the peace plan, which would likely take up to six months. Grundberg told the newspaper that one of the main obstacles to a lasting peace was the lack of trust between the warring parties, which he had been seeking to rebuild since he took up his post in August 2021. “The goal of UN mediation is a serious political dialogue that clearly gears towards ending the conflict and provides for sustainable peace and delivers the future that Yemenis aspire for, a future of accountable governance, economic development, and equal citizenship,” he said. “The parties have already committed to working with us to achieve this goal. And we are keen to ensure that the roadmap articulates the parties’ clear commitment to tangible steps towards resuming an inclusive political process that is Yemeni-owned under UN auspices,” he added. During the interview, Grundberg also highlighted the need for the Houthis to respect international maritime law and cease its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the need for a peaceful resolution to unrest in the south of the country and the importance of youth and female participation in the political process in a post-war Yemen.

France and Iran discuss risks to Mideast stability
REUTERS/January 06, 2024
PARIS: France’s foreign minister said on Saturday that she had told her Iranian counterpart that the risk of a Middle East regional conflagration had never been greater and that Tehran and its proxies needed to end their destabilising activities. “Iran and its associates must immediately stop their destabilising actions,” Catherine Colonna said on social media platform X after speaking with Hossein Amirabdollahian. “No one would gain from escalation.”Amirabdollahian said the only way to quell conflict was to resolve the root causes, Iran’s state media reported. “An effective step in ending violence in the region would be to stop the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as taking action to stop the killing of civilians, facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and prevent forced migration,” the minister added.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 07-08/2024
'A Gory Christmas': Christians Slaughtered in the Nigerian Genocide
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/January 07, 2024
"Every two hours [in Nigeria], a Christian is killed for their faith." — Open Doors, April 22, 2022.
[T]he Associated Press (AP) failed to mention that the massacres occurred during Christmas, just as it failed to mention the identities of the attackers (Muslims) and their victims (Christians). Rather, it presented the conflict, as many commentators increasingly do, as a supposedly regrettable byproduct of climate change...
"It's tough to tell Nigerian Christians this isn't a religious conflict since what they see are Fulani fighters clad entirely in black, chanting 'Allahu Akbar!' and screaming 'Death to Christians.'" — Sister Monica Chikwe, Nigerian nun, cruxnow.com, August 4, 2019.
In 2020, President Donald J. Trump placed Nigeria on the State Department's List of Countries of Particular Concern — that is, nations which engage in, or tolerate violations of, religious freedom. Under President Joseph R. Biden, however, the State Department removed Nigeria... from the list.
[F]or the mainstream media and many politicians, black lives — well over 50,000 and counting — apparently do not matter. At least not when those lives are Christian and being slaughtered by Muslims.
Muslims are now openly committing genocide against Christians in Nigeria, as confirmed by international observers. For the mainstream media and many politicians, black lives — well over 50,000 and counting — apparently do not matter. At least not when those lives are Christian and being slaughtered by Muslims. Pictured: The bloodstained floor of St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo State, Nigeria, on June 5, 2022, the day Islamic terrorists murdered more than 50 Christians who were peacefully worshipping there. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Today, January 7, 2024, marks the Eastern Orthodox Christmas, according to the Julian calendar. It seems an appropriate time to recall that less than two weeks ago, on December 25, 2023, the more familiar Roman Catholic and Protestant Christmas was being celebrated in the West. This winter, however, festivities were cancelled. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, was a ghost town . "This year," said Brother John Vinh a Franciscan monk, "without the Christmas tree and without lights, there's just darkness." Alas, for many other Christians, Christmas was also just darkness.
While around much of the world, the holiday was being celebrated with peace and joy, in Nigeria, starting on Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day, Muslims massacred nearly 200 Christians.
During this holy time, "well-armed" Muslim Fulani tribesmen hacked, stabbed, riddled with bullets, and burned alive their Christian victims, many of whom were in the process of celebrating Christmas.
According to one report:
"At least 25 communities across three Local Government Areas [in Plateau State] were targeted. Survivors recounted militia men attacking in large numbers, indiscriminately killing and destroying homes, vehicles, farmlands and other properties. About 37 individuals, primarily women, children and the disabled, were burned to death in their homes. Eight churches and parsonages were also destroyed..."
The number of slain is expected to rise. "Yes, my village was attacked on Christmas Eve, and other villages close to my community," confirmed Timothy, from there, during an interview.
"More dead bodies were found in the bush today... Many houses were burnt including my church. I can't say how many people were killed but we found more dead bodies today and we are looking for missing ones."
More than 300 Christians were also seriously wounded, 29,350 people displaced, and countless homes and churches — including 221 homes in just one village — torched during the jihadist raids.
Four family members of another villager, Naomi, were murdered and she was displaced. "My house was burned... I mourned on Christmas day," she said.
Several Christian leaders were also slaughtered, including a pastor, his wife and their five children, related Dawzino Mallau, another villager.
"These terrorists who attacked these Christian communities were in the hundreds, and they carried out the attacks as the hapless Christians were preparing for Christmas...."
Underscoring the scale of the attack, photographs show victims being buried in mass graves.
"This indeed has been a gory Christmas for us," Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang said in a statement that characterized the attacks as "well-coordinated" and carried out with "heavy weapons."
Another report said of the massacre:
"Most of the Christians killed were women, children and the elderly unable to escape.... Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in the Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians' lands and impose Islam... Nigeria led the world in Christians killed for their faith in 2022, with 5,014, according to Open Doors' 2023 World Watch List (WWL) report. It also led the world in Christians abducted (4,726), sexually assaulted or harassed, forcibly married or physically or mentally abused, and it had the most homes and businesses attacked for faith-based reasons. As in the previous year, Nigeria had the second most church attacks and internally displaced people."
Due to its "sensationalist" nature — nearly 200 Christians murdered, and during Christmas-time no less — this attack received a fair bit of reporting on larger "alt-right" and conservative news sites. In reality, however, no aspect of these attacks — neither the number of Christians massacred, nor the time of year — is "new" or unique to Nigeria.
As elsewhere, Islamic terrorists in Nigeria target Christians regularly, especially during their holy seasons. Thirteen years ago, during Christmas of 2011, Gatestone Institute reported:
"Several churches in northern Nigeria were bombed December 25 [2011], in what has been described as 'Nigeria's blackest Christmas ever.' The attacks, perpetrated by the Muslim militant group Boko Haram, killed at least 39 people, 'the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church [in Madalla near the capital of Abuja] after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion.' Charred bodies and dismembered limbs lay scattered around the destroyed church."
Sadly, in Nigeria, there have been no shortage of attacks on Christians during Christmas and other holy days. Here are a few examples from before and after 2011's supposedly "blackest Christmas ever":
Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2010: Muslims torched and bombed several churches, leaving at least 38 Christians dead and 74 in critical condition.
Easter Sunday, Apr. 8, 2012: During communion, at least 50 Christians were blown to pieces after explosives went off near the Assemblies of God's Church during Easter Sunday services in a predominantly Muslim region.
Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2012: In two separate attacks, Islamic gunmen shot and killed 12 Christian worshippers who had gathered for Christmas Eve church services, including a pastor.
Easter week, 2013: Muslim herdsmen launched a series of raids, murdering at least 80 Christians—mostly children and the elderly; additionally, over 200 Christian homes were destroyed, eight churches burned, and 4,500 Christians displaced.
Easter Sunday, Apr. 20, 2014: A packed church was set on fire, leaving over 150 dead.
Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 2015: The Islamic group Boko Haram slaughtered 16 Christians, including children.
Pentecost Sunday, June 5, 2022: Terrorists stormed a Catholic church and massacred at least 50 Christians. Videos, according to one report, "showed church worshippers lying in pools of blood while people around them wailed."
The above is just a minuscule sampling of attacks on Christians that were intentionally timed to coincide with their holy days. In reality, the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria is a daily affair. As Open Doors observed in 2022 about Nigeria: "every two hours, a Christian is killed for their faith."
Muslims are now openly committing genocide against Christians in Nigeria, as confirmed by international observers. According to one report, between just 2009 and April 10, 2023, 52,250 Christians "have been butchered or hacked to death" in Nigeria. Since then, that number has continued to grow -- not only due to the 200 slain on Christmas, but the many others who have been slaughtered since April 10, 2023, as documented in the monthly "Persecution of Christians" reports. Also since 2009, 18,000 churches and 2,200 Christian schools were attacked, many "destroyed in part or in whole including being razed or burned down."
In the meantime, the "mainstream media" and politicians have done everything possible to conceal this genocide. They present it as only territorial clashes between herdsmen and farmers.
In its report on last Christmas's slaughter of nearly 200 Christians, for instance, the Associated Press (AP) failed to mention that the massacres occurred during Christmas, just as it failed to mention the identities of the attackers (Muslims) and their victims (Christians). Rather, it presented the conflict, as many commentators increasingly do, as a supposedly regrettable byproduct of climate change – which is, according to them, is forcing herdsmen (Muslims) to encroach on the lands of farmers (Christians).
Similarly, in an the AP report on the 2022 Pentecost Sunday church bombing that left 50 Christian worshippers dead, the words "Muslim," "Islam," or even "Islamist" never appear. Rather, readers were told, "It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the church." To maintain this ambiguity, the AP also failed to point out that Islamic terrorists have routinely stormed churches and slaughtered thousands of Christians "for sport" over the years in Nigeria — a fact that just might have offered a hint as to "who was behind the attack."
Dissembling over what is happening to Nigeria's Christians is, unfortunately, an old "mainstream media" tactic, as reported in 2011, in the article, "Nigeria's Christmas Present - Blowing Up Christians: The New York Times Screws It Up Again".
One only need consider the words of Obama's then-Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, speaking after Muslim terrorists slaughtered 50 Christian church worshippers on Easter Sunday, 2012:
"I want to take this opportunity to stress one key point and that is that religion is not driving extremist violence [in Nigeria]." Instead, "inequality" and "poverty"— to quote former US President William J. Clinton — are "what's fueling all this stuff" ("this stuff" being the massacre of Christians at the hands of Muslims).
As a Nigerian nun, Sister Monica Chikwe, nevertheless observed:
"It's tough to tell Nigerian Christians this isn't a religious conflict since what they see are Fulani fighters clad entirely in black, chanting 'Allahu Akbar!' and screaming 'Death to Christians.'"
The Christian Association of Nigeria rhetorically asked:
"How can it be a [secular or economic] clash when one group [Muslims] is persistently attacking, killing, maiming, destroying, and the other group [Christians] is persistently being killed, maimed and their places of worship destroyed?"
In 2018, the National Christian Elders Forum of Nigeria succinctly summarized the ultimate source behind the genocide of Christians in Nigeria:
"JIHAD has been launched in Nigeria by the Islamists of northern Nigeria led by the Fulani ethnic group. This Jihad is based on the Doctrine of Hate taught in Mosques and Islamic Madrasas in northern Nigeria as well as the supremacist ideology of the Fulani. Using both conventional (violent) Jihad, and stealth (civilization) Jihad, the Islamists of northern Nigeria seem determined to turn Nigeria into an Islamic Sultanate and replace Liberal Democracy with Sharia as the National Ideology. ... We want a Nigeria, where citizens are treated equally before the law at all levels...."
In the midst of the jihadist carnage of Christians has been the Biden administration's bizarre response. In 2020, President Donald J. Trump placed Nigeria on the State Department's List of Countries of Particular Concern — that is, nations which engage in, or tolerate violations of, religious freedom. Under President Joseph R. Biden, however, the State Department removed Nigeria — the nation where one Christian is butchered every two hours — from the list.
Many observers responded by slamming the Biden State Department for this inexplicable move. As Sean Nelson, Legal Counsel for Global Religious Freedom for ADF International, noted:
"Outcry over the State Department's removal of Country of Particular Concern status for Nigeria's religious freedom violations is entirely warranted. No explanations have been given that could justify this decision. If anything, the situation in Nigeria has grown worse over the last year. Thousands of Christians, as well as Muslims who oppose the goals of terrorist and militia groups, are targeted, killed, and kidnapped, and the government is simply unwilling to stop these atrocities. ... Removing Country of Particular Concern status for Nigeria will only embolden the increasingly authoritarian government there."
To his credit, then President Trump, along with placing Nigeria on the list, once asked the then Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, with characteristic bluntness: "Why are you killing Christians?"
Such is the current state of affairs in Nigeria, even on this day of Orthodox Christmas, when a jihad of genocidal proportions has, for 15 years, been waged on the Nigerian Christian population of — even as the American media and government present Nigeria's problems in purely economic terms that defy reality.
Put differently, for the mainstream media and many politicians, black lives — well over 50,000 and counting — apparently do not matter. At least not when those lives are Christian and being slaughtered by Muslims.
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, Sword and Scimitar, Crucified Again, and The Al Qaeda Reader, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 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.

Middle East faces multitude of challenges in 2024
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/January 07/2024
In keeping with tradition, I would like to share my assessment about the major events of 2023 in Turkiye and the region.
A strong earthquake on Feb. 6 shook several southwestern provinces of Turkiye and proved that the government was not prepared for such calamities. Ten provinces were hit and about 6,000 people were killed. The number of wounded is estimated to be about 40,000. The government launched a big campaign to reconstruct the damaged or destroyed buildings.
In terms of domestic policy, the most important event of 2023 was the election day held on March 31. As expected, a majority of the municipalities were won by the ruling Justice and Development Party, known as the AKP. Another important event was the change in the leadership of the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party. It remains to be seen whether the new chairman, Ozgur Ozel, will be able to infuse some dynamism into the century-old party.
Turkiye’s EU accession process continues to be dormant. It was mentioned among the titles of the EU agenda, but it was not debated. The bloc’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell last month mentioned that the European Commission would assess a report regarding the situation and the potential of common areas of interest pertaining to Turkiye. However, it has now been decided to take up this question in a future session. As an explanation, the commission said that it was decided to do so because of the hotter developments in the region.
Ankara volunteered to host, in 2026, the 31st Session of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP31, but it was criticized for not making any active preparation in advance of the event and that it did not have a clear-cut policy on this subject. The Climate Change Performance Index, which is regularly published by a German institution called Germanwatch, hinted that Turkiye’s preparations were too slow.
There is a group of 63 countries that are responsible for 90 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, Turkiye was 47th in this list. It has now dropped to 56th and is included in the category of “very low-performing countries.”
Meanwhile, the thaw in Turkish-Greek relations continued in 2023 and was crowned with a meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council, which met on Dec. 7 in Athens. If both sides continue to demonstrate good will and moderation, there is no reason why these relations cannot continue to normalize.
In the international field, the Ukrainian crisis has dominated the agenda for more than a year, with no prospect of an early outcome. The EU provided Ukraine with only $19.3 billion in 2023. A further $50 billion was promised by the US, but it has so far fallen victim to domestic political considerations.
The mechanisms that were created after the Second World War for the peaceful resolution of conflicts have become ineffective.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that the counteroffensive launched by Kyiv last July did not yield the expected results. He still hopes that his country may win the war with the support of Western countries, but admitted that the international community should be ready to sustain a protracted conflict. More recently, the Gaza crisis has been added to the agenda of international relations. Following its invasion of Ukraine, it was mainly Russia that blocked decisions in the UN Security Council; now, however, the US has taken the lead in doing so. As a result, the mechanisms that were created after the Second World War for the peaceful resolution of conflicts have become ineffective.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tries to promote the idea that “the world is bigger than five (the permanent members of the UNSC),” but with little impact in the international arena. Some leaders have also proposed the introduction of a mechanism to force countries to pay compensation for the damage inflicted on other countries. The EU has decided to start accession negotiations with two more countries, Ukraine and Moldova. Furthermore, Georgia was last month granted candidate status and an EU communique noted that, if Bosnia and Herzegovina sufficiently harmonizes its regulations with the EU, accession negotiations may be initiated with this country as well.
The situation on the Azerbaijani-Armenian front showed some improvements last year. The two governments stated that peace negotiations have already started and that they expected the support of the international community. The negotiations were conducted throughout the year on three different platforms, namely Russia, the US and the EU. No peace treaty has yet been signed, but a positive atmosphere is evolving for potential stability in the region. As a gesture of goodwill, Armenia withdrew its candidacy as a host country for COP29 and supported Azerbaijan’s bid instead.
The issue of climate change continues to be a major worry for the future of our planet. The steps taken so far have remained modest. COP28 was held between Nov. 30 and Dec. 13 in Dubai. The most concrete outcome of the meeting was a document assessing the global situation in the field of the climate. It was admitted that, with a view to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, there is a need for a quick and sustainable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Some 118 states committed themselves to increasing threefold the world’s capacity for renewable energy by 2030.
2023 was a year of important developments for the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, 2024 does not augur well.
*Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkiye and founding member of the ruling AK Party. X: @yakis_yasar

The enduring importance of the Turkish Straits
Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab News/January 07/2024
Turkiye last week refused to allow the UK to move two Royal Navy Sandown-class minehunter ships through the Bosphorus for transfer to the Ukrainian navy on the basis that this would be a violation of the Montreux Convention. This 1936 treaty states that, at times of conflict, “vessels of war belonging to belligerent powers shall not … pass through the Straits.” The Montreux Convention is an international agreement governing the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, which in recent years have returned to the fore. Amid rising instability and geopolitical tensions in the region, the current context is markedly different to the international circumstances at the time the treaty was signed.
As officially announced, Turkiye cited the treaty to restrict the passage of the British ships. As a non-littoral state of the Black Sea, the UK had to request passage 15 days prior. However, despite this, Turkiye announced that it had informed its NATO ally that these warships would not be allowed to pass through the straits to reach the Black Sea for “as long as the war continues.”
Since the February 2022 appeal of the Ukraine government to exercise the convention to limit the transit of Russian warships, Turkiye has recognized the invasion of Ukraine as a war and thereby limited the passage of military vessels. Later in 2022, the Varyag, the flagship of the Russian Pacific Fleet, and Admiral Tributs, a large antisubmarine destroyer, were refused permission to enter the straits after a nine-month wait, in what Turkiye saw as a consistent application of Article 19 of the Montreux Convention. Last week’s refusal of passage for the British ships demonstrated once again Turkiye’s ultimate say over any warship if it deems its movement to be a security threat.
There is no doubt that the permission of warships to transit the straits can pose a risk to Turkish national security interests. In conflicts where Turkiye is not a belligerent party, permitting certain vessels to pass through can have the potential to draw it into the war. However, Turkiye’s refusal of the British vessels’ transit application is reflective of several facets of Turkish foreign policy that affect its interaction with its partners.
As a linchpin member of NATO that simultaneously courts Russia, Turkish oversight of the straits is illustrative of this diplomatic bind. In continually balancing its relations with NATO and Moscow, Turkiye has not only shown its indispensability to both, but also allowed the Ukraine conflict to strengthen its own position regionally and internationally. Having continually implemented the treaty to stop Russian vessels, its exercise of the same in light of the UK’s request provides Turkiye with an opportunity to appease the Kremlin. Much as it has over the last year by delaying Sweden’s accession to NATO, Turkiye is able to at once act contrary to Western interests, retain close bilateral relations with Russia and remain indispensable to both.
The straits are arguably more important than their military use, given their centrality to maritime trade traffic.
Turkiye’s at times rigid application of the Montreux Convention also serves its purposes in confirming a status quo that has remained unchanged since its adoption. Though held up as an effective treaty that allows for the careful governance of the straits, the convention — now in its ninth decade — reflects the status of the defeated Turkiye of the 1930s and is unreflective of the country’s growing power today.
Increasingly disillusioned with the treaty, which was initially designed to contain fascist Italy, Turkiye has floated the Istanbul Canal project. This would allow vessels to pass parallel to the existing straits, while providing Turkiye with greater revenue and, more importantly, giving it sovereign control over passage.
Though Turkiye’s pronouncement last week pertained to the passage of military vessels, the straits are arguably more important than that, given their centrality to maritime trade traffic. At least 3 percent of the global oil supply, mainly from Russia and the Caspian Sea, passes through the Bosphorus. Additionally, about 25 percent of the world’s wheat supply is shipped from Black Sea ports. Given that a staggering 50,000 vessels pass through these straits annually, they are not only important to the global economy but particularly to Turkiye, which has recently started charging vessels a transit fee of $4 per ton — five times higher than the previous rate.
Highlighting the ineffectiveness of an outdated treaty is without doubt Turkiye’s aim, but the Montreux Convention is unlikely to be reviewed given that, despite its current form, it allows for cargo movement in times of both war and peace, while also restricting the potential for military escalation. Despite their expressed interest in remaining dedicated to implementing the articles of the international treaty, Turkish decision-makers are aware that the Black Sea was once considered an “Ottoman lake” and the region’s maritime movement is very much a Turkish preserve.
To that end, although Ankara is currently seen to often side with Moscow, there are few states that have historically been more frequently at war with each other, with their interests directly competing. Though security concerns and international treaties often change over time, there are certain geographical chokeholds, such as the Bosphorus, that retain their strategic importance.
*Zaid M. Belbagi is a political commentator and an adviser to private clients between London and the GCC. X: @Moulay_Zaid

The Militias and the Overdue Appointment
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 07/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/125918/125918/
The region and international community are confronted with a long overdue appointment: The confrontation of the militias that have led to the collapse of several Arab countries. Now, these militias are threatening the international community by obstructing international marine navigation, effectively disrupting the global economy, and are also threatening to expand the conflict in the region.
The international community, including the United States and Europe, are being confronted with an issue they have long ignored in Iraq: pro-Iran militias.
I won't get into why they have ignored those militias, but it was due to political short-sightedness dating back to the Bush administration and the ouster of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Today, Washington has had to target the leaderships of the al-Nujaba militia in Iraq in response to attacks against American forces in Iraq and Syria. Washington has willingly ignored these militias and what they have done and continue to do in Iraq. The international community, including the United States and Europe, are being confronted with another issue: How to deal with Hezbollah, which is on the verge of a destructive war against Lebanon. The party has turned Beirut into a war room where it manages pro-Iran militias in the region.
Observers will notice the western media’s intense reporting on the militias in our region - that they view as a new discovery – and the danger they pose.
Today, Washington is amassing a naval force to protect marine navigation from Houthi attacks on shipping vessels after it had completely ignored the danger from Yemen for over ten years.
In sum, what had long been ignored in the region for decades is now demanding urgent international intervention because the harm is reaching everyone in the region and international community and it is also threatening to expand the war in Gaza. Lebanon is the country most likely to join the war. The reasons for this are many, including Benjamin Netanyahu’s desire to extend his political career and drag Hezbollah into the developments in the region. Hassan Nasrallah is now seen as Qassem Soleimani’s replacement in running the militias in the region.
And so, the region needs now, more than ever, a new strategy to deal with the militias that have destroyed Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. These militias also created divisions among the Palestinians to prevent the rise of a capable authority that could protect the Palestinian cause.
A real strategy demands Arab, American and international cooperation to confront the danger of the militias on the region. This must go beyond limited military operations in response to drone attacks in the region.
A clear strategy must be devised and it must tackle the reasons for which these militias were formed. It must start with seriously reviving the peace process that commits to a timeframe and path.
A political solution must be implemented in Syria in line with a timeframe and Arab and international commitments. The same applies to Yemen, which is now very close to signing a peace process.
The sectarianism in Iraq must also be addressed because the current situation must not go on. A real strategy is needed so that Arab countries would not have to describe the region as a “place of death”, which was the term used at the UN to describe Gaza.

Blinken’s Visit to Saudi Arabia and the Expected Solutions
Dr. Abdulaziz bin Othman bin Sager/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 07/2024
The upcoming visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Saudi Arabia comes as part of a fourth tour in the region since the outbreak of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7.
This trip comes amidst regional confusion caused by the Israeli war on Gaza, which claimed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians, including many women, children, and the elderly, in violent and arbitrary bombardment on places of worship, hospitals, schools, shelters, and others. It is a blind war that does not proceed according to the laws of warfare. In light of this entanglement, Blinken’s visit was preceded by American statements about its importance. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that this visit will discuss US-Saudi strategic cooperation on regional and global issues and a set of bilateral files, including economic and security cooperation.
Undoubtedly, the Kingdom welcomes any efforts undertaken by the American administration to discuss bilateral cooperation and achieve stability and security in the region, foremost among which is ending the Israeli war on Gaza and the rest of the hotbeds of tension in the region, including the devastating crisis in Sudan and the tampering with the security of the vital international trade artery in the Red Sea. Therefore, we hope Secretary Blinken would carry in his portfolio practical and applicable ideas and adherence to them on the part of Israel and with American guarantees.
Nonetheless, the current visit comes in a different context, as reality has gone beyond talk of calm or introducing aid. The last days have witnessed the expansion of the scope of the war, highlighting fears that have been raised since the first day of the aggression and attempts to attract America again to the region.
The recent developments of targeting Hamas members in Lebanon, events in Iran, the US strike on members of the Nujaba Movement in Iraq, incidents in Syria, and the Houthi actions in the Red Sea, have all expanded the scope of war, portending serious repercussions on the US interests in the region.
I think that among Blinken’s demands is asking the Saudi leadership to exert pressure on Iran, in order to prevent a further expansion of the conflict and threats to the American interests. Washington cannot not respond to any danger to its interests, and at the same time it does not want to get further involved in the region. Thus, it wants to rely on allied and friendly countries.
The security of the Red Sea is another file that will be discussed in light of the Houthi attacks and the threat they pose to commercial interests of the United States and its allies.
It is also expected that Saudi demands will be decisive in calling on the United States to pressure Israel to achieve several goals, namely:
First: Stopping the war in the Gaza Strip and not just a humanitarian truce or exchange of prisoners, but rather a comprehensive halt. There is a Saudi conviction that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the basis for instability in the region, and this confirms the continued Saudi keenness to present initiatives for a solution since the 1980s and turn them into binding action plans.
Second: The security of the Red Sea is an international responsibility in cooperation with the riparian countries. Therefore, since 2018, Saudi Arabia has called for the establishment of the Council of States bordering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in Riyadh, and in January 2020, eight countries signed the Council’s founding charter. Those include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. The foreign ministers signed the charter in preparation for presenting it to the leaders of the member states of the Council for approval during a summit meeting to be hosted by Saudi Arabia.
Therefore, there will be a clear Saudi confirmation to the US Secretary of State that the responsibility for security in the Red Sea lies with the riparian countries first, and with a UN-international responsibility in the second place.
Third: Exerting pressure on Israel to prevent it from expanding the scope of the war to other countries, due to its repercussions on the overall security of the region, and to completely stop displacing the population of the Gaza Strip.
Fourth: It is not possible to talk about the post-war phase unless the war stops, and therefore talking about the future of the Gaza Strip depends first on ending the aggression.
I believe it is necessary for Blinken’s visit to be the beginning of a real review of the US administration’s calculations in the Middle East, and for its calculations to be based on bias toward peace, justice, and respect for international law, and on fulfilling the requirements of partnership towards Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
This partnership was built on mutual respect and cooperation since the meeting of King Abdulaziz Al Saud on Feb. 14, 1945, with former US President Roosevelt on board the cruiser USS Quincy in the Bitter Lakes.
Since that time, the partnership has been established on clear and stable foundations, and this consistency is part of the Kingdom’s approach, which is based on adhering to the peace option. This has been evident since the Kingdom put forward the Fez peace initiative in 1981 and 1982, and then presented the Arab Peace Initiative, which was approved by all Arab countries at the Beirut Summit in 2002.
If the American administration wants Blinken’s visit to Saudi Arabia and the region to succeed, and if it wants to maintain its partnerships in the region, and preserve its role as a sponsor of peace in the Middle East at a time when international forces hostile to Washington are searching for a foothold in the region, it must adhere to neutrality, and not use the region’s interests and future as a card in the upcoming American elections. It must deal with the disease and not with the symptom as it is doing now.
The region’s disease is the failure to resolve the Palestinian issue in a just solution based on comprehensive peace. This solution was proposed by the Arab Peace Initiative, which guarantees peace for Israel and recognition by all Arab countries, in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from the Arab territories occupied in 1967, and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
In order to stabilize the security of the Red Sea, America must eradicate the threat of the armed militias present at the entrance to the Red Sea. This is what Washington should have done from the beginning, but it failed to eliminate the disease that was about to spread.
Washington must realize that it is not the only player in the region, and that its interests are not limited to the security of Israel only. The US must maintain its relations with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states within a framework of credibility, mutual interests, and fruitful partnership without submission or imposition of wills. It must be aware that the countries of the region know their interests and can protect them, and are able to deal with all powers in the world within a framework of balanced openness, which they actually practice, without favoring anything other than their interests...
If America realizes these facts and returns to implementing peaceful solutions, in particular the Arab Peace Initiative, it will achieve security for Israel and the peoples of the countries of the region, and it will find the right path to fruitful partnership based on maximizing interests and within a framework of mutual respect without any form of intimidation.